Statue of Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky

The statue in front of the cathedral dates from 1818 and portrays Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky, who drove Polish invaders out of Moscow in 1612, 200 years before the French under Napoleon came to grief in this same place. This statue was originally in the middle of Red Square, but the communist government moved it here in 1936 because it was impeding parades.

Kuzma (Kozma) Minin was a merchant from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, who, together with Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, became a national hero for his role in defending the country against the Polish invasion in the early-17th century.

Dmitry Mikhaylovich Pozharsky (October 17, 1577 - April 30 , 1642) was a Rurikid prince, who led Russia's struggle for independence against Polish-Lithuanian invasion known as the Time of Troubles. He obtained from Mikhail I of Russia the unprecedented title Saviour of the Motherland.