They saved the Fatherland
Strong Minin is worth raskoryakoy
Before the aristocratic,
Golosman warrior,
Contracting a warrior for the role of executioner.
And with all his appearance frantically shouting:
- In a campaign, the prince! At the Kremlin! Before us mining!
Screaming with a five one at the sword, and the other five with a spear,
On the granite tomb of Ilyich !!!
This is Demian Poor (Yefim Pridvorov), whom Lenin once liked to quote, officially declared “great writer”, awarded for victories on the literary front with the Order of the Red Banner of War and having an apartment in the Kremlin. Young people also wanted so much. Poet Komsomol Jack (Yakov) Altauzen was not cutting under the Poor - under Mayakovsky:
I suggest
Minina to melt,
Pozharsky.
Why do they need a pedestal?
Enough for us
Two shopkeepers praise,
They are behind the shelves
October found.
By chance they
We did not turn our necks.
I know it would be a match.
Think about it,
They saved the Race!
Maybe it would be better not to save?
Chopped famously, but did not reach comrade Demyan. I didn’t offer “to blow up with dynamite” “the meanest, which could be a monument!”, But - to melt it, for good.
The point of view of one of the “Kremlin towers,” as they say now, was outlined in prose by theater journalist Vladimir Sadko (Blum) in the material “It’s time to remove historical garbage from the squares”. This is just about the “mean monument”: “In Moscow, opposite Lenin’s Mausoleum, they don’t even think about getting away“ Citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky ”- representatives of the boyar trade union concluded 318 years ago regarding the strangulation of the peasant war” (“Evening Moscow” , 27 August 1930 year). In contrast to the feuilleton of the little-known Sadko, the poetic feuilletas of Demyan Bedny were printed in the main media of the Soviet state, they were read and guided by millions. D. Poor, wanting to comply, was mistaken here, not feeling a change. Suddenly, a shout came from behind the Kremlin wall.
6 December 1930 The Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU (B.) Urgently discussed the feuilletons of Demyan Bedny: “The Central Committee has been drawing the attention of the editors of Pravda and Izvestia, which has recently been in the feuilletons of Comrade. Demian Poor began to appear fake notes, expressed in indiscriminate defamation of "Russia" and "Russian" ... and declaring "laziness" and "sitting on the stove" almost a national feature of the Russians ... ". I.V. Stalin, dealing with the Trotskyist tower, explained:
“Having done the October Revolution,” the Russian workers “certainly did not cease to be Russian,” and therefore they didn’t draw a line with Russian lazy people, but the past of Russia was “a vessel of abomination and neglect,” which is “slander of the Russian people, dispelling of the USSR, dispelling of the USSR proletariat , debunking the Russian proletariat. "
One can readily believe that in response to D. Poor's slanderous feuilletons, who were, as it were, offended by the fact that Minin and Pozharsky were against the Mausoleum, one day an anecdote appeared in the people. Minin, pointing to his neighbor: "Look, prince, what kind of scum near the walls of the Kremlin has subsided."
Anyway, the monument to the national heroes resisted, only it was moved from under the walls of GUM (it was located exactly against the Mausoleum) to the St. Basil's Cathedral. If the monument did not win the confrontation, it did not lose. Since then, the current leaders of the USSR have taken parades from the podium of the Mausoleum, and Minin and Pozharsky - as if on behalf of historical Russia, and deeper - of holy Russia, from their pedestal, from the walls of the Pokrovsky Cathedral. Many have in their memory the great 7 Parade of November 1941 of the year captured not only in newsreels, but also on the mystical canvas of Konstantin Vasilyev (in the photo): the viewer sees the gray ranks of warriors from above, because of the snowy heads of Minin and Pozharsky, who bless to death in honor of the salvation of Russia by an ancient sword as a cross.
There will be another great parade that Minin and Pozharsky will take - the Victory Parade of 24 June 1945 of the year.
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The author of the monument is an outstanding Russian sculptor Ivan Petrovich Martos (1754 – 1835), rector of the imperial Academy of Arts, state councilor, born in Malorossiysk small town Ichnya (now Chernihiv Oblast of Ukraine).
He is the author and another famous monument - the mayor of Odessa, the Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Territory Duke de Richelieu (turned out to be one of the last in his work). And before that - royal persons: Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna, Empress Catherine the Great, Emperor Alexander I; more: Potemkin in Kherson, Lomonosov - in Kholmogory.
200 years ago, in 1817, a monument to Minin and Pozharsky cast in foundries in St. Petersburg by master Vasily Petrovich Ekimov (1758 - 1837) by water - through Nizhny Novgorod (!) - was delivered to Moscow. By the way, let us recall: several other works by Vasily Yekimov are world-famous: in Peterhof there is a fountain "Samson tearing the lion's mouth", statues of Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly at the Kazan Cathedral. Ekimov was the teacher of PK Klodt in the foundry art ... Let us also recall another master directly involved in the creation of the monument. This is a stonecutter, “column affairs master” Samson Ksenofontovich Sukhanov (1768 - 1840), who made a pedestal from red granite to a great monument. In his life, Sukhanov realized a lot of projects of architects, without which the appearance of St. Petersburg cannot be imagined. He created the colonnades of the Kazan and St. Isaac's Cathedrals (which still seems incredible), made the interior of the Kazan Cathedral, designed the arrow of Vasilyevsky Island, made Rostral columns ...
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The first parade of bronze Minin and Pozharsky "took" in the 1818 year, just six years after the Great Fire and the expulsion of Napoleon. The Moscow newspaper man vividly conveys the atmosphere of the 20 Red Square in February 1818, on the opening day of the monument:
"During this solemn ceremony, the confluence of the inhabitants was incredible: all the shops, the roofs of the Gostiny Dvor, the shops arranged on purpose for the nobility around the Kremlin wall, and the very towers of the Kremlin were strewn with people eager to enjoy this new and unusual spectacle."
