Statue Motherland in Volgograd. Height, comparison with Freedom, Christ, Buddha. History and description. The most interesting facts about the sculpture “Motherland is calling! Motherland mother size comparison

Sculpture "Motherland is calling!" - the compositional center of the monument-ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" on Mamaev Kurgan in Volgograd. One of the tallest statues in the world.

A huge hill rises above the Square of Sorrow, which is crowned by the main monument - the Motherland. This is a mound about 14 meters high, in which the remains of 34,505 soldiers - the defenders of Stalingrad - are buried. A serpentine path leads to the top of the hill to the Motherland, along which there are 35 granite tombstones of the Heroes of the Soviet Union, participants in the Battle of Stalingrad. From the foot of the mound to its top, the serpentine consists of exactly 200 granite steps 15 cm high and 35 cm wide - according to the number of days of the Battle of Stalingrad.

Mamaev Kurgan in the winter of 1945. In the foreground is a broken German cannon RaK 40.

The end point of the path is a monument "Motherland is calling!", the compositional center of the ensemble, the highest point of the mound. Its dimensions are huge - the height of the figure is 52 meters, and the total height of the Motherland - 85 meters(along with the sword). For comparison, the height of the famous Statue of Liberty without a pedestal is only 45 meters. At the time of construction, Motherland was the tallest statue in the country and in the world. Later, the Kiev Motherland, 102 meters high, appeared. Today, the tallest statue in the world is the 120-meter Buddha statue, built in 1995 and located in Japan, in the city of Chuchura. The total weight of the Motherland is 8 thousand tons. In her right hand she holds a steel sword, which is 33 meters long and weighs 14 tons. Compared to the height of a person, the sculpture is enlarged 30 times. The thickness of the reinforced concrete walls of the Motherland is only 25-30 centimeters. It was cast layer by layer using a special formwork made of gypsum materials. Inside, the rigidity of the frame is maintained by a system of more than a hundred cables. The monument is not fastened to the foundation, it is held by gravity. Motherland stands on a slab only 2 meters high, which rests on the main foundation 16 meters high, but it is almost invisible - most of it is hidden underground. To enhance the effect of the location of the monument at the highest point of the mound, an artificial embankment 14 meters high was made.

Stalingrad, Mamaev Kurgan. In the foreground, the Renault UE Chenillette is a light French armored personnel carrier that was in service with the Wehrmacht.

As soon as the cannonade died down in Stalingrad, the grateful country began to think about what a monument to the creators of this great victory should be like. Drawings and sketches were sent not only by professionals, but also by people of completely different professions. Some sent them to the Academy of Arts, others to the State Defense Committee, someone personally to Comrade Stalin. Moreover, everyone saw the future monument as grandiose, unprecedented in size, to match the significance of the victory itself.

The all-Union competition was announced immediately after the war. All prominent Soviet architects and architects participated. The results were summed up ten years later. Although few doubted that the Stalin Prize winner Yevgeny Vuchetich would win. By that time, he had already created a memorial in Treptow Park in Berlin and enjoyed the trust of the first persons of the state. On January 23, 1958, the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to start the construction of a monument-ensemble on Mamaev Kurgan. In May 1959, construction began to boil.

In his work, Vuchetich turned to the theme of the sword three times - the Motherland-Mother raises the sword on Mamaev Kurgan, calling for the expulsion of the conquerors; sword cuts the fascist swastika Warrior-winner in Berlin's Treptow Park; the sword is forged into a plow by a worker in the composition “Let's Forge Swords into Plowshares”, expressing the desire of people of good will to fight for disarmament in the name of the triumph of peace on the planet. This sculpture was donated by Vuchetech to the United Nations and was installed in front of the headquarters in New York, and a copy of it - to the Volgograd gas equipment plant, in the shops of which the Motherland was born). This sword was born in Magnitogorsk (during the war years, every third shell and every second tank was made of Magnitogorsk metal), where the monument to the Rear Front was erected.

