: 55°45′14″ N sh. 37°37′03″ in. d. / 55.75389° N sh. 37.61750° E d./ 55.75389; 37.61750(G) (I)
Monument to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich- a monument in the Moscow Kremlin, consecrated on April 2, 1908 at the site of the murder of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. It was located near the Nikolskaya Tower, between the buildings of the Senate and the Arsenal. The author of the monument is V. M. Vasnetsov. Demolished in 1918.
Description
The monument was a bronze cross with enamel inserts and a crucified Christ depicted on it. At the foot of the cross there was an inscription: “Father, let them go, they don’t know what they are doing,” and all over the cross there was an inscription: “If we live, the Lord we live, if we die, the Lord we die: if we live, if we die, we are the Lord . Eternal memory to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who was assassinated on February 4, 1905. Remember us, Lord, when you come into your kingdom.” The stepped pedestal was made of a dark green Labrador, it had the inscription: “It was put on the well-meaning donations collected by the 5th Kiev Grenadier Regiment in memory of its former boss Sergei Alexandrovich, who was killed in this place, and on the donations of all who honored the memory of the Grand Duke ". An inextinguishable lampada was placed in front of the monument.
Demolition and later fate
I immediately ran to the commandant's office and brought the ropes. Vladimir Ilyich deftly made a loop and threw it over the monument. Everyone got down to business, and soon the monument was entangled with ropes from all sides.
- And well, together, - fervently commanded Vladimir Ilyich.
Lenin, Sverdlov, Avanesov, Smidovich, other members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars and employees of a small government apparatus harnessed themselves to the ropes, leaned, pulled, and the monument collapsed on the cobblestone.
- Get him out of sight, to the landfill! Vladimir Ilyich continued to command.
Dozens of hands grabbed the ropes, and the monument rattled along the cobblestones to the Tainitsky Garden.
During repair work in the Kremlin in 1986, a crypt with the burial place of the Grand Duke was discovered. On September 17, 1995, the remains were transferred to the Novospassky Monastery. In 1998, a cross-monument was recreated there according to the sketches of V. M. Vasnetsov. The author of the project is D. Grishin, the sculptor is N. Orlov.
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Notes
Literature
- Romanyuk S.K. Monument to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich // Moscow. Losses. - M., 1992.
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An excerpt characterizing the Monument to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich
Mitenka's wife and sisters-in-law, with frightened faces, leaned out into the hallway from the door of the room, where a clean samovar was boiling and the clerk's high bed stood under a quilted blanket sewn from short pieces.The young count, panting, paying no attention to them, walked past them with resolute steps and went into the house.
The countess, who immediately learned through the girls about what had happened in the wing, on the one hand, calmed down in the sense that now their condition should get better, on the other hand, she was worried about how her son would endure this. She tiptoed to his door several times, listening to him smoke pipe after pipe.
The next day the old count called his son aside and said to him with a timid smile:
- Do you know, you, my soul, got excited in vain! Mitenka told me everything.
"I knew, thought Nikolai, that I would never understand anything here in this stupid world."
- You were angry that he did not enter these 700 rubles. After all, he wrote them in transport, and you didn’t look at the other page.
- Daddy, he's a scoundrel and a thief, I know. And what he did, he did. And if you don't want me, I won't tell him anything.
- No, my soul (the count was also embarrassed. He felt that he was a bad manager of his wife's estate and was guilty before his children, but did not know how to fix it) - No, I ask you to take care of business, I'm old, I ...
- No, papa, you will forgive me if I did something unpleasant for you; I can do less than you.
“To hell with them, with these men and money, and transports along the page,” he thought. Even from the corner of six kush I understood once, but from the page of transport - I don’t understand anything, ”he said to himself, and since then he has no longer intervened. Only once did the countess call her son to her, inform him that she had Anna Mikhailovna's bill for two thousand, and asked Nikolai what he was thinking of doing with him.
“But how,” Nikolai answered. – You told me that it depends on me; I do not love Anna Mikhailovna and I do not love Boris, but they were friendly with us and poor. So that's how! - and he tore the bill, and with this act, with tears of joy, he made the old countess sob. After that, young Rostov, no longer intervening in any business, with passionate enthusiasm, took up the still new for him cases of dog hunting, which had been started on a large scale by the old count.
