The poet's monument was installed on the eve of the 70th anniversary of his death. The location chosen for it is the entrance to the "Orlyonok" park, opposite the house at 13 F. Engels Street, where Osip Mandelstam lived with his wife during his three-year exile in Voronezh from 1934 to 1937. It was here that he created his "Voronezh Notebooks."

Sculptor Lazar Gadaev created the monument, which was unveiled on September 4, 2008. The monument's design, developed by Lazar Gadaev and architect Alexander Gagkaev, participated in the 2007 competition for the best monument to Mandelstam held in Moscow. However, the winner was the project by architect Alexander Brodsky and sculptors Dmitry Shakhovsky and Elena Muntz. Therefore, the revised monument by Gadaev, from which the stack of books at the poet's feet was removed, was installed in Voronezh instead of Moscow.

The monument, standing 2 meters tall, is made of bronze. The poet is depicted standing, with his head held high and a hand pressed to his chest.

This is the third monument to Mandelstam erected in Russia. The first was erected in Vladivostok, and the second in St. Petersburg, but at that time it did not have official status as a monument.