{{Infobox sculpture , image_file = Maailmanrauha.jpg , other_language_1 = Finnish , other_title_1 = {{lang, fi, Maailman rauha , title = ''World Peace'' , artist =

Oleg Kiryuhin Oleg (russian: Олег), Oleh ( uk, Олег), or Aleh ( be, Алег) is an East Slavic given name. The name is very common in Russia, Ukraine and Belаrus. It derives from the Old Norse ''Helgi'' ( Helge), meaning "holy", "sacred", or "blesse ...

, year = 1990 , coordinates = {{coord, 60, 10, 41.28, N, 024, 57, 12.55, E, type:landmark_region:FI-18, display=inline,title , metric_unit = cm , condition =

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

, subject =

World peace World peace, or peace on Earth, is the concept of an ideal state of peace within and among all people and nations on Planet Earth. Different cultures, religions, philosophies, and organizations have varying concepts on how such a state would ...

, height_metric = 650 , city =

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, italic title = no , italic other_title_1 = no World peace (

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

: ''Maailman rauha'' or ''Rauha maailmalle'',Hasan, David
Tältä näyttäisi veistosten Hakaniemi
''

Helsingin Sanomat ''Helsingin Sanomat'', abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of ...

'' 15 June 1986, p. 24. Accessed on 11 March 2022.

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

: ''Världsfreden'',

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: ''Мир во всем мире'') is a bronze

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

donated by the city of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

to the city of

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, created by

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

. The sculpture was located at Hakaniemenranta in Helsinki, and it was revealed on 14 January 1990, two months after the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

had been broken. The sculpture belongs to the collection of the Helsinki Art Museum.Oleg Kirjuhin: Maailman rauha
Helsinki Art Museum. Accessed on 11 March 2022. The sculpture was moved to storage on 8 August 2022. The sculpture is 6.5 metres tall. It represents people representing different continents of the world holding the world decorated with tree leaves with one of their arms. The people in the statue have made fists with their hands not holding the world to represent a demonstration for the cause of world peace. The sculpture has caused much controversy in Finland. In 2008 it was chosen as both the third ugliest and the third most loved sculpture in Helsinki in a readers' poll held in newspapers. In August 2022 the sculpture was moved away from Hakaniemenranta because of construction of the

Crown Bridges The Crown Bridges ( fi, Kruunusillat) is the name given to three bridges under construction in the Finnish city of Helsinki, creating a new tram link and cycle path to the island of Laajasalo. Background The city council of Helsinki decided on 3 ...

project.Hirvonen, Saara; Rita, Mikko
Hakaniemen Maailman rauha -veistos siirretään pois työmaan tieltä

YLE Yleisradio Oy ( Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, found ...

7 March 2022. Accessed on 10 March 2022.Kallionpää, Katri
Mikael Jungnerin tervaamaksikin joutunut Maailman rauha -patsas häädetään paikaltaan Hakaniemessä – Raitiotie työntyy sosialistista realismia henkivän teoksen päälle
''

'' 10 September 2018. The sculpture was moved along the sea on a

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

to storage in eastern

Uusimaa Uusimaa (; sv, Nyland, ; both lit. 'new land') is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Tavastia Proper (Kanta-Häme), Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme), and Kymenlaakso. Finland's capital and largest city, He ...

.Hemmilä, Ilkka
Kiistelty Maailman rauha lipui pois Hakaniemestä aamulla – professorilta selkeä näkemys patsaan kohtalosta
''

Ilta-Sanomat ''Ilta-Sanomat'' () is one of Finland's two prominent tabloid size evening newspaper and the second largest paper in the country. Its counterpart and biggest rival is ''Iltalehti''. According to the National Media Research done in 2019 ''Ilta- ...

