The Moscow metro is a rapid transit system that serves Moscow and the neighboring cities of the Moscow region of Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy, and Kotelniki. Opened in 1935, the Moscow metro originally had one branch line 11 kilometers long and 13 stations. This was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. As of 2017, the Moscow metro, with the exception of the Moscow Central circle and the Moscow monorail, has 206 stations, with a route length of 339.1 km, making it the fifth largest in the world. The system is mostly underground, with the deepest section 84 meters underground at Park Pobedy station, one of the deepest in the world.
On June 15, 1931, at the Plenum of the Central
Committee of the CPSU (b), after a report by the first Secretary of
the Moscow city Committee of the party, Lazar Kaganovich, it was
decided to build the Moscow metro in order to improve the transport
situation in the city and partially relieve the tram lines. In
November 1931, construction of the first experimental site on
Rusakovskaya street began. During the design process, a dispute
arose about the type of future metro stations: whether they would
have island or side platforms. As a result, it was decided to stop
at the three-arched station with an island platform. Escalators were
supposed to be used to lift passengers to the surface. Moscow
engineer V. L. Makovsky proved the possibility and necessity of
laying deep tunnels in difficult conditions of Moscow soil.
In 1933, the technical design of the first stage of the metro was
approved, at the same time the Metrostroy trust began the main
construction work. The route of the first stage was determined by
studying the passenger traffic of the Moscow tram: the subway
decided to repeat its most stressful routes.
Sections of the
line from Sokolniki to Komsomolskaya and from the Lenin Library to
the Park of culture were constructed in an open way. Tunnels between
the stations "Alexander garden" and "Smolenskaya" were built by
trench method. The English method of shield sinking was applied on
the deep-laid section from Okhotny Ryad to Dzerzhinskiy Square.
Qualified European and American workers and technicians were
involved in the underground work. On February 15, 1935, the first
test train passed.
The Moscow metro was opened on may 15,
1935. The first official passenger was the hero of labor from the
Red proletarian factory, Pyotr Nikolaevich Latyshev, who bought
ticket No. 1 of the A series at the ticket office of the newly
opened Sokolniki station on may 15, 1935.the Launch complex included
11.2 km of highway, 13 stations and 12 trains. The first stage went
from Sokolniki station to Park Kultury station, with a branch to
Smolenskaya. This branch, which became the Filevskaya line, in 1937
reached the station "Kievskaya", while crossing the Moscow river on
a bridge. Before the beginning of the great Patriotic war, two more
lines were opened. In March 1938, the Arbatskaya line was extended
to Kurskaya station (now this section belongs to the
Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line). In September 1938, the
Gorkovsko-Zamoskvoretskaya line opened-from Sokol station to
Sverdlov Square station (since 1990, Teatralnaya).
During the
great Patriotic war, the metro was used as a bomb shelter. During
the air raids, 217 children were born in the metro.
On
October 15, 1941, L. M. Kaganovich personally ordered to close the
Moscow metro and prepare proposals for its destruction as a
strategically important object within 3 hours. The metro was
supposed to be destroyed, and the remaining cars and equipment taken
out. On the morning of October 16, 1941, the day of the panic in
Moscow, the metro was not opened for the first time. This was the
only day in the history of the Moscow metro when it did not work. By
evening, the order to destroy the metro was canceled.
Construction of the third stage of the Moscow metro began before the
great Patriotic war, in 1940. In the first months of the war,
construction was frozen, but resumed in may 1942, after the
withdrawal of the threat to capture Moscow. Two sections of the
route were put into operation: in January 1943 — "Sverdlov Square" —
"Stalin plant" (since 1956 "Avtozavodskaya") (with the crossing of
the Moscow river in a deep tunnel; stations "Paveletskaya" and
"Novokuznetsk" were opened later, in November 1943), and in January
1944 - "Kurskaya — -" Izmailovsky Park " (since 2005
"Partizanskaya") (4 stations). At 7 stations built in wartime, there
are commemorative plaques "Built in the days of the Patriotic war".