Mother Motherland about to collapse

[Auke]

The famous "Mother Motherland Calls" statue in Volgograd is about to collapse. The statue is currently leaning due to ground water level changes causing movement of the foundations and is rapidly getting worse. The statue is not fixed to its foundations and is held in place only by its weight. It has moved by 20cm (8 inches), and is not expected to be able to move much further without collapsing. More than 7,000,000 Dollars are needed to fix it.

The statue consists of 7900 tons of concrete and is 85 meters (279 feet) high, making it the tallest sculpture in the world when the memorial was finished in 1967. It commemorates the Battle of Stalingrad and is a famous symbol of Volgograd and the memory of the Great Patriotic War.