The Bronze Horseman, a statue in Russia, needed a pedestal.

All the efforts to find a proper stone for the monument did not yield results. To solve the problem, a newspaper was released addressing the public to find a stone of proper size and notify the authorities.

A simple peasant who worked on transportation of stone already knew of such rock, which later would be called the Thunder Stone. He wanted to keep it for his own use, but did not have the tools. He reported the find and soon the stone was getting ready to be transported.

Originally, the stone weighed 2000 tons. To prepare it for transportation, a portion of it was chipped off to create a flat side. So the final weight of the stone was roughly 1500 tons.

The transportation was scheduled for the upcoming winter because the frozen soil could sustain the weight.