ABOUT THE STATION

Leningrad station is the oldest railway station in Moscow.

In February 1842, Tsar Nicholas I signed a decree on the construction of the St. Petersburg – Moscow railway line. The outstanding architect Konstantin Andreevich Ton, who designed the Catherine Church in St. Petersburg, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, was entrusted with preparing the plans for the passenger buildings in both capitals.

In St. Petersburg, it was decided to build a station on Znamenskaya Square near Nevsky Prospekt, but initially a site for the Petersburg station in Moscow could not be found. At first, two options were considered, one at Tverskaya Zastava and the other at Trubnaya Square. However, both were rejected due to the fire risk arising from the sparks bursting out of the furnaces on the locomotives and the "hellish noise" they produced. Finally, a site on a vacant plot near Kalanchevsky Field was chosen.

The stations in both capitals were built according to a single design, with a strict two-story façade, "evenly divided by attached columns located in the piers between the windows with arched windows and pendants on the first floor and doubled on the second floor, familiar from the Kremlin Palace and the Armoury Chamber." The central part of the building features a two-tiered turret with a clock and a flagpole.

The Petersburg station in Moscow was built in 1849. Its dimension were 25 by 12 sazhen, an old Russian unit of length which measured about 7 feet or 2.13 metres, so it was some 175 feet or 52.25 meters long by 84 feet or 25.6 metres wide.

The building’s first floor has a spacious double-height vestibule, passenger halls and imperial rooms, while the second floor contained service apartments for management and experts. The station’s interior decoration was magnificent, with oak parquet flooring, Swedish heating stoves lined with marble and fireplaces in the toilets. The decoration of the imperial chambers was especially luxurious. Count Kleinmichel had cabinets with mirrored glass fitted, while General Kraft, who was responsible for the construction of the building, ordered the installation of massive oak doors.

From the side of the tracks, the station building was adjoined by a platform 50 sazhen long and 12.5 sazhen wide and two tracks and stone passenger platforms. The original platform system with cable stays, which was designed by the architect R.A. Zhelyazevich, turned out to be very successful and stood until 1903, when it was replaced by an arched construction.

The first working train from St. Petersburg arrived in Moscow on 3 August 1851. Two weeks later, on 19 August, Emperor Nicholas I himself, together with his wife, the heir to the throne, the Grand Dukes, four German princes and various courtiers, travelled on the first Russian railway line. Regular train services began on 1 November 1851.In 1855, following the accession of Emperor Alexander II to the throne, the St. Petersburg – Moscow Railway was renamed Nikolaevsk after the previous tsar, so the station in Moscow was accordingly also called Nikolaevsk.

In February 1923, by order of People’s Commissar Felix Dzerzhinsky, the Nikolaevsk line and Nikolaevsk station were renamed October after the Revolution. A year later, in connection with the renaming of the northern capital, the railway station began to be called Leningrad. The station retains this name to this day, although trains from it depart for St. Petersburg.

In 1934, Leningrad station was re-equipped: the ticket offices were expanded and an information desk, a post office, a telegraph office, a savings bank, and a room for transit passengers were installed. A mother and child room was organised in the former royal chambers. In 1948-1950, the station’s interiors were renovated and the interiors redecorated.

In the second half of the 1970s, Leningrad Station underwent reconstruction. Only the part of the building facing Komsomolskaya Square remained in its original form. The three-story left wing was completed and housed a hotel, a hall for transit passengers, a medical centre and other facilities. In August 1975, upper and lower ticket halls were opened to the public. A spacious main hall was built on the site of the old platform. For the convenience of passengers, the station was connected to the underground stations by subterranean passages.