The Bronze Horseman: Statue, Siege, and Symbol in Russian History

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the strange and layered history of the Bronze Horseman—the iconic statue of Peter the Great in Saint Petersburg. They trace its creation by the French sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet at the behest of Catherine the Great, the mythic 'Falconet's curse' that supposedly followed its unveiling, and its role as a symbol of autocracy and enlightenment. The conversation then turns to the statue's miraculous survival during the 900-day Siege of Leningrad during World War II, when it was sandbagged and left in place as a defiant emblem of the city's endurance. They also discuss the statue's reappearance in post-Soviet Russia as a contested monument, with debates about its meaning in modern St. Petersburg. Along the way, they touch on the Bronze Horseman's literary afterlife, especially in Pushkin's poem of the same name, which turned the statue into a symbol of the state's crushing power over the individual. Finally, Lucas connects the statue's history to the show's broader themes of revolution, memory, and the fragility of power.

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