What is higher homeland is the mother or the statue of Christ. Statue of Liberty vs Motherland Calls

Its height is 182 meters.

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

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

Read also:

The sculpture was erected in honor of one of the creators of the modern Indian state, Vallabhai Patel. After India gained independence in 1947, he served as the country's deputy prime minister and interior minister. Patel is also the author of the Indian Constitution and has made tremendous efforts to keep India within its borders and prevent the country from collapsing into smaller states.

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

Read also:

Vallabhai Patel's sculpture consists of a 40-meter pedestal and a 142-meter statue. At the level of 153 meters installed viewpoint, which can simultaneously accommodate up to 200 people. The construction cost of the statue is $ 430 million.

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

The statue of Christ the Savior is in Ukrainian colors. In Rio de Janeiro, a famous sculpture shone yellow and blue. In the colors of the Ukrainian flag, the Brazilians highlighted it specially 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 the other day. After all, they also celebrate the Day of the Ukrainian Community.

You can safely call it art of the highest level, literally and figuratively. Since ancient times, statues have been a way for people to show their devotion to religion or leave the memory of a significant historical person. Obviously, the larger the statue, the greater its grandeur, so here are the top 10 tallest statues in the world. Perhaps you have already visited the places listed below and the sculptures made an indelible impression on you, share your experience.

For example, I was, of course, in Moscow and saw the Monument to Peter the Great, and also in New York I was photographed with the Statue of Liberty, I plan to visit Rio de Janeiro and climb to the Statue of Christ the Redeemer.

10. Statue of Christ the Redeemer with outstretched hands is located on the top of the Corcovado mountain in Rio de Janeiro, is a symbol of the city and Brazil in general. The height of one of the most famous statues in the world is 38 m.

9. Sculpture monument "Motherland", located in Kiev on the banks of the Dnieper, rises to the sky by 62 meters and is 102 meters with a pedestal.

8. Statue "Motherland Calls!", standing in the Russian city of Volgograd, is dedicated to the "Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad." The total height of the monument is 85 m. The statue is an image of the Motherland calling its sons to fight the enemy.

7. Statue of Liberty(illuminating the world) is perhaps the most famous sculpture in the world, often referred to as the symbol of the United States. The copper statue is located on Liberty Island in New York, its height is 93 m including the base.

6. Sculptural Monument to Peter I in Moscow. Monument 98 m high made of bronze and stainless steel, installed on artificial island at the confluence of the Moskva River and the Obvodny Canal. The monument was designed by the Georgian architect Zurab Tsereteli and there is an unofficial opinion that the sculpture was originally dedicated to Christopher Columbus, but after being rejected by the American government, it was sold to Russia as a representation of Peter the Great.

5. Buddha statue - Sendai Dai Kannon is located in the Japanese city of Sendai. It is the sixth tallest statue in the world with a height of 100 m and a lift for tourists who can climb to the top of the statue and enjoy the spectacular view.

4. Sculptures the first two emperors Of China Yang and Huang, are located in Zhengzhou city in China. The height of the sculptures is 106 m, which is the fifth tallest statue in the world.

3. Statue of the goddess Guanyin in Sanya height 108 m is located on the island of Hainan in China. The statue has three faces, one of which faces the mainland of China, and the other two face South China Sea blessing China.

2. Bronze Buddha statue Usyku Daibutsu installed in Japan in the city of Ushiku. Its height, together with a platform and a pedestal in the shape of a lotus flower, is 120 m. Tourists wishing to admire the surroundings can take an elevator to the observation deck at a height of 85 meters.

Is the largest statue in the world made of copper. Located in Henan Province, China. Its height is 128 m, including the pedestal, but if we also take into account the hill on which the statue is located, the height will be 208 m.

Sculpture "The Motherland Calls!" - the compositional center of the monument-ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" on the Mamayev 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 Mother. This is a mound about 14 meters high, in which the remains of 34,505 soldiers - defenders of Stalingrad are buried. A serpentine path leads to the top of the hill to the Motherland of Mother, along which there are 35 granite tombstones of the Heroes Soviet Union, participants of 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 Cancer 40.

