The Friendship of Peoples Fountain is a colossal sculptural complex that was unveiled in 1954 at the VDNKh (Exhibition of National Economic Achievements) in Moscow. Architects Konstantin Topuridze and Grigory Konstantinovsky and a whole team of sculptors worked on it. According to legend, they were inspired by the fountains of the tsar's residence Peterhof just outside St.
Petersburg, considered the most luxurious in Russia. The basis of the composition is a bowl with an area of about 4,000 sq. meters.
In the center, we can see a sheaf of ears 7.5 meters tall, symbolizing the wealth of agriculture of the USSR. Its shape resembles the ears from the official Soviet Union coat of arms.
Soviet coat of arms (1956-1991) Sixteen female figures made of bronze and covered with gold leaf are installed around the bowl. Being four meters high, each of them symbolizes one of the republics of the USSR. The female statues are dressed in the national costumes of each republic and are believed to have facial features that authentically reflect the republics' ethnics.
In 1954, there were 16 republics and, two years later, the Karelian-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic became a part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. So, the amount of the republic dropped to 15, but authorities decided not to remove the sculpture from the fountain. The order of the sculptures corresponded to the ribbons that denoted these republics on the coat of arms.
Clockwise: 1. Russian Soviet Federative S.