Mother Armenia and Military Museum

The Mother Armenia monument and the Military Museum stand in Victory Park, on a hill above central Yerevan, Armenia. The statue, 22 metres tall on a 34-metre pedestal, was designed by the sculptor Ara Harutyunyan and the architect Rafayel Israyelyan and unveiled in 1967 to mark the 50th anniversary of Soviet rule. It replaced a giant statue of Joseph Stalin that had stood on the same spot from 1950 until 1962, when it was removed during de-Stalinisation. The new figure is a woman holding a sword, symbolising peace through strength, and the pedestal houses the military museum. The museum covers Armenian military history, with particular attention to the Second World War, in which hundreds of thousands of Armenians served in the Soviet army, and to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War of the early 1990s. Displays include uniforms, weapons, medals, photographs, documents and personal items, and the memorial to those killed in Karabakh is also in the grounds. Outdoors, captured and Soviet-era military equipment, including tanks, artillery and a missile, are displayed around the park. The museum presents its material thematically, with sections by conflict, and labels may be limited in English. The monument is made of hammered copper over a steel frame on a basalt-clad base, and its military museum has been repaired at times, so the condition of the displays varies. The park gives a broad view over Yerevan toward Mount Ararat, and the cable car and the funfair are nearby in the park. A visit generally takes around 60 to 90 minutes. The site shows how Soviet-era monuments were reworked in independent Armenia, and it remains a place for commemorations on Victory Day on 9 May.