Sculpture “The Motherland is Calling!” is the compositional center architectural ensemble“To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad”, represents a 52-meter figure of a woman, rapidly walking forward and calling her sons behind her. In his right hand is a sword 33 m long (weight 14 tons). The height of the sculpture is 85 meters. The monument stands on a 16-meter foundation. The height of the Main Monument speaks of its scale and uniqueness. Its total weight is 8 thousand tons. The main monument - a modern interpretation of the image of the ancient Nike - the goddess of victory - calls on her sons and daughters to repel the enemy and continue the further offensive.

Great importance was attached to the construction of the memorial. There were no restrictions on funds and building materials. The best creative forces were involved in creating the monument. The main sculptor and project manager was Evgeniy Viktorovich Vuchetich, who ten years earlier had already created a monument-ensemble to the soldiers of the Soviet Army in Treptower Park in Berlin and the sculpture “Let’s Beat Swords into Plowshares,” which still adorns the square in front of the UN building in New York. Vuchetich was assisted by the architects Belopolsky and Demin, and the sculptors Matrosov, Novikov and Tyurenkov. Upon completion of construction, they were all awarded the Lenin Prize, and Vuchetich was also awarded the Golden Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor. The head of the engineering group working on the construction of the memorial was N.V. Nikitin is the future creator of the Ostankino tower. The main military consultant of the project was Marshal V.I. Chuikov is the commander of the army that defended, whose reward was the right to be buried here, next to the dead soldiers: along the serpentine, in the hill, the remains of 34,505 soldiers - defenders of Stalingrad, as well as 35 granite tombstones of Heroes of the Soviet Union, participants in the Battle of Stalingrad, were reburied


Construction of the monument "Motherland" was started in May 1959 and completed on October 15, 1967. The sculpture at the time of its creation was the tallest sculpture in the world. Restoration work on the Main monument of the monument-ensemble was carried out twice: in 1972 and 1986. It is also believed that the statue was modeled after the Marseillaise figure on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and that the pose of the statue was inspired by the statue of the Nike of Samothrace. Indeed, there are some similarities. In the first photo there is Marseillaise, and next to Nika of Samothrace

And in this photo the Motherland

The sculpture is made from prestressed concrete blocks - 5,500 tons of concrete and 2,400 tons of metal structures (excluding the base on which it stands). Total height of the monument “ The Motherland is calling” - 85 meters. It is installed on a concrete foundation 16 meters deep. The height of the female figure is 52 meters (weight is more than 8 thousand tons).

The statue stands on a slab only 2 meters high, which rests on the main foundation. This foundation is 16 meters high, but it is almost invisible - most of it is hidden underground. The statue stands freely on the slab, like a chess piece on a board. The thickness of the reinforced concrete walls of the sculpture is only 25-30 centimeters. Inside, the rigidity of the frame is supported by ninety-nine metal cables that are constantly in tension


The sword is 33 meters long and weighs 14 tons. The sword was originally made of stainless steel covered with titanium sheets. In the strong wind the sword swayed and the sheets rattled. Therefore, in 1972, the blade was replaced with another one made entirely of fluorinated steel. And the wind problems were eliminated with the help of blinds at the top of the sword. There are very few similar sculptures in the world, for example, the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. For comparison, the height of the Statue of Liberty from its pedestal is 46 meters.


The most complex calculations of the stability of this structure were carried out by Doctor of Technical Sciences N.V. Nikitin, the author of the calculation of the stability of the Ostankino TV tower. At night, the statue is illuminated by spotlights. “The horizontal displacement of the upper part of the 85-meter monument is currently 211 millimeters or 75% of what was allowed by calculations. Deviations have been going on since 1966. If from 1966 to 1970 the deviation was 102 millimeters, then from 1970 to 1986 - 60 millimeters, until 1999 - 33 millimeters, from 2000-2008 - 16 millimeters,” said the director of the State Historical and Memorial Museum-Reserve. Battle of Stalingrad" Alexander Velichkin.

