Monument to Minin and Pozharsky

The monument to Minin and Pozharsky (Russian Памятник Минину и Пожарскому ) is a 20 -ton bronze sculpture by sculptor Ivan Martos, standing on the Red Square in Moscow in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral.

The monument was inaugurated on 20 February 1818 and be reminded of how it is literally in the inscription, " the citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky ", the leaders of the popular uprising against the Polish intervention in 1611, and their victory over the Poles in 1612.

History of the monument

Originally the monument in Nizhny Novgorod should be set up where the popular uprising had begun. The collection of funds for the construction of the monument began in 1803, on the initiative of members of the " Free Society of Lovers of language, science and art." This company also suggested because, to put the people's hero Kuzma Minin in the center of the composition.

The sculptor Ivan Martos began work immediately. In 1807 he published a first copper engraving from the model of the monument.

But until 1808, the general enthusiasm for the monument gradually decreased. Then seized the inhabitants of Novgorod Nizhny the initiative. On 2 May 1808, the Academy of Fine Arts was announced a competition for the statue on the orders of the President, attended by Ivan Martos next to the sculptor Prokofiev, humility - Malinowski, Piminow (Sr.), Tomon and Mikhailov.

In November 1808 Martos was the winner of the competition. Subsequently issued an order of the Tsar to collect the funds. On January 1, 1809 the winning design were across Russia engravings sent " to be known that this all Russians." The figure was consistent in almost all details with today's memorial - but more significantly from Martos ' original design from 1807 on.

By 1811 enough money was collected to start the work on the monument. At the same time it was decided to set up the monument not in Nizhny Novgorod, but on the Red Square in Moscow. ( In Nizhny Novgorod, an obelisk was to be built, however. )

With the work on the first, smaller model was started in 1812 - at the time of the attack of Napoleon I. on Russia. Because of the broken war, which did not spare Moscow, the work proceeded with difficulty. In 1815 Martos completed the first large model, which was issued for public review.

The already large public interest in the monument reached unimagined proportions after the victory against Napoleon. The Russians saw the sculpture as a symbol of victory. The daily press reported regularly on the progress of the work, and dedicated the monument always great articles, in which, inter alia, the technologies have been described that were utilized at work on the monument.

The monument was completed shipped to St. Petersburg and from there via Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow. The transfer took place from September 6, 1817 on 21 May. The preparation work continued on until February 1818.

On February 20, 1818, the monument was finally unveiled in a ceremony with military parade. Originally, the sculpture, however, not standing in front of St. Basil's Cathedral, but outside the main entrance of the Upper Trading Rows (now GUM department store ). It was not until 1930, she was moved to its present location in order to create more space for military parades and mass demonstrations.

Reception

The inscription " A citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky, thanks fulfilled Russia, 1818 " has been criticized by none other than Alexander Pushkin: " The inscription, the citizen Minin ' is, of course, not satisfactory: for us it is either the bourgeois Kozma Minin nicknamed Suchorukoj [, Dry hand ', translator's note ], or the nobleman Kosma mini sealed Suchorukoj, Kuzma Minin, or, a member of the entire Moscow state, as in the letter of appointment from the hand of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov [ ie the Tsar, translator's note ] is. It would be good to know all this - as well as the name and patronymic of Prince Pozharsky ".

Copy in Nizhny Novgorod

On November 4, 2005, a smaller to just five centimeters copy of Minin and Pozharsky monument was erected in Nizhny Novgorod. This " sister monument " stands in front of the Novgorod Kremlin, next to the Church of John the Baptist, whose emergence of Kuzma Minin in 1611 called the people to the defense of Moscow against the Poles. The inscription on the monument sister is the same as the original, but without any indication of the year. The copy was made from the Georgian- Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli.

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