Alexander Column: "Hard like the Secret Will of the Saving God"

At first the whole Petersburg watched as piles - 1250 piles on 6 meters in length each were hammered under the basis of a pedestal of the Alexander Column. Then - how they installed this stone colossus with the help of specially designed forests and cable tunnels. It took only 1 hour and 45 minutes, but the event involved 2400 soldiers, lifting the column on the pedestal. The monument was 600 tons. Most of the residents of the northern capital discussed the fact that the column was not buried in the ground and not reinforced on the foundation, but is kept solely by precise calculation and own weight. This based on documentary evidence detailed in the materials of the Presidential Library collection "Alexander Column", which 184th anniversary of its opening is celebrated on September 11, 2018.

The collection includes descriptions and images of the monument in different historical periods and memories of the celebration of August 30 (September 11) 1834 by different authors - eyewitnesses of this unforgettable event. "The grand monument gradually opened before the greedy eyes of the spectators", - I. Butovsky describes the tension of the waiting crowd in his memoirs "On the opening of the monument to the Emperor Alexander the First" (1834). - Finally, the woods that obscured it fell down and the column appeared in all its grandeur ... The gigantic fragment of granite, turned into a column, depicts the firmness of Alexander, who did not hesitate in the evil hour for Russia and, covered by the shield of faith and rightness of the matter, courageously opposed the powerful enemy". Memories of the Patriotic War of 1812 were still fresh in the memory of people.

The monument that appeared to them was majestic and noble. "It is not burdened either by magnificent ornaments, magnificent trophies, or by polysyllabic images of the victories won by the Russians", -  writes P. Dobel in his book "August 30, 1834, or Feelings and Thoughts at the contemplation of the column devoted to the immortal memory of Emperor Alexander I" (1834). - On the contrary, everywhere you can see the simplicity, combined with an inexplicable taste! Everything corresponds to the good, religious properties of the hero, about whom this monument resembles, reviving at the same time the memory of the unforgettable epoch of 1812! "Montferrand, Montferrand ..." – it rolled through the crowd".  

It so happened that the French won the architectural competition for the project of the monument to the Russian monarch, who defeated the "invincible" Napoleon. The Parisian architect Auguste Montferrand, who headed at the time the building St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, found on the Karelian Isthmus an array of granite, required for the creation of the monument. In the brochure "An Image of a Column, Built in Memory of Emperor Alexander the Blessed", an electronic copy of which is stored in the Presidential Library (1832), it is written: "The huge granite mass from which this column is separated was found by the architect Montferrand. While engaging in the finishing of columns for St. Isaac's Cathedral, this artist, with frequent trips to the Finnish stone breaks, at the tract between Vyborg and Friedrichsgam, noticed an unusual volume of stone mass, which seemed worthy of use to the alleged monument to the Emperor Alexander I. According to the report, the drawings presented to him  were awarded the highest approval, and the construction of this was entrusted to him. The most difficult part of this important enterprise: the crushing and initial lining of the column and bringing it here was undertaken by our compatriot, the merchant Yakovlev, and carried out this with the characteristic Russian enterprise, art and with perfect success".

The electronic copy of the book "The Monument to Alexander the Blessed" (1833), covers interesting information about the grandiose work on the creation of the column: "For two years, six hundred people of workers worked tirelessly to separate the twelve-sitting colossus from the mainland. Each worker from the middle line kept in his hands an iron, steel bounded and sharpened rupaz - a four-sided scrap, about a inch thick. For each such rupaz, directed to the vertical position, alternately struck two men with iron sledgehammers. This knock was heard a few versts, because here on the spot hit about 100 people at once".

According to the above-mentioned brochure "Image of a column erected in memory of the Emperor Alexander the Blessed", a stone colossus was rolled ashore and loaded onto a flat-bottomed vessel specially designed for it "150 feet in length. It swam safely 160-verstnoy space and appeared on the banks of the Neva. A few days later, giant granite laid at the foot of the Imperial Palace, where it is appointed to stand".  

A lot of preparatory work has been done on the installation of the monument, which is based on documentary evidence of the book. "Plans and details of the monument dedicated to the memory of Emperor Alexander" ("Plans et details du monument consacre a la memoire de l'Empereur Alexandre"), released in Paris in the year 1836. It describes in detail the progress of the creation and installation of the Alexander Column. The publication contains the calculations of the architect Auguste Montferrand with his comments, as well as sketches of the extraction of material for the monument.

The column, the scale of which surpassed all similar monuments, is crowned by the bronze figure of the angel, who tramples the serpent symbolizing the defeated enemy. The four-pointed Latin cross is held by the angel in his left hand, and the right one raises to the sky.

The unveiling of the memorial took place on August 30 (September 11) in 1834 at the Palace Square in St. Petersburg in the presence of Tsar, the entire royal family, famous Russian and foreign nobles. "Five days before the festivities, the national confluence had increased so much that the vast Petropolis seemed for a while even close", - we read in I. Butovsky's memoirs "About the unveiling of the monument to Emperor Alexander the First". After the service in the square in front of the Alexander Column, a military parade was held, in which about 100 thousand people participated, including regiments which distinguished themselves in the war of 1812.

The Presidential Library also includes "Memoirs on the Celebration of August 30, 1834" by the poet Vasily Zhukovsky, where he emotionally, with his characteristic imagery, describes an unprecedented event, even by the standards of the capital: "Everything united to give this celebration a deep meaning. The day before was exhaustingly sultry; By nightfall the whole sky was thundered with thunderclouds; the air pressed like lead; the clouds rustled; The Neva rose and there was a voice in the waves; at last a thunderstorm broke out; and in this incessant, rapid transition from gloom to splendor miraculously appeared and disappeared buildings, roofs and towers; and there was a gleam of columns that suddenly emerged from the darkness ... And in this phenomenon there was some inexpressible sign: involuntarily the thought was transferred to those times of the invasion of the enemy, when the disastrous storm rose over Russia, over it broke out, and quickly disappeared, leaving its fame and peace. There was something like the inviolability of the Providence in this column, which, not yet open, already stood in its place amidst the surrounding darkness and storm, solid as the secret will of the saving God".