Monument to Child Home Front Workers

The Monument to Child Home Front Workers is a bronze sculpture in Samara, in the city's Oktyabrsky District. It stands in a small square at the corner of Polina Osipenko Street and Novo-Sadovaya Street, next to the fountains. The city dedicated it to the teenagers who, during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, worked in factories and on the home front alongside adults.

History

The monument was put up on the initiative of the Samara society "Children to the Front" (Deti — frontu), founded in 1992. Its authors are the sculptor Ivan Ivanovich Melnikov and the architect Yuri Vasilyevich Khramov.

The first idea was a single figure of a boy, to be called "Alyosha the Younger". Women from the "Children to the Front" society objected: in their view, the monument should not leave out the work of the girls who also laboured on the home front. A figure of a girl was then added next to the boy.

The monument was unveiled on 12 June 1996.

What to see

The composition shows two teenagers of about 13 to 15, dressed in the clothes of the 1940s. They sit on an aircraft part as if on a bench, holding hands, as though resting between factory shifts. The boy wears a cap and a work apron, the girl a plain dress and a headscarf.

The bronze figures stand on a granite pedestal with a marble base. The pedestal carries two plaques: one with the name of the monument, the other with verses about children's labour in the war years.

Getting there

The monument is in the square at the corner of Polina Osipenko and Novo-Sadovaya streets. The nearest public transport stop is "Osipenko".