Vladivostok Novosti Company
May 21, 2008

Blagoveshchensk keeps in memo shuttle traders

Combined reports

A bronze statue to shuttle traders, or chelnoks, to be mounted in the town of Blagoveshchensk, Amur region, on Saturday.

Photo by www.amur.info

A bronze statue to shuttle traders, or chelnoks, to be mounted in the town of Blagoveshchensk, Amur region, on Saturday.


The first in the Russian Far East monument to shuttle traders, Russia's first businessmen of the 1990s, will be unveiled in the city of Blagoveshchensk, Amur region, on Saturday.

A two-meter tall bronze sculpture of a man carrying a huge bag, will be placed near the city's trade complex 'Amurskaya Yarmarka' (Amur Fair) two days before Day of Businessmen celebrated in Russia on May 26, the Amur.info news agency said.

The monument embodies “a local Amur trader of the 1990s who looks ahead with confidence,” the agency cited Anatoly Telyuk, head of Blagoveshchensk Businessmen Association, as saying.

Telyuk and other businessmen initiated the project and the city's authorities gave their approval. It took local sculptor Valery Razgonyayev eight months to make the monument.

According to Telyuk, many of the city's stable companies originated from small businesses started by former shuttle traders.

The shuttle trading business started in Russia in the 1990s during the perestroika era, when many talented and competent people in Russia were left without jobs and began to go abroad to buy goods to sell them later in Russia.

The monument is believed to grant wealth and luck in business to every person who decides to put a coin into the bronze man's purse, Amur.info reported.

The statue to shuttle traders in Blagoveshchensk will become the second monument of its kind, the first monument being in the town of Belgorod in western Russia.
Other materials of this Issue:
Giant container terminal to be built in Zarubino
Vladivostok elects expected mayor
China’s Vice Consul robbed in Khabarovsk
Your comments: