A giant statue of Kalashnikov, 9 metres tall, standing on a plinth, cradling his AK-47, has been inaugurated in Moscow, September 19th 2017, with a ceremony including a military band and his family including the weapon designer's daughter.
Problem
What to see first? Who's your favourite? Just make a list and see them as you come to them. Learning about the statues will take you on a tour through Russia's achievements and history.
Answers
Military and Mighty, Patriotic Russia
1 Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - near Red Square
2 Kalashnikov - holding the weapon he designed
Wiki says:
- "I was in the hospital, and a soldier in the bed beside me asked: ‘Why do our soldiers have only one rifle for two or three of our men, when the Germans have automatics?’ So I designed one. I was a soldier, and I created a machine gun for a soldier. It was called an Avtomat Kalashnikova, the automatic weapon of Kalashnikov—AK—and it carried the date of its first manufacture, 1947." [40]
- "Blame the Nazi Germans for making me become a gun designer ... I always wanted to construct agriculture machinery."[12]
- "When a young man, I read somewhere the following: God the Almighty said, 'All that is too complex is unnecessary, and it is simple that is needed' ... So this has been my lifetime motto – I have been creating weapons to defend the borders of my fatherland, to be simple and reliable."[18]
- "I'm proud of my invention, but I'm sad that it is used by terrorists ... I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work — for example a lawn mower."[11][19]
- "I created a weapon to defend the borders of my motherland. It's not my fault that it's being used where it shouldn't be. The politicians are more to blame for this."[7][8][9][16][19]
- "I sleep well. It's the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence."[41]
Space Heroes
3 Monument to Heroes of Space Travel
4 Yuri Gagarin, astronaut - oops, the Russian word is a cosmonaut?
Historical Figures
5 Peter the Great monument
The 15c gigantic ship, which you can see from your smaller vehicle on passing river cruise, has the heroic figure guiding it. He was apparently originally intended to be Christopher Columbus.
However, no American buyer was interested so a bit of thought about marketing led to a nifty change of heads and the sculpture was sold as Peter the Great to the Russians. (I am reminded of the story we have heard in Britain about London bridge being sold to Americans who thought it was Tower Bridge.)
6 Pushkin statue.
Do a complete Pushkin tour. See the Pushkin statue, the plaque on his house and Pushkin museum.
7 The Creators of the Cyrillic Alphabet
8 Bulat Okudzhava
Singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. Well-known in Russia, his poems read at school by Russian children. Less known to me. I could not understand the songs when I heard him singing on YouTUbe. So I looked him up on the internet. What a tragic life he led. When Bulat was a schoolboy his father was shot in a purge, his mother was banished. He went into the army. He married and was not still not welcome in Moscow. His first child died at birth. The next became a drug addict and died before the father. Bulat is bald, with a moustache and looks a bit like Gandhi. I found his music pleasant enough, but it's the words which grab you. Songs like the poignant Goodbye Boys to youngsters going off to join the army. The one I enjoyed in translation is Paper Soldiers.
9 Dostoevsky
10 Alexander II
Bust of Alexander II near the courts and University of Justice. He was known for reforms including the rights of prisoners to complain about guards. His assassination led to the draconian measures by his successor and son who banished the Jews starting their exodus to the USA (which h
you see in the fil Fiddler On The Roof.
Moscow has many more statues including Lenin and Marx.
Tips
8 Bulat
See the life story of Bulat in Wikipedia and Russiapedia; videos on YouTube: translations of the songs and poems.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41367394
Kalashnikove statue updated.
Update
(See my later post about Kalashnikov which I wrote on September 23rd. 2017)
To plan a trip, check the National Tourist Board for Russia:
https://www.visitrussia.org.uk
More information from:
https://wikitravel.org/en/Moscow
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please see my other posts on languages including Russian and destinations worldwide. Please share links to your favourite posts.
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