During the construction of the monument motherland many changes were made to the already finished project. Few people know that originally, at the top of Mamaev Kurgan, a sculpture of the Motherland with a red banner and a kneeling fighter was supposed to stand on a pedestal (according to some versions, Ernst Neizvestny was the author of this project). According to the original plan, two monumental staircases led to the monument. But later Vuchetich changed the main idea of the monument. After the Battle of Stalingrad, the country had more than 2 years of bloody battles ahead of it, and the Victory was still far away. Vuchetich left the Motherland alone, now she called her sons to begin the victorious expulsion of the enemy.

He also removed the pompous pedestal of the Motherland, which practically repeated the one on which his victorious Soldier stands in Treptow Park. Instead of monumental stairs (which, by the way, had already been built), a serpentine path appeared near the Motherland. The Motherland itself "grew up" relative to its original size - its height reached 36 meters. But this option did not become final. Soon after the completion of work on the foundation of the main monument, Vuchetich (on the instructions of Khrushchev) increases the size of the Motherland to 52 meters. Because of this, the builders had to urgently “load” the foundation, for which 150 thousand tons of earth were laid in the embankment.

In the Timiryazevsky district of Moscow, at the dacha of Vuchetich, where his workshop was located and today - the house-museum of the architect - you can see working sketches: a reduced model of the Motherland, as well as a full-size model of the head of the statue.

In a sharp, impetuous impulse, a woman stood up on the barrow. With a sword in her hands, she calls on her sons to stand up for the Fatherland. Her right leg is slightly laid back, her torso and head are vigorously turned to the left. The face is stern and strong-willed. Shifted eyebrows, a wide-open, screaming mouth, short hair swollen with gusts of wind, strong arms, a long dress fitting the shape of the body, the ends of a scarf inflated by gusts of wind - all this creates a feeling of strength, expression and an irresistible desire to move forward. Against the background of the sky, it is like a bird soaring in the sky.

The sculpture of the Motherland looks great from all sides at any time of the year: in the summer, when the mound is covered with a solid grass carpet, and in the winter evening - bright, illuminated by the beams of spotlights. The majestic statue, speaking against the background of a dark blue sky, seems to grow out of the mound, merging with its snow cover.

The work of the sculptor E. V. Vuchetich and the engineer N. V. Nikitin is a multi-meter figure of a woman stepping forward with a raised sword. The statue is an allegorical image of the Motherland, calling its sons to fight the enemy. In the artistic sense, the statue is a modern interpretation of the image of the ancient goddess of victory, Nike, who calls on her sons and daughters to repel the enemy and continue the offensive.

The construction of the monument began in May 1959 and was completed on October 15, 1967. The sculpture at the time of 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, in particular, in 1972 the sword was replaced.

The prototype of the sculpture was Valentina Izotova (according to other sources, Peshkova Anastasia Antonovna, a graduate of the Barnaul Pedagogical School in 1953).

Valentina Izotova, 68, was the model for the famous Russian Motherland memorial. For almost 40 years, she did not say that she participated in its creation.

Could I refuse when the sculptors asked me to pose for a statue in memory of the huge losses suffered by the Red Army in Stalingrad? But I was horrified when they said that I should pose naked.

It was the early 1960s, and decent women would not undress in front of anyone but their husbands. Artists, even such respected and famous ones as Lev Maistrenko, who worked on the memorial, meant nothing to a 26-year-old woman.

It was Leo who contacted me. I worked as a waitress in the city's main restaurant "Volgograd" - it is still there - and usually served the hall reserved for high-ranking party functionaries and delegations. Leo said that I was beautiful and embody all the physical and moral qualities of an ideal Soviet woman. Of course, I was flattered, how else?

Curiosity got the better of me and I agreed to pose. None of us had any idea how famous Motherland would become. Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) is as famous for this sculpture as it is for the battle that took place here.

My husband did not like that I would pose for a group of artists sent from Moscow. He was terribly jealous and took me to every session at the studio they set up in the old gas apparatus factory.

