Edited for brevity.
Constructing random monuments is all the rage in Russia. After decades of the obligatory statues of Lenin and Stalin on every town's main square, people are acquiring a taste for sculptures that honor everyday things or overlooked characters from Russian culture. Famous poet Alexander Pushkin is an ever popular monument item, and a cultural figure that is a constant source of folklore. However, a new sculpture in Pskov region depicts not the poet, but a hare that supposedly ran across Pushkin's path in 1825, when Pushkin was fleeing exile to St. Petersburg. One new statue in the Moscow metro commemorates the misery of all homeless dogs. Entitled "Empathy", the dog sculpture is situated in a metro passage where two years ago a stray dog was viciously butchered by 22-year-old model Juliana Romanova. Other new projects feature products that are symbolic for a particular city, or beloved Russian foods. One such sculpture will be a tribute to the processed cheese "Druzhba" (friendship). This year the cheese turns 40 years old, and many consider it a true symbol of the Soviet era. In Minusinsk, Krasnoyarsk Region, the mayor announced a contest for the best design of a tomato sculpture, to be set up on the central square. In Novgorod, pensioner Nikolai Zaryadov has constructed a makeshift potato monument in his home village: a two meter pipe with a large rock, presumably a potato, on top. At the foot of this potato shrine is the inscription "Thank you Columbus, thank you Peter the Great, for our beloved vegetable!" Zaryadov says he constructed the sculpture so that the current generation of Russians can remember that the vegetable saved millions of people from starvation.
We can't let the Russians outdo us on this front. I suggest we start collecting funds immediately for a giant bronze statue of Cheez Whiz! |