What historical event is the Bronze Horseman dedicated to? “The image of the monarch appeared in the highest perfection”

The equestrian monument to Peter 1 in St. Petersburg, during its creation and enduring life, acquired so many legends, poems, tales, rituals and secrets that it still excites the unstable consciousness and imagination of tourists, graduates, city residents and foundry sculpture masters. The monument to the Bronze Horseman dedicated to Peter I will tell about these myths, stories and ritual actions associated with the equestrian statue of the autocrat.

History of creation

The order for the creation of an official monument to the founder of the capital on the Neva and “the opener of the window to Europe” Peter I was ripened in the image of Catherine the Great. It is no secret that in the minds of European philosophers - the architects of the future social reforms of that time - she was known as an enlightened monarch. Catherine corresponded and consulted with many of them. The great Voltaire and Diderot advised the Empress to depict the works of a widely unknown creator - the not yet great author Etienne-Maurice Falconet, then he was still creating monumental figures at a porcelain factory in France. But the educators were able to discern his undoubted talent.

Bronze Horseman against the background of the Constitutional Court of Russia

It was not according to the rank of the mistress herself to invite the artist; this was done officially by Prince Golitsyn. Falcone was delighted with the invitation; he had only dreamed of such a level. The task given to the sculptor included one thing: important condition- the equestrian monument to Peter I had to be grandiose in size and amaze any imagination. The second condition was vision Great Catherine The second place of the monument to Peter I is only in the center of Senate Square, so it will be the same and official. The author fulfilled the first condition, abandoned the second and placed Peter in the Bronze Horseman closer to the Neva embankment ( artistic meaning and there was more meaning in this).

For reference! No one cut off the sculptor’s head, and time has proven the creator’s justice. Perhaps the hoarding of financial officials played a role; the pre-agreed cost of payment to the sculptor for the monument to the Bronze Horseman was reduced by half.

The embodiment of the monument model

The idea of ​​Great Catherine II was that the emperor should proudly sit on a horse and raise his scepter to the heavens, demonstrating absolute power to everyone and belittling the audience in front of this power of grandiose facts. The author Falcone managed to promote his concept, where the hand of the monument to Peter I is of a pointing nature, and it is directed towards Sweden and the Baltic. Sweden - as the official symbol of victory over strong enemy Russia, the Baltic - the European choice for the development of the horseman of history.

Who is depicted on the monument to the Bronze Horseman according to official data? In addition to Peter himself, there are two more characters - his horse and the snake he tramples. The prototype of the horse was the stallions of the Oryol breed, which take their roots from Arabian horses. And the Arabian breed has always been distinguished by its slenderness and quick legs, which significantly complicated the practical task for the author, because he needed reliable support monument for the rider. Then an additional fulcrum was used - the horse's tail.

Peter shows the way

The snake represents symbolism, traditionally and officially it is the enemy. According to the plan of the participants in the monument project, this is a victory over inertia, outdated dogmas, and conservatism of thinking, which Peter so impressively brought to life. The artist’s special trick was that the dying snake under the Bronze Horseman is almost invisible to the viewer in the pediment; to see it, you need to go around the pedestal. That is, this is not just an enemy, but a hidden enemy, and he is more dangerous.

Became a city legend in St. Petersburg interesting stories contemporaries. Allegedly, in order to feel the spirit of the ruler, the author stayed overnight in the royal chambers.

Interesting! According to one of the myths, Tsar Peter appeared before the frightened creator on short time and forced him to answer his questions. But the author Falcone passed the exam and received the highest blessing from the autocrat Peter I to create a monument to the horseman of the future.

Falcone's assistant became his student and future wife Marie-Anna Collot. According to history, it was she who managed to embody the head of Peter I on a model. The images of the autocrat's face presented by Falconet were categorically not liked by Empress Catherine II. The author used death mask Peter, but introduced a special subtlety into it - in place of the pupils of the Bronze Horseman, stylized hearts were used.

The powerful female ruler’s feelings floated, and she gave her consent to this option.

Practical difficulties

Another open mystery was the material used to cast the sculpture. This is not only the copper component of the statue, as many people think. It's bronze! The used allegory “The Bronze Horseman” officially belongs to the authorship of A.S. Pushkin in his poem of the same name. Moreover, bronze is heterogeneous in its composition; heavier metals were used at the bottom of the casting, respectively lighter ones - at the top of the Bronze Horseman. This made it possible to shift the center of gravity down and increase the stability of the monument.

Coming up with the concept of an official monument to Peter I, creating it in miniature and using non-durable materials one to one is one thing, but casting a statue of a horseman in metal is another. The author and artist did not possess such competencies, and no one in Russia had ever encountered a task of this level. The process of finding a master was delayed...

Hearts in place of pupils

The Russian master agreed to help the unfortunate Frenchman. Only the author and foundryman of cannons, Emelyan Khailov, agreed to do this. The first casting of the Bronze Horseman failed, the metal filling pipe burst, and a huge fire almost broke out. It was the author Khailov who saved everyone present by throwing his sheepskin coat over the breakthrough, quickly coated in clay, but this did not save the hero himself from burns. The next attempt took place only three years later, and it was successful.

But for a long time they could not find material for the foundation. An official competition was even announced to find him. This was dealt with by the supplier of building stone to the capital, the peasant Semyon Vishnyakov. He found it in Lakhta near St. Petersburg, on the shore of a swamp. By that time, the stone itself already had a self-name - Thunder Stone. According to one version, it was split during a thunderstorm; according to another story, the ancient wise men performed their rituals here to summon Perun and rain.

They also say that even Peter I himself examined his enemies, the Swedes, from it. Whatever the versions, the epic with its delivery began, in which about 500 people participated. The hinged principles of rolling and buoyancy of bodies on water were used. They built something like a huge raft. The journey of the boulder to the pedestal took a year and a half, only then did it begin to be processed on site. For the feat of delivering the stone for the pedestal of the Bronze Horseman, Great Catherine II even established an official medal “Like daring!”

Inscription on the Bronze Horseman

There are two such inscriptions on the monument:

• The first one, in Russian, on the side of the monument reads: “Peter I - Catherine II.”
• The second is in Latin from the other side: Petro Prima - Katarina Secunda.

The path of the stone pedestal for the monument

With the Russian language, everything makes sense - the monument is a gift from an admiring follower. With the inscription in Latin, everything is much more confusing; in meaning and content it turns out that “Peter the First is Catherine the Second.” Be that as it may, Catherine arranged her identity with the great reformer and winner very subtly, in a feminine way.

