St. Nicholas Chapel On Red Square
In the spring of 1881, Emperor Alexander II of Russia was killed on March 13 at Saint Petersburg by a bomb attack carried out by members of the terrorist revolutionary organization Narodnaya Volya (“People’s Will”).
In connection with the tragic death, the Kursk government decided to build a monument to the murdered Tsar on Red Square in accordance with the desire of the citizens. 2571 rubles and 34 kopeek were quickly collected among the local population. One generous man donated 2000 bricks for the construction process.
The building of the chapel was laid on August 30, 1886. The construction of the memorial chapel was 6000 rubles. The Iconostasis and Icon of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky were donated by the Iconostasis master I.V. Teresa from Moscow.
On September 2, 1889, the chapel was solemnly consecrated. The chapel had two entrances. The southern one was always open, and the Northern one was only open on Church days. Painted in light green and blue, with Golden arches, windows in which the faces of saints can be seen, with a light blue hipped roof, from a gilded cross, mounted on a golden cupola.
After the October revolution, all monuments to the last Russian emperors were to be demolished. On April 12, 1918, a decree signed by V.I. Lenin “on monuments of the Republic”, which set the task of “mobilizing artistic forces, to develop projects of monuments that should mark the great days of the Russian socialist revolution”. This decree spoke not only about the demolition of the Royal monuments, but also about the need to replace the Royal emblems, coats of arms, and inscriptions on the streets and squares.
The Chapel on Red Square was also included. Kursk people tried to defend the chapel by putting forward a naive argument that the memorial chapel was erected in the memory of Russian soldiers that were killed in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877–1878. But nothing helped, and it was demolished in 1929.
REFERENCE
old-kursk.ru/kp/kp036.html
