History 01/03/20 Why in Moscow before the war destroyed the statue of Liberty
“Freedom comes naked, throwing flowers heart”, perhaps these lines of Velimir Khlebnikov was inspired by the sculptor Nikolai Andreev, the author of the monument of Freedom, which was opened in 1919. The monument, depicting Liberty in the form of women half-dressed, ambiguously perceived by his contemporaries, and was destroyed a few months before the beginning of the great Patriotic war. About the reasons for the demolition of the monument to the Soviet (now Tver) square is still under debate.
the monument
Place on the square in front of the Moscow city Council was released after the Communists dismantled after standing for 6 years, the monument to the liberator of Bulgaria, General Skobelev.
the Competition to design a new monument, announced in August 1918 on the initiative of Lenin, won a then little-known architect Osipov. In the proposed version of the monument was an obelisk with a height of 26 meters, which was erected already to the first anniversary of the revolution. A year later, the monument was supplemented by a concrete statue of authorship Nikolay Andreyev. The pose of the woman with the pinched hand resembling the American Statue of Liberty, additionally, the sculptor has been influenced by ancient sculpture Nike of Samothrace. According to historians, Andreev posed the niece of the Director Stanislavsky Vera Alekseeva and Ekaterina coast.
the name of the building and not well established – in addition to the original also used the name “the monument to the Soviet Constitution” and “obelisk the October revolution”. Freedom monument some contemporaries mentioned among the “most interesting in concept and execution” of monuments to Lenin’s Plan of monumental propaganda. Others believed the obelisk and the sculpture “banal” and “tasteless”.
Elimination of
In the 20-30-ies in the Soviet area are often held rallies, with balcony at the foot of the statue were the speakers for the holidays obelisk decorated lights. But times have changed, and, apparently, even artistically embodied the idea of Freedom too obviously contrasted with the regime, which was established in the Soviet Union.
In the night from 20 to 21 April 1941, workers laid under the explosives sculpture and in an instant destroyed the monument, which had become one of the symbols of the capital of the USSR. According to the official version, the dilapidated monument “did not comply with the architectural ensemble” the reconstruction of Gorky street. However, many researchers believe this explanation is too superficial.
Perhaps the culprit were engraved on the obelisk the words of the old Soviet Constitution. “Father of Nations” would like to see in the city center a “Constitution Avenue”, which was supposed to be two obelisks with the lines of a new “Stalin”, the basic law of 1936. On the Soviet square instead of abstract shapes-the idea was supposed to be another, more “friendly to the masses” monument.
“In one of the corners of the square in front of the Institute of Marx – Engels – Lenin installed a granite six-foot pedestal on which is erected a monolithic statue of Lenin, polished granite,” – said on April 24, the newspaper “Pravda”.
According to one version, to destroy the statue of Liberty was offered by the competitor Andreeva, the semi-official sculptor Sergey Merkurov, and the party for this “operation” answered Lazar Kaganovich. From the monument survived only head sculpture. After the explosion picked her up among the ruins of the employees of the Tretyakov gallery and prior to 1967 was stored in the vaults, no one is showing.
restoration Project
Under Khrushchev, who in defiance of Stalinism, proclaimed the “return to Leninist norms”, some time we cherished the idea of restoring the monument of Freedom. However, at the same place, in front of the Moscow Soviet, since 1954, has towered a monument to the founder of the Russian capital Yuri Dolgoruky, and it was decided not to move. A new place for the Soviet statue of Liberty until the Restructuring was never able to find. In the beginninge 90-ies completely different in scale and the idea of “monument of Freedom” were in front of the Sakharov centre in Syromyatnikov – it represents two fragments of the fallen wall in Berlin.
Source:
© Russian Seven
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