Leningradsky railway station opens in Moscow
In February 1842, Nicholas I signed a decree on the construction of the St. Petersburg – Moscow railway. The prominent architect Konstantin Ton, who designed the Saint Catherine Church in St. Petersburg, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, was entrusted with the design of passenger buildings in both capitals.
Znamenskaya Square on Nevsky Avenue was chosen as the location for the future railway terminus. Contrariwise, the location for its counterpart in Moscow remained uncertain for a while. At first, two options were considered, at Tverskaya Square and at Trubnaya Square. However, both were rejected: trains were "noisy like hell", but what’s worse, flames and sparks from the furnaces of steam locomotives could allegedly set the city on fire. Eventually, a vacant lot near the Kalanchevskoye field was chosen.
The termini in both capitals are somewhat twins as they shared the same project: an austere two-story facade, "...evenly segmented by mullions with attached columns and arched windows on the first floor (their drop ornaments reminiscent of the Kremlin Palace and the Armory Chamber) and double-pane windows on the second floor." In its central part, the building was crowned with a two-tiered turret with a clock and a flagpole.
Nikolayevsky railway terminus in Moscow was built in 1849. It was 53 meters long and 26 meters wide. The first floor housed a spacious lobby with two tiers of windows, waiting rooms for passengers and imperial lounges. The second floor accommodated apartments for managers and specialists. The interior was truly magnificent: oak parquet flooring, Scandinavian style marble stoves, and even heated toilets – all this luxury boggled imagination. The decoration of the imperial chambers was especially opulent: General Kraft, who was responsible for the construction of the building, ordered the massive oak doors to be installed, Count Kleinmichel added cabinets with mirrored glass.
Outside the building, the station had two tracks and passenger platforms paved with stone slabs and covered with a canopy 107 meters long and 27 meters wide. The original cable-stayed canopy above the passenger platforms, designed by the architect R.A. Zhelyazevich, proved very successful and stood until 1903, when it was replaced by an arched one.
The first test train arrived from St. Petersburg in Moscow on August 3, 1851. On August 19, Emperor Nicholas I accompanied by his wife, heir to the throne, grand dukes, four German princes and courtiers tried out the new railway. The Russia’s first ever railway started scheduled operations on November 1, 1851.
In 1855, after the Emperor Alexander II enthroned, the St. Petersburg – Moscow railway was renamed Nikolayevskaya, so was the terminus in Moscow (Nikolaeyvsky).
In February 1923, People’s Commissar Felix Dzerzhinsky ordered to rename Nikolayevskaya railway Oktyabrskaya, and Nikolaevsky terminus became Oktyabrsky (to commemorate October Revolution). A year later, following the renaming of the northern capital, the terminus was renamed Leningradsky. Its name is still the same, even though trains leave for St. Petersburg.
In 1934, the Leningradsky terminus was revamped by adding an information bureau, a post office, a telegraph office, a bank office, and a room for transit passengers and expanding the ticket offices. The former imperial chambers were transformed into a baby care room. In 1948-1950, the inner premises of the station were renovated, the interiors were refurbished.
The Leningradsky terminus underwent yet another reconstruction in the late 1970s. Only the part of the building facing Komsomolskaya Square has retained its former appearance. A three-story extension added on the left accommodated a hotel, a hall for transit passengers, a first-aid post and other services. In August 1975, ticket offices were opened in the upper and lower floors. A spacious main hall was built on the site of the canopied platform. For passenger convenience, the terminus was linked to metro stations with underground passages.