A story behind the Bronze Horseman is told in digital copies of rear sources of the Presidential Library

August 18, 2017, marks exactly 235 years since the day when a monument to the founder of the city Emperor Peter I was opened on the Senate Square of St. Petersburg. Apart from numerous images of the monument of different years, there are also documentary materials telling the history of creation of one of the main symbols of the city itself, which could be found on the Presidential Library website.

One of such sources is published in 1876 the 17th Volume of Collected works of the Imperial Russian Historical Society. It includes the full correspondence of the Empress Catherine II with the author of the monument Etienne Maurice Falcone, as well as a “Copy from the specification of the Governing Senate on the construction of the monument,” “A note of Bilishtein on the selection and arrangement of areas for projected monuments to Peter I and Catherine II,” correspondence about Falcone's move to Russia and other important materials related to the history of the Bronze Horseman. From these sources could be learned, for instance, how the materials for the monument were chosen: “As for the materials, the marble is not durable because of the severity of the local climate, consequently there will no be ay other material except for the metal.”

The enlightened Empress Catherine II was in correspondence with the French philosophers, one of who was Denis Diderot. It was him owing to whose recommendations a master was appointed for building the future monument. The Empress wrote about the arrival of the sculptor: “Diderot found me a man second to none, this is Falconet, he will soon start the statue of Peter the Great; if there are artists equal in his talent, then we can safely say that no one of them can compare with him in feelings, so he is the friend of the soul of our Diderot.”

A lively epistolary intercourse of the empress and the master allows a reader to see with his own eyes how the grandiose monument was gradually created.

“Do not listen to a pore reasoning of people who understand nothing, go your own way,” — such words Catherine will write in one of her first letters to Falcone. Many influential grandees have spoken against his vision of the monument to Peter. With these words she will be supporting him later.”

The Empress, herself very interested in art, showed great interest in what was happening in the studio. “I would never imagine that Your Majesty was so strict in sculpture. You do not leave my studio and already more than 20 times made me starting over again what many others were happy with,” — Falcone wrote. In his messages he constantly reports, how the work is going: “The horseman is being defined and getting dressed, his horse is more cunning, more beautiful, since his head is turned to the right, like his gallop. An insignificant consideration, which I initially accepted, should not have resisted a stronger argument.” The creator of the Bronze Horseman also shares on his experience: “It is seen very well that my horse is nothing more than an animal, but of all the like, he must be the most bright.”

“My greeting to dressed Peter the Great,” —Catherine II answers. — He has facial expression and the head of his horse is studied; — that's what you wrote to me and, unfortunately, I cannot see it. You do not tell me anything about his hand, which he extends over his state. Count Orlov finds that this hand represents one of the most difficult and delicate parts of the work, and that only you could find this hand the proper expression.” And the empress remarks about the horse: “If your horse came to life in your workroom, as once the statue of Pygmalion, then judging by his face expression, he would probably make a terrible mess.

As the present shows, Catherine the Great listened to the sculptor's advice on the monument’s inscription: “At the foot of the statue I would put this brief inscription: erected to Peter the Great by Catherine II. I wish nothing more will be written on the stone itself. This lapidary syllable, the simplest, the best, the ancients used for their monuments.” As a result, an inscription in Russian and Latin was stamped on both sides of the monument: “To Peter the Great Catherine the Second of summer 1782.”

Featured on the Presidential Library website audio file “Empress Catherine II. The Bronze Horseman” tells about the grandiose pedestal for the great creation of Etienne Maurice Falcone. Weighing more than one and a half tons giant granite boulder was found especially for the monument. According to a legend, Peter himself was repeatedly mounting it to look around local area. “Thunder stone” was brought to St. Petersburg (transportation by land to the shore of the Gulf of Finland and on barge to the installation site took about 9 months) and processed by Russian craftsmen to become the foot of the monument to Peter the Great.

The grand opening of the monument took place on August 18, 1782. Later, the monument to Peter I, owing to the famous poem by Pushkin of the same name, was named “The Bronze Horseman,” although in fact the monument is cast from bronze.