The monument to Emperor Alexander II is a memorial in Moscow designed in the pseudo-Russian style by the architect Nikolai Sultanov , the artist Pavel Zhukovsky and the sculptor Alexander Opekushin [1] . Opened in 1898 at the Small Nikolaevsky Palace on the slope of Borovitsky Hill , facing the Moscow River . It was dismantled by the Bolsheviks in 1918-1928 [2] .
| Monument | |
| Monument Emperor Alexander II | |
|---|---|
 The image of the memorial complex on a postcard , 1898-1905 | |
| A country | Russian empire |
| City | Moscow , Kremlin , Borovitsky hill |
| Project Author | Nikolay Sultanov , Pavel Zhukovsky |
| Sculptor | Alexander Opekushin |
| Architect | Nikolay Sultanov |
| First mention | |
| Construction | 1893 - 1898 |
| Material | Granite , Bronze |
| condition | Not preserved |
Content
- 1 History
- 1.1 Creation
- 1.2 Liquidation
- 2 Artistic Features
- 3 Numismatics and faleristics
- 4 notes
- 5 Literature
- 6 References
History
Creation
March 8, 1881, a week after the assassination of Alexander II , the Moscow mayor Sergei Tretyakov proposed to install a monument in the Kremlin in memory of the deceased autocrat . His initiative was supported by the vowels of the City Council and the ruling Emperor Alexander III . A subscription was announced to raise funds for the construction of the monument, according to which 1 million 762 thousand rubles were received [3] .
Following the results of three competitions for the best project of the monument, the order was received by the artist Pavel Zhukovsky, however, on the instructions of Alexander III, it was decided to execute the monument in the “Russian style” and invite the architect Nikolai Sultanov for this [4] . The joint project of Sultanov and Zhukovsky, supplemented by the sculpture of Master Opekushin, was approved by the emperor in 1890. In the summer of the same year, preparatory excavation work began, continuing until 1893. To ensure the strength of the monument, its foundation was erected on the mainland rock [3] .
May 14, 1893 the memorial was laid in the presence of members of the royal family. The construction of the monument was supervised by the architect Vasily Zagorsky . In August 1898, the construction of the statue was completed, temporary buildings were dismantled, and a platform decorated with flowers was erected in front of the monument. The grand opening of the monument in the presence of representatives of all classes took place on August 16, 1898 [1] . At eight in the morning, five cannon shots sounded from the Taynitskaya tower . The opening ceremony began at two in the afternoon with a religious procession from the Chudov Monastery . After the Metropolitan of Moscow Vladimir served a prayer service, they played the " Transfiguration March " and shot 360 times from cannons. The ceremony was closed by a parade of troops commanded by Emperor Nicholas II [3] .
The newspaper Moskovskiye Vedomosti reported that the monument was popular with Muscovites:
| More than a month has already passed since the opening of the monument to Emperor Alexander II, but meanwhile every day you see around him the same swirls, almost crowds of people. It is instructive to observe the mood of the crowd. This is not a simple inspection, the audience walks quietly, with a sort of reverence, the conversation is almost in an undertone [5] . |
Liquidation
The Leninist plan of monumental propaganda, adopted after the October Revolution, provided for the demolition of the monuments of the tsarist regime. The decree of the SNK of the RSFSR “ On the Monuments of the Republic ” of April 12, 1918 decided to replace them with statues in honor of the leaders of the revolution. The sculpture of Alexander II is considered one of the first monuments destroyed in this campaign [6] . According to Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich , the manager of affairs of the Council of People's Commissars, Vladimir Lenin , the first chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, planned to erect a monument to the writer Leo Tolstoy on the site of the memorial:
| - Where were Tolstoy excommunicated from the church ? He asked [Lenin] me. - In the Assumption Cathedral ... - Well, the best time is to remove it [the monument], and here to put a good statue of Leo Tolstoy , facing the Assumption Cathedral. It will be just the way [3] . |
The dismantling of the bronze statue of Alexander II began in June 1918 [7] . The art critic Nikolai Okunev described this event in his diary:
| I saw in the cinema the painting “Removing the Monument to Alexander the Second”. A heavy sight! It is as if they are cutting into pieces a living person and say: “Look at how this is done and learn.” There is still no need to demonstrate executions on the screen. It should be noted that this picture is from a series of photographs of a government cultural and educational institution [2] . |
The demolition of the memorial was finally completed in 1928 [8] . In 1967, a statue of Lenin was erected on the site of the destroyed monument, after the collapse of the USSR, it was transferred to the Leninsky Gorki Museum-Reserve [9] .
