Overview
- The statue was placed overnight on November 3 on the city’s Kremlin Square, as reported by SOTAVision and Kommersant and confirmed by the governor in a Telegram video.
- The public opening is scheduled for November 4, Russia’s Unity Day.
- Rising nine meters, the monument anchors the renovated square beside the Resurrection Cathedral, the Bell Tower, and the domes of St. Sophia Cathedral.
- The project continues Filimonov’s high-profile memorial initiatives, including a prior Stalin statue, and aligns with his praise of Ivan IV as a “multiplier of Russian lands.”
- The move reflects a broader trend of new Ivan IV monuments—about five nationwide since a first in Oryol in 2016—despite predominantly critical evaluations in Russian historiography.