Monuments to the heroes of Russian literature. The most famous monument to literary heroes. Monuments to literary heroes in Russia and in the world. Sculptural group "Give way to ducklings"

Erect monuments to heroes literary works became fashionable in recent times... The Blog of Our City has collected 15 interesting monuments on the streets of Russian cities.

Let's start with Tobolsk. The monument to Robinson and Friday opens our selection. The monument to the literary hero Daniel Defoe was installed in the city for a reason. In the second book about Robinson's travels, the writer sent his hero to the capital of Siberia, Tobolsk.

6 - From Tobolsk we go to northern Khanty-Mansiysk. Here, on the square of the river station, the heroine of the story by Alexander Grin meets and sees off the ships. Scarlet Sails»–Assol.

7 - In Omsk, in front of the entrance to the local Youth Theater, a monument to Don Quixote, the hero of the book by Miguel de Cervantes " Cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha ".

8 - The monument to the brave soldier Schweik was erected in Samara. The sculpture of the literary hero is located not far from the building of the former hotel "San Remo", where in 1918 the Czech writer Jaroslav Hasek, the creator of Svejk, lived.

9 - The monument to the dog - Bim from the book of the writer Gabriel Troepolsky "White Bim Black Ear" - was installed in 1998 in Voronezh at the entrance to the puppet theater.

1 0 - A monument to Baron Munchausen was erected in Kaliningrad. The sculpture was donated to the city by the inhabitants of Bodenwerden, where the prototype of the baron was born - Karl Hieronymus Friedrich Baron von Munchausen. It is also known that the Baron visited Koenigsberg twice - on the way to St. Petersburg and back.

11 - In a Moscow courtyard on the street Soviet army sat on a bench two literary characters from the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita" - Koroviev and the cat Begemot. The monument was opened in August 2006.

12 - The monument to the hero of the book Ilf and Petrov, the great industrialist Ostap Bender is located in Pyatigorsk. The sculpture is located near the tourist attraction - "Proval". According to the book, Ostap was very surprised when he learned that "the city has not yet guessed to take dimes for entering Proval."

13 - The monument to the heroes of the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, detective Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson is located on the Smolenskaya embankment in Moscow. The characters easily discern the features of Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin, who played these characters in the Soviet television series.

14 - In Yekaterinburg, next to regional library them. Belinsky unveiled a monument to the Invisible Man. On the ground is a metal plate with footprints and the inscription "The world's first monument to the Invisible Man, the hero of the novel by H.G. Wells."

15 - The monument to the nose of Major Kovalev, the protagonist of the story "The Nose" by Nikolai Gogol, is located in St. Petersburg. The sculpture appeared on the initiative of the actor Vadim Zhuk in the mid-90s. In 2002, the nose disappeared. They could not find him for a whole year, until the loss was thrown into the front door on Srednaya Podyachnaya Street.

In contact with

MBOU "Severo-Yenisei secondary school No. 1"

Research on literature

"Monuments literary heroes Russia "

Prepared by:

student of 8 "B" grade

Golovash Victoria,

Supervisor:

Zhupeeva E.P., teacher

literature

Introduction.

Analysis of the student survey.

Monuments to the heroes of literary works.

Relevance of work: in literature lessons we study works, get acquainted with the heroes of books, presenting them in our imagination. Sometimes the textbook offers the following questions and tasks: What monuments to literary heroes do you know? Which literary hero would you create a monument to? Why? What character traits of a literary hero would you reflect in a sculpture?

purpose of work: to conduct a study, what monuments to literary heroes have been erected in Russia.

Work tasks:

1. Conduct a study to which literary hero the monument was created;

2. Establish where and when it is installed, who is the author of the sculpture;

3. Conduct a survey among the students of our school, do they know to which literary hero the monument was created?

Hypothesis: what national traits of the Russian character are embodied by literary heroes and whether they are reflected in sculpture, which hero has become popular in sculptural art.

Subject of study: sculptural images of the heroes of literary works.

Object of study: can be used by subject teachers in the classroom literature or extracurricular activities.

School students survey.

Poll results. One question was asked: what monuments to literary heroes do you know? Which literary hero would you create a monument to?

Introduction.

We all know that people love to erect monuments to their heroes: soldiers and generals, poets and writers, artists and composers.

War heroes, great personalities deserve to be captured in metal and marble. Humanity remembers their exploits, works, honors and adores their genius. But why, then, in Copenhagen, the monument to the Little Mermaid has become a symbol of the Danish capital? Why was a monument to the Malchish - Kibalchish erected in Moscow? What are these heroes of literary works famous for?

A bit of history.

Sculpture is a very ancient art form. She has always been held in high esteem and dedicated to the gods, earthly rulers and commanders, great people and historical events. Sculptural monuments adorn gardens and parks, ceremonial halls of public buildings. You can also find small figurines at home.

The tradition of erecting sculptural monuments to the heroes of literary works was born relatively recently, but there are already a lot of such monuments in the world, and this means that people value book heroes no less than real ones.

Memory in stone and bronze ...

Every year on April 18, all mankind celebrates the International Day for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments.

In Russia, this holiday began to be celebrated in the early 80s of the last century.

But back in the first half of the twentieth century, through the efforts of N.K. Roerich, the Pact on the Protection cultural property... The implementation of this idea was the agreement "On the protection of artistic and scientific institutions and historical monuments", Signed in Washington with the participation of the President of the United States on April 15, 1935 by representatives of twenty one countries.

Later, on May 14, 1954, on the basis of the Pact documentation, the UN conference in The Hague adopted the international "Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict."

The famous scientist-ethnographer, linguist, writer and traveler V. I. Dal wrote: "A monument is everything that has been done to facilitate memory, in order to remember ..."

Monuments to the heroes of literary works in the world.

Tom Sawyer, The Little Mermaid, Don Quixote and many other favorite characters of millions of children and adults, born of the writer's fantasy, have long been immortalized in metal or stone. But these monuments are in other countries and cities.

Monuments to writers and heroes of their works in Russia.

And in our country there are many monuments to great Russian writers. In St. Petersburg and Moscow there are monuments to the classics with a bas-relief depiction of literary heroes. Bas-relief - from French. - convex sculptural image on a flat surface.

Everyone knows the Russian fabulist Ivan Andreevich Krylov in the circle of his fable heroes.

In St. Petersburg, in the Summer Garden, there is a monument to the great fabulist. Krylov is depicted sitting in an armchair, the pedestal of the monument is decorated with numerous figures of the heroes of his fables. Before that, none of the writers had built any monuments. The funds were collected by the people, and the organizers arranged a competition for best project monument. The competition was won by Baron Pyotr Karlovich Klodt. He worked on the monument together with Karl Bryullov, who created the portrait of Krylov, and the artist Agin, who painted the heroes of fables. For this, Agin made a list of animals - the Krylov heroes, and then gathered the "sitters" at his place. Witnesses told what a crowd it was: animals and birds meowed, barked, grunting, bellowing, clucking ...

Adults and children look at the monument with pleasure, by all means trying to go around it from all sides in order to see all the animals that are depicted on a high pedestal, and then look up at the figure of the poet sitting on a stone, and even the smallest ones understand that this one " grandfather "was probably very good if so many cute animals stayed with him forever.

Today it is simply impossible to imagine the Summer Garden without "grandfather Krylov" and the heroes of his fables.

And this is a monument to the fabulist in his homeland, in Moscow. In the square on Patriarch's Ponds The characters of 12 popular Krylov's fables, familiar from childhood, were accommodated: the clumsy Bear with musicians, the boastful Pug barking at the Elephant, the Monkey with glasses, the Donkey and the Nightingale and others. They illustrate the pages of four open books located next to the monument to the great Russian fabulist. Of course, walking here, everyone remembers the winged lines from the wise fables of the writer.

There are similar monuments with bas-relief images of literary heroes in Moscow to the writers A.S. Griboyedov, N.V. Gogol. Many monuments to writers have been erected at home. For example, in Orel there is a very interesting monument to N.S. Leskov: in the center sits the writer himself, and around are compositions from five of his works: "Lefty", "Stupid Artist", "Cathedrals", "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", "The Enchanted Wanderer".

Russian character, national features and their embodiment in bronze and stone.

Especially impressive are the sculptural monuments that embody the characteristic national features of the Russian people, as well as the images created by writers.

Here we have a talented craftsman from the people - Levsha. This is a famous Tula gunsmith. Microscopic steel flea English work together with his comrades was able to shoe. Skillful craftsman, disinterested and incorruptible patriot. The sculpture of Lefty embodies the ease of working ability and talent: squint and poor control of the right hand do not prevent the hero from shoeing an invisible flea.

The column on which the left-hander is raised is the only one in the ensemble composition of the monument has a beautiful lace carving. This is understandable: Leskov's left-hander is the personification of the talent of the Russian people.

Diligence is an integral part of the Russian character. The image of a peasant-worker is reflected in many folklore works and literary tales.

There are many monuments to A.S. Pushkin in different cities. Among the popular monuments fairytale heroes, undoubtedly, in the first row are the heroes of Pushkin's fairy tales. And the old hard worker from "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" is also captured in the sculpture.

Several years ago in Moscow they reconstructed Manezhnaya Square... An underground shopping center appeared, and the surface was adorned with a complex of interconnected fountains and artificial reservoirs.

In one of these canals, connecting the fountains, there is a sculpture of an old man

with a goldfish. As usual, scuffs are visible on the sculpture; if desired, it can be reached from the shore. A sufficient number of coins are also thrown into the reservoir. The author of the sculpture, like many others in Moscow, is Zurab Tsereteli.

Pushkin's fabulous characters have become an adornment of parks, squares, alleys of many Russian cities, they are harmoniously combined with the landscapes of both the north and the south.