There were already winters, morning frosts shackled the ground moistened with autumn rains, already the greenery had become narrower and bright green separated from the stripes of turning brown, knocked out by cattle, winter and light yellow spring stubble with red stripes of buckwheat. The peaks and forests, which at the end of August were still green islands between the black fields of winter and stubble, became golden and bright red islands in the midst of bright green winters. The hare was already halfway lost (molted), the fox broods began to disperse, and the young wolves were larger than the dog. It was the best hunting time. The dogs of the hot, young hunter Rostov not only entered the hunting body, but also knocked out so that in the general council of hunters it was decided to give the dogs a rest for three days and go on departure on September 16, starting from the oak forest, where there was an untouched wolf brood.
This was the state of affairs on the 14th of September.
All that day the hunt was at home; it was frosty and poignant, but in the evening it began to rejuvenate and warmed up. On September 15, when young Rostov looked out the window in the morning in a dressing gown, he saw such a morning, better than which nothing could be better for hunting: as if the sky was melting and descending to the ground without wind. The only movement that was in the air was the quiet movement from top to bottom of descending microscopic drops of mist or mist. Transparent drops hung from the bare branches of the garden and fell on the newly fallen leaves. The ground in the garden, like a poppy, turned glossy wet black, and at a short distance merged with a dull and damp cover of fog. Nikolay went out onto the porch, wet with dirt, which smelled of withering forest and dogs. The black-spotted, broad-assed bitch Milka, with big black bulging eyes, saw her master, got up, stretched back and lay down like a brown, then unexpectedly jumped up and licked him right on the nose and mustache. Another greyhound dog, seeing the owner from the colored path, arching its back, quickly rushed to the porch and raising the rule (tail), began to rub against Nikolai's legs.
- Oh goy! - that inimitable hunting echo was heard at that time, which combines both the deepest bass and the thinnest tenor; and from around the corner came Danilo, a hunter and hunter, trimmed in Ukrainian brackets, a gray-haired, wrinkled hunter with a bent rapnik in his hand and with that expression of independence and contempt for everything in the world that only hunters have. He took off his Circassian hat in front of the master, and looked at him contemptuously. This contempt was not offensive to the master: Nikolai knew that this Danilo, who despised everything and stood above all else, was still his man and hunter.
Elite shows who to look up to in national history
myslo.ru : A cross was unveiled in the Kremlin in memory of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich...
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905) - the fifth son of Emperor Alexander II, Moscow governor-general since 1891. He stood at the origins of the Historical Museum, the Museum fine arts, urban economy. It was during the years of his governorship that the first tram depot appeared in Moscow, industry developed, and construction was actively carried out.
The Grand Duke died as a result of a terrorist attack committed by the Socialist-Revolutionary Ivan Kalyaev on February 4, 1905, while leaving the gates of the Nikolskaya Tower of the Kremlin.
The cross in memory of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was placed at the Nikolskaya Tower in 1908 with public donations. In 1918, the monument, created according to the sketch of Viktor Vasnetsov, was demolished during a subbotnik with the personal participation of Vladimir Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov ...
Financial support for the restoration of the monument was provided by Vladimir Gruzdev as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Military Historical Society ... 
KONT : Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich is an extremely ambiguous personality.
He left a trace in Russian history as the culprit of the Khodynka stampede, a well-known homosexual and a Nazi, guilty of terrible persecution of Jews ...
From February 26, 1891, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich worked as the Moscow Governor-General.
The most memorable episode of this reign was the Khodynka disaster.
It took place in the early morning of May 18, 1896 on the Khodynka field, during the celebrations on the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II ...
In a terrible stampede, 1,379 people died, about 900 were injured.
The crash site was quickly cleared, and the celebration program continued. After her, Nicholas II went to the ball.
The criminal negligence of the organizers of the celebrations caused great public outrage in Russia. Popular rumor nicknamed the Moscow Governor-General Sergei Alexandrovich "Prince Khodynsky" ...
In Moscow, Sergei Alexandrovich was called “hill” behind his back - from the French “bougre” - “sodomite”.