The end point of the path is a monument "The Motherland Calls!", the compositional center of the ensemble, highest point mound. Its dimensions are enormous - the height of the figure is 52 meters, and total height Motherland - 85 meters(along with a sword). For comparison, the height of the famous Statue of Liberty without a pedestal is only 45 meters. At the time of construction, the Motherland was the tallest statue in the country and in the world. Later, the Kiev Motherland-Mother appeared with a height of 102 meters. Today, the tallest statue in the world is the 120-meter statue of Buddha, 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 increased 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 plaster materials. Inside, the rigidity of the frame is supported by a system of more than a hundred ropes. The monument is not fastened to the foundation, it is supported by gravity. The mother's homeland 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 finding the monument at the peak of the mound, an artificial embankment with a height of 14 meters was made.

Stalingrad, Mamayev Kurgan. In the foreground is the Renault UE Chenillette, a light French armored personnel carrier 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. 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 took part. The results were summed up ten years later. Although few doubted that the winner of the Stalin Prize, Yevgeny Vuchetich, would win. By that time, he had already created a memorial in Berlin's Treptower Park and enjoyed the confidence of the top officials of the state. On January 23, 1958, the Council of Ministers of the USSR made a decision to start construction of a monument-ensemble on the Mamayev Kurgan. In May 1959, the construction site began to boil.

In his work, Vuchetich addressed the theme of the sword three times - the Motherland-Mother raises the sword on the Mamayev Kurgan, calling for the expulsion of the conquerors; cuts the fascist swastika with a sword. The victorious warrior in Berlin's Treptower Park; the sword is forged onto the plow by the worker in the composition "Let's Beat Swords into Plowshares", expressing the desire of people of goodwill to fight for disarmament in the name of the triumph of peace on the planet. This sculpture was donated by the Vuchetech to the United Nations and was installed in front of the headquarters in New York, and its copy - to the Volgograd gas equipment plant, in the workshops of which the Motherland was born). This sword was born in Magnitogorsk (during the war, every third shell and every second tank was made of metal from Magnitogorsk), where the Rear Front monument was erected.

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

He also removed the pompous pedestal of the Motherland of the Mother, practically repeating the one on which stands his Soldier-winner in Treptower Park. Instead of monumental staircases (which, by the way, were already built), a serpentine path appeared at the Motherland. The Motherland Mother itself has "grown" relative to its original size - its height has reached 36 meters. But this option was not final either. Soon after 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 Vuchetich's dacha, where his workshop was located and today the architect's house-museum, you can see working sketches: a reduced model of the Motherland, as well as a life-size model of the head of a statue.

In a sharp, impetuous impulse, a woman stood on the mound. With a sword in hand, she calls on her sons to defend the Fatherland. Her right leg is slightly laid back, the torso and head are vigorously deployed to the left. The face is stern and strong-willed. Drawn eyebrows, a wide open, screaming mouth, short hair blown out by gusts of wind, strong arms, a long dress that fits the shape of a body, the ends of a scarf blown out by gusts of wind - all this creates a feeling of strength, expression and an irresistible striving forward. Against the background of the sky, she is like a bird soaring in the sky.

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

The work of sculptor E.V. Vuchetich and 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 an 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 repulse the enemy and continue their further offensive.

The construction of the monument began in May 1959 and completed on October 15, 1967. The sculpture at the time of creation was the tallest statue 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, Anastasia Antonovna Peshkova, a graduate of the Barnaul Pedagogical School in 1953).

68-year-old Valentina Izotova was a model in the creation of the famous Russian memorial "Motherland". For almost 40 years, she did not say that she was involved 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 announced that I should pose nude.

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

It was Lev who turned to me. I worked as a waitress in the main restaurant in the city, Volgograd - it is still there - and usually served the room reserved for high-ranking party officials and delegations. Leo said that I am beautiful and embody all the physical and moral qualities of an ideal Soviet woman... Of course, I was flattered, how could it be otherwise?

Curiosity got the better of me and I agreed to pose. None of us had any idea how famous Motherland would be. Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) is famous for this sculpture as well as for the battle fought 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 in 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 swimsuit, and was glad that I was paid three rubles a day, because then it was a decent amount. But only six months later, I finally gave in to the persuasion of the sculptors to take off my bra and bare my breasts. But that was all. I was unwavering in my determination to maintain a vestige of modesty and not pose completely naked. It was inconceivable.

