Editing Moscow Metro (section)

==== Stalinist ideals in Metro's history ====
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[[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]]
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|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" />