The monument was ordered by Nicholas II, who ascended the throne. After considering several projects, he focused on the proposal of Paolo Trubetskoy, an Italian of Russian origin. The bronze sculpture itself was made under the guidance of the foundry master Sperati, it was cast in the workshop of K. Robecchi, and a powerful heavy horse - at a steel plant located in Obukhov. The project of a three-meter granite pedestal was developed by F. Shekhtel.

He worked on the monument to Trubetskoy in a workshop built for this purpose, located near the [Alexander Nevsky Lavra] (http://kudago.com/spb/place/aleksandro-nevskaya-lavra/). At the preparatory stage, the sculptor created about fifteen models of the monument - from small to full size, corresponding in size to the future monument. Contemporaries noted the unaccommodating and absurd character of the Italian master, who did not want to reckon with the opinion of people who disapproved of his work. Thus, Alexander III's brother, after carefully examining one of the models, called it a caricature, and Emperor Nicholas II, who was the main customer of the monument, said that he would be happy to exile the statue to Siberia. However, the decisive word was the word of Empress Maria Fedorovna, the widow of Alexander III, who liked the work because it found a great resemblance to the original in it.

The figure of Alexander III lacks the bombastic and brilliance characteristic of the sculptures of the August personalities. The emperor is dressed in practical simple clothes, his landing on a powerful horse is devoid of any pomposity. The author of the monument himself claimed that by creating a sculpture, he does not achieve a portrait resemblance, but conveys his vision of a person. There were rumors that in response to another criticism, Trubetskoy said that he did not pursue subtle political goals, but “depicted one animal on top of another.” At the beginning of the 20th century, the monument was erected and inaugurated.

Difficult times came for him in the post-revolutionary years. To begin with, the inscription engraved on the pedestal was replaced by a poem by Demyan the poor, very offensive to the monarchs: “My son and my father were executed during their lifetime, and I reaped the fate of the posthumous disgrace. I'm sticking around here with a cast-iron scarecrow for a country that has forever dropped the yoke of autocracy...” In the late 1930s, the monument was completely dismantled and transported to warehouses. Two decades later, the monument was erected near the [Russian Museum] (http://kudago.com/spb/place/russkij-muzej/), and in the 1980s, the horse's figure was covered with a cap made of boards. It was only in the early 90s that the equestrian monument to Alexander III was erected in front of the [Marble Palace] (http://kudago.com/spb/place/mramornyj-dvorec/).