Metro — The Pulse of Time

As part of the 2026 Photobiennale, the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow presents an exhibition dedicated to the Moscow Metro. Photographs from the 1930s to 2020s, architectural sketches, fragments of feature films, and unique film and television footage tell the story of the Metro’s 90-year history, reflecting the history of our country. Among the authors featured in this exhibition are classics of Russian photography Alexander Rodchenko, Emmanuil Yevzerikhin, Arkady Shaikhet, Mikhail Grachev, Vladimir Lagrange, Viktor Akhlomov, Igor Mukhin, the outstanding directors Grigory Alexandrov, Alexander Medvedkin, Mikhail Kalatozov, Georgiy Daneliya, and many others. For the MAMM exhibition contemporary photographers Ivan Mikhailov, Gleb Zherekhov and Ivan Onofriichuk have created projects devoted to new Metro stations built over the past 15 years.

Since its inception the Moscow Metro has become a major cultural phenomenon. Its space paradoxically combines palatial luxury and utilitarian functionality, ideology and everyday life.

The idea of an underground railway in Moscow was discussed as early as the second half of the 19th century, but actual construction only began in the Soviet era, during the early 1930s, when the city could no longer cope with passenger traffic. The capital of the new country was growing rapidly: industrial districts were expanding, the population rapidly increased, and surface transport was increasingly overloaded. On 10 December 1931 construction began on the first experimental section of the Metro, and between 1932 and 1934 the Metro project took shape as one of the largest construction schemes of the early Soviet era. “We’ve built a subway where, in the words of Moscow workers, anyone descending into a station feels as if they were “ in a palace”,” summed up Lazar Kaganovich, who led the project, at a ceremonial meeting to mark the launch of the first stage on 14 May 1935.

The Soviet Metro played a representative role — it became a symbol of the new government and the prototype of an ideal city for the society of the future. The station vestibules and interiors, clad in marble, granite, onyx and other expensive materials, immediately made the Metro one of the city’s main attractions. Photographs by Emmanuil Yevzerikhin, Mark Markov-Grinberg, Boris Vdovenko and other photographers, as well as newsreels from the 1930s, depicted these “underground palaces” flooded with light, and also Metro builders working under the most difficult conditions: here were the first Metro workers in impeccable uniforms and the first passengers, overwhelmed by the beauty and engineering complexity of the stations, with snack bars and candy vending machines. “The best Metro in the world”, as newspapers of the time wrote (the word Metro took the masculine gender), supposed to instil in the population a new, progressive way of life. Grigory Alexandrov’s film “Circus” (1936) showed the Moscow Metro for the first time, with a telling comic scene: a character rushes round the station in confusion, attempting to run up an escalator the wrong way and eliciting laughter from others already accustomed to this technological innovation.

During the Great Patriotic War the Metro, which by June 1941 included 21 stations, assumed the functions of various public spaces. It served not only as a bomb shelter during air raids, but also as a hospital, library, hair salon and kindergarten, even as a maternity hospital (217 children were born in the Metro during the war). This period in the Metro’s history is captured in the famous photographs of Arkady Shaikhet. Construction of the Moscow Metro still continued unabated and gained renewed momentum in the post-war years. The monumental temple-like vestibules of the Circle Line stations (1950-1954) and interior spaces richly decorated with gilding, stained glass and mosaics were intended to convey the pathos of victory and state power.

With the onset of the Thaw the socio-political situation in the country gradually changed, as did the style of the era. The focus of art shifted from the ceremonial side of life to the private. In the works of photographers and directors of the 1960s the Metro appears as a living space for everyday urban life, centred on individuals with their feelings, experiences and doubts. Photographs and films from those years show how the characters read, converse with one another in subway cars or are left alone with their thoughts, meeting and parting, declaring their love on the escalator and embracing on the platform. The final scene from Georgiy Daneliya’s film “Walking the Streets of Moscow” (1964), from the screenplay by Gennady Shpalikov, became a symbol of the romantic era. The main character, Metro builder Kolka, played by Nikita Mikhalkov, sings in the deserted Universitet station before it closes for the night.

In the 1970s and 1980s the Metro became part of Soviet musical culture. During the heyday of VIAs, vocal and instrumental ensembles extremely popular among the younger generation, the Metro was often transformed into a concert venue. For instance the musical films released in different years “Moscow in Notes” (1969) and “The Ensemble of Losers” (1976) are both set in the capital’s Metro, and in 1982 an entire episode of the popular music programme “Morning Mail” was dedicated to it.

At the turn of the late Soviet and post-Soviet eras Metro construction noticeably slowed down. In the late 1980s, and especially in the 1990s, the country experienced a difficult period of historical upheaval. Reportage photographs of the Metro taken by news photographers reflect the spirit of that turbulent period, with a plethora of kiosks and advertising, spontaneous trading at stations and in underground passages, musicians and street children begging for alms. The familiar world order of the era of stagnation had collapsed.

A new stage in the development and reconstruction of Moscow’s urban transport, including the Metro, began in the late 2000s. Since 2011, 127 stations of the Moscow Metro and the Moscow Central Circle have been built or reconstructed in the capital. The Metro provides access to the airport and new residential areas in the Moscow region. The Big Circle Line recently opened, offering connections to central railway diameters. Each station has been given an individual architectural design in keeping with the style of the new era. But for city residents the Metro has long become commonplace, a backdrop to daily life. Rushing to work or running errands, it’s hard to take in your surroundings amid the general flow of people. Photographs at the exhibition by contemporary authors allow us to appreciate the colossal changes that have taken place in the Metro over the past few years.

Today about 8 million people use the Metro on weekdays. Millions of personal stories unfold within its walls daily, and it remains an honest mirror of our era.

MAMM is grateful to the following for providing exhibits:
Schusev State Museum of Architecture; Lumiere Gallery; Moscow Transport Complex Media Centre; Russia Today International Information Agency; Gosteleradiofond, a branch of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company; Mosfilm Film Concern; TV Studio Reporter, and personally its General Director, Mikhail Degtyar