Moscow Metro – Kuznetsky Most – Line 7

Posted on 04/11/2024 by Michael

Kuznetsky Most – 01

Moscow Metro – a Socialist Realist Art Gallery

Moscow Metro – Kuznetsky Most – Line 7

Kuznetsky Most (Russian: Кузне́цкий мост) is a Moscow Metro station in the Meshchansky District and is on the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya Line. Designed by Nina Aleshin and N. Samoylova the station was the first column type to be built since the 1950s. It was opened in 1975 as part of the linking segment between the Zhdanovskaya and Krasnopresnenskaya Line. Decoratively the station is a column tri-vault. The columns are faced with ‘gazgan’ marble archways (reminding one of a viaduct). The floor is covered with polarised black granite. The snow-white marble of the walls is decorated with decorative artworks created by M. Alekseyev. The vestibule of the station is located in the courtyard of Rozhdestvenka Street, 6.

Above text from Wikipedia

Kuznetsky Most – 02

Kuznetsky Most – 03

Kuznetsky Most – 04

Kuznetsky Most – 05

Kuznetsky Most – 06

Kuznetsky Most – 07

Location;

Rozhdestvenka Street

GPS;

55.7606°N

37.6259°E

Depth;

39.5 metres (130 ft)

Opened;

17 December 1975

More on the USSR

Moscow Metro – a Socialist Realist Art Gallery

Kazansky Mainline Railway Station – Moscow

Posted on 31/10/2024 by Michael

Kazansky ‘Pod Room’

More on the USSR

Kazansky Mainline Railway Station – Moscow

One of the most important aspects of the Kazansky mainland railway station in Moscow (from a Socialist Realist art perspective) is one of the rooms off the main concourse. This used to be the restaurant when the station was first opened in the mid 1920s but now seems to be used more as a high end, high comfort waiting room. There are even ‘pods’ in the room for people to sleep in if they have an early or ‘middle of the night’ departure. The designation of the room now is as The Pod Room.

The architectural design of the room itself seems to follow more of the pre- revolutionary layout and influences but what makes it distinctive now are the images that have been placed into the ‘baroque style’ panels.

For unknown reasons the construction of this station took place over many years so it’s difficult to pin down exactly when the murals were painted – although the panel at one end of the room depicting the reconstruction of Moscow would indicate that at least some of the panels are post-1944/5.

I have no idea of the artist (or artists) but what’s most interesting about this decoration, which is slightly different from the other mainline railway stations in Moscow, is that the images here are telling the story about all parts of the Soviet Union, that is, areas other than those parts of the Soviet Union which were actually served by the station itself.

Kazanskaya station mainly serves the east but, for example, there are images of the Ukraine, which is west of Moscow. So here many parts of the Soviet Union get referenced. There’s also a reference, which is again slightly unusual, to the ‘Workers of the World’.

This is art that has a political message, but it’s also a little bit of fun. Some of the images are humorous, joking. This is as well as putting over a political message about the achievements of the Soviet Union in the construction of Socialism.

Some things to look out for in the panels on the ceiling;

the airship in the central panel;
the loggers from the far north;
the rebuilding of Moscow;
the miners and collective farm woman of the Ukraine;
the fox;
the grapes and water melon;
the celebration of the arrival of electricity in the far east of Russia;
the camel in Kazakhstan;
the red stars in Siberia;
the sad looking fish;
pollution being caused by smoke belching from factory chimneys and ships;
the group of four – the cow, the horse, the goat and the cockerel;
‘Workers of the World, Unite!’ in multiple languages.

Kazansky Station – Vadim Razumov

Related;

Yaroslavsky station

Kievskya railway station

Stalingrad (Volgograd) Railway Station

Architect;

Alexey Shchusev (of the station building)

Location;

2 Komsomolskaya Square, Moscow

GPS;

55.773333°N

37.656389°E

Construction;

Started in 1913 but not totally completed until 1940 – with later modifications

More on the USSR

Casa Scînteii – House of The Spark/Casa Presei Libere – Bucharest

Posted on 06/10/2024 by Michael

Casa Scînteii – House of The Spark

Casa Scînteii – House of The Spark/Casa Presei Libere – Bucharest

The House of the Free Press (Romanian: Casa Presei Libere), known during the Socialist period as Casa Scînteii, ‘House of The Spark’, is a building in northern Bucharest, Romania, the tallest in the city between 1956 and 2007.

Construction began in 1952 and was completed in 1956. The building was named Combinatul Poligrafic Casa Scînteii ‘I.V.Stalin’ and later Casa Scînteii (Scînteia was the name of the Romanian Communist Party’s official newspaper). It was designed by the architect Horia Maicu, in the Socialist Realist style made popular in Moscow in the early 1950s, resembling the main building of the Moscow State University, and was intended to house all of Bucharest’s printing presses, the newsrooms and their staff.

It has a foundation with an area of 280 by 260 metres (920 ft × 850 ft), the total constructed surface is 32,000 m2 (344,445 sq ft) and it has a volume of 735,000 m3 (26,000,000 cu ft). Its height is 91.6 m (301 ft) without the television antenna, which measures an additional 12.4 m (41 ft), bringing the total height to 104 m (341 ft).

Between 1952 and 1966, Casa Scînteii was featured on the reverse of the 100 lei banknote.

100 lei banknote, 1952, reverse

On 21 April 1960, a statue of Vladimir Lenin, made by Romanian sculptor Boris Caragea, was placed in front of the building. However, this statue was removed on 3 March 1990, following the Romanian counter-revolution of 1989.

Casa Scînteii – FOTOFORTEPAN MHSZ

On 30 May 2016, the Monument to Capitalism, ‘Wings’, was inaugurated in the same place.

Renamed Casa Presei Libere (‘House of the Free Press’), the building has basically the same role nowadays, with many of today’s newspapers having their headquarters in it.

As of 2023, the House of the Free Press is the only building in Bucharest that has kept the hammer and sickle communist symbol, together with the Star, which appears on repeated reliefs on its façade.

Text above from (a revised) Wikipedia posting.