Monument to the janitor

The janitor appeared on Ostrovsky Square near the Alexandrinsky Theatre in 2007. The granite figure by sculptor Jan Neumann and architect Stanislav Odnovalov was originally installed here temporarily, but until now it has not been moved anywhere.

But how did this janitor end up in one of the central squares? Who the hell is that? These days, a street sweeper is a street sweeper. But earlier, in tsarist Russia, it was the real owner of the court. No wonder in addition to the broomstick, shovel and rake, a stereotypical janitor should have a whistle. Why? Previously, janitors monitored not only cleanliness, but also order, were secret police agents, were present as witnesses, guarded the yard, closing it for the night, and even issued a foreign passport to residents. The post was accompanied by a lamb hat - the same as that of the city. Becoming a janitor was not easy – you needed to enlist the recommendations of respected people. In short, the janitors were full-fledged representatives of the authorities - for which they were feared before the revolution, and then strongly disliked (by the way, according to one version, it was the janitor who killed the famous revolutionary Nikolai Bauman with a blow from a gutter pipe). Gradually, the profession of a janitor lost its importance - a modern street cleaner crystallized. It should be noted that in Soviet times, janitors went either for an apartment or for free time (the latter was often practiced by artists and writers), although this work did not become less useful.