Monument to Russia's first communications minister to be erected in Moscow

On Friday the foundation stone has been laid for a monument to Pavel Melnikov, the first Russian communications minister. The monument will rise on the Komsomolskaya square in Moscow.

The current railways minister, Gennady Fadeyev, participated in the ceremony. He called this even "historical for the sector and the state" and reminded the words of Melnikov, uttered almost 150 years ago when massive construction of private railways was on in Russia, that railways should belong to the state.

With Melnikov's immediate involvement and guidance over 4,700 kilometers of track was laid in the country. Half a century after the beginning of the railway boom the Transsiberian mainline road reached the Pacific coast.