In 2020, Moscow was ranked fourth among The World’s 100 Best Cities, losing only to London, New York, and Paris. Global experts deemed the Russian capital more beautiful than Rome, Barcelona, Singapore, Madrid, and Tokyo. However, the Soviet era Moscow could hardly have claimed such an honor — at the time, the metropolis looked more like an abstract painting, with architectural chaos reigning all around the city. But there were people in the history of Moscow who helped transform the city beyond all recognition. One of them was Leonid Monosov, who worked on the restoration and reconstruction of dozens of famous historic buildings and monuments, as well as the development of many metropolitan areas, and the construction of social infrastructures and essential facilities.
Today, Leonid Monosov is focused on growing his own business, which is also related to construction and investment; the entrepreneur is enthusiastically developing his enterprise without betraying any of his principles — he readily takes on challenging and unconventional projects, strictly adheres to deadlines, and always takes a responsible approach to fulfilling his obligations. That said, Leonid’s life path was not at all strewn with roses; as a five-year-old boy, Leonid lost his mother, had to deal with the stress of moving to another country, and later on — throughout his life — he was forced to prove his worthiness more than once.
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Education
Although Leonid Monosov’s entire life and career revolved around Moscow, he himself was born in Belarus. Leonid and his dad moved to Moscow in 1963, when the boy was only five years old. They moved because a tragedy happened in the family — Leonid lost his mother. The father decided to leave the cozy but unpromising Belarusian Mazyr for the Russian capital, where Leonid would have much better opportunities to get a good education and build a successful career. Monosov Sr. turned out to be right in his predictions — the move, indeed, provided Leonid with many opportunities for professional development, which he was always quick to grab.
Leonid Monosov attended School No. 315. He was very lucky to get into this educational institution, which was not just a nearby school but one of the most advanced and technically equipped educational institutions in the capital. The roof of the school building was equipped with an observatory, so practical astronomy classes were a favorite subject of many students. It also had a special mathematics course, which brought together the most talented and gifted children who regularly took part in academic competitions at various levels and often took prizes.
The exact sciences were easy for Leonid, who studied well and later had no problem getting into a university of his choice. After receiving his high school diploma, Leonid Monosov was accepted to the University of Railway Engineering in Moscow. Leonid chose to major in civil and industrial engineering; he completed his degree in 1980 and began his career as a builder.
Glavmospromstroy
Leonid Monosov’s first employer, the Glavmospromstroy company, deserves a special mention. It was the largest construction company in Moscow and Russia in general, and Monosov was assigned to it by his university. The USSR had an efficient job distribution system at the time; students who performed well at the university could count on getting the best employment. Leonid Monosov did not have to worry about his future — he had both good knowledge and good grades and regularly participated in extracurricular activities at his Alma mater, so he had every reason to expect a favorable placement.
In the end, Leonid’s expectations were justified when he got the chance to show his worth at a large organization for at least three years. After three years, young professionals were allowed to leave their employers and choose another company to their liking. However, Monosov decided to stay with Glavmospromstroy. And not only did he stay, he also built a brilliant career there.
Like many other yesterday’s students, Leonid Monosov began his work at Glavmospromstroy as a simple foreman. His salary was 150 rubles. This was quite a large sum for an entry-level job, but Glavmospromstroy employees earned and deserved every penny — the workload was heavy and the responsibility was immense. Not all novice employees stayed with the company after the mandatory three years; yes, salaries were above the market average, there were opportunities for professional development and interesting projects to work on, but most of the engineers ended up looking for quieter jobs, albeit with lower income.
But Monosov was not a quitter. When Leonid joined the enterprise, it was already a very large company that employed several tens of thousands of people — from designers to finishers. The competition was high, but Leonid was quickly noticed by the managers and began to quickly move up the career ladder. From 1980 to 2000, Monosov moved up from the position of foreman to deputy CEO, and parted with his first employer only when he realized that he had no more room for growth within the company.
Leonid Monosov considers his time with Glavmospromstroy a fundamental period in his biography. It was here that he gained construction and management experience and learned how to interact with various specialists, set tasks, and monitor work processes. During this period, he built his character and formed a particular attitude towards unconventional and complex projects — Monosov would carry his work principles throughout his career, which would help him become one of the most prominent figures in the Moscow construction market.
As an employee of Glavmospromsroy, Leonid Monosov took part in projects of varying levels of complexity. The company built the capital’s largest industrial facilities, such as the Krasny Proletary and Stankolit plants, and increased production capacities of the Udarnitsa and meat processing factories. The State Gallery, Sheremetyevo Air Terminal, Victory Park on Poklonnaya Hill, VDNKh Space Pavilion, Izmailovo Sports Palace — these were all built by Glavmospromstroy.
At the end of his career at Glavmospromstroy, Monosov took part in the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. To this day, Leonid considers it one of the most important projects in his career. Its scale was truly colossal — the cathedral had to be rebuilt from scratch based on the original drawings:
- the builders modernized the foundation that was left after the original cathedral was destroyed and strengthened it with a concrete mixture;
- a reinforced concrete frame was used to ensure stability and durability of all structures;
- the facades were built from concrete and brick in the shortest possible time;
- marble for cladding was delivered from the Koelginskoye and Sayanskoye deposits;
- the stairs were made of red granite, which was imported from Balmoral, Finland;
- the bells were cast at the Likhachev Plant;
- artists from more than 20 guilds were invited to decorate the interiors;
- the church hall was equipped with an elevator, which was hidden in the columns, so that modern-looking technologies did not ruin the overall aesthetics of the building. A 300-space car park was built in the underground part.
