• Морская слава Николаева
• Исчезнувшие памятники
• Эпоха революции
• Памятники, особенно дорогие нашим сердцам
• Южная муза

Many monuments to people and events important to our city - in the years before 1917 - were destroyed during the 20th century. Ironically, the same fate ultimately befell some of the "Revolutionary" sculptures erected after the October Revolution.

In 1873, near the intersection of Admiralskaya and Sobornaya (now, Sovietskaya) Streets, an imposing monument to Military Governor Oleksiy Samuilovych Grage was erected. It was created by M.O. Mikeshin and A.M. Opekushin and funded by contributions from sailors and habitants of the city. The monument featured a large statue of Grage on a stone pedestal, surrounded by stone flags with inscriptions, anchors and cannons. Within five years of the October Revolution, in 1922, the Grage statute was removed and replaced by a small statue of V.I. Lenin. Other elements of the monument were dispersed. The stone flags were thrown into the Ingul River. The anchors and cannons were delivered to The History and Archeology Museum.

Reportedly, the small statue of Lenin did not fit well on the huge pedestal and never seemed in scale. Later, the whole monument was destroyed. The Lenin statue was passed on to the town of Pervomaysk. The Grage statue was melted, sometime after the Second World War, to recover the metal. The last surviving piece of the original monument is an anchor, now in the yard of The Museum of Local Lore.

The monument to the sailor Ignatiy Shevchenko was opened in the year 1874 not far from the Naval Quarters. This monument was constructed to honor the feat of arms done by him during the defense of Sevastopol. In the night of January 20 in 1855 Ignatiy Shevchenko shielded with his own body his officer and was killed by the enemy's bullet. In Russia it was the first memorial to a warrior of a lower rank. In 1903 this memorial was moved to Sevastopol. During our days the monument was restored at the original place.

In 1909, to recognize the 200th anniversary of the battle of Poltava, a monument to Peter I was erected in the square near the former city council building. The monument, created by sculptor M.O. Mikeshin, was later destroyed.

Mykhailo Leontiyovych Faleyev is generally regarded as the founder of Mykolayiv. He died here in 1792 and was buried in the altar wall of the Admiralty Cathedral. A small monument was erected adjacent to his grave. In 1936, the Cathedral and the Faleyev monument were destroyed and his body was moved elsewhere.

But the citizens of Mykolayiv recovered the memory of Faleyev in 2002. A bigger-than-life statue of him was commissioned and placed between the city office building and Flotskyy Boulevard.

Some monuments, it seems, did not survive to be destroyed. When Governor-Commander and Admiral of the Fleet Mykhail Petrovych Lazarev died in 1851, sailors in Sevastopol collected money to erect a monument. The academician N.S. Pimenov designed it and in 1861 a plan was made to place the monument in Sobornaya Square. But for unknown reasons, the monument was never erected. Its destiny is unknown.

In Nikolaev there was also a monument to Bogdan fon Glazenap (1811-1892) who was a military governor of our city. He had served at that post for 11 years. That period was a difficult one for Russia - Crimea War, famine, ruin of military shipbuilding. Glazenap was the one who organized the reconstruction of Nikolaev and made it the center of industry, education and culture at the south of Russia.

After the cult of Stalin was debunked, a monument showing Stalin sitting on a bench with Lenin was moved from Chestnut Square to the Yacht Club, and vanished soon afterwards.




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