The sculpture “The Motherland Calls” is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest sculpture-statue in the world at that time. Its height is 52 meters, arm length is 20 meters and sword length is 33 meters. The total height of the sculpture is 85 meters. The weight of the sculpture is 8 thousand tons, and the sword - 14 tons (for comparison: 46 meters high; 38 meters). On this moment The statue ranks 11th on the list of tallest statues in the world. The Motherland is in danger of collapse due to groundwater. Experts say that if the tilt of the statue increases by another 300 mm, it could collapse due to any, even the most insignificant reason

70-year-old pensioner Valentina Ivanovna Izotova lives in Volgograd, with whom the sculpture “The Motherland Calls” was sculpted 40 years ago. Valentina Ivanovna is a modest person. For more than 40 years, she was silent about the fact that as a model she posed for the sculptors who sculpted perhaps the most famous sculpture in Russia - the Motherland. She was silent because in Soviet times, talking about the profession of a model was, to put it mildly, indecent, especially for a married woman raising two daughters. Now Valya Izotova is already a grandmother and willingly talks about that distant episode in her youth, which has now become perhaps the most significant event of her entire life.


In those distant 60s, Valentina was 26 years old. She worked as a waitress in the prestigious, by Soviet standards, Volgograd restaurant. This establishment was visited by all the eminent guests of the city on the Volga, and our heroine saw with her own eyes Fidel Castro, the Emperor of Ethiopia, and the Swiss ministers. Naturally, only a girl with a real Soviet appearance could serve such people during lunch. You probably already guessed what this means. Stern face, purposeful look, athletic figure. It is no coincidence that one day a frequent guest of Volgograd, the young sculptor Lev Maistrenko, approached Valentina to talk. He conspiratorially told his young interlocutor about the sculpture that he and his comrades were to make for the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich, already famous in those days. Maistrenko walked around the bush for a long time, showering the waitress with compliments, and then invited her to pose. The fact is that the Moscow model, who arrived in the provinces directly from the capital, did not attract the attention of local sculptors. She was too arrogant and cutesy. And her face didn’t resemble “Mother.”

“I thought about it for a long time,” recalls Izotova, “the times were strict then, and my husband forbade it. But then my husband relented, and I gave the guys my consent. Who didn’t go on various adventures in their youth?

The adventure turned into serious work that lasted two years. Valentina’s candidacy for the role of the Motherland was approved by Vuchetich himself. Having listened to the arguments of his colleagues in favor of a simple Volgograd waitress, he nodded his head affirmatively, and it began. Posing turned out to be a very difficult task. Standing for several hours a day with my arms outstretched and my left leg pointed forward was tiring. According to the sculptors, a sword was supposed to be in the right hand, but in order not to tire Valentina too much, they put a long stick in her palm. At the same time, she had to give her face an inspired expression calling for exploits.

The guys insisted: “Valya, you must call people to follow you. You are the Motherland!” And I called, for which I was paid 3 rubles per hour. Imagine what it's like to stand for hours with your mouth open.

There was one piquant moment during work. The sculptors insisted that Valentina, as befits a model, pose naked, but Izotova resisted. Suddenly my husband will come in. At first we agreed on a two-piece swimsuit. True, then the top part of the swimsuit had to be removed. The breasts should look natural. By the way, the model was not wearing any tunic. It was only later that Vuchetich himself threw a flowing robe over Rodina. Our heroine saw the finished monument a few days after its official opening. It was interesting to look at myself from the outside: my face, arms, legs - everything was original, only made of stone and 52 meters tall. More than 40 years have passed since then. Valentina Izotova is alive and well and is proud that a monument was erected to her during her lifetime. For a long life.

The sculpture “The Motherland Calls,” created by E.V. Vuchetich, has the amazing property of a psychological impact on everyone who sees it. How the author managed to achieve this, one can only guess. Sharp criticisms of his creation: it is both exaggeratedly monumental and openly similar to the Marseillaise that adorns the Parisian Arc de Triomphe - do not explain its phenomenon at all. We must not forget that for the sculptor, who survived the most terrible war in the history of mankind, this monument, like the entire memorial, is first of all a tribute to the memory of the fallen, and then a reminder to the living, who, in his conviction, so they can never forget anything

The sculpture Motherland, together with Mamayev Kurgan, is a finalist of the competition

Its height is 182 meters.

In India, on the island of Sadhu Bet in the state of Gujarat, the tallest statue in the world - the Statue of Unity.

