Monumento a Valeri Chkálov, Nizhny Novgorod

The monument to Valery Chkalov is one of the landmarks of Nizhny Novgorod, installed near the St. George Tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin in honor of the famous Soviet pilot who made the first nonstop flight from the USSR to the United States across the North Pole. A staircase descends from the monument to the Volga River, which is also called "Chkalovskaya".

At the place of the present monument to V. P. Chkalov at the beginning of the XVII century was founded Proiskhozdvizhensky nunnery, later called Krestovozdvizhensky and moved in 1815 to its present place near Lyadov Square. Worn-out buildings of the monastery were preserved until 1840, when all the buildings on the territories adjacent to the Kremlin were demolished, and along the walls a recreation area for citizens with the laying of walking paths, planted with trees and shrubs was arranged.

The monument to the legendary test pilot was unveiled on December 15, 1940, on the second anniversary of his death. The author of the sculpture was V. P. Chkalov's friend I. A. Mendelevich. P. P. Chkalov's friend I.A. Mendelevich, with whom they had chosen this place for the monument to A. M. Gorky. I. Mendelevich was awarded the Stalin Prize for this work. The architects of the monument: I. G. Taranov and V. S. Andreev.

The surface of the pedestal bears outlines of the Northern Hemisphere map showing the routes of the heroic Chkalov-Baidukov-Belyakov crew's flights to the Far East and across the North Pole to America. The pedestal itself is lined with labradorite.

The pedestal bears the years of the pilot's life and the inscription "To Valery Chkalov, the great aviator of our time. Under these words, above the map of flights, you can see the holes from the mounts - there was the inscription "to the Stalin Falcon", removed during the struggle against the cult of personality of Stalin.