“Two new anecdotes are circulating around the city: “Moscow has so far stood on seven hills, but now it must stand on one hillock” (fr. bougr’e). They say this, alluding to the Grand Duke Sergei ”// Lamzdorf V. N. Diary. 1891-1892 .. - M .: Academia, 1934. - S. 106. - 407 p. 
In a large number of photographs, the prince is depicted next to his adjutant Konstantin Balyasny
The other day, on May 4, 2017, a recreated monument was unveiled in the Kremlin - a bow cross dedicated to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. This is another step towards the restoration of the historical appearance of the Kremlin - the restoration of the monument-cross at the site of the death of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich.
Kremlin. Cross at the site of the death of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Opening May 4, 2017.
The 6-meter bronze cross, decorated with enamels, was designed by V. Vasnetsov. They installed it on a pedestal of noble green stone, at the site of the death of the Grand Duke at the Nikolsky Gates of the Kremlin at the hands of the terrorist Kalyaev. At the suggestion of the prince's wife, Elizabeth Feodorovna,
at the foot of the cross there was an inscription: “Father, let them go, they don’t know what they are doing,” and all over the cross there was an inscription: “If we live, the Lord we live, if we die, the Lord we die: if we live, if we die, we are the Lord . Eternal memory to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who was assassinated on February 4, 1905. Remember us, Lord, when you come into your kingdom.” The stepped pedestal was made of a dark green Labrador, it had the inscription: “It was put on the well-meaning donations collected by the 5th Kiev Grenadier Regiment in memory of its former boss Sergei Alexandrovich, who was killed in this place, and on the donations of all who honored the memory of the Grand Duke ".
It was a revered place. An old guide says: "No one will pass through the Kremlin without going up to a small fence and praying: "God rest the soul of Your servant Sergei."
Kremlin. Cross at the site of the death of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Opening April 2, 1908.
Vasnetsov was friendly with the Grand Duke. In the personal archive of Viktor Vasnetsov, a letter from Elizabeth Feodorovna is stored, an excerpt from this letter: “I can’t find words sufficient to express to you how deeply and heartily I am grateful to you for your efforts in drawing up a draft drawing of a monument-cross ... You have worked for someone who has always been so sincere to you respected, appreciated and admired your talent. Sincerely yours, Elizabeth. 
Sketch by V. Vasnetsov "Our Lady of Sorrows"
On the cross was depicted the Mother of God Sorrowing, falling at the feet of Christ, as well as the Savior Not Made by Hands, Sergius of Radonezh.
Perhaps only a miracle can explain the fact that the sketches have survived at all - in the House-Museum of Viktor Vasnetsov, a reserved corner of patriarchal Moscow. These two drawings of the double-sided memorial cross have never been exhibited. Today they are generally shown openly for the first time, in front of the camera. You can see how carefully the artist worked. All details are drawn. Selected colors for enamels. It is these sketches that are the basis for an accurate recreation of the memorial cross.
In 1918, before the May Day demonstration, the monument was destroyed. The demolition of the monument is described in detail in the memoirs of V.D. Bonch-Bruevich “... On May 1, 1918, members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, employees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars gathered at 9.30 in the morning in the Kremlin, in front of the building of the Judicial Establishments. Vladimir Ilyich left. He was cheerful, joking, laughing. "... - Well, my friend, everything is fine, but this disgrace has not been removed. This is already not good," - and pointed to the monument ... - I instantly ... brought the ropes. Vladimir Ilyich deftly made a loop and threw it over the monument ... Lenin, Sverdlov, Avanesov, Smidovich, Krupskaya, Dzerzhinsky, Shivarov, Agranov, Elbert, Mayakovsky, Lenin's sister and almost all the members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, how many ropes were enough, harnessed to the ropes. They leaned, pulled, and the monument collapsed on the cobblestones. Get him out of sight, to the landfill! - V.I. Lenin continued to order.
Hooligan shelling of the frescoes of the Nikolsky gates of the Kremlin in 1917.
hooligan shelling of the frescoes of the Nikolsky Kremlin in 1917
The exact place of death was known, where the cross was installed - near the Nikolskaya tower of the Kremlin, between the buildings of the Senate and the Arsenal .. There are numerous photographs.
