A monument to the legendary customs officer Pavel Vereshchagin from the White Sun of the Desert has been set up in Moscow. The unveiling ceremony took place at the headquarters of the Federal Customs Service in Fili, Moscow.

      The bronze composition depicts Vereshchagin with a revolver in his hand standing on barge, which smugglers wanted to use for trafficking gold items and cultural valuables abroad. 

      The monument has the customs officer’s famous phrase inscribed: “I do not take bribes; it is offensive for the Empire!”

      The monument is 2.35 m high and its weight makes more than one and a half tons. The sculpture was cast by foundrymen from the village of Katyn near Smolensk under the guidance of its author, the Moscow sculptor Yekaterina Koval .

      For many generations the image of Pavel Vereshchagin became an epitome of human charming, a paragon of professional loyalty, honor and integrity, a true model of national character.