Who created the monument to the worker and collective farmer. Biography of Vera Mukhina. "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" - the world famous symbol of the Soviet era

July 1 marks 127 years since the birth Soviet sculptor Vera Mukhina, the most famous work which is the monument "Worker and Collective Farm Woman". He was called a symbol of the Soviet era and the standard of socialist realism, although at one time the sculpture was almost rejected due to the fact that in the folds of a peasant woman's dress someone fancied the silhouette of an enemy of the people L. Trotsky.

Project of the Soviet pavilion by architect B. Iofan

In 1936, the USSR was preparing to participate in the World Exhibition of Arts and Technology in Paris. Architect Boris Iofan proposed to make the Soviet pavilion in the form of a springboard, dynamically directed upwards, with a sculpture on the roof. Boris Iofan explained his idea in the following way: “In my idea, the Soviet pavilion was depicted as a triumphal building, reflecting by its dynamics the rapid growth of the achievements of the world's first socialist state, the enthusiasm and cheerfulness of our great era building socialism ... So that any person at the first glance at our pavilion felt that this is a pavilion Soviet Union... The sculpture seemed to me to be made of light light metal, as if flying forward, like the unforgettable Louvre Nika - a winged victory. "

Soviet pavilion at an exhibition in Paris, 1937

The exposition itself was rather meager; in fact, the pavilion was the main exhibit. The worker and the collective farmer personified the owners of the Soviet land - the proletariat and the peasantry. The idea of ​​Iofan's composition was prompted by the antique statue "Tyrant-fighters". The combination of the hammer and sickle is also not a find of Iofan and Mukhina, in the works of some artists this idea has already had its embodiment. The architect developed a general project, and the sculptor had to find a specific solution.

On the left are the Tyrant-slayers. V century BC NS. On the right - a sculpture by Vera Mukhina * Worker and collective farmer *

In the summer of 1936, a competition was announced among the sculptors, at which V. Andreev, M. Manizer, I. Shadr and V. Mukhina presented their projects. Mukhina's main find was the apparent lightness and airiness of the massive sculpture, which was achieved thanks to the matter "flying" behind the figures. “A lot of controversy was aroused by the piece of cloth waving from behind, which I introduced into the composition, symbolizing those red panels, without which we cannot imagine a single mass demonstration. This “scarf” was so necessary that without it the whole composition and the connection between the statue and the building would fall apart, ”Mukhina said. Her project was approved, with the condition of "dressing" the figures, originally conceived naked.

Sculpture projects by V. Andreev and M. Manizer

Plaster model of B. Iofan and the project of sculpture by V. Mukhina

At the beginning of 1937, a denunciation was received from the factory where the assembly was taking place, stating that the work could not be completed on schedule, since the sculptor constantly interrupts work and requires corrections, and in some places the steel shell of the frame is clearly the profile of the enemy of the people L. Trotsky is visible. Then they did not react to the denunciation, but upon returning from the exhibition they arrested the commissar of the Soviet pavilion I. Mezhlauk and several engineers who were working on the creation of the statue.

Vera Mukhina in the workshop, 1940s

Left - the assembly of the statue at the pilot plant. On the right is the assembled sculpture

The size of the statue was impressive: it reached 23.5 meters in height and weighed 75 tons. For transportation to the exhibition, the sculpture was cut into 65 pieces and loaded onto 28 platforms. After being assembled in Paris, the statue made a splash. The French graphic artist F. Maserel admitted: “Your sculpture amazed us. We talk and argue about her all evenings. " Picasso admired how stainless steel looked against the lilac Parisian sky.

Statue assembly process

Romain Rolland wrote: "At the International Exhibition, on the banks of the Seine, two young Soviet giants raise a hammer and sickle, and we hear a heroic hymn pouring from their chest, which calls the peoples to freedom, to unity and will lead them to victory."

Working model of sculpture

In 1936, the Soviet government received an invitation from France to take part in the Paris World Exhibition dedicated to the theme "Art and Technology in modern life". The young state was not going to miss its chance to strengthen its international positions and announced a competition for the creation of the pavilion. The task was not only to "catch up and overtake" Germany, which was the main competitor at the exhibition, but also to emphasize the ideological component of the project. Namely, to show the world superiority of the Soviet economic system and its integral "screws".

