A 16m-tall statue of prince Vladimir the Great, a tenth-century ruler of Kiev who converted his kingdom to Orthodox Christianity and is regarded as the founder of the Russian state, is to be unveiled near the Kremlin, in Moscow, on 4 November. Both critics and supporters of the Russian president Vladimir Putin, see the statue, which was originally planned to be even bigger, as a barely disguised homage to Putin too and an effort to legitimise Russia’s claim to Crimea.
The Military-Historical Society, created by the Russian culture minister Vladimir Medinsky, is funding the Rb100m ($1.5m) statue. Earlier plans to install an even larger version of sculptor Salavat Scherbakov’s design at a prominent lookout point over the Moscow River were fiercely opposed by conservative preservationists as well as liberal activists.
The statue’s location is Borovitsky Hill, just outside the Kremlin wall, where work began on erecting it this weekend. The spot was chosen in an online vote organised by the city government in 2015. After concerns were raised about how construction work would affect the Kremlin’s Unesco World Heritage status, the height of the statue was reduced by eight metres, and additional archaeological work was conducted to meet Unesco’s criteria.
Politics writ very large During a discussion broadcast on Dozhd, Russia’s only independent television channel, on 15 September, the historian Leonid Katsva argued that the monument’s political subtext is indisputable.
He said: “We know full well that a monument to prince Vladimir stands on a high bank above the Dnieper River in Kiev. In my view, it [makes sense] in Kiev, because Vladimir ruled there. As for Moscow, not only was Vladimir never here, but the city itself didn’t exist at the time. Vladimir is not connected to the city in any way. This is a purely political action.”