After a while, it became the same job as any other, I hardly thought about standing in a bathing suit, and I was glad that I was paid three rubles a day, because then it was a decent amount. But only six months later, I finally succumbed to the persuasion of the sculptors to take off my bra and expose my chest. But that was it. I was unshakable in my determination to keep my modesty and not to pose completely naked. It was unthinkable.

No one except relatives and closest friends knew about it. Shortly after the sessions ended, I went to get my first higher education: I have two diplomas - an economist and an engineer. Then I left Volgograd and began to live and work in Norilsk.

After the opening of the memorial in 1967, I thought little about it and lived my life.

In October 2010, work began to secure the statue.

The sculpture is made from blocks of prestressed reinforced concrete - 5,500 tons of concrete and 2,400 tons of metal structures (without the base on which it stands).

The total height of the monument is 85-87 meters. It is installed on a concrete foundation 16 meters deep. The height of the female figure is 52 meters (weight - over 8 thousand tons).

The thickness of the reinforced concrete walls of the sculpture is only 25-30 centimeters. Inside, the entire statue is made up of individual cell cells, like rooms in a building. The rigidity of the frame is supported by ninety-nine metal cables that are constantly in tension.

The sword, 33 meters long and weighing 14 tons, was originally made of stainless steel sheathed with titanium sheets. The huge mass and high windage of the sword, due to its colossal size, caused a strong swaying of the sword when exposed to wind loads, which led to excessive mechanical stress at the point of attachment of the hand holding the sword to the body of the sculpture. Deformations in the sword's structure also caused the sheets of titanium plating to move, creating an unpleasant sound of rattling metal. Therefore, in 1972, the blade was replaced with another one - entirely consisting of fluorinated steel - and holes were provided in the upper part of the sword, which made it possible to reduce its windage. The reinforced concrete structure of the sculpture was strengthened in 1986 on the recommendation of the NIIZhB expert group led by R.L. Serykh.

There are very few similar sculptures in the world, for example, the statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, the "Motherland" in Kyiv, the monument to Peter I in Moscow. For comparison, the height of the Statue of Liberty from the pedestal is 46 meters.

The most complex calculations of the stability of this structure were made by N. V. Nikitin, Doctor of Technical Sciences, the author of the calculation of the stability of the Ostankino television 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 the allowable 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.

Interesting Facts

The sculpture "Motherland" is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest sculpture-statue in the world at that time. Its height is 52 meters, the length of the arm is 20 and the sword is 33 meters. The total height of the sculpture is 85 meters. The weight of the sculpture is 8 thousand tons, and the sword is 14 tons (for comparison: the Statue of Liberty in New York is 46 meters high; the Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro is 38 meters). At the moment, the statue takes 11th place in the list of the tallest statues in the world.
Vuchetich told Andrei Sakharov: “The authorities ask me why her mouth is open, because it’s ugly. I answer: And she screams - for the Motherland ... your mother! - shut up.
There is a legend according to which, shortly after creation, a man was lost in the sculpture; no one saw him after that. But that's just a legend
The silhouette of the sculpture "Motherland" was taken as the basis for the development of the emblem and flag of the Volgograd region

In the course of construction, Vuchetich made changes to the project more than once. A little-known fact: at first, the main monument of the ensemble was supposed to look completely different. At the top of the mound, the author wanted to put a sculpture of the "Motherland" with a red banner and a kneeling fighter. According to the original plan, two monumental staircases led to it. They were built when Vuchetich went to Khrushchev, the then leader of the country, and convinced him that it would be better if people began to climb the serpentine path to the top.

But these are far from all the changes that the master made to the already finished project. Valentina Klyushina, who for many years was the deputy director of the memorial, told me how it all happened. During the years of the creation of the complex, she worked in the Volgograd City Executive Committee and oversaw the construction.

