Why did the Golden Boy never make it? We are standing before the \u0410. \u0410. \u041a\u0443\u0437\u043d\u0435\u0446\u043e\u0432\u0443 Plaque. It marks a place of remembrance. It commemorates a man connected to a controversial and unrealized sculpture.
Let me tell you the story of the Golden Boy and \u0410. \u0410. \u041a\u0443\u0437\u043d\u0435\u0446\u043e\u0432\u0443. The Golden Boy was meant to stand at the Memorial to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad. This memorial complex honors those who fought in the Siege of Leningrad. The siege lasted from 1941 to 1944.
The statue was the idea of sculptor Mikhail Anikushin. Anikushin was a People’s Artist of the USSR. He won the Lenin Prize. He also won the I. E. Repin State Prizes of the RSFSR.
The Golden Boy was a nude sculpture of a young boy. He was about five or six years old. His head was raised. He gazed forward. One foot was slightly forward as if taking a step. Anikushin’s grandson, Adrian, modeled for the sculpture.
Anikushin envisioned the memorial as soulful and lyrical. He rejected pathos and conventional realism. He wanted to express the tragedy of Leningrad sincerely. The Golden Boy was meant to be a symbol of life. He represented the children who would inherit the peace.
\u0410. \u0410. \u041a\u0443\u0437\u043d\u0435\u0446\u043e\u0432 was a party and state leader. He was one of the leaders of the defense of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War. He lived in this house from 1937 to 1946. Perhaps he knew about the Golden Boy. Perhaps he even supported it.
But the Golden Boy never took its intended place. According to some accounts, Grigory Romanov made the decision to exclude it. Romanov was the First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee. Some say Romanov feared the nudity of a minor would be seen as immoral. Mikhail Suslov was to attend the opening. Suslov was known for his puritanical views.
Two bronze versions of the Golden Boy were made. Both have been lost. A plaster model remains at the Mikhail Anikushin Workshop. The memorial opened without the Golden Boy on May 9, 1975. Anikushin was devastated. He felt the soul of the monument had been removed.
The \u0410. \u0410. \u041a\u0443\u0437\u043d\u0435\u0446\u043e\u0432\u0443 Plaque is a reminder of the people. It also commemorates the artistic visions that shaped Leningrad. It recalls the dreams and the compromises. The Golden Boy remains a powerful symbol. It is a reminder of the human cost of war. It also symbolizes the hope for future generations.