The Moscow Metro still evokes admiration and controversy

Moscow - The Russian fascination with various "mosts" once gave rise to a joke that the Pobeda wristwatch is not only the largest in the world but also the fastest. The Moscow metro may not be the largest or the fastest, but not only Muscovites are convinced that it is the most beautiful.
Beauty and taste are, of course, subjective matters, but hardly any visitor to Moscow can deny the certain grandeur of the work from the era of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The metro is also a peculiar monument to the history of the country.
Just take a ride to the newly renovated Kurskaya station. Here, the words of the Soviet anthem praising Stalin as a leader guiding the people to loyalty, diligence, and heroism shine in full glory once again. During the rule of dictator's successor Nikita Khrushchev, who suppressed the "cult of personality," the laudatory verses vanished. Now they are back and stir passionate debates: some condemn them as a sign of the return of Stalinism, while others consider it normal to restore the station named after the Battle of Kursk to its authentic form, and others see the move as an attempt by Moscow Mayor Luzhkov to remain in office even after the elections; there are still many Stalin admirers among voters.
The metro, originally named after Stalin's associate Lazar Kaganovich as the main "ideologist" of the construction, hardly had to survive into the present day. "Close the metro and submit a plan for its destruction within three hours," ordered "Iron Lazar" in a phone call to the metro chief on October 15, 1941, when the German Wehrmacht was approaching Moscow. The next day, panic broke out in the metropolis, and the metro did not run for the first time. Explosives were placed in stations and tunnels, escalators and cables were dismantled. While authorities frantically evacuated on the surface, underground they sought wagons to transport eighty-ton sculptures. But by evening, the destruction order was revoked, and operations were resumed.
Stalin decided to defend Moscow - and a station named after poet Mayakovsky also entered history, where speeches of the Soviet leader healed the moral wounds of the defenders. The author of the mosaic on the ceiling of the station, Vladimir Frolov, who had already gained fame during the tsar's rule for beautifying St. Petersburg's churches, was meanwhile pleading in besieged Leningrad for the evacuation of his workshop or for a fuel ration... He ended up in a mass grave.
The construction of the metro continued immediately after repelling the German offensive, during which the tunnels and stops served as air raid shelters and government workplaces. The first of the new stations was opened at a time when Soviet troops were pursuing the enemy beyond the Dnieper.
Everything was born from the same reasons that could lead to the metro being rebuilt today: due to traffic jams in the streets. Only the most capable individuals could break through into overcrowded trams. It is said that one girl, in despair, even hung herself... But it was the absolute traffic collapse on January 6, 1931, that compelled the Central Committee of the Communists to pass a resolution on the construction of an underground railway.
The idea had been considered earlier, but plans developed by the German company Siemens in the 1920s remained on paper. The regime lacked funds, and the plans for the entire five-year plan collapsed. Famine in the countryside multiplied the metropolis with millions of refugees, which worsened the transport hell to the point of collapse.
The first Russian metro designers ended up behind bars, but "Iron Lazar," Stalin's right hand and ruler of Moscow, employed even subtler methods than the Russian proverb advises, that when something cannot be achieved by force, try it with even greater force. He obtained arrested specialists from the gulag, and the first escalators that Soviet technology could not manage were copied from the London model. "Iron Lazar," who allegedly did not finish even a single grade of elementary school but managed to surround himself with experts, successfully advocated for the first line, opened on May 15, 1935. And that in the form of a showcase of the regime, although it was originally supposed to be just an "underground tramway," mostly running on the surface, except for short sections.
But only the twenty-seven-year-old regular engineer Makovsky dared to stand up to more experienced colleagues, and his ideas were so appealing to Kaganovich and Khrushchev that they gave builders a week for a new project. The tunnels were dug by Ukrainian miners, who also managed to deal with the hazards of underground water beneath the metropolis, albeit at the cost of lives.
Khrushchev continued the construction even when he replaced Stalin at the helm of power. But much more modestly. Ornaments, marble, granite, stucco were replaced with tiles. Every kopeck was counted.
Today, the Moscow metro consists of 177 stations and 292 kilometers and carries seven to nine million passengers every day, although the volume of transport has now dropped to its lowest level since the war due to the crisis. "In intensity, reliability, and transport volume, the Moscow metro consistently ranks first in the world," claims the company's website.
Accidents are rare in the underground, although recently a driver perished when he relieved himself from the open doors while driving, as is said to be common; however, he did not notice an oncoming train. The metro has also experienced attacks. For a bomb that allegedly killed seven people in 1977, four Armenians were reportedly later executed. And four dozen people died in a suicide bombing in February 2004.
Under the web of lines, there is said to be a top-secret metro No. 2, which, according to rumors, connects the Kremlin with the secret police headquarters and the General Staff. Hollywood filmmakers even shot a movie about the wild life in the parallel metro. While no one has uncovered that yet, in the Moscow underground, another one of "Stalin's" secret bunkers is found from time to time - and some even open into the public underground.