Monument to Peter I by Mihail Chemiakin, Bronze statue in the Peter and Paul Fortress, Saint Petersburg, Russia

The Monument to Peter I by Mihail Chemiakin is a bronze statue of the tsar seated on a throne, installed on the Main Avenue of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The sculpture stands 1.90 m tall on a grey granite base 0.36 m high, enclosed by a metal fence. Chemiakin enlarged the body to about 1.5 times while keeping the head small, giving the figure grotesque proportions.

The idea came from Vladimir Vysotsky, who urged his friend Mihail Chemiakin to sculpt Peter I; after Vysotsky's death Chemiakin returned to it and worked eight years, making three versions. A plasticine sketch was approved by Dmitry Likhachov, and Anatoly Sobchak had the statue placed on the fortress's Main Avenue. Cast in bronze by Tallix Art Foundry in New York State and donated to the city, it was unveiled on 7 June 1991.

The statue's face reproduces a life mask of Peter taken by Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1719, six years before the tsar's death, and the base plaque states this. A side plaque reads that the work comes from the Italian sculptor Rastrelli and the Russian artist Mikhail Chemiakin, 1991, cast in America. Chemiakin's elongated figure drew criticism at first and had to be guarded against vandalism.

The statue stands on the Main Avenue of the Peter and Paul Fortress, on a grey granite base 0.36 m high and inside a metal fence. It is small, 1.9 m tall, so approach closely to see the face and long fingers. The fortress grounds are open daily; the bronze plaque on the base is in Russian and English.

Chemiakin made three versions of the statue over eight years; the other two stand in Normandy, France, and in Claverack, New York, where he then lived. The head follows a life mask Rastrelli took in 1719, six years before Peter's death, while the body was stretched toward the proportions of Russian icons.