The Motherland Calls

The sculpture on the summit of Mamayev Kurgan is the centre of the memorial ensemble To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad, opened in 1967. Its author was Yevgeny Vuchetich, while the engineering calculations were made by Nikolai Nikitin, the same man who designed the Ostankino Tower. The figure is fifty-two metres tall, and eighty-five together with the sword; at the time of construction it was the tallest statue in the world. Inside is a hollow shell of prestressed reinforced concrete; the sword was at first made of stainless steel, then replaced with a lighter one of fluorinated steel with openings to reduce wind load. The sculpture has no pedestal: it is set straight onto a slab, so that the figure seems to be coming out of the ground. The climb to the summit starts at the foot of the kurgan, where the inscription For Stalingrad is laid out on the steps, followed by an avenue of poplars, the Square of Those Who Stood to the Death and the Hall of Military Glory. At night floodlights illuminate the statue, and it is visible from almost anywhere in the city centre.

On the map