70 years of Moscow Metro
Most passengers traveling on Sokol’nicheskaya line may never have thought that tunnels and stations of the section from Sokol’niki to Park Kultury are special. Although there are almost 200 metro stations in Moscow nowadays, it is these mighty constructions, marble walls, cast iron tunnel tubbings that will always be considered the most difficult part of metro construction because it was the first one.
It’s seventy years since the first train carrying passengers set off for a ride beneath Moscow. Now, gazing back, many specialists say that the construction of metro in Moscow was a large-scale venture all the difficulties, lack of experience, foreign specialists’ conviction of failure notwithstanding. However, metro did appear in Moscow thanks to volunteers’ work and support of the government.
Hardly did people digging tunnels with pneumatic hammers understand what great work they were commencing and how much these first underground kilometers would change and expand.
Jubilee dates are traditionally celebrated with large-scale festivals. Moreover, a jubilee gives an opportunity to remind the course of the past events to the contemporaries. Moscow metro had a difficult task to restore the atmosphere as precisely as possible, to let people travel back in time to the 1930-ies. A decision was made to simulate THAT VERY festival 70 years later, on May 15, 2005. The "scenery" has fortunately not changed: Sokol’niki where the first train had departed in May 1935 looks just the same now and is open for public use.
Much work was done to put the idea into life, all the materials concerning the inauguration of metro in 1935, photos and articles of that time were studied thoroughly, metro veterans were questioned. Afterwards the walls were decorated, costumes were prepared, posters that used to hang on the walls of Sokol’niki station at the inauguration of the first metro section were printed.
Paperboys, hawkers with barankas, horse militia in the costumes of 1930-ies met the passengers of Sokol’niki station and passers-by outside the ticket hall on May 15, 2005. The costumes had been obtained from "Mosfilm". "Vechernyaya Moskva" had published two interesting newspapers specially for the festival: it had reissued the unique edition of May 14, 1935 and had made a modern colorful "special edition" for the 70-th metro jubilee. The newspapers were delivered to all those willing to get them.
Surprises were awaiting passengers under ground too. People could see signs, metro regulations of that time, as well as posters and portraits of USSR leaders similar to those that could be seen at Sokol’niki on May 15, 1935. All the station staff were dressed in the first type metro uniform.
A buffet in the style of the first metro car was restored with the help of a photo of the 1930-ies. This buffet used to be located in Gorky Recreation and Entertainment Park. Notably, on this festive day buffet visitors were offered the same products as in the 1930-ies.
A jubilee train "70 years of Moscow metro" had been prepared specially for the occasion; it left the first Moscow Metro depot "Severnoe" crowning the final part of the festival. There were no advertisements inside the train, posters showing the history of Moscow metro were hanging on its walls instead. The driver was dressed in the same uniform as the first Moscow metro driver used to be.
The jubilee would have been less fascinating without the necessary entourage and precise reconstruction of the events; however, smiles and unaffected joy of the participants of the festival - metro veterans, passengers, metro workers and just passers-by who happened to be walking near the station were much more important on that May day.
The jubilee year was celebrated not only at Sokol’niki station on May,15. Solemn cancellation of post stamps specially issued to commemorate the 70-th anniversary of Moscow metro took place at Krasnye Vorota station on May, 12. Representatives of the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications, Moscow Government and Moscow Metro were present at the ceremony.
Moreover, the Central Bank of Russia issued 3-rouble jubilee silver coins.
An exhibition "Our Metro" was held at the Polytechnic museum from May, 14 to June, 14. Mock-ups of various technical systems, hidden from passengers’ eyes: radio information systems, dispatcher’s desk, automatic fire extinguishing system were among the exhibits. Any visitor could check his health condition the way metro drivers do before a working shift. Moreover, unique photos and rare documents telling the history of Moscow metro from the first projects to the present days were represented in the museum.
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