(slide - 14- Goldfish)

« Goldfish, not simple ”can often be seen decorating a fountain or a seaside park, and it is the embodiment of the dream of a Russian person, his belief in miracles, in magic.

Pushkin square in Abakan became one of the city's adornments, and in 2008 sculptural compositions depicting the heroes of Pushkin's fairy tales - a goldfish, a learned cat, the Swan princess.

Popular celebrations are held in Pushkin Square, and figures of animals from familiar fairy tales attract the attention of children - here you can often see children's matinees.

(slide 15 - cat scientist)

Probably, there is no person in the world who would not know the lines from the work of A.S. Pushkin "Ruslan and Lyudmila":

By the side of the sea, a green oak;

Golden chain on tom oak:

And day and night, the cat is a scientist

Everything goes around in a chain ...

In Rostov-on-Don, they decided to embody this idea: a monument to the scientist cat from the poem by A.S. Pushkin. The cat sits on a tree and reads a book. It is noteworthy that he is wearing red boots, but in general the monument is colored.

At all times, the defender of the Russian land has been glorified in Russian art.

Sculptural monuments glorify the mighty, wise, selfless organizer and protector native land... He is guided in his actions only by the interests of the people.

(slide - 16 - Ilya Muromets)

The monument to Ilya Muromets in Murom by the sculptor V.M. Klykov was erected in 1999 in a city park, on the high bank of the Oka. Epic hero depicted here in the guise of a monk hero: in a helmet and chain mail, from under which the monastic robe is visible. Right hand he holds a sword raised high, and with his left - a cross, clutching it to his chest. The belligerent gesture of Ilya Muromets is not accidental: here, on the banks of the Oka, the border of the Russian lands passed in ancient times.

In the courtyard of the Murom Museum, as an illustration of his exploits, there is a huge oak stump, a plate next to which says that such oaks were uprooted by the hero and thrown into the Oka. There are always people who want to be photographed next to such an exhibit.

Warrior-hero and literary hero (slide - 17- Vasily Turkin)

Many books have been written about the Great Patriotic War. But which of the literary heroes distinguished himself so much that his image received new life v sculptural form?

First of all, let us recall Vasily Tyorkin, himself, without exaggeration, the beloved hero of the war years. The hero who embodied best features of the Russian people, who, in spite of everything, fulfilled their historical mission in the fight against the “brown plague of the twentieth century”. It even seems strange that the monument to Turkin appeared so late, only in 1995, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the great Victory. And it happened in Smolensk. The author of the idea is the Smolensk sculptor Albert Georgievich Sergeev, he is a front-line soldier himself.

There are monuments to animals - for their loyalty and devotion.

In Russian literature, unforgettable images of "our smaller brothers" have been created, and some of them continue their lives in sculpture.

How many tears were shed over the misadventures of the unfortunate setter White Bim Black Ear from the story of the same name by G. Troepolsky. And this Bim, who has not yet found his owner, is sitting in Voronezh on the square in front of the puppet theater right on the ground. You can approach him, stroke him, but you cannot move the bronze figurine from its place - he stubbornly waits for the one to whom he once and for all gave his dog's heart.

And this literary "heroine" is especially dear to children's hearts. This is a monument to the Mu-Mu dog.

The opening of a literary monument in St. Petersburg took place on March 25, 2004 and was timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the publication famous work I.S. Turgenev, published in the Sovremennik magazine in March 1854. The sculpture is cast from cast iron and represents a dog curled up around Gerasim's boots. The artistic director of the project is Lev Nemirovsky. There are sculptures dedicated to Turgenev's Mu-Mu in Moscow, and it can also be seen in one of the French parks (the work of a Russian sculptor). This sculpture is interesting in design: the dog acquired a tail like a mermaid, which means it did not drown.

The most popular monument to a literary hero.

Getting acquainted with the monuments to literary heroes in our country, I had no idea that the most popular sculptural character would be the great strategist Ostap Bender. There are sculptural figures of this young man in many cities.

On the birthday of the great strategist, a monument to Ostap Bender was unveiled in St. Petersburg. The monument was erected not so long ago (July 25, 2000), but the illegitimate son of the Turkish Sultan has already taken its rightful place in the hearts of the townspeople. The monument, designed by sculptor Albert Charkin, is a figure of Ostap leaning on a chair made by master Gambs. Anyone can sit on the chair. The sculptural portrait of the great strategist is endowed with the features of Sergei Yursky, who played Bender in the cinema. The location of the monument was not chosen by chance - Italianskaya Street, near the house where the famous in St. Petersburg cabaret "Stray Dog" was once located. The abode of poets and writers.

A monument to Baron Munchausen was erected in Kaliningrad on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the city. The sculpture was a gift from the German city of Bodenwerder. A German baron, a descendant of the ancient Lower Saxon family of Munchausen, a captain of the Russian service, a historical person and a literary character, was born on May 11, 1720 in Bodenwerder. Munchausen's name became a household name as a designation of a person telling incredible stories... It is known that the real prototype of Baron Munchausen - Karl Jerome Friedrich Baron von Munchausen visited Konigsberg twice - on the way to St. Petersburg and back.

