Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, Steel sculpture group in Ostankinsky District, Moscow, Russia
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman is a 25-meter-tall steel sculpture group in Ostankinsky District, Moscow. The two figures raise a hammer and a sickle toward the sky while their clothing and a connecting scarf appear to blow in the wind behind them.
The monument stood at the 1937 Paris World Fair as a response to the German pavilion across from it. After the exhibition it returned to Moscow and was placed in front of the VDNKh entrance, where it remains today.
The two figures holding their raised tools appear in the opening credits of countless Russian films as the emblem of Mosfilm studio since 1947. The image became so widely reproduced that it appeared on posters, stamps, and everyday objects throughout the Soviet Union.
The Museum of Vera Mukhina in the pavilion's base covers the sculpture's creation and the Soviet architecture of the 1930s. The surrounding plaza at VDNKh is open at all times, and the full 60-metre composition is best seen from the far side of the square.
Engineers designed a special internal truss system to support the flowing metal scarf between the two figures. The entire construction consists of over 5,000 individual steel parts welded by hand.
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