The most mysterious story of this week: a monument to Zhukov in Moscow unexpectedly replaced, a little redid (and then everything disappeared). What is happening is generally incomprehensible

Update. By the morning of March 21, a temporary monument to Zhukov was removed from Manezhnaya Square.

On March 20, on March 20, on March 20, without any announcements, a monument was dismantled by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, erected in 1995 by decree of President Boris Yeltsin to the 50th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. On the same day, at the place of work, the sculpture of Vyacheslav Klykov and the architect Yuri Grigoryev appeared a new one: now the marshal’s right hand was raised in a military greeting, and the left front leg was raised at the horse of the commander. At the same time, the old monument was divided into several parts in the process of dismantling, the rain TV channel said .

After the reports of the dismantling of the monument on the Internet, a photograph of a plate dispersed, which is supposedly enshrined in the new monument: it says that the monument was handed over to Moscow Patriots of Russia - including President Vladimir Putin, assistant to the president Vladimir Medinsky, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, as well as some Gennady and Anatoly Kuznetsov. Is there really such a sign on the monument, the journalists could not check on March 20 - the monument is closed by screens and fenced, the rain said. It was not possible to get a comment in the Moscow City Highway about this Medusa. Gennady Kuznetsov is a former head of the construction of the Boguchanskaya hydroelectric power station in the hangar, Open Media reported in its telegram channel. The secretary of Kuznetsova confirmed to the publication that it was his name on the plate, but she refused to connect the correspondent with his boss. “We do not give comments. Sveta will not be shed on this situation. Do not look for ends! " - added the assistant Kuznetsova.

The original monument should be returned to the same place on May 9, 2020 after restoration. This was stated by the head of the Department of Cultural Heritage of Moscow Alexei Emelyanov. According to him , we are talking about "planned" restoration work: "The state of the monument requires serious restoration work in the conditions of workshops." These works, as Emelyanov specified, are scheduled for March: “So that after dismantling the monument the place did not look empty, it was decided to replace it with a copy of this monument, also made by [sculptor] Klykov. Yes, the copy is different from the original, but this is an author's copy. ”

The head of the Moscow City Council added that the new monument would also have to be dismantled in the near future - since when it was installed it turned out that "the pedestal is not so strong, and it is necessary to restore it." “He will not even stand a temporary sculpture, so they will also be removed. <...> We are dismantling both the historical monument placed in 1995 and its copy. The pedestal will also be restored, ”Emelyanov said.

The son of the sculptor Andrei Klykov said that the monument to Zhukov did not need restoration. “My morning began with this“ pleasant ”news. I don’t know anything, someone told me that this is a temporary phenomenon-for restoration, but I do not know what to restore there. It is incomprehensible, ”Klykov said . The replacement of the monument was also surprised by the daughter of Marshal Era Zhukov. It was a surprise for the prefecture of the Central Administrative District of Moscow, which serves the monument. And the chairman of the Moscow Monumental Art Commission, Lev Lavrenov, stated that the monument is under the jurisdiction of the Russian Ministry of Culture. It was not possible to get a comment in the Medusa Ministry of Culture, but there is no monument to Zhukov in the register of cultural heritage objects for which this department is responsible .

When asked why nothing was previously reported about the restoration of the monument, the head of the Moscow City Council replied that "this incident would be compensated by an invitation to restoration workshops."

The new monument to Zhukov was manufactured in 2014 in the art project, created by sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov. The director of the workshop Yevgeny Korolev told Medusa that the new monument was already made without Klykov (he died in 2006), but the sculptor’s name “decided not to change”. When asked who and why made such a decision, Korolev called the names of Marshal Dmitry Yazov (his name is also present on the plate) and the era of Zhukova.

“Previously, this [new] monument stood at our factory. I did not know the fact that he would be put on Manezhnaya Square. Some time ago, he went to another territory where the organizers of the project were engaged in, ”said Evgeny Korolev. He said that he does not know who these "organizers of the project."

In 2014, the Marshal memory committee G.K. Zhukov already applied to the commission on monumental art under the Moscow City Duma with a request to transfer the monument to the Kaluga region to the commander’s homeland, but the proposal was rejected. In February 2015-again, on the initiative of the Zhukov memory committee, a round table was held in the Public Chamber of Russia, whose participants supported the idea of ​​replacing the monument. The Chairman of the Committee Alexei Pavlikov then explained that the existing monument “does not symbolize the power of the figure that Zhukov was”: “He does not symbolize the victory, parade. The monument is not such a monumental figure that I would like to bow, to recall the dead. There are errors in the form of clothing, in order signs, mismatch of posture, disproportionate body of Zhukov himself, the horse is quite young. ” However, according to Spark-Interfax, the Zhukov memory committee himself ceased to exist in 2016.

Sasha Sulim, Peter Lokhov