Its height is 182 m and it is higher than the statue of Christ in Brazil (38 m), the Statue of Liberty in the USA (93 m) and the Motherland in Kyiv (102 m).

Read also:

The sculpture was installed in honor of one of the creators of the modern Indian state, Vallabhbhai Patel. After India gained independence in 1947, he served as the country's Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister. Patel is also the author of the Indian Constitution and has made great efforts to keep India within its borders and prevent the country from breaking up into smaller states.

For his services to India, Vallabhai Patel was given the honorary nickname Sardar, which means chief or leader in many Indian languages.

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The Vallabhbhai Patel sculpture consists of a 40-meter pedestal and a 142-meter statue. Installed at 153 meters Observation deck, which can simultaneously accommodate up to 200 people. The cost of constructing the statue is $430 million.

Video From Rio with love. The statue of Christ the Savior was painted in Ukrainian colors

Statue of Christ the Savior - in Ukrainian colors. In Rio de Janeiro, a famous sculpture glowed yellow and blue. The Brazilians illuminated it in the colors of the Ukrainian flag especially for the Independence Day of our state. They have been doing this for 5 years in a row. Moreover, they say, the Ukrainian diaspora has a double holiday these days. After all, they also celebrate the Day of the Ukrainian Community.

I sincerely hope that those who do not need this article, especially those under 30, are in the majority. I hope, but I don't really believe it. But even if this is the case, I still publish it for this minority. There is no such thing as too much patriotism.

So, here we go:

If you ask the average resident of any country a question about the tallest statues in the world, he will most likely remember Buddha statues carved from rocks, the Statue of Liberty in New York, the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio - well, the one from the TV series; Perhaps someone will remember the Colossus of Rhodes - it was probably huge, why not remember... And, perhaps, that’s all. In Russia, the older generation will still remember Mamaev Kurgan, but probably not everyone will remember the Kyiv Motherland, at least in the context of the largest in the world. Where is ours from theirs, from the West (with aspiration). Look, Christ the Redeemer was recognized as one of the Seven New Wonders of the World in 2007, the Statue of Liberty is among the finalists for this honorary title, but ours are not even close there. The Kremlin has just made it to the finalists of the candidates.

Statue of Liberty. NY. Who hasn’t dreamed of visiting Liberty Island or at least boarding that famous free ferry and sailing right next to Liberty Island an endless number of times. Yes, dreams...

We know everything about her. That its full name is “Freedom Illuminating the World”, we know when and who created it, when and where a separate hand with a torch was displayed, by what date the entire statue was donated and by whom. We even know that we are 10 years late with it. Without exaggeration, the Statue of Liberty can be called the most famous statue in the world, and our man is no exception here. He knows more about this overseas beauty than about his relatives.


How huge - look at the people at the base of the statue - they are practically invisible unless you look closely. She stands on torn shackles, holding a torch and a tablet with the date July 4, 1776. Visitors walk 356 steps to the crown of the Statue of Liberty or 192 steps to the top of the pedestal. There are 25 windows in the crown, which symbolize the earthly gems and heavenly rays illuminating the world. The seven rays on the crown of the statue symbolize the seven seas and seven continents (the Western geographical tradition counts exactly seven continents). She is not just a symbol of the United States, she is a symbol of the World. But, in my opinion, today it is a symbol of the ending world order, and a monument to the grave of freedom, which, in fact, never existed.


But let's get back to the facts. So.

Most of our compatriots don’t even think that our statues will be more massive than Western ones. Moreover, after such propaganda pictures that are circulating in the hundreds on the internet, we don’t even think about doubting this.




What a huge hugging statue of Christ the Redeemer. And in the last picture, the Statue of Liberty even looks more statue Kyiv Motherland, which even here is 9 meters higher.

Is this so? In the next photo we will see the real size of the Statue of Liberty in New York in comparison with the figure in Volgograd and that very hugging statue in Rio, we see that if this Christ could hug anyone, it would certainly not be our girls. With its size, it could only hug the Lenin monuments fleeing from Ukraine.

