The Kiev, Ukraine, statue honoring Vladimir the Great will get some competition from a taller statue planned for Moscow. Photo courtesy of wikimedia.org/ Olexa Yur.
MOSCOW, June 12 (UPI) -- Plans to install a monument in Moscow to Vladimir the Great, a tenth-century Russia hero, have roused opposition to its size, cost and location.
Vladimir died in 1015 after uniting and Christianizing pagan Slavic tribes. He is regarded as a hero in both Ukraine and Russia, and Kiev, where he is known as Volodymyr, has displayed a statue of him 67- feet high, since 1853. Moscow is preparing a 79-foot-tall statue, weighing 33 tons and costing 550 million rubles ($9.97 million) in what some have suggested is a game of one-upsmanship at a time Ukraine and Russia spar over territory and influence.
Also at issue is the choice of placement of the monument. An area called Sparrow Hills, immediately before Moscow State University's iconic, wedding-cake-shaped building, was chosen and negative reaction was swift: the site is a favorite spot for photography, tourists and newlyweds and district parliament member Yelena Rusakova said, "Experts have found that this gigantic monument would cause a serious risk of a collapse and a dangerous landslide."
"This is all a huge waste of money at a time when the country is in economic crisis," she added.
A petition opposing the Sparrow Hills location collected over 60,000 signatures and a Moscow State petition of students and professors supplied 2,000 more.
Planners of the monument, the Russian Military History Society, a non-governmental group chaired by Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, backed off this week from the chosen installation site and said they would seek an alternative spot.
Vladimir's location is still under discussion, but plans to cast the statue remain unimpeded. Moscow's 321-foot-tall statue honoring Peter the Great, unveiled in 1997, will still tower over it.