Boris Iofan won the competition. The pavilion for the exhibition was planned in the classical style, and the sculpture was to occupy its central part.

Idea to crown the building giant statue was then in vogue - just remember the project of the monstrous Palace of the Soviets by the same Iofan.

The image of the sculpture for the exhibition pavilion, as the architect recalled, “was born very soon: a young man and a girl, personifying the masters 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. The sculpture seemed to me to be made of light light metal, as if flying forward, like the unforgettable Louvre Nika - a winged victory. " Iofan's monument was inspired by the idea antique statue"Tyrant-slayers", depicting Harmodius and Aristogeiton standing next to swords in the hands, as well as the sculpture "Nika of Samothrace".

According to Iofan's recollections, the pavilion itself, and not its contents, should have been the main exhibit at the exhibition, because “we still had almost nothing to show, except dioramas, photographs, models, colorful panels. The last, fourth, and final hall of the pavilion was generally empty: in the middle there was big statue Stalin, and on the walls there were flat panels. Sculpture and painting prevailed in the Soviet pavilion. "

The commission generally approved the idea of ​​the pavilion, but the nuance in the form of Iofan's sculpture project did not really appeal to it. We had to hold an urgent competition for another version of the monument, where Vera Mukhina won. While Iofan captured the young man and the girl "in a solemn step", Mukhina turned this step "into an all-crushing impulse."

The sculptor-monumentalist Vera Mukhina. Her monument "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" was installed in Paris at the 1937 World Exhibition. Composition by V.I. Mukhina was crowned with the Soviet pavilion, designed by the architect B.M. Iofan. 1947 year

They decided to make the sculpture not from bronze or copper, which would absorb light, but from stainless chromium-nickel steel, because the monument was supposed to shine so as to outshine both the eagle on the German pavilion and the Eiffel Tower. It was decided to join the sheets on the monument, which Mukhina herself called "Worker and Peasant", was decided not with rivets, as is customary in the United States, but with welding.

A significant difference from Iofan's version in Mukhina's composition was a large cloth of matter flying behind the group. In addition to giving the 80-ton monument “the necessary airiness of flight” and “drawing with a clear openwork against the sky”, the five-ton scarf was supposed to cover the causal places of the worker and collective farmer: in Mukhina's version, the young man and the girl were supposed to be naked. In addition, the matter made it possible to justify the not entirely natural horizontal position of the collective farmer's hand - with it the girl holds the steel “fabric”.

However, the high commission did not fully appreciate the creative flight of Mukhina's thought. First, the duo was asked to dress, for which the sculptor chose the most neutral sundress and overalls, leaving the legs and torso open, respectively. Secondly, the very canvas caused doubts. So,

Chairman of the government commission Vyacheslav Molotov, arriving at the "bride", was surprised: "Why this scarf? This is not a dancer, not a skater! "

To which Mukhina replied that "it is necessary for balance." The sculptor spoke in an aesthetic context, but Molotov took her words literally and said: "Well, if it is technically necessary, then another question."

The production of the monument took place enough slow pace, and many did not believe that the workers would be on time, especially considering the technical complexity of the same "canvas" and the pedantry of Mukhina. The director of the experimental plant of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Metalworking (TsNIIMASH), where the elements of the statue were produced, even wrote a denunciation that, they say, the sculpture could not be completed on time, because Mukhina deliberately interrupts work, demanding endless corrections, and even came up with this scarf, which can break the entire group in a gust of wind.

The commission, represented by Molotov, Voroshilov and other members of the government, examined the monument in the afternoon and there was no sedition in the folds of clothes sculptural group, and also in the profile of the "worker" did not see. According to some reports, Stalin came there directly. His driver illuminated the monument with the headlights of a car, then powerful searchlights were connected, but, apparently, what he saw satisfied the leader of the peoples, and the next morning Iofan told Mukhina that the government was satisfied, and her work was accepted without comment.

