The Russian government will present Egypt with a statue of the prominent 19th century Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, said the Russian Cultural Center on Wednesday during a press conference. The statue will be displayed to the public at the Library of Alexandria on June 12 during the opening ceremony of the Russian cultural festival in Egypt. The statue of Pushkin will be the second of a Russian writer in Egypt. The first was a statue of writer Antoine Chekhov, which was unveiled in April last year. Emad Abu Ghazi, Egypt's minister of culture, expressed a wish that statues of Russian writers be erected in squares all over Cairo in honor of their achievements in world literature. Alexander Pushkin was a Russian author of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. His work was among the first to criticize the nobility and uphold the principles of equality and democracy.
