Alexander Pushkin Sets out for Eritrea

(Madote)
2/2009

This year will mark the 210th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. A monument to him is to be unveiled in the main square of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, on May 24. That is also Independence Day in the State of Eritrea. It is this young African nation that is considered the home of Alexander Pushkin’s great-grandfather, the Russian general Hannibal, otherwise known as the “Moor of Tsar Peter the Great.”

I got the idea of putting up a statue of Pushkin there a couple of years ago. The idea was wholeheartedly supported by Eritrea’s Ambassador Teclay Minassie Asgedom. The Moscow sculptor N.A. Kuznetsov-Muromsky made a bronze mockup of the monument in 2007. The architects M.V. Ozherelyeva and M.I. Sudakov worked on the design for the reconstruction of Asmara square and for the monument’s pedestal. The patrons of the arts V.I. Demkov, A.G. Shkuro, V.P. Melnikov, and E.O. Chovushyan sponsored different stages of the work.

Eritrean delegation and Russians diplomats viewing small replica of Pushkin's statue.

The last ten years, I have managed, together with the sponsors, to erect statues of Pushkin in the Norwegian capital Oslo, the town of Golitsino near Moscow, a bronze bust of him in the city of Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and a bronze sculpture of him in the Chinese city of Ningbo. It is my hope that statues of Pushkin will also appear in other countries around the world at some time in the future.

 Actually life-size statue of Alexander Pushkin to be placed in Asmara.

                                          

Sponsored Ads