Monument to L.N. Tolstoy
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy was a great Russian writer and thinker, a participant in the defense of Sevastopol, a publicist, and a religious thinker. He was a corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1873), honorary academician in the category of fine literature (1900). He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature (1902, 1903, 1904, 1905). The idea of erecting a monument to Leo Tolstoy arose immediately after the revolution as part of Lenin’s plan of monumental propaganda. Sculptor S. D. Merkurov proposed a finished monument, which was approved by a commission headed by A.V. Lunacharsky, and was installed at the end of the Devichy Pole Square in 1928. In 1972, the monument was moved to the courtyard of the second building of the Tolstoy State Museum on Prechistenka Street, where it remains to this day. Another monument, created by sculptor A.M. Portyanko, was erected in the same place. The monument to Leo Tolstoy on Devichy Field attracts attention with its convenient location in the middle of a wide square in front of the entrance to the square, “framed” by two streets. The area around the monument is tiled, and flower beds are located next to it. Critics note the grandeur of the execution of this monument. It is made of wild gray stone and depicts Tolstoy sitting in an armchair. Tolstoy’s attire is presented in the form of a chlamydia falling down. The writer’s hands and face are tense, and his huge beard is spreading out in folds over his chlamydia. The monument was unveiled on the eve of the writer’s 144th birthday, and in addition to the sculptor, architects V.V. Bogdanov and V.P. Sokolov took part in its creation.
Address: Moscow, Devichy Pole Square
