Statue of Worker and Collective Farm Woman. Photos of where it is located in Moscow, history, height of the monument, interesting facts

The sculpture “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” is a famous composition located at the northern entrance of VDNKh in Moscow and expresses the ideology of the Soviet state during the construction of the socialist system. The monument was built for the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937; the idea of its creation belonged to the architect Boris Iofan, and the project was brought to life by sculptor Vera Mukhina.

Can the sculptural group “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” be called a monument? In a sense, yes, since it is a monument to the Soviet era.

Historical facts

The author of the unique sculpture was the architect Boris Iofan

The author of this unique project was B.M. Iofan, sculptor and architect. The monument found real life with the assistance of V.I. Mukhina. They made a large-scale sculpture at TsNIITMASH. According to the author's original idea, the main characters were planned to be half naked. But the “censorship” of that time could not stand aside. A proposal was made to dress the couple in worker outfits, which was the main reason for the appearance of clothes made of thin sheets on the sculptures.

Interesting points

After the sculpture was installed in Moscow, after the exhibition in Paris, the author and architect of the structure, Mukhina, called it “stump”. The thing is that initially the pedestal for the monument was very massive and high, but it was not possible to transfer it from Paris. And in Moscow, near the entrance to VDNKh, a very low, small pedestal was installed, which simply ruined the entire compositional plan.

Seeing the already installed sculpture, Mukhina was horrified and tried to protest, but all her attempts did not lead to any results.

In the Russian city of Bikin there is a smaller copy of the monument “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” - it is made in plaster and is much smaller in size.

Having stood for 60 years, the monument fell into a terrible state, but no one planned to make any decisions on restoration, and then a demonstrative action was organized so that measures would be taken to save the sculpture - the figures of the monument were dressed in clothes in the colors of the Russian flag, and were in in this state for 3 days.

Today, the sculpture has acquired its original appearance - the pedestal has finally been installed at an acceptable size, the sculpture itself has been restored and cleaned. And despite all the vicissitudes of fate, it continues to delight its visitors with the beauty and power of the composition.

What does the famous monument consist of?

The monument consists of 5,000 small parts connected by threading and welding into a single structure

Despite the fact that this huge monument looks like a holistic, monolithic structure, it contains 5,000 parts. All elements were connected into a single frame composition using threading and welding. The main material for production was stainless steel coated with nickel and chromium. The alloy is unique in its properties. It is malleable and flexible, easy to work with, not susceptible to corrosive influences, and does not form plaque. By the way, this is the first sculpture in the Soviet Union where he was involved. As for the thickness of the material, it is 0.5 millimeters. It is essentially thinner than human skin.

Collective farmer scarf

Project manager Vera Mukhina had a hard time defending the presence of a scarf from a collective farmer

In total, the structure took only eleven days to assemble. Twenty-five people took part in the creation of the monument. The team of workers was led by V.I. Mukhina. Serious battles were caused by the collective farmer's scarf. The censors demanded that it be removed, but Mukhina defended her point of view, pointing out that the absence of this wardrobe element would not benefit the creation. Without it, the necessary horizontal and the illusion that constant movement is taking place will disappear. Despite all the controversy, Mukhina still defended her point of view and no one removed the scarf.

Being near the monument, you get the feeling that you are standing near a skyscraper

In Paris, during a visit to the exhibition, this monument created a real sensation. Despite the fact that its height is relatively small, 33 meters, visitors said that an inexplicable feeling arises. It's like there's a skyscraper in front of you. It is worth noting that the pavilion of the Soviet Union was located opposite the German eagle, which was lost against the background of our monument. This even became the reason for ridicule towards the German government.

Secrets of the steel pair. The difficult fate of “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”

“Worker and Collective Farm Woman” is the same symbol of our country as “Motherland”. The sculpture glorifying the Soviet Union was created for the World Exhibition held in Paris in 1937.

Hitler's bird

Then, on the banks of the Seine near the Eiffel Tower, several pavilions from different countries were erected. The Soviet Union was invited to this exhibition for the first time. And of course, the young country wanted to demonstrate its strength and innovation. I must say, it was a success - the Soviet pavilion came as a shock to the French and all guests of France that year. The USSR pavilion did not in any way resemble old Russian architecture; it was pure new imperial modernism.

The pavilion project began to be developed two years before the exhibition, and our architects, knowing where it would be located, created a project for a high and very long gallery (34 by 165 m), under which the highway passed. The goal was clear: to show the strength and power of the Soviet state, its ability to withstand any threat. It is still unclear whether this was just a coincidence, but Germany was building its pavilion opposite the Soviet pavilion, and the German architect Speer had exactly the same goal - to show strength and power.

Speer claimed that he stole and copied the plans for the Soviet pavilion. But in fact, these drawings were given to him by the chief architect of the Paris Exhibition, who was a fan of Adolf Hitler. And when Hitler was informed that the Soviet sculpture on the pavilion would be taller than the German structure by the length of raised arms, he ordered the German pavilion to be built on and an eagle installed on top. But the bird still turned out to be small and looked ridiculous. The German pavilion was inferior to the Soviet one in beauty, ideological content, and dynamics. But still, we shared the Grand Prix of the Paris Exhibition with the Germans.

