Belorussky railway station opens in Moscow
In April 1867, the Moscow City Council granted the railway company "...free of charge, vacant lots that they may need for the Moscow railway station and the line itself within the city limits..." On April 23, 1868, Emperor Alexander II granted a permission "...to commence works on the proposed railway from Smolensk to Moscow and to approve the general route of this railway." The builders had only to find a place for the station and its building.
The investors opted for the area near the Tverskaya Square as it was quite close to the city, which allowed laying a branch linking the new line to the Nikolayevskaya railway. Economic considerations were not to be ignored either as most of the land intended for the station and tracks brought no income to the city, so the authorities had to pay merely 50 thousand rubles for conveyance of private lots and demolished structures.
The catch was that the new railway would pass across the horse racing course. Nevertheless, the Governor-General Prince V.A. Dolgorukov, even though he was the president of the Imperial Moscow Racing Club, could not satisfy the request from the equestrian businesses "to divert the route of the future railway from the racecourses as far as possible."
The construction of the station, which was given the name Smolensky, got underway at the end of April of 1869. State Councilor Nemchinov, a major businessman and owner of brick factories, was appointed responsible for the construction of buildings and edifices. He was immortalized in the name of the suburban station Nemchinovka, arranged at the request of the Nemchinov brothers, who established a dacha village in the suburbs of Moscow. The station was built promptly: by the early September 1870, the two-story stone building had already been plastered.
The inauguration of the Moscow – Smolensk railway was held on September 19, 1870.
The new station would be the sixth metropolitan terminus, the second to Nikolayevsky one in size. The newspapers wrote: "The station is a rather splendid building. Now that the regular services to Smolensk and back commenced, all the vicinities of Tverskaya Square and four Yamskaya streets will be greatly revived, with the real estate prices having already soared."
In November 1871, following to the advancement of the railway from Smolensk to Brest, the station was renamed Brestsky.
In the spring of 1896, the famous architect Lev Kekushev was urgently commissioned to build an Imperial Pavilion for the royal family at the Brestsky railway station, which was timed to coincide with the upcoming coronation of Nicholas II. By May, a wooden tower in the pseudo-Russian style rose on the right side of the station.
Its interior splendor boggled imagination. There was no shortage of funds allocated for construction. The walls and ceilings of the Imperial Pavilion were upholstered in steel-colored teak, friezes and ceilings were adorned with gilded ornaments.
The premises, embellished with French furniture, were divided into three parts: a parlor in the middle was adjoined from the sides by glazed arcades turning into windowless galleries leading over to the station platform. The porch was crowned with the embossed state emblem. On the flagpole nearby the imperial standard was raised on May 6, 1896, when the royal train was arriving. The exit from the pavilion to the forecourt was laid out with a velvet carpet.
The imperial pavilion was long used for the royals and nobles. It was dismantled in 1908 during the construction of the current station building.
The growing ridership caused the Brestsky railway station to become cramped. By the early 1890s the railway acquired the second track, but the station still had one platform only. The station premises, especially those of the third class, could not accommodate the passengers of even one train. From as early as in 1898, D.A. Krieger, the chief of the trunk line, repeatedly submitted to the Ministry of Railways a request for subsidies to renovate and expand the station (it was a state-owned enterprise since June 1, 1896). The reconstruction did not begin until 1907.
The new Brestsky railway station was designed by the architect I. Strukov. The building consisted of two wings joining each other at an obtuse angle. The corner part (of one-story then) was intended for the royal chambers and was named "the Royal corner". The new chief, a military engineer, General F. Metz, took an active part in the construction.
By the spring of 1910, the right wing of the building was ready. The station acquired four platforms. The outermost, Imperial, platform was also used for transfers over to a connecting branch towards the Nikolayevskaya trunk line. The first phase of the station was inaugurated on May 25, 1910. On February 26, 1912, the left wing was consecrated.
The new station was splendid and spacious, with an area 3 times the former station. The reconstruction cost the treasury almost a million rubles, but it was worth it. Both exterior architecture and interior ornamentation of the building evoked delight in public, so did the latest technical equipment at the telegraph and ticket offices with ticket printers installed, which was a novelty in Moscow. The newspapers emphasized that "the whole building was made of iron and concrete thus fire safe." The building combined Neoclassicism with elements of false Gothic and Empire styles, which made it look stunningly impressive. The facade of the building was adorned with shield-shaped cartouches with railway emblems. Four graceful turrets with flagpoles towered above the entrances to the passenger lounges.
The new Brestsky railway station was unveiled on the same year when Russia celebrated the centenary of its victory over Napoleon. On this occasion, following a report from S.V. Rukhlov, the then Minister of Railways, on May 4, 1912, His Imperial Majesty gave permission to rename the Moscow-Brest railway Aleksandrovskaya. The terminus was renamed Aleksandrovsky too, and steam locomotives and carriages were adorned with the Tsar Alexander’s embossed monograms. Later, for considerations of economy, monograms were simply painted on the sides of carriages.
During the World War I, the Brestsky railway station was one of the first to serve the needs of the front line. From here, trains departed to the west, bringing back the wounded from the front line. Catering outlets for them were arranged on-the-spot.
In August 1922, the Aleksandrovskaya and Moskovsko-Baltiyskaya railways were merged into the Moskovsko-Belorussko-Baltiyskaya railway, and the station was renamed Belorussky-Baltiysky.
Since May 1936, after another reorganization of the railways, the station received its current name – Belorussky. It was under this name that it was recorded in the Great Patriotic War chronicles as a station from where the trains departed the front in the name of the Great Victory.
The Belorussky terminus was rebuilt a few times. Thanks to skillful and careful reconstruction, we can still admire the majestic facade of the building, its stucco decorations and ornaments, which have retained their original appearance. Today Belorussky railway station is not only a monument of national architecture, but also a modern terminus complex that meets international standards.