There are many beautiful old buildings in Harbin. Most of these buildings are associated with one name 鈥淩idanov鈥?a famous Jewish Russian architect.

Information has showed us that Ridanov was born on November 21st, 1877 in Russia. In 1903, he graduated from The Civil Engineering Institute of Saint Nicholas I and was sent to Harbin. He was the first assistant deputy office chief of The Harbin Development Construction Bureau and was responsible for the leading work of The Harbin municipal administration construction project.

Ridanov had been living and working in Harbin for 37 years spending 35 years in project design and administration leadership.

Many unique famous buildings are designed by Ridanov. In a rough count, the buildings that he designed are: Zhaolin Primary School (originally Japanese Taoshan Primary School), Harbin Locals' Art Center (originally Japanese and Manchukuo Cultural Association), Northeast Martyr Memorial Hall (originally Harbin Puppet Manchukuo Government Police Hall) and Heilongjiang Province Foreign Affair office building (originally Japanese Harbin General Consulate). The conceptions of these classical buildings were all from the incredible brain of Ridanov.

It was known that Ridanov was a noble gentleman.

Ridanov died on December 19th 1940. His finest creation was the Guardian of Notre Dame Church where Russian Orthodox Christians in Harbin paid their last respects to the outstanding architect in this church.