Zhivopisny Bridge. “Grand Projects of Russia” – Zhivopisny Bridge

The importance of this event can be judged by the fact that members of the Soviet government Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, Grigory Ivanovich Petrovsky and Avel Sofronovich Enukidze arrived at the event. The entire flower of the creative intelligentsia was also present here, but the sculptor Andreev, unfortunately, was not there due to illness. After the opening of the monument, Gilyarovsky already wrote to him in a message: “Ostrovsky is magnificent!”

Installation location The monument was not chosen by chance. During the lifetime of the famous playwright began to be called nothing more than “Ostrovsky House”.

The bronze sculpture represents Alexander Nikolaevich in a state of deep thought and sitting in a luxurious armchair. In his hands is a notebook and a sharp pencil, which is undoubtedly intended to capture the moment of the playwright’s difficult and important creative process.

The history of the creation of the monument to Ostrovsky

The history of this monument to Alexander Ostrovsky in Moscow began back in 1923 on April 12. In those days, festivities associated with the 100th anniversary of the great playwright were still taking place.

At 11 o'clock at the Maly Theater celebrations took place on the occasion of the laying of the monument. In addition to artists from various Moscow theater venues, intellectuals and students, People’s Commissar of Education Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky also arrived here and gave a speech.

In the same year, a competition was announced in the Soviet Union to design a monument to Ostrovsky, which, as mentioned above, was won by Nikolai Andreevich Andreev. He completed the work with the participation of his brother, who was also involved in sculptural work.

The material for the monument was ordered from Finland and was delivered to Russia in 1925. Preliminary work on the creation of Ostrovsky’s sculpture was completed in 1928, and then all that remained was to make a bronze casting. This process dragged on, and the grand opening was postponed to the spring days of 1929.

It is worth noting that the idea to erect a monument to the great master arose back in the 80s of the nineteenth century. The initiative was taken by the Society of Russian Playwrights and Opera Composers, which was once created by Alexander Nikolaevich.

The Russian tsarist government supported the idea and organized a fundraiser. 50 thousand rubles were collected by 1918, but the creation of the monument had to be postponed due to the revolutionary events taking place in the country.

Near the Maly Theater in 1929, but it was founded several years earlier - on April 13, 1923, when anniversary celebrations dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the writer's birth were taking place in the city.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky(1823 - 1886) - famous Russian playwright and writer, whose work had a great influence on the development of Russian national theater. Thanks to his father's extensive library, Ostrovsky began to become acquainted with Russian literature early and felt an inclination towards writing, but his father wanted to see him as a lawyer. The future playwright entered the Faculty of Law at Moscow University, but failed the exam in Roman law and left the institute, entering the service as a clerk in court and at the same time engaging in literary creativity. In 1850, Ostrovsky published the play "Our People - Let's Be Numbered!" - a comedy about the life of a merchant family, which brought him fame, but under pressure from the Moscow merchants, who were offended for their class, the play was banned, and Ostrovsky himself was fired from service. Subsequently, he became more involved in literary activities and became famous as an outstanding playwright; The most famous of his works were the plays "The Snow Maiden" and "The Thunderstorm".

The monument is made with a portrait likeness and depicts Ostrovsky in the creative process: sitting on a luxurious soft chair in a warm dressing gown, the playwright thoughtfully looks ahead; in his hands there is a sharp pencil and a notebook, on his forehead there is a deep wrinkle. The heavy figure is monumental and ponderous, as if supporting the wall of the Maly Theater. The bronze sculpture is installed on a massive granite pedestal and is surrounded by a fence made of heavy chains on low figured abutments.

History of the installation of the monument to Ostrovsky

Surprisingly, in total, the installation of the monument to Ostrovsky, from idea to implementation, took as much as 43 years.

The idea to erect a monument to the playwright first arose in 1886, shortly after the death of the writer. On the initiative Society of Russian Dramatic Writers A fund was opened for the creation of a monument, which accumulated about 50,000 rubles in donations until 1917. The irony is that, at the same time as them, a Ostrovsky Society, which also set itself the task of erecting a monument to the playwright and opened its own fund, which accumulated approximately the same amount. Over all these years, the two societies could not agree with each other, and then the First happened World War and the Revolution of 1917, and it was no longer possible to erect a monument.

However, after the Revolution they returned to the idea: in 1922, in preparation for the upcoming celebrations in 1923 on the occasion of Ostrovsky’s 100th anniversary, Maly Theater And Society named after Ostrovsky organized Anniversary Committee, who turned to the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR with a request to install a monument near the Maly Theater. The council supported the proposal and allocated money, but due to bureaucratic delays, the creation of the monument was not started.

In 1923, as part of the anniversary celebrations, the foundation stone of the monument, which had not even been planned, was laid. Shortly after the holiday, the Jubilee Committee was renamed Committee for the construction of the monument to A.N. Ostrovsky, and a competition was announced to create a monument, in which the sculptor won Nikolay Andreev; the development of the pedestal was entrusted Fyodor Shekhtel. The work began very slowly; in 1925, preparatory work began: granite was ordered from Finland, and by mid-1926 the foundation was built on piles and the first tiles of the pedestal were laid. Shekhtel died that same year, and his work was continued by the architect Ivan Mashkov. In April 1928, Andreev presented the sculpture in plaster, and the opening of the monument was planned for September of the same year, but the date had to be postponed: the Committee, limited in funds, could not for a long time choose a foundry that would agree to cast the monument for the minimum price. As a result, the Miglinik foundry in Leningrad took on the work, but an evil fate seemed to hang over the sculpture: due to the rainy summer, the molds could not dry for a long time, the workshop’s furnace could not withstand the load and collapsed, and to top it all off, the workshop’s electricity was turned off for non-payment . In total, the casting of the sculpture took a whole year, and the bronze Ostrovsky arrived in Moscow in May 1929.

Nikolai Andreev, the author of the monument, was not present at the celebrations: while observing the casting of the sculpture in Leningrad, he fell ill with pneumonia. Having seen the monument to his recovery, he decided that the monument should not be so bare, and according to the sculptor’s drawing, a small fence was erected around it. Later it was replaced with iron pillars with chains, and the monument took on a modern look.

Monument to Alexander Ostrovsky situated on Theater Square near the Maly Theater building (Teatralny proezd, 1). You can get to it on foot from metro stations "Theatrical" Zamoskvoretskaya line and "Lubyanka" Sokolnicheskaya.