History of Russia: Monument to Alexander II to be restored in Rybinsk

August 22, 2011 in St. Petersburg was held a meeting of the Expert Council for the Arts regarding the recreation of the monument to Alexander II for the city of Rybinsk.

Monument to Alexander II was opened in Rybinsk 6 (19) May 1914. It was raised at the expenses of the city residents, as well as by donations from the partnership of Nobel brothers, from E. G. Kalashnikov, etc. 25 000 roubles had been collected. The design competition of 1912 was won by the firm A. Moran, which proposed a model made in bronze by Academician A. M. Opekushin. The sculptor was the author of such famous monuments as the monument to Alexander III in Moscow near Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the monuments to Pushkin in Moscow and St. Petersburg, to Mikhail Lermontov in Pyatigorsk, etc. That was the last monumental statue of Alexander II, made ​​in accordance with individual project. There also had been mounted an unique pedestal of Finnish granite, which stands to this day in Red Square of the city of Rybinsk.

In autumn 1918, under Lenin's decree the monument to Alexander II was dismantled, and since then its fate has been unknown. On the site of the monument was installed a gypsum anvil, and then the statue of Lenin.

At the present time on the basis of the Company "Sculpture" (St. Petersburg) the reconstruction of the monument is run by national artist of Russia, Academician Albert S. Charkin. At present the project to create a working model of the sculpture to the full-size statue of 3.65 m (the copy of A. M. Opekushin’s work of 1914) is coming to an end.

The sculptor said he has been working on the project for over a year and a half: "There is nothing left but photos. We can only guess what it looked like." Albert Charkin plans to complete work on the monument by early September 2011.