«I hate gossip in the form of versions,
«the worms of doubt, the needle of honor,
«or when it’s always against the grain,
or — when iron on glass…»
Vladimir Vysotsky
The first monument in honor of the 60th anniversary of the poet, musician and actor Vladimir Vysotsky was opened in Mariupol near the House of Communication on January 20, 1998. The authors of the monument are E.V.Kharabet and Y.I.Baldin. It was the first Monument to Vysotsky erected in Ukraine and CIS.
On the monument hung a round bronze medallion with a bas-relief of Vysotsky, above the bas-relief — a stylized image of a theatrical curtain, a sword (an allusion to one of the most striking roles of Vysotsky — Prince Hamlet), a wolf and two horse faces (popular songs «Hunting for Wolves» and «Horses are finicky»). Also originally on the pedestal was the inscription «Mariupol does not give its love to random people». The profile was made of bronze, the stele is carved from black granite in the form of a torch. Valery Zolotukhin, Semyon Farada, Vitaly Shapovalov and Yuri Lyubimov attended the opening of the monument.
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Also on January 25, 1998, a memorial plaque was erected on the building of the Iskra Palace of Culture in honor of the fact that Vysotsky performed on its stage on March 16, 1973.
Thus Mariupol became the owner of the only monument to Vysotsky in the CIS, except for the famous tombstone of Vysotsky on his grave on Vagankovskoye, which does not fall into the category of monuments by definition. Although the Mariupol granite column with bas-relief was not a monument in itself, or rather it was called a memorial stele. The creative solution of the stele at first caused a mixed assessment of the local community. Some fiercely criticized it, attaching the nickname «a nickel on a stick», others kept silent — they were stopped by the authority of the author — E. Kharabet.
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Anyway, in 2003 the monument was demolished and replaced by another one, where Vysotsky was depicted as Gleb Zheglov from the feature film «The Place of Meeting Change You Can’t». The opening was timed to the 65th anniversary of Vysotsky and was planned for January 25, but then it was postponed to February 7. The new sculpture was made by young Mariupol sculptors Vladimir and Igor Zhigulin from synthetic compound.
Zheglov is dressed in a leather cloak and has a pistol in his hand. Mariupol residents were not enthusiastic about the new monument either. The gun was broken off four times by vandals. In the end, it was replaced by a downward-facing finger. But that, too, was soon broken off. In 2006, a crack appeared on the chest of the monument.
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The dismantled stela by Kharabet, after numerous protests of the local creative intelligentsia, was reinstalled on Leninsky Komsomol Square, while the former inscription «about love of Mariupol», for some reason disappeared and was replaced by an excerpt from the poet’s poem. The appearance of the pedestal of the stele was also changed. After the opening of the new monument to Vysotsky and reinstallation of the old stele to another place, Mariupol became the only city in the world where two monuments to this outstanding poet are installed at once.