Place of death in the Kremlin of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (fifth son of Emperor Alexander II, Governor-General of Moscow from 1891 to January 1, 1905) was blown up in a carriage 65 steps from the Nikolskaya Tower of the Kremlin by terrorist-SR Ivan Kalyaev on February 4, 1905. The remains of the Grand Duke were buried in the crypt of the Cathedral of the Chudov Monastery (demolished in 1929-1932).
The Bolsheviks destroyed not only the cross at the site of the death of Prince Sergei, but also the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin, where he was buried
At the site of the death of Sergei Alexandrovich, a cross was erected, which in 1907-1908 was converted into a monument designed by Viktor Vasnetsov; On May 1, 1918, this cross became the first monument demolished in the Kremlin by the Bolsheviks.
During repair work in the Kremlin in 1986, a crypt with the burial place of the Grand Duke was discovered. On September 17, 1995, the remains were transferred to the Novospassky Monastery, the family burial vault of the Romanov boyars.
Tombstone of Sergei Alexandrovich in the Novospassky Monastery
In 1998, in the same place, in the Novospassky Monastery, a cross-monument was recreated according to the sketches of V. M. Vasnetsov. Project author - D. Grishin, sculptor - N. Orlov
This was the first attempt to recreate the cross, however, this is not an exact copy.
The Moscow governor-general, the commander of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, a member of the State Council - this is far from a complete range of duties that in different years lay on the shoulders of the Grand Duke. Who was the Grand Duke?
“His face was soulless ... his eyes, under whitish eyebrows, looked cruel,” wrote the French ambassador M. Paleolog. Leftist Cadet Obninsky: "This dry, unpleasant man ... wore on his face the sharp signs of a vice that ate him, which made the family life of his wife, Elizaveta Feodorovna, unbearable."
In our time, Grand Duke Sergei was bred in B. Akunin's novel "Coronation" - under the name of Simeon Alexandrovich. "Simeon Alexandrovich, the tallest and most slender of the brothers of the late sovereign, with his correct face, as if carved from ice, looks like a medieval warrior"
But is it so clear:
An overly straight posture gave the Grand Duke an haughty look. If the accusers of the prince knew that the “culprit” of a proud posture is a corset, with which he was forced to support his spine all his life. The prince was seriously and terminally ill - bone tuberculosis, leading to dysfunction of all joints. He could not ride, could not do without a corset. In Ilyinsky, during the life of his mother, a koumiss farm was set up for medicinal purposes, but the disease progressed over the years. And if it were not for the bomb of student Ivan Kalyaev, it is very possible that the Governor-General of Moscow would not have lived long anyway ...
In September 1856, after his coronation, Alexander II and his wife Maria Alexandrovna visited the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and, independently of each other, secretly promised before the relics of St. Sergius: if they had a boy, they would name him Sergei.
The boy was first raised by the maid of honor A.F. Tyutcheva (daughter of the great poet, wife of the Slavophile I.S. Aksakov). “Widely enlightened, possessing a fiery word, she taught early to love the Russian land, the Orthodox faith and the Church ... She did not hide from the royal children that they were not free from the thorns of life, from sorrows and grief and should prepare for their courageous meeting,” wrote one of the biographers of the Grand Duke.
The Grand Duke was firmly convinced that liberalism in politics is closely connected with damage to morality. He saw proof of this in the family of his parents. His father, the initiator of great reforms and, according to Sergei Alexandrovich, a Westerner and a liberal, was unfaithful to his wife. For 14 years, he cheated on her with another woman - maid of honor Ekaterina Dolgoruky, who bore him three children. The rejection of all the actions of the father became especially aggravated after the difficult, truly martyr's death of Maria Alexandrovna.
At the funeral, he was whiter than his officer's uniform. “Poor Sergei,” an eyewitness wrote about him in his diary.
45 days after she died, Alexander II married Dolgoruky ...
Sergei Alexandrovich explained his father's betrayal with a passion for Western (liberal) ideas alien to Russia. On March 1, 1881, the Sovereign was assassinated.
Sergei Alexandrovich developed a firm conviction that only adherence to historical and spiritual tradition, loyalty to Orthodoxy and autocracy can save both an individual person and a country from moral and political death.