However, after the end of the Paris exhibition and the return of the statue to Moscow, the commissar of the Soviet pavilion, Ivan Mezhlauk, was arrested, as well as several other engineers who worked on the statue. They remembered, among other things, the denunciation of Tambovtsev, the director of the plant. They were rehabilitated after the death of Stalin, Mezhlauk - posthumously.

Manufacturing of "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" took 3.5 months. To take him to Paris, the monument was cut into 65 pieces and packed into 28 railroad cars. But in Poland the boxes did not go through the tunnel, and the sculpture had to be cut into several more pieces. Eleven days were spent on the assembly, and in the process the workers faced sabotage - the derrick crane's cable was cut, and the whole structure threatened to collapse onto the pavilion. Until the end of the work at the pavilion, "a night watch was organized from Soviet workers and volunteers from those former Russian emigrants who were friendly to the USSR."

As a result, the sculpture was erected in the USSR pavilion just opposite the German pavilion with the Hitlerite eagle on the roof. According to the memoirs of Mukhina,

“The Germans waited for a long time, wanting to know the height of our pavilion together with the sculptural group. When they established this, then they erected a tower over their pavilion ten meters higher than ours. An eagle was planted at the top. But for such a height, the eagle was small and looked rather pathetic.

Awkwardness arose from the fact that our group "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" flew like a whirlwind right at the Nazis. But it was impossible to turn the sculpture, as it was heading in the direction of the building. "

The sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" by Vera Mukhina in front of the Northern Entrance to the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of the USSR (VDNKh). It was created for the Soviet pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. Ideological concept sculptures and the first model belonged to the architect B.M. Iofan. 1968 year

Grand Prize - gold medal- the Soviet and German pavilions were divided. And yet the French press was delighted with the Soviet pavilion and called the sculpture “ greatest work XX century ". Local authorities even offered to buy out "Rabochey and Kolkhoz Woman". And Spain immediately released a stamp with a Soviet pavilion. However, there were also critical reviews. For example, the Washington Post wrote that the pavilion of the USSR "frankly imitates a skyscraper in miniature, and its reduced proportions create the effect of some kind of flaky cake, bound by icy frozenness." Critics also noted that architecture was supposed to dominate the exhibition, while "there was a clear impression that the entire pavilion was erected only to be the pedestal of a sculptural group."

Be that as it may, the "Rabochiy and Kolkhoz Woman" was again awaiting dismemberment. This time - to return to Moscow. The statue was divided into 44 parts. During dismantling and transportation left hand collective farmers, right hand worker, elements of the scarf and other important parts were damaged, but with a new assembly already in Moscow in January-August 1939 they were replaced with new ones. What to do with all this stuff, at first it was not clear. In 1939, the newspaper "Bolshaya Volga" published a sketch of the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station with the sculptural composition "Worker and Collective Farm Woman", and it was planned to install a monument to Mukhina there. But since the construction work on the hydroelectric complex had not yet been completed, the monument was mounted on a pedestal in front of the main entrance of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (now the Northern Entrance of VDNKh). And at the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station already in the 50s they erected the Mother Volga monument.

Since the installation of "Worker and Collective Farm Women" was in a hurry to complete before the opening of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, the pedestal turned out to be almost three times lower than the original Paris pavilion. Mukhina sadly called the new site of the monument "hemp". The sculptor liked the area on the arrow of the Moskva River, where Peter I of Tseretel now stands. It was proposed by the owner of the Stalin Prize and observation deck on the Sparrow Hills. However, her opinion was not heeded. “I can only helplessly throw up my hands, because all my protests in resolving this issue have led nowhere. None of the architects raised a protest over the completely unacceptable staging of this statue, a staging that destroyed the entire impulse of sculpture, ”she recalled.

In 1947, the monument became the trademark of Soviet cinema - the symbol of the Mosfilm film studio. It was with her image against the background of the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower that Grigory Alexandrov's film "Spring" began in 1947. In July 1948, the Ministry of Cinematography officially approved this emblem. But

since the sculpture is large, when it was filmed at an angle, the image was distorted, so in November 1950 Mukhina made a scaled-down model specially for Mosfilm.

The model is still stored there.

