Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices, Bronze sculpture in Bolotnaya Square, Moscow, Russia
Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices is a bronze work on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow that shows two blindfolded children surrounded by thirteen human forms. The arrangement forms a circle with the two smaller figures at the center and the larger forms enclosing them.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov commissioned the work in 2001, with the oil company Rosneft providing the funds. The piece emerged as a public comment on social problems following the end of the Soviet Union.
The two figures at the center hold books of Russian fairy tales while thirteen forms surround them, each one embodying different threats to innocence. These surrounding forms carry symbolic features tied to vices such as addiction, violence, or ignorance.
The work stands about 600 meters south of the Kremlin in the Balchug district, behind the British ambassador's residence. The square is accessible from several streets and lies in a quiet area along the Moskva River.
One of the thirteen forms shows a bald man with bent wings holding syringes, while another figure carries a frog head. These features are visible up close and give the composition an unexpected directness.
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