All this work was completed in record time; the decision to recreate the cathedral was made in 1994, and in 2000, the church was finished and ready to invite parishioners to celebrate Orthodox Christmas Eve.
Moskapstroy
As we already mentioned, Leonid Monosov resigned from his post at Glavmospromstroy only when he clearly understood that he had no more room to grow within this company. Monosov took on a new role and became the CEO of the Moskapstroy company. This was also a big construction company, which was created in 1957 and was experiencing a new surge in development and popularity when Leonid decided to accept the job offer.
At that time, the company was mostly focused on providing technical representative services in the construction of residential real estate, transport interchanges, infrastructure, and cultural spaces. When Monosov took over the management, the company significantly expanded its range of services and started to:
- assist clients in choosing locations for their projects;
- take care of all issues related to obtaining permits from regulatory agencies;
- set tasks for designers and coordinate design documentation;
- install pipelines and utility networks;
- prepare projects for handover.
The company’s portfolio included multiple high-profile projects, such as the Third Ring Road, the Megasport arena, several large hotels (including Intourist), the government tower in Moscow-City, and the Vnukovo-2 terminal. Following the business principles he developed while working at Glavmosprostroy, Leonid Monosov took on even the most challenging projects — even if they had tight deadlines, required the use of advanced technologies or unconventional approaches, and involved too much responsibility. While its competitors refused to work on such projects, opting for simpler tasks, Moskapstroy was rapidly growing, increasing its capacity, and building a reputation as a company that could build virtually anything.
During that period, Moskapstroy often found itself the only participant in construction bidding, because its competitors simply could not guarantee that they would complete a large volume of work on time and without flaws. Moskapstroy submitted bids, won contracts, and always did its job impeccably, meeting deadlines and complying with all construction standards. One of its exemplary projects was the reconstruction of the Manege exhibition venue, which was heavily damaged by fire in 2004.
The anticipated workload was tremendous, as the venue indeed suffered a lot of damage in a fire; that said, in 2005 (13 months after the launch of the project), the exhibition opened its doors to the first visitors. With Leonid Monosov at the helm, Moskapstroy rebuilt the facility according to the original drawings, while modernizing the interiors, making the exhibition rooms more spacious and bright, creating restaurant zones, and installing escalators between exhibition displays.
The Moskapstroy company was growing rapidly until 2008, when the financial crisis struck, affecting the production, industrial, housing, and communal service sectors, as well as the construction market. During the crisis, the company’s growth slowed down — however, while its numerous competitors were going through bankruptcy proceedings, Moskapstroy simply broadened its business horizons. Having no serious loan obligations (Monosov preferred to develop the company and execute projects using only investments and internal financing), the corporation had more room for various maneuvers to get out of a difficult situation.
In the end, the company turned its attention to large-scale residential developments, focusing on the outskirts of the capital, where the property was cheaper, the environment was better, and the infrastructure was rapidly improving, which meant that real estate here was in quite high demand.
During this period, Moskapstroy completed many residential construction projects in Kurkino, Southern and Northern Butovo, Maryino, Mitino, and other areas. At the same time, the company managed to maintain mutually beneficial partnerships with many clients and investors. During this period, it also began renting out real estate.
In 2012, Leonid Monosov once again decided to radically change his life and career. He resigned from his position at Moskapstroy and began to set the stage for starting his own business. One of the fields that Monosov spent a lot of time studying was investment. Considering that Leonid worked in the construction industry all his life, it was natural for him to focus on investing in construction projects. Having a wealth of knowledge in this field and vast experience that helped him develop excellent intuition, Monosov took on the role of vice president at his company Moskapstroy-TN JSC and began searching for investible projects.
In recent years, the company worked on several successful projects — for example, the Topolya residential complex, the Na Ordynke business center, and the Pavshino shopping mall. The enterprise was created at a good time — nowadays, it is almost impossible for young companies to break through and quickly make a name for themselves in the investment market; investors have become too cautious and would only entrust their money to big market players with a solid reputation. The Moskapstroy-TN company is one of those big reliable enterprises, so Leonid Monosov himself and other construction experts rightly assume that the company will have a great future.
About Personal Life
Like many other public persons, Leonid Monosov tries to keep his personal life as private as possible, protecting his loved ones from any unnecessary attention. So, not much is known about Leonid’s personal life apart from the fact that the top manager has two adult children. His son, Andrey Monosov, also chose construction as his profession, graduating from a construction university, getting a job in a large construction company as a foreman, and making an impressive career. The youngest child in the family, Alina Monosova, is a woman who understands what she wants and knows how to respect her wishes; she has earned several university degrees and even studied in the United Kingdom at one point in her life. Alina pays great attention to studying psychology, reasonably expecting that this knowledge will be useful to her in many areas of life, from work to personal relationships; however, she has no intention of pursuing psychology as a profession and, instead, plans to start her own business, steadily moving towards her goal.