It is noteworthy that in 1975 the statue was proposed to be moved, and the design of the new pedestal was even entrusted to the same Boris Iofan. However, he died a year later, and the statue's move was forgotten until 2003. Then another restoration of the monument was carried out, which lasted four years longer due to financial difficulties... As a result, on December 4, 2009, the monument was inaugurated. He moved closer to Prospect Mira, to a pavilion-pedestal specially built for him, repeating the proportions of the original creation of Iofan, including details such as high reliefs. Dismantling, storage and restoration of the legendary sculptural composition cost the budget, according to some sources, 2.9 billion rubles.

Boris RUDENKO. Photo by Igor Konstantinov and from the archive of VIAM.

Apparently, until the day when the famous creation of the sculptor Vera Mukhina rises over Moscow again, it will not be so long. The work on the restoration of the monument has passed the equator, a pedestal is being built for it, the new opening of the sculpture is scheduled for December 5, 2009, and there is considerable confidence that it will take place as scheduled. Like everyone outstanding work art, "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" has its own history. Even two - an old one and a new one, which we will now tell you about.

Monument to Vera Mukhina "Worker and Collective Farm Woman"

2003 year. The final stage of dismantling the monument.

Each of the 5,000 elements of the sculpture had to be marked, photographed, and corrosive wear assessed.

Science and Life // Illustrations

Science and Life // Illustrations

Science and Life // Illustrations

One of the largest fragments is a worker's hand with a hammer.

After computer processing on the photograph of the element of the monument (on the right), areas affected by corrosion appear.

The famous monument to Vera Mukhina "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" was saved for history by specialists from the All-Russian Research Institute of Aviation Materials.

CREATION

If someone is perplexed why it was necessary to restore a clearly politicized symbol of the bygone Soviet era, we will immediately explain: "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" is indeed a symbol, and indeed sharply politicized. But at the same time it is recognized and known throughout civilized world a great piece of monumental art that we have been rightfully proud of for many years.

The idea of ​​the sculpture - the figures of a worker and a collective farmer, united by a single forward movement - belonged to the architect B.M. Iofan, the author of Soviet pavilions at the World Exhibitions in Paris and New York, famous House on the embankment, the Udarnik cinema and the unrealized project of the Palace of Soviets, which they intended to build on the site of the blown up Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The monument was supposed to crown the USSR pavilion at the 1937 Paris Exhibition.

In the summer of 1936, a closed competition was announced, in which four of the most famous sculptors of that time were allowed to participate: V. A. Andreev, I. D. Shadr, M. G. Manizer and Vera Ignatievna Mukhina. Its fate is amazing. Caressed Stalin Prizes, government awards and honorary titles, Vera Mukhina has never had a personal exhibition. With the exception of the monuments to Gorky and Tchaikovsky (the projects of which she had to radically alter at the request of the authorities) and two busts twice to Heroes of the Soviet Union, she failed to realize a single creative idea ...

The show took place two months later. Each of the participants in the competition implemented the same idea in completely different ways. In one, the figures froze in unshakable monumental calm (Andreev), in the other, on the contrary, they rushed forward from the pedestal, like speed skaters-sprinters (Shadr), in the third - likened to the perfect faces and bodies of the Olympic gods, they looked with a smile at the world(Manizer). Apparently, each of these projects was beautiful in its own way and worthy of admiration. But only Mukhina surprisingly managed to capture the moment of confident, but unfinished movement. The monument seemed to assert: we have achieved a lot, we are steadily moving forward, but there are still many great things ahead ...

As a result, it was the project of Vera Mukhina that was approved by the government commission headed by V.M. Molotov. N. Voronov, the author of the book "Worker and Collective Farm Woman", published by the publishing house "Moskovsky Rabochiy" in 1990, cites the story of one of the creators of the exposition of the Soviet pavilion K. I. Rozhdestvensky:

“Molotov, who came to view the competition works, asked Mukhina a question:

Why this scarf? This is not a dancer, not a skater!

Although the situation at the screening was very tense, Mukhina calmly replied:

This is for balance.