There is also a bronze figure of the Frog Princess in the city of Svetlogorsk. On August 11, 2006, in the city of Svetlogorsk, the grand opening of the central decoration of this place - the bronze figure "The Frog Princess", took place. The statue was installed in the park, which is located on the site of the former forest park near the station. The “Frog Princess” is a female figure sitting on a 2-ton stone base in a characteristic frog pose, with lips folded for a kiss. The creator of this composition is a native of Svetlogorsk - artist Oleg Melekhov. As conceived by the sculptor, the frog, turning into a princess before our eyes, should become a symbol of the “reviving” Svetlogorsk.

Conclusion.

What new have I discovered for myself while working on this project? I was convinced that erecting monuments to literary heroes is a tradition in all countries. This means that fiction plays the same role in people's lives as historical truth.

These are monuments to those who have never lived in the world - literary heroes. Why? Because many of the heroes of the books have done no less for people. Every day they give happiness to small and large readers of the whole earth, teach them to be kind and faithful, courageous and noble.

Monument-chapel to the heroes of Plevna - a very mournful-looking monument erected in memory of the Russian grenadiers who died in the fierce battle near Plevna during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. Monument-chapel was built on the initiative of Moscow Archaeological Society and soldiers and officers stationed in Moscow Grenadier Corps with funds raised by them, and opened on December 10, 1887 in honor of the tenth anniversary of the battle at Plevna.

The monument was built according to the project of an architect and sculptor Vladimir Sherwood and engineer colonel A.I. Lyashkina and is a chapel decorated with high reliefs and other architectural and artistic techniques: the building is decorated with wreaths and ribbons, and the top is decorated with images of saints and double-headed eagles on the dome. Octagonal chapel tent, crowned Orthodox cross, cast from cast iron and installed on a low pedestal. Distinctive feature buildings - perfect precision fit of cast iron parts, due to which seams are not visible on the surface.

4 high reliefs located on the side faces of the monument deserve special attention. The high reliefs depict an old Russian peasant blessing his grenadier son to fight, a Turkish janissary with a dagger snatching a child from the hands of a Bulgarian mother, a grenadier capturing a Turkish soldier, and a dying Russian warrior breaking the chain from a woman symbolizing Bulgaria.

On the sides of the tent, there are inscriptions: on the east and west sides - quotes from the Gospel, on the north and south - memorable words:

In front of the monument, there are cast-iron curbstones with the inscription "In favor of the crippled Grenadiers and their families" - in the past, there were circles for voluntary donations on them.

The interior of the chapel in the past was decorated with tiles, inside were 7 bronze plates with the names of the dead grenadiers (18 officers and 542 soldiers) and picturesque images of Alexander Nevsky, Nicholas the Wonderworker, John the Warrior and Cyril and Methodius. Unfortunately, most of the interior decoration, decorations and slabs have not survived to this day.

After the Revolution of 1917, the chapel was destroyed, and a toilet was installed in it. They began to restore it in the mid-1940s, but after that the chapel quickly collapsed, and in the 1960s it was completely covered with a preservative, which is why it acquired its characteristic black color. The restoration of the monument took place in 1984, and in 1992 - after the collapse of the Soviet Union - the chapel was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The history of the chapel-monument to the heroes of Plevna

Russo-Turkish war 1877-1878 - the war between The Russian empire and the allied Balkan countries against Ottoman Empire, caused by the rise of national consciousness in the Balkans. The infringement of the rights of the indigenous population and Christians in the territories of the Balkan countries occupied by the Turks and the impossibility of resolving the situation by peaceful means led to the fact that Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

Siege of Plevna - one of the most violent episodes of the Russian-Turkish war, when the Russian-Romanian troops opposed the Turkish troops fortified in the city of Plevna and eventually took the city. The losses amounted to about 40,000 killed and wounded from Russia and Romania and 25,000 from the Ottoman Empire (another ~ 43,000 were taken prisoner). Of the 90,000 Russian-Romanian troops who took part in the decisive battle, 1,700 were killed - including 18 officers and 542 soldiers of the Grenadier Corps.

After the end of the war, near Plevna, it was decided to erect a monument to the fallen grenadiers and immediately began a voluntary fundraising in the Grenadier Corps. For the construction of the monument, a plot of land was allocated with the Kopanaya Mogila mound, and in the summer of 1880, a competition was held for the design of the monument, in which 10 works from different architects were presented. According to the results of the competition, the convened commission considered that the proposed projects did not correspond to the greatness of the event, and for the construction of the monument on the recommendation Ivana Zabelina invited an architect Vladimir Sherwood.