And in the next photo we will see the real sizes of the statues without pedestals. Except for the New Wonder of the World - the statue of Christ the Redeemer, which, apparently, had to be left on a pedestal so that it would not be the smallest in the photo. After all, even with the pedestal it is only 38 meters high. Vladimir Ilyich’s facial expressions in this photograph are, of course, hard to see, but it seems to me that he is grinning.


Now someone, of course, will say that our statues still do not reach the huge Buddhist ones. It’s difficult to argue here, because the numbers speak for themselves. But, with your permission, I will allow myself to argue with the level of complexity of constructing these sculptures. So, the sculpture Motherland Calls is the ONLY DYNAMIC statue of this size in the WORLD! ! ! I emphasize - the only one!!!

The statue, the work of sculptor Vuchetich and engineer Nikitin, is made of 5,500 tons of concrete and 2,400 tons of metal structures. The height of the monument is 86 meters, the height of the sculpture itself is 53 meters. Moreover, the thickness of the walls of the sculpture is no more than 30 centimeters. The sword in the hand of the Motherland weighs 14 tons and has a length of 33 meters. They say that a car can easily fit in the palm of the statue. In 2008, the statue of the Motherland on Mamayev Kurgan was recognized as one of the Seven Wonders of Russia.


In 1972, restorers replaced the sword in the statue’s hand with a lighter one made of stainless steel. They also made holes in it to reduce the wind pressure. The old sword was made of titanium and rattled in the wind. In the mid-sixties, when the monument was opened, it was the tallest monument on the planet. The Statue of Liberty has never been anything “most” except perhaps the most recognizable in the world.

Currently, the statue is one of the ten tallest statues in the world. The Motherland is in danger of collapse due to groundwater. Experts say that if the tilt of the statue increases by another 300 mm, it could collapse due to any, even the most insignificant reason.

70-year-old pensioner Valentina Ivanovna Izotova lives in Volgograd, with whom the sculpture “The Motherland Calls” was sculpted 40 years ago. Valentina Ivanovna is a modest person; at that time she worked as a waitress in the Volgograd restaurant. For more than 40 years she was silent about the fact that as a model she posed for the sculptors who sculpted perhaps the most famous sculpture in Russia - the Motherland. She was silent because in Soviet times, talking about the profession of a model was, to put it mildly, indecent, especially for a married woman raising two daughters. Now Valya Izotova is already a grandmother and willingly talks about that distant episode in her youth, which has now become perhaps the most significant event of her entire life.

“I thought about it for a long time,” recalls Izotova, “the times were strict then, and my husband forbade it. But then my husband relented, and I gave the guys my consent. Who didn’t go on various adventures in their youth?

The adventure turned into serious work that lasted two years. Valentina’s candidacy for the role of the Motherland was approved by Vuchetich himself. Having listened to the arguments of his colleagues in favor of a simple Volgograd waitress, he nodded his head affirmatively, and it began. Posing turned out to be a very difficult task. Standing for several hours a day with my arms outstretched and my left leg pointed forward was tiring. According to the sculptors, a sword was supposed to be in the right hand, but in order not to tire Valentina too much, they put a long stick in her palm. At the same time, she had to give her face an inspired expression calling for exploits.

The guys insisted: “Valya, you must call people to follow you. You are the Motherland!” And I called, for which I was paid 3 rubles per hour. Imagine what it's like to stand for hours with your mouth open.

There was one piquant moment during work. The sculptors insisted that Valentina, as befits a model, pose naked, but Izotova resisted. Suddenly my husband will come in. At first we agreed on a two-piece swimsuit. True, then the top part of the swimsuit had to be removed. The breasts should look natural. By the way, the model was not wearing any tunic. It was only later that Vuchetich himself threw a flowing robe over Rodina. Our heroine saw the finished monument a few days after its official opening. It was interesting to look at myself from the outside: my face, arms, legs - everything was original, only made of stone and my height was 52 meters. More than 40 years have passed since then. Valentina Izotova is alive and well and is proud that a monument was erected to her during her lifetime. For a long life.


So, the height of the female figure of the Motherland Calling sculpture! 52 m, the height of the Statue of Liberty is 46 m and this is before the torch. That is, the figure itself is no more than 40 meters.

And one last thing. Purpose.

