August 14, 2019

13 Massive Russian Monuments You Need to See


13 Massive Russian Monuments You Need to See
Insider Wikipedia

If monuments can provide clues to how a nation values its history, then big monuments say something about history’s biggest moments. 

In a previous post, we gave you Russia’s alternative history through 13 unusual monuments. Now, we give you Russia’s most usual history – as demonstrated by 13 massive monuments. 

The building of huge memorials on Russian territory reached its height during the Soviet period, although some have also been built since the collapse of the USSR. While Russians have been into celebrating their history in a big way for quite a while – the pedestal of the Bronze Horseman in St. Petersburg is the largest rock humans have ever moved – most imperial monuments were destroyed when the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917. 

Pre-Soviet History

1. Peter the Great’s most famous statue may be in St. Petersburg, but his largest statue – and the largest monument including a person in Russia at 98 meters– is actually in Moscow. Built in 1997 for the 300th anniversary of the Russian navy, its biggest claim to fame is not its literal size, but the size of public hatred that has been directed at it. Peter the Great was never a great fan of Moscow, hence abandoning it to build a new capital, but that’s not the only problem with it. Even St. Petersburg declined to take the eyesore off Moscow’s hands.

Peter the Great in Moscow
Yuri Dimitrienko / Wikipedia

2. A 30-meter monument to Alexander Nevsky, who won some technically minor but morally important battles against Catholic (the Orthodox Church liked him, and made him a Saint), Northern (the St. Petersburg imperial elite liked him), Germanic (Stalin liked him) invaders in the thirteenth century, was erected near Pskov. He overlooks the sight of his famous Battle on the Ice from the top of a hill. Invading Russia is certainly a slippery slope. 

Monument to Nevsky near Pskov
Ostrogoloviy / Wikipedia
 

Lenin

3. The largest statue in the world of a historical figure (not including pedestal)  is of Vladimir Lenin in Volgograd.

Lenin in Volgograd
Redboston / Wikipedia

4. However, who really cares about the pedestal and the body? Wasn’t the most important part of Lenin his mind? Ulan-Ude sure thought so when it erected the world’s largest Lenin head at 14 meters tall. 

Lenin head in Ulan-Ude
Artyom Belevich / Wikipedia

 

Great Patriotic War

5. Volgograd also erected the world’s tallest statue, “The Motherland Calls,”  in 1967 to honor those who died fighting Nazi Germany, particularly in the Battle of Stalingrad (modern day Volgograd), one of the largest, bloodiest, and longest battles in modern history (the subject of an amazing, newly translated novel by Vasily Grossman) that was the a first step toward the Allied victory. Since then, other statues have been erected that surpass its 85 meters, but it is hard to imagine any of them surpassing its majesty and patriotism. 

The Motherland Calls Volgograd
Anastasia Galyamicheva / Wikipedia

6. An entirely different expression – colder and calmer, perhaps, but emanating no less strength – can be found at the Memorial to the Defenders of the Arctic, a stoic 35-meter man looking over the port of Murmansk from a hill 173 meters high, popularly called Alyosha. 

Alyosha
Aleksei Zadonskiy / Wikipedia

 

Soviet Ideals

7. A male worker with a hammer and a female collective farm worker with a sickle, even at 23.5 meters (58 with the pedestal), managed to grow into something larger – in fact quite a lot larger than itself: one of the primary symbols of the Soviet Union. 

Worker and Kholhoznitsa
Aleksei Zadonskiy / Wikipedia 

8. The Soviet Union had many monuments celebrating the friendship of nations, but the largest one at 46 meters is in Izhevsk, the capital of Udmurtia, the home of the Udmurt people. The reality of Soviet ethnic policy, however, may not have been quite as simple as the open book design of the monument would imply.

Friendship of Nations Izhevsk
Ramon-apb / Wikipedia

Space

9. The Soviets had to make plenty of space in their monument building for achievements in space. The Conquerors of the Cosmos monument in Moscow is 107 meters tall, beaten only by the Monument of Victory (Great Patriotic, naturally), which is 141.8 meters in memory of the 1418 days of war. 

Conquerors of the Cosmos
Nickolas Titkov / Pixaby 

10. What makes a better monument than the thing itself? Samara made a memorial out of a 49-meter tall rocket that was actually launched into space. 

Rocket in Samara
G-Max / Wikipedia

 

Natural Science

11. The largest globe in Europe, and the second largest in the world, is located in Smolensk. No, they did not flip it around to put Russia closer to eye level.

Giant globe Smolensk
otto_carius_1992 / Wikimapia

12. Making monuments is certainly in Russia’s DNA, so much so that they even put up a giant monument to DNA, the only one like it in the world. 

DNA memorial
Vadim Ideikin / Wikimedia

 

Nothingness

13. It was a native of Yekaterinburg, Boris Yeltsin, who dissolved the Soviet Union, so perhaps it is appropriate that the fashion for huge Soviet monuments shrunk there, down to nearly nothing. Yekaterinburg has the world’s largest (and only) monument to an invisible man

Invisible man monument Russia
Lev Korolev / Wikimedia

 

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955