In 1794, historian N. Ilyinsky arrived in Nizhny Novgorod to gather information about Kuzma Minin. He discovered that there was neither a monument nor an inscription over the hero's grave and proposed to establish a monument. Since 1804, I. P. Martos began working on the sculptural composition. After completing the sketches in the spring of 1809, a fundraising campaign was organized in Nizhny Novgorod province. By 1811, 18,000 rubles had been raised, but on February 15 of the same year, the Committee of Ministers decided to erect the monument in Moscow.

On February 20, 1818, the monument was installed in the center of Red Square, and a year later, the Academy of Arts announced a competition for the design of an obelisk with bas-reliefs for Nizhny Novgorod. The winners were A. I. Melnikov and I. P. Martos. A. A. Betancourt proposed to place it in the center of the Kremlin parade ground, but in 1825 it was decided to erect the obelisk on the same axis as the military Assumption Cathedral. On August 15, 1828, after the military parade of the Nizhny Novgorod garrison, the obelisk was ceremoniously unveiled.