Standing in front of the Aleksandrinsky Theatre is a famous statue of Empress Catherine the Great which was unveiled in 1873. The monument depicts the empress standing on a pedestal and at the base of the pedestal there are statues of important figures during Catherine's reign - Pyotr Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky, Grigory Potyomkin, Aleksandr Suvorov, Aleksandr Bezborodko, Ivan Betskoy, Vasili Chichagov, Aleksey Orlov-Chesmensky, Gavriil Derzhavin and Ekaterina Dashkova. It is the work of the famous architect Mikhail Mikeshin and shares certain features with Mikeshin's most famous work: the Millennium of Russia Monument Bell in Novgorod Veliky. Despite the statue's imperial motive, it escaped being dismantled during the Soviet era, although there was at one point a plan to replace it with a statue of Lenin.