Peter and Gavrik Monument
Vereigh Holodnoy Ploshat (square) (Веры Холодной Площадь)
In this small shaded park, just South of Cathedral Park/Square
(Sobornaya Ploshat (Соборная Площадь)) is a charming
monument of a two boys, sitting back to back.
The children are Peter (Petya) and Gavrik (Петя и
Гаврик), two children from a famous Russian children's
novel, "Lonely White Sail" or "A White
Sail Gleams" (Белеет Парус одинокий) by Valentin
Katayev (also spelled Kataev, Катаев in Russian) in
1936. The book was the basis of a classic Soviet film.
Katayev began writing short stories in 1916. He served
in the Red Army until 1920, when he became a journalist
in Odessa. He is the older brother of Yevgeny
Petrov, the co-author of "12 chairs" (See
the box "The
Soviet famous "12 chairs" novel and movie")
The book is an intriguing mix of realism and expressionism,
telling the story of two boys caught up in the 1905
revolution. Peter is middle-class, Gavrik a street
orphan, both faced with the dilemma of what to do
with a sailor on the run from the Battleship
Potemkin mutiny - the revolt, pogroms and repression
going on around them.
The dialogue is full of edge and humor, the tone
of the scenes switches beautifully from tension to
melancholy and the relationship between the two boys
is full of anxiety.
What makes this monument so charming and unique is
that it was sculptured during the Soviet Union but
has none of the totalitarian spirit of many of the
impersonal, mammoth structures built in the same period.
(To see a typical example of Soviet era structures,
see the Lenin
Statue in Kulikovo Pole Square, the communist
worker flanking the East wall for the "Heroes
of the USSR", or the four statues above the
entrance of the Refrigeration
Academy).
(The full English translation of the book can be
found for free as a text file at lib.ru/PROZA/KATAEW/katayev_beleet_parus_odinoki_engl.txt
and as a 2.02 MB zip file at home.freeuk.com/russica4/,
dozens of other Russian books are available on this
site)
(Valentin
Katayev's home is at Bazarnaya 4, today there is a
memorial plaque)
|
