Monumental Propoganda Plan (monuments)

Categories / Architecture/Sculpture, Monuments
MONUMENTAL PROPAGANDA PLAN was ratified on 12 April 1918 by the Council of People's Commissars decree on the "removal of monuments, erected in honour of tsars and their servants and the elaboration of monuments of Russian Socialist Revolution" (On Republican Monuments). The special commission consisting of People's Commissariat of Education and People's Commissariat of Property of the Republic, who prepared by 30 July, a list of 69 names of participants of the revolutionary movement, outstanding scientists and figures of culture for whom it was proposed to install monuments. People's Commissar A.V. Lunacharsky took an active part in the implementation of the plan in St. Petersburg. The monuments' designs were contracted out by the state; initially, temporary monuments made of cheap materials (gypsum, wood, concrete) were created. On 22 September 1918, the first sculptural bust of A.N. Radishchev (sculptor L.V. Shervud) was inaugurated in a breach of the Winter Palace fence (destroyed in January 1919). By 1920, about 20 monuments were installed (none of them remained to date): busts of N.A. Dobrolyubov at Tuchkov Bridge (sculptor K.F. Zale), H. Heine in front of the University (sculptor V.A. Sinaisky), S.L. Perovskaya at Moscow Railway Station (sculptor O. Griselli), of T.G. Shevchenko near the Mosque (sculptor Y.K. Tilberg), V. Rontgen at the street bearing the same name (sculptor N.I. Altman), of D. Garibaldi at Moskovskie Gates (sculptor Zale), sculptures: Great Metalworker in front of Palace of Labour and Free Labour at Kamenny Island (sculptor M.F. Blokh), Red Army Man on Bolshoy Avenue of Vasilievsky Island (sculptor V.L. Simonov), etc. Some formalistic monuments were removed soon after installation "by request of workers". According to the plan, the Field of Mars rearrangement was executed, The Revolution Fighters memorial was created (1917-19, architect L.V. Rudnev), parterre garden was laid out (1920-23, architect I.A. Fomin). In 1923, the gypsum bust of F. Lassal at the building of the City Duma (1918, sculptor Sinaisky; in 1937, it was removed and passed to The Museum of City Sculpture) and remade in granite. In the 1920s, some monuments were made of more solid materials and many of them are still on display today: the monument to G.V. Plekhanov at the Institute of Technology (1925, sculptor I. Y. Ginzburg), V. Volodarsky (1925, sculptor M.G. Manizer), bust of N.A. Nekrasov at Liteiny Avenue (1923, sculptor V.V. Lishev). At the same time, the removal of a number of monuments took place, e.g. the Column of Glory at Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Izmailovsky Life Guards Regiment, the monument to Great Prince Nikolay Nikolaevich (the Elder) at Manezhnaya Square, to Prince P.G. Oldenburgsky at 2 Liteiny Avenue, to Emperor Peter the Great at the Main Admiralty (sculptor L.A. Bernstam); busts of Empress Catherine II, Emperor Alexander II, Great Prince Nikolay Alexandrovich, etc.

References: Толстой В. П. У истоков советского монументального искусства, 1917-1923. М., 1983; Павлюченков А. С. Памятники революционной России. М., 1986; Пирютко Ю. М. "Монументальная пропаганда" - план и миф // Искусство Ленинграда. 1991. № 1. С. 12-21.

Y. M. Piryutko. Alexander II, Emperor
Altman Natan Isaevich
Bernstam Leopold-Bernhard (Leopold Adolfovich)
Blokh Mikhail Fedorovich
Catherine II, Empress
Dobrolyubov Nikolay Alexandrovich
Fomin Ivan Alexandrovich
Garibaldi Giuseppe
Ginzburg Ilya Yakovlevich
Griselli O.
Heine Heinrich
Lassal Ferdinand
Lishev Vsevolod Vsevolodovich
Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilievich
Manizer Matvey Genrikhovich
Nekrasov Nikolay Alexeevich
Nikolay Alexandrovich, Grand Prince
Nikolay Nikolaevich (Sr.), Grand Prince
Oldenburgsky Peter (Konstantin Friedrich Peter) Georgievich, Prince
Perovskaya Sofia Lvovna
Peter I, Emperor
Plekhanov Georgy Valentinovich
Radishchev Alexander Nikolaevich
Rontgen Wilhelm Konrad
Rudnev Lev Vladimirovich
Shervud Leonid Vladimirovich
Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich
Simonov Vasily Lvovich
Sinaisky Viktor Alexandrovich
Tilberg A.H.
Volodarsky V. (Moisey Markovich Goldstein)
Zale (Zalit) Karl Fritzevich
Liteiny Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Liteiny Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 2
Manezhnaya Square/Saint Petersburg, city
Толстой В. П. У истоков советского монументального искусства, 1917-1923. М., 1983
Павлюченков А. С. Памятники революционной России. М., 1986
Пирютко Ю. М. "Монументальная пропаганда" - план и миф // Искусство Ленинграда, 1991 Field of Mars (Marsovo Pole), ensemble
Museum of City Sculpture
1918