The Statue of Liberty is known throughout the world and many, as I already wrote, dream of seeing it in reality. Seeing the minimum, people feel a certain emptiness - that’s all? Is this the “great statue”? and, at most, they feel disappointed. There is no soul there. Perhaps Americans feel an influx of patriotism under or V this statue, but our man, absolutely certainly, does not feel anything like that.

And the diametrically opposite can be said about our Native statue. It has the opposite effect. The Calling Motherland has the amazing property of a psychological impact on everyone who sees it. There are so many feelings that no one can ignore them. After the first meeting with the appearance of their Motherland, people continue to be impressed for a long time. How the author managed to achieve this, one can only guess.

I think it's in our blood. Shall we check?

No matter how much you play the song Khasbulat Udaloy (US anthem), the impact of the Freedom Monument on a person does not increase.

But, I’ll quietly play you ours, patriotic in small letters, and in your heads, everyone who is a true patriot in their spirit will now boom!!!

wake up, huge country

stand up for mortal combat. . .


“15 years of search and doubt, sadness and joy, rejected and found solutions. What did we want to tell people with this monument on the historical Mamayev Kurgan, the site of bloody battles and immortal feats? We sought to convey, first of all, the indestructible moral spirit of Soviet soldiers, their selfless devotion to the Motherland,” the great Soviet sculptor said at the opening of the memorial Evgeniy Vuchetich.

Before the construction of the memorial, the top of the mound was an area located 200 meters from the current peak. Now the Church of All Saints is located on it. The current peak was formed artificially to build the monument.

During the design stage, Vuchetich constantly made changes. Initially, the project assumed the presence of two figures (a woman and a kneeling soldier), and in her hand the Motherland was supposed to hold not a sword, but a red banner. But it was abandoned, as was the magnificently decorated pedestal. The monumental stairs that had already been built were replaced with a serpentine path that encircles the statue like a ribbon. The dimensions also changed - the Motherland grew from 36 meters to 52. Although the sculptor’s plan has nothing to do with it, Nikita Khrushchev simply stated in an ultimatum that it must certainly be taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Mamayev Kurgan, on which the monument is located, has always been a strategic site, with a panoramic view of the city. Of the 200 days of the Battle of Stalingrad, the fight for Mamayev Kurgan lasted 135 days. It remained black even in the snowy season: the snow here quickly melted from bomb explosions. For every square meter there were from 500 to 1250 bullets and fragments. In the first post-war spring, Mamaev Kurgan did not turn green; even grass did not grow on the burnt land.

According to the most conservative estimates, about 35 thousand people are buried on Mamayev Kurgan. The main monument to Russia was erected on the site of this huge mass grave.

The Motherland is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest sculpture-statue in the world at that time. Her overall height- 85 meters, weight - 8 thousand tons. The most complex calculations of the stability of this structure were made by Doctor of Technical Sciences Nikolai Nikitin (he also participated in the design of Moscow State University and the Ostankino Tower). Currently, the statue ranks 11th on the list of the tallest statues in the world. The tallest sculpture was built in 2008. This is the Buddha statue in Chinese province Henan, its height including the pedestal is 153 meters.

The sword, 33 meters long and weighing 14 tons, was originally made of stainless steel covered with titanium sheets. But the sheets of titanium casing rattled in the wind, and additionally strained the hand. As a result, the blade was replaced with another one consisting entirely of fluorinated steel.

During the construction of the monument, a stable supply of concrete was necessary, otherwise the joints between the layers might not be strong enough. Trucks delivering concrete for the construction of the monument were marked with tapes of a certain color. Drivers were allowed to drive through on red lights, and traffic police officers were prohibited from stopping them.

From the foot to the top platform there are 200 degrees, corresponding to the number of days of the Battle of Stalingrad. There should also have been 200 degrees inside the statue itself. But due to overflights, their number increased to 203.

Entry inside for outsiders is strictly prohibited, which is why it is overgrown with rumors and mysteries. Many people think that there is an observation deck in the mouth, and closer to the ear there is a restaurant for VIPs. However, it is not. According to another legend, soon after its creation a man got lost in the sculpture, and after that no one saw him.

