Often called "The People's Palaces," the Moscow Metro is one of the most efficient and extensive metro systems in the world, but its real draw for tourists is the extravagant decoration of its soviet-era stations, each one of them a work of art in itself.
The metro currently comprises 172 stations, and the system carries well over seven million passengers a day on average, more than the Paris and New York systems combined.
Some of the most impressive stations are listed below. Since all of them are in the center of the city or on the ring line itself, they make for an easy 2-3 hour excursion.
- Mayakovskaya, one of the largest stations, was used as a command post for the city's anti-aircraft batteries and on 6th November 1941, hosted an underground ceremony to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution, for which a podium with a bust of Lenin, surrounded by banners, was set up in its main hall, trains were stopped at its platforms and sumptuous buffets arranged within them and hundreds of seats brought into the station to accommodate the invited Party members. It is by far the most architecturally impressive. The station features glistening chrome columns and soaring vaults adorned with mosaic panels depicting "A Day in the Land of Soviets", designed by the artist Deineka. Coming from the escalator commuters pass happy Soviet workers rising with the dawn, happily tilling the fields and toiling in factories before returning to their beds as the sun sets in the last panel.
- Kropotkinskaya (known until 1957 as "Palace of Soviets"), was designed and decorated by the architect Dushkin. Built to serve visitors to the proposed new Palace of Soviets, the station's columns and walls are faced with marble salvaged from the soviet-demolished (and now rebuilt) Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The station's interior is more akin to an underground palace than a functioning station.
- Ploschad Revolutsii Station, designed by Dushkin and serving Red Square, was opened on 13th March 1938 and is lined with bronze figures of the creators of the new socialist order, nestled into niches between the station's broad columns. The sculptor Manizer created a total of 76 statues of soldiers, workers and collective farm workers. Of particular note here is the gender balance in the sculptures. And if you linger long enough by one of the sculptures of a young partisan with his dog, you will notice Muscovites pausing to rub the dog’s nose. This continual rubbing has polished the noses of the dogs to a high shine. During the siege of Moscow, the statues were evacuated to the Ural mountains, just like many of Moscow’s citizens.
- Novokusnetskaya Station was opened on 20th November 1943, as a show of Soviet strength despite the devastating war being fought by the country. The station is patriotically decorated with heroes from Russian history, such as Russian military commanders Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, Alexander Suvorov and Prince Kutuzov. The station's mosaic decorations were designed by Deineka and created during the siege of Leningrad by the craftsman Frolov and later brought to Moscow. The marvelous marble benches that adorn the station platforms were taken from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, just before it was demolished.
- Komsomolskaya, probably the most luxurious station on the Circle line, was opened in the 1950s. The station's ceiling is adorned with mosaic panels depicting the country's great military leaders from Alexander Nevsky and the 14th century Dmitry Donskoy to the famed Alexander Suvorov and Prince Kutuzov, the great Russian hero of the Napoleonic Wars. The mosaic panels were created using ancient Byzantine techniques and include tiny squares of colored glass, marble and granite. One of the station's original panels featured Stalin holding a banner, while an officer kneels and kisses it. After the 20th Party Congress, in which Krushchev denounced Stalin, the mosaic panel was removed and another featuring "Lenin's Speech to the Red Guards before Their Journey to the Front" was put in its place.
- Novoslobodskaya Station was opened in January of 1952. Designed by the architects Dushkin and Strelkov, the station is perhaps the brightest and most ornate station on the Moscow underground and features beautiful stained-glass windows crafted in Riga and a stunning mosaic panel entitled "Peace Throughout the World" by the famed Korin.
The marble used in the Moscow Metro was brought from all over the former Soviet Union from places like the Ural Mountains, Altay, Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Black marble from the Urals, Armenia and Georgia decorates the walls of such Metro stations as Byelorusskaya, Ploshchad Revolutsii, Elektrozavodskaya and Aeroport. Deep-red marble from Georgia contributes to the beauty of the Krasnye Vorota metro station.
This is just a taste of what awaits a visitor to Moscow's underground museums.
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