Monuments to Anna Akhmatova in St. Petersburg July 11th, 2015
Monument to Anna Akhmatova in St. Petersburg
Since it was opposite the well-known building called Crosses, the poetess spent several days and nights when her son Lev Gumilyov was there during the famous Stalinist repressions. At the same time, the moment of opening the monument to the poetess was also not chosen by chance. Exactly on December 18, 2006, exactly forty years have passed since the death of Anna Akhmatova.
This sculpture is cast in bronze and is an image fragile in elegance and at the same time quite powerful in its spiritual energy, this sculpture is located between the twelfth and fourteenth houses of this city street. The first competition for this monument was an event among sculptors held back in 1977. At the same time, a place for it was allotted nine years before the opening. Therefore, when during its construction disputes broke out related to the fact that the sculpture was installed on the roof of an underground parking lot erected much later, with the help of many figures of culture and art, it was possible to restore the truth. After that, for seven more, a variety of coordination procedures took place, and only after that, in the year 2005, a decision was made at the level of the city government to begin construction of this monument to the great poetess of our time.
First of all, it is worth noting that it was the sculptors of this monument who managed to create the most truthful image of this person, who appears before us in all its glory, and attracts the attention of many visitors.
Monument to Anna Andreevna Akhmatova in St. Petersburg in the courtyard of the Faculty of Philology state university(author - Vadim Troyanovsky) was opened on August 30, 2004. The event is timed to start school year. The opening of the monument was initiated by the administration of the Faculty of Philology and the Department of the History of Russian Literature.
On March 5, 2006, a monument to Anna Andreevna Akhmatova was unveiled in St. Petersburg. The opening of the monument, installed in the garden near the Fountain House, is dedicated to the fortieth anniversary of the death of the poetess.
The monument, which is a gift from the director of the museum "St. Isaac's Cathedral" Nikolay Nagorsky, is a piece of the wall with the image of Akhmatova. The inscription, engraved in mirror image, contains lines from her poem "My shadow on thy walls". The author of the memorial sign is the famous St. Petersburg sculptor Vyacheslav Bukhaev.
Anna Akhmatova lived in the Fountain House for 30 years, now there is a literary and memorial museum of the poetess. She called the garden near the house magical and said that the shadows of St. Petersburg history come here. According to the director of the museum, Nina Popova, from a distance, the monument, created in the form of a stele, looks like a dark tree trunk, on which Akhmatova's high relief is located.
There are already monuments to Akhmatova in St. Petersburg - in the courtyard of the philological faculty of the State University and in front of the school in the garden on Vosstaniya Street, reminds RIA Novosti. In addition, in the near future it is planned to erect a monument to Akhmatova opposite the "Crosses", where she went to meet with her son imprisoned in the detention center.
Monument to Anna Akhmatova in the garden in front of the school on Vosstaniya Street.
Address: In front of the school on Vosstaniya street. 1991 The authors of the monument are the sculptor V.I.Troyanovsky and the architect V.S.Vasilevsky.
The monument is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Anna Akhmatova. Installed opposite houses 8-10 on Vosstaniya Street, where gymnasium No. 209 and the international school of Herzen University are located.
The sculpture was purchased by the commercial firm "Index" and donated to the gymnasium.
The monument to Anna Akhmatova in St. Petersburg was erected opposite the famous prison "Crosses", at the walls of which, according to the poetess in the poem "Requiem", she spent 300 hours.
The monument to Anna Akhmatova between Shpalernaya Street and Robespierre Embankment was erected relatively recently, in 2006. It was created by sculptor Galina Dodonova and architect Vladimir Reppo. On the contrary - the most famous prison in St. Petersburg "Crosses", at the gates of which the poetess spent many hard days. It can be said that in the poem “Requiem” Akhmatova herself pointed to a place for a future sculpture: “And if someday in this country // They plan to erect a monument to me, // ... here, where I stood for three hundred hours // And where for me didn't open the bolt."
The bolt for Akhmatova in "Crosses" really was not opened - she was never arrested, probably by pure chance. But the terrible regime did not spare her loved ones.
