Arrested in 1942 on political charges, Merzhanov continued professional work as a sharashka architect, designing numerous public buildings in the Black Sea region, Krasnoyarsk and Komsomolsk-na-Amure.
This constructivist project, completed in 1934, and the nearby funicular ramp became an iconic landmark of 1930s Sochi, elevating Merzhanov to the upper tier of Soviet architects.
It was followed by two more sanatoriums in Sochi in "grand" style of Stalinist architecture, a Bocharov Ruchey dacha settlement and public buildings in Moscow and Komsomolsk.
[2][3] Merzhanov met Stalin in person later, in 1934, when the architect received another commission for a large summer house in Matsesta on the Black Sea.
[7] Modest, modernist-but-not-constructivist appearance of Stalin's houses may indicate that the dictator's real personal taste was quite different from the official Stalinist architecture of the period.
Following the German invasion of 1941, Merzhanov was involved in defense projects in and around Moscow, and stayed in the city when the Academy of Architecture evacuated to Chimkent.
In the beginning of 1949, halfway through his jail term, he was summoned to Victor Abakumov, Minister for State Security, and assigned to lead the design and construction of MGB Sanatorium in Sochi.
After Stalin's death, Merzhanov ended up in Krasnoyarsk, and headed a local design bureau until 1960 (under city architect Gevorg Kochar, another exiled Armenian).