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In downtown Tiraspol, private sponsorship is now sought for repairs to the base of the city's emblematic A.V. Suvorov statue

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Alexander Suvorov never lost a single battle in his military career. But now, as a result of rain and neglect, his statue in Tiraspol is waging a battle against the elements.

There is groundwater directly underneath the area where the statue sits, causing the pedestal on which the monument is located to show cracks.

Engineers from the Tiraspol city administration report that cracks in the statue's base are widening, and that repair work is required before the city's anniversary in October 2007.

Tiraspol's city administration has no money in this year's budget for repairing the Suvorov statue. Instead, it is seeking one or private sponsors who'll chip it with funds to cover the much-needed repairs in return for logo rights.

This was how a larger project got repaired in New York: The Statue of Liberty, whose restoration took place in the 1980's thanks to a partnership between government and the private business sector. In May of 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed private businessman Lee Iacocca to head up a private sector effort to restore the Statue of Liberty. Fundraising began for the $87 million restoration under a public/private partnership which is to date the most successful such partnership in American history.

In PMR's case, much less will do: Around $6,000 will be enough says one of the engineers familiar with the work.

Alexander Suvorov represents to Tiraspol what the Statue of Liberty is to New York. Unlike Lenin, who by now only remains for historical reasons, Suvorov is a visible presence in every aspect of daily life in Pridnestrovie: His image is on the PMR Ruble, Pridnestrovie's local currency. The statue is shown on the local phone cards. There is locally-produced quality vodka and brandy with the Suvorov name and image. Military divisions are named after Suvorov, and his image is on shoulder patches of the PMR armed forces. The main TV station in the country has the Alexander Suvorov statue as part of its station ID, and state-run news agency Olvia Press uses Suvorov for its logo and image, too. Pridnestrovie's top football (soccer) team is referred to as "team Suvorov", but gets stiff competition from Tiraspol's #2 team, FC Tiraspol, which has adopted the Suvorov statue as part of its club's logo.

Symbolic statue

The Suvorov statue is widely considered the most important statue in Pridnestrovie. Although a few Lenin pieces still exist, they have no direct relation to Pridnestrovie the way that Suvorov does.

Alexander Suvorov is the father of Tiraspol which he personally founded 215 years ago, in 1792.

The military hero consolidated Russian rule over Pridnestrovie. Ever since, Pridnestrovie has never left the Russian orbit: It was part of Imperial Russia and stayed there to become part of the Soviet Union ever since it was founded (at that time, neighboring Moldova - on the other side of the Dniester river - was part of Romania).

When the Soviet Union fell, some in Moldova wanted to reunite with Moldova, while others wanted to create an independent Republic of Moldova. Pridnestrovie wanted neither: Staying true to its ethnic and historical roots, it saw no place for itself in Romania and no place inside a new Moldovan state either.

The land where Tiraspol was founded - bordering the Dniester river - has traditionally been Russian. Dating back more than a thousand years, it was part of the first Russian state, Kievan Rus. Later, it changed hands between Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania at times. It was never part of Moldova or Romania.

Tiraspol has a total of seventy statues and architectural monuments. Eighteen of these are assigned to the national government administration, with the remaining 52 being the responsibility of Tiraspol's City Hall.

See also:
» Alexander Suvorov, Russian military hero and founder of Tiraspol [1]

On the web:
» Football Club Tiraspol [2]