Mikeshin Mikhail Osipovich

Russian artist and sculptor, author of a number of outstanding monuments in major cities of the Russian Empire. In 1852 he entered the Academy of Arts, where he studied battle painting under the direction of B. P. Villevalde. In 1858 he graduated with honors from the Academy, receiving a large gold medal for the painting “Tilly's Entry into Magdeburg.” The romantic interpretation of patriotic themes that emerged during his years of study brought him the attention of the royal family and Mikeshin was invited to teach drawing the Grand Duchesses. Despite the fact that Mikeshin was, first of all, a battle painter, the project he presented for the monument to the millennium of Russia in Novgorod won the competition (1859) and was accepted for execution. After this, M. O. Mikeshin received many more similar orders. The monuments to Kuzma Minin in Nizhny Novgorod, Admiral Greig in Nikolaev and Alexander II in Rostov-on-Don, created according to his designs, became an illustration of the official formula “autocracy-Orthodoxy-nationality”. Mikeshin's projects also won international competitions (for example, the monument to Pedro IV in Lisbon). Few Mikeshin monuments survived the years of Soviet power. Among them are the Monument to Catherine II in St. Petersburg (1873) and the monument to M. Yu. Lermontov, Bogdan Khmelnitsky in Kyiv (1888), Ermak in Novocherkassk (1904) and the already mentioned monument to the millennium of Russia in Novgorod. In 1876-1878 Mikeshin edited the satirical magazine “Bee”. He published his cartoons there and published illustrations for the works of N.V. Gogol and T.G. Shevchenko. In 1892, together with F. F. von-Kanaloshy-Leffler, the future chairman, M. O. Mikeshin became one of the main founders of the first Esperantist society “Espero” (“Hope”) officially recognized by the Government (Ministry of Internal Affairs) in St. Petersburg.