- "Motherland" Vuchetich decided to leave one. He also removed the pompous pedestal, practically repeating the one on which stands his Victorious Soldier in Treptow Park. The main figure has become taller - 36 meters. But this option did not last long. As soon as the builders had time to make the foundation, the author increased the size of the sculpture. Up to 52 meters! In the competition of superpowers, it was necessary that the main monument of the USSR was higher than the American Statue of Liberty. I had to urgently “load” the foundation so that it could withstand an 85-meter (together with a sword) sculpture weighing 8,000 tons. 150 thousand tons of earth were then laid in the embankment. And since the deadlines were running out, a military battalion was allocated to help the brigades.

The discrepancy came out with the current Hall of Military Glory. It was supposed to install a panorama canvas there. As soon as the "box" of the building was built, Vuchetich decides that the panorama should be placed separately. Which they then did. And in the finished building along the perimeter of the walls there are mosaic banners with the names of the fallen defenders of the city. The author also quickly passed this question through the Central Committee of the CPSU.

With these same banners, too, there was embarrassment. Here is what Klyushina said:

Masters from Leningrad worked with mosaics. Artistic glass was supplied from the Ukrainian city of Lisichansk. Mosaic workers laid out the interior as material arrived. When everything was ready and the scaffolding was removed, everyone gasped. The tones on the wall were so different that it looked like a chessboard. The deadline for the project was approaching. And Vuchetich had no choice but to call "upstairs." This time to Brezhnev. He immediately dialed the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Shelest, and explained the task to him. In a word, a few days later the cars delivered new glass to Volgograd.

Now imagine: it's June, four months are left before the opening of the memorial. And we need to restore the scaffolding again, prepare and lay more than a thousand square meters of multi-colored glass pieces. The legendary commander of the 62nd Army, Vasily Chuikov, was very helpful here. By the way, he was Vuchetich's chief consultant for the project. 500 soldiers were seconded to the construction headquarters. The fighters worked in Stakhanov style. Three weeks later, the interior of the hall took on its intended form.

But these are not all the difficulties faced by the creators of the complex. On one of the spring days of the same 1967, a critical situation arose with a 33-meter sword.

... As usual, the chief engineer of Volgogradgidrostroy, Yuri Abramov, went to work at the headquarters in the morning. On the way, he came across a flock of boys arguing ... why is the sword swinging so strongly in the hand of the “Motherland”? Abramov raised his head and was horrified. They immediately carried out an operational operation, and the very next day a special commission arrived from Moscow. It soon became clear that the designers did not take into account the data of long-term observations of the wind rose. So it turned out that the sword was turned flat in relation to the wind. I urgently had to make several holes in it so that it could be blown freely. In addition, the commission generally recommended replacing the heavy titanium sword with a lighter steel one.

At the very end of the construction, 50 powerful spotlights were required to illuminate the sculpture. They couldn't get them anywhere. The country at that time was preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution - and everything that was produced went to Moscow and Leningrad according to the orders. Klyushina was sent to the capital to the chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee Promyslov. He said that Moscow could not help. And advised to go to the manufacturer. And Klyushina rushed to the city of Gusev, in the Kaliningrad region. The director of Elektromash also only shrugged at the request. Then he thought about it and suggested that Valentina speak on the factory radio to the workers and ask them to work in excess of the norm. They organized two additional shifts and the Saira searchlights went to Volgograd. On October 15, 1967, the monument-ensemble was inaugurated.

Construction continued for eight years and five months. The memorial stands for another forty years. He always looked decent. Even when everything in the country collapsed and fell into disrepair, the grass was neatly cut on the mound. But only the people working here know what this order is worth. And how you have to beat out money from the authorities of all ranks in order to patch and repair a huge unique economy.

Someone inadvertently said that, they say, the "Motherland" was tilted so much that it could soon fall. This is nonsense. “Any structure of this type,” says the director of the memorial, retired general Vladimir Berlov, “can lean. This is even provided by the designers. Say, the design of our monument is designed for a deviation of 272 millimeters. The figure, - continues Berlov, - is constantly examined for the formation of cracks, roughness, its position is analyzed. And the analysis of concrete chips, carried out in a German laboratory, showed the excellent condition of the structure and the presence of the necessary safety margin. From the inside, it is supported by 99 tension ropes. Believe me, says the director, this system will never allow the monument to tilt to a critical level.