She, of course, had in mind plastic, figurative balance and the horizontal that she needed so much. But the chairman, not very experienced in art, understood her "balance" in a purely physical sense and said:

Well, if it is technically necessary, then another question ... "

And the scarf actually made the engineers who embodied the project in metal, pretty much break their heads. In order to firmly and reliably fix the five-ton fragment on the monument, we had to calculate a special frame truss. Nevertheless, this obstacle was successfully overcome.

In an incredibly short time, in just a matter of months, five thousand parts that made up the monument were “hammered out” from sheets of stainless chromium-nickel steel on wooden and plaster models and assembled on a frame specially designed by engineers for final approval by a high commission. For the first time in the country and, perhaps, in the world, on the advice of an outstanding Soviet metal expert professor
PN Lvov, spot welding was used in the assembly. Not without an incident, which became almost common by 1937. The director of the plant where the fragments of the statue were made, fearing that he would not cope with the task in time, wrote a denunciation against Mukhina and her assistants, accusing them of deliberately delaying the work, as well as the fact that a profile is visible in some places of the shell worst enemy Trotsky's people. And although the government commission, headed by the same Molotov and K.E. Voroshilov, and then personally Stalin, who specially came at night to look at the monument, the profile of the hated Trotsky was not found, several engineers were arrested and repressed after the end of the Paris exhibition. But then everything worked out, the monument was safely dismantled and delivered to Paris, where in 11 days it was reassembled on the roof of the USSR pavilion.

It is interesting that at this exhibition our pavilion was located exactly opposite the German one. The Germans deliberately did not rush to complete their structure, watching how things were going with us. After waiting for the "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" to be installed, they built up their pavilion so that it was ten meters higher than ours, and an iron eagle was planted on the roof. But in perspective, against the background of the monument to Vera Mukhina, the eagle looked small, well, a little bigger than a sparrow. Eyewitnesses of those events said that, looking at him, visitors to the exhibition smiled, and "The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman" was often applauded.

The exhibition ended, and the monument again went to Moscow, where it was assembled in the place where VDNKh visitors were used to seeing it, and stood for almost 70 years.

The place was chosen, frankly, unfortunate. The dimensions of the pedestal also did not correspond to the scale of the sculpture. For fifty years B.M. Iofan, and then his students and followers, sought to transfer the great work of art to a more worthy platform and foundation. This decision was made only in 1987, and even announced creative competition but it's too late. Examination of the monument showed that the steel frame is corroded and almost completely needs to be replaced. And then the "dashing nineties" began, there was no time for the statues, unless the question was about their overthrow. In 2003, the sculpture was divided into 40 fragments and sent for restoration (and, as it turned out, for long-term storage) to the workshop of the V. V.A.Kucherenko.

REVIVAL

For six long years there was a struggle for the restoration of the great monument. Actually, the word "fight" is not quite appropriate here. Rather, the routine of composing letters and going to multiple instances. Dreary waiting in the reception rooms of high offices. No one objected - everyone agreed, only they did not give money. Again it was not up to that. But the money was finally found. The merit in that of the Moscow authorities and personally of the mayor Yu.M. Luzhkov is not subject to any doubt, although according to the laws of the Russian free market, the tender for the right to reconstruct the sculpture was won by a company that had previously been engaged only in the design of sewers. And God bless her, whatever she does there. The main thing is that the reconstruction of the monument has begun. The head of the team of restorers was the sculptor Vadim Tserkovnikov, who fought for the revival of the masterpiece for six years. The leading scientific institution of the project is the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM). Not wishing in the least to belittle the role of other enterprises - participants in the restoration - construction is going on, as before, almost nationwide - we only state that it was impossible to do without VIAM, because it was about materials of high corrosion resistance, which should hold out at least the next hundred years, and because the internal structure of the monument is incredibly reminiscent of the structure of an aircraft. The same frame ribs, stringers, ribs, designed to ensure the lightness and strength of the product, as in aircraft fuselages. Equally high corrosion resistance.

Moreover, this work was not the first for the institute. The monument to Yuri Gagarin on the square of the Kaluzhskaya Zastava, the obelisk to the Conquerors of Space near the VDNKh metro station - VIAM specialists also took part in their creation at one time.

