As all the pomp over Victory Day subsides, another anniversary is about to be celebrated in Moscow. On Sunday, it will be exactly seven decades since the first metro train set off from Sokolniki along a line only 10 stations long. Of course, this milestone may not have the significance of the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, but it is still being marked with various events -- including a historical re-enactment, the publication of two lavish photo albums and even a beauty contest.
While Moscow's metro is not as old as those of London or Paris and has far fewer stations, it carries more passengers than both those systems combined: about 9 million per day, thanks to its frequently running trains. The magnificent stations are acknowledged as architectural masterpieces, although sadly, many of these are beginning to show their age, with leaking tunnels and layers of dust on the chandeliers.
On Sunday, the driver and staff at Sokolniki station, on the red line, will dress up in 1930s-era uniforms for a special train trip to mark the anniversary. "It will be a staged version of the moment when the first train set off," Yevgenia Morozova, a spokeswoman for the metro, said Wednesday. The station will also be decorated with posters about the metro's history and photographs from the time, while signs on the platform will be replaced by period versions.
"The passengers will walk into the atmosphere of the 1930s, just as it was on May 15, 1935," Morozova said. Journalists and metro officials will follow the train -- whose exact departure time was unconfirmed on Thursday -- to Park Kultury, the last station on the original red line, and then ordinary members of the public will get on as usual.
While this one-off event will be hard to catch, any metro passenger can celebrate the anniversary by buying a souvenir two-journey ticket. One version of the ticket shows a photograph of passengers waiting to board the first train, under a banner that simply reads, "There is a metro." The other version shows an early design for the vestibule of Sokolniki station.
Meanwhile, another event is adding sex appeal to the 70th-anniversary celebrations. With its long escalators and crowded wagons, the metro has always been a favorite place for young men to look at girls, and the tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda held a competition last month to find Miss Metro. Visiting stations at times announced in the newspaper, a photographer took pictures of female passengers. A total of 85 women braved the unflattering lighting to pose for the competition.
After an Internet vote by Komsomolskaya Pravda readers, Olga Genina, a dark-haired human resources specialist, emerged as "the face of the Moscow metro." She has already posed for a poster that will go on display at Prospekt Mira station for the 70th anniversary, Morozova said.
Some commemorative projects kicked off well before this weekend. Earlier this year, two different publishers released glossy coffee table books filled with photographs and illustrations of the system's sculptures, mosaics and architectural designs. Interros published a book called "Moscow Metropolitan," which concentrates on stations built in the Stalin era, from 1935 to 1954, while the Moscow magazine WAM, or World Art Museum, released a special book-length issue to celebrate the metro's 70th birthday.
Titled "70 Years of the Metro," the WAM book covers the history of the metro's construction, ranging from the first tentative plans, dating back to the 1870s, to the newest station, Park Pobedy, which opened in 2003 and features enamel panels by Zurab Tsereteli. At the ceremonial opening in 1935, the book recounts, the first Muscovites to use the metro were dazzled by the marble interiors. Each train was saluted by policemen in dress uniform, and girls in red berets stood by to prevent people falling onto the rails.
Some conservative architects refused to take part in designing metro stations, seeing it as beneath their dignity, the book recounts. But soon the underground system became a showpiece, demonstrating the might of the Soviet state. A stretch of the green line opened in 1943, in a propaganda move designed to show the country's resilience despite the war with Germany.
Decorations in the metro always had the aim of celebrating Soviet achievements. The book cites a critic dressing down the sculptor responsible for bas-reliefs of the various republics in the Dobryninskaya station, which opened in 1950. "If you believe the pale narration of the sculptor, the Soviet Union is an agricultural country where people work alone manually, each on his own patch of land," he wrote indignantly.
The stained-glass windows of Novoslobodskaya station, which opened in 1952, also came in for criticism; some saw them as "an element of the decoration of buildings of cults," the book explains. But for many passengers -- unable to travel to the Gothic cathedrals of Europe -- it was the only chance to see an art form not native to Russia.