No one except relatives and closest friends found out about this. Soon after the sessions ended, I went to get my first higher education: I have two diplomas - economist and 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 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 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 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 loosely 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 entire statue is made up of separate cells, like rooms in a building. The rigidity of the frame is supported by ninety-nine metal cables constantly in tension.

The sword, 33 meters long and 14 tons in weight, 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 swing of the sword when exposed to wind loads, which led to excessive mechanical stress at the place where the hand holding the sword was attached to the body of the sculpture. Deformations in the sword's structure also caused the titanium sheathing sheets to move, creating an unpleasant sound of clattering metal. Therefore, in 1972, the blade was replaced with another - entirely composed 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 reinforced in 1986 on the recommendation of the NIIZhB expert group led by RL Serykh.

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

The most complicated 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 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 " 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 meters 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 weight of 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). On the this moment the statue is ranked 11th in the list of the tallest statues in the world.
• Vuchetich told Andrei Sakharov: “The bosses are asking me why she has an open mouth, it’s ugly. I answer: And she screams - for the Motherland ... your mother! - shut up. "
• There is a legend according to which a man was lost in the sculpture shortly after its creation; after that no one saw him. But this is just a legend
• The silhouette of the sculpture "Motherland" was taken as a basis for the development of the coat of arms and flag of the Volgograd region

During construction, Vuchetich made changes to the project more than once. 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 managed to be 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 not all the changes that the master made to the already finished project. Valentina Klyushina, who was the deputy director of the memorial for many years, told me about how all this 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 alone. He also removed the pompous pedestal, practically repeating the one on which stands his Soldier-winner in Treptower Park. The main figure has become taller - 36 meters. But this option did not last long either. 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 between the superpowers, it was necessary for the main monument of the USSR to be taller than the American Statue of Liberty. The foundation had to be urgently "loaded" so that it could withstand the 85-meter (with the sword) sculpture weighing 8 thousand tons. At that time, 150 thousand tons of earth were laid in the embankment. And since the deadlines were running out, a military battalion was allocated to help the brigades.

There was a problem with the current Hall of Military Glory. It was supposed to install a panorama canvas there. As soon as the "box" of the building has been completed, Vuchetich decides that the panorama should be placed separately. And then they did. And in the finished structure 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.

There was also a confusion with these same banners. Here is what Klyushina said:

Masters from Leningrad worked with the mosaic. Art glass was supplied from Ukrainian city Lisichansk. Mosaic workers laid out the interior as the 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 date of completion of the object was approaching. And Vuchetich had no choice but to call "up". This time Brezhnev. He immediately dialed the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Shelest and explained the problem 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 forests again, prepare and lay more than a thousand square meters of multi-colored glass pieces. The legendary commander of the 62nd Army Vasily Chuikov helped a lot. He, by the way, was Vuchetich's chief consultant for the project. At the disposal of the headquarters of the construction site, 500 soldiers were seconded. The fighters worked in a Stakhanov way. Within three weeks, the interior of the hall took on its intended look.

But these are not all the difficulties that the creators of the complex faced. 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 operative, 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. We urgently had to make several holes in it so that it could blow freely. In addition, the commission generally recommended replacing the heavy titanium sword with a lighter steel one.

At the very finish of the construction site, 50 powerful floodlights were required to illuminate the sculpture. They could not be obtained 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 order. Klyushina was sent to the capital to the chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee Promyslov. He said that Moscow could not help. And he advised me to go to the manufacturing plant. And Klyushina rushed to the city of Gusev, which in Kaliningrad region... The director of "Electromash" also threw up his hands at the request. Then he thought about it and invited Valentina to speak on the factory radio in front of the workers and ask them to work beyond the norm. Two additional shifts were organized and the Saira searchlights left for Volgograd. On October 15, 1967 the monument-ensemble was inaugurated.

The construction lasted eight years and five months. The memorial has been standing for another forty years. He always looked dignified. Even when everything in the country collapsed and fell into disrepair, the grass was neatly trimmed on the mound. But only the people working here know what this order is worth. And how it is necessary to knock out money from the heads of all ranks in order to patch up and repair a huge unique economy.

