Enjoying The Beauty Of The Tashkent Metro

One thing the Soviets knew how to do is build beautiful subway lines. The stations are unique, fancy works of art. Marble, murals, themes, all sorts of features to brighten one's commute. The metro in Tashkent opened in 1977 with one line and nine stations. It now consists of four lines and 50 stations. The art keeps moving.

A typical metro station, all clad in marble, fancy columns and a prominent, unique art feature.

The station is Pahktakor and the mosaic tile work on the walls is an abstract cotton design. Props to one of the main crops in Uzbekistan. The Chilanzar station features about a dozen colorful genre scenes.

At Almazor station, a tribute to heroes of the Great Patriotic War. A memorial to those soldiers is near the station. Nice cross promotion.

Fancy tile design and luxurious marble work on a lighting column are features at the Hamid Alimdjan station. How about endless candelabra lighting? Just head to the Pushkin station.

The human struggle is real. At least in the Soviet socialist realist style. An impressive mural frieze at the Buyuk Ipak Yuli stop.

Some Snowfall In Tashkent

Tashkent doesn't have much of a winter. Some cold weather, maybe a few snowfalls that leave little dustings. The rare white blanket is a nice change from the dusty norm and a good chance to get out and see some sights.

Icon with snow, the famous Hotel Uzbekistan.

Hard to believe, right downtown, a meandering canal and footbridge creates a bucolic scene within the urban environment. The Monument of Courage with a little white dusting. It's dedicated to victims of the big earthquake in 1966.

The palace for Grand Duke Nicholas Constantinovich, one of the Romanovs. Nice pad, ready for a bitter, period Soviet epic film set.

Another memorial, the weeping mother for the WWII victims from Uzbekistan. Putting the frieze in freeze. The impressive workers scene outside the Mustakillik Maydoni metro station.

Cool pedestrian footbridge and big Ferris wheel. Lovely. For a day, until the melting commences.

Seeing Statues In Tashkent, Part 1

They like their monuments in Tashkent. In a park, in front of an important building, maybe the Metro, a house museum. If there's room for a pedestal or a frieze, there's plenty of bronze to fill it.

Let's start with the most significant sculpture in the city, the grand statue of Amir Timur riding a horse, located in the central square in downtown Tashkent. He's kind of the George Washington of Uzbekistan, if George Washington had been born in the 1300s. Of course, the square saw the inevitable march of Lenin, Stalin and Marx statues before Uzbekistan gained independence and a homegrown hero was installed.

More heroes. How about the humbly titled Oath to the Motherland? You fight, mamma always looks down, watching. It's not all military conquest, figures from the Arts can also get a sculpture. Here's Ural Tansykbayev, a successful painter during the Communist era.

The Metro gets some good art, like this large frieze outside a downtown station.

A detail of the frieze, shirtless man banging an anvil. Get us a Diet Coke. Moving on from humans, storks are popular. Or some sort of fantastical bird that kind of looks like a stork. Anything is powerful atop a column.

Another Silk Road era big boy, the famed astronomer Ulugh Beg. He gets a chair and a celestial globe. And fresh flowers every week.

Scary Signs In Tokyo's Metro

You can feel a little like you've entered the movie, The Truman Show, when you start reading all the warning signs in the Tokyo metro. Remember all those anti-travel signs in the movie, to keep poor Truman from ever leaving the area? If you totally believe some of the signs in the Tokyo metro, you'll never get on a train.

People with cell phones are definitely going to push you onto the tracks and then you will die.

Cartoon drunks are everywhere. What's rushing onto a train like? Like running off a cliff, of course.

Even sweating aliens should not go after a dropped cell phone.

Strong colors, incomprehensible message. Best guess, passing in narrow places along the platform is a no-no. Definitely do not cross these guys!

Setting a new low (high?) bar on warnings. Make sure you are escalator certified.

Down Into The Metro In Kiev

Always a treat, riding and exploring a Soviet-built subway system. Maybe underground palace is a bit of a boast, but the system and stations in Kiev do feature ornamentation not usually found in the West.

Heading in. The Soviets liked to go deep. Nuclear protection?

Signage and station. Grand.

And grander. The Teatralna station, named for the nearby opera house.

Artistic details, sculpture and mosaic, peace and triumph.

Riding and navigating.

Modern advertising is creeping into the original designs.

Minsk Metro

They love their grand metro design in Russia and former Soviet states. In Minsk, highlights of city architecture can be found underground.

One of the more elaborate stations, double height room with columns and mood lighting.

Color themes, green tile in a station, blue on the cars.

Fantastic space-age circular station map and lighting.

Another look at a station and some machine-age lettering spelling out "Tractor Factory."

Lenin, to remind you that you're at the Lenin Square station. Rub the nose for good luck?

The Magnificent Metro Of St. Petersburg

If the Cold War had been fought exclusively in the subways, the USSR would have won in a cakewalk. For example, the metro in St. Petersburg is spotless, efficient and beautiful. And cheap - about 50¢ to ride the rails.

The real attraction is the decorative touches, themed stations with chandeliers, columns, artwork, mosaics, you name it, they incorporated it.

Heading into the station near Russia's naval academy, a maritime-themed mosaic.

Stoic column among the bustle. Another station, another mosaic, looking similar to grand historical painting.

Infinity escalator. Due to geological challenges (re: swamp), the system is the deepest metro in the world.

Tiled mural to the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. Imperial lighting column.

Lenin is still around, speaking on medallions.

Huge wall-sized stained glass mural, detailed with worker's struggle.


Another poet, Alexander Pushkin, makes a grand appearance. His station was the first one in the USSR to feature a memorial.