"The equestrian statue of Peter the Great was created by the great 
French sculptor Etienne Falconet, who embodied in his sculpture the idea of 
'enlightened absolutism' put forward by the French Encyclopaedists: the 
monarch is directing his country along the path of progress.  Peter the Great
is depicted as a rider crowned with a laurel wreath; he has halted his 
galloping steed, forcing it to obey his iron will.  The rock is symbol of 
the impediments removed and the crushed snake -- defeated evil.  On the 
pedestal, a granite rock bearing the outlines of wave crashing down, in 
bronze letters in Russian and Latin a laconic inscription reads 'To Peter I 
from Catherine II'.  The date -- 1782 -- signifies the year when the monument
was unveiled.

Falconet worked on this sculpture intensively and selflessly.  The best horses
in royal stables were placed at the disposal of the sculptor.  Day after day 
riding-masters galloped at great speed onto a specially constructed model of 
the pedestal of the future monument.  Falconet scrupulously copied the 
movements and the poses of the rearing horses, the tenseness of their muscles.
Finally he found a way of depicting the horse. One of the generals, an 
outstanding cavalry officer who was similar in height and figure to Peter the
Great, posed for the sculptor.

Considerable difficulties were involved in transporting the granit block for 
the pedestal to the city from the environs of St. Petersburg, the village of 
Lahta, where it was found.  It seemed it would be impossible to deliver the 
1,600-ton monolith to St.Petersburg.  However, an unknown Russian blacksmith 
found a brilliant solution: he suggested that the rock should be raised by 
levers, mounted on a platform of logs and rolled on copper balls along rails 
with grooves (more than 5 miles) to the shores of the Gulf of Finland from 
whence a specially constructed barge delivered it to the square by the 
Senate."