You can take a walk with Sergei Doli inside the monument

And here is a walk with Artemy Lebedev

At the end of June 1941, perhaps the main graphic work of the Great Patriotic War, which later became part of all history textbooks, was released - Irakli Toidze's poster “The Motherland Calls”. By his own admission, the artist, the idea of creating a collective image of a mother calling for help from her sons came to his mind quite by accident. Hearing the first message from the Soviet Information Bureau about the attack of fascist Germany on the USSR, Toidze's wife ran into his studio shouting "War!" Struck by the expression on her face, the artist ordered his wife to freeze and immediately began to sketch the future masterpiece. In the future, the very concept of "Motherland" became almost the cornerstone of all Soviet propaganda, embodied in countless imitations and migrated to related areas of fine art, including monumental art.

] sources
http://www.volgastars.ru
http://www.glavagosudarstva.ru
http://waralbum.ru

The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

1. Bronze statue of Buddha Ushiku Daibutsu, Japan.

Ushiku Daibutsu located in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan, is the tallest freestanding bronze statue in the world. Built in 1995, total height is 120m above the ground, including 10m base and 10m lotus platform. An elevator takes visitors up to 85m above the ground, where an observation deck is located.

2. Buddhist statue of Guanyan, Sanya, China.

Sanya is located in the smallest province of the People's Republic of China, Hainan, on the southern coast of the country. Yalong Wan is a local park located on the coast 7.5 km southeast of Sanya City. The main attraction of the park is the 108-meter statue of Guanyin.

This statue was completed in May 2005 and is one of the tallest in the world.

3. Yellow Chinese emperors Huangdi and Yandi, China.

The 103-meter-high statue is located in China and is a sculpture of two ancient Chinese emperors - Huangdi and Yandi

4. Motherland, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Monument-sculpture Motherland, standing in Kyiv on the high right bank of the Dnieper. The height of the Motherland sculpture is 62 meters, the total height with the pedestal is 102 meters.

5. Monument to Peter I, Moscow, Russia

The monument to Peter I by Zurab Tsereteli was erected by order of the Moscow Government on the spit of the island of the Moscow River and the Obvodny Canal in 1997.

The total height of the monument is 98 meters.

6. Statue of Liberty, Liberty Island, New York, USA.

The world embodiment of Liberty, commonly known as the Statue of Liberty (Statue of Liberty) - a colossal statue donated to the United States by France in 1886, installed on Liberty Island in New York at the mouth of the Hudson River.

7. Sculpture Motherland Calls, Volgograd, Russia.

Sculpture "Motherland is calling!" - the compositional center of the monument-ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" on Mamaev Kurgan in Volgograd. The work of the sculptor E. V. Vuchetich and engineer N. V. Nikitin. Built in 1967, height 84 meters.

8. Statue of Buddha Maitreya (Maitreya) in Leshan, Leshan, China.

The statue is located east of the city of Leshan in Sichuan province, at the intersection of three rivers. Construction has been going on for 90 years. The height of the statue is 71 m, the height of the head is almost 15 m, the shoulder span is almost 30 m, the length of the finger is 8 m, the toe is 1.6 m, the length of the nose is 5.5 m. It is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

9. Bamiyan Buddha statues, Afghanistan.

Two giant statues of Buddha (Buddha of Bamyan) - 55 and 37 meters, which were part of the complex of Buddhist monasteries in the Bamiyan Valley in central Afghanistan, are located 230 km north of Kabul. The statues were barbarously destroyed, despite the protests of the world community and other Islamic countries, in 2001 by the Taliban, who believed that they were pagan idols and should be destroyed. Japan, Switzerland and UNESCO, among others, have expressed support for the restoration of the statues.

