Monument to the Cherepanovs

The decision to erect a monument to Russian inventors and industrial engineers, father and son Cherepanov, was taken by the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on August 22, 1945. In 1949, the sculptor Andrei Semenovich Kondratyev (1913-1978) brought to the office of the chief architect of Nizhny Tagil for approval a sketch of the monument, which he began to develop two years earlier, learning about the decision of the government. Kondratyev, who since 1940 participated in various exhibitions, for his perseverance and initiative at a meeting on January 17, 1950, the commission approved the author of the future monument. The project architect was A.V. Sotnikov.

Work on the monument lasted several years. On July 7, 1953, the Executive Committee of the City Council of Nizhny Tagil opened an account in the bank for the construction of the monument, and on November 2, 1955, the Executive Committee of the Sverdlovsk Regional Council allocated 251 thousand rubles for the installation of the monument - a rather large amount at that time when all the forces and the country's funds were allocated for its restoration after the Great Patriotic War

The monument was made of bronze and cast in Leningrad . It is mounted on a red granite pedestal. The total height of the composition was 7 and a half meters, and its weight reaches almost 9 tons. On the back of the pedestal on the top plate, the text reads:

TALENTED RUSSIAN

MACHINERY
FIRST DESIGNERS
STEAM IN RUSSIA
1833-1834

and on the bottom is a simple inscription

EQUIPPED IN 1956

The grand opening of the monument took place at 12:00 on November 4, 1956. The first speaker at the meeting, attended by thousands of citizens, was the first secretary of the city party committee, Vitaly Ivanovich Dovgopol, who later became an Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Tagil, who actively contributed to the work on the monument.

A. S. Kondratiev explained his plan as an illustration of the power of Russian antiquity in the person of his father - Efim Cherepanov, who is depicted sitting, showing his son Miron a drawing and setting him a technical task. Miron Cherepanov was supposed to be depicted with a pencil, but due to dissatisfaction with the commission, the pencil was replaced by a compass, because the pencil was not too suitable for the image of an engineer. The standing figure of Miron Cherepanov symbolizes confidence and calm. When developing the sketch of the monument, Andrei Kondratyev studied the life of the Cherepanovs, as well as the clothes of that era. The architect Sotnikov proposed to erect a monument at the Nizhny Tagil railway station, but the city administration decided to put it on Theater Square, where it stands to this day. At first, the people nicknamed the monument “Two Jews”, since the first snow fell as if covered the heads of the Cherepanovs with white yarmulkes, but this unofficial name did not take root. Another short name “Cherepanovs” or even “Skulls” is sometimes found today.

In 2007, on the eve of the 285th anniversary of the founding of Nizhny Tagil, the monument was restored.

• Monument to the Cherepanovs in Nizhny Tagil (Russian) . Monuments of the whole world. Date of treatment September 18, 2013.
• Monument to the Cherepanovs on Theater Square (Russian) . Tagil City (August 8, 2012). Date of treatment September 18, 2013.
• Nikolay Mezenin. Monument to perseverance and fortitude (Russian) . The history of Nizhny Tagil from the foundation to the present day (reprint from the newspaper "Mountain Region" from 02/14/2003) (August 8, 2012). Date of treatment September 18, 2013.
• A.A. Voitenko, V.I. Starkov. Monument E.A. and M.E. Cherepanov, 1956 (Russian) . Information about the Sverdlovsk region and the Urals (April 12, 2012). Date of treatment September 18, 2013.
• Tagil stories. Tagil monuments (part 1) (Russian) . All news. Nizhny Tagil News Agency (July 23, 2013). Date of treatment September 18, 2013.