As speculation persists about an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine, and perhaps an attempt to take the capital Kiev, one of a fast disappearing number of Soviet era monuments dominates the skyline over the Ukrainian capital. BRIAN OGLE visited Rodina Mat and the Great Patriotic War Museum which ironically is being continually updated to include events in the ongoing separatist war in the Donbas…...
PROBABLY the world’s two most iconic tourist landmarks are New York’s Statue of Liberty and the statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooking Rio de Janeiro.
But on a hill overlooking the River Dneiper and the capital city of Ukraine, Kiev, so much in the news these days, is a much more imposing figure, Rodina Mat, (translated Motherland Calls) which stands astride the Museum of the Great Patriotic War (Second World War to you and me). You can’t miss it on the way in to the city from Borispol Airport – it is immense, almost warning rather than welcoming to visitors.
While the statue of Christ the Redeemer is a mere 30-odd metres in height – about 100 feet – and the Statue of Liberty about 150 feet high, Rodina Mat with its museum in its concrete base is a staggering 100 metres or more than 300 feet high, twice the height of Liberty.
Since The Maidan revolution in 2014 and the overthrow of pro-Russian President Victor Yanukovich, hundreds of Soviet-era statues have been toppled or removed throughout Ukraine, but so far Rodina Mat – by far the country’s biggest statue from USSR times – has survived the wrecking ball, probably because it is too recognisable to visitors to Kiev and serves as a top tourist attraction, situated as it is on 20 hectares of land which houses the Great Patriotic War museum.
The Motherland monument was created by a famous Soviet sculptor called Evgeniy Vuchetich and wa inaugurated by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1981, the second and the last ‘Nation’s Mother’ monument to be erected in the former USSR (the other is in Volgograd in Russia).
The Great Patriotic War museum is located directly under the monument and sometimes it’s possible to take a lift up to the top of this immense, but some people say, quite hideous looking structure..
The complete construction took three years and the statue itself involves 3000 tons of metal with a solid foundation of concrete going deep into the hill, another 32 metres or 100 feet. In its final form the height of Mother Motherland alone is almost 190 feet, with the height of the pedestal (museum base) a further 102 metres. In her right hand this Soviet era monstrosity holds a 16 metre sword weighing more than nine tons and in her left hand – the shield the size of 13.8 metres with the emblem of the USSR weighing 13 tons.
In its interior the statue is equipped with unique lifts which allow for repairs and maintenance while visitors are also able to ascend to the actual head of the statue for a unique spellbinding panoramic view of Kiev.
In the concrete base of Rodina Mat is a superb museum of the Great Patriotic War, photographs, relics and artefacts, but unfortunately everything is in Ukrainian. Particularly interesting however is an exhibition of the continuing conflict in the east, the ‘Donbas’. It’s chilling indeed to see 4×4’s riddled with bullet holes and shrapnel in which people were killed and injured not decades ago but in the last few years and months, and indeed right up until the present day!
For families, there’s tanks, heavy guns, rockets, howitzers and Soviet-era planes to be clambered over and photographed with in another 50 acres of displays round Rodina Mat. It’s the first sight that will greet you arriving in Kiev, and the city’s last landmark on the way back to the airport. You won’t miss it, that’s for sure…..
Brian Ogle
The 'Travel' Life of Brian 