The monument to Kozma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky is installed in the very "heart" of the Russian capital - on Red Square. He appeared there in 1818, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the victory of Russian militias over the Polish-Lithuanian invaders.
Who are Minin and Pozharsky
At the turn of the 16-17 centuries, Troubles came to the Moscow kingdom: impostors tried to seize the throne. In 1610, the boyars put the prince Vladislav from Poland on the throne, and his fellow countrymen immediately occupied the Kremlin. The people's militia began to save the state from foreign invaders. The first attempt by volunteers was unsuccessful.
In 1612, the second army of the militia was gathered and led by Kozma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. The latter was a military and political leader, commander. Minin came from a merchant family, was engaged in trade, and later became a zemstvo headman. They went down in history forever as the liberators of the Russian Land.
Who created the monument
It was decided to create a monument to national heroes in 1803. The idea came from the "Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts" (a prototype of the modern Ministry of Culture). A project competition was announced. And the victory was won by the work of the sculptor Ivan Petrovich Martos. His project competed with the works of such talented masters as Vasily Demut-Malinovsky, Feodosiy Shchedrin, Stepan Pimenov.
Ivan Martos was born in 1754 near Chernigov. He grew up in the family of an impoverished landowner, a retired military man. Martos studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. He practiced in Italy, which left an imprint on his work.
How the work on the monument went
The project was approved, but the state did not have money for the monument. The idea remained an idea for more than five years, nothing more. In 1809 it was decided to collect money from the people. Of course, on a voluntary basis. The activists threw a cry in the cities and villages. Two years later, they managed to collect about 136 thousand rubles. At that time, it was a significant amount. Money was willingly donated not only by ordinary people, but also by merchants.
Initially, it was planned to erect a monument in Nizhny Novgorod, where the people's militia was born. However, then they changed their minds, and so the sculptural composition took its place on Red Square.
Ivan Martos finished working on a small model of the monument in 1812. A year later, he presented a large model to the public. Three more years later, the casting of the monument began. This was done by the foundry master of the Academy of Arts Vasily Yekimov. The monument took 18 thousand kg of copper, it was melted for more than 10 hours.
The pedestal caused a lot of trouble. Ivan Martos attached particular importance to it. He rejected the proposal of Alexander I to make a pedestal of Siberian marble and insisted on granite.
The monument was cast in St. Petersburg. He was taken to Moscow by water. Then it was the most familiar and reliable way. From May to September 1817, the figures were delivered through the Mariinsky Canal to Rybinsk, along the Volga to Nizhny Novgorod, along the Oka to Kolomna and along the Moskva River to the installation site.
The monument to Minin and Pozharsky was opened on February 20, 1818. This was an important event for the people, in whose memory the victory over the Napoleonic army in 1812 was still fresh.
