Monument to Alexander II (Samara)

Construction Preparation

On August 30, 1889, a monument to Alexander II was unveiled in Samara on Alekseevskaya Square (now Revolution Square ). For the first time, proposals to erect a monument to the emperor in Samara began to be made during the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of his reign in 1875. However, the idea took shape only four years later, when the inhabitants of the city were preparing for the next anniversary, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the sovereign's ascension to the throne. In this regard, at a meeting of the Samara City Council on November 27, 1879, a special commission was formed to develop proposals for the jubilee, which included ten vowels, including the Samara governor P.V. Alabin , and was chaired by the former mayor M I. Nazarov . The collection of proposals took a long time, and the Samara City Council adopted the final decision on the construction of a monument to Alexander II on Alekseevskaya Square on March 26, 1881, after the death of the emperor at the hands of a terrorist . It took the city authorities more than seven years to prepare and approve the design of the monument, as well as to search for funds for its creation. The cost of the monument amounted to 74 thousand rubles ^[1] .

Before the Revolution

Only on July 8, 1888, on the day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God , the laying of a monument took place on Alekseevskaya Square according to the project of the capital's sculptor Academician V.I.Sherwood . All work on the construction of the memorial took much less time than its discussion and design. In 1888, in the center of Alekseevskaya Square, a round square, 38 meters in diameter with flowerbeds and a fountain, was convenient for walking. A stone pedestal for the sculpture of the emperor was soon installed in the center of the square.

The grand opening of the monument took place on August 30, 1889. The Samara governor A. D. Sverbeev cut the ribbon that held the white cloth, and a sculpture of the emperor appeared before the eyes of those present. Immediately after this, the memorial was consecrated by Samara Bishop Seraphim (Protopopov) . Wreaths from the provincial zemstvo, the merchants 'collection, and the ladies' committee of the Russian Red Cross Society laid on a marble pedestal. Troops stationed in Samara marched across the square in a ceremonial march. At a festive dinner in the hall of the commercial club, congratulatory telegrams were announced from the Prince of Montenegro, Nicholas , the Serbian Metropolitan Mikhail , from the Slavic charitable societies of Kiev , Odessa , and the commanders of the Guri and Libava regiments .

The emperor was portrayed standing in a uniform coat and cap. The sculpture was made of bronze. On the pedestal of the monument, at the feet of the emperor, the author captured four historical plots that personify the four greatest events of the reign of Alexander II: the liberation of the peasants from serfdom , the conquest of the Caucasus , the liberation of the Slavic brothers from the Turkish yoke and the accession of vast areas of Central Asia to the Russian Empire . On two shields of gold here were written and some other acts of the king-reformer. Among them are the annexation of the Amur Region to Russia , the abolition of corporal punishment, the creation of Zemstvo institutions , a public trial , an all-conscription service . All the figures of the memorial were made of hammered bronze, and the pedestal was made of Finnish granite. Since the monument was unveiled, Alekseevskaya Square has become the main square of Samara, where hundreds of city residents loved to stroll on weekends. Not only residents of neighboring neighborhoods came here, but whole families came from the urban outskirts and even from the rural outback. The Alekseevskaya Square itself was considered the most comfortable in the city, and the fountain constantly working in the summer for many years was completely the only one in Samara ^[1] .

Travelers who came to Samara noted that this was the best monument to the emperor from those that stood in the Volga cities. Before the revolution, this was the only monument in Samara: in addition to it, in the city then there were only busts of individual merchants, distinguished by their charity and social activities ^[2] .

In 1895, through the Alekseevskaya Square, there was a line of a horse railway ( horse trail), which went around the square adjacent to the monument. After another 20 years, tram rails were also run to the memorial, which went down Zavodskaya Street (now Venseka Street ) and ended in a dead end at Samara marinas ^[1] .

After the Revolution

In 1917, shortly after the abdication of the throne of Nicholas II , the monument to Alexander II on Alekseevskaya Square was clogged with boards. In this form, he met the coming of Komuch’s power, in which the sculpture of the emperor was rediscovered and appeared to the citizens. However, almost immediately after the return of the Bolsheviks to Samara, the sculpture of the emperor and all the bronze parts of the monument were removed and sent for re-melting (according to one version), and the new city authorities renamed the Alekseevskaya Square itself into the Revolution Square . The pedestal without sculpture and decor elements towered over the empty square until November 7, 1927, when a bronze figure of V. I. Lenin by the sculptor M. G. Manizer was installed on it ^[1] .

Versions of the fate of the sculpture of the emperor

Three versions were put forward of what happened to the sculpture of Alexander II after it was removed from the pedestal.

1. Just before the Czechoslovak Corps soldier left Samara, he was hidden by one of the Samara merchants in the basement of his house.
2. The Bolsheviks who captured Samara in a revolutionary frenzy drowned a monument in the Volga .
3. The monument was remelted. At the same time, the autocrat’s head was allegedly preserved, which, according to eyewitnesses, was in the Kuibyshev Suvorov Military School in the first half of the 1960s.

At the same time, no documentary evidence has been found to date, although the first two of them are now considered insolvent by local historians ^[3] .

Monument Renaissance Initiative

In Samara, there is a movement advocating the restoration of the monument to Alexander II ^[4] . At the same time, it is proposed to transfer the figure of Lenin to Zagorodny Park ^[2] or to the building of the regional court , where Lenin worked as an assistant lawyer ^[5] . The initiative to restore the monument was supported by the mayor of Samara, Dmitry Azarov , representatives from the LDPR and the Samara sculptor Nikolai Kuklev ^[6] . According to some estimates, this will cost 150 million rubles. Against this initiative is the local branch of the Communist Party ^[5] .

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  Pre-revolutionary postcard

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  View of Alekseevskaya Square with the monument

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  Pre-revolutionary postcard