In 1921, he was sentenced to capital punishment - execution - at that time already the ex-husband of Akhmatova, famous poet Nikolai Gumilyov. Gumilyov was waiting for his accusation right there nearby, in the house of pre-trial detention at Shpalernaya, 25, in the first Russian "model" prison (now SIZO No. 3). It is noteworthy that a quarter of a century earlier, Lenin was also imprisoned there - the “model” prison saw hundreds of revolutionaries before the overthrow of the tsar and thousands of their opponents after the 17th year. A note from Gumilyov to his wife from his 7th cell has been preserved: "Don't worry about me, I'm healthy, I write poetry, I play chess." A few days later he was shot as an enemy of the people.
The son of Nikolai Gumilyov and Anna Akhmatova, the future famous historian Lev Gumilyov, gets into the "Crosses" in 1935. He was then only 23 years old, he studies at the Faculty of History of Leningrad University. “The husband is in the grave, the son is in prison // pray for me,” Akhmatova writes in one of the songs of her Requiem. At the time of the arrest of her son Akhmatov, she was again married to art historian Nikolai Punin. Punin is "taken away" at the same time as Lev Gumilyov. Both of them carry Akhmatova's parcels, knock on prison thresholds, stand in lines of hundreds of the same unfortunate relatives of prisoners. In the last hope, he writes a letter to Stalin, asking him to release his relatives. And oddly enough, by the personal order of the Secretary General, the husband and son are indeed released. For a while. In fifteen years, Punin will be repressed and die in exile in Vorkuta.
Lev Gumilyov was arrested three times in his long life. In 1938, Akhmatova visited the walls of Kresty for seventeen consecutive months before her son was sent to prison in the Norilsk colony. “I've been screaming for seventeen months // I'm calling you home. // I threw myself at the feet of the executioner - // You are my son and my horror. The shock of this arrest - along with other terrible life events - led to the emergence of the poem "Requiem". In the preface, Akhmatova will tell that during the years of Yezhovshchina she spent seventeen months in prison queues. Once a woman standing behind her asked if she could write about it. Akhmatova answered yes, and "something like a smile slipped over what had once been her face."
And I'm not praying for myself alone
And about everyone who stood there with me,
And in the bitter cold, and in the July heat,
Under the blinding red wall.
The site for the monument to Anna Akhmatova was officially approved several years before it was erected. But by the time of the opening, an underground parking lot had been built there, thanks to which the sculpture was immediately called “Akhmatova in the garages” among the people.
As for the prison, in the summer of 2006 it was decided to move it to a new location. The old building may be converted into an entertainment complex or a hotel. If this really happens, then the ensemble conceived by the authors of the monument will be destroyed.
On the contrary, across the Neva River - the most famous prison in St. Petersburg "Crosses", at the gates of which the poetess spent many hard days.
We can say that in the poem "Requiem" Akhmatova herself pointed to a place for a future sculpture: “And if someday in this country // They think of erecting a monument to me, // ... here, where I stood for three hundred hours // And where the bolt was not opened for me.”
The bolt for Akhmatova in "Crosses" really was not opened - she was never arrested, probably by pure chance. The iron chariot of Stalinist repressions drove through the Akhmatova family, but it did not break it. In 1921, he was sentenced to capital punishment - execution - at that time already the ex-husband of Akhmatova, the famous poet Nikolai Gumilyov. Gumilyov was waiting for his accusation right there nearby, in the house of pre-trial detention on Shpalernaya 25, in the first Russian "model" prison (now SIZO No. 3).
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It is noteworthy that a quarter of a century earlier, Lenin was also imprisoned there - the “model” prison saw hundreds of revolutionaries before the overthrow of the tsar and thousands of their opponents after 17 years. A note from Gumilyov to his wife from his 7th cell has been preserved: "Don't worry about me, I'm healthy, I write poetry, I play chess."
A few days later he was shot as an enemy of the people. The son of Nikolai Gumilyov and Anna Akhmatova, the future famous scientist, historian and ethnologist (1912-1992) Lev Gumilyov ends up in the "Crosses" in 1935. He was then only 23 years old, he studied at the Faculty of History of Leningrad University. “The husband is in the grave, the son is in prison // pray for me,” Akhmatova writes in one of the songs of her Requiem. At the time of the arrest of her son Akhmatov, she was again married to art historian Nikolai Punin.