General Director of VIAM Academician E. N. Kablov considers the restoration of the monument to be his duty. By the way, without the slightest pathos. Just a debt that everyone has. normal person and a citizen of Russia. His employees agree with him. Not because Kablov is their boss. They are all like-minded people. When they sat at a large table and they told how they worked, that veterans of the institute Vera Yakovlevna Belous and Svetlana Alekseevna Karimova (they were developing technology for cleaning the surface and removing corrosion products), that Dmitry Sivakov was my son's age (he figured out how to assess the degree of wear fragments), the eyes shone in exactly the same way - with the light of the creators who are keen on their work.

So, this is what the revived monument will be like from the outside and from the inside.

The frame is restored in the image and likeness of the existing one. However, due to the fact that the materials of the frame have changed, its design has also changed somewhat. You can't see it from the outside. The lower part, accessible for inspection and maintenance, is made of carbon steel. These beams are metallized with zinc, and then covered with paint and varnish protection. And the upper one, which cannot be reached by crawling, is the hands, a five-ton flowing scarf, made of stainless steel, which should stand for a hundred years. Frame beams square with wall thickness from 16 to 30 mm are connected to one another with stainless bolts. The frame was re-calculated (since the previous documentation was not preserved) by the specialists of the Central Research Institute of Building Metal Structures named after V.I. N.P. Melnikova. And they are building it and assembling it now at the Energomash plant in Belgorod, one of the best and most modernly equipped enterprises in the industry, which has successfully survived the shocks of economic reforms and crises.

But first it was necessary to assess the degree of deterioration of the monument. Because if more than 30% of the sculpture is completely renewed, then this is no longer a restoration, but a reconstruction. The monument ceases to be an author's work. And here, for each element, an exceptional inference accuracy was required: to restore or replace. Methods of "non-destructive testing" - assessing the safety factor of a metal without introducing it into its structure - have existed for a long time. For example, a product is placed in a special camera and eddy currents are applied to it, photographing the process. Only the chambers, which could fit huge parts of the monument, have not yet been built in the world (maybe they were built somewhere, but we are not told). It was necessary to come up with something else. And they came up with it.

They photographed every detail, and then analyzed the images, laying out the color spectrum on a computer. Having discovered how the areas affected by corrosion differ from the untouched ones, we developed an analysis program. It is known that it is much harder and longer to restore, restore, than to create for the first time. And so it was. To shoot and check each of the five thousand elements of the monument, it took two full months of work with gross violations of labor laws regarding the length of the working day and week. All the same passion, labor impulse, like seventy years ago. Avral - from morning to night. Everything as usual. Both the veterans and the youth "plowed", as at the construction site of the Dneproges. Apparently, in this respect, we will forever remain incorrigible ...

We worked in groups. One photographed and immediately marked the captured elements. Another was processing the images on a computer.

When finished, they breathed a sigh of relief. An amazing thing: less than 500 elements had to be replaced - only about 10%! The rest were quite amenable to recovery. So the revived "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" will definitely not fall under the category of a remake, like the Moscow Hotel.

At the same time, the radiographers checked the quality of the welded spots. Selectively, of course, because there are a little less than a million of these points. And here, too, they found a reason for admiration for the professionalism of fathers and grandfathers: not a single welding gap was found. But then the point method was just being mastered, and there were no control methods yet!

To clean the elements of the statue from corrosion, they used a paste created at VIAM. This composition, by the way, received an award from the Brussels International Exhibition. The paste does not contain substances harmful to humans and, accordingly, does not emit them. Allows to process surfaces of any angle of inclination. Does not run off, does not drip, does not creep. Provides complete removal of corrosion products without damaging the metal base itself. That is, there is no waste or carryover of metal. It increases the efficiency of the passive protective film that every stainless steel has. After processing with this paste, the corrosion resistance increases significantly. Adhesion to paints and varnishes increases - that is, "adhesion" to them, paint or varnish will not peel off, will not lag behind over time. You can apply it with a sponge, brush - whatever you like, on final result it has no effect. A ton of pasta was made especially for "Rabochiy and Kolkhoz Woman".