It is worth noting! The author Falcone himself offered the empress another option: “Peter the Great was erected by Catherine the Second.” But by the time the monument to the Bronze Horseman was commissioned in 1782, the artist was no longer in Russia; he was falsely accused of embezzling government money, and he, offended, left for his homeland.

It is unknown who exactly fulfilled Catherine’s official plan; the completion of the building was supervised by the Russian sculptor and architecture expert Fyodor Gordeev. But the kinship of the glory of Peter I and the Great Catherine II was announced to the whole world, and this happened at the moment when the shields enclosing the monument to the Bronze Horseman fell.

Where is the Bronze Horseman in St. Petersburg

Evil tongues in the 19th century claimed that Peter I, pointing out right hand on the Neva, and with his left elbow on the Senate, the Tsar says to his descendants: “It is better to drown yourself in the Neva than to have a trial in the Senate.” Then the Senate was a symbol of official litigiousness, the dominance of officials and corruption.

Opening of the monument

How many monuments to Peter 1 are there in St. Petersburg

He was the founder of the city, so it is not surprising that the number of figures of the king-reformer here is significant. The most famous and official are six:

• The most popular and famous is the one described above, author - Maurice Falconet.
• Monument with difficult fate, by Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli. The model was made in 1724, cast in 1747, placed on a pedestal and officially opened in 1800. It is notable for the fact that Rastrelli made a model using the king’s wax mask, taken during his lifetime. Therefore, the face is distinguished by portrait accuracy and attracts many viewers. Located at: St. Petersburg, st. Sadovaya, 2 (engineering castle).
• Tsar Carpenter Peter I. Everyone knows the descriptions and apprenticeship of the young autocrat in Holland, according to history - the basics of shipbuilding. Author Leopold Bernstam, in memory of these times, presented a model of the monument at the Paris Exhibition of 1907. Nicholas II liked it, two bronze copies were cast, one was sent to the city of Saardam, where the young tsar studied. The second one is installed in Summer Garden city ​​of St. Petersburg. After the 1917 revolution, the domestic version was melted down. In 1996, the Prince of Orange delivered a copy of the monument to Peter 1 to the St. Petersburg district, it was solemnly and officially installed in its original place - in the city Summer Garden.
• The author Zurab Tsereteli, prone to gigantomania, noted the figures of Peter I not only in Moscow, but also in St. Petersburg. The six-meter sculpture officially greets city guests from the sea side. Address: St. Petersburg, Nakhimova street, near the Park Inn by Radisson hotel, near the Primorskaya metro station.
• The most controversial monument, around which so many copies were broken that wood became in short supply, belongs to the work of the author Mikhail Shemyakin. The proportions of the body of the historical Peter I were intentionally changed, which is what the whole dispute about artistic value was about. It is officially located in the Peter and Paul Fortress of the city of St. Petersburg, and it is easy to find on the map.

Strange king

In the Lower Park of Peterhof there is a bronze Peter I by the author, sculptor and architect Mark Antokolsky. Characterized by solemnity military uniform Preobrazhensky Regiment and the awards received by the Tsar in the history of the country. It is surrounded by green plantings and was officially opened in 1884.

The residents of St. Petersburg themselves consider the Bronze Horseman the guardian of their city; they did not remove him even during the moments of the most brutal shelling and bombing in the history of the Second World War. Patriotic War. They just covered it with a sand glass. And Napoleon did not go here during the First World War, but got to Moscow, this also says a lot. Let him continue to protect the city, everyone will be calmer.

The monument to Peter I ("Bronze Horseman") is located in the center of Senate Square. The author of the sculpture is the French sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconet.
The location of the monument to Peter I was not chosen by chance. Nearby are the Admiralty, the building of the main legislative body founded by the emperor. Tsarist Russia- Senate. Catherine II insisted on placing the monument in the center of Senate Square. The author of the sculpture, Etienne-Maurice Falconet, did his own thing by installing the “Bronze Horseman” closer to the Neva.
By order of Catherine II, Falconet was invited to St. Petersburg by Prince Golitsyn. Professors of the Paris Academy of Painting Diderot and Voltaire, whose taste Catherine II trusted, advised to turn to this master.
Falcone was already fifty years old. He worked for porcelain factory, but dreamed of great and monumental art. When an invitation was received to erect a monument in Russia, Falcone, without hesitation, signed the contract on September 6, 1766. Its conditions determined: the monument to Peter should consist of “mainly an equestrian statue of colossal size.” The sculptor was offered a rather modest fee (200 thousand livres), other masters asked twice as much.

Falconet arrived in St. Petersburg with his seventeen-year-old assistant Marie-Anne Collot.
The vision of the monument to Peter I by the author of the sculpture was strikingly different from the desire of the empress and the majority of the Russian nobility. Catherine II expected to see Peter I with a rod or scepter in his hand, sitting on a horse like a Roman emperor. State Councilor Shtelin saw the figure of Peter surrounded by allegories of Prudence, Diligence, Justice and Victory. I. I. Betskoy, who supervised the construction of the monument, imagined it as a full-length figure, holding a commander’s staff in his hand. Falconet was advised to direct the emperor's right eye to the Admiralty, and his left to the building of the Twelve Colleges. Diderot, who visited St. Petersburg in 1773, conceived a monument in the form of a fountain decorated with allegorical figures.
Falcone had something completely different in mind. He turned out to be stubborn and persistent. The sculptor wrote: “I will limit myself only to the statue of this hero, whom I do not interpret either as a great commander or as a winner, although he, of course, was both. The personality of the creator, legislator, benefactor of his country is much higher, and this is her and it is necessary to show people. My king does not hold any rod, he extends his beneficent right hand over the country he is traveling around. He rises to the top of the rock that serves as his pedestal - this is an emblem of the difficulties he has conquered.”

Defending the right to his opinion regarding the appearance of the monument, Falcone wrote to I. I. Betsky: “Could you imagine that a sculptor chosen to create such a significant monument would be deprived of the ability to think and that the movements of his hands would be controlled by someone else’s head, not his? your own?"
Disputes also arose around the clothes of Peter I. The sculptor wrote to Diderot: “You know that I will not dress him in the Roman style, just as I would not dress Julius Caesar or Scipio in the Russian style.”
Above the model of the monument in life size Falcone worked for three years. Work on "The Bronze Horseman" was carried out on the site of the former temporary Winter Palace Elizaveta Petrovna. In 1769, passersby could watch here as a guards officer took off on a horse onto a wooden platform and reared it. This went on for several hours a day. Falcone sat at the window in front of the platform and carefully sketched what he saw. The horses for work on the monument were taken from the imperial stables: the horses Brilliant and Caprice. The sculptor chose the Russian “Oryol” breed for the monument.