Punin is "taken away" at the same time as Lev Gumilyov. Akhmatova carries parcels to both of them, knocks on prison thresholds, stands in lines of hundreds of the same unfortunate relatives of prisoners. In the last hope, he writes a letter to Stalin, asking him to release his relatives. And, oddly enough, by the personal order of the Secretary General, the husband and son are indeed released. For a while. In fifteen years, Punin will be repressed and die in exile in Vorkuta. Lev Gumilyov was arrested three times in his long life.
In 1938, during the second arrest, Akhmatova came to the walls of the "Crosses" for seventeen months in a row before her son was sent to prison in the Norilsk colony. “I've been screaming for seventeen months // I'm calling you home. // I threw myself at the feet of the executioner - // You are my son and my horror. The shock of this arrest - along with other terrible life events - led to the emergence of the poem "Requiem". In the preface, Akhmatova will tell that during the years of Yezhovshchina she spent seventeen months in prison queues. Once a woman standing behind her asked if she could write about it. Akhmatova answered yes, and "something like a smile slipped over what had once been her face."
And I'm not praying for myself alone
And about everyone who stood there with me,
And in the bitter cold, and in the July heat,
Under the blinding red wall.
Sculptor Galina Dodonova wrote. “I took a lot from mythology and poetry. In the figure of Akhmatova, Lot’s wife, who looked back and stiffened like a pillar of salt, and Isis, walking along the Nile in search of the bodies of her husband and son, are enclosed. Akhmatova, frozen in bronze, is a recognizable figure: fragile, thin, spiritualized, but in it suffering is hidden from prying eyes, barely noticeable in the tense turn of the head towards the "Crosses" located through it.
white night sketch
About the white nights a light touch for a reason
mutter along the alleys of the Summer Garden
naiads and fauns... The string of the bridge
the essence of the Petersburg city is emphasized!
And the sound of the night lights is turned off,
and the sky is filled with the most delicate color,
and stately outline rise at dawn
palaces and cathedrals of the beautiful capital!
Already de-energized, already pink
in that white night Petersburg over the bridges,
and the half-asleep Sphinx looked at the water,
and with a marble paw lay down on a stone ...
Bridges are closed. Heading out into the bay
the last barges float across the pastels.
And Anna, opening her biblical eyes,
looks at the Crosses... and doesn't even move*...
*The monument to Anna Akhmatova between Shpalernaya Street and Robespierre Embankment was erected relatively recently, in 2006. It was created by sculptor Galina Dodonova and architect Vladimir Reppo. On the contrary - the most famous prison in St. Petersburg "Crosses", at the gates of which the poetess spent many difficult days. It can be said that in the poem "Requiem" Akhmatova herself pointed to a place for a future sculpture: "And if someday in this country // They plan to erect a monument to me, // ... here, where I stood for three hundred hours // And where for me did not open the bolt."
The bolt for Akhmatova in "Crosses" really was not opened - she was never arrested, probably by pure chance. But the terrible regime did not spare her loved ones.
In 1921, he was sentenced to capital punishment - execution - at that time already the ex-husband of Akhmatova, the famous poet Nikolai Gumilyov. Gumilyov was waiting for his accusation right there nearby, in the house of pre-trial detention at Shpalernaya, 25, in the first Russian "model" prison (now SIZO No. 3). A note from Gumilyov to his wife from his 7th cell has been preserved: "Don't worry about me, I'm healthy, I write poetry, I play chess." A few days later he was shot as an enemy of the people.
The son of Nikolai Gumilyov and Anna Akhmatova, the future famous historian Lev Gumilyov ends up in "Crosses" in 1935. He was then only 23 years old, he studies at the Faculty of History of Leningrad University. "The husband is in the grave, the son is in prison // pray for me," Akhmatova writes in one of the songs of her Requiem. At the time of the arrest of her son Akhmatov, she was again married to art historian Nikolai Punin. Punin is "taken away" at the same time as Lev Gumilyov. Both of them carry Akhmatova's parcels, knock on prison thresholds, stand in lines of hundreds of the same unfortunate relatives of prisoners.
