City Rejects Return of Dzerzhinsky
By Kevin O'Flynn
Staff Writer A city committee ruled Tuesday that the giant statue of Soviet
secret police founder Felix Dzerzhinsky will not return to its old home on
Lubyanskaya Ploshchad, despite support from Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov for
the move.
The Moscow City Duma's monuments committee rejected an appeal by Communist
Party members in Irkutsk for Dzerzhinsky's return. The Communists said in a
letter sent last month that the monument to Dzerzhinsky was a "symbol of
the fight against crime."
A long-simmering drive to resurrect Dzerzhinsky from his graveyard at the
Central House of Artists gained momentum in October when Luzhkov declared
that the 16-ton statue was an "excellent" monument that had been "the
highlight of Lubyanskaya Ploshchad."
"We should remember that he solved the problem of homeless children and
bailed out the railroads in a period of devastation," Luzhkov said at the time.
His remarks were an about-face from four years earlier when he fiercely
opposed the statue's return.
Liberal politicians slammed Luzhkov for supporting the return of a man
blamed for the deaths of millions in the 1920s and 1930s.
The statue, one of the more notorious icons of the Soviet past, was toppled
from its pedestal near the former headquarters of the KGB by protesters
after the failed coup by Communist hard-liners in August 1991.
The Irkutsk Communists said the pulling down of the statue was "a blind act
of vandalism by a drunken crowd."
The city committee agreed Tuesday that the statue's return would sow
discord in society.
"I can't separate the architectural meaning from its horrible meaning,"
committee member Alexei Komech said.
The committee pointed out that there are already six monuments to
Dzerzhinsky in Moscow, and that the bronze Dzerzhinsky can still be seen at
the Central House of Artists.
The committee also decided not to put up a monument to Tsar Nicholas II and
his family on Lubyanskaya Ploshchad. Although not against the idea of
raising a statue to the slain family, the committee said the square was not
a suitable location for it.
"There is no need to provoke the people," said committee member Yury
Vedenin, adding there were some who do not like Dzerzhinsky and others who
do not like the royal family.
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