For those who cannot visit the excursion “Gardens of the Russian Museum during the Siege of Leningrad” this year, we offer a virtual version.

During the siege of Leningrad in the Mikhailovsky Garden (at that time it was called the garden named after MOPR), an equestrian monument to Alexander III by the sculptor Paolo Trubetskoy was hidden.

In 1939, a project was being developed for the reconstruction of the garden. MOPR. According to this project, it was planned to erect a monument to Alexander III in the garden. Therefore, the sculpture was brought into the garden and left to lie on the ground in front of the facade of the Rossi wing.

The outbreak of the Great Patriotic War prevented the installation of the monument where it was planned. It was difficult to hide such a large sculpture in the ground. The administration of the Russian Museum decides to make a shelter on top of the monument lying on its side. It is covered with sand, I make a roll of logs from above, and then covered with earth and sown with seeds of lawn grass. The result is a man-made hill.

During the shelling of Leningrad, a shell hits the hill. The shelter was damaged, part of the statue appeared above the ground, but the monument was not damaged. The weakened workers of the museum did not have the strength to restore the shelter. Therefore, until the beginning of the 50s of the XX century, the sculpture was in the form in which the artist Vasily Pavlovich Borisenkov depicted it in his drawing in 1947.

Only in 1953, having completed the primary work on the post-war restoration of the Russian Museum, they again took up the monument. Having freed the sculpture from the ground, it was lifted and transported to the courtyard of the Russian Museum, which is located between the Rossi wing and the Benois building.

At present, a monument to Alexander III is installed in the courtier of the Marble Palace.

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