10. Statue of Christ the Savior, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Statue of Christ the Redeemer (Christ the Redeemer) - a huge statue of Jesus Christ in the art deco style, 32m high and weighing 1000 tons, is located on the top of the 710m Corcovado mountain overlooking the city.

As a powerful symbol of Christianity, the statue has become an icon of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Without a doubt, the obelisk Bayonet, Brest, Belarus deserves our attention.

The bayonet - an obelisk (an all-welded metal structure lined with titanium; height 100 m, weight 620 tons) is part of the memorial complex Brest Fortress - Hero.

What monument to put on the grave? CJSC "Antik" will help in resolving the issue. The plant offers a huge catalog of products from gabbro - monuments and tombstones. Come in and make your choice.

Sculpture "Motherland is calling!" is the compositional center of the architectural ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad", is a 52-meter figure of a woman rapidly moving forward and calling her sons behind her. In the right hand is a sword 33 meters 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, to continue the further offensive.

Great importance was attached to the construction of the memorial. There were no restrictions in funds and building materials. The best creative forces were involved in the creation of the monument. Evgeny Viktorovich Vuchetich was appointed the chief sculptor and project manager, who had already created a monument-ensemble to the soldiers of the Soviet Army in Treptow Park in Berlin ten years earlier and the sculpture “Let's Forge Swords into Plowshares”, which still adorns the square in front of the UN building in New York. Vuchetich was assisted by architects Belopolsky and Demin, sculptors Matrosov, Novikov and Tyurenkov. Upon completion of construction, all of them were awarded the Lenin Prize, and Vuchetich was also awarded the Gold 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. Marshal V.I. became the chief military consultant of the project. Chuikov is the commander of the army that defended Mamaev Kurgan, 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 the Heroes of the Soviet Union, participants in the battle of Stalingrad

Monument construction "Motherland" was started in May 1959 and completed on October 15, 1967. The sculpture at the time of creation was the highest 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 statue's pose was inspired by the statue of Nike of Samothrace. Indeed, there are some similarities. In the first photo of the Marseillaise, and next to it is Nika of Samothrace

And in this photo Motherland

The sculpture is made of blocks of prestressed reinforced concrete - 5500 tons of concrete and 2400 tons of metal structures (without the base on which it stands). The total height of the monument " 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 - 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 maintained by ninety-nine metal cables, constantly in tension.

The sword is 33 meters long and weighs 14 tons. The sword was originally made of stainless steel sheathed with sheets of titanium. In a strong wind, the sword swayed, and the sheets rattled. Therefore, in 1972, the blade was replaced with another - entirely consisting of fluorinated steel. And they got rid of problems with the wind 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, "Motherland" in Kyiv, a monument to Peter I in Moscow. For comparison, the height of the Statue of Liberty from the pedestal is 46 meters.

The most complex calculations of the stability of this structure were made by N.V. Nikitin, Doctor of Technical Sciences, 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 top of the 85-meter monument is currently 211 millimeters, or 75% of the allowable 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 "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, the length of the arm is 20 and the length of the sword 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: the Statue of Liberty in New York is 46 meters high; the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro is 38 meters). At the moment, the statue takes 11th place in the list of the tallest statues in the world. Motherland is threatened with collapse due to groundwater. Experts say that if the slope of the statue is increased by another 300 mm, it could collapse due to any, even the most insignificant reason.

A 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 sculptors who sculpted perhaps the most famous sculpture in Russia - the Motherland. She was silent, because in Soviet times it was, to put it mildly, indecent to talk about the profession of a model, 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 whole life.

In those distant 60s, Valentina was 26 years old. She worked as a waitress in a prestigious, by Soviet standards, Volgograd restaurant. This institution 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, Swiss ministers. Naturally, only a girl with a real Soviet appearance could serve such persons during lunch. What that means, you probably already guessed. Strict face, purposeful look, athletic figure. It is no coincidence that one day a frequent guest of Volgograd, a young sculptor Lev Maistrenko, approached Valentina with a conversation. He conspiratorially told the young interlocutor about the sculpture that they, together with their comrades, should make for the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich, already eminent in those days. Maistrenko walked around for a long time, scattering compliments in front of the waitress, and then invited her to pose. The fact is that the Moscow model, who arrived in the province directly from the capital, did not like the local sculptors. She was too arrogant and pretentious. Yes, and the face of the "Mother" was not like.

