Alexander II memorial

Alexander II is a monumental statue located at the Senate Square in central Helsinki, Finland. The main figure in the statue depicts the Grand Duke of Finland Alexander II giving a speech at the 1863 Diet of Finland that he had assembled, wearing the uniform of an officer of the Finnish Guards' Rifle Battalion. The statue also includes four allegorical sculptures, representing four different virtues - Law (Latin: Lex), Work (Labor), Peace (Pax) and Light (Lux). Ordered by the Estates and designed by Johannes Takanen (1849–1885) and Walter Runeberg, the monument was unveiled in April 1894. The ceremony was a patriotic demonstration honoring the memory of emperor Alexander II, who was instrumental in establishing Finnish statehood, granting Finnish an official status for the first time in history, and who is remembered by the Finns as a liberal ruler supporting limits on the autocracy of the emperor. During the Russification of Finland started in 1899 by Nicholas II of Russia - the grandson of Alexander II - the statue became established as the site of anti-Russian demonstrations, remembering Alexander II who had become popularised as the "liberator emperor". There are currently only two monuments to Alexander II outside Russia on public spaces. The other one is the Monument to the Tsar Liberator in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. A sculpture by Mark Antokolsky is located on the courtyard of the Kyiv National Picture Gallery in Kyiv, Ukraine. There is a monumental column in Shevchenko Park, Odesa, Ukraine.

Emperor Alexander II (1818–1881) was a ruler beloved by the Finns, whose reign and influence helped to produce significant societal changes. He died in 1881 as a victim of a bombing assassination, and in 1884 the Diet of Finland held a design contest for a monument placed at the Senate Square. All notable Finnish sculptors at the time were invited to the contest. This was the first sculpture design contest in Finland. Supported by the estate of the peasants, it was won by Johannes Takanen, with Walter Runeberg at second place, so the board of the contest decided to award the task of the final sculpture to both contestants. However, Johannes Takanen died in 1885, so the task of finishing the sculpture fell entirely on Runeberg, who combined Takanen's ideas with his own. Placing the statue at its exact location required precise work. According to experts, the statue should be located in the centre of the square in line with the main entrance doors to the Senate and to the University of Helsinki. Thus the matter had to be settled in the City Council of Helsinki, which appointed a 211 square metre space in the centre of the square for the statue.

The statue was unveiled on the emperor's birthday on 29 April 1894. Newspapers reported in the days before the unveiling that: "the celebration of the emperor has become a common celebration throughout the country. All meaningless bickering has now been cast aside; the entire people now stands as one to show their respect to the memory of the noble emperor." The day of the unveiling became a widespread patriotic demonstration. Three hundred cities and rural municipalities sent their representatives to the event with floral greetings. The event was attended by 30,000 people (half of the population of Helsinki at the time), and the event was also celebrated in many other places.

Data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).