Nikolay Laveretsky

His sculpture of a boy and girl feeding a bird, sent from Rome in 1868, earned him the title of "academician".

[4] Together with Ivan Schroeder [ru], Matvey Chizhov, and Hugo Zaleman [ru], he took part in a major sculptural project known as the "Памятник Тысячелетию России" (Millennium of Russia), erected in Novgorod according to designs created by Mikhail Mikeshin.

Laveretsky and his team worked on the eastern frieze, with 26 figures, representing "Государственные люди" (statesmen).

His best known work is the cast-iron statue, "Russia [ru]", which was created in 1896 at the Kasli foundry.

The pavilion was such a success that French President Émile Loubet offered to buy it for the equivalent of two million rubles.