Sherwood, guided by the proposed location of the monument and taking into account its remoteness from roads and streams of people, planned a 20-meter monument-chapel, decorated with 4 sculptural groups. The cost of such a monument was 70,000 rubles, but only 27,000 were available. The commission expected that the state would compensate for the missing, but Emperor Alexander II, approving the project, recommended that they turn to the merchants. Ultimately, about 29,000 rubles were collected, and in 1881 the new tsar Alexander III ordered to build a monument with the available funds. Sherwood simplified the project by reducing its size and replacing the sculptural compositions with high reliefs, and after his approval, work on the monument finally began.

In 1885, consent was obtained for the free transportation of the monument from Moscow to Bulgaria, however, in 1886 there were proposals to leave it in Moscow, and as a result, in 1887, with the warm approval of Muscovites, the chapel was erected at Ilyinsky Gate Kitay-gorod.

Monument to the Heroes of Plevna located in the Ilyinsky Gate square. You can get to it on foot from the metro station "China town" Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya and Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya lines.

Why do you think people erect monuments to literary heroes? Perhaps the whole point is that many characters in literary works have done no less good and light deeds for humanity than real celebrities. Heroes fairy tales every day they give little readers happiness, kindness, nobility. They teach us to be honest and courageous, faithful, faithful, and so on.

Monuments erected to literary heroes are a tradition that has been observed for more than a dozen years. In different cities, in public gardens and squares, there are sculptures dedicated to famous characters of world literature.

Each statue has its own history, its own life. And in our article we will consider monuments to literary heroes, and where these wonderful objects are located.

V modern world many statues have been installed to the heroes of fairy tales, short stories, novellas and even novels. All the characters became famous for the qualities that their authors endowed. Some are brave, some are stupid, some are overly optimistic, and so on.

There are many cities in our country where you can find a monument to the character of the book. Do you know any unusual monuments to any heroes? Literary characters, so it happened, began to erect statues quite recently. Therefore, the first thing we do is go to the United States of America.

Tom and Huck

In the States, namely on a river called the Mississippi, there is a small town called Hannibal. The talented writer Mark Twain spent his childhood here. In the center of the town there is an elevation that has been nicknamed the Great Cardiff Hill. The townspeople on the hill have erected a monument to literary heroes - Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The opening of the monument took place at the beginning of the twentieth century, namely in 1926.

The sculptor Frederick Hibbard depicted two boys in torn trousers. They are heading for another adventure. The sculptor managed to portray the guys as they are represented by each generation of readers. Looking at this "monument of childhood", one can pick up the epithets "carelessness", "mischief", "boyishness", "spontaneity".

The monument is not deprived of humor either. Passers-by watch as Huck holds the cat on his shoulder by the tail.

Thus, you and I see how Mark Twain's compatriots keep the memory of the world-beloved writer.

A dog named Mumu

And we are moving to the other side of the globe, namely the central part of Russia - to the city of St. Petersburg. In 2004, a monument to the literary hero Mum was opened. The administration of the northern capital did not choose this year by chance. Indeed, it was at this time that the city celebrated the 150th anniversary of the work of the same name. The sculpture was installed on Turgenev Square near the house where the writer lived. A commemorative plaque hangs on the wall of the building. Next to her is Gerasim's apron, and under it are boots. Mumu sat down next to the shoes of the Russian peasant, curled up in a ball.

Passers-by see a lop-eared mongrel cast from cast iron. The composition can be found near the club "Mumu", the motto of which encourages to treat the dog like a human being.

It should be noted that the French were imbued with this work of Turgenev. In their open spaces, they also installed a touching installation of a small and unhappy dog.

This statue symbolizes the act of man's repentance to his smaller brothers.

Boy with a golden key

Moving on. And this time we ended up in the city of Samara. In 2013, the townspeople celebrated the 130th anniversary of the birth of Alexei Tolstoy, so it was decided to erect a monument to the literary hero Buratino near the museum gates. It was in Samara that the writer spent his childhood. This monument was created by the sculptor from Togliatti Stepan Korslyan at the expense of donations from private enterprises.

Naturally, the most popular part of the statue was Buratino's nose. Those who wanted to be photographed with the hero of the fairy tale held on to his sharp nose. On the day of the opening of the monument to the literary hero, an urban legend was born. You need to make a wish at the moment when you hold on to Buratino's nose. Then it will come true. It should be noted that such a legend is inherent in almost every monument in Russia.

Many have noticed that the composition resembles Pinocchio from a Soviet film. In fact, this is so, and Dmitry Iosifov, the performer of the role of a wooden boy, was at the opening ceremony of the statue.

Residents of the city believe that the presence of this monument reminds of childhood and a fairy tale. After all, it is this genre that helps to believe that the world can be better if you make an effort.

The Little Mermaid is Denmark's calling card

There are a lot of amazing monuments to literary heroes in the world, namely in Denmark. We easily found ourselves in the port of Copenhagen to get acquainted with the graceful bronze sculpture The Little Mermaid, which turned 100 years old in 2013. Its height is large, only 125 cm. Weight is about 175 kg.

