Monument to Derzhavin

The monument to Gavriil Derzhavin is an exact recreation of the monument that stood in Kazan from 1847 to 1932 before being destroyed during the Soviet years. The modern version was unveiled on December 3, 2003, at the point where Lyadskoy Garden meets Gorky Street. The sculptor depicted the poet seated on a stool, dressed in a light Roman toga and sandals: his right hand holds a stylus, his left rests on a lyre, and the bas-reliefs on the pedestal depict the ode “Felitsa” and an allegory of the triumph of enlightenment over ignorance.

The idea of commemorating the Kazan-born poet arose as early as 1816, right after his death, but the project only gained momentum in the late 1820s. The first sketch, by Kazan artist Lev Kryukov, was rejected by the Imperial Academy of Arts; the second, by architect Abram Melnikov, was approved by Nicholas I in 1831. Donations collected across the country exceeded the budget, and on the instruction of the Minister of the Interior a new competition was announced: among the submitted proposals, the architectural design of academician Konstantin Ton was chosen, while the figure and reliefs were entrusted to sculptor Samuil Halberg.

The site for the monument — a semicircular area in the university courtyard in front of the anatomical theatre — was chosen personally by Nicholas I during his visit to Kazan in 1836. The parts were transported from St. Petersburg along the Volga by barge over several years, and the foundation was laid in September 1844 under the governor and rector Nikolai Lobachevsky. The elements were finally assembled only in the summer of 1847, which meant the date “1846” inscribed on the pedestal was already inaccurate by the time of the unveiling, held on August 23 of that year before a large crowd.

In 1870 the monument was moved from the university courtyard to the main square — a decision approved by Alexander II, with residents literally hauling it there by hand. Derzhavinsky Garden was laid out around the monument. The monument’s fate changed abruptly in the early 1930s: the authorities decided the poet was an unsuitable figure and demolished the monument, replacing it with a plaster figure of Yemelyan Pugachev, after whom the garden was also renamed. Later, the foundation of a new opera house was laid on this site.

The idea of restoring the monument was revisited only in the early 2000s, in preparation for the poet’s 260th birth anniversary. The competition was won by Kazan sculptor Makhmud Gasimov, who set out to reproduce the lost original as precisely as possible from old drawings and photographs — down to the erroneous date on the pedestal. The metal for casting the head, torso, and arm holding the lyre came from bronze left over after casting the monument to Empress Elizabeth in Baltiysk.

Today the monument stands opposite the building of the Turkish Consulate General in Kazan — a fact that residents often recall, knowing that Derzhavin celebrated the Russian army’s victories over the Turks. Among Tatars, the monument has long borne the affectionate nickname “bakyr-babai,” meaning “copper grandfather,” since the poet himself considered himself a descendant of Tatar murzas. The restored monument remains one of the few examples in the country of a Soviet-demolished monument being recreated with such precision.