Soviet statue returns to Moscow

November 30, 2009

On Saturday, Worker and Kolkhoznitsa, a giant statue of Soviet times, was returned to a pedestal in Moscow, Russia. It was done after a long five-year restoration process since the monument was dismantled in 2003. The statue was initially expected to return in 2005, but when the Expo 2010 was awarded to Shanghai instead of Moscow the restoration process was stalled due to a shortage of funds.

The 24.5-meter high Worker and the Kolkhoz Woman holding a hammer and a sickle, the symbols of the Soviet Union, steel monument by Vera Mukhina and Boris Iofan was first showed at an exhibition in Paris in 1937. It was later returned to Russia after the exhibition and installed to a place just outside the Exhibition of Achievements of the People's Economy. The monument became a recognisable symbol of the Soviet Union after it was chosen as a Mosfilm studio logo in 1947 featuring in the opening credits of many Soviet films produced by the studio.

It's expected that the statue would now last for centuries. Plans for the future of the monument included construction of an exhibition hall in the statue's pedestal. One of the rejected projects was to introduce a parking lot beneath the statue's square.

Earlier this week, on Monday, an exhibition of Vera Mukhina works was opened in St. Petersburg's Russian Museum, presenting more than 200 of her sculptures, graphic works, and decorative and applied arts, including the several sketches and studies, as well as the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman monument’s model.

The official monument reopening ceremony is scheduled for December 3–5.