PHOTO: close up view of the bronze busts of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in the courtyard of St. Michael’s Archangel Kharlampievsky Church, Irkutsk

On 15th September 2024, a pair of bust-monuments of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna were installed in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.

The monuments were installed in the courtyard of St. Michael’s Archangel Kharlampievsky Church, one of the oldest churches in the city. It was here in 1904, that the future Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (1874-1920) married Sofia Omirova (1876-1956).

The organizer of the installation of the busts is Irkutsk resident Mikhail Vladimirovich Arsentyev. The bust of Nicholas II, is based on the original – or what was left of it – which was found in the Crimea. It was restored by the famous Russian sculptor Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Klykov (1938-2006), who restored the parts which had been broken off by Bolshevik vandals following the October 1917 Revolution. It is believed that the original bust was made from life, around 1905.

he sculptor of the current busts of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna is the modern master Pavel Zhuravlev. Both busts are made of bronze, each weighing 100 kg, they were cast in a workshop in Moscow, where Vyacheslav Klykov worked during his lifetime.

PHOTO: Metropolitan Maximilian of Irkutsk and Angarsk performed the act of consecration of the bust-monuments in the courtyard of St. Michael’s Archangel Kharlampievsky Church, Irkutsk

Before the unveiling of the monuments, a Divine Liturgy was performed in the church, by three bishops (in the photo above from left to right): Bishop Alexy of Sitka and Alaska, Metropolitan Maximilian of Irkutsk and Angarsk and Bishop Konstantin of Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk. Divine services were conducted in four languages: Church Slavonic, Greek, English and Aleut, which emphasized the atmosphere of unity of peoples.

The act of consecration of the busts was performed in the courtyard of the church by Metropolitan Maximilian of Irkutsk and Angarsk. It must be noted that there are few monuments to holy people in Irkutsk, and these bust-monuments of the Holy Royal Martyrs is one of the ways to teach residents and guests of the city about the last Russian tsar and his family.

PHOTO: view of the bronze bust-monuments of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in the courtyard of St. Michael’s Archangel Kharlampievsky Church, Irkutsk

© Paul Gilbert. 27 September 2024