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The Monument "Millennium Of Russia" is dedicated to the Millennium anniversary of the Russian statehood when warring Slavic and Finnish tribes (Novgorod Slavs, Krivichs, Ves (proto-Vepsians) and Chud) called the representatives of Varangian tribe of Russ to lead their alliance. The alliance was headed in 862 by Varangian named Rurik The "Millennium Of Russia" monument was built in 1862 in the Novgorod Kremlin, in front of the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Novgorod. The monument is shaped in the form of a bell, it was intended to announce a heroic past of Russia to the descendants. The total height of the monument is 15.7 meters. The grand pedestal holds a big orb, a symbol of royal power of the Rurik and Romanov families. The orb is surrounded by 17 figures, arranged in six sculptural groups, embodying six major historical eras of Russia. The first group depicts Rurik, the first Prince. A group of figures with Prince Vladimir the Great and crushed pagan god Perun is depicting the Christianization of Rus. The third group in which Prince Dmitry Donskoy is trampling a defeated Tatar, represents the beginning of the liberation of Russia from the Mongol-Tatar yoke. The fourth group represents the foundation of the Russian centralized state, where Grand Prince Ivan III wearing ceremonial dress takes a bunchuk (horsetail) from defeated Tatar, a symbol of the final victory over the Golden Horde in 1480. The beginning of the Romanov dynasty is a theme of the fifth sculptural group including Michael I accompanied by Kozma Minin and Prince Pozharsky. Their efforts contributed into creation of a nationwide resistance, which liberated Moscow from the Polish invaders, and then, in 1613, Michael Romanov was elected to rule the Tsardom of Russia. The sixth group with the figure of Peter I, crowned with a laurel wreath, holding a scepter in his right hand, represents the foundation of the Russian Empire. The figure is turned to the north, in the direction of St.Petersburg, the new capital of the Russian Empire. After the October Revolution, 1917, the monument was perceived as a memorial to the autocracy and was cothered by plywood. However, later it was opened to the public. Nazis seized Novgorod in August 15, 1941. The Nazi general Kurt Herzog decided to make a gift to his friend in Germany and ordered to dismantle the monument and to take it to Germany (these parts are now lost). In January 1944 the city was liberated by Soviet troops. At this point, only a naked pedestal with a lower half of an orb remained from the original monument with the upper part dilapidated. Many of the figures were broken: three-meter cross, standing on the orb, was cut down at the base and was bent to an arc shape; bronze bracing everywhere was chopped or torn. More than 1,500 elements were made to recreate the missing parts of the monument. The monument was restored in 1944, which was followed by opening celebrations.
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