Bewildered by its sheer scale, many visitors ask about the story behind this monument. This is the Peter the Great Statue. It stands at the western confluence of the Moskva River and the Vodootvodny Canal. The Peter the Great Statue is a towering monument. It reaches 98 meters high. That is 322 feet. Georgian designer Zurab Tsereteli created it. The statue commemorates 300 years of the Russian Navy. Peter the Great established this navy.
Erected in 1997 the statue weighs around 1,000 tons. It contains 600 tons of stainless steel, bronze, and copper. Since its inception, the statue has courted controversy. In 2008, Virtual Tourist voted it the tenth ugliest building in the world. In 2010, Foreign Policy magazine included it in a list of the world’s ugliest statues.
Lonely Planet noted Muscovites’ skepticism. Why pay tribute to Peter the Great? He loathed Moscow. He moved the capital to St. Petersburg. Zurab Tsereteli was a friend of Moscow’s former Mayor Yury Luzhkov. Tsereteli received many municipal art commissions under his patronage. These included the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and Manege Square.
In October 2010, Moscow authorities wanted to get rid of the Peter the Great Statue. They offered to relocate it to Saint Petersburg. That city refused the offer. Authorities in Arkhangelsk and Petrozavodsk offered to accept the monument.
Some say the statue was originally designed to commemorate Christopher Columbus’s first voyage in 1992. When an American customer could not be found it was repurposed with a Russian theme. Tsereteli denies this story. A separate, equally colossal statue of Columbus called Birth of the New World was constructed in Puerto Rico in 2016. Various US cities had rejected it.
The Peter the Great Statue is Russia’s largest statue. It has sparked heated discussions among tourists and Muscovites. Peter I stands on a ship on an artificial island in the Moskva River. He is considered the founder of the Russian navy. The statue was inaugurated in 1997. It marked the 300th anniversary of the navy’s founding.
The Tsar holds the ship’s steering wheel with his left hand. With his right, he holds up a scroll. Behind him is the mast with cordage and three sails. Below the ship is a pedestal. It shows waves and smaller ships. The fountains around the monument create the impression that the ship is moving through the water.
Many Moscow residents reject the monument. Some find it unsightly. Others resent Peter I’s relocation of the capital. The monument has been called one of the world’s ugliest statues. There have been efforts to move the statue. All initiatives have failed because of the high costs.
The statue cost $25 million. This resulted in heavy criticism. People argued that the government should spend money on its people. Frequent protests have led to consideration of removing it. Dismantling it isn’t financially feasible. Peter the Great was known as a cruel leader. Displaying an enormous version of a controversial leader is questionable.
The statue was installed when Soviet-era monuments were removed. Replacing Soviet figures was seen as an attempt to erase Russian history. The statue minimizes its historical surroundings. It is criticized for being too political. It does not fit the style of Moscow. The statue’s presence represents the evolution of Moscow as it moves on from the Soviet era. It’s a controversial landmark. Yet it stands tall.