At the monument on Mamayev Kurgan - a fighter with a machine gun and a grenade and the inscription on the pedestal “Stand to the death!” face of Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov. He was the memorial's chief military consultant. According to the will of the commander of the 62nd Army, he was buried on Mamayev Kurgan.

According to the memoirs of the Soviet physicist, academician Andrei Sakharov, Evgeniy Vuchetich, the author of the memorial ensemble to the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, shared with him in a private conversation: “My bosses ask me why her mouth is open, because it’s ugly. I answer: And she screams - for the Motherland... your mother!

The monument is the second part of a triptych, which also consists of the monuments “Rear to Front” in Magnitogorsk and “Warrior-Liberator” in Berlin’s Treptower Park. It is implied that the sword, forged on the banks of the Urals, was then raised by the Motherland in Stalingrad and lowered after the Victory in Berlin.

The silhouette of the sculpture “Motherland” was taken as a basis when developing the coat of arms and flag of the Volgograd region.

On May 9, 2045, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, a capsule with an appeal from the war participants to their descendants should be opened on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd.

There is another Motherland - in Kyiv, this is also the creation of Vuchetich. It stands on the right bank of the Dnieper. She is 23 meters smaller than her colleague, but stands on a huge pedestal, inside of which there is a museum. Due to this, its overall height is higher.

In Moscow there is a copy of the head of the Volgograd Motherland. She hides behind the fence of Vuchetich’s workshop on Vuchetich Street, and no one is allowed to look at her, but since the head is hefty, and the fence is small, both the head and her colleagues can be seen quite well from behind the fence.

Perhaps the biggest mystery is who the Motherland was modeled after; there are plenty of contenders. On the eve of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Victory at Stalingrad, 79-year-old resident of Barnaul Anastasia Peshkova announced that she became the prototype of the famous sculpture of Vuchetich. In 2003, Valentina Izotova made the same statement. She worked as a waitress at the Volgograd restaurant and claimed that Vuchetich himself invited her to work as a model. “I was paid 3 rubles an hour. There’s a lot of me in her - the neck, the bends of the arms, the legs, the hips - everything is mine!” – said Izotova. Another contender is Ekaterina Grebneva, an artistic gymnast, and now a retired honored teacher. She also posed for Vuchetich, but does not pretend to be unique: “This is a collective image. I think I wasn’t the only one who posed for sculptors.”

However, the former deputy director of the monument-ensemble “Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad” Valentina Klyushin calls all the contenders impostors: “Evgeniy Viktorovich made the figure from Nina Dumbadze, the famous discus thrower. She posed for him in Moscow, in his workshop. But for the face of the sculpture, Evgeniy Viktorovich did not go far ". He created it with his wife, Vera Nikolaevna. And sometimes he affectionately called the sculpture after his wife - Verochka."


Made from pre-stressed concrete - 5500 tons of concrete and 2400 tons of metal structures (excluding the base on which it stands).

The total height of the monument is 87 meters. It is mounted on a slab only 2 meters high, which rests on a main foundation 16 meters high, most of which is hidden underground.

The height of the female figure is 52 meters (weight - over 8 thousand tons). The statue stands The statue stands freely on the slab, like a chess piece on a board. Inside, the entire statue consists of separate chamber cells. The rigidity of the frame is maintained by 99 metal cables that are constantly under tension.

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The sculpture “The Motherland Calls!” is 45 years old. Andrey MIREIKO

Monument “The Motherland is Calling!” opened in 1967. How the monument became the tallest in the world, whose face the female figure has and what sculptural “relatives” she has - let’s remember 10 facts about the Motherland.

Volgograd. Memorial Complex“The Motherland is calling!” Andrey Izhakovsky / Photobank Lori

Competition without borders. The victory in the Battle of Stalingrad was a turning point in the history of the Great Patriotic War. A competition for the creation of a monument in Stalingrad was announced already in September 1944. Famous architects and soldiers took part in it, sending their sketches by military mail. Architect Georgy Martsinkevich proposed erecting a tall column with the figure of Stalin at the top, and Andrei Burov - a 150-meter pyramid with a frame made of melted down tanks.

Projects even came from abroad - from Morocco, Shanghai. It is interesting that the future creator of the Motherland, Evgeniy Vuchetich, did not take part in the competition. There were legends that he discussed his project directly with Stalin.

