dog statues in Moscow

What are the dog statues in Moscow

Recently, after a long restoration, the Turgenev Museum opened in Ostozhenka. The area around the museum was ennobled, and not only did a monument to the writer appear here, but also a monument to one of his most famous heroines: the Mumu dog. This is not the first monument to a dog in our city, so today we remember the other dogs captured in bronze in our capital.

On November 10, 2018, in Moscow in Ostozhenka, on the bicentenary of the birth of Russian writer Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, a monument dedicated to him was opened. Surprisingly, until now there were no monuments to this great writer in the capital! The monument became part of the Turgenevsky Quarter architectural and museum complex, which includes the writer’s house museum and a garden with garden and plaza. On the same day, a monument to the heroine of Turgenev’s same work, the dog Mumu, was discovered in the park.

The opening of this monument is a good occasion to remember other dog sculptures installed in different places of our capital. We will not consider places of mass congestion of sculptures, such as the Museon or Tsereteli workshops, we will limit ourselves to independents. The dog is a faithful assistant of man, even in war. In 2009, during the reconstruction of Terletsky Park, a sculpture of a soldier of the Great Patriotic War was installed with a dog. From 1924 until the 1970s, the famous Red Central Military Technical School of trainers (after the war, the Red Star Central Kennel) is located in these places, where the dogs were trained in military service. Tank destroyers, mine seekers, sled dogs, tied dogs, medical dogs, guard dogs and sabotage dogs trained at this school successfully served on the fronts of World War II.

On November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union placed the second satellite in Earth’s orbit with a living creature on board: a dog. The white mestizo named Laika did not return (the return was not initially planned) and died a few hours after the start (although his flight was designed for 7 days) due to overheating due to the abnormal displacement of the orbit satellite. Contrary to popular belief, Laika did not become the first living creature launched into space, before many animals visited her and returned to space safely, but Laika was the first living creature put into orbit and made a revolution around Earth (more precisely, 4 laps, while still alive). The Laike monument was erected in 2008. Close – a plate with verses. The monument is located in the territory of the Institute of Military Medicine, where the space experiment was being prepared, in the Petrovsky-Razumovskaya alley.

The first living creatures to return safely from the orbital space flight were the dogs Belka and Strelka. This composition, dedicated to space forces and installed in the National Center for Defense Management, is almost unknown. It has the first satellite, the Belka and Strelka dogs, the Vostok launch vehicle and the Soyuz spacecraft.

And in peacetime, dogs help save lives. In the monument dedicated to the hard work of rescuers, the dog helps to find people trapped in the rubble. The monument was inaugurated in 2010 in a park on Kremenchugskaya Street in front of the administrative complex of the Russian Ministry of Emergencies on Vatutina Street.

The monument to student Anton Chekhov was inaugurated in 2014 in the territory of the Moscow State University in front of the academic building of the Scientific and Educational Medical Center of the Moscow State University. Chekhov studied at the medical faculty of the University of Moscow from 1879 to 1884 and graduated from the university with the title of doctor and doctor of the county. “I have news: two dachshunds – Brom and Hina – of the ugly appearance of the dog. The legs are crooked, the bodies are long, but the mind is extraordinary,” Anton Pavlovich wrote in a letter to his editor Alexei Suvorin. The monument is based on the photograph of the writer in Melikhovo with the dachshund Hina (1897

The monument to the mascot of the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, the dog that brought the newspaper, was erected in 2013 on Myasnitskaya Street, at 42, in the courtyard of the press center of the publishing house. The pet owes its appearance to the commercials of the 1990s, where the main character was a small dog who came to the newspaper. The dog quickly fell in love with readers and editorial staff. He even got his own name: Aifka. Unfortunately, the tall and narrow pedestal of the sculpture several times caused its fall. So, since 2017, Aifka’s sculpture has been standing inside the editorial building. 2014 photo

We complete the story with sculptures of dogs located in unexpected places, in the cemetery and in the subway. The famous clown, artist and circus director Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin (1921-1997) loved dogs and trained a little. His wife Tatyana Nikolaevna Nikulina was a very famous dog trainer, breeder and professionally dedicated to dogs. The monument in the tomb of Nikulin in Novodevichy was opened in June 1999. The sad seated artist is captured with his beloved giant Schnauzer nicknamed Fedor. The author of the sculpture is Alexander Rukavishnikov

The “Empathy” sculpture is underground, at the entrance of the Mendeleevskaya metro station. It is a purebred dog that rests quietly on a pedestal and scratches its ear with its hind leg. The inscription on the monument says: “Empathy. Dedicated to the human attitude towards stray animals. “The sculpture was installed in 2007 and is dedicated to a street dog named Boy, who lived in the underground passage near the Mendeleevskaya metro station and died as a result of the conflict in December 2001 The authors of the monument are the sculptor Alexander Tsigal, the animal artist Sergey Tsigal, the architect Andrei Nalich and the designer Petr Nalich

And, of course, you can’t move around the famous Moscow sculpture “Border Guard with a dog” at the subway station “Ploshchad Revolyutsii” (1938). Actually, not one, but four identical sculptures are installed here. It is believed that a sure sign of being happy is to rub the nose of a bronze dog; As a result, the noses and faces of all dogs are rubbed!

We managed to see 18 Moscow monuments for dogs. Of these, only three were installed in the twentieth century, the rest recently appeared in our changing capital.

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