Fictional conman's statue pulled down in Russia's North Caucasus

Statue of fictional Russian conman destroyed in Pyatigorsk

City’s authorities powerless to tackle vandalism

A monument to the fictional anti-hero of Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov’s
Soviet-era novel The Twelve Chairs has been destroyed in the North
Caucasus city of Pyatigorsk. The vandals managed to somehow pull down
 the concrete statue of Ostap
Bender, which weighed over a ton. The statue split into
several parts when it hit the ground.

"It was a really sorry sight – his legs and arms were all over the
place. Not a nice thing to see,” bystanders grieved. The bronze
monument to the great schemer is said to be impossible to move without
the use of a vehicle. Police are searching for the vandals.

 The monument to Bender was put up for City Day in September 2008 near
the Proval cave, the scene of one of the scenes in the book. At the
same time the local authorities put up a monument to Kisa
Vorobyaninov, Ostap’s partner in crime. But this monument didn’t even
last 24 hours before it was knocked over.

 And now, a similar misfortune has befallen Ostap Bender’s statue, the
onetime favorite place for photos, both for residents and
holidaymakers.

It is still to be decided if a new statue will be built or the old one restored.

"This is an outrageous thing we have been confronted with here,” the
city’s mayor, Lev Travnev, said, adding that he would meet with police
to work out measures to ensure “Pyatigorsk’s cultural heritage.”

Acts of vandalism towards objects of the city’s cultural heritage are
the rule than the exception in Pyatigorsk. In March 2009, unknown
vandals wrenched out the locks in the ornamental lattice of the
Mikhail Lermontov grotto on Mashuk mountain. A year ago, on the same
mountain, a 1925 rock portrait of Lenin was covered with black paint,
and a swastika daubed on his forehead. The space beside the portrait
was also covered in anti-Semitic slogans.

Lada Ledeneva, Pyatigorsk. Exclusively for VC