Artistic Features
The pseudo-Russian-style monument was a memorial complex consisting of a six-meter bronze statue of Alexander II, a tented canopy above it and surrounding a statue of a three-story building with a gallery [10] . The sculpture was mounted on a rectangular pedestal and depicted an emperor standing in a general's uniform, in porphyry and with a scepter . On the pedestal were the names of Nicholas II, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich , his wife Elizabeth Feodorovna and the inscription "Emperor Alexander II the love of the people" [4] . The four-pillar tent canopy was lined with dark pink Finnish granite , its roof was decorated with gilded bronze sheets covered with dark green enamel , and a two-headed eagle . A chronicle of the king’s life was placed in the canopy of the canopy [3] . On three sides of the statue was surrounded by an arched gallery, the arches of which stood on 152 columns [9] . The arches also housed 33 mosaic portraits of Russian rulers, from Vladimir to Nicholas I. Mosaics were made in Venice according to the sketches of Zhukovsky. On the frieze of the colonnade there was an inscription: “It was built with the kind-hearted dependents of the Russian people” [3] . On the walls of the gallery hung the coats of arms of all the specific principalities and lands that Russia ever owned [9] .
The appearance of the monument caused controversy among contemporaries. Count Aleksey Ignatiev , who took part in the opening ceremony of the monument, indicated in his memoirs that on the eve of the opening someone had left the following inscription on the adjacent fence:
| Crazy builder mediocre chosen plan - Tsar-Liberator put in a bowling alley [11] . |
In one of the royal guides, the memorial was described as follows:
| ... the monument itself does not produce an artistic impression. Only the emperor’s figure is good in it <...> The canopy above it and the gallery <...> - made of very expensive material, with a mass of gilding already faded and the Venetian mosaic - are tasteless and devoid of any kind of ideological content. This is a monument to a person, not a leader ... [3] . |
Numismatics and Faleristics
- In commemoration of the opening of the memorial, Nicholas II signed a decree according to which the right to wear medals established in connection with the peasant reform became hereditary - the senior direct descendants of the awarded, exclusively on the male side, received the right to wear these medals as their own. If there were no direct heirs, the medal should have been kept by other descendants of these individuals. In this way, the order of wearing the following medals was supplemented: “ For the works on the liberation of the peasants ”, “ For the works on the device of the specific peasants ”, “ For the works on the device of the peasants in the Kingdom of Poland ”, “ For the works on the device of the military factory population ” [12] .
- In memory of the opening of the monument, a special table medal, a token and a ruble coin with a circulation of 5000 copies were also minted [13] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Yudakov, 2007 , p. 151.
- ↑ 1 2 Koloskova E. “Down with his eyes, to the dump!” // Russian newspaper. - 04/01/2018.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Romanyuk, 2013 .
- ↑ 1 2 Moscow. Losses, 1992 , p. 38.
- ↑ Moscow Journal, 1996 , p. 9.
- ↑ Alexandra Balandin. “Remove the kings”: how the Bolsheviks fought with monuments . Newspaper.ru (April 12, 2018). Date of appeal September 29, 2018.
- ↑ Schmidt, 1997 , p. 614.
- ↑ Kravetsky A. The law of the fluctuation of the monument // Kommersant: newspaper. - September 16, 2018.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Mayantseva A. The Kremlin, which we lost // Komsomolskaya Pravda: newspaper. - 02/12/2007.
- ↑ The X-Files about the Kremlin is first published in a book published on the Day of Russia . TASS (May 18, 2015). Date of appeal September 29, 2018.
- ↑ Rotten Fishes, 2017 .
- ↑ For the works on the liberation of the peasants . Awards of Imperial Russia 1702-1917 (2015). Date of appeal September 29, 2018.
- ↑ Smirnov, 1908 , p. 578-579.
Literature
- Gnilorybov P.A. Moscow in the era of reform. From the abolition of serfdom to the First World War . - M .: Eksmo , 2017 .-- 528 p. - ISBN 978-5-699-92281-9 .
- Gorbatyuk D. A. "Russian" style and the revival of national traditions in the culture of Russia in the late XIX - early XX centuries. - M. , 1997 .-- 168 p.
- Kipriyanov V. A. About the monument in the Bose to the late Emperor Alexander II in the Moscow Kremlin. - M .: type. E. Lissner and Y. Roman, 1881. - 10 p.
- Moscow magazine. - M. , 1996 .-- T. 1.
- Romanyuk S.K. Moscow. Losses. - M .: Moscow Cultural Foundation PTO “Center”, 1992. - 336 p. - ISBN 5-87667-001-4 .
- Romanyuk S.K. Heart of Moscow. From the Kremlin to the White City . - M .: Centerpolygraph , 2013 .-- 912 p. - ISBN 978-5-227-04778-6 .
- Smirnov V.P. Description of Russian medals. - M .: type. E. Lissner and Y. Roman, 1908. - T. 1148. - 746 p.
- Schmidt S. O. Moscow. Encyclopedia. - M .: Big Russian Encyclopedia , 1997 .-- 978 p.
- Yudakov I. Yu. Moscow Kremlin. Red Square: Travel Guide . - M .: Veche, 2007 .-- 208 p. - ISBN 978-5-9533-2395-6 .