"He is perfect…". The Presidential Library illustrates unknown facts about the history of the creation of the Bronze Horseman

A monument to the founder of the city, Emperor Peter I, was unveiled 238 years ago, on August 18, 1782, on the Senate Square of St. Petersburg. Later, thanks to the famous poem by Alexander Pushkin, the sculpture was named "The Bronze Horseman", although it was actually made of bronze.

The location of the monument was not chosen by chance. The Admiralty, the Senate and the Synod building, founded by Peter I, which today houses the Presidential Library, are nearby. The institution’s portal features numerous images of the monument made in different eras, and unique materials that spotlight the history of the creation of one of the main symbols of the city on the Neva. Among them is the 17th volume of the "Collection of the Imperial Russian Historical Society" (1876), which includes the correspondence of Empress Catherine II with the author of the monument, Etienne Maurice Falconet and other unique documents.

Catherine II treated her great predecessor with great respect and said that her main task was to continue the construction of the "temple" he had planned - the Russian Empire. The idea of ​​perpetuating the memory of Peter I came to the Empress in 1765. On the advice of Denis Diderot, who was in correspondence with Catherine II, to create the sculpture, she chose the famous, but by no means fashionable French sculptor Falconet. The philosopher, feeling the full measure of his responsibility to the Russian empress, admonished his friend: "You have to remember, Falconet, that you must either die at work or create something great". 

The Russian envoy to Paris, Prince Dmitry Golitsyn, entered into a contract with the sculptor, who undertook to complete the work in eight years. He especially noted such a feature of Falconet as selflessness. Although Golitsyn offered Falconet a remuneration one and a half times less than requested by other artists for similar work, he "himself found such a figure exaggerated" and agreed to much less money. In September 1766 Falcone left for St. Petersburg; of the 25 boxes he took with him, only one contained the artist's belongings, the rest were filled with books, prints and casts.

The Empress wrote: “Diderot brought me a unique man, this is Falconet, he will soon start a statue of Peter the Great; if there are artists equal to him in talent, then we can safely say that none of them can compare with him in feelings, in a word, he is a friend of Diderot's soul".

The difficulties, however, began already at the stage of project discussion. Some advised to sculpt Peter I in the image of the Roman emperor, others - to build a monument in the form of a fountain surrounded by allegorical figures. There were also curious suggestions: to portray Peter so that his right eye looked at the Admiralty, and his left at the building of the Twelve Collegia. Defending his opinion, Falconet wrote to the President of the Imperial Academy of Arts Ivan Betsky: "Could you imagine that the sculptor chosen to create such a significant monument would be deprived of the ability to think and that someone else's head, and not his own, controlled the movements of his hands?" Betsky did not like this courage, and he threatened the artist with "the displeasure of the Empress". Catherine only laughed at some of the advice given to the sculptor. According to the "Collection of the Imperial Russian Historical Society", "this should have doubled the amusement of Falconet, since the unknown person who advised him to direct his eyes in different directions was none other than Betsky himself". Catherine admonished the sculptor to go his own way, not paying attention to the envious: “Defeat obstacles...and laugh at everything else; obstacles are created so that skilled people turn them away and thereby increase their glory".

As a result, Falconet insisted on his own vision of the monument. He depicted Peter in motion, removing details that could distract attention from the image of the tsar-doer; the role of Peter as a victorious commander is emphasized by a laurel wreath and a sword; the pedestal in the form of a huge rock reminds of the overcome difficulties, and the snake under the feet of the rearing horse symbolizes the defeated hostile forces.

When the time to look for a stone for the foot has come, the Academy of Arts "made public its required size - five fathoms in length, two fathoms and half an arshin in width, one fathoms and two arshins in height". Soon a peasant from the village of Lakhta came to the Academy and said that "6 versts from the coast of the Gulf of Finland...there is a huge boulder called Stone Mountain". According to local legend, Peter himself repeatedly climbed it to survey the surroundings. To transport the Thunder Stone, as it was also called, a huge sleigh was built, rolling along the chutes. Every day 400 people moved them about 200 meters. The drummer standing on the stone gave signals that made the efforts of the workers more united. Having dragged the granite giant to the shore, it was loaded onto a special vessel. On October 3, 1770, on the eighth anniversary of the Empress's coronation, the "Thunder Stone" passed under the windows of the Winter Palace and on October 7 was unloaded on the Senate Square.

When the model of the sculpture was opened to the public, Falconet was offended by the negative reviews, but the Empress still advised him to "laugh at the fools". The Empress also favorably accepted the sculptor's proposal: “At the foot of the statue, I would place this short inscription: Peter the Great was erected by Catherine II. I would very much like them to guess not to write anything else on the stone itself". As a result, an inscription in Russian and Latin was embossed, which reads: "TO PETER the first EKATERINA second summer 1782" on one side of the monument and "PETRO primo CATHARINA secunda MDCCLXXXII" - on the other hand, emphasizing the empress's plan: to establish a line of succession with the deeds of Peter the Great.

Perhaps the most gratifying for Falconet were the words of his friend, Denis Diderot. While in St. Petersburg and visiting the sculptor's workshop the philosopher wrote: “I knew you as a very skillful person, but I never imagined anything like this in your head... This work, my friend, as a truly beautiful work, differs in that it seems beautiful when you see it for the first time, and for the second, third, fourth time seems even more beautiful..."

The casting of the sculpture began in the summer of 1775. But even at this stage there were some troubles. When part of the clay mold was already filled, the pipe through which the bronze was poured burst. All the workers fled in fear, except for the cannon caster Yemelyan Khailov, who managed to stop the metal spill. As a result, the casting was completed with minor errors, but thanks to the skill of the artist, there were practically no traces of soldering left.

The grand opening of the monument took place on August 18 (7), 1782. The entire square, windows and even the roofs of neighboring houses were filled with people. “Following the signal, the linen curtains that hid the monument instantly flew off. The victorious banners bowed down, the sounds of military music, rifle and cannon firing merged into one joyful noise. Obliged for their existence to Peter: St. Petersburg, the Russian army, the fleet, the Senate welcomed the majestic image of their founder that appeared in front of them".

Falconet alone was far from the general joyful mood. Four years before the opening of the monument, unable to bear false rumors about himself and his creation any longer, he left Petersburg. Having worked on the monument for 12 years, he was even deprived of the opportunity to show his work to the Empress... And yet, finishing his essay on the correspondence between Catherine II and Etienne Maurice Falconet, the compiler of the "Collection of the Imperial Russian Historical Society", historian Alexander Polovtsov writes: "...above all These regrets are worth gratitude to Empress Catherine II, who, among her enormous state occupations, managed to get a ray of artistic light through the window that her immortal predecessor cut through to Europe, gratitude to the artist, under whose chisel we have:

Peter is coming out. His eyes

Are shining. His face is terrible,

The movements are fast. He is perfect,

He is all like God's storm "...