The Youth Policy and Tourism Committee of the Volgograd Administration, the Department of Foreign, Regional and Foreign Economic Relations of the Volgograd Administration and the GKU VO "Tourism Development Agency" announced a competition for the best option new brand of Volgograd. Both individual authors and firms involved in solving similar problems are invited to participate in the competition. the main objective this competition, to save the region and Volgograd itself from the "print" of the Battle of Stalingrad. Most contemporaries have an idea of ​​our city solely as a place where the course of the Great Patriotic War was turned. Where hundreds of thousands of our compatriots perished in battles with fascism.

According to the terms of the competition, it is necessary to create a symbol of the Volgograd region, positioning Volgograd and the region, which can be used as a symbol of the city and the region, to promote the Volgograd region as a center of tourism, culture, industry, sports, and to promote the recognition of Volgograd and the region as a whole. According to officials, the Motherland and everything connected with the Great Patriotic War, is no longer very relevant for the region”: “Motherland is still a legacy of the Soviet era. Unfortunately, for many, it is associated with something heavy, tragic and mournful. Especially for foreigners. And we would like our region to be perceived as a pleasant area for recreation.” end of quote. Technical parameters of 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 freely 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 individual cell cells, like rooms in a building. The rigidity of the frame is supported by ninety-nine metal cables that are constantly in tension.
The sword, 33 meters long and weighing 14 tons, was originally made of stainless steel sheathed with titanium sheets.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 swaying of the sword when exposed to wind loads, which led to excessive mechanical stress at the point of attachment of the hand holding the sword to the body of the sculpture. Deformations in the sword's structure also caused the sheets of titanium plating to move, creating an unpleasant sound of rattling metal. Therefore, in 1972, the blade was replaced with another one - entirely consisting 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 strengthened in 1986 on the recommendation of the NIIZhB expert group led by R.L. Serykh. Some 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 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 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 this moment the statue takes 11th place in the list of the tallest statues in the world
the author of the composition "Motherland" Yevgeny Viktorovich Vutetich once told Andrei Sakharov (Soviet physicist, one of the creators of the hydrogen bomb): “The authorities ask me why her mouth is open, because it's ugly. I answer: And she screams - for the Motherland ... your mother! - shut up" The monument is the second part of the triptych, which also consists of the monuments "Rear to Front" in Magnitogorsk and "Warrior-Liberator" in Treptow Park in Berlin. It is understood that the sword, forged on the banks of the Urals, was then raised by the Motherland in Stalingrad and lowered after the Victory in Berlin.

in the picture: "Rear - to the front" - a monument located in the city of Magnitogorsk. The authors of the monument: sculptor - Lev Nikolaevich Golovnitsky, architect - Yakov Borisovich Belopolsky. Material - bronze, granite. Height - 15 meters. "Warrior-Liberator" - a monument in Berlin's Treptow Park. Sculptor E. V. Vuchetich, architect Ya. B. Belopolsky, artist A. V. Gorpenko, engineer S. S. Valerius. Opened May 8, 1949. Height - 12 meters. The silhouette of the sculpture "Motherland" was taken as the basis for the development of the emblem and flag of the Volgograd region. According to the will, in Volgograd, on Mamaev Kurgan, at the foot of the Motherland monument, the commander of the 62nd Army, who distinguished himself in Battle of Stalingrad, Marshall Soviet Union- Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov. On the grave of V. I. Chuikov, fresh flowers almost always lie.
Forgive me, of course, but can someone answer me: Where is our world and our Motherland heading??!!

it turns out that a handful of bureaucrats will now take and erase part of our great history?!....
I have no words...

“This will be a museum of toratalira…” - the famous Ukrainian thinker Vitaliy Klitschko optimistically assessed the prospects for the decommunization of Kyiv. Difficult words are given to the mayor of the Ukrainian capital with difficulty, but it is known that the authorities are preparing in the near future to demolish the largest monuments - the Motherland and the Friendship of Peoples Arch. "Lenta.ru" understood why officials took up arms against them.

On May 25, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko boasted that 150 streets in the city had already been decommunized, and only a few remained to be given new names. And he added that all the monuments to Soviet leaders had been demolished in Kyiv. “We decided to collect all the monuments in one place. This will be of interest to historians. It will be a museum of toratalira…” - on compound word a former boxer on the air of one of the radio stations. The presenter came to his aid: he pronounced the word "totalitarianism" twice in syllables.

