The Motherland Calls, or The Mamayev Monument, is a statue in Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia, commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad. It was designed by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and structural engineer Nikolai Nikitin, and declared the largest statue in the world in 1967.
Compared with the later higher statues, The Motherland Calls is significantly more complex from an engineering point of view, due to its characteristic posture with a sword raised high in the right hand and the left hand extended in a calling gesture. The technology behind the statue is based on a combination of pre-stressed concrete (7,900 tonnes) with wire ropes structure, a solution which can be found also in another work of Nikitin’s, the super-tall Ostankino Tower in Moscow.
It is the tallest statue of a woman in the world.
When the memorial was dedicated in 1967 it was the tallest sculpture in the world, measuring 87 metres from the tip of its sword to the top of the plinth. The figure itself measures 52 metres, and the sword 33 metres.
Two hundred steps, symbolizing the 200 days of the Battle of Stalingrad, led from the bottom of the hill to the monument. The statue appears on both the current flag and coat of arms of Volgograd Oblast.
Related Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motherland_Calls
