This print is based on a painting by the French artist Auguste Cadolle. He was an officer in the French army and saw Moscow burning in 1812. After the war, Auguste Cadolle came to the capital of the Russian Empire as an artist. He created a series of paintings depicting Moscow. This is the view that he saw from Sparrow Hills in the 1820s. It was exactly the same when the young Alexander Herzen and Nikolay Ogarev visited the spot in 1826 or 1827. This was where the foundation stone of a church had been laid to commemorate the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon. The young men vowed to fight for justice and “sacrifice their lives for this goal.”

Later, during his exile in Vyatka, Alexander Herzen met the architect Alexander Vitberg who designed the church. In 1838, he wrote to Vitberg,

In 1979, a monument was erected on this spot to commemorate the oath taken by Alexander Herzen and Nikolay Ogarev. For many years, the monument was in disrepair, damaged by vandals. In the 21st century, it was restored thanks to the efforts of the British playwright Tom Stoppard. He wrote a trilogy of plays titled “The Coast of Utopia”, with characters including liberal Russian intellectuals such as Alexander Herzen and Nikolay Ogarev. Tom Stoppard visited Moscow to stage his play and, upon arrival, immediately went to visit the memorial on Sparrow Hills. As the playwright himself put it, “he did not walk but rather flew there.” He was disappointed by the state of the monument and organized a cleanup day, which was attended by artists from the Russian Academic Youth Theater (RAMT), where his play was staged, and students from Moscow State University. After that, the monument was restored and got a new life.

“The Coast of Utopia” received its premiere at RAMT in October 2007. The Russian production lasted more than ten hours, including breaks.