Red brick Crosses...
Red brick Crosses,
red dust of repression.
Anna three hundred hours
in a crush with others together ...
Female two-faced Sphinx,
half-dead on a stone *, -
you deserve the river Styx
or Crosses suffering?
Anna to become biblical.
Name of son, husband
asks to accept the Crosses
bread in an unnecessary bundle ...
Asks Crosses to forgive
youth and carelessness.
Sphinxes on the waves to shame -
their name is colder - eternity.
In their faces - death and life.
The river is dressed in stone.
Hold on to the parapet
so as not to sink into the Crosses!
*Two-faced sphinxes from the Robespierre embankment appeared on the banks of the Neva in 1995. The creation of the sculptor M. Shemyakin serves as an ominous reminder of the shameful pages of not so distant history great country- political repressions, the symbol of which in that difficult period was the Kresty prison. The bifurcated faces of sphinxes reclining on a pedestal of pink granite symbolize the coexistence of two worlds - freedom and a casemate. A spiritualized female face peacefully looks at the world of people, but the gaping eye sockets of a bare skull are turned to the windows of the "Crosses". On the tablets encircling the statues, emaciated with painfully protruding ribs, are engraved quotes from famous people of this world who saw the animal grin with their own eyes. political repression.
The monument in honor of Anna Andreevna Akhmatova is located in a small square between Shpalernaya Street and Voskresenskaya Embankment (formerly called the Robespierre Embankment). The opening took place on December 18, 2006, on the fortieth anniversary of the poetess' death.
The three-meter bronze sculpture stands directly opposite the well-known throughout Russia prison "Crosses". Part of the embankment was not chosen by chance, Anna Andreevna herself pointed to it in the poem "Requiem".
The fate of many representatives of the intelligentsia, including those closest to the poetess, is connected with this place: her husband Nikolai Punin and son Lev Gumilyov. For the first time they hit the "Crosses" in 1935.
Anna Akhmatova visited them regularly, along with other wives and mothers of the prisoners, she stood in long lines to give food and things to her relatives. Desperate, Akhmatova wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin asking for their release, and indeed achieved this.
In 1938, Lev Gumilyov was arrested again, he had to spend almost a year and a half in prison before he was transferred to a colony. And again the offices of prison chiefs, endless queues and humble longing ...
And I'm not praying for myself alone
And about everyone who stood there with me,
And in the bitter cold, and in the July heat,
Under the blinding red wall.
It is these words that can be read on the pedestal of the monument erected in honor of Akhmatova. It is noteworthy that, although the place for the monument, it would seem, cannot cause doubts - they still were. There were proposals to erect a monument near the building Federal Service security at the corner of Shpalernaya Street and Liteiny Prospekt, or near the fortieth house all along the same Shpalernaya Street, and even at the Fountain House, in which Akhmatova lived for more than 30 years.
However, it was decided nevertheless to follow the will of Anna Andreevna, although this was fraught with some difficulties: the fact is that by 2006, new houses with underground parking were built opposite the “Crosses”. The monument had to be installed on the roof of such a parking lot using piles.
The sculpture project was also chosen with difficulty, two competitions were held. Everyone could participate in the first one, but following the results of this competition, the decision was never made. In the second, only professionals made their proposals and preference was given to the project of Galina Dadonova and Vladimir Reppo, which was implemented 8 years later at the expense of one of the residents of St. Petersburg.
However, for the residents of the city, this is an important reminder not only of the wonderful poetess, but also of the fate of a whole generation. And also a great occasion to remember heartfelt poems and think about the strength of the human spirit.
Sculptor Galina Dodonova about the monument:
“I took a lot from mythology and poetry. In the figure of Akhmatova, Lot’s wife, who looked back and stiffened like a pillar of salt, and Isis, walking along the Nile in search of the bodies of her husband and son, are enclosed. Akhmatova, frozen in bronze, is a recognizable figure: fragile, thin, spiritualized, but in it suffering is hidden from prying eyes, barely noticeable in the tense turn of the head towards the "Crosses" located through it.
