A monument to M M Speransky will be erected in the city of Irkutsk

In Irkutsk in 2015 a monument to the 19th century statesman Mikhail Speransky will appear, the jury has already chosen the best bust sketch proposed by an Irkutsk team. A new square with the monument is planned at the intersection of Sukhe Bator and Zhelyabov streets, near the Angara hotel, and the city administration will fund the project.

As reported by the city administration press service, a monument to the 19th-century statesman Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky will appear in the city of Irkutsk in 2015.
On Wednesday, September 17, a jury meeting was held for the competition for the best sketch design of the monument in the form of a bust. Sculptors, architects, designers, and artists were invited to take part in creating their sketch design for the monument to Mikhail Speransky, who played an important role in the history of Irkutsk. In total, five works by four authors and teams were submitted to the competition. The jury was chaired by the Mayor of Irkutsk, Viktor Ivanovich Kondrashov; in the end, the jury favored the sketch created by an Irkutsk author team consisting of A. A. Vinogradov, A. L. Abramov, V. M. Akulov, and M. N. Kirillova.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky (born January 1, 1772, died February 23, 1839, aged 67). A Russian public and state figure of the times of Alexander I and Nicholas I, count, reformer, lawmaker, founder of Russian legal science and theoretical jurisprudence. Full member of the Imperial Russian Academy (1831), honorary member of the Imperial Russian Academy (1821-1831) and the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1819). Tutor to the heir apparent, Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich.
The jury members suggested refining the sketch and considering the design of the square, taking into account the existing pedestrian paths and the building standing nearby.
The issue of the location for the installation of the bust of M. M. Speransky was considered and subsequently approved by the architectural and artistic section of the Urban Planning Council under the administration of the city of Irkutsk in January 2014. The new square with the monument in the form of Speransky’s bust will be located at the intersection of Sukhe-Bator and Zhelyabov streets, near the Angara hotel. Considering the multi-stage technology involved in creating such a sculpture, the monument will be ready only in 2015.
The competition will be organized by the city’s Department of Architecture and Urban Planning.
Funding for the creation and installation of the monument will be provided by the city administration. We remind you that as early as 2004, the issue of commemorating in Irkutsk the memory of Governor-General M. M. Speransky in the Kirov Square, with the pre-revolutionary name "M. M. Speransky Square," had already been considered. The issue gained new relevance only a couple of years ago, when the public of Irkutsk proposed returning a number of streets to their historical names, and Kirov Square to its pre-revolutionary name, "M. M. Speransky Square." The issue was widely debated, with both supporters and opponents of the renaming. In the end, it was decided to create M. M. Speransky Square with the installation of a bust at the intersection of Sukhe-Bator and Zhelyabov streets.
Based on materials from the press service of the administration of the city of Irkutsk.