As the countdown to May 9 drew closer, you could almost hear the clock ticking while workers at Poklonnaya Gora scurried to ready the mammoth World War II memorial in time for Victory Day.


At least until a steady stream of Russian fighter jets pierced the sky overhead with a deafening roar.


"I guess there will be an air show on May 9 as well," said Pyotr Grin, an official from the Russian Academy of Art overseeing the project. "This is the first I'm hearing of it."


As right hand man to the project's chief artist Zurab Tsereteli, Grin isn't worried about what goes on overhead. His job is to make sure the ground work is completed by May 9, when the long-awaited complex will be the centerpiece of citywide celebrations involving 15,000 soldiers and 55 heads of state and government.


There has been much debate in the Russian press as to whether or not the complex will be ready in time. Although construction of the arc-shaped memorial museum began 10 years ago, the project collapsed in the late 1980s for lack of funding.


Only last year did Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin sign a decree calling for the memorial to be finished by the 50th anniversary of Russia's victory in World War II. The money to finish the task was not made available until February.


Since then, thousands of laborers have been working around the clock to complete the memorial, which includes the museum, a mile-long promenade with colored fountains, restaurants, cafes -- even a military theme park where children can crawl around on tanks and other equipment to get a feel for the period.


The playground, said Grin, was the brainchild of Mayor Yury Luzhkov. "Everything was going to be gathered in one place, so we wouldn't have to worry about security," said Grin. "But then the mayor said, 'Let the children run around.'"


"At first we were afraid we weren't going to make it," said Grin, who has been at the complex from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day since March 8. "But now we are just adding the finishing touches."


Even as an army of workers plant grass, sand benches, paint railings and endlessly polish the promenade, curious veterans and children strolling with their grandmothers have already turned the hill into a popular attraction. On any given day a steady stream of newlyweds come to pay their respects and lay the obligatory post-nuptial bouquet of flowers.


According to Grin, it was Luzhkov who really got the project back on its feet. "Luzhkov said it would be our nation's shame if we couldn't create a celebration for the 50th year of victory," said Grin. "He comes here twice a day to check on the progress."


Luzhkov is also alleged to be a good friend of Tsereteli, the sculptor, who designed the 142-meter obelisk representing the 1420 days of the war, topped with two bronze cherubs and a 3-ton Goddess of Victory.


The cherubs, Grin said, will eventually be covered in gold leaf, but they had to hoist them up unsheathed to meet the parade deadline.


Tsereteli is one of Russia's most prominent sculptors. The creator of the 500-ton statue of Christopher Columbus which now resides in Miami, he is currently working on the widely publicized reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and has proposed a Disneyland-style amusement park along the Moscow river, complete with rides, a water park, monorail, and zoo.


Tsereteli was also called in to handle renovations inside the Kremlin last year in preparation for the visit by Queen Elizabeth II, Grin said.


Tsereteli began work on the Poklonnaya Gora monument more than a decade ago with architect Anatoly Polyansky, who died in 1993 before he could see the project completed. But the death of the chief architect was only one of many setbacks for the memorial which was originally proposed more than 20 years ago to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.


By the time the Russian government gave the green light to finish the project last year, some adjustments had to be made to blur the Soviet influence.


The museum's Hall of Glory, for example, was originally supposed to house a relief of the 15 Soviet republics. Instead, the war's 13 Hero-Cities are now featured above the 12,000 gold-plated names of all those dubbed "Heroes of the Soviet Union" between 1941 and 1945. Sitting between Stadnichuk and Stankeyevich is Joseph Stalin himself -- no bigger or smaller than the other heros.


The feature that was most obviously added during the post-Soviet planning is the Russian Orthodox Church adorned by five bells donated by Tsereteli himself. The bells, Grin said, were rung in the mountains of Tsereteli's native Georgia for a year to get the sound just right.


The park will eventually expand to include a synagogue and mosque, Grin added. But first things first.


"It's already our shame that we haven't built such a memorial before now," said Grin. "In spite of the hard times that are upon us, in spite of credits we owe the West, we had to build this in time for the 50th anniversary.


We just have to tighten our belt to finish it," he said, adding that, given the long history of the project, it is difficult to determine just how much it will cost when completed.


However, even the amount of funding allocated in the past year, when construction on the project intensified, is a closely guarded secret among government officials.


While some are critical of wasting money on a museum to honor war veterans who are themselves having trouble making ends meet, the veterans themselves do not begrudge the money invested into Poklonnaya Gora.


"I'm very pleased with the memorial. It expresses all of the feelings of the time," said Nikolai Yevreinov, who came to see Poklonnaya Gora after rehearsing himself for the veterans parade that will take place in Red Square on May 9.


"It was necessary to build no matter what the cost," added the former sapper who took part in the liberation of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Austria.


"My husband served from the very first to the very last day of the war," Yevreinov's wife added proudly. "Why doesn't he deserve such a monument?" She added.