Editing Moscow Metro (section)

===First four stages of construction===
[[File:Женская бригада во время грандиозного строительства московского метрополитена.jpg|thumb|Women's construction brigade led by Tatyana Viktorovna Fyodorova during construction of the second line of the Moscow metro, 1936]]
The first line was opened to the public on 15 May 1935 at 07:00 am.<ref>Sachak (date unknown). [https://web.archive.org/web/20010420031732/http://sachak.chat.ru/istoria.html История создания Московского метро] (History of Moscow Metro) {{in lang|ru}}</ref> It was {{convert|11|km}} long and included 13 stations. The day was celebrated as a technological and ideological victory for [[Communism|socialism]] (and, by extension, [[Stalinism]]). An estimated 285,000 people rode the Metro at its debut, and its design was greeted with pride; street celebrations included parades, plays and concerts. The [[Bolshoi Theatre]] presented a choral performance by 2,200 Metro workers; 55,000 colored posters (lauding the Metro as the busiest and fastest in the world) and 25,000 copies of "Songs of the Joyous Metro Conquerors" were distributed.<ref name="Jenks 2000 697–724">{{cite journal |last=Jenks |first=Andrew |title=A Metro on the Mount: The Underground as a Church of Soviet Civilization |journal=Technology and Culture |date=October 2000 |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=697–724 |jstor=2517594 |doi=10.1353/tech.2000.0160|s2cid=108455892}}</ref> The Moscow Metro averaged {{convert|47|km/h|abbr=on}} and had a top speed of {{convert|80|km/h|abbr=on}}.<ref>[http://engl.mosmetro.ru/pages/page_0.php?id_page=99 Moscow Metro / Moscow Metro / General Information / Key Performance Indicators] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310172839/http://engl.mosmetro.ru/pages/page_0.php?id_page=99 |date=10 March 2012}}. Engl.mosmetro.ru. Retrieved on 17 August 2013.</ref> In comparison, [[New York City Subway]] trains averaged a slower {{convert|25|mph|km/h}} and had a top speed of {{convert|45|mph|km/h}}.<ref name="Jenks 2000 697–724" /> While the celebration was an expression of popular joy it was also an effective propaganda display, legitimizing the Metro and declaring it a success.

The initial line connected [[Sokolniki (Metro)|Sokolniki]] to [[Okhotny Ryad (metro)|Okhotny Ryad]] then branching to [[Park Kultury-Radialnaya|Park Kultury]] and [[Smolenskaya (Filyovskaya)|Smolenskaya]].<ref>First Metro map. Retrieved from {{cite web|url=http://www.metro.ru/map/1935/metro.ru-1935map-big1.jpg |title=Archived copy |access-date=2009-02-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325143605/http://www.metro.ru/map/1935/metro.ru-1935map-big1.jpg |archive-date=25 March 2009 |df=dmy-all}}.</ref> The latter branch was extended westwards to a new station ([[Kiyevskaya (Filyovskaya)|Kiyevskaya]]) in March 1937, the first Metro line crossing the [[Moskva River]] over the [[Smolensky Metro Bridge]].

The second stage was completed before the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|war]]. In March 1938, the Arbatskaya branch was split and extended to the [[Kurskaya-Radialnaya|Kurskaya]] station (now the dark-blue [[Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line]]). In September 1938, the [[Zamoskvoretskaya Line|Gorkovskaya Line]] opened between [[Sokol (Metro)|Sokol]] and [[Teatralnaya (Moscow Metro)|Teatralnaya]]. Here the architecture was based on that of the most popular stations in existence (Krasniye Vorota, Okhotnyi Ryad and Kropotkinskaya); while following the popular art-deco style, it was merged with socialist themes. The first [[Deep column station|deep-level column station]] [[Mayakovskaya (Moscow Metro)|Mayakovskaya]] was built at the same time.

Building work on the third stage was delayed (but not interrupted) during [[World War II]], and two Metro sections were put into service; [[Teatralnaya (Moscow Metro)|Teatralnaya]]–[[Avtozavodskaya (Zamoskvoretskaya Line)|Avtozavodskaya]] (three stations, crossing the Moskva River through a deep tunnel) and [[Kurskaya-Radialnaya|Kurskaya]]–[[Partizanskaya (Metro)|Partizanskaya]] (four stations) were inaugurated in 1943 and 1944 respectively. War motifs replaced socialist visions in the architectural design of these stations. During the [[Battle of Moscow|Siege of Moscow]] in the fall and winter of 1941, Metro stations were used as air-raid shelters; the [[Council of Ministers of the USSR|Council of Ministers]] moved its offices to the [[Mayakovskaya (Moscow Metro)|Mayakovskaya]] platforms, where Stalin made public speeches on several occasions. The [[Chistye Prudy (Metro)|Chistiye Prudy]] station was also walled off, and the headquarters of the Air Defence established there.

