In 1993, when the novel's protagonist Roman Peskov sped through the tunnel for "the long minutes from Kolomenskoye to Kashirskaya," this stretch of the Zamoskvoretskaya Line really was one of the longest in the Moscow Metro system.
Stretch specifications
The stretch between "Kolomenskaya" and "Kashirskaya" stations is 2,817 meters long, making it, in 1993, one of the longest in the Moscow Metro system. A train covers this distance in roughly 5–6 minutes, depending on the type of rolling stock and the operating mode.
This stretch really does feel to passengers like "long minutes" — especially compared to standard Moscow Metro stretches, most of which run 1.2 to 2.4 kilometers. A length of 2.8 kilometers is well above average, creating a sense of a lengthy ride through the underground tunnel.
"Kolomenskaya" station
History and name
"Kolomenskaya" station opened on August 11, 1969, as part of the "Avtozavodskaya" – "Kakhovskaya" section of the Zamoskvoretskaya Line. Once this section opened, the Moscow Metro had 86 stations.
The station is named for the nearby "Kolomenskoye" museum-reserve — one of Moscow's best-known historical complexes, including an ancient royal residence. In planning documents, the station was originally called "Nagatino," but ultimately received its current name, reflecting its proximity to the historic landmark.
Location and transit access
The station sits on the border of the Nagatino-Sadovniki and Nagatinsky Zaton districts of Moscow's Southern Administrative Okrug. It lies between "Tekhnopark" (which did not yet exist in 1993 — it opened only in 2010) and "Kashirskaya."
The station has no above-ground vestibules. Access to the street is via underground passages to Andropov Avenue and Nagatinskaya Street. In 1993, the district's infrastructure was less developed than it is today — the large "Orbita" shopping and entertainment center, which one of the exits now leads to, did not yet exist.
Technical specifications
The station is a shallow, three-span pillar-trispan design, 9 meters deep. It was built to a standard design nicknamed the "centipede," for its large number of columns.
A distinctive feature of the station is the shape of its columns — regular octagons in cross-section, whereas columns at other stations of this standard design are usually square. The station has two rows of 38 columns, spaced 4 meters apart. The distance between the axes of the two rows is 5.9 meters.
The bulk of the "Tekhnopark"–"Kolomenskaya" stretch runs above ground, over the Nagatinsky Bridge across the Moskva River, making this one of the few above-ground sections in the Moscow Metro system.
"Kashirskaya" station
History
"Kashirskaya" station opened the same day as "Kolomenskaya" — August 11, 1969, as part of the "Avtozavodskaya"–"Kakhovskaya" section. It was named for the nearby Kashirskoye Highway on the surface, one of the important transport arteries of southern Moscow.
From its opening until 1993, the station had a complicated transit history. Originally, it had only two tracks, serving the Gorkovsko-Zamoskvoretskaya Line. After the "Kashirskaya"–"Orekhovo" section opened in 1984, a third track was brought into use to support branching service. In 1995, two years after the events depicted in the novel, a new Kakhovskaya Line was split off from the Zamoskvoretskaya Line, and the station began serving both lines at once.
A unique design
"Kashirskaya" was the first cross-platform interchange ever built in the Moscow Metro. This means passengers can transfer from one line to another simply by crossing to the opposite side of the same platform, far more convenient than the traditional transfer through vestibules or long corridors.
Structurally, the station is a two-hall, shallow pillar station (7 meters deep), built as a single structure. Each hall follows the standard design for a three-span pillar station made of precast reinforced concrete. The halls are separated by a track wall, and connected by pedestrian bridges.
Architectural design in 1993
In 1993, the station had a distinctive "mirrored" design. The columns of the eastern hall were faced in gray marble, with a floor of scarlet-red granite. In the western hall, by contrast, the columns were faced in red marble, and the floor in gray granite.
The track walls were finished in white ceramic tile, and the access panels for utility lines were decorated with artistic inserts on the theme "Life of the Country," by sculptor Z.M. Vetrova. Each track wall carried two embossed metal reliefs, depicting hydroelectric plants, space objects, power lines, and cityscapes.
Location and transit connections
The station sits on the border of the Moskvorechye-Saburovo and Nagatino-Sadovniki districts of Moscow's Southern Administrative Okrug, at the intersection of Marshal Shestopalov Street and Kashirskoye Highway. Its above-ground vestibules sit on either side of Kashirskoye Highway, providing convenient access from different directions.
The historical context of long stretches
To understand the significance of the "Kolomenskaya"–"Kashirskaya" stretch within the Moscow Metro, it helps to trace the evolution of the system's longest sections.
The evolution of the length record
The first record-holder was the "Paveletskaya"–"Avtozavodskaya" stretch, at 2,919 meters, which held the absolute record from 1943 to 1966. The lead then passed to the "Volgogradsky Prospekt"–"Tekstilshchiki" stretch (3,413 m), the record-holder from 1966 to 1986.
