Let Us Beat Swords Into Ploughshares is a bronze sculpture by artist Evgeniy Vuchetich (1908 ¬– 1974). Vuchetich was an esteemed Soviet sculptor and artist well-known for his heroic monuments. In 1959, he was given the “People’s Artist of the USSR” award. 

The sculpture depicts the figure of a man, holding a hammer aloft in one hand and a sword in the other hand, hammering the sword into a ploughshare, a tool to till land for crops. This action symbolizes man’s desire to put an end to war and transform tools of destruction into tools to benefit mankind.

The Book of Isaiah contains the following passage: "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

The sculpture was gifted to the United Nations by the USSR on December 4th, 1959. It was presented on behalf of the Soviet Delegation by Vassily V. Kuznetsov, First Deputy Foreign Minister of the USSR, to Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold who accepted the sculpture on behalf of the United Nations.