In the world there are only three monuments to the famous nose of Major Kovalev, who is the hero of the story "Nose" by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. And you can see all three monuments walking along the streets of St. Petersburg. Not many literary characters and even historical figures (apart from Lenin and Peter the Great) were so lucky to be immortalized three times in the Northern capital, and even more so to the organ of smelling the hero.
In the history of the appearance of the monuments "Nose of Major Kovalev", the first, second and third, we will try to understand this article.
But first, recall the content of the story itself.
What is the Nose about?
Barber Ivan Yakovlevich breakfasts and discovers a nose in the bread just baked for a meal. He knows the nose very well - it belonged to college assessor Kovalev. A frightened barber wraps his nose in a rag and throws it from St. Isaac's Bridge.
But Kovalev wakes up without a nose. On the face - a completely flat place, like a freshly baked pancake, without any hint of the former decoration. Kovalev went to the chief of police to declare his loss, but suddenly he saw his own nose. He keeps himself a man. Moreover, a difficult person. He wears a gold-embroidered uniform and a hat with the plume of a state adviser. The nose jumps into the carriage, intending to go to the Kazan Cathedral. Struck by such an incredible event, the major catches up with him and asks him to return, but with the arrogance inherent in the senior officer, he says that he does not understand what is being said.
Kovalev comes to mind to advertise his nose to the newspaper. But the idea was rejected by the editors - the case is too scandalous if it will not damage the reputation of a respected publication. Major - to the private bailiff. But a bureaucrat who is out of sorts just brushes aside - they say that a decent person will not be torn off his nose.
Upset Kovalev arrives home, where a quarterly overseer soon comes to visit him, who brings his lost - a paper-wrapped nose. Allegedly, he was intercepted with a fake passport on the road to Riga.
Kovalev rejoices, but it turns out that the nose does not want to return to its original place. Despite all the efforts of the owner and even the invited doctor, he lags behind his face and falls to the table.
And on April 7, the nose, as if nothing had happened, is again between the cheeks of the major, his rightful owner. And the life of Kovalev is in the same rut.
First nose story
On the wall of the house No. 11/36 along Rimsky-Korsakov Avenue (at the intersection with Voznesensky Avenue) the very first "walk" of the nose flaunts.
The history of the monument to the nose is also very mysterious, only it happened in our days.
As you know, on November 27, 1995, during the Golden Ostap festival of satire and humor, held in the northern capital, the artist Rezo Gabriadze and sculptor Vladimir Panfilov, with the filing of the actor and director Vadim Zhuk, the nose of Major Kovalev was immortalized.
Gabriadze and Panfilov, by the way, in 1994 already decorated St. Petersburg with a small masterpiece - the sculpture "Chizhik-pyzhik" on the Fontanka, which is well known to the residents of the city and attracts many tourists.
Why they decided to decorate the house on Voznesensky with their noses is understandable. Although the olfactory organ that escaped from the owner “walked” along Nevsky Prospect, it was first discovered by a barber in his bread right here on Voznesensky.
For the new monument, they ordered and brought pink granite from the writer’s native Ukrainian expanses. A massive nose (which, according to rumors, repeats the sculptor’s nose with its bends) was mounted in a gray limestone small slab, an explanatory inscription was made about his literary master and hoisted on the wall. The monument turned out to be small - 60 by 35 cm, but weighty - about a hundred kilograms. He hung quietly until 2002, and in September he suddenly disappeared.
Major Kovalev’s nose, even the monument, was obliged to disappear, then Petersburgers joked. They also said that at night the nose, as expected, walks through the streets of the city, sniffing out various secrets. Only for some reason can’t find a way back.
Tourists were saddened by the disappearance of the attraction, the police opened a criminal case, but did not find intruders.
Second nose and unexpected find
Then the city authorities decided to establish a duplicate - another "Nose of Major Kovalev" in St. Petersburg. This time on the facade of the new exhibition hall of the Museum of Urban Sculpture. This museum is located in house 2. Chernoretsky Lane. The new bas-relief was supposed to be an actual copy of the former. It was created by the architect and sculptor Vyacheslav Bukhayev. True, the size of this memorial sign is smaller. But he has a distinctive feature - a pimple at the very tip. Such as the one who once bothered the hero of the story of Major Kovalev with his presence.
However, a year after the mysterious loss, the original was discovered! A board with a nose in a dilapidated state was found in one of the city entrances on Srednyaya Podiatcheskaya Street. What was to be done? The first nose was restored and hoisted to its original place. They say they used more durable mounts and hung above the previous place, especially since the investigating authorities suggested: the board fell off the wall itself, and then someone just picked it up and dragged it away.
But whether this version is true or whether unknown hooligans stole the monument remains a mystery to this day.
So now in St. Petersburg there are two twin brothers, two almost identical noses.
Nose three
But the story with the legendary olfactory organs is not over yet. Because on the University Embankment (house 7-9), in commemoration of the upcoming bicentennial of the great writer in 2008, they installed not a wall memorial sign, but a full-fledged sculpture. Mr. Nos is standing on thin, crooked legs in an overcoat in the courtyard of the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University.
Incidentally, it is carved from stones sent by the largest universities in the world.
