Monument to Minin and Pozharsky

From Moscowiki

Monument to Minin and Prince Pozharsky stands in front of St.Basil's Cathedral reminding every Russian about difficult moments in its history. In 1612 the country was devastated: crown was worn by the impostor, Lzhedmitry (“false Dmitry”: real Dmitry Ivanovich, son of Ivan the Terrible, was murdered in childhood), Kremlin was occupied by Poles. But a brave patriot Kozma Minin, a merchant from Nizhny Novgorod, gathered forces to rebel against Poles and the false tsar. As he was not a nobleman and officially had no right to rule the people, he asked Prince Dmitry Pozharsky to head the rebellion. Two centuries passed, and in 1818 the monument to Minin and Pozharsky was erected on the Red Square. Bronze sculpture by I. Martos depicts Minin givinig Prince Pozharsky a sword, symbolizing unity between two rebel leaders.

Before 1936 the monument was placed in the centre of the Red Square, but in Soviet times it impeded the military parades and, moreover, Minin symbolically pointing at Kremlin seemed ambiguous to the Soviet government. There was an idea to destroy the statue, but it was only moved to the Cathedral of Intercession. The inscription on the monument says “To citizen Minin and prince Pozharsky from thankful Russia, year 1818”. It was the first monumental statue in Russia depicting not a nobleman, but “a common citizen”: a great step towards a progressive society.