'' 8 August 2022. Accessed on 8 August 2022. The sculpture was placed in storage and a pedestrian walkway will be built in its place.Huuskonen, Sirpa; Niemi, Liisa
Helsinki siirtää Neuvostoliitosta lahjana saadun Maailman rauha -veistoksen varastoon rakennustöiden takia
''

'' 7 March 2022. Accessed on 10 March 2022.Hirvonen, Saara; Rita, Mikko
Hakaniemen Maailman rauha -veistos siirretään pois työmaan tieltä

7 March 2022. Accessed on 10 March 2022. According to the Helsinki Art Museum, the sculpture will be returned near its current location after the construction.

Background

According to the 1983 sculpture exchange treaty between Moscow and Helsinki, Helsinki donated the 1990 sculpture ''

Children of peace Children of Peace is a United Kingdom, British-based, non-partisan Charitable organization, charity that focuses upon building friendship, trust and reconciliation between Israeli and Palestinian people, Palestinian children, aged 4–17, reg ...

'' by Antti Neuvonen to Moscow.Maailmanrauhan ympäristö saa kiveyksen
''

'' 19 May 1990, p. 16. Accessed on 11 March 2022. In 1983 a long cultural-political discussion was held about Oleg Kiryuhin's sculpture, where it was met with strong opposition. However, the city of Helsinki declined the alternative option to receive a statue of

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

. The sculpture ''World peace'' is one of many copies of the original sculpture. Copies of the original were placed in numerous cities in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and the copy in Helsinki was probably the last copy to be placed. Helsinki is the only location outside the former Soviet Union to host a copy of the sculpture. The sculpture was part of the overall plan of the Hakaniemi market square in the late 1980s. According to a ''

'' article in 1986 the market square plan would have also included two sculpture contest winners: ''Riemukaari'' ("the arch of triumph") cast in red brick by Jukka Vikberg and ''Hermeksen pöytä'' ("the table of Hermes") cast in red granite by Reijo Paavilainen. They would have been located near the

Hakaniemi market hall The Hakaniemi market hall (Finnish: ''Hakaniemen kauppahalli'', Swedish: ''Hagnäs saluhall'') is a market building at the Hakaniemi market square in the district of Kallio in Helsinki, Finland. It was built at the start of the street Hämeenti ...

. The sculpture was delivered to Helsinki in 1989 in parts. Sculptor Kiryuhin oversaw welding the sculpture together.

Reception

Revelation

According to reporter Timo Kalevi Forss the old rhetoric of the

Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 left, 380px, Signing of the Finno-Soviet Treaty between the Soviet Union and Finland in Moscow on April 6, 1948. Signed by Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, followed by Soviet Prime Minister Joseph Stalin. To the left of Stalin are ...

was still alive and well at the sculpture's revelation in 1990 and it was seen to contain "unease from great power politics and stiffness of fur cap embassies". The mayor of Helsinki at the time,

Raimo Ilaskivi Raimo Ilaskivi (born 26 May 1928 in Ruokolahti) is a Finnish politician. He holds a doctorate degree in political science from the University of Helsinki and has also studied in the United States and in the United Kingdom. He was born as ''Raimo ...

(National Coalition Party) described the sculpture as a "passionate, clear and concrete appeal for peace and friendship". The Soviet Union was represented by a delegation led by Valeri T. Saikin, the head of the executive committee of the Moscow city council, which also included the sculptor Kiryuhin. According to Forss

glasnost ''Glasnost'' (; russian: link=no, гласность, ) has several general and specific meanings – a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information, the inadmissibility of hushing up problems, ...

and

perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...

had already influenced the thoughts of the Soviet citizens. At the revelation event, the artist said the sculpture was realist but not

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

. He also did not want to describe the female figure in the sculpture as either

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...

or socialist.Patsasdiplomatiaa ja monumentaalista maailmanrauhaa
Rauhanpuolustajat 21 June 2021. Accessed on 11 March 2022.

