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
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
. 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
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
) and ruled during its construction.
History
The 1898 memorial
The first monument to Alexander II stood above the
Kremlin's Taynitsky Gardens and could easily be seen from the
Zamoskvorechye district
Zamoskvorechye District (russian: райо́н Замоскворе́чье) is a district of Central Administrative Okrug of the federal city of Moscow, Russia. Population:
The district contains the eastern half of historical Zamoskvorechye ...
across the
Moscow River
The Moskva (russian: река Москва, Москва-река, ''Moskva-reka'') is a river running through western Russia. It rises about west of Moscow and flows roughly east through the Smolensk and Moscow Oblasts, passing through centra ...
. 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
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
. 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
The Chudov Monastery (russian: Чу́дов монасты́рь; more formally known as Alexius’ Archangel Michael Monastery) was founded in the Moscow Kremlin in 1358 by Metropolitan Alexius of Moscow. The monastery was dedicated to the mi ...
,
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
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
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.
File:Moscow, Alexander II Memorial.jpg, Postcard of the old monument to Alexander II, as seen from Ivanovskaya Square.
File:Alexander II Monument.jpg, Photo of same.
File:Ivanovskaya alexander.jpg, Old monument
The 2005 memorial
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
Russian Academy of Arts (RAKh / rus. РАХ, Росси́йская акаде́мия худо́жеств) is the State scientific Institution of Russian Federation, eligible heir to the USSR Academy of Arts. RAKh is the public cultural Instit ...
and national sculptor of Russia. 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
Imam Shamil ( av, Шейх Шамил, Şeyx Şamil; ar, الشيخ شامل; russian: Имам Шамиль; 26 June 1797 – 4 February 1871) was the political, military, and spiritual leader of North Caucasian resistance to Imperial Russia in ...
, the warlord who led longstanding resistance to Russian rule in the region. The monument also claims that Alexander freed Slavs from "''the Ottoman yoke''", a reference to the
Balkan war against Turkey in the 1870s.
References
*
* ''Monument to Alexander II to be Erected in Moscow'', in the ''Kommersant'', June 2, 2004.
*
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1898 establishments in the Russian Empire
2005 establishments in Russia
Monuments and memorials in Moscow
Alexander II, Monument to
Alexander II, Monument to
Alexander II, Monument to
Alexander II of Russia