June 17, 2021

Moscow Metro Goes Big


Moscow Metro Goes Big
Linden trees like those soon to appear in Moscow Metro Square. Wikimedia Commons user Michal Klajban

Moscow has unveiled a new public green space to be named in honor of the metro system. It will be called Moscow Metro Square and will be located in the Sokolniki District.

The square will connect two others: Sokolnicheskaya Square and Sokolnicheskaya Zastava Square. Tens of thousands of people are expected to walk through the new square every day when it is completed. Linden trees and lanterns will accompany a recreation area.

The Moscow metro got its start in this district. Sokolniki Station was one of the first to be built and, in 1935, the first subway train departed from there.

In related metro news, the Big Circle Line – its second circle appearing on metro maps for the past few years and confusing unwitting tourists – is finally expected to open in 2022. It will be 70 kilometers (43 miles) long and will open with 31 stations, the largest circle line in the world.

You Might Also Like

What Lies Beneath
  • May 01, 2021

What Lies Beneath

On the architectural heritage of Moscow that is being lost, bit by bit, though not without some resistance by dedicated scientists and activists.
A World Apart
  • November 01, 2005

A World Apart

For 70 years, the Moscow Metro has pulsed below the surface of the capital, transporting workers and visitors, shoppers and students between stations that look more like palaces than public transport sites.
Moscow in the Middle
  • November 01, 2016

Moscow in the Middle

Despite the current economic downturn, the capital continues to buzz with construction and renovation. We look at what drives current changes and where things are headed.
The Soviet Creative
  • April 05, 2021

The Soviet Creative

In the Soviet period, artists were treated with esteem and lived comfortably, but their privileged position also required sacrifice.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955