Construction of the monument “The Motherland is Calling!” Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd. 1962. Photo: zheleznov.pro

Construction of the monument “The Motherland is Calling!” Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd. 1965. Photo: stalingrad-battle.ru

Construction of the monument “The Motherland is Calling!” Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd. 1965. Photo: planet-today.ru

Changes in composition. Sculptural composition should have looked different. It was assumed that next to the female figure there would be a statue of a kneeling soldier holding out his sword to the Motherland. However, the initial composition of the monument seemed too complicated to Yevgeny Vuchetich. He changed the project after approval from above. The sculptor had an important ideological argument: the soldier could not give his sword to anyone, because the war was not over yet.

Who was the prototype? Art historians agree that Evgeny Vuchetich was inspired by the bas-relief “Marseillaise” on the Parisian Arc de Triomphe and the ancient sculpture of the Nike of Samothrace. However, who exactly posed for him is not known for certain. It is most likely that the sculptor sculpted the figure of the Motherland from the Soviet discus athlete Nina Dumbadze, and the face from his wife Vera. Today, a model of the statue’s head is kept in the Vuchetich Estate Museum in Moscow.

The first reinforced concrete monument. The Motherland became the first monument in the USSR made entirely of reinforced concrete. In the 1960s, after the war, many cities, including Volgograd, were not rebuilt, and reinforced concrete was one of the cheapest materials. However, this choice caused some difficulties. For example, just a year after the opening of the monument, small cracks began to form on it. To preserve the monument, the head and hands of the sculpture were annually coated with a water-repellent agent.

Soviet track and field athlete Nina Dumbadze at competitions. 1950s Photo: russiainphoto.ru

Bas-relief “Retreat of volunteers to the front in 1792” (“Marseillaise”). Triumphal Arch. Sculptor Francois Rud. Paris, France. 1836

Sculpture "Nike of Samothrace". Pythocritus from Lindos. Around 190 BC Louvre, Paris

Strengthening the structure. All engineering calculations were carried out under the direction of Nikolai Nikitin, who built the Ostankino TV tower. Monument “The Motherland Calls!” it was not secured in any way during construction: it stands on the ground due to its own weight. Metal ropes are stretched inside the statue, which make it more stable and maintain the rigidity of the metal frame. Today, sensors are installed on the cables, and specialists monitor the condition of the structure.

Monument to the era of three secretaries general. Although the architectural design competition took place in the 1940s, work on the monument began after Stalin's death. The construction order was signed in January 1958 by Nikita Khrushchev. The monument took almost ten years to build - it was opened in October 1967. The opening was also attended by the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee - at that time Leonid Brezhnev.

Tallest statue in the world. It was planned that the height of the Motherland would be 36 meters. However, Khrushchev ordered to “grow up” the female figure. The statue on Mamayev Kurgan was supposed to “overtake” the Statue of Liberty - its height without a pedestal was 46 meters.

After construction was completed, the Motherland was the tallest statue in the world. The female figure towered 52 meters above the pedestal, and taking into account the length of her arm and sword, the height of the monument was 85 meters. The monument weighed 8 thousand tons, excluding the sword. Today, the Motherland remains in the top ten tallest statues in the world.

Steel sword. The statue's sword was made using aviation technology. It was made of stainless steel and sheathed with titanium sheets. But this solution was not suitable for the monument - the sword swayed and creaked in the wind. In 1972, the weapon was replaced with a steel one with holes to reduce windage. Because of the “problematic” sword, the monument’s designers did not receive the Lenin Prize. The “Motherland Calls!” monument. Sculptor Evgeniy Vuchetich, architect Nikolai Nikitin. Volgograd. 1959-1967

Monument "Warrior-Liberator". Sculptor Evgeniy Vuchetich, architect Yakov Belopolsky. Berlin, Germany. 1949

The image of the "Motherland". The collective image of the Motherland appeared on propaganda posters back in 1941. They were created by the Soviet painter Irakli Toidze. The artist recalled that the prototype of the woman on the poster was his wife. Hearing a message about the attack on the USSR, she ran into the artist’s studio shouting “War!” Irakli Toidze was shocked by her expression and immediately made the first sketches.