Interpretations

According to Lasse Lehtinen, a common nickname for the sculpture is "the fish-trap thieves". The human figures in the sculpture, with their hands clenched into fists, are said to depict the different continents of the world, but there is no figure depicting

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. Cultural journalist Hannu Marttila has interpreted the sculpture as drawing influence from the sculpture '' Quatre parties du monde'' ("four continents") by

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (11 May 1827 – 12 October 1875) was a French sculptor and painter during the Second Empire under Napoleon III. Life Born in Valenciennes, Nord, son of a mason, his early studies were under François Rude. Carpeaux en ...

at the middle of the fountain at the

Jardin du Luxembourg The Jardin du Luxembourg (), known in English as the Luxembourg Garden, colloquially referred to as the Jardin du Sénat (Senate Garden), is located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France. Creation of the garden began in 1612 when Marie de' ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Maija Koskinen, who has studied the art of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

era has said that 1990 was probably the last possible year for a sculpture exchange between Finland and the Soviet Union. According to her, the sculpture is quite a

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

and can be interpreted as a memorial to

Finlandisation Finlandization ( fi, suomettuminen; sv, finlandisering; german: Finnlandisierung; et, soomestumine; russian: финляндизация, finlyandizatsiya) is the process by which one powerful country makes a smaller neighboring country refrai ...

. At the time of the sculpture's revelation, Finland was already seeking a new relationship to its eastern neighbour.

Controversies

Tarring (1991)

The sculpture was tarred on Thursday 10 October 1991 on Aleksis Kivi Day starting at 4 PM. The perpetrators were political science student Jari Kajas, law student Mikael Jungner and medicine student Sara Hirvelä. After the tarring, the perpetrators covered the sculpture in feathers. The police arrived at 4:25 PM and the situation lasted until 4:40 PM, when all three were driven away in a police car. According to the group who had named themselves as the "Feather Group", the sculpture is ugly and does not fit into its surroundings. The intent of the group was to send greetings to the

City Council of Helsinki The City Council of Helsinki (, ) is the main decision-making organ in the local politics of Helsinki, Finland. The City Council deals with issues such as city planning, schools, health care, and public transport. The 85-seat Council's members a ...

. According to the group, Helsinki made a mistake by accepting the sculpture at a time when

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

was nearing its end in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

Explosion attempt (2010)

There was an attempt to explode the sculpture with a gas bottle at midnight between 9 and 10 May 2010. The police investigated the matter as serious attempted vandalism. In May 2016, a prisoner serving a sentence from a different crime confessed to the explosion attempt, and charges were brought against him. In May 2017 the court of appeal of Eastern Finland sentenced the perpetrator to two years in prison without parole. The court of appeal shortened the sentence originally given by the district court by eight months, as it saw the perpetrator had helped in investigating the crime.

Demonstration with the flag of Ukraine (2014)

During the night before the national day of

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

on 24 August 2014, flags of Ukraine were hung on the sculpture. According to eyewitnesses, in the morning, only torn strips remained of the flags.

Opposition to the war in Ukraine (2022)

After the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

in February 2022, the word "''maailmanräyhää''" (Finnish for "world rage", a parody of the sculpture's Finnish name) was written on the base of the sculpture and the base was wrapped in blue-and-yellow ribbon representing the flag of Ukraine.Holmlund, Sofia
Helsingfors monterar ner sovjetisk gåvoskulptur
''

Hufvudstadsbladet ''Hufvudstadsbladet'' (abbr. ''Hbl'') is the highest-circulation Swedish-language newspaper in Finland. Its headquarters is located in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The name of the newspaper translates approximately into "Journal of the Capi ...

'' 8 March 2022, p. 11. Accessed on 8 March 2022.

References

External links

Maailman rauha
at the Helsinki Art Museum
Maailmanrauha-patsas paljastettiin Helsingissä
YLE living archive * Höyhensoturit

Accessed on 24 July 2015. Statues and sculptures in Helsinki Hakaniemi