The Moscow Metro is the world’s second most heavily used metro system after the Tokyo’s twin subway. It has nearly three hundred kilometres of track, twelve lines, and one hundred and eighty stations.
Whilst visitors to London would be unlikely to consider the ‘Tube’ to be a tourist attraction in Moscow the Metro is a ‘must visit’ place and not just for getting around the city because each station has a unique design using elaborate decorations and materials from all over the country, including granite, quartzite, limestone, twenty kinds of marble, semiprecious stones and are decorated with plus bronze sculptures, majolica panels, stainless steel columns, glittering chandeliers, bas-relief friezes, stained-glass panels, murals, and mosaics.
Have Bag, Will Travel 
Love the coffee story explaining the ring line and sounds like fun appreciating the underground design.
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Those stations look like fancy hotel lobbies!
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They were really wonderful! Thanks for the comment.
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Wow – what an impressive place!
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Amazing. What a contrast to the dirty grimy horrid stations of the Tube. Unless they have changed since I last used them. Most unlike you to get so close to a dog 😉
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They were absolutely amazing but sobering to think they were built at great expense while thousands of people were starving!
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I think Stalin put Nikita Khruschchev in charge of the Metro in the ’30’s and he escaped purges that decimated many high ranking political and military cadres. By the time the Nazi’s invaded the Soviet Union in June 11941, the Red Army had to reach deep in the ranks and promote younger officers to hold high command positions.
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Hi Jack and thanks for the info!
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The metro stations along ring loop are absolutely beautiful. Very clean, works of art, and efficient city transportation. Great photos. Thanks for the memories. Cheers.
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Thanks for the comment!
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This looks like it could very well be one of the most beautiful public transport stations in the world. My husband and I always like to take the public transport when we visit a city because we really get a feel for the “pulse of the land.” We learn very interesting things when we take the Paris Metro or the Tube in London, etc.
I will make a note to see to it that we take the Moscow Metro if/when we get there. It looks like it’s a cultural exploration in more ways than one. Thanks, Andrew!
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This place was awesome – we spent two evenings down there just exploring the network and admiring the stations.
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Amazing, Andrew! I could sleep in a different one each night and save on hotel bills.
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What a great idea – I didn’t think of that!
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Wow, having lived in New York for decades, I am very impressed with the cleanliness of this metro. Makes you able to really appreciate the artwork!
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They were immaculate. thanks for the comment!
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These are beautiful! They don’t remind me at all of any other great city. They’re clean and not wearing graffiti. Amazing!
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The Russian metro is perfect. I could hop off every stop to look at the interior! And so I heard too about the frontier guard dog; now that you mention it and considering that I haven’t been too hardworking then, maybe that’s what helped me to pass my tests that year!
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The Metro was one of my favourite things about Moscow. It’s a nice idea about the lucky dog but I am sure you worked hard to achieve your success! Thanks for the comment.
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Absolutely amazing! Russia is somewhere I would love to visit, how tough is it to get around speaking only english? & like I know in Japan everything is also written in english, is it like that there also?:)
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Really not that difficult at all. Thanks for the comment!
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Good to know, would love to go there!
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Andrew,
Very good post about the Metro. My favourite station in Mayakovskaya. I found the most confusing bit the fact that the same station can have two different names when you change to another line.
You were lucky to get photographs as it’s forbidden!
Peter
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I think the first shot is Mayakovskaya! You worried me about photography but I found this on the website: Amateur photography (without using stationery equipment) in Moscow metro is not prohibited and therefore no permission is necessary. Phew!
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Interesting about the photography. There are signs at each station though that contradict this.
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Though I live near Kievskaya station my favorite one is also Novoslobodskaya because of the stained glass.
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In the States, it would last about 10 seconds before the vandals got to it. Interesting that the male and female voices signify different directions. That also wouldn’t fly in the States.
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There was an awful lot of security down there and soldiers in olive green uniforms with pistols.
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Wow. This is amazing. I can understand this as a must see. I agree with someone else who mentioned hotel lobbies.
On the other hand, we all know at what cost these were built. Makes me cringe about the depiction of rosy-cheeked, well-fed peasants but that was another time…Anyway, still a work of art.
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I reckon the old commies that built these thought: well, if ordinary people/workers can’t have luxury and architectural beauty in their personal home life why not let them travel on trains via beautiful train stations and surrounds 😀 Really quite, quite beautiful these are – they give a whole new meaning to train travel 🙂
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Wonderful but exposes the folly of communist economics!
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It sure does 🙂
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Although I have not yet been to England I have been to Russia and former Soviet Union Republics. I found your articles on Lenin’s tomb and the above also very interesting and I was able to see these places while on a tour in 1989. Since my paternal ancestry is from Russia it was a priority place for me to visit then, but hope to make it to England one day and see your country and London also, as I too love to travel. So happy to have come across these articles of your experiences to Russia. Thank you for sharing.
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Thank you for reading. I hope you make it to England some time soon!
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I hope so too. I pan on it, anyway.
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That’s a heck of a map.
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Such beautiful stations but as you said in a comment Andrew too bad they were built at the expense of people starving!
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