Imagine two children playing. They are blindfolded in a park in Moscow. This is the heart of the Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices sculpture.
The Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices is more than art. It is a stark warning. It stands in Bolotnaya Square not far from the Kremlin. Russian artist Mihail Chemiakin created it. The sculpture was unveiled in 2001.
Look around at the fifteen bronze figures. Two innocent children stand in the center. But menacing figures surround them. These represent adult vices. Each statue embodies a different evil. Drug addiction is a bald man offering a syringe. Prostitution appears as a woman with a frog’s head. Theft is shown as a man with a boar’s head. He carries a bag of money.
Consider alcoholism depicted as Bacchus holding a goblet. Ignorance is an donkey holding a rattle. Pseudo-science is a skewed Themis. She wears a helmet and holds an alchemical scroll. Propaganda of violence appears as an arms dealer. Sadism is a cassocked figure with a rhino head.
An empty pillory represents forgotten victims. The exploitation of child labor takes the form of a factory owner. He has a bird’s head. Poverty is an old woman begging. War is a battle droid holding a Mickey Mouse bomb. Finally indifference stands multi-armed deaf and blind.
Chemiakin created Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices. He wanted to encourage people to fight for future generations. Yuri Luzhkov commissioned the monument. The state-owned oil company Rosneft sponsored it. Its unveiling caused controversy. Some worried about its impact on children.
Take a moment to reflect on the sculptures message. The Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices serves as a powerful reminder. It highlights the dangers that threaten our children. It urges us to protect them. It compels us to create a better world. A world free from these vices.