Everyone knows that the author of “The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman” was Vera Mukhina. But it is not so. The author of both the pavilion and the monument crowning it was the architect Boris Iofan. It was he who came up with the two-figure idea as an expression of the joint victory of the peasantry and proletariat in the revolution. The prototype for Iofan was the ancient statues “Tyran Slayers” and “Nike of Samothrace”. According to Iofan’s design, the figures had to take a step not only forward, but also upward, that is, as if they were climbing a step. But with Vera Mukhina they only take a step forward.

Vera Mukhina

She was entrusted with the practical refinement of Boris Iofan's idea. The commission headed by Molotov chose precisely its plan for its plastic implementation. I must say, he was unsurpassed. The worker and the collective farmer had to be young, beautiful, strong and look into the bright Soviet future.

Vera Mukhina was a very purposeful person; she squeezed every effort out of a huge team of architects and artists. They plowed for days on end and became so close to their creation that they drew cartoons of it with elephants and propellers.

Modeled from a dancer and an NKVD member

In the museum at VDNKh they will tell you today that the prototypes of the Mukhin couple were “all the boys and girls of the young Soviet state.” Yes, of course. But no. In fact, the worker’s torso was modeled after a ballet dancer, and his face was that of the athlete Sergei Kasner (Mukhina, like her German contemporary Riefenstahl, was inspired by sports parades). And the model for the collective farmer was chosen as “a Komsomol member, an athlete and simply a beauty” from the NKVD, 18-year-old Anna Bogoyavlenskaya (and as soon as the last name was missed!). Mukhina understood all her responsibility: for Soviet sculpture, special shots that had been ideologically tested far and wide must pose. Well, the people were told that the prototypes were the builder and the hauler of Metrostroy.

Molotov personally accepted the model of the sculpture. He ordered the girl to be rejuvenated - to remove the bags under her eyes, to dress both of them (initially they were naked in the manner of Greek statues). Molotov was also irritated by the fluttering scarf and told him to remove it. But Vera Mukhina cheated. She said that the scarf is not something bourgeois-frivolous, but is needed for balance so that the statue does not topple over. Although technically the entire structure could stand vertically without the scarf. Molotov retreated. Then they wrote a denunciation against Mukhina, and they began to look for Trotsky’s profile in the folds of her skirt. Today it seems hilariously funny, but then it was simply hilarious - in the most physiological sense. One way or another, the shape of the folds was changed several times. Well, then the factory made a life-size monument - from aircraft-grade stainless steel, and not from the more usual bronze and copper.

France wanted to buy a statue from Stalin

This couple was transported to France piece by piece on 28 railway platforms. When we passed through Poland, large fragments could not pass through the tunnel and got stuck, so they were divided into smaller ones.

Even at the Paris exhibition, visitors noticed that the Soviet sculptural group changes its color depending on the lighting. Steel did not absorb, but reflected light. At dawn the monument was pink, during the day it was silver and cold, and at sunset it turned golden. The French liked the Soviet composition so much that they started collecting money, wanted to buy it and leave it in France. But Stalin, of course, refused: “These two giants must return to their homeland, to the Soviet Union, here we will find a decent platform for them.”

Vera Mukhina really wanted the monument to be placed near the water in Moscow. But they decided to place “Worker and Collective Farm Girl” at VDNKh. The opening of the pavilion with the monument took place on September 1, 1939, the very day when the Nazi invasion took place in Poland, through which two years earlier a steel pair had been transported with such difficulty.

The monument was placed on a 10-meter pedestal. On a “small stump,” as Mukhina said. All the advantages of the extraordinary sculpture created by the sculptor were lost.

There was no money, but they held on

The composition reached the required height, which was conceived in the last century, only in 2009. But these are our times, and before that, at the end of the Soviet Union, “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” also seemed to have come to an end - they were in a very deplorable state. To draw the attention of the authorities to this catastrophe, witty architects “dressed up” “The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman.” Hers in a red sundress, his in a blue jumpsuit. The scarf was painted in the colors of the Russian flag.

In 2003, the monument was removed from its pedestal, cut into pieces and sent to a hangar. Then the crisis began... We needed a lot of money, because the troubles were enormous. The material - stainless steel - which at first seemed like progress and dignity, now became the main problem: corrosion had eaten away a large area of the sculpture. Well, the frame, made according to the principles of aircraft construction, simply crumbled.

Restoration began after 2006, collecting money from the world piece by piece: some from the budget, some from private capital. But everything worked out. The frame had to be replaced completely, but the casing was only replaced by 12%. For “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” they even invented a special paste that both cleans and protects, like a cream. It took exactly 1 ton.

By 2009, the platform for the couple’s figures was also restored (only the French saw it at that exhibition in ’37). “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” returned to their place. The pair weighs 180 tons, and one of the lifting hooks was attached just to the “bourgeois” scarf that Molotov did not like so much.

And now, looking at the steel couple that embodied the sincerity and ideals of the Soviet era, we believe that someday the Worker and the Collective Farm Woman will still see a happy future for our long-suffering country.

Did you know?

