The
Monument to Alexander II
, officially called the
Monument to Emperor Alexander II, the Liberator Tsar
, is a memorial of Emperor
Alexander II of Russia
, situated in the immediate surroundings of the
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
in Moscow. Completed in 2005 and partly inspired by a destroyed imperial monument from 1898, the statue itself was paid for by private donations, with the rest of the monument mainly financed by public funding. The site for the new monument was chosen in part because Alexander helped lay the foundation for the original Christ the Savior Cathedral (destroyed in 1931 by Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin
) and ruled during its construction.
History
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The 1898 memorial
[
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]
The first monument to Alexander II stood above the
Kremlin's
Taynitsky Gardens
and could easily be seen from the
Zamoskvorechye district
across the
Moscow River
. Work on the monuments was begun under emperor
Alexander III
in 1893, and was completed five years later under emperor
Nicholas II
in 1898. The monument was the work of sculptor
Alexander Opekushin
, artist
Peter Zhukovsky
and architect
Nicholas V. Sultanov
. The memorial consisted of a life-size bronze sculpture of Alexander II, set on a square pedestal with the words "
To Emperor Alexander II by the love of the people
" engraved on it. The sculpture was shaded by a canopy of polished dark red
Carelian
granite
. The top of the canopy was made of specially fitted gilded bronze sheets with green
enamel
. On three sides - the exception being the side facing the
Chudov Monastery
,
Ascension Convent
and the
Maly Nikolayevsky Palace
(all of which were demolished for the enlargement of the
Ivanovskaya Square
in the 1930s), the monument was surrounded by a gallery with arches and openwork. Thirty-three
mosaic
portraits of Russia's rulers from
Prince Vladimir
to emperor
Nicholas II
based on sketches by artist
Peter Zhukovsky
were placed in the gallery's vaults. It was demolished in the summer of 1918 during the Bolshevik revolution, while the columns and gallery stood forlornly overlooking the high bank of the
Moskva River
until the end of the 1920s.
The 2005 memorial
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On June 2, 2004, Moscow Mayor
Yuri Luzhkov
signed a decree about the erection of a new monument to the emperor Alexander II in Moscow. The monument envisages the full height figure of the Emperor ? 5 meters high and standing on a 5-meter pedestal. The new monument is located in a slope, made use of it in such a way that, from one side, the emperor is elevated on a pedestal and, from the other side, it seems that the emperor is standing right on the ground, portraying a man who is just standing and looking into the distance, facing the cathedral. The memorial was designed by professor
Alexander Rukavishnikov
, a member of the
Russian Academy of Arts
. At first, the monument was supposed to be set by the Kremlin's
Kutafya Tower
; however, a new place was found for it around Christ the Savior Cathedral. The Moscow Government reserved 60 million rubles for financing works on design, making of the granite pedestal, setting of the monument and finishing of the surrounding territory. On June 7, 2005
Alexius II
, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, performed the consecration of the new monument.
Alexander II is probably best known for his
1861 order to end serfdom
, and an inscription on the monument listing his accomplishments says he "
freed millions of peasants from centuries of slavery
". The inscription on the memorial mentions Alexander's military, judicial and administrative reforms, changes aimed at establishing a more Western-style system based on elements such as the rule of law and individual rights. It incorrectly claims that he ended the
war in the Caucasus
, a reference to the 1859 capture of
Imam Shamil
, the warlord who led longstanding resistance to Russian rule in the region. The monument also references Alexander freeing Slavs from "
the Ottoman yoke
", based on the
Balkan war against Turkey
in the 1870s, during which Russia freed Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire's hegemony.
[1]
References
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Sources
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- Kirychenko, Yevgeniya Ivanovna (1977).
Moscow architectural monuments of the 1830?1910s
. Moscow.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- Monument to Alexander II to be Erected in Moscow
, in the
Kommersant
, June 2, 2004.
- Dmitrieva, Marina (July 2006). "Moscow Architecture between Stalinism and Modernism".
International Review of Sociology
.
16
(2): 427?450.
doi
:
10.1080/03906700600709350
.
S2CID
145440120
.
55°44′44″N
37°36′24″E
/
55.7456°N 37.6067°E
/
55.7456; 37.6067