Sculpture of the last of the Transcarpathians opryshkov (member of the peasant insurrectionary movement) Nikolai Shugaiit was installed by Mikhail Kolodk on January 31, 2015 on the railing of one of the oldest coffee shops Uzhgorod’s «Under castle»,at 3 Ivan Olbrakhta street (GPS: 48.620629, 22.303882).
The real name of this Transcarpathian Robin hood Nikola Petrovic Sugai (in Czech Shugai). His romantic biography became the basis for the creation of the novel “Nikolai shugay, robber” by the famous Czech writer Ivan Olbracht in 1933. In 1947, based on the plot of this novel, the popular Czech film.
I was looking for Nikolai Shugai Hungarian, Romanian, and after Transcarpathia became part of Czechoslovakia, the Czech police. Several times he was arrested, but the cunning Shugay always managed to escape. And it ends in treason. Either friends, or a loved one. As a result, Nikolai shugay and his brother Yuri were killed.
Nadezhda Popadyuk tells an interesting legend about this mini-sculpture in her book “Uzhgorod – the world capital of mini-sculptures”. According to legend, the main hiding place of Shugai, where he kept all the loot, was located in Uzhgorod in secret passages under castle. In 1988, a native of In Tyachiv district Yuri Rusnak founded a snack bar “Under the castle” in Uzhgorod, exactly in the place where the legendary Nikolai shugay once hid his treasures. According to Mr. Yuri, in the cafe, after dismantling the wall above the stove, he found a secret vault, but unfortunately there were no treasures there. However, in a pile of dust, he found a bronze mini-sculpture of a man with a gun. As it turned out, it was a mini-replica of Nikola Shugai with an M95 military rifle, which was found next to his dead body on August 16, 1921. Owner cafe-Museum “Under lock and key” installed this mini-sculpture on a small fence in front of the entrance to the coffee shop.
Coffee shop Under lock and key
