Oleg Paliakov
On September 5, 1999, a monument dedicated to the infantry general prince Peter Ivanovich Bagration was solemnly unveiled in Moscow. The famous commander rises in bronze over the Kutuzovsky Prospect. Tight reins hold back a mettlesome stallion, and the general’s right hand brandishes a blade, calling the Russian regiments to the attack.
The creator of the sculpture is the well-known Georgian sculptor, Academician Merab Merabishvili, who succeeded in conveying the ebullient, untamable and impetuous nature of Prince Bagration. Before us we see the warrior flying on wings of glory just as he appeared to the soldiers on his fatal day, the day of the battle of Borodino.
The only dismaying thing is the extremely inappropriate place chosen for the installation of this monument. The irrepressible prince is pressed from two sides by a narrow square. The facades of the buildings adjoining the square deprive the monument of perspective, and the deathly cold «crystal» of the Citi business center, by the proximity of its back face, kills all feeling of the Epoch, with which this remarkable monument is permeated. As a point of information, the place for the monument was selected by none other than Moscow Academician of Architecture Boris Ivanovich Txor, the creator of the new foot bridge over the Moscow River.
The sole comfort we can take is this: better let there be a good monument in a bad place, than a bad monument in a good place!