I thought for a long time, - recalls Izotova, - the times were strict then, and my husband forbade it. But then the husband relented, and I gave the guys my consent. Who in his youth did not embark on various adventures?

The adventure turned into serious work that lasted two years. Vuchetich himself claimed Valentina's candidacy for the role of the Motherland. He, having listened to the arguments of his colleagues in favor of a simple Volgograd waitress, nodded his head in the affirmative, and it began. Posing turned out to be a very difficult task. Standing for several hours a day with outstretched arms and forward left foot was tiring. According to the plan of 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 feats.

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

Was during work and one juicy moment. The sculptors insisted that Valentina, as befits a model, pose naked, but Izotova resisted. Suddenly the husband comes. At first they agreed on a separate swimsuit. True, then the upper part of the swimsuit had to be removed. Breasts should come out as natural. By the way, there was no tunic on the model. It was only later that Vuchetich himself threw a fluttering 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: the face, hands, legs - everything is native, 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 an amazing property of 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 de and hypertrophied-monumental, and frankly similar to the Marseillaise that adorns the Parisian triumphal arch, absolutely do not explain its phenomenon. We must not forget that for a sculptor who survived the most terrible war in the history of mankind, this monument, as well as the entire memorial, is first of all a tribute to the memory of the fallen, and only then a reminder to the living, who, in his opinion, and so they can never forget

Sculpture Motherland, together with Mamaev Kurgan, is a finalist in the competition "Seven Wonders of Russia"

Articles in this place:

Great importance was attached to the construction of the memorial. There were no restrictions in funds and building materials. The best creative forces were involved in the creation of the monument. Evgeny Viktorovich Vuchetich was appointed the chief sculptor and project manager, who had already created a monument-ensemble to the soldiers of the Soviet Army in Treptow Park in Berlin ten years earlier and the sculpture “Let's Forge Swords into Plowshares”, which still adorns the square in front of the UN building in New York. Vuchetich was assisted by architects Belopolsky and Demin, sculptors Matrosov, Novikov and Tyurenkov. Upon completion of construction, all of them were awarded the Lenin Prize, and Vuchetich was also awarded the Gold 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. Marshal V.I. became the chief military consultant of the project. Chuikov - 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 - the defenders of Stalingrad, as well as 35 granite tombstones of the Heroes of the Soviet Union, participants in the battle of Stalingrad, were reburied

Monument construction "Motherland" was started in May 1959 and completed on October 15, 1967. The sculpture at the time of creation was the highest 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 statue's pose was inspired by the statue of Nike of Samothrace. Indeed, there are some similarities. In the first photo of the Marseillaise, and next to it is Nika of Samothrace

And in this photo Motherland

The sculpture is made from blocks of prestressed reinforced concrete - 5,500 tons of concrete and 2,400 tons of metal structures (without the base on which it stands). The total height of the monument " 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 - 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 maintained by ninety-nine metal cables, constantly in tension.

The sword is 33 meters long and weighs 14 tons. The sword was originally made of stainless steel sheathed with sheets of titanium. In a strong wind, the sword swayed, and the sheets rattled. Therefore, in 1972, the blade was replaced with another - entirely consisting of fluorinated steel. And they got rid of problems with the wind 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 the pedestal is 46 meters.

The most complex calculations of the stability of this structure were made by N. V. Nikitin, Doctor of Technical Sciences, the author of the calculation of the stability of the Ostankino television tower. At night, the statue is illuminated by spotlights. “The horizontal displacement of the top of the 85-meter monument is currently 211 millimeters, or 75% of the allowable 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, the length of the arm is 20 and the sword is 33 meters. The total height of the sculpture is 85 meters. The weight of the sculpture is 8 thousand tons, and the sword is 14 tons (for comparison: 46 meters high; 38 meters). At the moment, the statue takes 11th place in the list of the tallest statues in the world. Motherland is threatened with collapse due to groundwater. Experts say that if the slope of the statue is increased by another 300 mm, it could collapse due to any, even the most insignificant reason.