After the war ended in 1945, construction began on the fourth stage of the Metro, which included the [[Koltsevaya Line]], a deep part of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line from [[Ploshchad Revolyutsii]] to [[Kievskaya (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya)|Kievskaya]] and a surface extension to [[Pervomaiskaya (closed)|Pervomaiskaya]] during the early 1950s. The decoration and design characteristic of the Moscow Metro is considered to have reached its zenith in these stations. The [[Koltsevaya Line]] was first planned as a line running under the [[Garden Ring]], a wide avenue encircling the borders of Moscow's city centre. The first part of the line – from [[Park Kultury (Koltsevaya Line)|Park Kultury]] to [[Kurskaya (Koltsevaya Line)|Kurskaya]] (1950) – follows this avenue. Plans were later changed and the northern part of the ring line runs {{convert|1|-|1.5|km}} outside the Sadovoye Koltso, thus providing service for seven (out of nine) rail terminals. The next part of the Koltsevaya Line opened in 1952 (Kurskaya–[[Belorusskaya-Koltsevaya|Belorusskaya]]), and in 1954 the ring line was completed.

==== Stalinist ideals in Metro's history ====
{{see also|Stalinist architecture}}{{stack|1=
[[File:Metro MSK Line1 Kropotkinskaya.jpg|thumb|[[Kropotkinskaya]] station, [[Sokolnicheskaya line|Line 1]]. Opened in 1935 (the first stage)]]
[[File:Metro_Krasnye_Vorota.jpg|thumb|[[Krasnye Vorota (Moscow Metro)|Krasnye Vorota]], also opened in 1935 (the first stage) as part of Line 1]]
}}{{external media
|float = left
|video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTDQ62dSMjg Moscow Metro opening, Soviet Archive Footage]
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When the Metro opened in 1935, it immediately became the centrepiece of the transportation system (as opposed to horse-carried barrows still widely used in 1930s Moscow). It also became the prototype, the vision for future Soviet large-scale technologies. The artwork of the 13 original stations became nationally and internationally famous. For example, the [[Teatralnaya (Moscow Metro)|Sverdlov Square]] subway station featured porcelain bas-reliefs depicting the daily life of the Soviet peoples, and the bas-reliefs at the Dynamo Stadium sports complex glorified sports and physical prowess on the powerful new ''"[[Homo Sovieticus]]"'' (Soviet man).<ref>Isabel Wünsche, "Homo Sovieticus: The Athletic Motif in the Design of the Dynamo Metro Station," ''Studies in the Decorative Arts'' (2000) 7#2 pp 65–90</ref> The metro was touted as the symbol of the new social order{{snd}}a sort of Communist cathedral of engineering modernity.<ref>Andrew Jenks, "A Metro on the Mount," ''Technology & Culture'' (2000) 41#4 pp 697–723</ref>[[File:Moscow MayakovskayaMetroStation 0943.jpg|thumb|[[Mayakovskaya]] station, [[Zamoskvoretskaya line|Line 2]]. Opened in 1938 (the second stage)]][[File:Moscow Elektrozavodskaya metro station asv2018-09.jpg|thumb|[[Elektrozavodskaya (Moscow Metro)|Elektrozavodskaya]] station, [[Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line|Line 3]]. Opened in 1944 (the third stage)]]

The Metro was also iconic for showcasing [[Socialist realism|Socialist Realism]] in public art. The method was influenced by [[Nikolay Chernyshevsky]], [[Lenin]]'s favorite 19th-century [[Nihilist movement|nihilist]], who stated that "art is no useful unless it serves politics".<ref name="Jenks 2000 697–724" /> This maxim sums up the reasons why the stations combined aesthetics, technology and ideology: any plan which did not incorporate all three areas cohesively was rejected.
* ''Kaganovich was in charge; he designed the subway so that citizens would absorb the values and ethos of Stalinist civilization as they rode. Without this cohesion, the Metro would not reflect Socialist Realism. If the Metro did not utilize Socialist Realism, it would fail to illustrate Stalinist values and transform Soviet citizens into socialists. Anything less than Socialist Realism's grand artistic complexity would fail to inspire a long-lasting, nationalistic attachment to Stalin's new society.''<ref>{{cite journal |last=Voyce |first=Arthur |title=Soviet Art and Architecture: Recent Developments |journal=Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |date=January 1956 |volume=303 |series=Russia Since Stalin: Old Trends and New Problems |pages=104–115 |jstor=1032295 |s2cid=144177034 |doi=10.1177/000271625630300110}}</ref> 
* Socialist Realism was in fact a method, not exactly a style.<ref name="Cooke 1997 137–160" />

