Let me lead you through the streets of Moscow

by Anni Pelmeni

In front of the Red Square # 1 there is a monument to the Soviet military commander George Zhukov (1896-1974). There the Marshal of the Soviet Union is posing on his horse. Zhukov is one of those whose life and actions deserved to be commemorated so close to the heart of Moscow – the Red Square. He was the one who reviewed the troops in 1945 on the occasion of WWII victory. It was him who signed the act of Germany surrender.

The monument was erected 8.05.1995 – to celebrate 50 years of Soviet victory in WWII. Originally it was planed to place it next to the Historical museum on the Red Square side. However it is proved impossible as the Red Square is listed as world’s heritage by UNESCO and it should remain unchanged in any aspect. The solution was to place the monument on the Manezh Square which is in the closest vicinity to the Red Square and provides enough space for the great man.

by Anni Pelmeni

If you make a promenade over Boulevard Ring, it is the best to start your journey at the Christ Saviour Cathedral - the first will be Gogol Boulevard. There you will see rather an ambiguous monument to the Soviet writer Michail Sholokhov. The monument is full of symbolism and hidden messages: the writer Sholokhov is sailing a boat among the see of horses' heads.

This monument is brand new, it has been built this year (2007). Sholokhov used to live in this neighborhood, on the Sivtsev Vrazhek street, so the choice for the monument's location is rather symbolic. The monument's designer Alexander Rukovoshnikov explained the idea he had intended to transmit with this monument.

Sholokhov sits in a boat and sees the surface of an imaginary river. The horses seem to surround the boat, but actually they are swimming in different directions. The horses are allusions of 'red' [pro-Communist] and 'white' [pro-Tsar] armies of the Civil War (1917-1921). The opposing directions in which horses are swimming are supposed to symbolize the civil confrontation of 'red' and 'white' supports. The Civil War was and how it broke the society and even families was a prominent theme in Sholokhov's writing.

Michail Sholokhov (1905-1984) was a Nobel's prize winner in literature and he is famous for his series Tikhy Don [1928-1940, 4 volumes, translated in English in 2 parts And Quite Flows the Don and The Don Flows Home to the Sea] , Podnyataya tselina (1932–1960; translated in two parts as Virgin Soil Upturned [also published as Seeds of Tomorrow] and Harvest on the Don), novel Oni Srazhalis za rodinu (1942; They Fought for Their Country) , short story "Sud'ba cheloveka" (1957; The Fate of a Man)