Monument to Empress Maria Alexandrovna in Ilyinskoye

Obviously, our birthdays largely reflect us: our characters, preferences and tastes. So the 200th anniversary of Empress Maria Alexandrovna is being celebrated under the sign of her personality – intimately and thoughtfully…

It must have been the Empress herself who ordered that in this significant year a monument dedicated to her be erected and opened in a place that became for her a symbol of family happiness and solitude - in the personal estate of Empress Maria Alexandrovna near Moscow, in Ilyinskoye.

I sincerely congratulate my colleagues, friends and associates from the Elisabeth -Sergius Educational Society on this grand event in the cause of perpetuating the memory of Empress Maria Alexandrovna!

It is symbolic and touching that the unveiling of the monument happened to be “next door” to the birthday of the Empress’s beloved son, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich.

And the monument itself is wisely directed towards the future – Empress Maria Alexandrovna, comfortably seated with her younger sons and four-legged friend, surrounded by books, looks at us...