The history of this sculpture is not simple, as is the fate of the Little Mermaid herself in the tale of Andersen, who was originally from Denmark. The world learned about this small monument thanks to an American journalist. All sightseeing tours in Copenhagen start from this place.

For the first time, the Little Mermaid was installed on the embankment, but later it was moved to the harbor so that tourists would not climb the city landmark. In addition, this meant the suppression of incessant acts of vandalism in relation to the monument. In 2010, The Little Mermaid traveled to Shanghai for the World's Fair. After 3 years, namely on her centenary in 2013, the Little Mermaid returned to her homeland in Copenhagen.

Unfortunately, the sculpture attracts the attention of not only tourists, but also vandals. They poured paint on her, painted her arms and legs. In 2003, the monument was blown up, after which it was removed from the water. They put a burqa on her. On March 8, 2006, a dildo was attached to the arm. A year later, they dressed up in a Muslim dress. In 1984, a truly horrific incident occurred. The vandals sawed off the Little Mermaid's hand, they cut off her head several times! And every time the city authorities restored this beautiful monument to the delight of tourists and guests of the city.

Frog theme

Amphibians are considered fertile ground for sculptures. A sculpture of the Frog Princess was installed in Moscow in the channel of the Neglinnaya River. Ivan Tsarevich looks at her sternly. Passers-by throw coins to the stone on which the Princess is sitting.

It should be noted that there are several such sculptures in Russia. One of them is in Kaliningrad, the other appeared relatively recently in Svetlogorsk.

A few words about Josef

We return to the northern capital to get acquainted with the monument to the literary hero in Russia. We present to your attention a sculpture of the gallant soldier Josef Schweik. This sculpture is a tribute not only to the Czech writer Jaroslav Hasek, but also to the painter Josef Lada. Created a sculpture of a soldier D. Pakhomov. Height 160 cm, as the height of a literary character. The sculptor and his leader installed the statue on a barrel so that the soldier would not get lost in the crowd.

The opening of the monument took place in April 2003. Among the guests was the grandson of the Czech writer. Finding a sculpture is easy. It is enough to get to the Kupchino metro station and walk to Balkan Square from the northern entrance to the metro.

Many Gullivers

A very unusual sculpture of Gulliver is installed on the University Embankment in the Northern capital. This amazing object appeared in 2007. The monument to the literary hero Gulliver denotes the embodiment of relativity and infinity.

Made in the form of an endless series of bronze Gullivers, which are decreasing in size, each of them is several times smaller than the previous one. The unusual monument was created by the sculptor Timur Yusufov.

Monument to Ostap

And we are still in the cultural capital of our state. We are heading to Italianskaya Street to explore one of the main attractions of this area. We present to your attention a sculpture by Ostap Bender. Locals say that this famous person will help a person in all endeavors. To make the plan come true, it is enough to rub the nose of the bronze hero.

Monument to White Bim

Moving from St. Petersburg to Voronezh. A sculpture of a devoted dog named Bim awaits us here on Teatralnaya Square. Distinctive feature the sculptures are cast bronze ear and paw. There is a tag on the dog's neck where the name of the dog is engraved. The townspeople often take pictures with the dog, pat the ear, so it shines in the light of the sun's rays!

The sculptors decided to install the statue without a pedestal, so it seems that the White Bim will now jump towards its owner. The authors of this work, Ivan Dikunov and Elsa Pak, began to create the monument in 1985, investing their own funds. The opening took place 13 years later - in 1998. But, unfortunately, Gabriel Troepolsky, the author of a work about a dog, did not live to see the solemn moment.

King fish

Our next stop is Krasnoyarsk. In 2004, in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Siberian writer, Viktor Petrovich Astafiev, a forged monument was erected called "Tsar-fish". This sculpture is the hero of the story of the same name, as well as a kind of symbol of man's struggle with nature. In this case, the sturgeon is an allegory.

Baron on horseback

Our marathon on monuments to literary heroes is coming to an end. Our journey ends with a sculpture to Baron Munchausen in Moscow. In 2004, a monument to the hero of adventures written by Erich Raspe was erected near the Molodezhnaya metro station.

Few people know that the baron really existed during the time of imperial Russia. He spent ten years of his life in the service of our fatherland. The baron took part in the Turkish war, and he became famous thanks to his talent for telling amazing stories combined with humor and fiction.

The opening ceremony was festive. The guests came in 18th century outfits.

The statue is made in full size. She depicts the moment when the baron pulls himself and the horse by the pigtail so as not to drown in the swamp.

A few decades ago, monuments to literary heroes were considered a rarity. However, in last years this trend changed in better side... Every year a wonderful list of monuments to literary heroes is replenished. I would like to note that we have cited in our article only the most famous and popular sculptures in our opinion. And you and I can only wait for the opening of new monuments to fairytale heroes and not only! Send your ideas to the administration of your city, perhaps thanks to you the list will be expanded by one more wonderful monument.

