This article examines changing accounts of Falconet's Peter the Great from
the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. From the texts of Diderot to Pus
hkin's poem, from Herzen's polemics to Bely's fictions, the monument is mar
ked by shifting identities. Instead of being stamped with stable, unchangin
g form and significance, Falconet's sculpture proved to be remarkably malle
able within the space of the work's reception. Although it survived initial
threats of destruction, the work became transfigured in the texts of later
writers. The article traces the history of these transformations as sympto
ms of a crisis in sculptural and political symbolization. From the enlighte
ned absolutism of Catherine II to the dramatic shifts of the October Revolu
tion, the monument formed a compelling seismograph of political change.