MAKING MOSCOW MODERN

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 February 1937, Page 10

MAKING MOSCOW MODERN

CHANGING AN ANCIENT CITY.

Another link in Moscow’s new underground railway was completed recently, when the line between t/ie Kiev and north terminals was finished. This branch constitutes but a small portion of the additional nine miles which are to be completed by the end of August, .said the Moscow correspondent of “The Observer,” London.

Encouraged by the smooth operation of the first section of its underground, which has now been operating for more than a year and a half without any mishap, the authorities announced their intention of building an additional 10 miles.

Moscow’s underground is now advertised as the world’s best, both technically and architecturally. Its stations' are well ventilated with marblefinished walls and high ceilings which, in some places, reach a height of 18ft. The platforms are exceptionally wide —in no instances less 1 than fou'r metres —and its tunnels measure five metres and a half in diameter.

The underground has become the capital’s show-place, to Russian as well as to foreign tourists. People point to it with pride as the first beginnings in the remaking of the country’s capital.

But it is only one phase in the larger 10-year building plan embarked upon in 1935, with the aim of reconstructing the city by 1945. The task which the Bolsheviks have set themselves is to change this ancient city, which grew haphazardly over many centuries, into a modern, well-planned metropolis. The first effects can already be seen. Most of the trams have gone and are being replaced by omnibuses. There are two new highways sufficiently wide to permit the passage of six lorries abreast.

Moscow, according to the plan adopted, is eventually to consist of five million inhabitants —a million more than it has at present —so that whatever changes are now undertaken are done with an eye. to the housing problem and transport needs for tho future city of five million. ARCHITECTS.” With tho conflicting views as to what the future Moscow is to look like entirely dissolved by the decree adopted in 1935, people now indulge in attending various exhibits of projects that have already been adopted. Before 1935, when no definite plans had as yet been decided upon, people used to attend public meetings on the reconstruction plan. Those were exciting gatherings at which one could frequently hear charges that the architects and designers were “bourgeois in their tastes." “anti-Soviet," “leftists” and “reactionaries.”

! There were those who advocated ’that. Moscow bo left as it is. and become a kind of “museum city.” showing tutiire generations tho “ugliness'' jof Tsarist days. Others suggested .that Moscow ought to be limited to ono and a-half million inhabitants, while another camp, dominated by the desire lo excel, insisted that it be made the largest city in the world — to exceed London and New York. The plan calls for (ho reconstruction and extension of present-day Moscow. The city limits have been extended by an additional 75.000 acre-, and most of the new construction will lie placed south-west along the Moscow river and the Lenin hill In addition to the numerous new

residences, squares and parkway, which will bisect, the city, a large number of communal buildings are to be constructed. Among them are to bo six now hotels and 539 schools, of which 390 are to he completed by 1939. By 1943, which is two years be-

fore the completion o£ this ten-year reconstruction programme, the population has been promised seventeen new hospitals, twenty-seven dispensaries, fifty cinemas, three adult recreational centres, and seven children’s centres.