Lubyanka - no return point

The commission under the Mosgordum on monumental art refused to return to Lubyanskaya Square a monument to the chairman of the Cheka to Felix Dzerzhinsky. This was reported by RIA "Novosti" with reference to the head of the commission of Lev Lavrenov. "The monument is inappropriate to restore at present, because it is more a political issue that society can split," Lavrenov explained. He added that members of the commission made a decision unanimously.

Lavrenov also said that since 2000, the issue of returning the monument to Dzerzhinsky has been considered for the fifth time and each time "the decision was unambiguous." The commission came to the conclusion that the installation of the monument on Lubyanka "could cause undesirable tension in society."

An official of the capital's Department of Culture Sergei Polkin, the head of the artistic heritage protection department, supported the decision of the commission. According to him, the number of supporters and opponents of the return of the monument is approximately the same, and therefore the installation of the monument "can split society." “This is a political problem. It should be solved at a high level,” concluded Polovkin.

On December 5, 2013, VTsIOM published the results of a survey according to which 45 percent of Russian citizens approve the idea of ​​returning the monument to Dzerzhinsky to their former place. A quarter of the respondents spoke out against. The main argument in favor of the restoration of the monument was the statement about the need to remember the domestic history. Another 23 percent of supporters of the return of the monument was called Dzerzhinsky "outstanding personality."

On October 12, the speaker of the Moscow City Duma Vladimir Platonov said that Moscow deputies did not make any decisions regarding the monument to Dzerzhinsky . At the same time, Platonov recalled that the current law does not provide for accounting for the opinions of Moscow residents regarding the installation of monuments, but earlier, according to him, these decisions were generally made closed.

The day before, with a statement that the monument to Dzerzhinsky should be returned to Lubyanskaya Square , was the deputy chairman of the Moscow City Duma, a member of the Culture Commission Andrei Metelsky. “I think you can restore it, return and put it in place. But then it is not clear why it was to remove it,” the deputy said.

Earlier, with the initiative to return the monument to Dzerzhinsky to Lubyanka, in particular, members of the LDPR and the Communist Party, as well as a deputy from United Russia Vladimir Kolesnikov, performed.

In 2011, the then prefect of the Central District of Moscow, Sergei Baidakov, said that " no one should stand on Lubyanskaya Square except Dzerzhinsky ."

The monument was erected on Dzerzhinsky Square (since the 1990s - Lubyanskaya) in 1958. On the evening of August 22, 1991, after an unsuccessful attempt by the Civil Code of the State Emergency Committee, the monument was overthrown from the pedestal by decree of the Moscow City Council and transferred to the Museon Art Park.