From 1986 to 2002, a temporary record was held by the emergency "Sportivnaya"–"Universitet" routing (4,478 m), when trains bypassed the closed "Leninskiye Gory" station. Once normal service resumed, the record reverted to the "Volgogradsky Prospekt"–"Tekstilshchiki" stretch.
The current absolute record belongs to the "Krylatskoye"–"Strogino" stretch of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line, at 6,625 meters, set in 2008. A train covers this distance in about seven minutes.
The top 25 longest stretches of the Moscow Metro
To place the "Kolomenskaya"–"Kashirskaya" stretch within the system as a whole, here is a list of the longest sections:
- Krylatskoye – Strogino (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya): 6,625 m
- Sportivnaya – Universitet (Sokolnicheskaya, via "Leninskiye Gory"): 4,478 m
- Volgogradsky Prospekt – Tekstilshchiki (Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya): 3,413 m
- Avtozavodskaya – Kolomenskaya (Zamoskvoretskaya, via "Tekhnopark"): 3,354 m
- Tushinskaya – Shchukinskaya (Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya, via "Spartak"): 3,349 m
- Park Pobedy – Slavyansky Bulvar (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya): 3,293 m
- Novogireyevo – Novokosino (Kalininskaya): 3,197 m
- Kievskaya – Park Pobedy (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya): 3,196 m
- Kozhukhovskaya – Pechatniki (Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya): 3,130 m
- Krasnogvardeiskaya – Alma-Atinskaya (Zamoskvoretskaya): 3,074 m
- Strogino – Myakinino (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya): 3,064 m
- Tulskaya – Nagatinskaya (Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya): 3,057 m
- Shosse Entuziastov – Perovo (Kalininskaya): 3,023 m
- Vykhino – Lermontovsky Prospekt (Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya): 3,013 m
- Paveletskaya – Avtozavodskaya (Zamoskvoretskaya): 2,919 m
- Ulitsa Starokachalovskaya – Ulitsa Skobelevskaya (Butovskaya): 2,845 m
- Kolomenskaya – Kashirskaya (Zamoskvoretskaya): 2,817 m
- Botanichesky Sad – VDNKh (Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya): 2,746 m
- Oktyabrskoye Pole – Polezhaevskaya (Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya): 2,694 m
- Skhodnenskaya – Tushinskaya (Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya): 2,686 m
- Bibirevo – Otradnoye (Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya): 2,607 m
- Kashirskaya – Kantemirovskaya (Zamoskvoretskaya): 2,591 m
- Vorobyovy Gory – Universitet (Sokolnicheskaya): 2,589 m
- Preobrazhenskaya Ploshchad – Sokolniki (Sokolnicheskaya): 2,517 m
- Shchukinskaya – Oktyabrskoye Pole (Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya): 2,487 m
As this list shows, the "Kolomenskaya"–"Kashirskaya" stretch ranks 17th among the longest, confirming its considerable length and explaining the sense of "long minutes" spent riding it.
Riding this stretch in 1993
In 1993, a ride along the "Kolomenskaya"–"Kashirskaya" stretch had its own particular character. The Zamoskvoretskaya Line was served by Type E trains (built in the 1960s and '70s), which were slower and less comfortable than modern trains.
The average speed of trains on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line was around 42 km/h, meaning that covering the 2.8-kilometer stretch really did take a noticeable amount of time — about 5 minutes of running time, not counting acceleration from the previous station and braking before the next.
The technical significance of the stretch
Long stretches in the Moscow Metro arose for various reasons: the particulars of the city's built environment, the need to route around obstacles, and economic considerations during construction. The "Kolomenskaya"–"Kashirskaya" stretch was designed with station placement reflecting the district's layout and residents' transit needs.
This section's length also owes to the fact that it crosses territory that was relatively undeveloped at the time of construction, where no intermediate station was needed. This choice optimized construction costs, though it did create a degree of inconvenience for passengers, in the form of longer travel times between stations.
Later changes
It's worth noting that the situation with long stretches on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line has changed since 2010. The opening of "Tekhnopark" station between "Avtozavodskaya" and "Kolomenskaya" split what had been a record 3,354-meter stretch into two shorter sections. This did not affect the "Kolomenskaya"–"Kashirskaya" stretch, however, which kept its original length.
Today, "Kashirskaya" station has undergone significant reconstruction, in connection with its inclusion in the Big Circle Line, but in 1993 it was a comparatively simple two-hall station, with the characteristic design of the Soviet era.
Conclusion
The "Kolomenskaya"–"Kashirskaya" stretch really was, in 1993, one of the longest sections of the Moscow Metro. Its length of 2,817 meters significantly exceeded the average, giving passengers a sense of a lengthy underground ride.
Both stations — "Kolomenskaya" and "Kashirskaya" alike — were typical examples of late-1960s Soviet metro construction, with their characteristic structural and architectural solutions. "Kashirskaya's" uniqueness, as the first cross-platform interchange, added a special interest to this section of the Zamoskvoretskaya Line.
The novel's literary description of the "long minutes" of the ride from Kolomenskaya to Kashirskaya thus accurately reflects the real experience of passengers of the time, traveling along one of the Moscow Metro's longest stretches.