The monument to Maxim Gorky in Nizhny Novgorod, located in the garden square on Gorky Square, was unveiled on November 2, 1952. The seven-meter bronze figure of Gorky was created by sculptor V. I. Mukhina, with the architectural design by V. V. Lebedev and P. P. Shteller.
In 1939, an All-Union competition was announced for the design of a monument to A. M. Gorky, which was won by V. I. Mukhina's project. Its realization was prevented by the Great Patriotic War, which began in 1941. After the war, Gorky Square was reconstructed and a garden square was laid out on it. Only then, on November 2, 1952, was the monument unveiled.
The figure of Gorky, raised high above the square, stands on a four-sided pedestal that seems to "grow" from a granite rock. Vera Mukhina depicted the young Gorky during the period of his life in his native Nizhny Novgorod — it was during this time that he wrote the famous "Song of the Stormy Petrel."
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He stands erect, his hands clasped behind his back, his face and chest turned into the oncoming wind, which stirs the cloak draped over his shoulders. The broad folds of the cloak create a beautiful silhouette of the monument, enriching the emphatically austere vertical line of the figure. Particularly expressive are the back and the hands, each grasping the other — a gesture that betrays an immense inner agitation, held in check by an act of will." R. Abolina
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The monument is included among the objects of cultural heritage of federal and regional significance located in Nizhny Novgorod.
The city has two more monuments to Gorky, by sculptor A. V. Kikin — on Fedorovsky Embankment and in Kulibina Park.