Dmitry Belotserkovets, Klitschko's landscaping adviser, spoke in more detail about the immediate plans. According to him, for complete decommunization, it is necessary to demolish the monument to the Chekists, the fence on the Paton bridge (made in the form of ears of corn from the emblem of the USSR), the wall in the Teatralnaya metro station with a bronze bust of Lenin, the monument to the red commander Shchors and the monument, which is considered calling card cities, - motherland. Belotserkovets, that the decision on this monument should be made by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. In addition, the official noted that the government will allocate money for the demolition of the Peoples' Friendship Arch.

Later, the Department of Urban Improvement of Kyiv reported that Soviet monuments could be placed at Kiev's Zhuliany airport. In addition, negotiations are underway with the National aviation university about supplementing their exposition on open area these monuments. “The museum will help generations not to forget the catastrophic actions and their consequences that the Soviet empire brought to the Ukrainian land,” Belotserkovets concluded.

ATO instead of friendship of peoples

The immediate goal of the Kyiv authorities is a monument to the Chekists on Lybidskaya Square, which is a vertical stele of granite with the faces of two fighters of the revolution carved on it. Nationalists and public utilities have already made three attempts to knock down the monument, but have not yet been successful. First, the activists of the Azov regiment failed. Them managed only destroy the fence of the monument. They covered the statue itself with inscriptions and doused it with paint. On May 23, the public utilities removed the plinth slabs, but did not figure out what to do with the 80-ton stele itself. May 25, the day of memory of the leader Ukrainian nationalists times civil war Simon Petliura, they returned to the Chekists again. This time the excavator with its bucket had tried knock out a pedestal from under the monument. Kyiv authorities said they did not know who owns the equipment. “We planned to go the civilized way: develop a dismantling project, approve its estimate by the decision of the Kyiv City Council session and move the monument to the museum of monuments Soviet era. But someone decided differently,” said Andrei Fischuk, a representative of the mayor's office.

The 62-meter sculpture Motherland rises on the slopes of the Dnieper and is visible in Kyiv from everywhere. This monument is part of the Museum of the History of Ukraine in World War II. In one hand of the statue - a 16-meter sword, in the other - a shield with the coat of arms of the USSR. It is clear that it is difficult and costly to demolish such a hulk, so the officials had another idea - to replace the Soviet emblem on the shield with a Ukrainian trident. Experts warn that it is extremely difficult to carry out such work. The size of Soviet symbols on the shield is 6 by 4 meters, weight is about 8 tons. The sculptors say that the dismantling of the coat of arms can damage the stability of the entire structure: the arm with the shield is a counterbalance to the arm with the sword, the weight of each element is strictly verified.

The Arch of Friendship of Peoples was installed in Kyiv in 1982 in honor of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. Under the arch is a statue: a Ukrainian and a Russian raise a ribbon with the Order of Friendship of Peoples. The need to demolish the monument was announced by the Minister of Culture of Ukraine Yevhen Nishchuk. In his opinion, a monument to the soldiers of the ATO (anti-terrorist operation, as military operations in the east of the country are officially called) should be erected at this place. approx. "Tapes.ru"). Later, the department clarified that they would still think about the fate of the arch itself, but the statue would definitely be dismantled. “Obviously, this particular monument will look great as an example of socialist art in a potential Museum totalitarian regimes”, - Nishchuk’s press secretary Yulia Datsenko.

The demolition of the arch has already been discussed. In September 2015, such an initiative was made by the chief architect of Kyiv Sergey Tselovalnik. According to him, the arch is useless because " Russian troops came to the Ukrainian land with tanks and goes real war". In addition, Tselovalnik did not see artistic merit in this structure. However, he soon lost his position and did not have time to bring his idea to life.

Mina under the country

Experts say that in the near future the Soviet monuments in Ukraine will end, but the struggle will continue - the monuments of the imperial period of history will be demolished. “The current pro-Maidan government has no social, economic success, nothing to brag about in matters of European integration, the fight against corruption, and the growth of the welfare of citizens. They portray life in a new way with the help of symbolic steps - a war with monuments, changing signs, city names, ”says Andrey Zolotarev, a political scientist and head of the Third Sector analytical center.

According to him, Kyiv authorities act in the style of the Bolsheviks, with whom they seem to be fighting. “They also easily rewrote history, gave everything their own names. "Let's renounce the old world." The current leaders of Ukraine declare adherence to European values, but they are not interested in people's opinion either. The Bolsheviks, however, had their own project for the future, their own real achievements. The current Ukrainian government professes only corruption and social genocide. There was a motherland, now there will be a motherland of Nadia-Savchenko and other Maidan activists,” the expert notes.

Historian Viktor Pirozhenko believes that de-Russification lies at the heart of decommunization. "We see that most monuments to Soviet political leaders were destroyed, but no one is going to stop the process. The struggle will continue until the complete victory over the common past with Russia. The task of the current regime is to break the continuity with the Ukrainian SSR, with Russian Empire. A new Ukrainian political nation must be created on anti-Russian soil. Decommunization is only the first layer of this campaign, now the nationalists will be engaged in de-Russification,” he emphasizes.

In his opinion, in the event of the Friendship Arch being demolished, the question of assessing the activities of the hetman and commander Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who was the engine of the process of reunification with Russia, will arise. “In Kyiv, they don’t understand that by refusing the past, the country renounces the future. During the years of the existence of the Ukrainian SSR, parts of the territories of the RSFSR, Poland, Romania, Bessarabia and Czechoslovakia were transferred to it. The further, the less stable the foundation of the Ukrainian state becomes. It's a ticking time bomb. The process of decommunization is destroying Ukraine as a historical entity,” the historian sums up.

"The chief Kiev architect was unable to link the Ukrainian coat of arms and the fight against fascism. Europeanizing Ukraine is setting a record for reprisals against the Soviet past and its monuments. Orgy, which the regime has arranged in this field, world history didn't know yet. The Taliban and ISIS turn green with envy at the indefatigability of their Ukrainian counterparts. The chief architect of the Junta capital counted 145 monuments in the city to be destroyed. Among them was even the monumental Motherland on the slopes of the Dnieper.

The official shared his plans for this in an interview with the Kyiv newspaper Segodnya. In a country where, as you know, there are no fascists, the monuments to the heroes who fought against fascism, and which are installed in the Park of Glory on the Alley of the same name, have been sentenced to demolition.

“We counted only 145 monuments in Kyiv that need to be demolished! This is a huge amount and cost. They are dedicated to Soviet figures and are being demolished. According to the law, even on the Walk of Fame, monuments to those people who are immortalized there must be demolished, since they served in the KGB,” Tselovalnik said.

The Motherland monument should also be demolished, he said. The reason is simple - it's stupid to put the coat of arms of Ukraine on it. And the coat of arms of Ukraine has nothing to do with the fight against fascism, the Kiev architect blabbed.

“The emblem of the USSR, a non-existent country, is depicted on the shield of the sculpture of the Motherland. I heard that this coat of arms will be removed by climbers, and in its place there will be a trident ... But then a lot of questions will arise for the sculpture itself: after all, it is dedicated to the fight against fascism. And then suddenly there is a small coat of arms of independent Ukraine on it. How to explain this to children? I would honestly not touch that shield. If we are to demolish, then the entire sculpture, but then the question arises of where to get the money for this,” he says.

Indeed, this combination is rather difficult to explain. Even children. As political scientist Aleksey Blyuminov aptly noted, "really, how to explain to children the presence of the coat of arms of Nazi collaborators on the monument in honor of the fight against fascism? A difficult task. I'm afraid that even Vyatrovich (a popular falsifying historian in Ukraine - ed.) will not be able to cope with it."

Instead of hateful Soviet monuments in the center of the country's capital, where there are no fascists, the chief architect proposes to equip a mourning memorial in honor of the fallen militants of the Euromaidan.

“I believe that we need to start creating a memorial park on the Maidan, where each tree symbolizes the deceased on Institutskaya and not only. Mount plates with the names of the heroes of the "Heavenly Hundred" with backlight.

Recall that in the same interview, Tselovalnik announced that the arch of Friendship of Peoples would be demolished in the center of Kyiv due to, so to speak, the disappearance of a precedent for existence.

