The legendary Moscow hotel is celebrating its birthday. You are amazing". The legendary Moscow hotel celebrates its birthday Why is the de Gaul monument near space
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On October 16, 2015, a monument to People's Artist of the Soviet Union Yevgeny Leonov was stolen.
A country: Russia
City: Moscow
Nearest metro: VDNH
Was passed: 2005
Sculptor: Zurab Tsereteli
Architect: Alexander Kuzmin
Description
The monument to French President Charles De Gaulle represents an eight-meter tall figure of the president in full dress uniform, standing in full alignment. The figure of Charles De Gaulle is installed on a ten-meter granite pedestal with an inscription in Russian and French. “General Charles De Gaulle President of the French Republic”, “General Charles De Gaulle Le President de la Republique Francaise”.
History of creation
The monument to the French President was erected on the day of celebration of the 60th anniversary of victory in the Second World War on May 9, 2005. The monument was erected on Charles De Gaulle Square in front of the Cosmos Hotel, which was named in his honor in 1990. The grand opening of the monument was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Jacques Chirac.
How to get there
Arrive at the VDNKh metro station (the first car from the center) and get off at the All-Russian Exhibition Center. On the street, immediately at the metro, turn right and through the underground passage, cross Mira Avenue and go to the Cosmos st. Mira Avenue, 150. Where, in front of the hotel entrance on Charles De Gaulle Square, you will find a monument to the French President.
May 9, 2005. The location for the installation was not chosen by chance: in 1990, the square in front of the hotel received the name of Charles de Gaulle, and 15 years later they decided to immortalize him with a monument.
Charles Andre Joseph Marie de Gaulle(1890-1970) - French military leader and statesman, general, symbol of the French Resistance during the Second World War, as well as the founder and first president of the Fifth Republic (President of France). Despite his personal hostility to communism, de Gaulle established close relations with the Soviet Union and concluded a number of important agreements, including cooperation in science and space exploration, which made the USSR and France strategic allies.
The monument is made with a portrait likeness and depicts the French leader in a somewhat constrained, but strictly military pose: slightly hunched over, he simply stands straight with his arms down. The sharp shoulders are slightly upturned, and deep sadness seems to be frozen on the face; Squinting slightly, the bronze de Gaulle looks off into the distance. The general is dressed in a characteristic military uniform: a jacket, a sword belt on his belt, and an army cap with two general stars on his head. A small badge with a cross on the tunic attracts attention - this is the Cross of Lorraine, a symbol of the “Gaullist” branch of the Resistance movement. The figure is placed on a high cylindrical pedestal, on which the name and title are engraved in Russian and French: “General Charles de Gaulle. President of the French Republic.”
The height of the monument is 18 meters (8 meters - sculpture, 10 - pedestal).
History of the monument and criticism
The idea to perpetuate the memory of Charles de Gaulle in Moscow toponymy arose in 1990, when, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the general’s birth, a small square in front of the Cosmos Hotel was named after him. Then Charles de Gaulle Square appeared in Moscow, but there were no plans to install a monument on it yet.
The idea of installing the monument came to us in 2002, when sculptor Zurab Tsereteli presented the city authorities with 3 options, of which one was subsequently selected and went into work. Initially, the city media said that the monument would be small, about 6 meters, of which 3.5-4 meters was the figure itself, and the rest of the height would be on the pedestal, but in the end it turned out to be 18 meters. The grand opening of the monument to Charles de Gaulle on the square of the same name took place on May 9, 2005 with the participation of the Presidents of Russia and France Vladimir Putin and Jacques Chirac, who arrived here after the Victory Parade. French World War II veterans and a large number of press were also invited to the opening ceremony.
Muscovites reacted ambiguously to the opening of the new monument: many townspeople thought the too large size and location of its installation were inappropriate; people compared it with the brave soldier Schweik and laughed at the general’s tortured pose, as if he had been told “Attention!” and “At ease!” They didn’t give orders.
But most of all, the townspeople were amused by the similarity of the monument to the French comedian Louis de Funes in the image of the gendarme Cruchot, whose role he played in a series of famous films, therefore in ironic folk place names he became famous as a monument to Louis de Funès.
Monument to Charles de Gaulle located on the square of the same name in front of the Cosmos Hotel (150 Mira Avenue). You can get to it on foot from the metro station "VDNH" Kaluga-Rizhskaya line.
A difficult test awaited the French President in Moscow. On Monday, after the parade on Red Square, Jacques Chirac was supposed to unveil a monument to General de Gaulle. This horror was placed on the square, which also bears the name of the general, at the entrance to the Cosmos Hotel. Muscovites have already nicknamed him “the scarecrow.”
On a pedestal 11 meters high, with his arms down and hunched over, stands a clubfooted general, looking more like a scarecrow. Or a robot. The entire Russian press has already made fun of the monument. From a distance, his silhouette is comical. One of the journalists, Dmitry Kafanov, says that the monument reminds him of Louis de Funes in the film about the gendarmes. But up close, the general’s face is frightening; all the torments of hell immediately flash before your eyes.
