On this day — 12 June (O.S. 30 May) 1912, a magnificent monument to Emperor Alexander III (1894-1894) was unveiled and consecrated in Moscow + 10 PHOTOS!
The monument made by the architect Alexander Pomerantsev and sculptors Alexander Opekushin and Artemy Ober, was unveiled on the Prechistenskaya Embankment at the southeast corner of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
In December 1894, Emperor Nicholas II appointed his uncle Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to head a committee to oversee the planning and construction of the monument. More than 2.5 million rubles were donated for the monument’s construction, which lasted from 1900 to 1912.
Made in the style of monumental realism, the bronze statue stood on a stepped red granite pedestal facing the Moscow River. Alexander III is depicted sitting on a throne in a mantle with an imperial crown on his head. In the hands of the emperor were a scepter and orb. The inscription the pedestal read: “To the most pious autocratic Great Sovereign, our emperor Alexander Alexandrovich of All Russia. 1881-1894.» At its corners stood bronze double-headed eagles with outstretched wings. The monument featured a low granite balustrade, and a staircase which descended to the river.
The grand opening of the monument took place on 30th May O.S. 1912, in the presence of members of the Imperial Family. At 8 o’clock in the morning, five cannon shots sounded from the Taynitskaya Tower. At 10 o’clock at the entrance to the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, a procession began, led by Moscow Metropolitan Vladimir, Emperor Nicholas II, his mother the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna.
After 360 rounds were fired and the Preobrazhensky march, the veil was removed from the sculpture, Metropolitan Vladimir sprinkled the monument with holy water. 86 wreaths were placed at the monument, and an inspection of the monument by members of the Imperial family. In the evening, the city and the sculpture were illuminated. A 24-hour guard of honour comprised of war veterans was stood guard at the monument.
It was dismantled by the Bolsheviks in July 1918, the pedestal of the monument was liquidated in 1931.
Sadly, the monument did not survive for long. Following the October Revolution, a decree was issued for the demolition of the monuments of the tsarist regime. The decree dated 12th April 1918 ordered that tsarist monuments be replaced by those honouring revolutionaries. The monument of Alexander III was one of the first monuments destroyed during this campaign.
The dismantling of the monument began on 17th July 1918 — the very same day in which Nicholas II and his family were murdered in Ekaterinburg. A plan to establish a monument to Liberated Labour was never realised. The pedestal was demolished along with the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 1931.
