Urban sculpture and cultural code of Volgograd in the context of branding the territory

The sculpture and monuments of Volgograd are discussed in the article as cultural and symbolic objects expressing the local identity and the defining image of the city, and also as resources for branding areas. Field studies and analysis of publications in print and electronic media showed that in the period from 2006 to 2016. in Volgograd, it was installed about 50 different sculptural forms and art objects - sculptures, memorials, monuments, small architectural forms. The author carried out a content analysis of the sculptural text and made the classification of monuments installed over the last 10 years. There were identified dominant themes and motifs, proving the ir- reducibility of the identity of Volgograd to a common denominator with a predominance of heroic discourse of the Soviet past. Specific examples show that the development of object environment of Volgograd clarifies three main trends: the assertion of the identity of the city-hero, stream professional-corporate symbols, representation of the images of the pre-Soviet past, first of all, an appeal to the history and culture of Tsaritsyn. The empirical material of Volgograd highlights the key functions of modern urban sculptures and monuments: monumental, memorial, axiological, aesthetic, social, advertising, entertainment, cultural and educational. It’s stated that creation and promotion of a positive image of Volgograd as a modern city of cultural innovations is difficult in the absence of a developed strategy of cultural policy aimed at the use of intelligent, creative, real assets and the search for alterna- tive symbolic models.