Dead Man Found Inside the Head of 'Motherland Calls' Monument

The body of a man was discovered inside the head of the The Motherland Calls monument in Volgograd, local media outlet Novosti Volgograda (Volgograd News) said citing a source.

The deceased was said to be a university rector. According to their source, the man may have felt unwell during a tour. He was said to be 70 years old.

The police are currently working at the scene. Tourists were told that access to the monument was restricted for technical reasons.

According to preliminary data, the man was identified as Nikolai Chesnokov, the 68-year-old rector of the Moscow State Academy of Physical Culture. He died during the tour as he suffered a heart attack.

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Volgograd formerly Tsaritsyn (1589–1925) and Stalingrad (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area of 859.4 square kilometres (331.8 square miles), with a population of slightly over one million residents. Volgograd is the 16th-largest city by population size in Russia, the third-largest city of the Southern Federal District, and the fourth-largest city on the Volga.

The Motherland Calls (Russian: Родина-мать зовёт!, romanised: Rodina-mat' zovyot!) is a colossal neoclassicist and socialist realist war memorial sculpture on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia. Designed primarily by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich with assistance from architect Yakov Belopolsky, the concrete sculpture commemorates the casualties of the Battle of Stalingrad, and is the predominant component of a monument complex, which includes several plazas and other sculptural works. Standing 85 metres (279 ft) tall from the base of its pedestal to its peak, the statue was the tallest in the world upon its completion in 1967, and is the tallest statue in Europe if including the pedestal. The statue, along with the rest of the complex, was dedicated on 15 October 1967, and has been listed as a tentative candidate for UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites since 2014.