Cultural brand or ugliness: the monument to Kalashnikov in Moscow was the last straw of the patience of the art community

September 19 at the intersection of Sadovaya-Karetnaya and Dolgorukovskaya streets in Moscow, a monument to the arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov was opened.

The author of the monument was the sculptor Salavat Shcherbakov, who among other things created a monument to Prince Vladimir, installed on Borovitsky Square near the Kremlin. After the arrival of Sergei Sobyanin as mayor of Moscow, Kalashnikov's monument became the eighth monument of Shcherbakov's work set in the capital.

The total height of the sculptural composition is 9.8 m: on the 4-meter pedestal is the metal figure of the gunsmith holding the AK-47. At the foot of the pedestal is a sculptural composition with the figure of Michael the Archangel. On the sides of the pedestal are depicted models of weapons created under the leadership of Kalashnikov, his drawings and instruments, and also reproduced his phrase: "I was creating an instrument to protect my Fatherland."

The initiator of the installation of the monument was the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO). Its chairman, Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, presented the project to President Vladimir Putin in 2016, while visiting the Kalashnikov concern in Izhevsk. In October of the same year, the head of state signed a decree on the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the designer of the legendary AK, scheduled for 2019.

"This is a very unusual monument. Mikhail Kalashnikov - this is to some extent Kulibin XX century, the embodiment of the best features of the Russian people. The extraordinary natural talent, simplicity, honesty, organizational talent is all that allowed to create a whole line of weapons to protect the Fatherland, among which, of course, the Kalashnikov assault rifle is a true cultural brand of Russia, "declared the Minister of Culture at the opening of the monument Vladimir Medinsky.