Created by the Russian artist Mihail Chemiakin, and installed in Bolotnaya Square, a park in the centre of Moscow in 2001, the unusual sculpture titled Children are the Victims of Adult Vices, depicting two blindfolded golden coloured playing children, a boy and a girl, with their hands outstretched towards each other, unknowingly surrounded by thirteen huge monsters, is an allegory of the fight against the adult vices. The focus of the huge composition, consisting of fifteen sculptures, are the two blindfolded children, along with a globe and two books, Russian Tales and Alexander Pushkin’s Fairy Tales, at their feet, who seem to be unaware that there is a semi-circle of thirteen huge anthropomorphic monsters around them, personifying the adult vices, which includes Indifference, Ignorance, Alcoholism, Drug addiction, Theft, Prostitution, Sadism, Child Labour, Irresponsible Science or Pseudoscience, Propaganda of violence, War, Poverty, and For Those Without Memory.

Standing tall in the centre of the vices, the only one on a pedestal, with closed eyes, plugging the ears with two of its four arms and the other two crossed across its chest, indicating indifference to the vices, is the statue of Indifference. Installed just at the right side of Indifference, the symbolic presentation of Pseudoscience or Irresponsible Science seems to be an old, wrinkly person, whose face is almost covered by a hood, hindering his senses of sight, sound and smell, and thus, affecting adversely his inability to receive, process, and accept information or evidence to judge a thing properly. Dressed in a long monkish robe with a big symbol on the chest and holding a scroll with pseudo-knowledge on it, the figure represents blind belief, without questioning, which is incompatible or opposite to science and truth. In his right hand, the figure of Irresponsible Science holds a stick, attached with strings, for manipulating a small creature, with two heads and a long tail like a lizard, which probably symbolises the irresponsible practice of applying medicines and exploitation of the weaker section of people, leading to serious negative consequences.

The word donkey is widely used to imply an idiot, a silly, stupid, shallow and uneducated person, and the statue of Ignorance, standing right to Pseudoscience, indicated as a vice in the sculpture, is depicted as a man with the head of a donkey, signifying an idiot, a silly, stupid, shallow and uneducated person. With a rattler in one hand and a clock in the other, Ignorance looks like a jester, a buffoon, and one among the hordes of entertainers oriented to encourage intellectual numbness.

Alcoholism, sitting next to Ignorance, on an enormous barrel of alcohol, adorned with a peculiar-shaped, big, smiling devilish face on it, is portrayed as a gross, double-chinned, half-naked, and obese man, with a big face, wearing a laurel-wreath-like headband, and holding an enormous antique bottle of alcohol in his left hand and a huge, decorated drinking horn in his right hand, possibly representing the Cornucopia, or the horn of plenty of Greek mythology, symbolising never-ending supply of drinks. The entire scene signifies unbridled festivities, involving wastage of food, consuming unrestrained alcohol, associated with other unhealthy habits. The symbolic figure of Theft, standing to the right of Alcoholism, is represented by the figure of a man with the head of a pig, and dressed in a long coat, probably to create an illusion of his credibility, and casually holding a small bag with two fingers of his right hand and a super sack on his left shoulder, which are presumably stolen. In addition, the way he delicately holds the smaller bag with his fingers may also indicate that he knows how to steal a thing silently, swiftly and cunningly. As pigs are often associated with dirtiness, a man with the face of a pig implies a morally dirty and shady person, and as his back is turned to the viewers, his attitude signifies his dishonesty, and avoidance of direct contact and openness

Prostitutes usually tend to highlight their feminine beauty, like the eyes, lips, breasts, and legs, to make them attractive to the possible customers, and in the sculpture, Prostitution, located to the right of Theft, is depicted as an attractive, inviting woman with a frog-like head, complete with big and open eyes, wide and puffy lips, adorned with a long necklace that plunges down, which inevitably directs attention to her breasts. Drug addiction, standing to the right of Prostitution, is depicted as a bald man with bent wings, offering a syringe in one hand and some other drug in the other.

Propaganda of violence, with the look of a cannon, a tall hat on his head, and holding a shield embossed with weaponry, is depicted as an arms dealer, while Sadism, standing left to Propaganda of violence, is depicted as a bloated, horrifying and brutal figure, with the head of a rhinoceros, along with a sharp horn above the nose, indicating savage force, violence, torture, and disregard of the welfare of others. Sadism may actually represent several age-old direct and indirect methods which the adults use to make the children obey, hampering their desires, preferences, emotions and uniqueness, leading to their numerous mental and physical problems in later life. However, Child Labour, which is a nauseating subject, is portrayed as a nicely dressed man in an inviting pose to join his workforce, but with the head of a bird, along with a huge, arched, and sharp beak resembling one of an eagle, vulture, or griffin, he looks like a savage predator.

Among the other vices, the sculpture of Poverty, standing in between Child Labour and War, is depicted as a barefooted old woman with sagging breasts, begging for help, while War is depicted as a robotic creature, with bird-like feet and wings resembling swords, wearing a gas mask, and holding a bomb, seemingly presenting it to the children as if it is a toy. However, the allegorical representation of For Those without Memory is completely different from the others, which is only a pillar, with a crawling snake on it, signifying a torture device used for punishment by public humiliation.

All the sculptures of the thirteen vices, depicted in The Children are the Victims of Adult Vices, are impeccably created, and incredibly detailed, showing them advancing and closing their circle on the little innocent golden boy and the girl. However, although the artist declared them as the symbol of social evils and a call to fight and eradicate them for the safety of the present and future generations, there was some concern from some of the Muscovites, who apprehended that the outstretched hands of the grotesque evils would frighten children. Nevertheless, despite the concern, the amazing sculpture was untouched, and survived, and can still be seen just south of the Kremlin on the banks of the Moscow River, as a civil warning.