==== ''Bright future'' and literal brightness in the Metro of Moscow ====
The Moscow Metro was one of the USSR's most ambitious architectural projects. The metro's artists and architects worked to design a structure that embodied ''svet'' (literally "light", figuratively "radiance" or "brilliance") and ''svetloe budushchee'' (a well-lit/radiant/bright future).<ref name="Cooke 1997 137–160">{{cite journal |last=Cooke |first=Catherine |title=Beauty as a Route to 'the Radiant Future': Responses of Soviet Architecture |journal=Journal of Design History |year=1997 |volume=10 |series=Design, Stalin and the Thaw |issue=2 |pages=137–160 |jstor=1316129 |doi=10.1093/jdh/10.2.137}}</ref> With their reflective marble walls, high ceilings and grand chandeliers, many Moscow Metro stations have been likened to an "artificial underground sun".<ref name="Bowlt 2002 34–63">{{cite journal |last=Bowlt |first=John E. |title=Stalin as Isis and Ra: Socialist Realism and the Art of Design |journal=The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts |year=2002 |volume=24 |series=Design, Culture, Identity: The Wolfsonian Collection |pages=34–63 |jstor=1504182 |doi=10.2307/1504182}}</ref>

This palatial underground environment<ref name="Bowlt 2002 34–63" /> reminded Metro users their taxes were spent on materializing ''bright future''; also, [[Stalinist architecture|the design]] was useful for demonstrating the extra structural strength of the underground works (as in Metro doubling as [[bunker]]s, bomb shelters).

The chief lighting engineer was Abram Damsky, a graduate of the Higher State Art-Technical Institute in Moscow. By 1930 he was a chief designer in Moscow's Elektrosvet Factory, and during World War II was sent to the ''Metrostroi'' (Metro Construction) Factory as head of the lighting shop.<ref name="Damsky 1987 90–111">{{cite journal |last=Damsky |first=Abram |title=Lamps and Architecture 1930–1950 |journal=The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts |date=Summer 1987 |volume=5 |issue=Russian/Soviet Theme |pages=90–111 |jstor=1503938 |doi=10.2307/1503938}}</ref> Damsky recognized the importance of efficiency, as well as the potential for light as an expressive form. His team experimented with different materials (most often cast bronze, aluminum, sheet brass, steel, and milk glass) and methods to optimize the technology.<ref name="Damsky 1987 90–111" /> Damsky's discourse on "Lamps and Architecture 1930–1950" describes in detail the epic chandeliers installed in the Taganskaya Station and the Kaluzhskaia station (''Oktyabrskaya'' nowadays, not to be confused with contemporary "Kaluzhskaya" station on line 6). The work of Abram Damsky further publicized these ideas hoping people would associate the party with the idea of ''bright'' future.

{{blockquote|The Oktyabrskaya Station (originally named Kaluzhskaya) was designed by the architect [Leonid] Poliakov. Poliakov's decision to base his design on a reinterpretation of Russian classical architecture clearly influenced the concept of the lamps, some of which I planned in collaboration with the architect himself. The shape of the lamps was a torch – the torch of victory, as Polyakov put it... The artistic quality and stylistic unity of all the lamps throughout the station's interior made them perhaps the most successful element of the architectural composition. All were made of cast aluminum decorated in a black and gold anodized coating, a technique which the Metrostroi factory had only just mastered.
The Taganskaia Metro Station on the Ring Line was designed in...quite another style by the architects K.S. Ryzhkov and A. Medvedev... Their subject matter dealt with images of war and victory...The overall effect was one of ceremony ... In the platform halls the blue ceramic bodies of the chandeliers played a more modest role, but still emphasised the overall expressiveness of the lamp.<ref name="Damsky 1987 90–111"/>|Abram Damsky|Lamps and Architecture 1930–1950|multiline=true}}

