Monument to Alexander Pushkin (Arts Square)

A bronze figure of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin rises on Arts Square in front of the façade of the State Russian Museum — one of the most recognisable monuments to the poet in the country. The sculptor Mikhail Anikushin and the architect Vasily Petrov created the monument, which became the final element of the square's ensemble and one of the symbols of the city on the Neva.

The idea of commemorating the poet on this spot arose as early as 1936, when the Soviet government decided to erect a monument to mark the centenary of Pushkin's death. A year later an all-Union competition was announced, and the site on Vasilyevsky Island was even briefly renamed Pushkinskaya, but none of the submitted designs satisfied the jury, and the idea was temporarily abandoned. The plan was revived after the war: a new competition began in 1947, and its first three rounds again failed to produce a winner. Only in 1949 did the thirty-two-year-old Academy of Arts graduate Mikhail Anikushin submit his design, and it was his version that the commission judged the best. The monument's foundation stone was laid that same year, to mark the poet's 150th birthday, while the bronze figure itself was cast at the Monumentskulptura works in Leningrad in the mid-1950s.

The bronze figure of the poet is over four metres tall, and together with the pedestal the monument reaches almost eight metres. Pushkin is shown in a moment of inspired impulse: his right arm is raised in a broad gesture, the skirts of his cloak seem caught by the wind, and his gaze is fixed on the distance. The pedestal is hewn from reddish granite quarried not far from the city, and its base is of more roughly worked stone. The poet's name is inscribed in gold on the front face of the pedestal.

Before the commission approved the final image, Anikushin created dozens of graphic and sculptural portraits of Pushkin, as well as figures of the poet for Moscow University and for the "Pushkinskaya" metro station. Notably, even after one of his variants had already received official approval, the sculptor felt it was not sufficiently finished and, at his own expense, produced a new, more expressive model — and it was this one that was finally cast in bronze. For this work Anikushin was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1958.

The solemn unveiling of the monument took place on 19 June 1957 — that date was chosen to coincide with the city's celebrations of the 250th anniversary of Leningrad's founding. Today the monument holds the status of a cultural heritage site of federal significance and remains part of Arts Square, forming a unified architectural ensemble with the Mikhailovsky Palace in the heart of the city. Celebrations marking the poet's birthday are held at the foot of the monument every year.

The monument on Arts Square has long outgrown the bounds of urban sculpture — it has become a meeting place, a draw for tourists, and a symbol of the city's regard for its greatest poet. The dynamic plasticity of the figure, combined with the restrained treatment of the pedestal, has made this monument one of the most successful embodiments of Pushkin's image in Russian fine art.