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History of the Moscow Metro

The Moscow Metro was initially built under the 1930's Moscow general plan designed by Lazar Kaganovich and was named after him ("Metropoliten im. L.M. Kaganovicha").

The first line opened on 15 May 1935 between Sokolniki and Park Kultury with a branch to Smolenskaya which reached Kievskaya in April 1937 (crossing the Moskva River by bridge).  The construction of the first stations was based on other underground systems, and only a few original designs were allowed: (Krasniye Vorota, Okhotniy Ryad and Kropotkinskaya). Kievskaya station was the first to use national motifs.

The second stage was completed before the war. In March 1938 the Arbatskaya branch was split in two and extended to Kurskaya station (now the dark-blue Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line).  In September 1938 the Gorkovskaya Line opened between Sokol and Teatralnaya.  Here the architecture was based on the most popular of the stations already in existence (Krasniye Vorota, Okhotnyi Ryad and Kropotkinskaya) and the compositions followed the popular art deco style, though merging it with socialist visions.  The first deep level Column station Mayakovskaya was built at the same time.

Building works on the third stage were delayed but not interrupted during the Second World War, and two Metro sections were put into service: Teatralnaya - Avtozavodskaya (3 stations, crossing the Moskva river in a deep tunnel) and Kurskaya - Partizanskaya (4 stations) were inaugurated in 1943 and 1944 respectively. War motifs replaced socialist visions in the architectural design of the stations.

During the Siege of Moscow, in the autumn and winter of 1941, metro stations were used as air-raid shelters and the Council of Ministers moved its offices to the platforms of Mayakovskaya, where Stalin made public speeches on several occasions.  Chistye Prudy station was also walled off and the headquarters of the Air Defence were installed there.

After the war, construction started on the fourth stage of the Metro, which included the Koltsevaya Line and a deep part of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line from Ploshchad Revolyutsii to Kievskaya, and a surface extension to Pervomaiskaya in the early 1950s.  The exquisite decoration and design of so much of the Moscow Metro is considered to have reached its peak in these stations.

The Koltsevaya Line was planned first as a line running under the Sadovoye Koltso (Garden Ring), a wide avenue encircling the borders of Moscow's city centre.  The first part of the line - from Park Kultury to Kursakya (1950) - follows this avenue. But later plans were changed and the northern part of the ring line deviates 1-1.5 km outside the Sadovoye Koltso, thus providing service for 7 (out of 9) rail terminals.  The next part of the Koltsevaya line opened in 1952 (Kurskaya - Belorusskaya) and in 1954 the ring line was completed.

There is an interesting urban legend about where the idea for a ring line came from.  A group of engineers approached Stalin with plans for the Metro to inform him of current progress and what was being done at that moment.  While looking at the drawings, Stalin poured himself some coffee and spilt a small amount over the edge of the cup.  When he was asked whether he liked the project so far or not, he put his cup right on the centre of the Metro blueprints and left in silence.  The bottom of the cup left a brown circle on the drawings.  The planners looked at it and realized that it was exactly what they had been missing.  Taking it as a sign of Stalin's genius, they gave orders for the building of the ring line, which on the plans was always printed in brown.  This legend, of course, may be attributed to Stalin's cult of personality and while it sounds compelling, it is no more than a fairy tale.

The beginning of the Cold War led to the construction of a deep part of the Arbatskiy line.  The stations on this line are very deep and were planned as shelters in the event of nuclear war.  After finishing the line in 1953, the upper tracks between Ploshchad Revolyutsii' and Kievskaya were closed and later reopened in 1958 as a part of the Filyovskaya Line.  In the further development of the Metro, the term "stages" was not used any more, although sometimes the stations opened in 1957-1959 are referred to as the "fifth stage".

During the late 1950s, the architectural extravagance of new metro stations was significantly toned down, and decorations at some stations like VDNKh and Alekseevskaya were greatly simplified compared to their original plans. This was done on the orders of Nikita Khrushchev, who favoured a more spartan decoration scheme.  A typical layout (which quickly became known as "Sorokonozhka") was developed for all new stations, and the stations were built to look almost identical, differing from each other only in colours of the marble and ceramic tiles. Most of these stations were very poorly built.  It was not until the mid-1970s that architectural extravagance was restored, and original designs once again became popular.

For further information on the history of the Moscow Metro, click here ...


Metro 2

Although this has not been officially confirmed, many independent studies suggest that a second, deeper metro system exists under military jurisdiction and is designed for emergency evacuation of key city personnel in case of attack.  It is believed that it consists of a single track and connects the Kremlin, chief HQ (Genshtab), Lubyanka (FSB Headquarters) and the Ministry of Defence, as well as numerous other secret installations.  There are also entrances to the system from several civilian buildings such as the Russian State Library, Moscow State University (MSU) and at least two stations of the regular metro.  It is speculated that these would allow for the evacuation of a small number of randomly chosen civilians, in addition to most of the elite military personnel.  The only known junction between the secret system and normal Metro is behind the station Sportivnaya of the Sokolnicheskaya Line.  The final section of this system was completed in 1997.