I thought for a long time, - recalls Izotova, - the times were strict then, and my husband forbade it. But then the husband relented, and I gave the guys my consent. Who in his youth did not embark on various adventures?

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

The sculpture "The Motherland Calls", created by E.V. Vuchetich, has an amazing property of 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 hypertrophied and monumental, and frankly similar to the Marseillaise that adorns the Parisian triumphal arch, absolutely do not explain its phenomenon. We must not forget that for a sculptor who survived the most terrible war in the history of mankind, this monument, as well as the entire memorial, is first of all a tribute to the memory of the fallen, and only then a reminder to the living, who, in his opinion, and so they can never forget

Sculpture Motherland, together with Mamaev Kurgan, is a finalist of the competition

Monument "Motherland is calling!" opened in 1967. How the monument became the highest in the world, whose face a female figure has and what kind of sculptural “relatives” she has - we recall 10 facts about the Motherland.

Volgograd. Memorial complex "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. The competition for the creation of a monument in Stalingrad was announced already in September 1944. Both well-known architects and soldiers who sent their sketches by military field mail participated in it. Architect Georgy Martsinkevich suggested placing a tall column with a figure of Stalin at the top, and Andrei Burov proposed a 150-meter pyramid with a frame made of remelted tanks.

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

Construction of the monument "Motherland is calling!". Mamaev Kurgan, Volgograd. 1962. Photo: zheleznov.pro

Construction of the monument "Motherland is calling!". Mamaev Kurgan, Volgograd. 1965. Photo: stalingrad-battle.ru

Construction of the monument "Motherland is calling!". Mamaev Kurgan, Volgograd. 1965. Photo: planet-today.ru

Changes in composition. The sculptural composition had to look 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 original composition of the monument seemed to Evgeny Vuchetich too complicated. He changed the project after the approval "from above". The sculptor had an important ideological argument: the soldier could not hand over his sword to anyone, because the war was not over yet.

Who was the prototype? Art critics agree that Yevgeny Vuchetich was inspired by the Marseillaise bas-relief on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and the antique sculpture of Nike of Samothrace. However, who specifically posed for him is not known for certain. It is most likely that the sculptor sculpted the figure of the Motherland from the Soviet sportswoman Nina Dumbadze, and the face from his wife Vera. Today, the model of the head of the statue is kept in the Vuchetich Estate Museum in Moscow.

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

Soviet athlete Nina Dumbadze at the competition. 1950s Photo: russiainphoto.ru

Bas-relief "Departure of volunteers to the front in 1792" ("La Marseillaise"). Triumphal Arch. Sculptor Francois Rude. Paris, France. 1836

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

Structural reinforcement. All engineering calculations were carried out under the direction of Nikolai Nikitin, who was building the Ostankino television tower. Monument "Motherland is calling!" during the construction they did not fix it in any way: 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, specialists monitor the state of the structure.

Monument to the era of the three general secretaries. Although the architectural design competition was held 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 was erected for almost ten years - it was opened in October 1967. The opening was also attended by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU - at that time already Leonid Brezhnev.

The 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 "surpass" the Statue of Liberty - its height without a pedestal was 46 meters.

After the 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 highest statues in the world.

steel sword. The sword of the statue was made using aviation technology. It was made of stainless steel and lined with titanium sheets. But such a decision was not suitable for the monument - the sword swayed and creaked in the wind. In 1972, the weapons were replaced with steel ones with holes to reduce windage. Because of the "problematic" sword, the designers of the monument did not receive the Lenin Prize. The monument "The Motherland Calls!". Sculptor Evgeny Vuchetich, architect Nikolai Nikitin. Volgograd. 1959-1967

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

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