Moscow’s underground transit system is now more than 80 years old, and carries up to 9 million passengers through more than 200 stations every day. Most of the architecture and decor was built decades ago, meant to be a showcase for Soviet artists, ideals, and icons. The system is now modernizing, in part, preparing for the 2018 World Cup, which will be hosted in Russia. Several Reuters photographers have captured images of the varied and unique Moscow Metro stations, as well as the workers and passengers underground, over the past year.
Scenes From the Moscow Metro
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Read morePeople gather at Ploschad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square) metro station in Moscow, Russia, on March 6, 2016. #
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Read moreThe Metro sign is seen at the entrance to VDNKh metro station, with the Monument to the Conquerors of Space seen in the background, in Moscow on June 2, 2016. #
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Read moreCommuters walk through Fonvizinskaya metro station in Moscow on April 13, 2017. #
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Read moreA station manager controls trains coming and leaving the platform as she sits in a booth at Zhulebino metro station on April 18, 2017. Another visible change is the controversial replacement of many of the elderly women who used to sit in a booth at the bottom of the seemingly endless escalators, who were famous for telling passengers off if they sat down on the escalator steps. One attendant known by locals as Auntie Lyuda was famous for telling jokes on Mondays, reading poems and telling passengers to imagine they were in England—if passengers want to walk up and down the steps of the escalator, they should do so on the left. Now the attendants are mainly young men, and have yet to show any skill in bantering with passengers. #
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Read moreAn interior view shows Komsomolskaya metro station on the Koltsevaya (Circle) line on February 20, 2016. #
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Read moreA woman stands next to a bas-relief representing Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin, at Ploschad Ilyicha metro station on March 9, 2016. #
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Read moreAn interior view shows Mendeleyevskaya metro station on March 7, 2016. #
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Read moreA sign reading "Schukinskaya" is on display at Schukinskaya metro station on June 13, 2016. #
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Read moreThe entrance to Smolenskaya metro station in Moscow, Russia, on February 25, 2016. #
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Read moreOtradnoye metro station on June 7, 2016. #
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Read moreA fragment of interior design at Novokuznetskaya metro station on February 1, 2016. #
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Read morePeople travel on an escalator at Park Kultury metro station on March 14, 2017. #
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Read moreMendeleyevskaya metro station on March 7, 2016 #
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Read morePeople wait for the train at Kievskaya metro station on April 17, 2017. #
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Read moreA Moscow metro employee drives a train through Paveletskaya metro station on March 20, 2017. #
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Read moreAn interior view of Barrikadnaya metro station on February 25, 2016. #
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Read morePeople walk during rush hour in Kievskaya metro station on April 17, 2017. At Kievskaya, a station built in 1954, when Ukraine was firmly a part of the Soviet Union, this vivid mosaic dedicated to Russian-Ukrainian friendship occupies one wall. #
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Read moreAn employee washes the train carriage at Krasnaya Presnya metro depot in Moscow on March 20, 2017. #
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Read moreAviamotornaya metro station photographed on April 13, 2017 #
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Read moreA child looks at one of several statues in Ploschad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square) metro station on March 6, 2016. #
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Read morePeople wait for the train at Kurskaya metro station on March 21, 2017. #
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Read moreA detail of the interior design at Dubrovka metro station on February 22, 2016. #
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Read moreA worker restores a stucco ornament during renovations at Kievskaya metro station on March 18, 2017. #
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Read moreThe platform controller signals that the train can leave at Komsomolskaya metro station in Moscow, Russia, on March 24, 2017. #
Grigory Dukor / Reuters
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