Irkutsk residents call their city the capital of Eastern Siberia and simply «the middle of the earth». It is equally far from the Northern and southern oceans, to the Western and Eastern capitals. However, there is absolutely no provincial dullness and grayness. On the contrary, it is a bright, joyful and very Sunny city.
Irkutsk's monument to Emperor Alexander III was erected in 1908 to commemorate the emperor's decision to build the Trans-Siberian Railway.
In 1920 the statue was removed and destroyed. It was briefly replaced with a Lenin Statue and then with a statue of the First Pioneers of Siberia. After the fall of the Soviet Union a decision was taken to return Alexander and a new five metre statue was created and installed in 2003 on the 100th anniversary of the Trans-Siberian Railway