In the 1960s, coinciding with a state campaign against the excessive decoration of buildings, the metro fell victim to cost-cutting. New stations were no longer the subject of hotly fought architectural competitions, and some were even built without escalators, the book points out. Nevertheless, the best new stations retained a simple stylishness.
One of the main events in honor of the anniversary is an exhibition at the Polytechnical Museum called "Our Metro," which opens Saturday. Organized by the Moscow metro, the month-long exhibit will show the history of the subway up to the present day.
Interactive models will show how the radio and fire-safety systems work, and visitors will be able to take the health test that drivers must pass before each shift. To enter the exhibition, visitors will pass through a metro turnstile, and they will be issued commemorative tickets with a magnetic strip.
Many of the pieces on display will be borrowed from the People's Museum of the Moscow Metropolitan, a small museum located inside the vestibule of the Sportivnaya station, its door next to the police cells. Founded in 1967, the museum consists of exhibits donated by the metro management and former workers.
Among the exhibits on loan are the keys to Park Pobedy station and documents about the restoration of Novoslobodskaya, whose stained glass windows were partially replaced and renovated in 2003, Metro Museum director Valentin Bolotov said Wednesday.
Bolotov has headed the museum since 1987. He has worked for the metro for a total of 60 years, first as a train driver and later as the head of a depot. He said that his apartment is filled with the "smell of the metro."
"I have seen history with my own eyes," he said. Today, however, Bolotov believes that the metro is in a "very strained situation." With the network stretched to the maximum, further expansion is urgently required to meet the demand, he said.
Just like the metro, the museum is also in need of extra room. The current exhibition space is getting "very tight," Bolotov said. The director hopes to open a second branch near Polezhayevskaya that will be large enough to display carriages and equipment, rather than just photographs. This affiliate, however, will not open for at least two or three years.
"Our Metro" runs from Sat. to June 14 at the Polytechnical Museum, located at 3/4 Novaya Ploshchad. Metro Kitai-Gorod, Lubyanka. Tel. 923-0756/4287.
The People's Museum of the Moscow Metropolitan is located in the southern vestibule of Sportivnaya metro station. Tel. 222-7309/7833.
While Moscow's metro is not as old as those of London or Paris and has far fewer stations, it carries more passengers than both those systems combined: about 9 million per day, thanks to its frequently running trains. The magnificent stations are acknowledged as architectural masterpieces, although sadly, many of these are beginning to show their age, with leaking tunnels and layers of dust on the chandeliers.
On Sunday, the driver and staff at Sokolniki station, on the red line, will dress up in 1930s-era uniforms for a special train trip to mark the anniversary. "It will be a staged version of the moment when the first train set off," Yevgenia Morozova, a spokeswoman for the metro, said Wednesday. The station will also be decorated with posters about the metro's history and photographs from the time, while signs on the platform will be replaced by period versions.
"The passengers will walk into the atmosphere of the 1930s, just as it was on May 15, 1935," Morozova said. Journalists and metro officials will follow the train -- whose exact departure time was unconfirmed on Thursday -- to Park Kultury, the last station on the original red line, and then ordinary members of the public will get on as usual.
While this one-off event will be hard to catch, any metro passenger can celebrate the anniversary by buying a souvenir two-journey ticket. One version of the ticket shows a photograph of passengers waiting to board the first train, under a banner that simply reads, "There is a metro." The other version shows an early design for the vestibule of Sokolniki station.
Meanwhile, another event is adding sex appeal to the 70th-anniversary celebrations. With its long escalators and crowded wagons, the metro has always been a favorite place for young men to look at girls, and the tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda held a competition last month to find Miss Metro. Visiting stations at times announced in the newspaper, a photographer took pictures of female passengers. A total of 85 women braved the unflattering lighting to pose for the competition.
