Grieving Mother Monument (Orenburg)

The Grieving Mother monument (Skorbyashchaya Mat) stands in Orenburg, in the Salmysh Battle Square bounded by Dzerzhinsky Avenue, Salmyshskaya Street and Yunykh Lenintsev Street. The bronze sculpture by Orenburg sculptor Nadezhda Petina shows a mother on her knees mourning her dead son. It is a memorial in the Orenburg Region dedicated to women who lost their children in the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War.

The Grieving Mother monument: what to see

The heart of the composition is the kneeling woman. Her pose and lowered head convey the grief of a mother who has lost her son in war. The sculpture is turned so that the mother faces the central alley of the square, and people walking along it see her from a distance.

The bronze figure rests on a concrete pedestal finished to look like granite. The pedestal measures 1.8 by 2.3 metres and is 1.1 metres high, so the sculpture sits almost at eye level and can be seen well up close.

The square bears the name of the Salmysh battle, and the monument to mothers who lost their sons fits into a place of remembrance.

History

Originally there was a bowl-shaped pool next to the sculpture, its water symbolising a mother's tears. Over time the pool's water supply failed, and the bowl was dismantled in the early 2000s.

In spring 2008 the sculpture was raised onto the new pedestal where it stands today and turned to face the main alley.

The sculpture is said to have gone through "three births": the monument had an uneven history and did not take its present form at once.

Getting there

Salmysh Battle Square is within Orenburg, between Dzerzhinsky Avenue and Salmyshskaya Street. It is easy to reach by city public transport to the stops on Dzerzhinsky Avenue or Salmyshskaya Street, then walk along the central alley of the square.