Falconet's student Marie-Anne Collot sculpted the head of the Bronze Horseman. The sculptor himself took on this work three times, but each time Catherine II advised to remake the model. Marie herself proposed her sketch, which was accepted by the empress. For her work, the girl was accepted as a member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Catherine II assigned her a lifelong pension of 10,000 livres.

The snake under the horse’s foot was sculpted by the Russian sculptor F. G. Gordeev.
Preparing the life-size plaster model of the monument took twelve years; it was ready by 1778. The model was open for public viewing in the workshop on the corner of Brick Lane and Bolshaya Morskaya Street. Various opinions were expressed. The Chief Prosecutor of the Synod resolutely did not accept the project. Diderot was pleased with what he saw. Catherine II turned out to be indifferent to the model of the monument - she did not like Falcone’s arbitrariness in choosing the appearance of the monument.
For a long time no one wanted to take on the task of casting the statue. Foreign masters demanded too much a large amount, and local craftsmen were frightened by its size and complexity of work. According to the sculptor's calculations, in order to maintain the balance of the monument, the front walls of the monument had to be made very thin - no more than a centimeter. Even a specially invited foundry worker from France refused such work. He called Falcone crazy and said that there was no such example of casting in the world, that it would not succeed.
Finally, a foundry worker was found - cannon master Emelyan Khailov. Together with him, Falcone selected the alloy and made samples. In three years, the sculptor mastered casting to perfection. They began casting the Bronze Horseman in 1774.

The technology was very complex. The thickness of the front walls had to be less than the thickness of the rear ones. At the same time, the back part became heavier, which gave stability to the statue, which rested on only three points of support.
Filling the statue alone was not enough. During the first, the pipe through which hot bronze was supplied to the mold burst. The upper part of the sculpture was damaged. I had to cut it down and prepare for the second filling for another three years. This time the job was a success. In memory of her, on one of the folds of Peter I’s cloak, the sculptor left the inscription “Sculpted and cast by Etienne Falconet, a Parisian in 1778.”
The St. Petersburg Gazette wrote about these events: “On August 24, 1775, Falcone cast a statue of Peter the Great on horseback here. The casting was successful except in places two feet by two at the top. This regrettable failure occurred due to an incident that could have been foreseen, and therefore prevented it was not at all. The above-mentioned incident seemed so terrible that they feared that the entire building would catch fire, and, therefore, that the whole business would not fail and carried the molten metal into the mold, without losing his courage in the face of the danger presented to him. life. Falconet, touched by such courage at the end of the case, rushed to him and kissed him with all his heart and gave him money from himself.”
According to the sculptor’s plan, the base of the monument is a natural rock in the shape of a wave. The shape of the wave serves as a reminder that it was Peter I who led Russia to the sea. The Academy of Arts began searching for the monolith stone when the model of the monument was not yet ready. A stone was needed whose height would be 11.2 meters.
The granite monolith was found in the Lakhta region, twelve miles from St. Petersburg. Once upon a time, according to local legends, lightning struck the rock, forming a crack in it. Among local residents The rock was called "Thunder Stone". That’s what they later began to call it when they installed it on the banks of the Neva under famous monument.
The initial weight of the monolith is about 2000 tons. Catherine II announced a reward of 7,000 rubles to the one who comes up with the most effective method deliver the rock to Senate Square. From many projects, the method proposed by a certain Carbury was chosen. There were rumors that he had bought this project from some Russian merchant.
A clearing was cut from the location of the stone to the shore of the bay and the soil was strengthened. The rock was freed from excess layers, and it immediately became lighter by 600 tons. The thunder-stone was hoisted with levers onto a wooden platform resting on copper balls. These balls moved on grooved wooden rails lined with copper. The clearing was winding. Work on transporting the rock continued in both cold and hot weather. Hundreds of people worked. Many St. Petersburg residents came to watch this action. Some of the observers collected fragments of stone and used them to make cane knobs or cufflinks. In honor of the extraordinary transport operation, Catherine II ordered the minting of a medal with the inscription “Like daring. January 20, 1770.”
The rock was dragged overland for almost a year. Further along the Gulf of Finland it was transported on a barge. During transportation, dozens of stonemasons gave it the necessary shape. The rock arrived at Senate Square on September 23, 1770.

By the time the monument to Peter I was erected, the relationship between the sculptor and the imperial court had completely deteriorated. It got to the point that Falcone was credited with only a technical attitude towards the monument. The offended master did not wait for the opening of the monument; in September 1778, together with Marie-Anne Collot, he left for Paris.
The installation of the Bronze Horseman on the pedestal was supervised by the architect F. G. Gordeev.
Grand opening monument to Peter I took place on August 7, 1782 (old style). The sculpture was hidden from the eyes of observers by a canvas fence with the image mountain landscapes. It had been raining since the morning, but it did not stop a significant number of people from gathering on Senate Square. By noon the clouds had cleared. The guards entered the square. The military parade was led by Prince A. M. Golitsyn. At four o'clock, Empress Catherine II herself arrived on the boat. She climbed onto the balcony of the Senate building in a crown and purple and gave a sign for the opening of the monument. The fence fell under drum roll The regiments moved along the Neva embankment.
By order of Catherine II, the following is inscribed on the pedestal: “Catherine II to Peter I.” Thus, the Empress emphasized her commitment to Peter's reforms.
Immediately after the appearance of the Bronze Horseman on Senate Square, the square was named Petrovskaya.
A. S. Pushkin called the sculpture “The Bronze Horseman” in his poem of the same name. This expression has become so popular that it has become almost official. And the monument to Peter I itself became one of the symbols of St. Petersburg.
The weight of the "Bronze Horseman" is 8 tons, the height is more than 5 meters.
During the siege of Leningrad, the Bronze Horseman was covered with bags of earth and sand, lined with logs and boards.
Restorations of the monument took place in 1909 and 1976. During the last of them, the sculpture was studied using gamma rays. To do this, the space around the monument was fenced off with sandbags and concrete blocks. The cobalt gun was controlled from a nearby bus. Thanks to this research, it turned out that the frame of the monument can still serve long years. Inside the figure was a capsule with a note about the restoration and its participants, a newspaper dated September 3, 1976.
Currently, the Bronze Horseman is a popular place for newlyweds.
Etienne-Maurice Falconet conceived The Bronze Horseman without a fence. But it was still created and has not survived to this day. “Thanks to” the vandals who leave their autographs on the thunder stone and the sculpture itself, the idea of ​​restoring the fence may soon be realized.

