Moscow Metro is one of the largest in the world. With more than two hundred stations and a length of 350 km, every day, like a gigantic organism, it passes millions of inhabitants of a megalopolis through itself. Among other things, the Moscow metro is one of the most beautiful, cleanest and deepest in the world.
The project of the very first metro in Moscow
The idea to lay the subway was embedded in the minds of the upper strata of society back in the days of the Russian Empire. Already then there were attempts to design such a network of roads. And this happened exactly in those distant years. If the idea came true, the Moscow metro, today, would not only be one of the largest, but would have a longer history.
In 1875, engineer Titov began to agitate and disseminate among the highest ranks of Moscow the idea of creating a railway tunnel connecting the Kursk Station with the Marina Grove. It was planned to lay it through Lubyanskaya and Trubnaya squares.
The first metro in Moscow could have been created in 1902, when the designer of the Trans-Siberian railway, Evgeny Knorre, together with his colleague Peter Belinsky decided to express their ambitions in the form of an attempt to convince high-ranking officials to create a network of “high-speed city railroads with extra-street traffic.”
But in the same year, the project was rejected due to, according to officials, many shortcomings. An extensive role was then played in the city’s infrastructure by an extensive tram network, which brought considerable income to the city. The creation of the subway was then unprofitable.
The construction of the Moscow metro under the Soviet regime
A third attempt to implement such a large project was made in 1923. The workload of Moscow's infrastructure, at that time, was colossal, it was necessary to find a solution that would help to cope with this problem. Therefore, the city administration was forced to turn to foreign engineers, who were to draw up a plan for the construction of the first metro in Moscow. And when the project, consisting of 86 stations and tunnels with a total length of 80 km, was ready, the state did not have enough money to implement it.
The first metro line in Moscow
Earlier, the idea arose of creating a subway that could relieve the capital’s infrastructure. The task was not easy - to create a tunnel at great depths, while not having specialists in this field and the necessary equipment in their state. The project to create the first metro in Moscow was put forward on October 10, 1931. The deepest method of station laying was chosen to preserve the pristine appearance of Moscow. For the construction of the first metro line, it was decided to hire engineers from abroad.
The construction was completed in record time - a few years later. On May 15, 1935, the first Moscow metro trains began transporting passengers. The metro also played a paramount role during the years of World War II, it served as a bomb shelter for residents of the city, and during the whole war its activity was stopped only once for one day. This was due to the tense situation at the front, when the city was preparing to resist the troops of the Third Reich.
Architectural features of the Moscow metro - the first stages of construction
Debuting stations have one feature, in addition to performing their original functions of passenger transportation. The first metro in Moscow was particularly magnificent and pompous. Each of them was unique, all of them were made in the style of social. realism. At that time, the state was oriented toward excessive luxury in architectural terms. This was argued by the fact that the state does everything in the name of the people. It does it qualitatively and indecently luxuriously, which the capitalist countries cannot afford. For the symbol of the Moscow Metro, the red letter "M", was the responsible Soviet architect Ilya Taranov.
During the reign of I.V. Stalin opened several more metro stations, also distinguished by special splendor.
In total, about 45 km of underground railways were laid in the first twenty years, and about 35 stations were also created.
Simplify building style
After the death of I.V. Stalin's course in architectural planning was changed to more ascetic. A similar decision to “eliminate excesses in design and construction” was made by the state in 1955. Before this period, the stations were built according to individual projects and had exclusively a deep-laid structure. After that, typical projects were created, according to which they were to be built, and also some of them had the type of shallow laying. This was done in order to save money.
The desire for cheapness and simplicity was not in vain. The station, now called the Vorobyovy Gory, had many errors and shortcomings after construction, due to which it eventually became unusable.
In total, in the period of the 60s, 33.5 km of metro lines were created and 21 stations were built.