After an Internet vote by Komsomolskaya Pravda readers, Olga Genina, a dark-haired human resources specialist, emerged as "the face of the Moscow metro." She has already posed for a poster that will go on display at Prospekt Mira station for the 70th anniversary, Morozova said.
Some commemorative projects kicked off well before this weekend. Earlier this year, two different publishers released glossy coffee table books filled with photographs and illustrations of the system's sculptures, mosaics and architectural designs. Interros published a book called "Moscow Metropolitan," which concentrates on stations built in the Stalin era, from 1935 to 1954, while the Moscow magazine WAM, or World Art Museum, released a special book-length issue to celebrate the metro's 70th birthday.
Titled "70 Years of the Metro," the WAM book covers the history of the metro's construction, ranging from the first tentative plans, dating back to the 1870s, to the newest station, Park Pobedy, which opened in 2003 and features enamel panels by Zurab Tsereteli. At the ceremonial opening in 1935, the book recounts, the first Muscovites to use the metro were dazzled by the marble interiors. Each train was saluted by policemen in dress uniform, and girls in red berets stood by to prevent people falling onto the rails.
Some conservative architects refused to take part in designing metro stations, seeing it as beneath their dignity, the book recounts. But soon the underground system became a showpiece, demonstrating the might of the Soviet state. A stretch of the green line opened in 1943, in a propaganda move designed to show the country's resilience despite the war with Germany.
Decorations in the metro always had the aim of celebrating Soviet achievements. The book cites a critic dressing down the sculptor responsible for bas-reliefs of the various republics in the Dobryninskaya station, which opened in 1950. "If you believe the pale narration of the sculptor, the Soviet Union is an agricultural country where people work alone manually, each on his own patch of land," he wrote indignantly.
 Vladimir Filonov / MT Today, the Moscow metro employs about 35,000 people and serves 9 million passengers per day. |  |
| |
In the 1960s, coinciding with a state campaign against the excessive decoration of buildings, the metro fell victim to cost-cutting. New stations were no longer the subject of hotly fought architectural competitions, and some were even built without escalators, the book points out. Nevertheless, the best new stations retained a simple stylishness.
One of the main events in honor of the anniversary is an exhibition at the Polytechnical Museum called "Our Metro," which opens Saturday. Organized by the Moscow metro, the month-long exhibit will show the history of the subway up to the present day.
Interactive models will show how the radio and fire-safety systems work, and visitors will be able to take the health test that drivers must pass before each shift. To enter the exhibition, visitors will pass through a metro turnstile, and they will be issued commemorative tickets with a magnetic strip.
Many of the pieces on display will be borrowed from the People's Museum of the Moscow Metropolitan, a small museum located inside the vestibule of the Sportivnaya station, its door next to the police cells. Founded in 1967, the museum consists of exhibits donated by the metro management and former workers.
Among the exhibits on loan are the keys to Park Pobedy station and documents about the restoration of Novoslobodskaya, whose stained glass windows were partially replaced and renovated in 2003, Metro Museum director Valentin Bolotov said Wednesday.
Bolotov has headed the museum since 1987. He has worked for the metro for a total of 60 years, first as a train driver and later as the head of a depot. He said that his apartment is filled with the "smell of the metro."
"I have seen history with my own eyes," he said. Today, however, Bolotov believes that the metro is in a "very strained situation." With the network stretched to the maximum, further expansion is urgently required to meet the demand, he said.
Just like the metro, the museum is also in need of extra room. The current exhibition space is getting "very tight," Bolotov said. The director hopes to open a second branch near Polezhayevskaya that will be large enough to display carriages and equipment, rather than just photographs. This affiliate, however, will not open for at least two or three years.
"Our Metro" runs from Sat. to June 14 at the Polytechnical Museum, located at 3/4 Novaya Ploshchad. Metro Kitai-Gorod, Lubyanka. Tel. 923-0756/4287.
The People's Museum of the Moscow Metropolitan is located in the southern vestibule of Sportivnaya metro station. Tel. 222-7309/7833.
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