One rare statue which still stands in Jurmula
In 1697, Peter the Great, Tsar of the emerging Russian Empire, set off on his ‘Great Embassy’, a trip to Western Europe which, Peter hoped, would further expose him to Western European culture- to ship-building, science, art, tobacco and other social innovations (such as the trend of shaving one’s face). Peter, as was his tendency, travelled not, officially, as Tsar of all Russia, but incognito as ‘Peter Mikhailov’. If Peter’s height (just shy of 6’8) gave his person away, so too did his apprehensions about fair treatment. Despite, officially, being a person of secondary importance, it is said that Peter expected to be treated as a king upon arrival to every new city on this Great Embassy, with feasts, free accommodation, and access to military information.
The first major city Peter visited was Riga, then part of the Swedish Empire. Fair to say that Peter’s expectations were not met; not only did the Swedes ask him to pay for his own accommodation, but his request to inspect the city’s fortifications was refused by the governor. In return, Peter remarked that Riga was a “wretched place”, and called the Swedes “very afraid.” When he had occasion to lay siege to Riga some twelve years later, Peter himself loaded and discharged the first canon.
That Peter’s visit, and later the beginning of the siege, happened in March and November respectively, is perhaps somewhat explanatory.
Naturally, Peter the Great’s legacy is a political issue beyond the focus of this blog. It is fair to say that, especially since Latvia’s declaration of independence in 1991, he is not a universally cherished figure. It may come as some surprise, then, to know that he is still here- in Jurmula– on a horse. In this post, I want to briefly share with you the very curious story of Peter the Great’s equestrian statue, once in the centre of Riga, and how it ended up on a private lawn near the Baltic Sea.
Origins of the monument
In 1908, the decision was made to erect a statute of Peter in the centre of Riga. A vast sum of money was collected from the population and the aristocratic class, and a competition was held. Gustav Schmidt-Kassel of the Berlin Academy of Architecture was announced as the winner of the completion, which had involved 58 sculptors, and the sculpture (pictured) was unveiled one year later, in 1909, just after Nicholas II and his family had arrived to Riga to celebrate the bicentennial of Livonia’s accession to the Russian Empire. The Royal Family attended the unveiling, along with a small crowd.
In Riga, where the freedom monument stands today
Evacuation of the statue during the First World War
After the outbreak of the First World War, many cultural monuments in Riga were evacuated, both to Russia and toward the west, on ships sailing under the English flag.
That the statue was among these objects is not in doubt; it’s discovery by a professional diver from Estonia in 1934 makes clear that the ship it was loaded onto (the ‘Serbino’) was sunk by a Kaiser destroyer in 1915, near the Gulf of Finland. The ship was raised from the seabed and the statue recovered, mostly in tact, other than the ears of the horse. The Estonians offered to sell it back to Latvia, where the effects of the 1934 coup d’état were still playing out, and the Latvians agreed. In July 1934 the statue was returned to Riga. The condition of the statue was not what it first seemed; it had been sustained significant damage during the shipwrecking.
Soviet Period and today
As the Riga City Council considered where to locate the statue, it was housed, both together and in separate parts, in the Dome Cathedral and the Riga Castle. During the Soviet period the statue received some attention from appointed architects, and was periodically restored, though remained structurally deficient and was not publicly displayed.
In 1997 Eugene Gomberg, a local businessman, learnt of the statue’s location in an military warehouse, and ordered its restoration, which was carried out with sculptors from St Petersburg in a former carriage repair plant. The surviving original plans were used to remake parts of the statue which had been lost. When the restoration was complete, a proposal to send the statue to St Petersburg failed to materialise, and the statue was, for three days, displayed in Kronvalda Park in central Riga. This solution proved unpopular, which explains why, for 19 years, the statue was on display not on the banks of Riga’s canal, or adjacent to old town, but in Gomberg’s carpark in Vidzeme, not far from Domina shopping centre.
In Vidzeme, c. 2019
The statue was, by agreement with Riga and Jurmula Council, bought by Eugene Gomberg in 2023 and relocated to Gomberg’s property in Jurmula, where it is visible today.
Final thoughts
One of the most remarkable episodes in the story of this statue, recorded in a 2004 article in the Los Angeles Times, occurs at the moment where the last remnants of the once Soviet Army are leaving Riga. In 1993, Stanislav Razumovsky, an engineer who had seen a photo of the statue five years prior and had, in secret, been working to restore it, had for days been surveilling the warehouse where the statue was located in hopes of salvaging more parts of it. His plot was successful. The guard at the Russian embassy, Leonid Budakov, recalls:
“A man runs into the embassy who’s all agitated, very nervous, with his hair standing on end, with a big backpack. I asked him to open the backpack. Naturally, it contained the head of Peter the Great.”
Of course, much else can and has been said of how relics like this should be treated in Latvia’s new age. Suffice to say that the statue- it’s subject matter, and history, once located where the freedom monument stands, drowned off of Finland, transported through various military warehouses, exhibited in a carpark, and now, on a lawn in Jurmula- is an item worthy of contemplation for anyone interested in the modern history of this part of the world. You can find the statue by following this map.
For more information about the statue, the wikipedia page (in Russian) is very detailed.
Увидимся скорo!
Laef, currently studying Russian at Liden & Denz Riga
