Joseph Karakis

Joseph Yulievich Karakis (or Iosif Karakys; Ukrainian: Йосип Юлійович Каракіс; Russian: Иосиф Юльевич Каракис; 29 May 1902 – 23 February 1988) was a Soviet architect, urban planner, painter, and teacher. He is regarded by some as one of the most prolific architects in Kiev, designing numerous buildings that are now considered architectural landmarks.

More than two thousand schools across the Soviet Union were constructed based on Karakis's designs, and in total, more than four thousand buildings were built from his architectural projects.

Biography

Joseph Karakis was born on 29 May 1902 in the town of Balta to Julius Borisovich Karakis (1879–1943), co-owner and worker of a sugar factory in Turbin, and Frida Yakovlevna Karakis (née Geybtman; 1882–1968). He was the eldest child in the family and had a younger brother, David Yulievich Karakis (1904–1970), who became a physician and served as a colonel and chief medical officer during World War II.

From 1909 to 1917, Karakis studied at the Realschule in Vinnytsia while attending evening drawing classes taught by Abraham Cherkassky. In 1918, he worked as a painter-decorator at the Vinnytsia Theatre, under Matvii Drak, for the troupe of Hnat Yura, Amvrosy Buchma, and Marian Krushelnytsky. The following year, he joined the Red Army as a volunteer, serving as an artist for the propaganda train. In 1921, he worked as an artist for the Vinnytsia Commission on Monuments and Art of Antiquity, where he contributed to the establishment of the city museum's art gallery and library using the collection from Princess Branitskaya's mansion in Nemyriv.

In 1922, Karakis was admitted to the Institute of National Economy at the Faculty of Law. A year later, he entered the Kiev Art Institute, studying in the Faculty of Painting.