A monument to Ivan the Terrible has been erected in Moscow, the Russian Military-Historical Society announced on its website on Wednesday.
The monument, which is the first of its kind in the Russian capital and only the second in country, is on display at the so-called Alley of Rulers in central Moscow.
The statue of the infamous Russian leader was initially placed in the city of Alexandrov in Vladimir region, which Ivan IV once chose as a site of his 11-year-long self-imposed exile.
But locals in Alexandrov protested. The monument, created by Vasily Selivanov, was erected there for just one hour on April 26, before residents dismantled it, the Novyy Gorod Alexandrov newspaper reported.
The Alley of Rulers in Moscow features 33 bronze statues of Russian rulers dating back to ancient times and until the 1917 Revolution. Nearly all have been cast by the famous, but controversial sculptor Zurab Tsereteli.
The Russian Military-Historical Society said it planned to erect eight more statues before the end of the year, including Vladimir Lenin and Boris Yeltsin.
In October 2016, the authorities in the Oryol region in central Russia erected a monument to Ivan the Terrible in the regional capital. The move caused a months-long nationwide debate on whether one of the most brutal rulers in Russian history deserved to be commemorated in bronze.
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