Why is there a monument to Peter the Great in Arkhangelsk?

Some believe it is because he founded ArkhangelskBut this is not so – Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of a fortress in this place.

The official justification for the monument's installation is as follows: thanks to the Tsar, state-owned shipbuilding began in Arkhangelsk (126 different sailing vessels were built by 1725), and the first naval detachment of ships was created to guard the port and shipyards.

The monument was unveiled in 1914 on the initiative of the governor Ivan Sosnovsky, but in 1920 it was toppled from its pedestal as a "metal image of the hydra of capitalism—the Tsar." The bronze Tsar lay on the embankment for 13 years, then was hidden away until better times. Those times arrived in 1948: the monument was erected in the same spot. 

Many are skeptical of the idea that Peter the Great developed Arkhangelsk. He destroyed the Pomor fishing vessels, and with them, trade, while the first Arkhangelsk shipyard was built on Solombala Island by order of Ivan the Terrible. The Tsar again deprived the freed Black Sos peasants of their freedom and forbade the native Pomors from fishing and hunting, turning them into sailors. The Tsar simply gifted the Nenets to his foreign friends, like monkeys.

"For St. Petersburg, the cult of Peter is historically justified, but for Arkhangelsk, which was sacrificed to St. Petersburg and deprived of its status as an international trading port, the veneration of Peter is a sign of the local elite's feeblemindedness. Some city residents even seriously believe that Peter founded Arkhangelsk.", - So считает Arkhangelsk local historian and publicist Ivan Moseev. 

You could say the monument stands because Russia has always admired strong personalities. Cults of personality.