The monument was laid in August 1837, on the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino, by the Tsarevich, Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich, the future Emperor Alexander II. The inauguration of the monument took place two years later, in the presence of Emperor Nicholas I, members of royal family, retinue, numerous representatives of the Russian aristocracy, guests from abroad and large group participants of the Borodino battle. For three days, the maneuvers of the 150-thousandth army under the command of Nicholas I continued, reproducing episodes of the "battle of the giants".
Shortly before that, in July 1839, at the foot of the monument were buried the remains of Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration, transferred here by order of the emperor from the village of Sima in Yuryev-Polsky district of Vladimir province. The commander, who died from a wound received in the Battle of Borodino, was originally buried in the estate of his relatives, the princes Golitsyn. The famous poet-partisan Denis Vasilyevich Davydov, who had been Bagration's adjutant for six years, petitioned the emperor for the burial of the hero's remains on the Borodino field.
The height of the monument together with the cross is 27.5 meters. Its edges contain information about the numerical strength of both armies on the day of the battle, about the "twenty languages" of Napoleon's army, about the Russian generals who died on the memorable day on August 26, 1812. There are also expressive texts about the retreat of the Russian army to Moscow, about the entry of the French into the capital and the Russian troops into Paris.
In 1932, the monument was destroyed as it had neither historical nor artistic value. He shared the fate of the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior and many other monuments of Russian history and culture. As a result of the barbaric action, the crypt with the ashes of Bagration was damaged. In 1987, more than half a century later, the monument and the tombstone at the grave of Bagration were recreated in the same forms and materials - in cast iron and bronze with gilding - according to the surviving drawings of the architect Anthony Adamini. According to his designs, in the early 1840s, similar monuments were erected in Smolensk, Maloyaroslavets and Krasny, that is, at the sites of the most significant battles of 1812.

The third grave of Bagration ...

On August 18, 1987, a small funeral procession appeared on the Borodino field, which was deserted that weekday,: a platoon of soldiers, several musicians of a brass band and four officers carrying a coffin. This is how the legendary commander who fought against Napoleon's troops, Prince Bagration, was buried. Buried for the third time.

His first grave was in the village of Sima on the outskirts of the present Vladimir region, where the general died on September 12, 1812 from a wound received in the battle of Borodino. Later, the remains of the brave military leader, on the personal instructions of Emperor Nicholas I, it was decided to transfer to the Borodino field. There, the burial took place twice, with an interval of 148 years.

The “miracle hero” is good only for scrap ...

The first of Bagration's burials in Borodino took place in 1839. Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich, together with a huge retinue and an army of 120,000, attended the opening ceremony of the monument near the crypt, where the remains of the “miracle hero of the Russian army” were solemnly transferred from Sima.

No one then could even imagine that this grave would be destroyed. But this is exactly what happened almost a hundred years later, in 1932.

In the young Land of Soviets, Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration was “demoted” from the national heroes of Russia and turned into “some kind of tsarist general”. And this is not just a contemptuous phrase, for those times it was actually a synonym for the terrible word “counterrevolutionary”! And the majestic monument over the commander's grave turned for officials “from proletarian culture” into an ordinary cast-iron structure, which should be sent for melting down - in order to fulfill the plan for the delivery of scrap metal ...

With the help of explosives, the main monument of the Borodino memorial at the former Rayevsky battery was turned into a heap of rubble. At the same time, the nearby crypt of Bagration was destroyed by a powerful explosion, and the remains of the hero-general were mercilessly thrown away from there. The resulting pit at the site of the destroyed burial was shamefully leveled with sand.

However, it soon became clear that the "scrap metal collectors" were in a hurry. Literally a few years later - to the 125th anniversary of Borodin - General of Infantry Bagration was "rehabilitated" in the Soviet Union! So for the anniversary celebrations, at the direction of the authorities, it was necessary to hastily erect on that sandy wasteland a simple obelisk with a false inscription: they say, a commander, a hero rests here Patriotic War Bagration.

This "props" flaunted on the Borodino field for half a century. In the mid-1980s, when the next “round” date of the grand battle loomed ahead, it was decided to recreate the blown up monument on the Raevsky battery in its original form. And to bury Bagration under it for real, so that everything becomes as before.

Burial ceremony for Bagration. Photo from the archive of I.F. Laptev.
“There was no dust in the coffin! "

The second Borodino burial of the remarkable commander took place on August 18, 1987, and it was furnished much more modestly than the first, "imperial" one.

Colonel Ivan Laptev took part in the burial held on the eve of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino. Ivan Fedorovich, in his letter sent several years ago to the editorial board of "MK", ​​told about some of the details of that "closed" ceremony:

“… It was me who was instructed to reburial Bagration. At that time I was a colonel, head of the political department of the division and served near the village of Borodino. On August 16, the division commander, Major General S. M. Khodkin summoned me to his office and ordered me to prepare everything for the funeral. To this I objected to him that the ceremony for the reburial of such a commander as Bagration should be headed by at least the Minister of Defense. But an order is an order! I have studied the article of the Charter “Paying military honors at burial” and prepared everything necessary ... During the reburial, I was able to see the contents of the coffin - it was completely empty ”.

