Azov Campaigns of Peter I

The mosaics in the underpass at the intersection of Budennovsky Avenue and Bolshaya Sadovaya Street focus on military glory of the residents of the Don region.

The subject of the main picture in the western gallery is related to the Azov Campaigns of Peter I –military campaigns of Russia against the Ottoman Empire in 1695 and 1965. The young tsar set a task to give Russia an access to the sea, and for that, it was needed to take the Turkish fortress of Azov by assault, as it blocked the access to the sea. The first Azov Campaign was no success, because Russia had no navy, and it was impossible to besiege the sea fortress. Peter I took into account mistakes of the first campaign and built the fleet in a short time frame. Going down the Don, ships reached an estuary of the Temernik River. In the mosaic, Russian battleships and ships built under the order of Peter I are in the estuary of the Temernik River; repairing of the ships is well under the way; carpenters and workers are laboring; tar is bubbling in the cauldron, it was used for an underwater part of the ship to protect it from rotting. Peter I personally goes to supervise repairing of the ships. Preparations for the assault are in full swing, naval guns are cleared, soldiers of Peter’s army are drilled. The authors’ work startles: the ship, barrels and even the smoke are utterly realistic. The mosaics of various tones produces a dimensional effect, you can guess a mood from the faces of the characters.

In the other part of the western gallery, you can see a picture Everyday Life before the Battle – happy days of Cossack life without wars, unrest, deaths and distress. You can clearly feel the atmosphere of festivities, rejoicing after Cossacks returned from a military campaign. Cossack women are cooking ukha (a fish soup), a Cossack man is taking a huge sheatfish to the cauldron, the other is tenderly patting a Cossack boy on the head. There are scenes from Don Cossack everyday living.

On the opposite side, there are rushing Cossacks, raising a dust under their horses’ hooves; a drum, cannons, cannon balls, a sword, a saber, guns and pikes. The pike was a horrible weapon of ramming, it had an iron spearhead. It is a composition on strength and valor of Don Cossacks.

In the next scene of the underpass, you can see a steering wheel, an anchor, a ship, a fortress and a ribbon with three colors of the Russian flag – symbols of the Azov Campaigns. The authors tried to design the three pictures so that to narrate an integrated story.