Love a book - a source of knowledge. Reading monument from Toksova

TOXO. The first sculpture in the city was dedicated to book lovers.

A small village with a population of less than six thousand people can rightfully consider itself one of the cultural centers of the Leningrad region. Here, at different times, writers Alexei Tolstoy, Samuel Marshak, Alexander Green lived (at the time of writing the novel “Algol is a Double Star”), composers Mikhail Glinka and Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy, academicians Likhachev, Ioffe and Kurchatov. And the first monument in Toksov, which opened in 516 since its founding, was a bronze boy. Not burying himself on a tablet, not running after a Pokémon with a smartphone, not meeting a small need like Brussels Manneken-Pis, not sticking his tongue to a post like a little poor fellow from American Hammond, but reading a thick book with enthusiasm.

An ordinary book in the hands of an inquisitive teenager does not seem archaic despite the dominance of electronic media. Interest in traditional paper publications is gradually growing, albeit in millimeter steps. The appearance of a sculptural structure of a similar theme in Toksovo is natural. There are plenty of readers at the Toksov Library, which celebrated its 120th anniversary in June - one fifth of the city’s population. In the non-profit “Cultural Center” opened next door, children and adults have all the conditions for creative work and the development of intelligence. It is planned to create a “House of Russian Language and Literature” and the appearance of a literary cafe. The monument to the work of the St. Petersburg sculptor Mirzabek Alimirzayev is not only an adornment of the landscape, but also a structure that encourages active book-writing. The appearance of a new attraction was an excellent occasion for the transfer to local libraries of new works of St. Petersburg writers.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru