The monument ensemble to ‘The heroes of Stalingrad battle’ opened in Volgograd

15 October 1967

On October 15, 1967 in Volgograd there was a grand opening of the monument ensemble to ‘The Heroes of Stalingrad battle’.

The decision to construct the memorial ensemble devoted to the feat of arms of Stalingrad battle heroes (July 17, 1942 – February 2, 1943) was made in January of 1958. The construction began in May of 1959 and was completed by October of 1967.

The project was developed by the group of authors – sculptors and architects under the guidance of E.V. Vuchetich. Architects: Belopolsky Ya.B., Demin V.A., Lysov F.M. Sculptures: Aleshenko M.S., Matrosov V.E., Maistrenko L.M., Mel’nik A.N., Marunov V.A., Novikov N.S., Tuyrenkov A.A. The head of engineer group was Nikitin N.V.

The man military consultant of the project became the marshal V.I. Chuykov – the commander of the army that had held against enemy’s attacks Mamayev Kurgan.

The total area of architect and sculpture complex on Mamayev Kurgan amounts to 26 Ga.

The symbolic ruins of Stalingrad, the Square of 'Those who fought to the bitter end’, the Square of Heroes, the Hall of Military glory, the Square of Sorrow and other sculpture objects have a great emotional impact. Along a serpentine road leading to the top of the hill the remains of 34 505 soldiers – Stalingrad defenders are reburied.

The logical center of the memorial – ‘The Motherland’ occupies the highest spot both in literal and figurative sense. The work of the sculptor E.V. Vuchetich and the engineer N.V. Nikitin is a many meters high woman’s figure who takes a swift step forward holding up a sword. The statue represents an allegoric image of the Motherland who calls for her sons to give a battle to the enemy. The height of the entire monument is 85 meters. The woman’s figure height is 52 meters, the length of an arm – 20 meters, of the sword – 33 meters. The sculpture’s weight is 8 thousand tones, the sword’s weight is 14 tones.

In 2008 the Mamayev Kurgan was included in ‘7 Russian miracles’.

Lit.: Сталинградская битва: Хроника. Факты. Люди. М., 2002; Шелеметьев А. С. Великая Сталинградская битва. Волгоград. 2005.

Государственный историко-мемориальный музей-заповедник «Сталинградская битва»: сайт. Б. д. URL: http://mamayevhill.volgadmin.ru/.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

The Battle of Stalingrad // The Memory of the Great Victory: [digital collection].