The sculptural composition “Robinson Crusoe and Friday”, installed in the park on S. Remezov Street in 2007, invariably raises the question: “What does Robinson Crusoe have to do with Tobolsk?”. The answer to this question is there.

The world-famous novel about the sailor Robinson Crusoe, who spent 28 years on a desert island. The author of this book was the English writer Daniel Defoe. “The life and amazing adventures of Robinson Crusoe” – the first novel of the writer, but it was he who brought him fame and worldwide fame. The success of the novel was so great among contemporaries that the author in the same 1719 wrote a second book about a sailor from York – “The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe”.

It is in the second part of Defoe’s novel that his literary hero finds himself in Tobolsk, returning from another trip. The way Robinson is a valid way of travelers in the early XVIII century in Siberia. It is impossible to find in Defoe any details of Russian life that are not confirmed by literary sources of that time, which the author, who had not been to Siberia, used in his creative work.

Therefore, the monument to Robinson Crusoe is perceived in Tobolsk as a dedication to all European travelers of those times who visited our city.