Moscow Metro – Krasnye Vorota – Line 1

Posted on 07/07/2024 by Michael

Krasnye Vorota – Line 1

Moscow Metro – a Socialist Realist Art Gallery

Moscow Metro – Krasnye Vorota – Line 1

Krasnye Vorota (Russian: Кра́сные воро́та, English: Red Gate) is a Moscow Metro station in the Krasnoselsky District, Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow, Russia. It opened on 15 May 1935 as one of the initial ten stations of the Metro. It is on the Sokolnicheskaya Line, between Chistye Prudy and Komsomolskaya stations.

Krasnye Vorota – 02

Work began on Krasnye Vorota in the spring of 1932 and proceeded smoothly despite fears that the untested three-arch design would collapse under the weight of the soil. The station opened without a delay on 15 May 1935.

Krasnye Vorota – 03

During planning, there were several working names including Krasnovorotskaya Ploshchad, and Krasnovorotskaya. The station’s name means Red Gate in Russian and comes from the square where the famous triumphal archway, Red Gate, once stood. The arch, which celebrated Russia’s victory in the Battle of Poltava, was demolished in 1927; but the name of the square remained until 1941.

Krasnye Vorota – 04

In 1962, authorities renamed the station Lermontovskaya in honour of the Russian author Mikhail Lermontov. The square was renamed for Lermontov in 1941. There is still a bust of Lermontov at the end of the platform. The name reverted to Krasnye Vorota on 25 August 1986.

Krasnye Vorota – 05

In 1952 the first turnstile in the Moscow Metro system was installed at this station.

Architects Ivan Fomin and N. Andrikanis [although I’ve seen elsewhere that the architect was Nikolai Ladovsky – this will be updated if definitive information becomes available] designed the station. It was one of Moscow’s first four deep-level stations, and one of the first two to employ a three-arched design with three parallel, circular tunnels. In this type of station, the outer tubes (which house the tracks and platforms) are separated from the larger central hall by heavy pylons. This design was planned to be used for the first time on the four central-city stations on the first Metro line, Krasnye Vorota, Chistye Prudy, Lubyanka, and Okhotnyi Ryad. However, due to construction difficulties a simpler two-arched design was implemented at Lubyanka and Chistye Prudy.

Krasnye Vorota – 06

Krasnye Vorota has off-white tiled walls and pylons faced with dark red Shrosha marble from Georgia. A model of the station was exhibited at the 1938 World’s Fair in Paris, where it was awarded a Grand Prix.

Krasnye Vorota – 07

Krasnye Vorota has two entrances. The southern is a subterranean vestibule with mezzanine stairwells and a distinctive shell-like pavilion designed by Nikolai Ladovsky, that stands on the south side of the Garden Ring (with an open Red Gates plaza in front of it), on the intersection of Myasnitsky drive, Boyarsky side-street and Khoromny lane.

Krasnye Vorota – 08

The second entrance was built into the ground floor of the Red Gate skyscraper, designed by architect Alexey Dushkin and opened on 31 July 1954.

Text from Wikipedia.

Location;

Krasnoselsky District, Central Administrative Okrug

GPS;

55.7690°N

37.6487°E

Depth;

31 metres (102 ft)

Opened;

15 May 1935

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Moscow Metro – a Socialist Realist Art Gallery

Moscow Metro – Chistye Prudy – Line 1

Posted on 07/07/2024 by Michael

Cristye Purdi – 01

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Moscow Metro – a Socialist Realist Art Gallery

Moscow Metro – Chistye Prudy – Line 1

Chistye Prudy (Russian: Чистые пруды, English: Clean Ponds) is a Moscow Metro station in the Basmanny District, Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow. It is on the Sokolnicheskaya Line, between Lubyanka and Krasnye Vorota stations. Chistye Prudy was opened on 15 May 1935 as a part of the first segment of the Metro. The station lies beneath Myasnitskaya Street, close to Turgenevskaya Square and the Clean Ponds, after which the station was named. It was the deepest station in Moscow Metro from 1935 until 1938.

Though planned to be a three-vaulted station with a full-length central hall (similar to Krasnye Vorota and Okhotny Ryad), Chistye Prudy was built instead according to a London Underground type design with two passages at either end of the station connecting the platforms. The outer platform vaults were finished to give the impression that a central hall did in fact exist, with what appeared to be a row of dark marble pylons. However, all of the archways except those at either end of the platform were barricaded. The architect of the initial station was Nikolai Kolli who worked with Le Corbusier on the nearby Tsentrosoyuz building.

Cristye Purdi – 02

During World War II the station was closed and its platforms were fenced off with plywood for use as the headquarters of the Joint Staff and PVO Air Defence. All trains bypassed this station.

