Moscow Kievskya railway station

Posted on 02/08/2024 by Michael

Kievskaya Railway Station – Sachkv

Moscow Kievskya railway station

Kiyevskya railway terminal (Russian: Ки́евский вокза́л, Kievskiy vokzal) is one of the nine railway terminals of Moscow, Russia. It is the only railway station in Moscow to have a frontage on the Moskva River. The station is located at the Square of Europe, in the beginning of Bolshaya Dorogomilovskaya Street in Dorogomilovo District of Moscow. A hub of the Moscow Metro is located nearby.

Kievskaya railway station – 03

As the name suggests, there were regular services to Kiev and many other points in Ukraine. There used to be regular services to Belgrade, Zagreb, Varna, Bucharest, Sofia, Chișinău, Niš, Budapest, Prague, Vienna and Venice as well. 15-20 years ago, all these trains were cancelled, some were transferred to the Belorussky railway station.

The station was built between 1914 and 1918 in the Byzantine Revival style, which is especially pronounced in the 51m-high (167 ft) clock tower. Originally named the Bryansk station, it was designed by Ivan Rerberg and Vladimir Shukhov, and is considered an important landmark of architecture and engineering of the time.

Text above from Wikipedia.

The decoration of the building, both inside and outside, seems to be very much as it was designed at the beginning of the 20^th century. Soviet imagery just appears to have been superimposed on what could be considered tsarist baroque. This is apart from the main waiting room that had four large bas-reliefs added after the Great Patriotic War. In fact, this particular area contains the greatest amount of Soviet emblems, i.e., the hammer and sickle image, stars and also references to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic.

Kievskaya railway station – 04

At the time of my visit in May 2024 there was also a temporary exhibition of Soviet posters (reproductions) from the time of the Great Patriotic War to coincide with the celebration of Victory Day on the 9^th.

Kievskaya railway station – 05

The exterior façade of the building includes two images of Saint George – one of him killing the dragon and the other on his stay in heaven. These appear to be coloured mosaics but I have no idea whether these were covered in the past or just allowed to be there as they were part of the original decoration. Also of interest from the original design are the four art deco statues which flank the image of George, allegories for early 20^th industry and transport.

Kievskaya railway station – 01

Also, on the left hand side of what is now the main entrance to the building is a large grey marble plaque to VI Lenin.

Kievskaya railway station – 02

So far the building has avoided the same sort of ‘modernisation’ that has been inflicted upon other railway stations. Whether that is a sign of its now limited use or the fact that the modernisation is about to come is unknown.

Related;

Moscow Metro

Yaroslavsky mainline railway station – Moscow

Stalingrad (Volgograd) Railway Station

Kazansky Mainline Railway Station – Moscow

Architect;

Ivan Rerberg and Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky

Chief Engineer;

Vladimir Shukhov

Location;

1, Kiyevskogo Vokzala Square

GPS;

55.743056°N

37.567222°E

More on the USSR

Monument to VI Lenin on Tverskaya Square

Posted on 24/07/2024 by Michael

Lenin – Tverskaya Square – Ludvig14

More on the USSR

Monument to VI Lenin on Tverskaya Square

Monument to Lenin on Tverskaya Square (Russian: Памятник Ленину на Тверской площади) is a sculpture of V.I. Lenin located at the back of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History building in Moscow. Established in 1940. The authors of the monument were sculptor Sergey Dmitriyevich Merkurov and architect I. A. Frantsuz. The monument has the status of an object of cultural heritage of federal significance.

The sculpture of V.I. Lenin is made of red granite. It is installed on a pedestal made of blocks of dark gray granite. Lenin is depicted seated and tilted forward. It seems that he listens carefully to his interlocutor. With his left hand, Lenin leaned on his knee, with a notebook in it. The right hand with a pencil – behind the back of the chair. According to art historian N. D. Sobolevsky, ‘the plastic expression of the sculptural image is in perfect harmony with the psychologically vivid image of Ilyich’. [Perhaps due to a poor translation but I have no idea what that means.]

The location of the monument was not chosen randomly. Lenin repeatedly spoke at the Tverskaya (then Soviet) Square from the balcony of the Moscow City Council building (now Moscow City Hall), which is reminiscent of a memorial plaque. The monument was installed in front of the building of the Lenin Institute under the Central Committee of the CPSU (B).

Before the installation of the monument, the sculpture of Lenin was demonstrated at the World Exhibition in 1939 in New York City.

Text above from Wikipedia.

VI Lenin – Tverskaya Square

When this statue was initially installed the area was very different from what it is now.

In 1940 anyone going into the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute by the main entrance would have passed this statue. At some time in the next 30 years or so the main entrance to the Institute was changed to the other side of the building so the statue then became the focal point of the public square that was between the Institute and Tverskaya Street, across which is the Moscow City Council building. (There are interesting bas reliefs, one of them of Lenin, on the street level wall on either side of the main entrance of the Council building facing Tverskaya Square.)

However, part of this square has now been taken over by what seems a cross between a restaurant and a garden centre – with the installation of some imperial statue close to the main road. Although ‘officially’ not part of this ‘development’ it seems that the owners have also taken over the small part of the square that was immediately in front of Lenin’s statue. This area has been fenced off in a semi-permanent manner as a storage area for plants and garden material and so denying public access to the garden itself and the statue.

This was the first such ‘privatisation’ of a public space I encountered in Moscow as, in general, public spaces of Soviet times still remain in the public domain – not as in Albania, for example, where there was a free for all in grabbing as much of the public space as possible.

This meant that the photos in the slide show were taken either over or through the fence – not the most ideal of conditions for recording the sculpture. Hopefully what has been recorded gives an idea of the art work.

Sculptor;

Sergey Dmitriyevich Merkurov

Architect;

I.A. Frantsuz

Location;

Tverskaya square

GPS;

55.76233°N

37.61146°E

More on the USSR

Lenin and October Revolution Monument in the Kaluga Square – Moscow

Posted on 20/07/2024 by Michael

Lenin and October Revolution

More on the USSR

Lenin and October Revolution Monument in the Kaluga Square – Moscow

The Monument to Lenin on Kaluga Square (Russian: Памятник Ленину на Калужской площади) was established in 1985 in Moscow in the centre of Kaluga Square (then October Square). The authors of the monument are the sculptors L. E. Kerbel, V. A. Fedorov and the architects G. V. Makarevich and B. A. Samsonov. It is the largest monument to Lenin in Moscow.

Lenin and October Revolution – 03

The bronze sculpture of V. I. Lenin was made at the Leningrad factory ‘Monument sculpture’. It is an original copy of the monument to Lenin in Birobidzhan, established in 1978. A stone monolithic pedestal column weighing 360 tons, after the initial treatment, was delivered in place by a trailer that had 128 wheels. The monument was inaugurated on 5 November 1985 by the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Mikhail Gorbachev.

The height of the monument is 22 m. At the top of the cylindrical column of red polished granite is a full length bronze statue of V. I. Lenin. He is facing forward, his gaze to the distance. Lenin’s overcoat is unbuttoned, one lower edge is thrown back by the wind, his right hand is in the jacket’s pocket.

Lenin and October Revolution – 02

At the base of the pedestal is a multi-figure composition, which includes revolutionary soldiers, workers and sailors of various nationalities. Above them is a woman on the background of a fluttering flag embodying the Revolution. Behind the pedestal is the figure of a woman with two children, personifying the rear of the revolution. The elder boy in his hand has revolutionary newspapers.

Text above from (a slightly edited page on) Wikipedia.

Lenin and October Revolution – 01

What to look for in the monument;

the three leading figures are, from left to right, a peasant soldier, an armed Petrograd worker, a sailor;
the peasant soldier wears a knotted red ribbon over his left chest – the red arm band was the normal sign of a Bolshevik but this is difficult to represent on a bronze statue. Whether the red ribbon was an alternative ‘badge’ I’m not sure;
the female representation of Revolution, that is located above the revolutionary workers and peasants and below Lenin. She has her right arm raised forward and upward – indicating the advance of the revolution – and her left arm stretched behind her I a pose that invites others to join the march to the future. Her flowing scarf is a representation of the Red Flag, the workers’ revolutionary standard;
the leading sailor (note the striped t-shirt under his jacket) also has his left arm stretched behind him, also encouraging those (unseen) behind to come and join the revolution, he’s also looking in their direction. He, and the female sailor on the other side of the group, were probably from the Cruiser Aurora;
the older workers/peasants indicating that the revolution is not just a matter for the young, their dress suggesting that they are possibly from other nations in the old Russian Empire and stressing the All-Russia aspect of the October Revolution;
the engraving at the back of the red marble plinth which notes the sculptors and architects as well as the date of the monuments unveiling;
the young mother, holding a very young child in crook of her right arm and her left hand on the shoulder of an older boy, representing for the new and youthful Socialist Republic that was being created following the attack on the Winter Palace;
the young boy newspaper seller next to the young woman. He has copies of the newspaper Izvestia (which had been founded in February 1917 and which, at the time, was the mouthpiece of the Petrograd Soviet) folded over his right forearm and more copies in a satchel hanging from his left shoulder. The headline also indicates information about one of the first decrees of the Soviet Government, possibly that on Peace and an end to the imperialist war;
another young boy who, from his looks and dress, comes from one of the many northern nationalities;
the male peasant (again from one of the nationalities – note his turban type headdress) holding a copy of the Decree on Land – which nationalised all the land in the country;
what looks like a female sailor (note the anchor on her belt buckle) who is armed with a pistol and wears a red neckerchief – but I have no information about women in the navy in pre-Revolutionary times;
and surmounting all a full length statue of VI Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Party (which became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). He has an open overcoat over his suit, the right lower edge of which is being blown back by the wind. He is standing with his right hand in his suit jacket pocket and his cap is scrunched in his left hand. He’s looking ahead, in a contemplative pose, perhaps wondering what to do next and how to overcome the inevitable problems.

Not exactly sure what Lenin might have been looking at when the statue was installed in 1985 but now he looks down a long avenue towards the Moscva River – across which is the area know as ‘Moscow City’, an area of densely packed, ugly, modern high rise glass and steel buildings.

‘Moscow City’

However, if Vladimir Ilyich looked slightly to his left he would be looking at the main entrance to the Okysbrskaya Metro station.

Oktyabrskaya entrance

Sculptors;

L. E. Kerbel and V. A. Fedorov

Architects;

G. V. Makarevich and B. A. Samsonov.

Location;

In Kaluga Square (formerly October Square), at the junction of Lenin Prospekt and Krymsky Val, opposite the main entrance to Oktyabrskaya Metro station