St. Alexander Nevsky Monument Consecrated at Defense University in Moscow

The Defense University in the Russian capital has gotten a double link with Prince St. Alexander who was born 800 years ago. To wit, the name of the University has received an honorable extension — Prince Alexander Nevsky — and the monument to the Prince has been opened in the courtyard of the University.

Prince St. Alexander got his nickname "Nevsky" for a victory he won over the Swedish invaders on the Neva river, were now stands the city of St. Petersburg. Later, the Russians under his command crushed the German crusaders on the ice of Lake Chudskoe, thus saving Russians from being wiped of existence, as was the fate of a several neighboring tribes.

The rite of the monument consecration was administered by the Vicar of Moscow’s Danilov monastery, Bishop Alexei.

"Today, like in the days of yore, we are ready to defend our nation following the example of Prince Alexander," said the Commander of the University, General-Lieutenant Igor Mishutkin. "His image as a national hero will remain a uniting force and role model for all of us."

I just tried to find a picture where there is a head to the statue. Apparently, FOR *THIS* STATUE, that is not yet available. The number of statues, sculptures & images of Grand Prince Alexander of Kiev & Vladimir (Nevsky) [1221-1263] is apparently near endless. It is obvious that even in the Soviet times, his status as a Russian Orthodox Saint was ignored for his 'Kievan Rus' patriotic history.

In 1922, during the Lenin Bolshevik confiscation/destruction of Russian Orthodox Churches, the tomb of the Saint, located in Saint Petersburg's Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra was opened and the massive silver reliquary was opened. The reliquary itself was put in the City's Hermitage Museum while its contents, the relics of the Saint, were stored in the former Kazan Cathedral that was 'cleansed' and reopened as Leningrad's "Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism".

However, after the fanatical atheism of the early years, the usefulness of Prince Alexander Nevsky as a patriotic predecessor to the great Soviet State became too useful to ignore! When, in 1938, Sergei Eisenstein released the massive film "Alexander Nevsky", made with lavish use of Soviet Army troops and with the soundtrack by Sergei Prokofiev, it was clear that dead Saints had their use to the atheist Marxists like Stalin. The topper came with the revival of a Czarist medal in the form of the Soviet "Order of Alexander Nevsky" for WW2 service.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the use of Russian Orthodoxy to bolster Russian Nationalism, particularly by Vladimir Putin, Nevsky has been greatly re-emphasized. The fact that his biggest reputation rests on his battles against invaders from the west (Sweden & Germany) helps Putins anti-NATO push. Note has been made that another Nevsky statue, recently erected in Leningrad=>Saint Petersburg with President Putin on hand, faces accurately but pointedly to the West.

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