The 1935 Metro map: where the branch at Okhotny Ryad led

On 15 May 1935, trains began running from Sokolniki through Okhotny Ryad to two termini: Park Kultury and Smolenskaya. The passenger map in a 1935 booklet shows this service pattern. The city's transport portal describes it as the first Moscow Metro map regarded as official. The map alone cannot establish why the builders chose the route towards Arbat.

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Our source is a map from the booklet What Metro Passengers Should Know, published by Moskovsky Rabochy in 1935. The Metro Map Collection provides its publication details. The description of a surviving copy names I. E. Kattsen as the editor responsible and credits V. I. Smirnov with the design; this does not establish who created the map itself. The Department of Cultural Heritage reproduced the double-page spread, credited to the Moscow Main Archive, in the magazine Hello, Moscow Enthusiast! (2025, p. 4). The image is available under a CC BY 4.0 licence. The year of publication does not establish the date on which the booklet was distributed: we cannot claim that passengers received this particular spread on 15 May.

What does the junction at Okhotny Ryad show?

The 1935 Metro map shows a shared route from Sokolniki to Okhotny Ryad. The lines then diverge towards Smolenskaya and Park Kultury. Passengers travelling beyond the junction had to choose their train according to its terminus.

On reproductions of the map the Arbat branch is labelled Komintern (short for Ulitsa Kominterna, now Alexandrovsky Sad), Arbatskaya and Smolenskaya; the other branch is labelled Biblioteka (short for Biblioteka Imeni Lenina), Dvorets Sovetov and Park Kultury. In 1957, Dvorets Sovetov was renamed Kropotkinskaya. These old names and abbreviations need to be checked against the histories of the stations.

A separate report on the city's transport portal gives the intervals between trains when services first began: five minutes as far as Okhotny Ryad and ten minutes beyond the junction. These figures help us picture how trains alternated between the two destinations, but the portal's report does not verify that every service actually ran.

When did the map cease to reflect the operating network?

In 1935, Smolenskaya was the terminus of the Arbat branch. As early as 20 March 1937, trains began running further, to Kievskaya — a date confirmed by the Metro chronicle. The booklet's map therefore remains evidence of how passengers were shown the way in the year of publication, but after the extension it no longer depicts the entire network.

The next change brought branching services on the Moscow Metro to an end. On 13 March 1938, after the section to Kurskaya opened, services were separated into the Kirovsko-Frunzenskaya and Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya lines. These changes do not appear on the 1935 map. The dates in the chronicle allow us to reconstruct the sequence: first the Arbat branch was extended, then the lines were separated.

Does the map explain why the Arbat branch was chosen?

The 1935 passenger map shows the route from Okhotny Ryad to Smolenskaya, but gives no explanation for its alignment. It contains neither a comparison of proposed alternatives nor the text of a decision authorising construction. The lines show the sequence of stops; the angle of the junction cannot be taken as an exact representation of the tunnels' alignment. Nor does the map's correspondence with the section that was built reveal the planners' reasoning.

To answer the question of why this route was chosen, we need planning documents or a resolution setting out the reasons for the decision. The Presidential Library catalogue lists a collection of reports on the construction and opening of the first stage in 1935. A bibliographic description alone, however, does not establish that the collection contains a particular explanation for the junction.

When comparing the 1935 map with today's map, it is easy to confuse the two Arbatskaya stations. The first station opened with the original network; the deep-level station opened in 1953. The old section reopened in 1958 and is now part of the Filyovskaya line. This sequence is confirmed by a historical and cultural heritage assessment report.

On the itinerary of the Underground Palaces tour lists Arbatskaya. The bureau's report on visitors from Thailand records that their guide, Maria, explained the history of the deep-level Arbat route, while the photograph's caption specifies the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line. Before comparing the photograph with the booklet, we need to establish which station it shows. Next week, our Document of the Week feature will examine another primary source.

Sources

1. ‘Hello, Moscow Expert!’, No. 2 (10), 2025: image of the 1935 booklet and attribution to the Moscow Main Archive Administration
2. Moscow Metro booklet with a map of the lines, 1935. File and CC BY 4.0 licence terms
3. Line maps / 1935: bibliographic description of the booklet ‘What Metro Passengers Should Know’
4. What was the Moscow Metro like for its first passengers in 1935? Unified Transport Portal
5. Moscow Metro chronicle: the opening of the first phase and changes in 1937–1938
6. ‘Moscow Metro’: a collection of reports and related materials, 1935. Presidential Library catalogue
7. Thai visitors in Moscow: a journey through the centuries — the bureau’s report on a walk exploring the deep-level Arbatskaya station
8. Description of a copy of ‘What Metro Passengers Should Know’ (1935): edited by I. E. Kattsen, with design by V. I. Smirnov
9. State historical and cultural assessment report on Arbatskaya station: the history of the two Arbatskaya stations and the reopening of the section in 1958
10. ‘Underground Palaces’ — tour page from Radius Tour Bureau
11. ‘Moscow Heritage’, No. 2 (56), 2018: reproduction of the map from the 1935 booklet and its caption
12. ‘The Art of Straight Lines’: a history of Moscow Metro maps, Unified Transport Portal