Komsomolskaya Square (Moscow)

Komsomolskaya Square near Kazan Terminal.

Komsomolskaya Square, informally known as Three Station Square, is one of the busiest squares in Moscow, noted for its impressive blend of revivalist Tsarist and Stalinist architecture. Its popular name refers to three ornate rail termini situated there: Leningradsky, Yaroslavsky, and Kazansky.

Its origins lay with the construction of the Moscow-Saint Petersburg Railway in the 1840s, when Kalanchovskoe Field outside the Garden Ring was selected to allocate the Nicholas Railway Station. In 1862 the Yaroslavl Railway Station, a terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway, was constructed nearby. On the opposite side of the field the Ryazan Railway Station was inaugurated two years later. Until 1909, a railway line traversed the square; it is now elevated so as not to interfere with street traffic.

Komsomolskaya Square near Leningrad Terminal.

During the Soviet period, four other intimidating structures were added. Aleksey Shchusev designed a Constructivist edifice, the Central Club of Railway Workers, in 1925-26. A Stalinist skyscraper of the Hotel Leningradskaya and a Neoclassical pavilion of the Komsomolskaya-Koltsevaya metro station were completed in the early 1950s. The latest large structure to be added was the Supermarket Moskovsky (1983).

The square was given its present name in 1932 to commemorate the Komsomol workers who built the Moscow Metro. Even in the 21st century, it is Komsomolskaya Square that greets most visitors arriving to Moscow from St Petersburg (through Moscow-Saint Petersburg Railway), the Volga region, and Siberia (through Trans-Siberian Railway).