Motherland Monument, Kyiv

조국의 어머니상 (키이우)

The Motherland Monument in Kyiv, also called Mother Ukraine, is a huge stainless-steel statue of a woman holding a sword and a shield. It was built in the Soviet era and opened in 1981. It stands on a hill above the Dnipro River as part of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War.

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At a glance

Country: Ukraine
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
Built: 1981
Height: 102 m
Type: Statue

Quick answers

Where is Motherland Monument, Kyiv?

Motherland Monument, Kyiv is in Kyiv, Ukraine.

When was Motherland Monument, Kyiv built?

Motherland Monument, Kyiv was built in 1981.

How tall is Motherland Monument, Kyiv?

Motherland Monument, Kyiv is about 102 m tall.

A stainless-steel colossus above the Dnipro; in 2023 its shield emblem was replaced with Ukraine's trident.

The statue is 62 metres tall and the whole structure is 102 metres including its base. It weighs about 560 tonnes. In 2023 the Soviet hammer-and-sickle emblem on its shield was taken off and replaced with Ukraine's trident. Its first name was Motherland, taken from a Soviet name for the nation as a mother figure.

Sword, shield and a changed emblem

The sword in the right hand is 16 metres long and weighs 9 tonnes, and the shield in her left hand measures 13 by 8 metres. The sword was shortened by four metres from the planned height. The shield first carried the hammer and sickle of the Soviet Union. In 2023, amid the war with Russia, the Soviet emblem was removed and Ukraine's coat of arms was fixed in its place.

The museum at the base

Sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich began the design, and after he died in 1974 the work was continued by Vasyl Borodai. The base holds the war museum, whose memorial hall has marble plaques with the names of more than 11,600 soldiers and over 200 home-front workers who received Soviet honours. The slope below the museum hosts flower shows. For the face, Vuchetich based his first design on the painter Nina Danyleiko, and Borodai later used the sculptor Halyna Kalchenko as a model.