Vera Mukhina

June 6 is the birthday  (1889) of sculptor Vera Mukhina, who is probably most famous for her 24-meter Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, created in 1937 for the World Exhibition in Paris.

After their tour of duty in Paris, the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman were transplanted to the VDNKh exhibition complex in Moscow, where they served as a symbol of Soviet largesse (and as the logo for Mosfilm).

By last year, the sixty-five-year-old statue was urgently in need of restoration (see Russian Life Jan/Feb 2004). It was quite a task to carefully dismantle the huge statue and not damage its thin, steel cover. Lines were drawn on a miniature plaster copy of the statue, dividing it into 17 parts. Then the arms, hands, heads and other parts of the giant figures were cut apart according to the model. The statue is expected to be back in its familiar location by the end of 2005.