Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 Fomin developed a Soviet adaptation of Neoclassicism and became one of the key contributors to an early phase of Stalinist architecture known as postconstructivism.

Born in Oryol, Fomin received a classical[1] education at a high school in Riga, and studied mathematics at the Moscow University.

Schechtel assigned him to Moscow Art Theatre project, which exposed Fomin to the public and eventually brought him his first own commissions.

Fomin contracted top-level furniture makers, foundries and ceramic plants for his own designs, but also displayed works by guests like Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Koloman Moser and Russian artists.

He returned to St.Petersburg in 1905 and completed Leon Benois' course at the Academy of Arts in 1909, winning a one-year study tour to Greece, Egypt and Italy.

In 1911 a British investment company led by Riccardo Gualino, launched a development project on a 1 square kilometer lot in the western Goloday Island, awarding general planning to Fomin.

The Russian Civil War stopped all new construction; the few architectural jobs concentrated in monumental propaganda and city planning.

The building, using steel frame and concrete slab floors, looks like an industrial object, but the paired columns, Fomin's trademark, give away its classical origin.

According to Selim Khan-Magomedov, Fomin was one of the two forerunners of so-called postconstructivism, an early stage of Stalinist architecture (the other was Ilya Golosov).

Palace of Soviets was won by Boris Iofan, construction began with enormous publicity but was terminated by German attack of 1941.

Unlike Ivan Zholtovsky, who abstained from the lowly work on subway stations, Fomin eagerly joined the contest for the Metro.

He competed on the Krasniye Vorota (Red Gates) against former constructivist Ilya Golosov, whose entry appeared to be a true Doric Greek classic.

Column capitals also differ from their Corynthian prototypes: at this height, he reasoned, fine Greek details would be lost, so he simplified and enlarged leaves of his ornament.

After World War II, the Government of Ukraine building became a staple of Soviet textbooks on architecture, a model of Stalin's Empire.

A constructivist in his twenties, he later completed various Stalinist projects like Schemilovka residential district and Ploschad Vosstania metro station.