Perhaps neither in our country, nor beyond its borders, you will not find a person who would not admire the majestic monument "The Motherland Calls!", Installed in the hero-city of Volgograd on the Mamayev Kurgan. The sculpture is the compositional center of the monument-ensemble to the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad.
Construction took eight years
The chief sculptor and project leader was Yevgeny Viktorovich Vuchetich, who had already created a monument-ensemble to the soldiers of the Soviet Army in Treptower Park in Berlin ten years earlier and the sculpture "We Will Beat 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. The chief military consultant of the project was Marshal V. I. Chuikov is the commander of the army that defended the Mamayev Kurgan.
The construction of the monument lasted for eight years - from May 1959 to October 1967. Since 1972, construction and reconstruction work has been periodically carried out on the Mamayev Kurgan. In 1978, the sculpture was reinforced. The calculation of stability was carried out by Doctor of Technical Sciences N. V. Nikitin. In 2010, work began to improve the safety of the monument.
Work went on day and night
Promotional video:
The height of the monument "Motherland Calls!" without a sword is 52 meters, with a sword 85 m. The weight of the statue without a sword is 8 thousand tons. The sword is 33 meters long and weighs 14 tons. The sword was originally made of stainless steel with a titanium sheath. However, the colossal size of the statue caused the sword to swing violently, especially in windy conditions. As a result, the structure was deformed, the sheets of the titanium shell of the sword were displaced, and an unpleasant metallic rattle appeared when swaying. In 1972, the sword was reconstructed: the blade was replaced with a new one made of fluorinated steel. 5.500 tons of concrete and 2.400 tons of metal structures were spent on the construction of the monument. Before the start of construction, a foundation was laid with a depth of 16 meters. A two-meter slab was installed on it. The thickness of the reinforced concrete walls of the sculpture is about 30 cm.
It was assumed that the base of the monument would be overlaid with stone, but while work was going on, the sculpture at the behest of N. S. Khrushchev "grew" one and a half times (from the original 36 meters, it increased to 52 meters). To strengthen the foundation, 150 thousand tons of earth was poured from above. The monument itself was cast on site, on a mound, only the head and sword were created separately and installed using helicopters. Construction was in full swing day and night. In those days, the Motherland was the tallest statue in the world. Over the years, its height has overtaken other statues, and today it is ranked eleventh in the Guinness Book of Records.
There used to be fierce battles here
The place where the majestic monument was erected was not chosen by chance. 200 meters from the statue is the legendary 102nd height, over which during the Great Patriotic War, fierce bloody battles were fought for 140 days. Monument "Motherland Calls!" is the second part of the triptych. Its first part is located in Magnitogorsk, it is called "Rear - Front!" The third part, entitled "The Liberator Warrior", is located in Treptower Park (Berlin, Germany). When creating the triptych, it was understood that the sword, which was forged by the Ural blacksmiths, was raised by the Motherland in Stalingrad, and lowered by the Soviet soldiers in Berlin, having won the Great Patriotic War.
"Motherland" is a collective image - both externally and internally. Initially, in the intentions of the authors, the sculpture was supposed to look completely different. In the first draft, Motherland was holding not a sword, but a banner, and a soldier was bending at her feet.
Tier by tier
The monument was cast on the spot. Nearby stood a 10-fold scaled-down model (in comparison with the height of a person, the figure of the Motherland was enlarged 30 times). And the statue was slowly assembled using a stencil, flooding tier by tier. There was a need for a continuous supply of concrete, even a slight delay could compromise the strength of the multi-ton structure.
Trucks delivering concrete were marked with special signs. The drivers were allowed to violate the traffic rules, they could even drive "on the red", without fear of being stopped by the traffic police. The concrete was used the same as in the construction of the Volzhskaya HPP. The fillers were selected very carefully - all the best. Concrete feels good in compression but not in tension. In order to prevent cracking of the structure and ensure rigidity, it was pulled together with steel cables. There are 99 ropes in three sections that run from heels to chest level. Each of them can withstand a load of 60 tons. Special electromagnetic sensors are installed on the cables. They record the vibration frequency, according to which the specialists of the Research Institute of Energy Structures control the tension.
The sculpture is not attached to its base in any way and is held only thanks to its own weight. There is an opinion that Evgeny Vuchetich took the image of the ancient goddess of victory Nika of Samothrace as the basis for the sculpture; with a sword.
The Motherland Monument, unlike the Statue of Liberty, was not originally intended to conduct excursions inside. Therefore, there is no interior decoration here. Even the formwork was removed from the walls only after the fire in the Ostankino TV tower. These two giants of the Soviet era were built using the same technology. Remnants of boards are still on the walls in some places.
The strongest image of propaganda
The very image of "Motherland" became one of the most powerful images of Soviet propaganda after Irakli Taidze created, perhaps, the most famous propaganda poster of the Great Patriotic War, "Motherland Calls!"
More than 35 thousand people are buried on the Mamaev Kurgan. Of the 200 days of the Battle of Stalingrad, the struggle for this height lasted 135 days. Even in winter, Mamayev Kurgan remained black from bomb explosions, there were from half a thousand to 1200 fragments and bullets per square meter. In the spring of 1943, the grass did not grow here.
There are very few such sculptures in the world, for example - the Motherland monument 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 height of the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro is 38 meters.