Prague has Pushkin. Why not Jara Cimrman? residents ask
In the afternoon, a bust of a famous Russian writer was unveiled in Prague-Bubeneč. The inhabitants of the district have reservations.
Prague (from our collaborator) – He received a bronze bust on a marble pedestal on Friday in Prague famous for its 215th birthday Russian poet Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. The city districts of Prague 6 were donated by companies associated in the Russian-Czech Mixed Chamber of Commerce, which initiated the project.
Even before its unveiling in the drum park on Pushkin Square, the monument became a hit on social networks, and even inspired the locals to entertaining folk creativity.
Statue for 830 thousand
Statue of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin in St. Petersburg. Illustration frame. | Photo: ČTK
“Pushkin’s bust suits Pushkin Square. It is also a cultural bridge to strengthen mutual contacts,” Aktuálně.cz Chairman of the Board of the Endowment Fund of the Russian-Czech Mixed Chamber of Commerce Hugo Kysilka.
The project has been prepared since last year and cost more than a million crowns. “Everything is financed from sponsorship donations. The statue itself cost 830,000 crowns and other costs are associated with transport and construction work. The statue was cast in Zhukovsky near Moscow and this year transport to Prague,” he said.
Lukoil, Rosatom, ČKD Asset, Sberbank and the city district of St. Petersburg also contributed to the implementation of the project.
“The monument to Pushkin is a timeless phenomenon and is important not only for Russia. A similar event has not taken place in the Czech Republic for a long time,” said chamber president Vladimir Yermakov after the ceremonial unveiling of the bust. He added that the endowment fund is now also considering creating a monument to Czech officials in Russia. “One of the proposed options is to build a memorial to Czech legionnaires in Tomsk.”
The first attempt failed
The location of Pushkin’s statue at the top of the park was discussed three years ago, before the visit of the then Russian president. Dmitry Medvedev in Prague. At that time, the Russian Cultural Foundation came up with the project.
Pushkin Monument in Prague Photo: Alexandra Malachovská
However, the inhabitants did not like the monument, which was about three meters high and was created by the Georgian sculptor Georgiy Franguljan, and most of the respondents rejected it in a survey organized by the city district.
More than 61 percent of respondents said they did not consider the work “acceptable and acceptable.” Half of the respondents then claimed that Pushkin was not “a suitable location for a work of art, such as a statue.” About 80 people out of 100,00 inhabitants of Prague 6 use the survey.
People wonder: Why Pushkin?
The author of Pushkin’s new bust is the Moscow sculptor Vladimir Surovcev. “We were looking for other variants and in the end a form of bust was chosen. It is about one meter high,” Adam Halmoši, a spokesman for Prague 6, told Aktuálně.cz. The survey was not held this time, it is said that it took into account the results of the previous survey.
Will Jára Cimrman? | Photo: Bontonfilm
“We believe that when Pushkin Square is here, it is not against anything. The results at the time were half and half,” the spokesman said. However, he admitted that there were – sometimes surprising – reactions from the population. “People are wondering, for example, why there will be a bust of Pushkin in Pushkin Square,” he said.
“Finally a statue of Jara Cimrman?” one of the users asks on Facebook 6 of Prague. “I’m just not sure if placing statues in public greenery is a real nut,” another contributor thinks.
Others then recommended leaving the bust covered once and for all (it was unveiled on Friday afternoon). Someone drew eyes and a smile on the sail that is tied around his head. “It could be called a Bust of an Unknown Giant,” advises an attentive citizen.
“Our everything”
Pushkin, who is considered the founder of modern Russian literature and is often referred to in Russia as “our all”, lived from 1799 to 1837. He came from a noble family. His great-grandfather was Abram Gannibal, who came to Russia from Africa and whose car was raised by Peter I. Bubeneč Square bears the poet’s name since 1952. In the past it was called the Urals and during the German occupation it bore the name of Maria Theresa.
The Russians call Pushkin “our everything”. | Photo: Reuters
There are about two hundred Pushkin monuments in the world. Nevertheless, some representatives of Russian minorities in the Czech Republic believe that personalities who were connected with life in the Czech Republic would rather serve themselves. They name, for example, the writer Arkady Averchenko, who is buried in Prague, the famous poet Marina Tsvetayev, who lived in Mokropsy near Prague (now Všenory), or the composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who allegedly personally conducted the Czech premieres of his operas.
Pushkin’s supporters, on the other hand, believe that he is a great man few can match. The jubilee festivities associated with Pushkin are held around the world. For example, the Pushkin International Festival in Britain started on Thursday.
First Ukrainian, now Russian
According to the chairman of the Russian Tradition Society, Igor Zolotarev, the installation of the monument to the Russian poet is positive. However, he would welcome a public debate, which he said should affect the overall level of Russian-Czech relations.
Taras Shevchenko’s bust was unveiled in Prague by Viktor Yushchenko (pictured with Mirek Topolánek). | Photo: Reuters
“The monument creates a certain awareness and we welcome a certain comment from an important representative of Russian culture,” he told Aktuálně.cz. However, he does not expect parades with flowers or competition for Mácha on Petřín. “The monument itself will not solve anything. Relationships should be settled first of all,” he maintained.
Representatives of minorities point out that, for example, Ukraine is similarly represented by the poet Taras Shevchenko. He also has his own monument in the capital, which was unveiled in 2009 by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Kinsky Square in Prague 5. At the same time, the state also had in Prague 6, in a park in Latvia Street. However, the locals opposed them, who were annoyed that the poet had no relation to the selected locality.
Unveiling the statue, President Yushchenko said that Shevchenko was an admirer of Jan Hus and befriended Czech revivalists.