Naturally, because of such views, Sergei Alexandrovich made himself many enemies in the "advanced" Russian society. Closed, immersed in spiritual experiences, having no taste for high-society amusements, the Grand Duke was not accepted by St. Petersburg high society. He was ridiculed. But the servants who stubbornly walked about his homosexuality did not find confirmation.
The Grand Duke married the Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, Elizabeth Alexandra Louise Alice, who in Orthodoxy received the name of Elizabeth Feodorovna. The latter was the second daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse Ludwig IV, the granddaughter of the English Queen Victoria and the elder sister of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas II.
The name of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov is pronounced today, as a rule, only in connection with the name of his wife, the Reverend Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna. They tried to denigrate their marriage more than once, call it lifeless or fictitious, in the end, unhappy, or, conversely, idealized.
“He told me about his wife, admired her, praised her. He thanks God every hour for his happiness,” recalls Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich, his relative and close friend.
As one of his nieces (in the future - Queen Maria of Romania) recalls, “my uncle was often harsh with her, as with everyone else, but worshiped her beauty. He often treated her like a school teacher. I saw the delicious flush of shame that filled her face as he scolded her. “But, Serge ...” she exclaimed then, and her expression was like the face of a student convicted of some kind of mistake.
“How I wish I had children! For me, there would be no greater paradise on earth if I had my own children, ”Sergey Alexandrovich writes in letters. A letter from Emperor Alexander III to his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna, has been preserved, where he writes: “What a pity that Ella and Sergey cannot have children.” “Of all the uncles, we were most afraid of Uncle Sergei, but despite this, he was our favorite,” the niece of Prince Maria recalls in her diaries. “He was strict, kept us in awe, but he loved children ... If he had the opportunity, he would come to watch the children bathe, cover them with a blanket and kiss them goodnight ...”
The family of Sergei and Elizabeth brought up Sergei's nephews, the children of his brother Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich - Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and her brother, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, whose mother died in premature birth.
Sergei Alexandrovich also took part in the fate of his nephew, Count Alexei Alekseevich Belevsky-Zhukovsky, the son of his elder brother, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich. Count Belevsky was at first an orderly, and then an adjutant of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich.
The man, through whose efforts Russian Palestine appeared, and Moscow became an exemplary city; a man who has carried the cross of an incurable disease and the cross of endless slander all his life; and the Christian who took communion up to three times a week - with the general practice of doing this once a year at Easter, for whom faith in Christ was the core of life. “God grant me to be worthy of the leadership of such a spouse as Sergius,” wrote Elizaveta Feodorovna after his murder ...
Under the Grand Duke, Christian trade unions were created. In February 1902, student riots took place in Moscow, the revolution was advancing. But on February 19, 1902, on the day of the liberation of the peasants, Sergei Aleksandrovich, together with Zubatov, organized a 50,000-strong patriotic workers' demonstration with the laying of wreaths at the monument to the Tsar-Liberator in the Kremlin.
Such a policy aroused the anger of both revolutionaries and capitalists. The latter, with the help of the then all-powerful Minister of Finance Witte, managed to achieve the removal of Zubatov from Moscow and the curtailment of workers' organizations.
Professor of Moscow University M.M. Bogoslovsky, in his memoirs, was forced to admit that Sergei Alexandrovich was nevertheless "full of the best intentions", and his "lack of openness and inhospitability", perhaps, "came only from shyness." In addition, the professor remarked: “I heard that he finally destroyed the last remnants of the former massacre, familiar to the Moscow troops, strictly pursuing any fist reprisal against the soldiers.”
Bogoslovsky also noted that, "when the well-known catastrophe happened at the Khodynka field," the responsibility was shifted to Sergei Alexandrovich - "perhaps unfairly."
According to the memoirs of Tolstoyan V. Krasnov, people on the eve of the ill-fated holiday excited themselves with rumors that the next day fountains of wine and beer would gush out of the ground, strange animals and other miracles would appear. By morning the general mood suddenly changed to "embittered," in Krasnov's phrase, even "brutal." The people rushed to the gifts in order to get home as soon as possible, and there was a deadly stampede.
