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Second life of great Socialist monument
Published: 04 December, 2009, 16:05
Edited: 20 August, 2010, 18:15
A sculpture originally created to crown the 37-meter-high Soviet pavilion of the World's Fair in 1937 has recently been restored and returned to its place at the All-Russia Exhibition Center in Moscow.
The monument depicts a young man and a girl, personifying the Soviet Union: its working class and collective farming. Together they raise the emblem of the Soviet State – a hammer and sickle. The competition to create the sculpture was won by artist Vera Mukhina. Her idea became a 25-meter-tall, 80-ton-heavy monument to socialism.
See more pictures of the monument under reconstruction in photo gallery by Maxim Sevryugin
See more pictures of the monument opening ceremony in photo gallery by Irina Vasilevitskaya
Titled “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman”, it returned to the USSR after the fair in 1939. In January-August 1939, the sculpture was reconstructed and subsequently placed on a pedestal before the northern entrance to the All-Russia Exhibition Center in Moscow. Later it was restored again in 1979, and in 2003 it went for another planned reconstruction.
Soviet and German pavilions facing each other at the World's
Fair in Paris, 1937 (Click to enlarge)
However, “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” was supposed to return to its place in 2005, but ended up sitting dismantled in a hangar for six years, though not without good reason.
In a huge pavilion the monument was reassembled and now looks as good as it did back in 1937. The updated monument passed all stages of computer modeling, its skeleton was strengthened, and all connections and joints were tested for durability.
On November 27, the sculptural group set up a pedestal at the All-Russia Exhibition Center in Moscow with a special crane. The solemn opening of the actual monument will take place on December, 4-5, 2009.
The sculpture was named “the touchstone of socialist realism” in the Big Soviet encyclopedia. In cinema, “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” was chosen in 1947 to serve as the logo for Soviet film studio Mosfilm.
It is supposed that, in the near future, “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” will be put on the new 34.5-meter-tall pedestal-pavilion, inside of which there will be a museum that is planned to open in 2010.
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December 05, 2009, 16:15, Andy wrote > This monument is part of our history which may seem rough, but still, it is history. And it can't be rewritten or forgotten. I honestly do not believe the monument is rough. On the contrary. I find statute extremelly beautiful. In a way, I would say that it is similar to the U.S. statute of liberty in New York. I am happy that Russians are now able to reconciliate with the good things of the past, like this beautiful statute. I saw the statute in the Sochi ad video shown in Vancouver. Congratulations Russia and I hope that this will be preserved for future generations of Russians.
This is good news. A country that destroys its history destroys itself. That would be true of the usa today, folks. Lois duPey Foreign Correspondent Reporting from Columbia Basin MId Columbian Sin Cayuse Nation (expatriate dissident, samizdat publisher)