Someone inadvertently said that, they say, "Motherland" is so tilted that it may soon fall. This is nonsense. “Any structure of this type,” says the director of the memorial, retired general Vladimir Berlov, “can bend over. This is even foreseen by the designers. Let's say that the design of our monument is designed for a deflection 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 an excellent state of the structure and the presence of the necessary margin of safety. 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 Sergey Dolya 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, later included in all history textbooks - Irakli Toidze's poster "The Motherland Calls". By the artist's own admission, the idea of ​​creating a collective image of a mother calling her sons for help came to him quite by accident. Hearing the first message from the Soviet Information Bureau about the attack of Nazi 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-Mother" became almost the cornerstone of all Soviet propaganda, embodied in countless imitations and migrated to related fields of fine arts, including monumental ones.

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

The original article is on the site InfoGlaz.rf The link to the article this copy was made from is

“15 years of searching and doubts, sadness and joy, rejected and found solutions. What did we want to say to people with this monument on the historic Mamayev Kurgan, on the site of bloody battles and immortal feats? We tried to convey, first of all, the indestructible morale of Soviet soldiers, from selfless devotion to the Motherland, "the great Soviet sculptor said at the opening of the memorial Evgeny Vuchetich.

Before the construction of the memorial, the top of the mound was the area located 200 meters from the present peak. Now it houses the Temple of All Saints. The current peak was artificially formed to build a monument.

During the design phase, 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 well as the magnificently decorated pedestal. The monumental staircases that have already been built have been replaced with a serpentine path that surrounds the statue like a ribbon. The dimensions have also changed - the Motherland has grown from 36 meters to 52 meters. Although the sculptor's intention has nothing to do with it, Nikita Khrushchev simply declared in an ultimatum that it must certainly be higher than the Statue of Liberty.

Mamaev Kurgan, on which the monument is located, has always been a strategic object, from which a panorama of the city was opened. Of the 200 days of the Battle of Stalingrad, the struggle for Mamayev Kurgan lasted 135 days. It remained black even in the snowy season: the snow here quickly melted from the explosion of bombs. Each square meter accounted for from 500 to 1250 bullets and shrapnel. In the first post-war spring, the Mamayev Kurgan did not turn green, and even grass did not grow on the burnt ground.

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

The Motherland is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest sculpture-statue in the world at that time. Its total height is 85 meters, weight is 8 thousand tons. The most complicated 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). At the moment, the statue is ranked 11th in the list of the tallest statues in the world. The tallest sculpture was built in 2008. This is a Buddha statue in the Chinese province of Henan, its height together with the pedestal is 153 meters.

The sword, 33 meters long and 14 tons in weight, was originally made of stainless steel sheathed with titanium sheets. But the sheets of titanium cladding rattled in the wind, and additionally loaded the hand. As a result, the blade was replaced with another one made 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. The trucks delivering concrete for the construction of the monument were marked with colored ribbons. The drivers were allowed to pass "on the red", the traffic police were forbidden to stop them.

From the foot to the upper platform there are 200 degrees, according to the number of days of the Battle of Stalingrad. Inside the statue itself, there should also be 200 degrees. But due to overflights, their number increased to 203.

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

At the monument on the Mamayev Kurgan - a soldier with a machine gun and a grenade and an inscription on the pedestal "Stand to death!" the face of Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov. He was the chief military advisor to the memorial. According to the will of the commander of the 62nd Army, he was buried at the Mamayev Kurgan.

According to the memoirs of the Soviet physicist, academician Andrei Sakharov, Evgeny Vuchetich, the author of the memorial ensemble to the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad on the Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, shared with him in a private conversation: “My bosses are asking me why she has an open mouth, 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 the Front" in Magnitogorsk and "Soldier-Liberator" in Berlin's Treptower Park. It is understood that the sword, forged on the banks of the Urals, was later raised by the Motherland in Stalingrad and lowered after the Victory in Berlin.

The silhouette of the sculpture "Motherland" was taken as a basis for the development of the coat of arms and flag of the Volgograd region.

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

There is another Motherland - in Kiev, this is also the creation of Vuchetich. It stands on the right bank of the Dnieper. It is 23 meters smaller than its colleague, but stands on a huge pedestal, inside which is a museum. Due to this, the 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 her head is huge and the fence is small, her head and her colleagues can be seen quite well from behind the fence.

