VDNKh (Moscow Metro)

VDNKh (Moscow Metro)

VDNKh (Russian: ВДНХ) is a Moscow Metro station in Ostankino District, North-Eastern Administrative Okrug, Moscow. It is on the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line, between Alexeyevskaya and Botanichesky Sad stations.

VDNKh opened on 1 May 1958. It is named after the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (Russian: Выставка Достижений Народного Хозяйства Vystavka Dostizheniy Narodnovo Khozyaystva). The station features pylons faced with white marble and decorated with circular ventilation grilles. VDNKh was designed by Nadezhda Bykova, I.Gokhar-Kharmandaryan, Ivan Taranov, and Yu. Cherepanov. VDNKh it is one of the deepest Metro stations being situated 53.5 metres (176 ft) below ground. It is also one of the busiest stations, serving 107,377 passengers a day in 2009.

Originally, this station was planned to be richly decorated in the manner of the other stations built in the 1950s, with mosaics by venerable artist Vladimir Favorsky along the insides of the arches between the pylons. However, in the wake of Nikita Khrushchev's attack on decorative "extras," the mosaics were crudely coated with incongruous thick green paint.

The original circular vestibule is on the west side of Prospekt Mira, in front of the Space Obelisk. A second entrance was added at the southern end of the station in 1997.