The Moscow Metro — Underground Palaces of the Soviet Era
The Moscow Metro (Moskovskiy Metropoliten — opened 1935, now comprising 15 lines and over 260 stations serving approximately 8 million passengers per day) is simultaneously the busiest metro system in Europe, a functional public transport network, and a celebrated collection of monumental public art and architecture: the stations built under Stalin (1935-1954) were deliberately designed as 'palaces for the people,' with marble floors, vaulted ceilings, mosaics, bronze sculptures, stained glass, and chandeliers intended to demonstrate the achievements of Soviet civilization to its citizens.
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Komsomolskaya Station (Ring Line) — The Baroque Palace of the Metro
Komsomolskaya Station, Koltsevaya (Ring) Line (built 1952, architect Alexei Shchusev — one of the most celebrated metro stations in the world and the most visited station in the Moscow Metro, serving three rail lines and the Ring Metro line at the major Komsomolskaya Square transport hub near three major railway terminals): the Ring Line version of Komsomolskaya is the grandest of all Moscow Metro stations, with a 190-metre barrel-vaulted ceiling decorated with eight large mosaic panels (by artist Pavel Korin) depicting scenes from Russian and Soviet military history — the Battle on the Ice (Alexander Nevsky defeating the Teutonic Knights, 1242), the Battle of Kulikovo (Dmitry Donskoy defeating the Mongols, 1380), Minin and Pozharsky liberating Moscow from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1612), the Battle of Poltava (Peter the Great defeating the Swedes, 1709), the Battle of Borodino (Napoleon's invasion, 1812), Lenin addressing a revolutionary crowd, and the Victory Parade of 1945 on Red Square; the yellow plasterwork ceiling and gilded chandeliers create an overwhelming Baroque imperial atmosphere.
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Mayakovskaya Station — Art Deco Masterpiece
Mayakovskaya Station, Zamoskvoretskaya Line (built 1938, architect Alexei Dushkin — won the Grand Prix at the 1939 New York World's Fair and is regarded as one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the world): the station (named after the Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky) was built 33 metres below ground level and was used by Stalin as an air-raid shelter and command centre during the German bombing of Moscow in 1941 — the November 7, 1941 ceremony marking the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution was held in the station while German forces were 15-30 kilometres from the city; the station's design (stainless steel columns, rhodonite and marble panelling, 34 ceiling niches containing mosaic panels depicting '24 Hours in the Land of the Soviets' by artist Alexander Deineka — the mosaics viewed from below through oval skylights) is one of the most harmonious examples of integrated architecture and public art in the 20th century.
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Kievskaya Station (Ring Line) — Ukrainian Mosaics in the Metro
Kievskaya Station, Koltsevaya (Ring) Line (built 1954, architects Evgeny Katsman and Pavel Kabanov — one of the last Stalinist stations built, celebrating Ukrainian-Russian friendship with an elaborate programme of mosaics and architectural decoration): the station's 18 large mosaic panels (by Ukrainian artist Alexander Myzin) depict scenes from Ukrainian history and culture, including the Pereyaslav Rada of 1654 (the agreement by which the Cossack Hetmanate joined the Russian Tsar), Ukrainian workers and farmers celebrating the collectivization, Ukrainian Red Army soldiers, and Ukrainian cultural figures — the entire iconographic programme designed to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Ukrainian-Russian unity, which gives the station its political significance today given the subsequent history of Russia-Ukraine relations.
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Ploshchad Revolyutsii Station — 76 Bronze Sculptures
Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square) Station, Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line (built 1938, architect Alexei Dushkin — the station adjacent to Red Square and the Kremlin, famous for the 76 life-size bronze sculptures by artist Matvei Manizer placed in the arches of the station's arcade): the 76 sculptures (each arch contains a pair of bronze figures) depict Soviet citizens in heroic poses celebrating the construction of socialism — workers, peasants, Red Army soldiers, sailors, border guards with dogs, students, athletes, and a mother with a baby; the sculptures are highly realistic and the bronze surfaces on certain parts of the figures (a dog's nose, a soldier's boot) are polished bright gold by decades of touching — Russian tradition holds that touching the nose of the border guard's German shepherd dog brings good luck, and the nose is always brightly polished while the rest of the statue remains dark.
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Novoslobodskaya Station — Stained Glass Underground
Novoslobodskaya Station, Koltsevaya (Ring) Line (built 1952, architect Alexei Dushkin — known for its extraordinary illuminated stained-glass panels, unique in the Moscow Metro): the station's 32 stained-glass panels (designed by Pavel Korin, fabricated in Riga, Latvia) depict stylized figures representing peaceful Soviet professions — an architect, a musician, a scientist, an agronomist, and so on — surrounded by floral and geometric patterns; the stained glass is backlit by fluorescent lighting, creating a warm, jewel-like effect in the dark underground station; the central panel at the end of the station hall (a large mosaic by Pavel Korin, 1952) depicts a female figure in white holding an olive branch — 'Peace' — the only figure in the entire Moscow Metro programme without a Soviet political connotation, added reportedly at the insistence of the architect.
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Arbatskaya Station & Arbat Street — Moscow's Cultural Mile
Arbatskaya Station, Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line (built 1953, architects Leonid Polyakov and Georgy Zakharov — one of the deepest stations in Moscow, 40 metres underground, designed with an unusually wide hall and elaborate Classicist decoration in blue and white porcelain, with military motifs celebrating the Soviet armed forces) and the adjacent Old Arbat Street (Stary Arbat — the 1.2-kilometre pedestrianized street in central Moscow, one of the oldest streets in the city, dating to the 15th century, now a tourist promenade lined with historic buildings, cafes, street artists, souvenir stalls, and the apartment buildings where many famous Russians lived): the Arbat was the Bohemian heart of Moscow intelligentsia through the 19th and early 20th century (the poet Alexander Pushkin lived here; the writer Boris Pasternak grew up nearby) and was the centre of the dissident and counter-culture movements in the late Soviet period.