The poem “The Bronze Horseman” was written by Pushkin in 1833 in Boldino. The poem, consisting of an introduction and two chapters, does not pass the tsarist censorship and was published with cuts after the death of the poet. The censorship notes (nine of them) made by Nicholas I, which were never fully processed by A.S. Pushkin, have been preserved. These marks required distortion of the author's intention, so initially Pushkin simply refused to print the poem, although he really needed money.

She combines two topics: personality and people and the theme " little man». In this poem, two forces are contrasted in figurative form: the state, personified in the image of Peter I (and then in the symbolic image of the revived monument, the “Bronze Horseman”) and the common man in his personal, partial interests and experiences. The poem has a subtitle – « Petersburg story" He points to the same two themes: historical and majestic, and also the theme of the common man.

This is followed by the preface: “The incident described in this story is based on truth. Details of the flood are taken from magazines of the time.” Pushkin describes the flood that occurred in St. Petersburg in 1824 At the place where it was built, the elements reigned: wind and water, but it was here that Tsar Peter decided to build a new capital. In spite of nature, the city rises “magnificently, proudly.” It would seem that nothing will remind us of the chaos that once reigned here: “the Neva is dressed in granite,” “bridges hang over the waters.” Everything around speaks of the triumph of man over the forces of nature, but this impression is deceptive: during floods, St. Petersburg appears not as a winner, but as a kind of accomplice to the elements. The “Introduction” outlines the main principle of depicting the city - contrast. In the first part, the appearance of St. Petersburg changes; it is no longer a lush “young city”, but “darkened Petrograd”. The city turns into a fortress, besieged by the Neva. The Neva is also part of the city. Trouble comes as if from within, the city itself takes itself by storm; everything that was unworthy of depiction comes out. Pushkin compares how it was - empty, poor, gloomy, lonely and how it became - cramped, rich, beautiful, noisy, crowded.

In the introduction The poem creates a majestic image of Peter I, who glorified his name with many glorious deeds. “From the darkness of the forests” and “topi blat” he creates a beautiful city. At the beginning of the poem: before us is the personality of the creator, legislator, benefactor of his country, doer of great deeds. Peter thinks about Russia’s power to “cut a window into Europe.” This is a visionary statesman. This is a great man.

St. Petersburg was the personification of the power and glory of Russia. “To spite the arrogant neighbor” Peter I strengthened Russian state on the shores of the Baltic Sea, etc. The introduction ends with a hymn to Peter and St. Petersburg: Show off, city of Petrov, and stand invincible, like Russia. The main part of the poem tells about life contemporary to Pushkin. St. Petersburg is still as beautiful as it was under Peter. But the poet also sees another image of the capital. This city marks a sharp boundary between " strongmen of the world this” and ordinary residents. St. Petersburg is a city of contrasts, where “little people” live and suffer. One of these people is Evgeniy is the hero of the work . It is described in the first part of the poem. This is an “ordinary man.” He is a descendant of the glorious and, but now an ordinary Russian man in the street. Evgeniy is an ordinary minor employee. He receives a tiny salary and dreams of rising to the rank of “shtetl.” In addition, the hero also has personal plans: to find quiet family happiness with the girl Parasha, who is as poor as the hero himself. She lives with her mother in a “dilapidated house” on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. But a terrible flood begins, destroying everything in its path. It destroys houses, deprives people of shelter, warmth and even life: Evgeniy worries about his girlfriend Parasha. Their dilapidated house should be washed away by the waves of the Neva first. At the end of the first part, the hero seems to see this disaster. And above everything, calmly and majestically, rises the monument to Peter. The entire first part is a picture of a national disaster, and it is at this moment that the figure of an “idol on a bronze horse” first appears, who is imperturbable, unlike a living king, powerless to resist the elements.

The Bronze Horseman, and Peter 1 is meant, acquires not human traits, but the traits of a “lord of fate” - traits of power and evil, formidable force. The cruelty and indifference of the ruler is shown. Second part of the poem draws the consequences of a flood. For Evgeny they are scary. The hero loses everything: his beloved girl, shelter, hopes for happiness. The distraught Evgeniy believes that the culprit of his tragedy is The Bronze Horseman - a double of Peter himself. In his frustrated imagination, the Bronze Horseman is a “proud idol”, “by whose fateful will the city was founded here”, who “reined iron Russia reared up,” “he’s terrible.”

Memories of the tragedy on the flooded “Petrovskaya Square” turn Evgeniy, filled with hatred and indignation, into a rebel: But Evgeniy’s rebellion is only a flash, completely meaningless. The fight with the Bronze Horseman is insane and hopeless: until the morning he pursues the unfortunate Eugene through the streets and squares of St. Petersburg. Our hero dies near his fiancee's house, which he found while wandering madly around the city. Petersburg appears as a stronghold of Russian autocracy, as the center of autocracy, and it is hostile to man. Pushkin seems to emphasize that a city, forcibly built on this site contrary to the smooth flow of history, even if it stands, its inhabitants will have to pay for the fact that the founder practically went against the laws of nature. And then nature, in turn, will go against man. And the image of the horseman is not accidental, the horseman is fate... This unjust autocratic structure of the state persecutes. The Bronze Horseman is the personification of the autocratic system, in which a person is unhappy...

The image of Peter is contradictory and complex. On the one hand, Peter is presented in the poem as a great statesman, which Pushkin finds understanding and support. But the progressive meaning of its construction turns out to be the death of a poor, simple person who has the right to happiness under the conditions of an autocratic state. Peter did a great and necessary thing, but innocent people suffered. With his poem, Pushkin wanted to say that the price of Peter’s reforms was too great for the common people, all the burdens of innovations fell on his shoulders. Eugene, a little man, protests against the great miracle worker, the holder of the “half world”, but his protest is weak, he cannot solve anything!

Falcone E. M.

Monument to Peter I (" Bronze Horseman") is located in the center of Senate Square. The author of the sculpture is the French sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconet.

