Monument N. M. Karamzin (Ulyanovsk)

On June 13, 1833, the Simbirsk governor A.M. Zagryazhsky, on behalf of 38 noblemen of Simbirsk, filed a petition to Emperor Nicholas I to create a monument in Simbirsk to N.M. Karamzin with the opening of an all-imperial subscription to raise funds for its construction. Soon, agreement was obtained, significant funds were collected, but the decision on what to be a monument was delayed.

Emperor Nicholas I, who visited Simbirsk on August 22, 1836, personally indicated the location of the monument and ordered: “Conclude a contract with the Academy of Arts professor Halberg for three years ... the indicated monument with bas-reliefs, for the price of 91800 rubles he had asked for ... ”550 pounds of copper needed for the construction of the monument were released from the treasury.

Only two years later, Professor Galberg started to work, but, on May 10, 1839 , Samuil Ivanovich Galberg died, having managed to develop a draft monument. The professor's work was completed by his students - graduates of the Academy of Arts: N. A. Romazanov , A. A. Ivanov , P. A. Stavasser and K. M. Klimchenko . The statue of Muse Clio , the patroness of history, was performed by A. A. Ivanov and P. A. Stavasser. One of the high reliefs and a bust of N. M. Karamzin was fashioned by N. A. Romazanov , the other high relief was made by K. M. Klimchenko . The pedestal of red granite from Finland was made in St. Petersburg by the master S. L. Anisimov. Clio’s statue, a historiographer’s bust and high reliefs were cast in bronze in the foundry of the Academy of Arts under the direction of Professor Baron P.K. Klodt . All the details of the monument were delivered to Simbirsk for navigation in 1844, and the following spring and summer work was done to prepare the site and install the pedestal.

The monument was inaugurated on August 22, 1845 (according to the old style).

The monument was created according to the customs of the time, in the style of classicism. On the pedestal is a majestic statue of Muse of Clio’s history: with her right hand she lays on the altar of immortality the tablets of “History of the Russian State” - the main work of N. M. Karamzin, and in the left she holds a pipe with which she intends to broadcast about the glorious pages of Russian life.

In the pedestal of the monument, in a round niche, a bust of the historian is placed. The pedestal is decorated with two high reliefs. In the north, K. M. Klimchenko portrayed Karamzin reading an excerpt from his “History” to Alexander I in the presence of his sister Ekaterina Pavlovna during the emperor's stay in Tver in 1811. On the other, also in an allegorical form, Nikolai Mikhailovich is depicted on his deathbed surrounded by his family at the moment when he found out that Nikolai I had granted him a generous pension. In accordance with the canons of the classical style, all the figures of the monument are depicted in antique robes.

The inscription on the pedestal, made in overhead letters, read:

N. M. Karamzin, a historian of the Russian state, by the decree of Emperor Nicholas I of 1844.

The total height of the monument is 8.52 meters, of which the height of the pedestal is 4.97 meters, the statue of Clio is 3.55 meters.

Initially, the monument was surrounded with a wooden grill, and in 1855, Aurora Karlovna Karamzina , the widow of the historian’s eldest son, Andrei Nikolaevich, who died in the Crimean War , in his memory arranged a rich metal grill with copper gilded tops. After a grandiose fire in Simbirsk, the area around the monument, in 1866, was surrounded by a square, fenced, in turn, with a cast-iron grating on a stone foundation.

In 1931 there was a danger of demolition of the monument. By this time, the upper gilded copper ends of the fences were knocked down, several punctures of granite were made, the inscription of the pedestal and the lead caulking of granite joints were destroyed. One of the citizens, in a city newspaper, wrote: “I have to point out a large piece of [non-ferrous] metal in a“ waste state ”in Ulyanovsk. This is a copper statue in the Karamzinsky Garden ... The statue should be removed and used on bearings ... ”The monument was defended thanks to the principled position taken by the director of the Natural History Museum P. Ya. Grechkin and the city architect F. E. Volsov.

In 1944, the copper letters of the text of the inscription cast again at one of the local factories were returned to the pedestal, and in 1967 the monument was thoroughly restored. Unfortunately, since the restoration, the end of the text, “1844”, was presented as “1844”. In this distorted form, we see the inscription today.

• Trofimov J.A. Simbirsky monument N. M. Karamzin. Known and unknown. - “Ulyanovsk House of Press”, 2006 - 128 p. : ill. ISBN 5-901141-79-2
• A native of Simbirsk province N. M. Karamzin