Perhaps the biggest mystery is - with whom the Motherland was sculpted, there are enough applicants. Anastasia Peshkova, a 79-year-old resident of Barnaul, announced on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Victory at Stalingrad that she became the prototype of the famous sculpture by Vuchetich. In 2003, Valentina Izotova made the same statement. She worked as a waitress in the Volgograd restaurant and claimed that Vuchetich himself invited her to work as a model. “I was paid 3 rubles per hour. She has a lot of me - neck, broken arms, legs, hips - everything is mine! " - said Izotova. Another contender is Yekaterina Grebneva, a gymnast and now a retired retired teacher. She also posed for Vuchetich, but she does not pretend to be unique: “This is a collective image. I think that I was not the only one who posed for the sculptors. "

However, the former deputy director of the monument-ensemble "To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad" Valentina Klyushina calls all the applicants impostors: "Evgeny Viktorovich made the figure from Nina Dumbadze, the famous discobolt. She posed for him in Moscow, in his workshop. But for the face of the sculpture, Evgeny Viktorovich is not far to go far. He created it with his wife, Vera Nikolaevna. And sometimes he affectionately called the sculpture by the name of his wife, Vera ".

Made 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 is 87 meters. It is installed on a slab only 2 meters high, which rests on the 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 a slab, like a chess piece on a board. Inside, the entire statue is made up of separate chambers. The rigidity of the frame is supported by 99 permanently tensioned metal cables.

x HTML code

The sculpture "The Motherland Calls!" Is 45 years old. Andrey MIREYKO

The Great Patriotic War, apparently, will never be forgotten. The Victory was too hard for us. In every city there are either squares, or parks and squares, where monuments are erected to its heroes.

Woman with sword

A whole ensemble has been created on the famous Mamaev Kurgan (Volgograd). It is dedicated to those who won the Ideological and Compositional Center of this large structure - a sculpture that is known all over the world. It is called "The Motherland Calls!" True, not everyone knows that she herself is not independent, but part of a triptych, but the central one.

The second part of the complex is the composition "Rear - Front". It has been completed and is now in Magnitogorsk. It is depicted how a worker gives a sword to a warrior. And they forged it just in the Urals. And completes the whole ensemble also broadly famous monument- "Warrior-Liberator". Location - Berlin.

The tallest

Many are interested in the height of the Mother Motherland statue in Volgograd. The answer is: 85 meters, and the woman's height is 52 meters. The weight of the structure is 8000 tons. The length of the sword is 3300 cm. And it weighs no less than 14,000 kg! These are the "passport" parameters of this unique piece.

In the year the construction was completed, the sculpture turned out to be the largest in the world. She was even entered into the Guinness Book of Records. Compare: the Statue of Liberty rises by 46 m from the pedestal, and the height of Christ (the Redeemer) is only 38. Today, given the height of the Motherland, experts assigned it 11th place in the list

It was a long time ago

Great importance was attached to the construction of such a memorial. All were taken into account. And also the height of the Motherland statue. They were not limited either in money or in the most modern building materials. The best creators were invited. The main thing here was Yevgeny Vuchetich - People's Artist of the USSR, a participant in the Great Patriotic War. He has already made a marvelous army (ten years ago) that adorns Berlin's Treptower Park. Also his work - "Breaking swords into plowshares." The sculpture flaunts in front of the UN building in New York.

Nikolai Nikitin, a professor-architect, as well as a doctor of technical sciences, was appointed as the head of the engineering group. In the 50s, he designed the buildings of the Moscow State University. In the future, he will be assigned to work on the Ostankino tower. Now calculations of particular complexity were needed. For this monument has a super great height. “Motherland” in Volgograd must be impeccable.

From a military point of view, Vasily Chuikov, Marshal, took up the consultation. At the front he was nicknamed the "storm commander". It was he who commanded the 62nd Army, which did not surrender the Mamayev Kurgan to the enemy. During the defense of Stalingrad, Chuikov came up with special assault groups. They suddenly burst into houses, passing to them through underground communications. The Germans could not even understand where this blow fell from.

