Nikolai Gogol Monument on Nikitsky Boulevard
The statue of Nikolai Gogol that is now located on Nikitsky Boulevard has had a turbulent history. It was first located on Prechistensky Boulevard (now Gogolevsky).
In 1902, for the one hundredth anniversary of the writer’s birth, three days of celebration took place in Moscow. On this occasion the monument dedicated to Gogol was unveiled on April 26. The huge crowd gathered there got silent as they discovered the statue made by Nikolai Andreev. The latter had decided to depict the writer at the end of his life.
Considered too “realistic” or “not conform to the collective representation” that the Russian people had of Nikolai Gogol, it was moved in 1951 from Prechistensky Boulevard to Donskoy monastery. In 1959, the statue got to its current location on Nikitsky Boulevard. The famous writer lived nearby from 1848 to his death.
Another statue was erected on Prechistensky Boulevard in 1952 to commemorate the hundredth years of Gogol’s death.