Monument to A. N. Ostrovsky - a monument to the writer Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky . Installed in Moscow on Theater Square in front of the Maly Theater in 1929 . The sculptor is Nikolai Andreev , the architect is Fyodor Shekhtel . The sculpture is made of bronze , located on a granite pedestal.
Monument | |
Monument to A. N. Ostrovsky | |
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Monument to A. N. Ostrovsky at the building of the Maly Theater | |
A country | Russia |
City | Moscow , Theater Square |
Sculptor | N.A. Andreev |
Architect | F. O. Shekhtel |
Building | 1926 - 1929 |
Status | Object of cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation of federal significance. Reg. № 771410982290006 ( ЕГРОКН ). (Wikigid database) |
Material | bronze granite |
Content
History
In 1886, among the Society of Russian dramatic writers and opera composers, the idea arose to build a monument to A. N. Ostrovsky, the founder and first chairman of the Society. In 1899, a subscription to the collection of funds was opened, and by 1917 the foundation for the construction of the monument reached 50 thousand rubles. However, for all these years, the construction of the monument has not begun (probably, the project was prevented by the First World War). This was due to the fact that another society that appeared in 1908 - the name of A.N. Ostrovsky - also saw as its task the creation of a monument to the playwright and collected funds for this purpose by holding performances and concerts; by 1917 he managed to collect the same amount - 50 thousand rubles. Before the October Revolution, the two societies could not agree on the form of the monument and the timing of its installation [1] .
In 1922, in connection with the upcoming celebration of the 100th anniversary of the playwright in 1923, the State Academic Maly Theater and the Society named after A.N. Ostrovsky organized the Jubilee Committee, which was chaired by A.I. Sumbatov-Uzhin . The Committee appealed to the SNK with a petition for the construction of a monument to Ostrovsky in Moscow on Theater Square, outside the building of the Maly Theater. SNK supported this proposal by issuing a corresponding decree and allocating 560 thousand rubles for the creation of a monument, but for a number of bureaucratic reasons, its construction was not started [2] .
On April 13, 1923, as part of the jubilee celebrations dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ostrovsky, the first stone was laid in the foundation of the future monument in front of the Maly Theater. After the celebration, the Anniversary Committee renamed A.N. Ostrovsky into the Monument Construction Committee, and a competition was announced for the creation of the monument, the terms of which were elaborated by I.E. Grabar , A.M. Efros , F.O. Shekhtel and P.S. Kogan [1] . The competition jury, chaired by architect F. O. Shekhtel, in November 1923 awarded the first prize to sculptor N. A. Andreev , the second and third - V. A. Andreev , the fourth - N. A. Andreev, A. S. Golubkina and I. S. Efimov , however, the results of the competition were generally considered unsatisfactory [3] . As a result, they decided to apply to four award-winning sculptors with a proposal to revise the submitted sketches in accordance with the directives to be worked out by a special commission, and also agreed to accept the draft and other authors for discussion - out of competition and without remuneration. A special commission composed of A. V. Gusev, F. O. Shekhtel, I. E. Grabar, I. S. Ostroukhov , K. F. Juon , A. V. Bakushinsky and A. M. Efros defined the principles based on which projects should be reworked: portrait similarity with A. N. Ostrovsky, monumentality of the monument and its connection with the Maly Theater. The deadline for submitting sketches was set to January 1, 1924. By this date, the commission received projects of all four award-winning authors, as well as new works by sculptors I. D. Shadr , Pavlova and Sokolov. When reviewing the works, it turned out that only N. A. Andreev corrected his project and, based on the results of the discussion, made a decision: “To entrust N. A. Andreev with the execution of the monument to A. N. Ostrovsky according to the sketch presented by him, and it was considered desirable to give the monument a similarity with A. N. Ostrovsky in the later period of his life " [4] .
Throughout 1924, the Committee had to settle various organizational issues, chief among which was the question of financing. The estimate calculated by the Committee for the construction of a monument of 90 thousand rubles. The Narkompros , in charge of which the Maly Theater was located, cut down to 80 thousand, and out of this total, he allocated only 5 thousand rubles for the whole of 1925. Narkompros also proposed to change the place of installation of the monument, as the theater building by that time decayed and required major repairs, which, according to officials, could interfere with the monument, but the Committee managed to defend the previously chosen location [5] .