But before that, the statue had to be thoroughly washed. For 70 years, not only corrosion products have accumulated on the surface. Carbon deposits from exhaust gases, dry residue from atmospheric moisture. And pigeons often flew over the monument and even lived inside. On the lower surfaces - a scarf, a skirt - where moisture condensed more actively, it was as if the rudiments of stalactites were formed. A special preparation produced by the Russian NPO Technobior has coped well with the problem. It is a non-volatile solvent that is extremely harmful to those who use it. The drug is so fluid that it penetrates into the smallest gaps between metal and layers, loosens the dirt, allowing it to be easily peeled off.

In order for the monument to stand for a hundred years now, the shell must be additionally protected both from the outside and from the inside. At first, it was assumed that a titanium coating would be applied to it. Titanium is a wonderful material, corrosion and titanium are incompatible concepts. Only for this you need a special chamber, the coating process is high-temperature. It is insanely expensive to build a huge chamber for the huge fragments of the monument. In addition, in a pair of titanium - stainless steel, an electrochemical process occurs in the presence of moisture. Therefore, VIAM specialists suggested using thin-film compositions, which are guaranteed to provide protection from any external influences for 10 years and should be periodically renewed.

This is where the problem arose: it was required to accurately preserve all the color shades of the sculpture. This means that the product should not only be colorless, but also not change the shades of the surface when viewed from any angle. Unfortunately, domestic protective equipment for all their excellent working qualities, all colors give shades. For aircraft shades do not matter, but this is another matter. This is perhaps the only case in the work on the restoration of the monument when VIAM recommended using imported material.

At the Belgorod "Energomash" the fabrication of the frame is being completed. Soon he will be brought to the capital, and the final stage of restoration will begin. The pedestal for "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" will now be externally exact copy pavilion of the USSR at the Paris Exhibition of 1937. Inside - exhibition and lecture halls, downstairs - car parks. The sculpture will be erected on the pedestal with the help of a huge 750-ton crane with a 100-meter boom, bought abroad. It is clear that it will serve not only for this purpose - on the rise of the monument, imported equipment will simply be tested for the first time. We will see all this for ourselves soon.

Of course, the monument is not a plant for the production of nanorobots-doctors for the treatment of stomach ulcers or high-speed motorcycles, which can only be caught up with a front-line fighter. The statue will simply stand quietly, delighting human eyes with its perfection. But this has not been done anywhere else, she is a symbol of what we can do when we want with our light and golden hands. Well, what is not a reason for cautious optimism ?!

A bit of information about what it is all about.

"Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" is a sculptural group of two figures holding a hammer and sickle over their heads. Height is about 25 m. Total weight- 80 tons. The author is V. I. Mukhina.

It was created for the Soviet pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937.
The work on the creation of a huge monument was carried out according to the one and a half meter plaster model created by Mukhina at the pilot plant of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Metalworking.

In January-August 1939, the sculpture was reconstructed and installed on a pedestal in front of the Northern entrance to the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (now the All-Russian Exhibition Center). Restored in 1979.

In 2003, the monument was dismantled into 40 fragments. Then they intended to restore it and return it to its place at the end of 2005, however, due to funding problems, the sculpture remained disassembled.

Actually "the same" plaster model of the sculptural group born in 1936. According to him and according to the drawings, they assemble the "Worker and the Collective Farm Woman"

On the layout, there are marks, along which the workers are guided where the lines of the joint of parts go and where the main points of conjugation of the elements of the sculpture with its frame are located

The work is carried out practically without stopping and smoke breaks - the workers have clear deadlines for the delivery of the sculpture

Welders, mine surveyors, architects, sculptors, and many other professionals are involved in this facility.

The sculpture is made of chrome-nickel steel. Unfortunately, due to its age, by 2003 the sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" was almost in disrepair.

But thanks to the efforts of the restorers, many of the deteriorated structural elements were replaced with new, more durable ones.