In 1947, the sculpture became the emblem of Mosfilm. True, the screensaver is not the original monument, but its author’s copy. Mukhina made it specifically for the film studio.

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The material was published in the Sobesednik+ publication No. 10-2019 under the title “Secrets of a steel pair.”

Restoration

It took 6 years to reconstruct the sculpture - replacing the frame.

In its original form, the sculpture stood for about seventy years. Then they decided that it needed restoration. In 2003 it was dismantled. All external parts were not damaged and were perfectly preserved. Only the frame had to be changed, but this took almost six years.

What does the monument stand on?

The monument is located on the pavilion in which the museum and exhibition complex was organized

Currently, the monument “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” is located on a pavilion measuring 34.5 m, with the Soviet coat of arms, three and a half meters in diameter, surrounded by original sculptures. The design is an exact copy of the original version. Restoration work was carried out using newsreels. A museum and exhibition complex was organized in the pedestal. Its exhibition is entirely dedicated to an era that is irrevocably a thing of the past.

Source

History of sculpture

Creation

It was created for the Soviet pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. The ideological concept of the sculpture and the first model belonged to the architect B. M. Iofan[3][4], who won the competition for the construction of the pavilion. While working on the competition project, the architect “very soon came up with an image... of a sculpture, a young man and a girl, personifying the owners of the Soviet land - the working class and the collective farm peasantry. They raise high the emblem of the Land of the Soviets - the hammer and sickle."[4]

The creation of “The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman” was inspired by Iofan, according to Iofan’s secretary I.Yu. Eigel, by the idea of the ancient statue “Tyranobusters”, depicting Harmodius and Aristogeiton standing next to swords in their hands, and the sculpture “Nike of Samothrace”[4][5 ].

Harmodius and Aristogeiton

Nike of Samothrace

A competition was announced for the creation of the sculpture, in which V. A. Andreev, B. D. Korolev, M. G. Manizer, V. I. Mukhina and I. D. Shadr took part. The project of V. I. Mukhina was recognized as the best.

Work on creating a huge monument was carried out using a one and a half meter plaster model created by Mukhina at the pilot plant of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Metalworking under the leadership of Professor P. N. Lvov.

During the dismantling of the monument in Paris and its transportation to Moscow, a significant part of the frame and shell elements were damaged (the left hand of the Collective Farm Woman, the right hand of the Worker, structural elements of the scarf and others), and during the assembly of the composition in January-August 1939, the damaged elements were replaced with a retreat from the original project[6][7].

In 1939, the Bolshaya Volga newspaper published a sketch of the Rybinsk lock with the sculptural composition “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”. The Mukhina monument was planned to be installed on the lower central pier of the Rybinsk Lock, but since construction work on the waterworks was not yet completed at that time, the monument was installed on a pedestal in front of the Main Entrance of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition (now the Northern Entrance of VDNH)[8][9]. In Rybinsk, instead of the “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” monument, in 1953 the “Volga” monument was erected. Since the installation of “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” was sought to be completed by the time of the opening of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition, the built pedestal turned out to be more than three times lower than the original thirty-seven-meter pavilion in Paris[10]. Mukhina repeatedly objected to this decision:

I can only helplessly shrug my shoulders, because all my protests in resolving this issue led to nothing. None of the architects raised a protest about the completely unacceptable staging of this statue, a staging that destroyed the entire impulse of the sculpture[11].

In 1979, the sculpture was restored.

In the late 1980s, there were plans to move the monument to another location. In 1987, a competition was announced to find a new location for “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”; According to one of the options, the monument was supposed to take place at the State Art Gallery on Krymsky Val, but these plans were not implemented[11].

The sculpture was called "the standard of socialist realism" in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.[12]

Reconstruction

In 2003, the monument was dismantled into 40 fragments. The sculpture was intended to be restored and returned to its place at the end of 2005, but due to problems with financing, the reconstruction was delayed and was only fully completed in November 2009[13]. During the reconstruction, specialists from TsNIIPSK named after. Melnikov significantly strengthened the load-bearing frame of the composition; all parts of the sculpture were cleaned and treated with anti-corrosion compounds[6]. The head of the team of restorers was the sculptor Vadim Tserkovnikov[14]. The All-Russian Research Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM) created special pastes, coatings and materials of high corrosion resistance to restore the sculpture.

The sculpture was installed on a new pavilion-pedestal specially erected for it (architects A. Mezentsev, D. Stasyuk, E. Pichurova, N. Petukhova, O. Chmil, E. Bubnova, E. Aleksandrova), in general terms repeating Iofan’s original pavilion 1937, but significantly “cut off” in the rear part, which was caused by the peculiarities of the site allocated for the monument[14]. If the height of the old pedestal was about 10-11 meters [10] [15], then the new one is only slightly lower than the original structure.

The installation was carried out on November 28, 2009 using a special crane. The grand opening of the monument took place in Moscow on December 4, 2009[16][17][18].

On September 4, 2010, a museum and exhibition was opened in the pedestal of the monument. The museum presents the history of the creation of the monument in photographs, projects and models. Three more halls are exhibition halls. The exhibition area of the center is approximately 3.2 thousand m².