Loyalty (monument)

Loyalty (Russian: Памятник преданности, romanized: Pamyatnik predannosti, lit. 'Loyalty Monument') is a monument to a faithful dog in the Russian city of Tolyatti.

Background

In 1995, residents of Tolyatti began noticing a German Shepherd dog at the edge of South Highway, a bypass road in the Auto Factory District of the town which leads to the AvtoVAZ car factory. He was always in the same place, and he rushed at passing cars. Word of the dog spread around the city and the people of the city informally adopted him.

Further research showed that in the summer of 1995 the dog had been riding in a car with a man and a girl. The car had crashed, the girl was killed on the spot, and the man was taken to a hospital where he died a few hours later; the dog survived. His name was not known, so people began calling him "Faithful" or "Kostya" (a hypocorism (affectionate diminutive) of Constantine which itself devolves from "constant, steadfast").

People built doghouses for him and some tried to adopt him into their homes, but no such attempt succeeded: the dog always came back, looking for his master, nor would he stay in the shelters; all he would take from the people was food. In the snow and rain, in any weather and time of year, he was always in his spot. The dog always waited and ran up to all passing vehicles. Everyone who traveled that road from the old city to the new always saw Kostya running along the roadside or resting quietly on the grass. The citizens became very fond of Kostya and turned his story into a living legend. Stories about the dog were published throughout Russia.