In Kiev, for the history of the city, four monuments to Karl Marx were erected. The first existed for several months in 1919 and was destroyed by Denikinites , the second existed in 1922-1933 on the modern Independence Square , another existed on Demievka in the interwar period, the modern one exists on the territory of the Karl Marx Kiev Confectionery Factory.
Content
- 1 First monument
- 2 Second monument
- 2.1 History
- 2.2 Architectural features
- 2.3 Perception
- 3 Monument on Demievka
- 4 Modern monument
- 5 notes
- 6 References
First Monument
The first monument to a German scientist in Kiev was on Sovetskaya Square (modern Independence Square ) at the site of the monument to Peter Stolypin demolished in 1917 . The idea to build a monument to Karl Marx in this place arose as far back as 1919 in fulfillment of the Leninist plan of monumental propaganda. The plaster bust of Marx by sculptor Joseph Tchaikov on a wooden pedestal was opened on February 20, 1919, two weeks after the establishment of Soviet power in the city. However, already on August 31, 1919, the Volunteer Army entered Kiev and on the same day destroyed this monument [1] .
Second Monument
| Monument | |
| Monument to Karl Marx | |
|---|---|
| Monument to Karl Marx in the 1920s | |
| A country | the USSR |
| Location | Kiev, Sovetskaya Square |
| Sculptor | Joseph Tchaikov |
| Construction | January 1922 - May 1, 1922 |
| Height | 6.8 m |
| Material | gypsum |
| condition | destroyed |
History
Two years after the destruction of the monument built in 1919, the idea came up to restore the monument in the same place [2] . In January 1922, the Executive Committee approved an estimate for the monument to Karl Marx. It was planned to cast a monument in bronze by the forces of the Polytechnic Institute [2] . Over time, the application was transferred to State Plant No. 30 (modern Arsenal plant ). The sculptor Joseph Tchaikov led the work.
On April 30, the Proletarskaya Pravda newspaper announced that on May 1 it was planned to open a plaster sculpture covered with platinum bronze, mounted on an asphalt pedestal . The bronze sculpture was to be cast at State Plant No. 30 and installed at the end of May [2] .
On May 1, 1922 at 15.00 the grand opening of the monument took place. The monument was unveiled in the presence of ten thousand spectators at the time of the return of the column of military units and workers' organizations from the Hippodrome, where solemn events were held [2] .
Until the end of May, the plaster monument was not replaced with a bronze one. The next date for the establishment of the bronze monument was to be August 1922, but even then the gypsum sculpture was not replaced. Over time, they forgot about the need for replacement, and the monument remained plaster.
The monument was secretly demolished overnight in 1933 [3] .
Architectural Features
The monument was a torso of Karl Marx , covered with platinum bronze, mounted on an asphalt pedestal. The total height of the monument along with the pedestal was about 6.8 meters [2] . The German scientist was depicted with his hand behind the lapel of his jacket. The pedestal consisted of five isometric cubes, which formed a pyramid surrounded by metal chains. It is believed that this symbolized the fact that the proletariat has nothing to lose but its own chains [3] . This creation of Joseph Tchaikov was made in the then popular style of cubism (which until the 1930s would cease to be mass, but the author of the monument at that time would already be a professor at VKhUTEIN [4] ).
Perception
In the first days after the monument was erected, a series of propaganda writings was dedicated to this event.
However, the original style of the monument, unaesthetic, according to many contemporaries, the form of the pedestal and the "plaster" of the sculpture immediately became the object of numerous ridicule. In those years, Khreshchatyk Street, crossing the square, was called Vorovsky Street. The Kievites joked that Karl Marx was hiding his “Capital” behind the lapel of his jacket, holding it with his hand so that it would not be stolen.
The most famous reviews about the monument are the comments of Mikhail Bulgakov in the book "Kiev City" [5] :
| I have no words to describe the black bust of Karl Marx, set before the Duma in a frame of a white arch. I do not know which artist created it, but this is unacceptable. It is necessary to abandon the idea that the image of the famous German scientist can be fashioned by anyone who is not lazy. |
and Osip Mandelstam [3] :
| No, this is not Marx, this is something else! Maybe this is a great foreman or a genius accountant ?! |
Monument at Demievka
A monument to Marx also existed in the 1930s on the then outskirts of Kiev Demievka . The monument is mentioned in the Kiev guidebook of Fyodor Ernst in 1930, which indicates that a bronze bust of Karl Marx was installed in the square at the end of Bolshaya Vasilkovskaya Street (now Goloseevsky Prospekt , near the Goloseevskaya metro station) [6] . The monument now does not exist, the time of its dismantling is unknown.
Modern Monument
| Monument | |
| Monument to Karl Marx | |
|---|---|
| Monument to Karl Marx in the territory of the Confectionery Factory. Karl Marx | |
| A country | Ukraine |
| Location | Kiev, Nauky Avenue , 1, in the territory of the Confectionery Factory named after Karl Marx Roshen Corporation |
A bust of Karl Marx was installed on the territory of the Karl Marx Kiev Confectionery Factory (now part of the Roshen concern). The monument is not mentioned in guides and guides in Kiev: it was probably built on the initiative of the factory administration and never was registered with the state. Nevertheless, there are references to him in the press.
Notes
- ↑ Kiev: Encyclopedic dovidnik / For the editorship of A.V. Kudritsky - K .: Head editorial office of the Ukrainian Radyansky Encyclopedia, 1981. - 736, p. 399
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 "InfoKiev - Independence Square (Independence Square)
- ↑ 1 2 3 "How Marx hid his" Capital "on Vorovsky Street
- ↑ "Monuments of Kiev" (inaccessible link) . Date of treatment April 3, 2012. Archived March 4, 2007.
- ↑ Mikhail Bulgakov “Kiev City”
- ↑ Kiev, reference book / Ed. Fedor Ernst . - Kiev, 1930 .-- S. 700