The Monument to Merchant Greed is a future monument meant to attract tourists. It is to appear in Nizhny Novgorod on 3 November 2012, as reported by the coordinators of the Christmas Side. The monument was created in memory of the "Salt Affair," which took place in 1864.
The Memorial) will be installed near the building of the former "Salt Office" on Rozhdestvenskaya, near house number 8.
The essence of the phenomenon
A symbolic monument to both the former and the present-day Nizhny Novgorod Corruption.
A project meant to culturally divert attention from the corrupt component of the "Christmas Side" project itself.
The legend of the monument
In 1964, after a flood, the salt warehouses along the bank of the Oka turned out to be empty.
However, the warehouses had been empty even before the flood. The head of the salt office, the nobleman Verderevsky, had stolen the salt with the help of Terskiy, the overseer of the salt reserves, and the merchants Blinov and Bugrov. Verderevsky was convicted and subjected to "civil execution," while the merchants bought their way out.
Verderevsky and Terskiy were stripped of all rights and exiled to a settlement in Siberia. They were also made liable for compensating the losses, and, should they prove insolvent, the merchants were to pay instead. Fyodor Blinov's father gave his son cast-iron galoshes with the parting words: "Wear them once a year and remember our honor."
The monument will consist of two cast-iron galoshes, size 58, standing on sacks of salt, positioned so that anyone wishing to try on the Blinov galoshes can fit their foot into them.