The location of the monument to Peter I was not chosen by chance. Nearby are the Admiralty, founded by the emperor, and the building of the main legislative body of Tsarist Russia - the Senate. Catherine II insisted on placing the monument in the center of Senate Square. The author of the sculpture, Etienne-Maurice Falconet, did his own thing by installing the “Bronze Horseman” closer to the Neva.

By order of Catherine II, Falconet was invited to St. Petersburg by Prince Golitsyn. Professors of the Paris Academy of Painting Diderot and Voltaire, whose taste Catherine II trusted, advised to turn to this master.

Falcone was already fifty years old. Before his trip to Russia, he was known as the author of such publicly recognized sculptural works as “Milon of Croton tearing apart the mouth of a lion”, eight sculptures for the Church of St. Roch, “Cupid”, “Bather”, “Pygmalion and Galatea”, “Winter”. He worked at a porcelain factory, but dreamed of great and monumental art.

When an invitation was received to Russia to erect a new grandiose monument in its capital, Falcone, without hesitation, signed the contract in August 1766. Its conditions determined: the monument to Peter should consist of “mainly an equestrian statue of colossal size.” The sculptor was obliged to create a sketch of the composition and complete the monument in kind. At the same time, he was freed from any other orders. The sculptor was offered a rather modest fee (200,000 livres), other masters asked twice as much.

Falconet went from Paris to St. Petersburg, accompanied by the sculptor-carver Fontaine and a seventeen-year-old student, Marie-Anne Collot. To meet Falconet in Riga and accompany him to the capital, the captain of the regiment of the Chancellery from the buildings, M. de Lascari, was sent. Subsequently, he constantly collaborated with the Frenchman and played an important role in the creation of the monument to Peter I.

The vision of the monument to Peter I by the author of the sculpture was strikingly different from the desire of the empress and the majority of the Russian nobility. Catherine II expected to see Peter I with a rod or scepter in his hand, sitting on a horse like a Roman emperor. State Councilor Shtelin saw the figure of Peter surrounded by allegories of Prudence, Diligence, Justice and Victory. I. I. Betskoy, who supervised the construction of the monument, imagined it as a full-length figure, holding a commander’s staff in his hand. Falconet was advised to direct the emperor's right eye to the Admiralty, and his left to the building of the Twelve Colleges. Diderot, who visited St. Petersburg in 1773, conceived a monument in the form of a fountain decorated with allegorical figures.

Falcone had something completely different in mind. In a letter to Diderot, he mentioned the origin of the idea of ​​a monument to Peter I:

"The day when on the corner of your table I sketched the hero and his steed overcoming the emblematic rock, and you were pleased with my idea, we did not realize that I would meet my hero so successfully. He will not see his statue; but if he could to see her, I believe that he, perhaps, would have found there a reflection of a feeling that would have revived her" [Quoted. from: 2, p. 457].

Despite pressure from the customer, the French sculptor showed stubbornness and perseverance on the way to realizing his idea. The sculptor wrote:

“I will limit myself only to the statue of this hero, whom I do not interpret either as a great commander or as a winner, although he, of course, was both. The personality of the creator, legislator, benefactor of his country is much higher, and this is what needs to be shown people. My king does not hold any rod, he extends his beneficent right hand over the country he travels around. He rises to the top of the rock that serves him as a pedestal - this is an emblem of the difficulties he has conquered.”

Defending the right to his opinion regarding the appearance of the monument, Falcone wrote to I. I. Betsky:

“Could you imagine that the sculptor chosen to create such a significant monument would be deprived of the ability to think and that the movements of his hands would be controlled by someone else’s head, and not his own?”

Disputes also arose around the clothes of Peter I. The sculptor wrote to Diderot:

“You know that I will not dress him in Roman style, just as I would not dress Julius Caesar or Scipio in Russian.”

Falcone worked on the model of The Bronze Horseman for three years. It was carried out in the workshop of a sculptor who lived in the house of Major General Albrecht (house no. 8 on Malaya Morskaya Street). In the courtyard of this house one could observe how a guards officer took off on a horse onto a wooden platform and reared it. This went on for several hours a day. Falcone sat at the window in front of the platform and carefully sketched what he saw. The horses for work on the monument were taken from the imperial stables: the horses Brilliant and Caprice. The sculptor chose the Russian “Oryol” breed for the monument. Falcone described this part of the work as follows:

“When I decided to sculpt him, how he completes his gallop, rearing, it was not in my memory, still less in my imagination, that I could rely on it. To create an accurate model, I consulted nature. This I ordered to build a platform, to which I gave the same slope that my pedestal was supposed to have. A few inches more or less in slope would make significant changes in the movement of the animal. I made the rider gallop 1st - not just once, but more than a hundred times. , 2nd - using various techniques, 3rd - on different horses"[Quoted from: 2, p. 459].

In February 1767, the Office of the Construction of Houses and Gardens ordered the dismantling of the Temporary Winter Palace on Nevsky Prospect to begin to make way for Falcone's workshop, where he would begin casting the sculpture. To create a real large model, a large workshop was built. The stone building of the former palace kitchen remaining from the Temporary Winter Palace was adapted for Falconet's housing, into which the sculptor moved in November and lived until his departure to France. Next to his state-owned house, the Frenchman ordered the construction of another barn and other necessary workshops.

To assist in the work on a large model of the monument to Peter I, two more were sent to Falcone in St. Petersburg on the recommendation of Diderot French sculptors- Simone and Vandadrissa. But the hot-tempered master could not find common language with his assistants, drove them away, and remade everything they had done with his own hands. Work on the model began on February 1, 1768, and was completed in July 1769. Until the following May, it was transferred to plaster and finished.

From May 19, for two weeks, the model of the monument to Peter I was open to public viewing. A crowd of people poured into Falcone's workshop. A variety of opinions were expressed about the model. Catherine II advised Falkton, who reacted painfully to criticism: “Laugh at the fools and go your own way.” But positive feedback there was much more. Among those who highly appreciated the sculptor’s work were the French envoy de Corberon, the English traveler N. Rexel, the teacher of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich A. Nikolai, Falconet’s teacher, the sculptor J.-B. Lemoine, to whom a student sent a small model of the monument.

Falconet's student Marie-Anne Collot sculpted the head of the Bronze Horseman. The sculptor himself took on this work three times, but each time Catherine II advised to remake the model. A scandal was brewing, but Marie herself proposed her sketch, which was accepted by the empress. For her work, the girl was accepted as a member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Catherine II assigned her a lifelong pension of 10,000 livres.

