In our last trip we were much impressed while visiting an unusual monument in the Karakol valley – the monument to a ground squirrel. It was built on the eve of the Victory Day this year with the gratitude to the small animal which saved people from starvation during World War II.

The monument is made as a figure of a skinny, barefoot boy with an Altaian coat on one shoulder holding a ground squirrel in his hands. The boy has no face, only mirror surface. According to the author’s idea e, everybody can see their relatives or just people who suffered during the war in the surface.
The monument is installed on the top of the hill with a beautiful view over the valley. We found out that it is really of great importance to the local people – during our stay 3 old ladies came and climbed up the hill though it was not so easy.

We think it is not such a common idea for us, that people had to kill animals for surviving and at the same time were thankful to them and even have been keeping gratitude till nowadays. Maybe the local people living in Altai are still closer to nature…
P.S. There are still living a lot of ground squirrels in the Karakol valley.