On June 7, 2026, a monument to the great Russian writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was unveiled in the center of Simferopol, at the intersection of Gogol and Pushkin streets. The idea of erecting the monument belongs to the head of the Crimean Metropolis, Chairman of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, Metropolitan Tikhon of Simferopol and Crimea.
The main sculpture, of a writer in a fluttering cloak with a bundle of manuscripts in his right hand, was created by S.D. Merkurov, an outstanding Soviet and Russian monumental sculptor and academician of the Academy of Arts. The monument was made in 1948 and was supposed to be installed in Moscow for the 140th anniversary of the writer, but this did not happen. The miraculously preserved monument was recently bought by one of the patrons, who donated it to the Simferopol diocese.
A unique bronze pedestal with bas—reliefs of characters in the works of Nikolai Vasilyevich has already been created by a member of the Moscow Union of Artists, sculptor Vitaly Shanov.
The total height of the monument with a pedestal is about 7.5 meters, the weight of the monument is about 6 tons. Gogol Street in Simferopol is one of the oldest, named after the writer since 1902.
The opening ceremony of the monument was attended by Metropolitan Tikhon of Simferopol, Head of the Republic of Crimea Sergey Aksenov, head of the Simferopol city administration Mikhail Afanasyev, Secretary of the Simferopol Diocese Archpriest John Pristinsky, dean of the Simferopol Church District, Rector of the Taurida Theological Seminary Hieromonk Andrey (Korotkov), Simferopol clergy, members of the public, as well as the author of the pedestal Vitaly Shanov.
Vladyka Tikhon consecrated a monument to the great Russian classic.
After the flower-laying ceremony, the head of the Crimean Metropolia told reporters that the sculptor Merkurov had been working on the monument since 1938, but the monument had not been erected; the monument was preserved, and as a result, it was decided to install it in Simferopol.
Nikolai Gogol was passing through Simferopol in 1835, on his way to the Saki resort for treatment, where, as he put it, "he was in the Crimea, getting dirty in mineral mud" (a phrase from a letter to V.A. Zhukovsky). The writer was passing through the Crimean capital, but it was in the early days of June 1835. After almost two centuries, he returned "to the provincial city of S." already in bronze.
Sergey Aksenov thanked Vladyka Tikhon for the decision to present the monument to the city, as well as for his great contribution to the development of culture and art in Crimea.