Some compassionate souls passing by the monument sympathize with Chirac. Will he be able to stop himself from laughing? Won't he be offended? What if such a completely unflattering portrayal of the hero who on June 18, 1940 called on the French to fight the Nazis will cause a scandal? Or a diplomatic incident? Russians love to dramatize everything. With even greater pleasure they express everything they think about the author of the “bogeyman,” the inimitable Zurab Tsereteli, the favorite sculptor of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
He has already made the capital happy with a gigantic monument to Peter I, which is called a “scarecrow” and ugly animals that are intended to “decorate” Manezhnaya Square.
Recently, 69-year-old Zurab Konstantinovich again found himself at the epicenter of a scandal raised over a monument to Stalin. They say that the master wanted to give it to Moscow, Yalta or Volgograd, but no one wanted to get involved, because Stalin’s personality is now causing too much controversy. Chechens, Tatars, Ingush, Circassians, and other peoples, once deported by Stalin to Siberia, fiercely opposed the “attempt to rehabilitate the dictator.” Human rights defenders and humanitarian organizations also protested.
But the sculptor did not seem to hear the noise raised. The President of the Academy of Fine Arts is insensitive to criticism. Several years ago, he unsuccessfully tried to sell several American cities a 126-meter statue of Christopher Columbus. The Americans did not accept the gift. This hurt his pride, but Tsereteli had already recovered from the insult.
Without losing hope of seeing his Stalin someday in Crimea, Zurab Tsereteli took up the instrument. And then he suddenly remembered General de Gaulle. Melting tons of bronze to embody some historical figure or event in it - this is the happiness of a monumental sculptor. Tsereteli has just completed a monument to the first Chechen president, Akhmad Kadyrov, who died on May 9, 2004 in a terrorist attack. For this work, Zurab Konstantinovich was awarded the Order of Kadyrov.
The court sculptor, as Muscovites call him, is showered with awards. Hero of Labor, People's Artist of Georgia does not miss a single celebration or memorable date. Clouds of great ideas are swarming in his head, and he is ready to offer them to everyone.
Before the opening of the monument, the French community in Moscow was in a fever. Everyone trembled at the thought that the dear master might approach Chirac and whisper in his ear to offer him a “bogeyman” for France. In addition, it recently became known that there are several versions of the bronze general. Tsereteli presented to the municipal council, which was making the next decision, as many as three monuments to de Gaulle. The first represented the general as a young officer during the First World War, the second - as the President of France. The council chose the one that now stands in front of the Cosmos Hotel.
Together with the pedestal, its height is 19 meters. Zurab Tsereteli does not hide his pride. He is bursting when he talks about how in 1968 he met with the general in France and that the statue expresses “the deep respect that the master has for the French people, their great history (...) and the personality of Charles de Gaulle. "
The monument to Charles de Gaulle on the Champs Elysees was erected quite recently, in 2000 - on the thirtieth anniversary of the general’s death. Oddly enough, until this day there was no monument to the founder and first president of the Fifth Republic in Paris.
For thirty years, the authorities convinced the relatives of the great Frenchman that the country has the right to pay tribute to the man who defended its independence and honor in World War II. Consent was received, and a six-meter bronze figure of de Gaulle by sculptor Jacques Cardot took a pedestal on the Champs-Elysees, near the Grand Palais.
Parisians call the place between the Champs-Elysees and the Pont Alexandre III “Three Men Walking”: nearby there are monuments to Winston Churchill and Georges Clemenceau in approximately the same energetic poses. De Gaulle himself is captured taking part in the parade in honor of the liberation of Paris on August 24, 1944.
Since childhood, Charles de Gaulle dreamed of a feat in the name of France. During World War I he was captured by the Germans, where he met the future Soviet Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky. During the Soviet-Polish war they fought against each other. When France was defeated by the Wehrmacht in 1940, de Gaulle, already deputy minister of war, fiercely fought against an armistice with the Germans. Unsuccessful, he flew to London to lead the French fight against Nazism.
De Gaulle managed to ensure that, despite the opposition of the United States, the Big Three recognized France as an ally in the fight against the Reich. According to the general's plan, French forces liberated Paris on their own. In front of a huge crowd of jubilant people, a solemn procession of de Gaulle took place through the historical places of the capital. After the war, the general was prime minister, oppositionist, again prime minister and, finally, president of the Fifth Republic he founded.
In this post, de Gaulle managed to suppress a military coup, grant independence to Algeria, and strengthen the unity of Europe. The general voluntarily resigned in 1969 when it became clear that the French no longer supported his socio-economic policies. A year and a half later, he died from a ruptured aorta.
France honors de Gaulle as an outstanding national leader on par with Napoleon.