The modest amount allocated for 1925 was decided to spend on preparatory work - first of all, to purchase a stone for a pedestal, the project of which was developed by F. O. Shekhtel [6] . They decided to buy granite in Finland - in the same quarry, from where they used to take a stone for the pedestal of the monument to Gogol (Shekhtel was also a co-author). The construction of the pedestal was entrusted to V. I. Orlov’s art artel, which was known for making the pedestals of the monument to Gogol and the monument to the first printer Ivan Fyodorov . It took more than a year to overcome the difficulties associated with concluding a contract with a foreign company, delivering cargo from Finland and passing customs procedures in the spring of 1926 [7] .
For the years 1926-1927 for the construction of a monument to the Committee allocated 25 thousand rubles. In 1926, with these funds, it was possible to arrange the foundation on stilts and lay the first slab of the pedestal on top [8] . In the same year, F. O. Shekhtel died, and further work on the construction of the pedestal on his project was performed by architect I. P. Mashkov [6] [9] . In 1927, the Committee suffered a new loss - its chairman A.I. Sumbatov-Uzhin died. For some time the Committee remained without a leader, until in February 1928 P. Sakulin was elected chairman [10] .
On June 3, 1927, Nikolai Andreev presented the sculpture of Ostrovsky to the Committee in clay, and on April 28, 1928 - in plaster. The opening of the monument was scheduled for September 1928. Limited in financial resources, the Committee for a long time could not find a workshop for casting bronze sculptures. As a result, the order was placed in Leningrad from a private caster, KI Miglinik, who offered the lowest price for the job. The casting of the sculpture dragged on for almost a year - the molds did not dry out because of the rainy summer of 1928, the Miglinik workshop was disconnected from the power supply for non-payment, and to top it all, the furnace could not stand the load and collapsed. The monument was delivered to Moscow only on May 24, 1929 and on the same day it was installed on a pedestal [11] . While sculptures were being cast in Leningrad, the necessary preparatory works for its installation were carried out in Moscow: the pavement was widened, an arched window was laid in the theater building and the drain pipe was moved to the right [1] .
On May 27, 1929, at 12 o'clock, the grand opening of the monument was held, which was visited by M.I. Kalinin , A.S. Yenukidze , A.V. Lunacharsky , A.I. Svidersky , as well as delegates of the V Congress of Soviets held in those days in Moscow THE USSR. A. I. Svidersky, Director of the Maly Theater V. V. Vladimirov, Chairman of the Committee for the Construction of the Monument P. N. Sakulin and People's Artist A. A. Yablochkina made speeches at the opening. In the evening of the same day, a play was staged for the invited public at the Maly Theater, they gave Ostrovsky’s comedy “ To every sage quite simplicity ” [12] . Nikolai Andreev did not participate in the celebrations, as he was ill at the time with pneumonia, which he received in Leningrad, watching the casting of the monument. When, after recovery, the sculptor saw the monument in its finished form, then, according to P. N. Sakulin, “he decided that he should build some light fence around the monument so that it would not look so bare”. Soon, according to Andreev's pattern, an iron grid was fabricated and installed around the pedestal [13] . Later this fence was replaced by the existing heavy chains on low iron abutments.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 Tolstoy et al., 2010 , p. 300
- ↑ Tolstoy et al., 2010 , p. 298, 300.
- ↑ Tolstoy et al., 2010 , p. 158.
- ↑ Tolstoy et al., 2010 , p. 158, 293.
- ↑ Tolstoy et al., 2010 , p. 295.
- ↑ 1 2 Brandenburg B. Yu., Tatarzhinskaya Ya. V., Schenkov A. S. Architect Ivan Mashkov. - Moscow : Russian book, 2001. - p. 67. - 136 p. - ISBN 5-268-00413-1 .
- ↑ Tolstoy et al., 2010 , p. 295-296.
- ↑ Tolstoy et al., 2010 , p. 296.
- ↑ Kirichenko E. I. F. O. Shekhtel. A life. Images. Ideas. - M .: Progress-Tradition, 2011. - P. 344. - 360 p. - ISBN 978-5-89826-374-4 .
- ↑ Tolstoy et al., 2010 , p. 298.
- ↑ Tolstoy et al., 2010 , p. 298-299.
- ↑ Tolstoy et al., 2010 , p. 299-300.
- ↑ Tolstoy et al., 2010 , p. 299.
Literature
- The artistic life of Soviet Russia. 1917-1932. Compendium of materials and documents / Ed. ed. V.P. Tolstoy; Auto-comp. I. M. Bibikova, T. I. Volodina and others. - M .: Galart, 2010. - P. 208-210. - 420 s. - 1000 copies - ISBN 978-5-269-01101-1 .