The coronavirus pandemic continues to affect our society. Medical workers have faced the dangers of the new disease since the very first moments, and many of them lost their lives to the virus. An important step has been taken to commemorate these people — a monument to doctors fighting COVID-19 has been unveiled in Moscow on 17 September. The memorial is located near the Museum of the History of Medicine at Sechenov University.

The opening ceremony was attended by a number of high-ranking officials from the Federal Government and the City of Moscow.

In her speech, Tatyana Golikova, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, emphasised the importance of honouring the doctors. ‘Today we are celebrating the feat of our medical workers — people who from the very beginning were at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. This invisible enemy has already been with us for a year and a half’, she said. ‘Our esteemed doctors, volunteers, students, ambulance drivers, nurses, carers — these people devoted themselves to saving human lives’.

‘A huge number of medical workers — 280,000 — are still working in the “red zone”. Unfortunately, some of them are gone — gone because they were helping others combat the disease but lost their own lives to it… This monument will be reminding us of our struggle and our unity’, added Tatyana Golikova.

She also thanked everyone who had made donations to erect the monument and expressed gratitude to the ‘many young people who study [at Sechenov University]’ for ‘choosing a noble profession’.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mikhail Murashko, Minister of Health of the Russian Federation, thanked doctors and everyone who had been working to fight the pandemic — volunteers, nurses, vaccine developers. ‘Every generation is tested; ours has been tested by the coronavirus pandemic. Our duty is to win’, said Mikhail Murashko. ‘More than 1.3 million medical workers have been working hard during this time, deploying up to almost 300,000 beds. For all this, we need to thank them’.

Sergey Sobyanin, Mayor of Moscow, said that the city had been badly hit by the pandemic — and for many months Moscow’s healthcare system had been working under tremendous pressure. ‘The city services are providing all necessary assistance so that our medical workers are fully supplied, and everything should work like clockwork. The people of Moscow feel that in the most difficult moments, doctors will always be there for them, providing high-quality medical care’, said Sergey Sobyanin. He also added that the main result was almost 1.5 million people in Moscow alone who had been successfully treated for the coronavirus infection.

Petr Glybochko, Rector of Sechenov University, said that the country had unified in the face of the disease, while the medical workers had demonstrated ultimate professionalism. ‘At the beginning of the pandemic, we had to do everything from scratch, but as a result of the hard work, we obtained new drugs, new diagnostic tests, and vaccines’, he said. ‘At Sechenov University, we deployed 2,000 beds at a COVID-19 hospital, trained staff to work in these special conditions, treated patients, investigated the disease, developed new treatment regimens — and have been able to fight the pandemic’, added Petr Glybochko. He also thanked everyone who had supported the idea to create the memorial.

The bronze monument bears an inscription which reads ‘To the feat of medical workers in the fight against COVID-19’ (in Russian). The composition includes figures of a nurse, an intensivist, and a medical researcher — vaccine developer. A globe can be seen behind them.

The monument was designed by Salavat Shcherbakov, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, People’s Artist of Russia.

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