Chistye Prudy’s central hall was built in 1971 so that the station could become a transfer point to the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line. The architects for this project were N. Shukhareva, L. Popov, and A. Fokina. The new portion of the station was finished to resemble the original sections as closely as possible, maintaining its original character. Escalators were built in the centre of the platform to connect to Turgenevskaya.

Cristye Purdi – 03

Chistye Prudy is finished with dark grey Ufalei and white Koelga marble, with a dark granite platform. In 1989 the station’s outer walls were refinished with marble rather than ceramic tile to approximate the original design even more closely.

The station was named Kirovskaya from its opening until 1990, and there is still a bronze bust of Sergey Kirov at the end of the platform. In 1992 it was briefly called Myasnitskaya, but renamed a few days later into its current name.

Cristye Purdi – 04

The station retains its original entrance, a glazed art deco pavilion, situated at start of the Chistoprudny boulevard with entrances from both sides: to the ponds on the boulevard and towards the Myasnitskiye Vorota square.

The pavilion links up to the subterranean vestibule and ticket hall. During the reconstruction in 1971, a subway was built directly linking the underground space with the new network of entrances for the Turgenevskaya station, which makes it possible to walk from one station vestibule to the other without descending into the platform halls.

Cristye Purdi – 05

The station’s transfer to Turgenevskaya of the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line is done via a tunnel that begins underneath Chisye Prudy’s platform. Transfer to the Sretensky Bulvar station of the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line, opened on 13 January 2008.

The name ‘Chistye Prudy’ also refers to the neighbourhood surrounding the Metro station. This area is sometimes called Chistye Prudy or Pokrovka (referring to the street by the same name). In the 16th century, Pokrovskye Vorota (Pokrov Gates) stood at the current intersection of Pokrovka Street and Chistoprudny Boulevard.

Cristye Purdi – 06

The Chistye Prudy neighbourhood is famous for the beautiful Chistoprudny Boulevard and the pond after which the area is called—Chisty Prud (Clean Pond). In medieval times, several ponds stood on the location of the current single pond. They were used as refuse dumps and were fittingly called Griyaznye Prudy (Dirty Ponds). Under Peter the Great’s reign, his friend and advisor Menshikov dredged the ponds, unified them into one pond and renamed them Chistye Prudy (Clean Ponds).

There is the only tram line in Moscow Center near there. Namely, route 39 tram starts from Chistye Prudy station’s area and allows to ride near several landmarks of Moscow’s city centre in one go.

Text from Wikipedia.

One of the rare stations where the old historical caption “M E T R O” has remained.

Location;

Basmanny District, Central Administrative Okrug

GPS;

55.7657°N

37.6388°E

Depth;

35 metres (115ft)

Opened;

15 May 1935

More on the USSR

Moscow Metro – a Socialist Realist Art Gallery

Frederick Engels statue – Moscow

Posted on 06/07/2024 by Michael

Frederick Engels

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Frederick Engels statue – Moscow

The Monument to Friedrich Engels (Russian: Памятник Фридриху Энгельсу) was installed in 1976 in Moscow near the metro station Kropotkinskaya. The authors of the monument are sculptor I. I. Kozlovsky, architects A. A. Zavarzin and A. A. Usachev. The monument has the status of an identified cultural heritage site.

According to the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, it was decided to erect a monument to Friedrich Engels, the German philosopher and one of the founders of Marxism, in the small square formed where Ostozhenka and Prechistenka streets met.

On November 2, 1976, on the eve of the 59th anniversary of the October Revolution, the monument was opened with a large crowd of people. The first Secretary of the CPSU MGK (Moscow Party Committee) V. V. Grishin, the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail V. Zimyanin, the Chairman of the Moscow City Council V. F. Promyslov, the Deputy Minister of Culture of the USSR V. V. Voronkov, the Ambassador of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) to the USSR G. Ott and other officials.

VV Grishin cut the scarlet ribbon, after which a coverlet fell from the monument and the hymn of the Soviet Union sounded. At the meeting, the director of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Academician A. G. Egorov, Hero of Socialist Labour P. A. Novozhilov and a student of Moscow State University, T. Yu. Zuikova.

The bronze sculpture of Friedrich Engels is 6m high, installed on a cubic monolith-pedestal made of red granite. The monument stands in the centre of the round in terms of a platform paved with stone slabs and framed by a low granite fence, supplemented by semicircular benches. From the area of Prechistenskie Gates to the monument there is a semicircular set of steps.

Friedrich Engels is shown in full length with his arms crossed on his chest. The sculptor sought to convey the image of Engels in the 1870s, when he, together with Karl Marx, led the international working-class movement.

The monument and the playground around it completely absorbed the park, as a result of which the latter is not marked on the maps of Moscow and does not have its own name.

Text above from Wikipedia.