The Shot in the Back, Memorial sculpture in Simferopol, Ukraine.
The Shot in the Back is a 3.5 m (about 11.5 ft) tall bronze sculpture on Sovetskaya Square in Simferopol, showing a woman supporting a wounded person. The work stands in the open air in the city center, clearly visible from the surrounding streets.
The memorial was unveiled in 2007 to honor Soviet citizens and Red Army soldiers who died during armed conflicts on Ukrainian territory. It was created at a time when many cities in the former Soviet space were building new places of remembrance.
The image of a woman holding a wounded person speaks directly to anyone who sees it, without need for explanation. On remembrance days, people gather here to mark the losses that shaped the city's recent past.
The sculpture stands on a public square in the city center and can be visited at any time without charge. Several other memorials are located nearby, so it is easy to see more than one site during a single walk.
The base of the sculpture carries engraved names and details of individuals from that era, turning the memorial into a place where personal stories are directly readable. This makes it something between a monument and a public record of specific lives.
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