Worker & Kolkhoz Woman

Moscow


About the holiest of Soviet icons, this powerful monument designed by Vera Mukhina depicts a fierce-looking couple raising the hammer and sickle, symbolising the union of peasants and the working class. Initially, the sculpture crowned the striking Soviet pavilion at Paris Expo in 1937, but it came back to Moscow in 1939. After a recent reconstruction, the monument now stands on top of an exhibition hall that resembles the Paris pavilion. Exhibitions rotate every year or so.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Moscow attractions

1. Cosmonautics Museum

0.47 MILES

The soaring 100m titanium obelisk outside VDNKh is a monument ‘To the Conquerors of Space’, built in 1964 to commemorate the launch of Sputnik. In its…

2. VDNKh

0.47 MILES

Palaces for workers! There is no better place to see this Soviet slogan put into practice than at VDNKh, which stands for Exhibition of Achievements of…

3. VDNKh Space Pavilion

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4. Ostankino TV Tower

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5. Moscow Main Botanical Gardens

1.85 MILES

A huge, 330-hectare swath of parkland, the Botanical Gardens has not yet been touched by the renovations that have transformed other parks in Moscow. But…

6. Sokolniki

2.59 MILES

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7. Jewish Museum & Centre of Tolerance

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Occupying a heritage garage, purpose-built to house a fleet of Leyland double-deckers that plied Moscow's streets in the 1920s, this vast museum, filled…

8. Experimentanium

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Travelling with children who ask too many questions about life, the universe and everything? Here is a place that provides answers for them to ponder for…