Khodynka field. Victims of the tragedy
On January 1, 1905, Sergei Alexandrovich resigned, but continued to command the Moscow Military District and remained dangerous for the revolutionaries. A real hunt was opened for him. On February 4, at the usual time, the Grand Duke left the gates of the Nikolskaya Tower of the Kremlin in a carriage - and was torn apart by the "hellish machine" abandoned by the terrorist Ivan Kalyaev.
The carriage destroyed by the explosion, in which the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was
The stretcher, on which Elizaveta Feodorovna, distraught with grief, collected the remains of her husband, was brought to the Alekseevsky Church of the Chudov Monastery. Elizaveta Fyodorovna fussed about forgiving the murderer of her husband, arguing this not only with Christian morality, but also with the fact that Kalyaev had the opportunity to throw a bomb earlier, when she and her nephew and niece were in an open carriage, but the Socialist-Revolutionary did not do this.
Here are statements in favor of Sergei Alexandrovich, his political opponent S.Yu. Witte: "Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, in essence, was a very noble and honest person ...", "I respect his memory ...". Leo Tolstoy took the death of the Grand Duke very hard.
Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna - Mother Superior of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent of Mercy. 1910s
On July 5, 1918, Elizaveta Feodorovna, her cell attendant Varvara (Yakovleva), nephew Vladimir Pavlovich Paley, the sons of Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich - Igor, John and Konstantin, and the manager of the affairs of Prince Sergei Mikhailovich Fyodor Mikhailovich Remez were thrown alive into a mine near Alapaevsk.
Words of the President on the meaning of the cross opened on the territory of the Kremlin
- It serves as a reminder of the price that had to be paid for mutual hatred, disunity, enmity, that we must do everything to preserve the unity and harmony of our people
LiveInternet.ru
MOSCOW, May 4 - RIA Novosti. Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled a recreated cross in memory of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich in the Kremlin in a ceremony on Thursday. The original monument was demolished in 1918 with the personal participation of Vladimir Lenin.
At the beginning of the ceremony, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia held a Litiya (departure service) and consecrated the memorial cross.
Putin, opening the cross-monument, noted that the murder of Prince Sergei Alexandrovich was a harbinger of dramatic events, unrest, civil confrontation, which Russia later faced. "They (the events) turned into the heaviest losses, a real national catastrophe, the threat of the loss of the Russian statehood itself," he said.
"Violence, murder, no matter what political slogans they cover, there can be no justification," the president added.
Putin also noted the work of the widow of the deceased prince, Princess Elizaveta Feodorovna, in the construction of the primary monument. “Special mention should be made of this amazing woman. The tireless worker, philanthropist, glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church among the saints, did not leave the country during the years of the most difficult trials and remained faithful to the ideals of Christian forgiveness and love until the end of her days,” Putin said.
“Today we see how churches are being revived, monastic cloisters are being opened, lost shrines are being found, unity is being restored. Russian history in which every page is dear to us, no matter how difficult it may be. These are our national spiritual roots. The cross, restored in memory of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, has again taken its historical place," the president stressed.
Work on the restoration of the cross was carried out by the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO) and the Elisabeth-Sergius Educational Society Foundation for Assistance in the Revival of the Traditions of Mercy and Charity on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation. The organizations carried out detailed archival and historical research, which later allowed to restore the cross with absolute historical accuracy. A crucifix is depicted on the front side of the memorial cross. In the niche above the cross is placed the icon of the Mother of God in the image of the gate.
Grand Duke Sergei Romanov is the fifth son of Alexander II. On February 4, 1905, he was killed as a result of an attack organized by Ivan Kalyaev, a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary militant organization: when the prince drove up to the Nikolskaya Tower from the Nikolaevsky Palace in the Kremlin, a terrorist threw a bomb into his carriage.
Putin promised to continue helping to preserve monuments of world cultureGeneral Director of the State Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky, at a joint meeting of the Presidential Council for Culture and Art and the Presidential Council for the Russian Language, recalled the liberation of Syrian Palmyra from IS militants in 2016.A commemorative bronze cross with enamel inserts and the crucified Christ depicted on it was placed at the Nikolskaya Tower on April 2, 1908 at the expense of public donations. At the foot of the cross was the inscription: "Father, let them go, they don't know what they're doing." On May 1, 1918, it was destroyed; Vladimir Lenin personally participated in the demolition of the monument. In the spring of 1918, the statue of Alexander II from the memorial complex in honor of the emperor was also removed from the Kremlin; in 1928, the entire complex was finally blown up.