According to the sculptor’s plan, the base of the monument is a natural rock in the shape of a wave. The shape of the wave serves as a reminder that it was Peter I who led Russia to the sea. The Academy of Arts began searching for the monolith stone when the model of the monument was not yet ready. A stone was needed whose height would be 11.2 meters.

Initially, Falconet did not even dream of a monolith, intending to create a pedestal from several parts. But the granite monolith was still found in the Lakhta region, twelve miles from St. Petersburg. The peasant Semyon Grigorievich Vishnyakov reported the discovery to the building's Office in early September 1768. To check the suitability of the stone, de Lascari went to him together with Vishnyakov, who discovered a huge rock buried deep in the ground. From its nearly half-meter-wide crevice, filled with earth, grew five birches up to seven meters high. According to local legends, lightning once struck the rock. Among the locals it was nicknamed "Thunder Stone". For the find, the building office awarded Vishnyakov a prize of 100 rubles.

Upon returning to St. Petersburg, de Lascari prepared rough plan transporting stone to the city. He also came up with the idea of ​​​​creating a pedestal from a single stone, which was confirmed by Falcone himself:

"I believed that this pedestal would be constructed from well-fitted parts, and the models of all the profiles that I made remained long enough in my workshop to testify that the monolithic stone was far from my desires. But they offered it to me, I admired it, and I said: bring it, the pedestal will be more durable" [Cit. from: 2, p. 463].

The initial weight of the monolith is about 2,000 tons. Catherine II announced a reward of 7,000 rubles to the one who comes up with the most effective way to deliver the rock to Senate Square. Of the many projects, the method proposed by the same de Lascari was chosen. True, there were rumors among the people that he had bought the idea from some Russian merchant. But Falcone wrote to Catherine II:

“G. Lascari alone invented the means and invented the machine for transferring the rock, which should serve as the foot of the statue, he directed alone, without the slightest participation of anyone other than him” [Cit. from: 2, p. 464].

Work to prepare the rock for moving began on September 26, 1768. Barracks for 400 workers were built next to it, and then a clearing 40 meters wide was cut to the shore of the Gulf of Finland. Next, they excavated a rock that went five meters deep into the earth. The part that had been broken off by the lightning strike was separated from it and divided into two more parts. The rock was freed from excess layers, and it immediately became lighter by 600 tons.

On March 12, 1769, the “thunder stone” was hoisted onto a wooden platform using levers. Further work to strengthen the soil was carried out in the summer of 1769. With the onset of winter, when the paved road froze one and a half meters, the rock was lifted with the help of huge jacks, the platform was replaced with a special machine created specifically for transporting such an unusual cargo. The machine was a platform supported by 30 metal balls. These balls moved on grooved wooden rails lined with copper.

Initially, the balls were made of cast iron. They laughed at de Lascari, not believing in the possibility of “moving a rock with the help of eggs.” And they laughed not without reason, since the cast-iron balls actually crushed under the weight of the load. But the bronze parts cast after this coped with the task.

The movement of the rock began on November 15th. The clearing was winding. Cargo transportation continued in both cold and hot weather. Hundreds of people worked. There was a forge right on the stone where the necessary tools were prepared.

48 stonemasons continued to give the “thunder stone” the required shape. According to Falconet's calculations, its height should have decreased by 80 centimeters and its length by 3 meters. A little later, he ordered another layer of 80 centimeters to be chipped from it. It began to seem to many that the rock, which had been moved with such difficulty to St. Petersburg, would turn into an ordinary pedestal of the usual size. Catherine II decided to moderate the sculptor’s ardor and prohibited further reduction of the stone. As a result, its length was 13.5 meters, width 6.5 meters, height - 4. The work on cutting the “thunder stone” was carried out under the supervision of stone master Giovanni Geronimo Rusca.

Many St. Petersburg residents came to watch the action taking place. Some of the observers collected fragments of stone and used them to make cane knobs or cufflinks. On January 20, 1770, Catherine II also came here, in whose presence the rock was moved 25 meters. In honor of the extraordinary transport operation, the Empress ordered the minting of a medal on which was written “Like daring. January 20, 1770.”

The rock was dragged overland until March 27. By this time, a dam had been built on the shore of the bay, extending almost 900 meters into the shallow water. Only there it was possible to reload the rock onto a special flat-bottomed vessel - a pram, capable of transporting cargo weighing more than 2,500 tons. At the dam, the ship was sank to the bottom to a depth of 3.5 meters, after which the stone was loaded. When trying to raise the ship, only its bow and stern rose from the water. The middle remained lying at the bottom under the weight of the “thunder stone”. The Pram had to be flooded again, which again provided fertile ground for de Lascaris' opponents. All summer, attempts to lift the load continued, ending in success only after de Lascari found another successful engineering solution to the problem. He proposed placing two thick longitudinal beams under the stone, which would distribute the weight of the rock evenly throughout the ship. Only after this did the pram finally surface.

Pram moved across the Gulf of Finland with the help of 300 oarsmen. He sailed along the Malaya Neva between Vasilyevsky and St. Petersburg Islands and then entered the Bolshaya Neva. On September 22, the anniversary of the coronation of Catherine II, the pram was located opposite the Winter Palace. The next day, September 23, 1770, the rock arrived at Senate Square. On October 11, the “thunder stone” was moved 43 meters overland, turning into a pedestal for the monument to Peter I. In the summer of 1768, a foundation of 76 piles was built here.

The poet Vasily Rubin wrote in the same year:

For a long time, no one wanted to take on the task of casting the statue. Foreign craftsmen demanded too much money, and local craftsmen were frightened by its size and complexity of work. According to the sculptor's calculations, in order to maintain the balance of the monument, the front walls of the monument had to be made very thin - no more than a centimeter. Even the specially invited foundry worker from France, B. Ersman, refused such work. He called Falcone crazy and said that there was no such example of casting in the world, that it would not succeed.

Catherine II recommended Falconet to take up the casting himself. In the end, the sculptor studied the relevant literature and accepted the empress's offer. He took cannon master Emelyan Khailov as his assistant. Together with him, Falcone selected the alloy and made samples. In three years, the sculptor mastered casting to perfection. They began casting the Bronze Horseman in 1774.