Now the sculpture is located in such a huge pavilion, where it is assembled. The level of readiness can be judged by the photographs

Literally the other day, the "worker" will be given a head :)

This is the face of the proletariat

The scale of the sculpture is simply mesmerizing. You feel like a midget visiting two metal Soviet Gullivers

"Under the skirt of a collective farmer"

Above, the composition is crowned with the symbols of the Soviet era - a hammer and sickle, which personified the collective farm peasantry and the working class. The hands of the figures have not yet been mounted and therefore the symbols of the USSR are still sticking out "naked"

Headless worker

By this photo very easy to imagine the scale

"Training" for lifting the worker's head. Crane operators practice this every 15 minutes, because one of these days they will have to do it without dismantling the scaffolding, jewelry and accurately

"We have nothing to lose but our own chains" :)

Inside the sculptures, not everything is so empty and smooth, in addition to the main supporting steel frame, on the inner surface of each element there are such additional fasteners.

Collective farmer. You are simply amazed at how complex and well-coordinated the work of an architect, sculptor and those who assembled the sculpture must be to make huge steel plates human faces, hands, etc.

Here it is very clearly shown how the frame of the sculpture looks.

It's a shame it won't be possible to climb as high when the sculpture is already assembled and installed on a pedestal :)

By the way about the pedestal. Unfortunately, you cannot see it behind the scaffolding, but you can roughly understand the scale - 34.5 meters is not a joke. Imagine that another 25-meter sculpture will be put on it .. It will be monumental

And on the facade of the pedestal there will be this granite coat of arms of the Soviet Union

With Hammer and Sickle - this is the most famous sculpture Soviet era, an outstanding work of the Soviet sculptor Vera Mukhina.

Sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" - sculptural composition, one of the most famous works sculptor Vera Ignatievna Mukhina... "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" are two intertwined steel statues of a worker and a collective farmer who raised a hammer and sickle above them - a symbol of the union of workers and peasants. The height of the sculpture is 24 meters. "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" is truly a symbol of the Soviet era, a symbol of the USSR.

"Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" are the emblem of the Moscow film studio "Mosfilm".

1937 International Exhibition

The sculpture was made for International Exhibition in Paris in 1937.

"Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" was produced in the shortest possible time, for this the workers had to work from morning to evening. The weight of the finished sculpture was 37 tons. After approval of the sculpture by Stalin, "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" were loaded into 28 wagons and sent to railroad in Paris.

The sculptural group received a large gold medal of the Grand Prix, but the joy of victory was overshadowed by the fact that the "Worker and the Collective Farm Woman" was placed in front of the pavilion of Nazi Germany.

The intelligence of the USSR was interested in the design of the German pavilion, as a result, the height of the Soviet exposition was several meters higher, which delighted the leadership of the USSR and upset Germany. The Parisians and guests of the exhibition specially went to look at the Soviet sculpture by Vera Mukhina several times a day, since it constantly changed its color - in the morning it was color pink from the morning sun, during the day - bright silver as it should be, and at sunset in the evening - golden. France planned to buy the sculpture for Paris, but the Soviet delegation, by order of Stalin, refused this.

After the closing of the World Exhibition in Paris, most of the creators of "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" went to camps and exile, the commissar of the Soviet pavilion I. Mezhlauk was shot. And Vera Mukhina was suspended from work.

Transportation of sculpture

During transportation, the statue was damaged, since in terms of dimensions it did not pass in some parts into the railway tunnels, but in 1939 it was reconstructed, but in fact rebuilt and installed in front of the Northern entrance of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VVTs, aka VDNKh). Vera Mukhina believed that the most the best place for sculpture - the pavilion of the USSR, but her opinion was not listened to.

Once again, "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" was restored in 1979.

Since the end of the 40s, the sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" has been the main symbol of the Mosfilm film studio.

Sculpture reconstruction

In 2003, the sculpture was disassembled into 40 component parts. After the reconstruction of "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman", it was planned to place a theater and a museum on the pedestal, about 8 thousand on the square. square meters... According to the new project, the height of the pavilion-pedestal will be 34.5 meters. With the sculpture "growing" at 24.5 meters, the total height of the monument will be about 60 meters, as planned by Vera Mukhina. Special high reliefs will appear at the base of the sculpture, as was the case at the Paris exhibition.

Installation on a pedestal

The complete renovation was completed in 2009. The installation was carried out on November 28, 2009 using a crane, and Grand opening took place in Moscow on December 4, 2009.

In 2010, the pedestal was opened museum and exhibition center"Worker and Kolkhoz Woman".