A small statuette from the Zimovniki Local History Museum exhibition is a copy of the sculpture from the Square of Defenders to the Death of the monument-ensemble “To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad”, known as the Mamayev Kurgan, in Volgograd (named Stalingrad during the war).
The complex consists of several compositions, and the main monument is an 85-meter sculpture “The Motherland Calls”. The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev, the USSR Defense Minister Andrei Grechko, the Marshals of the Soviet Union Andrei Yeremenko and Vasily Chuikov attended the opening ceremony which took place in October 1967.
The memorial was named after its location. Mamayev Kurgan is a hill on the right bank of the Volga, where fierce fighting took place in 1942–1943 during the Battle of Stalingrad.
The memorial has several common and individual graves, where more than 35,000 participants of the Battle of Stalingrad are buried. At the entrance to the complex there is an alley of poplars, it leads to the Square of the Defenders to the Death.
The square was built on an area of 4.22 thousand square meters and paved with granite. The square has a round pool, and in its center, there is a massive monument to a Russian soldier, 16.5 meters high. He towers above the water, with a grenade in his right hand and a submachine gun in his left, ready to defend his homeland.
Quotations were inscribed on the pedestal of the monument, “Let us not disgrace the sacred memory”, “Every house is a fortress”, “Defend to the death!” Soldiers made such inscriptions on the walls of the buildings they defended, with these words they went into battle.
According to the idea of the architect Evgeny Vuchetich, the sculpture represents an indestructible rock, a kind of bastion on the enemy’s way. This idea is enhanced by the overall composition of the memorial: the figure of a soldier is located so that his back covers the monument “The Motherland”, as if defending it.
Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander of the 62nd Army Vasily Chuikov was the model for the sculpture. The authors of the memorial borrowed his facial features to make the warrior. When Chuikov died in 1982, he was buried nearby — in the territory of the memorial at the foot of the statue “The Motherland Calls”.
Since 2014, the Mamayev Kurgan Memorial Complex has been a candidate for the inclusion into the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The complex consists of several compositions, and the main monument is an 85-meter sculpture “The Motherland Calls”. The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev, the USSR Defense Minister Andrei Grechko, the Marshals of the Soviet Union Andrei Yeremenko and Vasily Chuikov attended the opening ceremony which took place in October 1967.
The memorial was named after its location. Mamayev Kurgan is a hill on the right bank of the Volga, where fierce fighting took place in 1942–1943 during the Battle of Stalingrad.
The memorial has several common and individual graves, where more than 35,000 participants of the Battle of Stalingrad are buried. At the entrance to the complex there is an alley of poplars, it leads to the Square of the Defenders to the Death.
The square was built on an area of 4.22 thousand square meters and paved with granite. The square has a round pool, and in its center, there is a massive monument to a Russian soldier, 16.5 meters high. He towers above the water, with a grenade in his right hand and a submachine gun in his left, ready to defend his homeland.
Quotations were inscribed on the pedestal of the monument, “Let us not disgrace the sacred memory”, “Every house is a fortress”, “Defend to the death!” Soldiers made such inscriptions on the walls of the buildings they defended, with these words they went into battle.
According to the idea of the architect Evgeny Vuchetich, the sculpture represents an indestructible rock, a kind of bastion on the enemy’s way. This idea is enhanced by the overall composition of the memorial: the figure of a soldier is located so that his back covers the monument “The Motherland”, as if defending it.
Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander of the 62nd Army Vasily Chuikov was the model for the sculpture. The authors of the memorial borrowed his facial features to make the warrior. When Chuikov died in 1982, he was buried nearby — in the territory of the memorial at the foot of the statue “The Motherland Calls”.
Since 2014, the Mamayev Kurgan Memorial Complex has been a candidate for the inclusion into the UNESCO World Heritage List.
