The Northern Section Opens in 1938
The Zamoskvoretskaya Line began with the Gorky radius, which entered service on 11 September 1938 between Sverdlov Square in central Moscow and Sokol to the northwest. The operating chronology in Moscow Metro at Fifty gives its length as 8.5 kilometers. Its six stations were Sverdlov Square, Mayakovskaya, Belorusskaya, Dynamo, Aeroport and Sokol. This was the initial section of a line that would eventually cross Moscow from north to south.
The project formed part of the Metro’s second construction stage, alongside the extension toward Kievsky railway station and the Pokrovsky radius toward Kursky railway station. These sections opened in stages: the Kievsky extension in 1937, the Pokrovsky radius in spring 1938 and the Gorky radius in the autumn of that year.
Connecting Railways, a Stadium and Northwestern Housing
The Gorky radius followed the direction of Gorky Street and Leningrad Highway, serving Belorussky railway station, Dynamo Stadium, the airport area and residential districts including Sokol. Belorusskaya brought passengers arriving by mainline railway into the underground network; Dynamo served crowds attending major sporting events. Sokol extended the route toward the city’s northwestern outskirts.
Metrostroy, Moscow’s Metro construction organization, carried out the work. Station architectural design began in spring 1935 with an attempt to organize a broad competition among architects from Moscow and Leningrad. The urgent schedules for structures, drainage, electrical systems and budgets proved difficult to coordinate with the competition, so individual commissions replaced it. Architects and several engineering disciplines developed the line together.
Shield Tunneling and Underground Labor
Compared with the extensive open-cut work of the first stage, the second stage used more underground excavation to reduce disruption at street level. The engineering summary published in 1938 describes expanded use of tunnel shields, cast-iron segmental linings, compressed-air working and artificial ground freezing. Construction drew on skilled workers, transport systems, quarries and factories established during the first stage.
In his account published that year, tunneling foreman F. V. Zhilin recalled that his crew moved to the Gorky radius in June 1935 and sank Shaft No. 75 near the former Machev stables. After passing through quicksand, they encountered water-bearing limestone, making drainage and support critical problems. The crew later installed tunnel segments. Zhilin singled out the difficulty of building the shield assembly chamber at Mayakovskaya. His account shows the repeated work of managing geology and groundwater behind mechanization.
Two Different Station Spaces
At Mayakovskaya, architect Alexei Dushkin used a metal beam-and-column system in place of massive solid piers. Engineers first excavated the two side station tunnels, installed longitudinal beams and columns on specially cast components, and then excavated and supported the central space. The result was a more open platform and central hall in a deep station, achieved through a complex transfer of loads and a carefully ordered construction sequence.
Aeroport followed a different approach. Boris Vilensky and V. A. Yershov designed a single-vault hall with no columns or other supports on the island platform. Architectural criticism from 1938 discussed these spatial innovations while also criticizing some lighting, decoration and connections between components. The stations involved passenger movement, visibility and detailed proportions as well as monumental appearances.
Depots and Maintenance Behind the Service
The 1938 opening connected major destinations to the northwest with central Moscow and the existing Metro network. Sokol depot also opened that year, providing a base for storing and maintaining trains; repair workshops were established on its grounds in 1940. Operation depended on coordination among the route, electrical supply, rolling stock and maintenance organization.
After the second-stage extensions, the Metro’s share of Moscow public transport grew markedly. Moscow Metro at Fifty records approximately 1.03 million daily journeys across the whole network in 1940, representing about 14.3 percent of the city’s public transport journeys. Network expansion accompanied increased service frequencies, higher operating speeds and improvements in rolling-stock maintenance.
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From a Radial Route to a North–South Corridor
On 1 January 1943, a 6.2-kilometer section opened southward from Sverdlov Square to the station later named Avtozavodskaya. The line crossed the Moskva River into the southern riverside districts, extending the northwestern corridor established in 1938.
On 31 December 1964, another 6.2-kilometer extension opened northward from Sokol to Rechnoy Vokzal. These later extensions gradually turned the early Gorky radius into a transport backbone linking industrial and residential districts north and south of the city center. The 1938 opening established its first operating section and its construction foundation.