Sculpture Museum

I spent this morning with a tour outside the New Tretyakov gallery and just across from Gorky Park in what seems to serve as a place for 'Fallen Monuments Park' and in some areas looked like a sort of Island of Misfit Toys for statues. It's was a fantastic place to stroll on a beautiful day.  For the historian in us there is an area devoted to Soviet leaders and propaganda, for the artist and sociologist in us there's some beautiful and tragic work done during the difficult Soviet regime and for the children in us there's a wonderful area of monuments of Pinocchio and others....and right outside the park and in the backdrop of this picture you can see the large Peter the Great striding a huge ship and watching over the river and nearby park. The statue of Peter the Great, like many of the sculptures, is generally considered something of an embarrassment to Russians nowadays. But for me it became a familiar landmark and friend and always brought fun and interesting conversation.  Often rumors and stories are retold of it originally being Columbus and given to the US in celebration of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the American continent and then offered to Spain and several other countries.  But it was turned away.  Eventually the monument was reworked with Peter the Great and kept in honor of 300 years of the Russian fleet!  And who knows the truth- in Moscow it is often not what it seems!