So is the current grave of the hero, which has been located in the very center of the Borodino memorial for almost a quarter of a century, is this also a props?

As follows from the letter, Laptev tried to find out where the remains of the Russian hero in 1932 could have gone. He found several local old-timers, and they said that after the explosion of the monument and the grave, Bagration's bones were lying right next to the road. “As I was told by the inhabitants of the neighboring villages - Borodin, Gorki, Semenovsky, - these very bones were picked up by kind people on a dark night: some nun and an old man. They buried the remains of the legendary commander ... These people soon died, taking with them the secret - the burial place of Prince Peter Ivanovich ... "

A monument at the site of the Raevsky battery.
“We removed 4 buttons and small fragments of bones from the trash”

So, the commander's coffin, lowered into the crypt in the summer of 1987, is really empty?

Archaeologist Yevgeny Morev, who in the mid-1980s was engaged in excavations at the site of the blown-up monument for several seasons, helped the MK correspondent to understand the mysteries of the present grave of Bagration.

I also heard the story of a nun who buried the bones of Bagration that survived the explosion, - Evgeny Ivanovich confirmed. - However, the respected author of the letter is mistaken about the fact that an empty coffin was allegedly placed in the restored crypt ... In 1985, while working at the former Raevsky's battery, I discovered the ruins of the Bagration crypt, filled with earth and all kinds of rubbish. Here we managed to find fragments of the remains of the glorious general. Several soldiers from a neighboring military unit were assigned to help me. These young guys were imbued with the responsibility of the task entrusted to them and acted very carefully. They were sorting through the soil from the excavation with literally their fingertips ... As a result, in two months of painstaking work, we removed 4 buttons, scraps of old uniform fabric, fragments of epaulettes, scraps of leather belts from the garbage ... And most importantly - fragments of bones: small pieces of skull, ribs, hands vertebrae ... All our findings would fit in two palms of an adult.

The collected remains were transported by Morev to the capital, hoping to carry out their examination there. But there was no money for such work in the estimate. Even the ashes of the legendary hero of the battles with Napoleon had to be transported in the most primitive way: in a backpack placed on the luggage rack of a commuter train.

Then the Borodino finds lay for a long time in Yevgeny Ivanovich's study, waiting in the wings. Alas! In those years, no one was eager to study the remains of a Russian general. Everyone simply dismissed the persistent enthusiastic archaeologist, and after several months of fruitless attempts, Morev took (still in a backpack, by a commuter train) Bagration's ashes to Borodino.

When the general was re-buried in the Borodino field, the remains we found were sewn into a silk bag, which they put in the coffin. Of course, this bag turned out to be very small, and therefore it is no wonder that Ivan Fedorovich Laptev could simply not have noticed it. In addition, a capsule-sleeve was placed in the grave, into which a copy of the act on the excavations and the findings made was sealed.

The very procedure of burying the long-suffering ashes of the Russian general-hero was carried out “in working order”. In addition to the soldiers brought in by Colonel Laptev, only employees of the Borodino Museum and builders who were involved in the restoration of the crypt and the monument were present at the funeral.

Much more sumptuous was the opening of the main monument, which took place a couple of weeks later and was timed to coincide with the 175th anniversary of the battle. Crowds of people, ceremonial lines of troops, fireworks ... The "multi-star" generals, leaders of the region and the district came to Borodino on purpose. Even one of the secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee honored the event with his presence.

But why weren't both these ceremonies combined? Why did they not bury Bagration at the same time as the opening of the monument, in front of a large crowd of people? Employees who worked at the Borodino Museum at the time explained the situation with purely technical difficulties:

The crypt and the monument on the Raevsky battery are located very close to each other. So the stylobate - the lower part of the monument - literally hangs over the grave of the general. It would be impossible to complete the complete restoration of the monument until the crypt is walled up. It is for this reason that Bagration's ashes had to be buried even before the completion of all construction work.

* * *
And where did the bulk of the remains of the legendary general go? Buried by an unknown nun somewhere on rural cemetery Borodin?

I have heard other versions as well. But they differ from each other only in some details, - says one of the leading specialists of the State Archives. Russian Federation Igor Tikhonov, long years collecting materials about Prince Bagration. - They say, for example, that one of the local residents collected the bones lying around the blown-up crypt, put them in a wooden box and buried them in the neighboring Spaso-Borodino Monastery - southeast of the Savior Church. In other stories, a certain teacher from a rural school appears, allegedly burying her bones in a ravine ... I tried to find some more reliable information on this subject, but to no avail. A purposeful search for this legendary burial place is unlikely to be crowned with success - only a lucky chance can help.

Hence, it remains to admit that now all the surviving remains of General Bagration are buried in a crypt on the Borodino field.