Moscow Watchdogs

There is such a wonderful dog breed - the Moscow watchdog, which, as you know, was created in the USSR about 70 years ago. These dogs are beautiful, but today we will speak not about them. We will speak about those, in whose memory monuments were erected in Moscow. Days and nights, these bronze dogs guard the capital, remind us of the merits of these faithful human companions and of the truly canine qualities - devotion and courage. And how important it is to take care of every living being, because life is priceless.

Moreover, they bring happiness. Some Muscovites and guests of the city go to the Ploshchad Revolyutsii metro station to rub the nose of a shepherd dog, which is immortalized there in bronze along with a soldier. This soldier is the legendary border guard Karatsupa, and the dog is the no less legendary Indus, the constant companion of the famous warrior. In fact, this is not Indus, but... Irma. It turned out that during the construction of this station, the architect Alexey Dushkin replaced the famous dog with the image of his beloved one. But not everyone remembers this, whereas the tradition founded by the students of the Bauman School back in 1938, at the time when the station was opened, has survived. Moreover, on the Ploshchad Revolyutsii metro station, there are four sculptures, and each of the four dogs has their noses rubbed to a shine with millions of hands. So, this works!

Almost a hundred years ago, in 1924, the well-known canine kennel "Red Star" was opened in the Terletsky Park of Moscow. During the Great Patriotic War, service dogs were trained here. And they prepared - just think! - 33071 brave dogs! For four years, the four-legged pupils of the Red Star club destroyed more than 300 German tanks, discovered about 4 million explosive devices and carried more than 650 thousand wounded soldiers from the battlefield. The sculpture in the Terletsky park, where the warrior dog is depicted together with his instructor, is dedicated to this heroism.

Dogs save human lives not only in war, but also in peacetime. They work together with human rescuers during emergencies: earthquakes, collapses, disasters. There are numerous people who survived only because they were discovered under the rubble by rescue dogs. And the symbolic figure of one of these dogs rightfully occupies a place next to the figures of people in the sculptural composition located in the park on Kremenchugskaya Street, not far from the National Crisis Management Center. This is a monument to rescuers opened on December 27, 2010. It was opened, by the way, by Sergei Shoigu, who was the Minister of the Russian Federation for Emergency Situations at that time.

“Laika, you are my space!”, this wonderful dog deserves hearing this. And you certainly know why: it was the first living creature in history to travel into space. The flight took place on November 3, 1957. By the way, this heroic dog was named Laika at the Institute of Military Medicine, where she was prepared for a journey into the space orbit. Before that, she bore the nickname of Kudryavka and was supposed to die in the flayer's. Rescuing the dog, scientists gave her a chance to remain in history. Kudryavka-Laika never returned to Earth: she died during the flight due to an excessive increase in temperature inside the Sputnik-2 spacecraft. The monument to the cosmonaut dog was erected on the territory of the Institute of Military Medicine not far from the Dynamo metro station.

Dogs save, dogs promise happiness, dogs take humanity into the space orbit... And they just make us happy. The way the famous Klyaksa did - the "partner" of Karandash the clown (Mikhail Rumyantsev). This circus duet was incredibly popular, and the black Scottish terrier was a favorite dog of the whole country. Many people went to the circus solely for the sake of seeing the funny dog. Undoubtedly, Klyaksa also deserves a monument! And it was installed in 2008 near the Frunzenskaya metro station near the House of the Union of Circus Figures of Russia.

Yuri Nikulin, another great clown, as well as an equally great film actor, was also known for his love to dogs. He adored them all his life, from his childhood. The Giant Schnauzer Fedor was the last dog of Yuri Vladimirovich, whom the actor loved so much that he did not part with him even after leaving for another world. Fedor can be seen on the monument to Nikulin at the Novodevichy Cemetery. By the way, the dog missed his Man so much that he did not stay long without him in this world and went to the rainbow only four years later.

Dogs give us their selfless devotion from all their generous hearts and protect us from evil people, terrible events and just from a bad mood. How do we answer? Are we always able to protect them? The sculpture at the Mendeleevskaya metro station reminds us about this. Muscovites call this monument “Sympathy”. Its hero is a mongrel dog Malchik, who died at the hands of an inadequate woman. Malchik was very loved and looked after by metro workers, but, alas, they did not save him. The pedestal of the monument created by the sculptor Alexander Tsigal, artist Sergei Tsigal and architect Andrey Nalich (father of the famous musician Peter Nalich), reads: "Sympathy. Dedicated to the humane treatment of homeless animals".

These bronze Moscow watchdogs keep the capital from misfortune. Let's treat them in the same way.