Today, we ventured to Izmailovo Market to do some Christmas shopping before I fly to the States next week.  The market is at Partizanskaya Metro Station (rather than Izmailovo Station…don’t get confused) and this statue greeted us as we made our way up the stairs from the platform.

Matvey Manizer, a Russian artist from St. Petersburg, created this bronze sculpture in 1943.  I am not sure who the figures in this exact statue are supposed to be, but other statues in the station by the same artist depict Matvey Kuzmin (a Soviet peasant who was killed in WWII and posthumously named Hero of the Soviet Union) and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (a Soviet military martyr).  The whole station celebrates the Soviet Partisans (hence the name Partizanskaya) which was a group of people who used guerilla warfare against the Axis powers during WWII.  More info about the Partisans here.