Overview
- The statue was officially opened on November 4 in the Vologda Kremlin’s central square to coincide with Russia’s Day of National Unity.
- The monument stands nine metres tall, combining a six-metre bronze figure on a three-metre pedestal near the Kremlin’s southern wall.
- Regional officials credit Governor Georgy Filimonov with initiating the project and framing Ivan IV as a builder of state power and a ‘multiplier of Russian lands.’
- The sculpture was created by Moscow artist Mikhail Krasilnikov, a graduate of Ilya Glazunov’s academy, and is sited near landmarks including Sofia Cathedral and the Resurrection Cathedral.
- The unveiling follows local controversy over a Stalin statue previously installed in Vologda on Filimonov’s initiative that a court later ordered removed, while historians broadly view Ivan IV’s rule negatively.