The authors of this equestrian statue are M.Mikeshin (sculptor) and V.Nikolaev (architect). The monument was erected in 1881-88. The renowned commander is restraining the restive horse with his left hand, and with the hetman’s mace in his right hand he is pointing in the direction of Moscow.
The history of this monument is not that simple. It was made on donations collected by means of subscription lists. When the bronze statue was brought to Kyiv, it appeared that there was not enough money for the pedestal. So the monument to Bohdan Khmelnitsky had to be «under arrest» for another six years in the yard of the neighbouring Building of Offices until the architect V.Nikolaev allotted for this purpose the stone blocks that had remained after the construction of the Chain Bridge in Kyiv. The pedestal was made of those blocks in the form of a Cossack burial mound similar to the steppe barrows erected over the graves of the perished Zaporozhian Cossacks.
The monument's unveiling took place in 1888, during celebration of the 900th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus. The monument was encircled with a metal fence and lanterns, to the design by V.Nikolaev. Later the fence disappeared and was renewed only in 1998, 110 years later, during the reconstruction of Sophiyska Square.
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