You know that demons don't really exist, don't you? Mephistopheles is a fictional character representing irony and dialectical truth, mainly associated with Goethe's Faust, part of world literature. Goethe's Faust has been turned into a popular opera by Charles Gounod, an opera very popular in Russia, have here Mephistopheles' serenade sung by famous Russian opera singer Nikita Storojev, here Mephistopheles aria "The Golden Calf" by Alexei Tikhomirov and here the "soldiers chorus" of this opera performed by the Kremlin guard. That this statue was destroyed and that the Orthodox church even justified it is a huge surpise as it shows that Russia becomes Talibanesque. Before that they (bad enough) attacked artists and galeries when they depicted blasphemous or politically provocative works, but all of it contemporary and with an obvious political bent - you know against modernism in art, subversion, "degenerate art" and such. This was a protected monument from 1910 and the figure is connected to the proud history of the Saint Petersburg opera as well as to the architectural heritage of the pre-Bolshevik old Russia. No wonder that it drives thousands to the street. It represents the fight between the authentic Russian heritage and culture and the weird corrupt Orthodox state-cult of the regime that is basically nihilistic power worship with the scent of incense.

Mephistopheles (/ˌmɛfɪˈstɒfɪˌliːz/, German pronunciation: [mefɪˈstɔfɛlɛs]; also Mephistophilus, Mephistophilis, Mephostopheles, Mephisto, Mephastophilis and variants) is a demon featured in German folklore. He originally appeared in literature as the demon in the Faust legend, and he has since appeared in other works as a stock character. The word may derive from the Hebrew mephitz, meaning "destroyer", and tophel, meaning "liar"; "tophel" is short for tophel shequer, the literal translation of which is "falsehood plasterer".[1] The name can also be a combination of three Greek words: "me" as a negation, "phos" meaning light, and "philis" meaning loving, making it mean "not-light-loving", possibly parodying the Latin "Lucifer" or "light-bearer".[2]

The name is associated with the Faust legend of a scholar – based on the historical Johann Georg Faust – who wagers his soul with the Devil. The name appears in the late 16th century Faust chapbooks. In the 1725 version, which Goethe read, Mephostophiles is a devil in the form of a greyfriar summoned by Faust in a wood outside Wittenberg. From the chapbooks, the name entered Faustian literature. Many authors have used it, from Marlowe to Goethe. In the 1616 edition of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Mephostophiles became Mephistophilis. Mephistopheles in later treatments of the Faust material frequently figures as a title character: in Meyer Lutz' Mephistopheles, or Faust and Marguerite (1855), Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele (1868), Klaus Mann's Mephisto, and Franz Liszt's Mephisto Waltzes.

Shakespeare mentions "Mephistophilus" in the Merry Wives of Windsor (Act1, Sc1, line 128), and by the 17th century the name became independent of the Faust legend. According to Burton Russell,[3] "That the name is a purely modern invention of uncertain origins makes it an elegant symbol of the modern Devil with his many novel and diverse forms." Mephistopheles is also featured as the lead antagonist in Goethe's Faust, and in the unpublished scenarios for the Walpurgis night he and Satan appear as two separate characters.