The monument-cross was recreated in 1998 in the Novospassky Monastery, where the remains of Sergei Alexandrovich were transferred.
The famous monuments located on the territory of the Kremlin are the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell. The cannon was cast in bronze in 1586 and is a monument to Russian artillery and foundry art, and the bell - in 1735. The Tsar Cannon weighs 39.3 tons, and the Tsar Bell weighs 202 tons.
Addressing the citizens and clergy present at the ceremony, Putin recalled the events associated with the death of the prince. “This crime was one of the harbingers of dramatic events, unrest, civil confrontation that Russia faced. They turned into the heaviest losses, a real national catastrophe, a threat of the loss of the Russian statehood itself,” the President said.
Putin stated that "truth and justice always triumph in the end."
“Today we see how churches are being revived, monastic cloisters are being opened, lost shrines are being restored, the unity of Russian history is being restored, in which every page is dear to us, no matter how difficult it may be. These are our national, spiritual roots,” the head of state said.
Prince Sergei Alexandrovich, Governor-General of Moscow, was the son of Emperor Alexander II. In February 1905, riding a carriage to the Nikolskaya Tower, he was killed by a member of the "Combat Organization of the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries" - he threw a bomb into the carriage.
The prince was torn to pieces, the coachman was mortally wounded, and almost nothing was left of the carriage.
When the remains were collected and embalmed, the coffin with the body of the prince was exhibited in the cathedral of the Chudov Monastery. The funeral took place on February 10, 1905. As the newspapers wrote, “despite the weekday, crowds of thousands tend to the Kremlin to pay their last debt and bow to the ashes of the martyred Grand Duke. As a sign of mourning, some shops are closed, mourning flags with white plaid flutter on the governor-general's house. In front of the gates of the Kremlin, a reverently minded crowd formed living tapestries.
In April 1908, a memorial cross was erected at the site of the prince's death, on the creation of which a famous artist worked.
A crucified man was depicted on a bronze cross with enamel inserts. On the cross was the inscription “If we live, we live in the Lord, if we die, we die in the Lord: if we live, if we die, we are the Lord. Eternal memory to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who was assassinated on February 4, 1905. Remember us, Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom," and at the foot of the foot - "Father, let them go, they don't know what they're doing." The monument stood on a stepped pedestal made of a dark green Labrador, the inscription on which read: “It was erected on voluntary donations collected by the 5th Kiev Grenadier Regiment in memory of its former boss Sergei Alexandrovich, who was killed in this place, and on the donations of all who honored the memory of the Great Prince."
Monument to Prince Sergei Alexandrovich in the Kremlin
pastvu.comHowever, the monument did not stand for long - after only 10 years, in May 1918, the cross was demolished with the direct participation of Lenin.
“Vladimir Ilyich deftly made a loop and threw it over the monument. Everyone got down to business, and soon the monument was entangled with ropes from all sides ... Lenin, Sverdlov, Avanesov, Smidovich, other members of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars and employees of a small government apparatus harnessed themselves to the ropes, leaned down, pulled, and the monument collapsed on the cobblestone "
- wrote in the book "Notes of the Commandant of the Kremlin" the commandant of the Kremlin and Smolny.
AT Soviet period the killer of the prince - the Socialist-Revolutionary Ivan Kalyaev - was held in high esteem. In 1924, Kalyaevskaya Street in the center of Moscow was named after him. In 1992, it was renamed Dolgorukovskaya. However, in some other Russian cities there are still Kalyaev streets, for example, in Krasnodar, Voronezh, Vladivostok and Sergiev Posad.
In 2016, Putin raised the issue of restoring the monument. , together with the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation and was instructed to consider the issue of recreating on historical place cross in memory of the tragic death of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. In November, at the Nikolskaya Tower, on the site of the former monument, the foundation of a new one was laid. The surviving originals of Vasnetsov's design materials made it possible to restore the cross-monument according to archival documents and determine the exact location of its installation.