====Industrialization====
[[File:Metro, thousands of sculptures of Lenin (7427587294).jpg|thumb|Statue representing the Soviet workers at [[Baumanskaya (Moscow Metro)|Baumanskaya]] station (1944)]]
[[File:MosMetro Avtozavodskaya 01-2017.jpg|thumb| [[Avtozavodskaya (Zamoskvoretskaya line)|Avtozavodskaya]] station (1943) features frescos that commemorate the USSR's [[Automotive industry|automotive]] and [[arms industry]]]]
Stalin's [[First five-year plan (Soviet Union)|first five-year plan]] (1928–1932) facilitated rapid industrialization to build a socialist motherland. The plan was ambitious, seeking to reorient an agrarian society towards industrialism. It was Stalin's fanatical energy, large-scale planning, and resource distribution that kept up the pace of industrialization. The first five-year plan was instrumental in the completion of the Moscow Metro; without industrialization, the Soviet Union would not have had the raw materials necessary for the project. For example, steel was a main component of many subway stations. Before industrialization, it would have been impossible for the Soviet Union to produce enough [[steel]] to incorporate it into the metro's design; in addition, a steel shortage would have limited the size of the subway system and its technological advancement.

The Moscow Metro furthered the construction of a socialist Soviet Union because the project accorded with Stalin's [[Five-year plans of the Soviet Union#Second plan, 1932–1937|second five-year plan]]. The Second Plan focused on urbanization and the development of social services. The Moscow Metro was necessary to cope with the influx of peasants who migrated to the city during the 1930s; Moscow's population had grown from 2.16 million in 1928 to 3.6 million in 1933. The Metro also bolstered Moscow's shaky infrastructure and its communal services, which hitherto were nearly nonexistent.<ref name="Jenks 2000 697–724" />

====Mobilization====
The [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] had the power to mobilize; because the party was a single source of control, it could focus its resources. The most notable example of mobilization in the Soviet Union occurred during [[Eastern Front (World War II)|World War II]]. The country also mobilized in order to complete the Moscow Metro with unprecedented speed. One of the main motivation factors of the mobilization was to overtake the West and prove that a socialist metro could surpass capitalist designs. It was especially important to the Soviet Union that socialism succeed industrially, technologically, and artistically in the 1930s, since capitalism was at a low ebb during the Great Depression.

The person in charge of Metro mobilization was [[Lazar Kaganovich]]. A prominent Party member, he assumed control of the project as chief overseer. Kaganovich was nicknamed the "Iron Commissar"; he shared Stalin's fanatical energy, dramatic oratory flare, and ability to keep workers building quickly with threats and punishment.<ref name="Jenks 2000 697–724"/> He was determined to realise the Moscow Metro, regardless of cost. Without Kaganovich's managerial ability, the Moscow Metro might have met the same fate as the [[Palace of the soviets|Palace of the Soviets]]: failure.

[[File:Kievsk APL 31.jpg|thumb|left|[[Kiyevskaya (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line)|Kiyevskaya]] (Line 3) (1954) is decorated with a series of [[mosaics]] by various artists depicting life in [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukraine]] which was then part of the Soviet Union.]]
This was a comprehensive mobilization; the project drew resources and workers from the entire Soviet Union. In his article, archeologist Mike O'Mahoney describes the scope of the Metro mobilization:

{{blockquote|A specialist workforce had been drawn from many different regions, including miners from the Ukrainian and Siberian coalfields and construction workers from the iron and steel mills of Magnitogorsk, the Dniepr hydroelectric power station, and the Turkestan-Siberian railway... materials used in the construction of the metro included iron from Siberian Kuznetsk, timber from northern Russia, cement from the Volga region and the northern Caucasus, bitumen from Baku, and marble and granite from quarries in Karelia, the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Urals, and the Soviet Far East|Mike O'Mahoney|Archeological Fantasies: Constructing History on the Moscow Metro<ref>{{cite journal |last=O'Mahoney |first=Mike |title=Archaeological Fantasies: Constructing History on the Moscow Metro |journal=The Modern Language Review |date=January 2003 |volume=98 |issue=1 |pages=138–150 |jstor=3738180 |doi=10.2307/3738180|s2cid=161592843 }}</ref>|source=}}

Skilled engineers were scarce, and unskilled workers were instrumental to the realization of the metro. The ''Metrostroi'' (the organization responsible for the Metro's construction) conducted massive recruitment campaigns. It printed 15,000 copies of ''Udarnik metrostroia'' (''Metrostroi Shock Worker'', its daily newspaper) and 700 other newsletters (some in different languages) to attract unskilled laborers. Kaganovich was closely involved in the recruitment campaign, targeting the [[Komsomol]] generation because of its strength and youth.