After the war, the marshal was awarded for his work on the monument in an original way: they were allowed (at his request) to be buried on the Mamayev Kurgan, next to those 34505 soldiers who died defending Stalingrad. In 1982, their commander himself was buried near the Motherland.

The architectural and engineering group has created the figure of a woman (the height of the Motherland statue, as we have already said, is 85 meters), who is taking an impetuous, energetic step forward. In her hand is a sword raised against the invaders. the country calls the people to fight the enemy.

The prototype of the statue

And who, I wonder, posed then for the sculptor? The candidacy - Valentina Izotova - was found by accident. Now she is a pensioner, a resident of Volgograd. And then she was 26 years old. And she worked as a waitress in a restaurant. There Vuchetich's assistant, also sculptor L. Maistrenko, saw her. He liked the stern, serious face, the athletic figure of Izotova, her purposeful look. The candidacy was approved.

This work took Valentina Ivanovna two years. Be that as it may, but the creative process is difficult. Moreover, given the incredible height of the sculpture. “Motherland” in Volgograd really turned out to be outstanding. People come from everywhere to look at it, to pay tribute to the defenders of the country. At night, the light of powerful searchlights falls on the monument (the height of the Motherland is really striking), and the impression is the strongest.

Interesting fact. When they decided to develop a design for the flag and the area), we decided to take the silhouette as a basis. There were no other opinions. And also on a postage stamp of the GDR, issued in 1983, there is the same image.

Difficult job

Being in this place, you understand the full significance of those battles. For more than four months (more precisely, 140 days) there were bloody, fierce battles for only one point - height No. 102. And every piece of this land is still dangerous. Although more than 70 years have passed since there have been no more shots and volleys here, people still find shells on the hill that did not explode then. That is why this territory was chosen to perpetuate the feat of people.

The construction of an unusual monument (the height of the Motherland is very high) began in 1959, in the spring. Completed in the fall of 1967. That is, the work has been going on for more than eight years. First - laying the concrete foundation. A box base was placed on top. The builders intended to lay stones on the pedestal. But an order came from General Secretary Khrushchev, and 150 thousand tons of earth were poured from above in order to further strengthen the foundation. Therefore, today the top of the mound is imported.

Under the sculpture (the height of the Motherland is amazing) there is a thick (one and a half meters) slab and another 16 meters base.

Reduced layout

When it was the turn of the woman's figure, they cast it right here on the hill. How else, if the height of the Motherland statue in Volgograd is extremely high! But the scaled-down (exactly tenfold) model stood nearby. And gradually, looking at the stencil, they poured tier by tier. So they collected the "woman". Trucks with cargo arrived here around the clock. Everything was done very efficiently. Concrete, for example, was taken exactly the same that was allocated for the Volga hydroelectric power station. And the fillers for it were also chosen in the most careful way.

But now the whole figure is ready. Then they took hold of the head. True, they cast it separately. And they were lifted by a helicopter. There was no other way to do it. The height of "Motherland" did not allow.

I had to work a lot with the sword. At first it was made of stainless steel, sheathed with strong pieces (from titanium). However, it swayed from the wind, thundered strongly. That is why in 1972 this weapon was removed and another, steel structure was installed.

Restoration

Restoration measures were carried out in 1972 and 1986. Five years ago, they were engaged in ensuring his safety. After all, the height of the monument "Motherland" in Volgograd is not enough to say decent. She's huge! And over time, everything changes, gets old, weakens. And this is even despite the fact that the thickness of the reinforced concrete walls of the monument is 25-30 cm. Inside it is assembled from large separate cells. The frame, itself rigid, is nevertheless supported by 119 cables of durable metal. And they constantly experience powerful tension.

The heaviest sword with its just fabulous gigantic swayed from the wind. And where it was attached to the woman's hand, there was an excessive tension. The design of the sword has become deformed over time. So we worked on this problem as well.

Sliding down

Since the height of the Motherland is great, and the figure stands on clay soil, which slowly but invariably slides towards the Volga, the experts sounded the alarm. After all, the statue can collapse. She has already shifted by 214 mm. And this is almost 80 percent of the allowable initial calculations. But experts say: the planned strength has not yet been exhausted.

This project was conceived for a deflection of 272 mm. And its base was slightly deformed. In total, the norms went away only by 90 mm. After the next restoration, the monument will serve for a long time.