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Moscow to Build Monuments to Poet Pasternak and Weapon Designer Kalashnikov

Mikhail Kalashnikov holds an AK-47 automatic rifle.

Monuments to Soviet-era dissident writer Boris Pasternak and rifle designer Mikhail Kalashnikov are to appear on the streets of Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.

Both statues will be installed on Oruzheyny Pereulok in the centre of the city.

The monument to Pasternak - a standing figure with a book in his hands - was made by a celebrated Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli. The statue will be erected near the house in which the poet was born.

The monument to Mikhail Kalashnikov, the creator of the AK- 47 rifle, will appear at the intersection of Oruzheyny Pereulok and Krasnoproletarskaya Ulitsa.

The monument's installation was backed by the Russian Military-Historical Society and is estimated to cost 35 million rubles ($538,000).

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