Worker and Kolkhoz Woman Monument, Moscow

Worker and Kolkhoz Woman is a monumental sculpture created by Vera Mukhina for the Soviet pavilion at the 1937 International Exposition in Paris. Designed together with architect Boris Iofan’s pavilion, it depicts a male industrial worker and female collective-farm worker striding forward and raising a hammer and sickle.

The joined tools symbolize the alliance between industrial workers and the peasantry. In Paris, the sculpture crowned the Soviet pavilion opposite the German pavilion. The sculpture stands 24.5 meters high and was constructed from sheets of stainless steel attached to an internal framework, using welding techniques innovative for monumental sculpture at the time. Extended arms, flowing clothing, and strong diagonal lines create an impression of forward movement. After the exhibition, the sculpture returned to the Soviet Union and was installed in 1939 near the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, now VDNKh. It later became the emblem of Mosfilm, appearing in the studio’s screen logo from the 1947 film Spring. The monument was dismantled in 2003 for extensive structural restoration and conservation before returning in 2009. It was installed on a new 34.5-meter pavilion-pedestal whose proportions broadly reproduce Iofan’s original pavilion from the Paris exhibition.

The building beneath the sculpture has served as a museum, exhibition, and educational space devoted to the monument and Soviet art. The pavilion is currently temporarily closed for modernization, while Mukhina’s sculpture remains a prominent example of Soviet monumental art.