Before this, in March 1773, de Lascari resigned. Falcone was very disappointed by the dismissal of de Lascari and asked Catherine II to return the talented engineer to her team. But the empress was so turned against him that the sculptor’s intercession turned out to be useless. Architect Yu. M. Felten and assessor K. Krok were appointed to replace de Lascari.

The technology was very complex. The thickness of the front walls had to be less than the thickness of the rear ones. At the same time, the back part became heavier, which gave stability to the statue, which rested on only three points of support.

Filling the statue alone was not enough. During the first, the pipe through which hot bronze was supplied to the mold burst. The upper part of the sculpture was damaged. I had to cut it down and prepare for the second filling for another three years.

The St. Petersburg Gazette wrote about these events:

“On August 24, 1775, Falconet cast here the statue of Peter the Great on horseback. The casting was successful except in places two feet by two at the top. This regrettable failure occurred due to an incident that was not at all possible to foresee, and therefore to prevent. The above-mentioned incident seemed so terrible , that they were afraid that the whole building would not catch fire, and, therefore, the whole business would not fail. Khailov remained motionless and carried the molten metal into the mold, without losing his cheerfulness at all, given the danger to his life, Falconet was touched by such courage at the end of the case. rushed to him and kissed him with all his heart and gave him money from himself.”

The second casting took place on July 4, 1777. Subsequent finishing of the monument continued for another year. About these events, on one of the folds of Peter I’s cloak, the sculptor left the inscription “Sculpted and cast by Etienne Falconet, a Parisian in 1778.”

The failure to cast the statue and subsequent delays in correcting it spoiled the relationship between the empress and the sculptor. Falcone promised Catherine several times to complete the work in the near future, but constantly broke his promises. Watchmaker A. Sandots, who was then restoring the clock in the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral after a fire, was invited to help the Frenchman. Sandontz carefully minted the surface of the monument, essentially doing the work of a sculptor.

It was never possible to restore the favor of Empress Falcone. His stay in St. Petersburg became more and more painful for him. At the beginning of September 1778, he destroyed a small model of the monument and, together with Marie-Anne Collot, left the city. Subsequently, he did not create any more sculptures.

Under Felten's guidance, the pedestal was given its final form. The installation of the Bronze Horseman on the pedestal was supervised by the architect F. G. Gordeev. After that, the horseman’s head was attached to the sculpture, and a snake made by Gordeev was placed under the horse’s feet.

By order of Catherine II, the following is inscribed on the pedestal: “Catherine II to Peter I.” Thus, the Empress emphasized her commitment to Peter's reforms.

The grand opening of the monument to Peter I took place on August 7, 1782 (old style). The sculpture was hidden from the eyes of observers by a canvas fence depicting mountain landscapes. It had been raining since the morning, but it did not stop a significant number of people from gathering on Senate Square. By noon the clouds had cleared. The guards entered the square. The military parade was led by Prince A. M. Golitsyn. At four o'clock, Empress Catherine II herself arrived on the boat. She climbed onto the balcony of the Senate building in a crown and purple and gave the signal for the opening of the monument. The fence fell, and to the beat of drums the regiments moved along the Neva embankment.

On the occasion of the opening of the monument, the Empress issued a manifesto on the forgiveness of all those sentenced to death. death penalty and corporal punishment, termination of all criminal cases that lasted more than 10 years, release of all those held in custody for more than 10 years for public and private debts. The tax farmer I. I. Golikov was then released from debt prison, who vowed to collect materials for the history of Peter the Great. So, after many years of searching, a 30-volume work, “The Acts of Peter the Great,” appeared.

In memory of the opening of the monument, a silver medal with his image was issued. Three copies of this medal were made of gold. Catherine II sent one gold and one silver medal to Falconet, who received them from the hands of Prince D. A. Golitsyn in 1783.

Immediately after the appearance of the Bronze Horseman on Senate Square, the square was named Petrovskaya. This is what it was called in official documents. But in words, the townspeople often continued to call the square the old way - Senate Square.

The monument to Peter I was immediately received very positively by many St. Petersburg residents. Prince Trubetskoy wrote to his daughter:

“The monument to Peter the Great has made a great decoration for the city, and this is the third time I’ve been touring it and I still can’t get enough of it. I went to Vasilyevsky Island on purpose, and it’s absolutely good to look at it from there” [Quoted. from: 1, p. 36].

A. S. Pushkin called the sculpture “The Bronze Horseman” in his poem of the same name. Meanwhile, in fact it is made of bronze. But the expression “Bronze Horseman” became so popular that it became almost official. And the monument to Peter I itself became one of the symbols of St. Petersburg.

The weight of the "Bronze Horseman" is 8 tons, the height is more than 5 meters.

The monument to Peter I was the site of official ceremonies related to the anniversary of the city and its founder. On May 16, 1803, next to it, on Senate Square, there was solemn ceremony celebration of the 100th anniversary of St. Petersburg. A 107-year-old elder who remembered the emperor came to the monument. 20 soldiers marched past the bronze Peter. A special military duty post for soldiers was established at the monument. It remained on Senate Square until it was in the Navy Department. With the transfer of the post in 1866 to the city department, it was abolished.

A fence was installed around the monument. A little later, four candelabra were placed in the corners. Two of them were moved to Kazanskaya Square in 1874, by order of the City Duma.

On May 30, 1872, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Peter I was solemnly celebrated at the Bronze Horseman. By decree of Alexander II, festivities were held throughout Russia. In St. Petersburg, the boot of Peter I was brought to the monument, a solemn prayer service and a military parade were held. On this occasion, benches for spectators were installed on Senate Square. There weren't enough places; the curious used the windows of the Senate building. People even climbed onto the roof.

The first restoration of the monument was carried out in 1909. The commission created for this purpose drew up a protocol according to which “When opening a large sealed hole in the horse’s croup, it turned out that in the hind legs there was a solid forged frame, carefully sealed, as a result of which water did not penetrate into it and remained in the horse’s belly”[Cit. from: 1, p. 48]. 125 buckets of water were pumped out of the horse's belly.

During the siege of Leningrad, the Bronze Horseman was covered with bags of earth and sand, lined with logs and boards.

During the restoration of the Bronze Horseman in 1976, the sculpture was studied using gamma rays. To do this, the space around the monument was fenced off with sandbags and concrete blocks. The cobalt gun was controlled from a nearby bus. Thanks to this research, it turned out that the frame of the monument can serve for many years to come. Inside the figure was a capsule with a note about the restoration and its participants, a newspaper dated September 3, 1976.

