The Red Square of Rybinsk is the main square in the historical center of the city. There are many attractions of Rybinsk around it. The city authorities have recreated the historical appearance of the square. All the signs are made in the Old Russian language in the style of the 19th century, which greatly adorns this place.
Rybinsk`s Red Square has always been the main trade area. The Old Grain Exchange is located on the Volga Embankment a little to the side, and the square was surrounded by shopping malls. After the completion of the construction of the Mariinsky Water System in 1808, Rybinsk became a hub for the delivery of grain to St. Petersburg. Grain was transported from the Lower Volga to Rybinsk on large barges. After Rybinsk, shallow waters began on Sheksna, which required the transshipment of grain onto small flat-bottomed barges.
This attracted a large number of merchants, employees and workers to Rybinsk at the beginning of the 19th century. The city has money for the reconstruction of the center. In the first half of the 19th century, the long buildings of the Bread Shopping Arcade and the Red Shopping Arcade were built on the sides of the square. Russian cities built them in a traditional style: the lower floors were made in the form of arches for shops, and on the upper floors there were open space for retail trade.
On the north side, the Red Square of Rybinsk faces Cross Street. It remains the main street of the Old Town of Rybinsk. In 1912, a huge building of the New Grain Exchange was erected on the Volga Embankment, since the Old Exchange could not accommodate all merchants. It was built in the Russian terem style with art nouveau elements. Now it houses the Rybinsk City Museum.
A monument to Emperor Alexander II was erected in the center of Red Square in 1914. It was made by order of Rybinsk merchants in gratitude for the liberation from serfdom. Many merchants of Rybinsk were the children of serfs, but liberation allowed them to show their talents and achieve success.
The monument was installed on a huge pedestal of red granite, so the Soviet authorities, having removed the monument to Alexander II, decided to preserve the monument. At first there were various sculptures on it, but in 1959 a monument to Lenin in a winter coat and a fur hat, the work of Dagestani sculptor Khasbulat Askar-Saryji, was erected here. On other monuments Lenin is usually depicted him with or without a cap, but here the sculptor decided to "dress" Lenin in winter clothes.
