In Russia it was always fashionable and prestigious to fight with all sorts of idols. Prince Vladimir, establishing Christianity, drowned a lot of peruns in the Dnieper, and now his Ukrainian descendants are everywhere felling the helpless Vladimir Ilyich.
“Witless wrestling with women-yagas”
In the Russian Federation, they suddenly became worried about the Gogol monument. It was decided to dismantle the monument of the times of Soviet power on the former Prechistensky (now Gogolevsky) Boulevard in March 2014, and to replace it with the old one, the works of N. Andreev, which was originally erected here, back in 1909.
There is no unity of opinion in society on this matter. One part of the citizens believes that it is better to leave things as they are, the other longs to “restore historical justice”, not wanting to reckon with either considerations of expediency or the realities of life (nevertheless, at the moment there are more important problems in Russia). Someone, perhaps, would not mind, but he is stopped by purely economic motives: experts say that running around with such structures here and there is not a cheap pleasure.
Following Pushkin
The progressive public decided to erect the very monument to Gogol in Moscow, which they are now about to return to their place in August 1880. This year, a monument was opened to Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin on Tversky Boulevard. The audience drenched in tears of delight and tenderness, and right away there were enthusiasts who wanted to pay tribute to Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. The monument was planned to be opened on the fiftieth anniversary of the death - in 1902, but did not have time. Despite the fact that a fundraising subscription was announced almost immediately, the case was quiet for a long time.
Accusations of greed and slowness coming from the lips of some figures (M. Kuraev, in particular) are hardly deserved: they collected faster on the monument to Alexander Sergeyevich (the well-known figure of the classic appeared twenty years after the start of the subscription), but also for Nikolai Vasilyevich then to stint.
Do not have time for the anniversary, try for the anniversary
The famous Russian industrialist Demidov promised copper “how much is needed” and gave another five thousand rubles. There were other patrons. By 1890, they were ripe for the creation of a special committee for the erection of the monument, but he was not particularly in a hurry until in 1893 the emperor himself ordered him to “speed up”.
It didn’t act so immediately, but the members of the venerable assembly finally held a series of meetings and identified the person whom they needed to “address on the construction of the monument.” It is interesting that his name was A.N. Nose. Just some kind of hoax.
Somehow, with a scratch, they held a competition for the best work, but none of the presented sketches impressed the commission. It became clear that it was necessary to move: 1909 was approaching inexorably - Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was one hundred years from his birthday. The monument, not ripe on the anniversary of death, would be very welcome.
Doubtful sculptor, dubious project
It is still unknown which backstage negotiations preceded the approval of the draft of N. Andreev, but voted unanimously for him (under the terms voiced by the committee, a single vote against vetoed the adoption of the sketch). Perhaps the decision was indeed forced: there was almost no time left. So, with grief in half, construction work began, which was widely covered by the press and provoked lively discussion among Muscovites.
To begin with, the personality of the author raised questions. Prominent representatives of the art of those times, Opekushin and Repin, highly appreciated the talent of the young sculptor. However, the public doubted: there was little experience in the construction of monuments.
Shortly before the opening, the famous critic Sergei Yablonovsky called the monument a symbol of "terrible and nightmare" and expressed the opinion that "many will not want it." How he looked into the water!
The promising discovery of the monument
They planned to open the monument to Gogol in Moscow with great fanfare, although even here one could not do without the usual (we have to admit) headaches: the specially erected stands were flimsy, and it was forbidden to use them away from sin. Therefore, in the photographs from the opening, you can see an impressive crush at the foot of the newly opened monument, and nearby - empty "visual rows". The beginning did not bode well ...
The emotions evoked by the monument immediately divided sharply. Many decided (Repin, for example) that they were facing a significant work of art, but a rather vast audience considered the monument a real spit in eternity.
Hunched Gogol
The sculpture depicted a man fully wrapped in a cloak, with his head bowed low. Bent over, absurdly falling to one side, Gogol was sitting in an armchair and was the embodiment of world sorrow, and his famous long nose almost touched his knees. A tetrahedral pedestal was framed by a copper strip - a bas-relief on it depicted the heroes of famous works of the writer. They did not cause criticism. But the figure itself is a classic!
The epigrams of the specimen rained down: “Andreev made Gogol from“ Nose ”and“ Overcoat ””; "Gogol, hunched over, sits, Pushkin stands with a gogol."
The wife of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, who attended the opening , Sofya Andreyevna, found the monument “disgusting” (as she wrote in her personal diary). It is rather amusing that her great husband, the great classic of world literature, liked the monument.
We will destroy the whole world of violence ...
In this range, there were numerous reviews. Nevertheless, nobody was planning to change the sedentary monument to Gogol, and he would have stood at the beginning of Gogolevsky Boulevard, to this day, if in the seventeenth year of the last century the “young, unfamiliar tribe” had not come to power and decided not to decide the fate of the country (and monuments) in a new way.
The monument to Gogol on Gogolevsky Boulevard lasted after the revolution for thirty-five years and all this time was attacked, which became more and more vicious every day. The reason was: according to some sources, the bent figure of the literary classic was getting on the nerves of Joseph Vissarionovich himself, who was forced to regularly sympathize with the folded Gogol: the monument was exactly on the way to the dacha in Kuntsevo, where the all-powerful Soviet secretary general settled.
War with the Copper Writer
Thousands of sneakers, wanting to please the beloved leader, did not skimp on “kicks” to the creation of N. Andreev. The famous Soviet sculptor Vera Mukhina (author of the famous "Worker and Collective Farm Girl") accused the monument of inconsistency with the surrounding reality. Say, once Gogol had a reason to be sad - from the horrors of tsarism and other tyranny, but now why should he be sad when life in the country became “both better and more fun”?
At first, they did not plan to dismantle the sedentary monument to Gogol in Moscow - it was just supposed to build another one, at the other end of the square. It is not known who hit the table with his fist, but in 1952, on the 100th anniversary of the writer's death, a new monument was opened in Moscow, which was strikingly different from the previous one.
Still, to the anniversary!
The story with the approval of the project was again some kind of dark: the winner of the competition was the power sculptor (winner of five Stalin prizes!), The sculptor Tomsky, who later admitted that the monument to Gogol on Gogolevsky Boulevard was frankly bad. It was justified in a hurry: they say, I did not have time to do it more efficiently, because it was necessary to meet the deadlines - to the hundredth anniversary of the writer's death.
After the presentation of the results of the year's work, something like a scandal erupted again. Seeing the newly-minted monument to N.V. Gogol, the public was amazed (and shocked). Now the author of the magnificent monument with the monstrous smug inscription “From the Soviet government” (which has not been tired of making fun of for more than half a century) has gone to the other extreme: a sick, dejected classic has been replaced by a kind of cheerful “dance teacher” - smiling, in a short frivolous drape. Some considered the "masterpiece" a caricature, and folk poetry rose again in barbed epigrams.
The statue may also be unhappy
The monument of Andreev’s work was dismantled back in 1951 in order to build a new, standing monument to Gogol (which would embody the victory of art over dark reality) in the vacant place.
At first they wanted to even execute (to be re-smelted) the copper Nikolai Vasilyevich “not on the sad topic”, but the staff of the Moscow Architectural Museum saved the work of art by some miracle. In the end, there was a short exile. Until 1959, the disassembled monument was stored in a branch of the museum, located in the former Donskoy Monastery: there were found shelter for many objects unwanted by the Soviet system: marble figures from the facades of destroyed Moscow churches, for example.
In 1959, the "sad" writer was returned to Moscow and installed near the house in which he lived the last years of his life (the mansion belonged to Count A. Tolstoy). Citizens say that from certain points on Nikitsky Boulevard you can see a seated and standing monument to Gogol at the same time. Now that they are accustomed to Tomsky’s work, they see virtues in the 1952 building, recognizing, for example, that it fits better with the modern look of the square.
Despite the fact that many people do not like the idea of ​​destroying the monuments of the Soviet era, now a threat looms over the "merry" Nikolai Vasilievich. At the same time, experts say that an attempt to return the historical monument to its former place is fraught with unforeseen complications: the structure is quite old, it can be damaged during transportation - it’s better to leave it as it is. Nevertheless, it is impossible to argue that the two monuments to Gogol are better than none.