Before the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the monument was once again restored. The sculpture was cleaned of patina, and a low fence was installed around the monument.

IN Soviet time A tradition has taken root according to which newlyweds lay flowers at the foot of the “Bronze Horseman” - the founder of St. Petersburg. Sometimes it is observed in our time.

Etienne-Maurice Falconet conceived The Bronze Horseman without a fence. But it was still created and has not survived to this day. “Thanks to” the vandals who leave their autographs on the thunder stone and the sculpture itself, the idea of ​​restoring the fence may soon be realized.

“The Bronze Horseman” by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (1799 - 1837) is a poem or poetic story. In it, the poet combines philosophical, social and historical issues. “The Bronze Horseman” is, at the same time, an ode to the great St. Petersburg and its creator Peter I, and an attempt to determine the place of the common man in history, and reflections on the hierarchy of the world order.

History of creation

"The Bronze Horseman", written like "Eugene Onegin" in iambic tetrameter, became the last poem Pushkin. Its creation dates back to 1833 and the poet’s stay on the Boldino estate.

The poem was read by the chief censor Russian Empire Nicholas I and was banned from publication by him. Nevertheless, in 1834, Pushkin published almost the entire poem in the “Library for Reading,” omitting only the verses crossed out by the Emperor. The publication took place under the title “Petersburg. Excerpt from the poem."

In its original form, The Bronze Horseman was published in 1904.

Description of the work

The introduction paints a majestic image of Peter I, who created a beautiful new city on the banks of the Neva - the pride of the Russian Empire. Pushkin calls him the best city peace and glorifies the greatness of St. Petersburg and its creator.

Evgeny, an ordinary resident of St. Petersburg, a petty employee. He is in love with the girl Parasha and is going to marry her. Parasha lives in wooden house on the outskirts of the city. When the historic flood of 1824 begins, their house is washed away first and the girl dies. The image of the flood was given by Pushkin with an eye to historical evidence from magazines of that time. The entire city was washed away, many were killed. And only the monument to Peter proudly rises above St. Petersburg.

Evgeny is crushed by what happened. He blames Peter for the terrible flood, who built the city in such an inappropriate place. Having lost his mind, the young man rushes around the city until dawn, trying to escape the pursuit of the bronze horseman. In the morning he finds himself at the destroyed house of his bride and dies there.

Main characters

Eugene

The main character of the poem, Eugene, is not described by Pushkin with detailed accuracy. The poet writes about him “a metropolitan citizen, the kind you meet in darkness,” thereby emphasizing that his hero belongs to the type of little man. Pushkin only stipulates that Evgeny lives in Kolomna and traces his history back to a once famous noble family, which has now lost its greatness and fortune.

Pushkin pays much more attention inner world and the aspirations of his hero. Evgeniy is hardworking and dreams of providing for himself and his fiancée Parasha with his work. decent life for many years.

The death of his beloved becomes an insurmountable test for Eugene and he loses his mind. Description of Pushkin the insane young man full of pity and compassion. Despite the humiliation of the image, the poet shows his hero human compassion and sees in his simple desires and their collapse a true tragedy.

Bronze Horseman (monument to Peter I)

The second hero of the poem can be called the Bronze Horseman. The attitude towards Peter I as a global personality, a genius, slips throughout the entire poem. In the introduction, Pushkin does not mention the name of the creator of St. Petersburg, calling Peter “he.” Pushkin gives Peter the power to command the elements and bind them with his own sovereign will. Moving the action forward a century, Pushkin replaces the image of the Creator with the image of a copper statue, which “raised Russia on its hind legs with an iron bridle.” In the author’s attitude towards Peter I, two points are observed: admiration for the will, courage, and tenacity of the first Russian Emperor, as well as horror and powerlessness before this superman. Pushkin puts here important question: how to determine the mission of Peter I - the savior or tyrant of Russia?

Another historical figure also appears in the work - the “late emperor,” that is, Alexander I. With his image, the author strives to bring his poem closer to documentary.

Analysis of the work

“The Bronze Horseman”, despite its small scale (about 500 verses), connects several narrative plans at once. Here history and modernity, reality and fiction meet, details privacy and documentary chronicles.

The poem cannot be called historical. The image of Peter I is far from the image of a historical figure. Moreover, Pushkin sees in the Petrine era not so much the time of Peter’s reign, but rather its continuation into the future and its results in the modern world for him. The poet examines the first Russian emperor through the prism of the recent flood of November 1824.

The flood and the events described in connection with it constitute the main outline of the narrative, which can be called historical. It is based on documentary materials, which Pushkin discusses in the Preface to the poem. The flood itself becomes the main plot of the conflict in the poem.

The conflict itself can be divided into two levels. The first of them is factual - this is the death of the main character’s bride in the house demolished by the waters, as a result of which he goes crazy. In a broader sense, the conflict involves two sides, such as the city and the elements. In the introduction, Peter fetters the elements with his will, building the city of Petersburg on the swamps. In the main part of the poem, the elements break out and sweep away the city.

In the historical context, there is a fictional story, the center of which is a simple St. Petersburg resident Evgeniy. The rest of the city's inhabitants are indistinguishable: they walk the streets, drown in the flood, and are indifferent to Eugene's suffering in the second part of the poem. The description of the inhabitants of St. Petersburg and the ordinary course of its life, as well as the description of the flood, is very detailed and imaginative. Here Pushkin demonstrates the true mastery of his poetic style and command of language.

The events around Eugene are described by Pushkin with documentary space. The poet precisely mentions where the hero is at various moments of the action: Senate Square, Petrov Square, the outskirts of St. Petersburg. Such precision in relation to the details of the urban landscape allows us to call Pushkin’s work one of the first urban poems of Russian literature.

There is another important plan in the work, which can be called mythological. In its center is dominated by the statue of Peter, which Eugene curses for the flood that occurred and which chases the hero through the streets of the city. IN last episode the city moves from real space to conventional space, reaching the limits of reality.

An interesting thought slips into the poem at the moment the “late emperor” appears on the balcony, who is unable to cope with the elements that are destroying the city. Pushkin here reflects on the sphere of power of monarchs and those environments that are not subject to it.

Poem “The Bronze Horseman” by A.S. Pushkin represents a special dedication of the poet to St. Petersburg. Against the background of the city, its history and modernity, the main events of the real part of the poem unfold, which are intertwined with mythological scenes of the creation of the city and the image of the Bronze Horseman.