The monument to the heroes was covered with a veil. In 11, the emperor rode out of the gates of Nikolskaya Tower accompanied by a retinue. “Instantly there was music. From the Spassky Gate, the ceremonial carriage of Empress Maria Feodorovna immediately appeared. Alexander Pavlovich traveled around the troops lined up for the parade, and met the Empress's carriage. "As Their Majesties approached, the curtain suddenly fell, and the heroes introduced themselves in all their greatness ..." The imperial couple stood apart from the monument, and the parade began. With a ceremonial march, giving honor, they marched - on horseback and on foot - troops. On the faces of many warriors still lived a gleam of fire from the recent World War II and the foreign campaign. Composer Stepan Anikeevich Degtyaryov's oratorio sounded “Minin and Pozharsky” to the poems of Nikolai Dmitrievich Gorchakov, the work seems to be forgotten by us.
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The impression that the monument made on contemporaries is fervently conveyed in a letter to parents by 18-year-old student Vissarion Belinsky: “When I pass by this monument, when I look at it, my friends, what is happening to me then!
What sacred minutes this sculpture gives me! Hair stand on end on my head, blood quickly rushes through my veins, my whole being is filled with holy trembling, and the cold runs through my body ... Maybe time will crush this bronze, but their sacred names will not disappear in the ocean of eternity ...
They will always ignite love for the Motherland in the hearts of their descendants. Enviable lot! Happy fate!
It was the first monument in Russia not monarchs person, but also personified the attentive look of the Russian in the depths of his soul. The next monument of this kind in 62 will be a monument to Pushkin. The 1818 event of the year was so exceptional that the essay “Historical Description of the Monument Erected to Citizen Minin and Prince Pozharsky” specifically stipulated that the monument to the heroes is a monument to Alexander I: “The glory of great people ripen in posterity. To the great great victories, the age of Alexander I was given to pay tribute to these heroes of the 17th century and, as a sign of public respect for them, erect a worthy monument to them that the glorious reign of the Monarch and the greatness of the feat of Minin and Pozharsky would announce to future times ” .
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The document was preserved, the date is known, when the idea of creating a monument to Russian heroes was first expressed. 1 February 1803 was written: "INITIATIVE of the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts on the construction of a monument to Minin, Pozharsky and Hermogenes." The idea was voiced by the creator of the society, philosopher-writer Vasily Vasilyevich Popugayev (1778 – 1816). The document reads: “In the meeting, a member of the society Popugov V. in his speech, he called on society to take the initiative to "draft a project for the construction of a monument to Pozharsky, Minin and Hermogenes, for Moscow through voluntary donations from citizens". " The monument was thought to open to the 200 anniversary of the liberation of Moscow from the occupiers and the seven-Boyars, in the 1812 year.
I.P. Martos in 1807, published an engraving depicting a variant of the monument. The engraving was sent to cities and villages. The size of the monument was amazing: the height exceeded the equestrian statue of Peter I. The comparison was not accidental, it was decided, “to use the metal composition of the same merit as in the monument to Peter the Great.”
Casting such a complex figure is a complicated technological operation. So complicated that it was decided to cast a sculpture composition in Petersburg, where there were necessary foundry workshops. The metal was boiled (1100 pounds, about 18 tons) 10 hours, the fill lasted one time 9 minutes ... In Europe at that time, nothing like this could be done.
Nizhny Novgorod wanted to establish a monument in their own home - in the city that initiated and assembled the victorious militia. Probably at the same time the sculptural image of Patriarch Hermogenes, the spiritual leader of the war of liberation, was not taken into the composition.
Napoleon prevented cope on time.
“We want to help the Moscow State, so do not spare us our estate, do not regret anything; to sell yards, to pawn wives and children, to beat with a brow to anyone who stood up for the true Orthodox faith and was our boss, ”- the words of Kuzma Minin - the words of the failed person to the edge of the abyss of the Russian people.
In 1812, these words became relevant again - filled with fiery meaning.
Martos, working on a monument during the war, on one of the bas-reliefs (where Minin collects donations) depicted himself leading his two sons. One who had hoped that he would become a sculptor in the future perished in 1813; the second successfully fought in the army of admiral P.V. Chichagov ...
After the expulsion of Napoleon, it was decided to erect a monument not in Nizhny, but in Moscow. Martos was asked, he indicated and the place is the center of Red Square.
To look into the abyss and be terrified, to realize that this is the land, pushed the messages of the clergy, first of all, the letters of the patriarch Hermogenes. The patriarch cursed the invaders. Letters were read in the temples during the evening services.
Returned to the issue of creating a monument to the patriarch, starved by the invaders hunger, through the century. In 1910, the idea of installing the monument was approved by the Holy Synod.
In 1913, Hermogenes were canonized. The monument was planned to be installed opposite to Minin and Pozharsky, near the Kremlin wall, in the place where the Mausoleum appeared in its time. Maybe it is providential that did not have time. B was blown up and melted down in 1930 ...
Interestingly, the idea of a monument to Patriarch Hermogenes was constantly worrying the minds of the Russian people. The monument to Hermogen was unveiled in the Alexander Garden on the Easter days of 2013 (sculptor Salavat Scherbakov).
Since 2005, the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God on November 4 and the day of the liberation of the Kremlin in 1612 is celebrated as National Unity Day.
In a sense, the holiday laid a dream. After all, the Russian people are divided, scattered over the fragments of historical Russia.
In Kiev on this day, as in the capital, as in other cities of Holy Russia, religious processions are held - celebrating Kazan, celebrating liberation from the Troubles.
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