In general, I'm posting photos from my over9000 unprocessed photos lying around. This statue is visible from many points of the city, and therefore attracted my attention.


Photo 2.

Monument to a dying soldier.


Photo 3.

Photo 4.

The statue immediately reminded me of Stalingrad and Mamaev Kurgan. Yes indeed over everything memorial complex the same sculptor Evgeny Vuchetich worked, but in 1974 he died and his work was continued by the Ukrainian sculptor Vasily Boroday. The composition subsequently underwent significant changes. Borodai developed the project, which was implemented in collaboration with Frid Sagoyan and Vasily Vinaykin, as well as with architects Viktor Elizarov (the architect of many underground special facilities), Georgy Kisly, and Nikolai Feshchenko. Initially, of course, it was planned to do something more grandiose than in Volgograd, in particular, they planned to cover the statue with gold leaf, but unfortunately there were not enough funds.

Photo 5.

The metal frame is made of stainless steel smelted in Zaporozhye. The steel sheathing was welded by specialists from the Paton Electric Welding Institute from sheets 50x50 cm in size and 1.5 mm thick. The total length of the seams was about 30 km. A sculpture of this size was made for the first time in the USSR.

Photo 6.

In 1981, on Victory Day, the complex opened General Secretary Central Committee of the CPSU L. I. Brezhnev.

Photo 7.

Photo 8.

Photo 9.

Still, she's beautiful! Real Ukrainian. They would replace the coat of arms, after all, this is the Motherland, and even more so, when the country gained independence, we can say that this is also the Motherland, but they decided to "kill their mother."
By the way, in their beloved Europe, with its liberal-tolerant views, fascism is considered greatest crime and tragedy, and even if they do not like the USSR, they honor the memory of their heroes.


Photo 10.

Coat of arms of the USSR


Photo 11.

Alley of Hero Cities.


Photo 12.
By the way, the complex is very interesting. Here under open sky exhibited various military equipment.


Photo 13.

Photo 14.
))) Torkaet)


Photo 15.

Photo 16.

Photo 17.
Hippie tanks. Peace to the world))))


Photo 18.

Photo 19.

Photo 20.

Photo 21.

Photo 22.

Chalice "fire of glory". Old photographs show that the fire from it still burns.


Photo 23.
But apparently the Russians have become expensive to sell gas and the eternal fire has not been burning for a long time. In fact, this is the first time I've seen such a memorial. This is really Ukrainian beauty.

Photo 24.

Photo 25.
small museum military equipment under the open sky, but so many things have been collected, I have not seen anything like this in Volgograd.


Photo 26.

Photo 27.

Photo 28.

Photo 29.

Photo 30.

Photo 31.

Photo 32.

Photo 33.
The plane made me very happy. I have never seen this in any military museum.


Photo 34.

Photo 35.

Photo 36.

Photo 37.

Photo 38.

Photo 39.
All equipment is in a circle. The panorama is almost 180 degrees. Only almost.

Photo 40.

Photo 41.

Photo 42.

Entrance to the tunnel. Very cool sculpture here.

These Vuchetich sculptures are reminiscent of Mamaev Kurgan, only here it seems to me even a little more interesting. Mamaev Kurgan 2.0.


Photo 44.

Photo 45.

Photo 46.

Photo 47.

Photo 48.

Photo 49.

Photo 50.

Photo 51.

Here is such a wonderful monument. It would be a pity if it was all destroyed. Still, Ukraine is a country of beauty and it will be a pity that such beauty will be removed. Still, what a cretin and a freak you have to be to believe in the holy Hitler-liberator. Well, you hate the USSR, hate it, but you must respect the history and the feat of compatriots who played a role in the victory in the Great Patriotic World War II. I guarantee that many of these bastards who will demolish the monument have grandfathers who fought against fascism, and since they are all such nationalists, then any nation honors the memory of their ancestors and it would not be right to betray their ancestors.
Well, in general, since they hate the Soviet regime so much, then let them destroy the metro, this is the legacy of the damned Stalinist totalitarianism. Although they were no longer built under Stalin, but still.

PS. For comparison - Mamaev Kurgan in Stalingrad Volgograd