Theatre Square or Teatralnaya Square (, ''Teatralnaya ploshchad''), known as Sverdlov Square between 1919 and 1991, is a

city square A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Rel ...

in the

Tverskoy District Tverskoy District ( rus, Тверской район, p=tvʲɪrˈskoj, a=Ru-Тверской.ogg) is a administrative divisions of Moscow, district of Central Administrative Okrug of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Moscow, Russia. P ...

of central

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It is at the junction of

Kuznetsky Bridge Street Kuznetsky Most ( rus, Кузне́цкий Мост, p=kʊˈzʲnʲet͡skʲɪj ˈmost) is a street in central Moscow, that runs from Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street to Lubyanka Street. The name, literally ''Blacksmith's Bridge'', refers to the 18th-c ...

Petrovka Street Petrovka Street () is a street in Moscow, Russia, that runs north from Kuznetsky Most and Theatre Square (Moscow), Theatral Square up past Strastnoy Boulevard and Petrovsky Boulevard. The street takes its name from the Vysokopetrovsky Monast ...

, and Theatre Drive (north-west of the latter; the square south-east of Theatre Drive is the separate Revolution Square). The square is named after the three theatres located on it: the

Bolshoi Theatre The Bolshoi Theatre ( rus, Большо́й теа́тр, r=Bol'shoy teatr, p=bɐlʲˈʂoj tʲɪˈat(ə)r, t=Grand Theater) is a historic opera house in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové. Before the October Revolutio ...

, Maly Theatre, and Russian Academic Youth Theatre. The square is served by the

Moscow metro The Moscow Metro) is a rapid transit system in the Moscow Oblast of Russia. It serves the capital city of Moscow and the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast, Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy, and Kotelniki. Opened in 1935 with one l ...

at the Teatralnaya station on the

Zamoskvoretskaya Line The Zamoskvoretskaya line (, ), formerly Gorkovsko–Zamoskvoretskaya () (Line 2; Green Line), is a line of the Moscow Metro in the Moscow Oblast of Russia. Opened in 1938, chronologically it became the third line in the metro system despite bei ...

; Okhotny Ryad station on the Sokolnicheskaya Line; and Ploshchad Revolyutsii station on the

Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line The Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line (, ) (Line 3; Blue Line) is one of the lines of the Moscow Metro system in Moscow, Russia. Chronologically the second to open, it connects the Mitino District and the town of Krasnogorsk to the northwest of Moscow ...

History

The square emerged after the 1812 Fire of Moscow and conversion of the

Neglinnaya River The Neglinnaya ( rus, Неглинная, p=nʲɪˈɡlʲinːəjə), also known as Neglinka, Neglinna, Neglimna (Неглинка, Неглинна, Неглимна), is a 7.5 km underground river in the central part of Moscow and a tributar ...

into an underground channel. The river still flows diagonally under the square's park. It was designed in a symmetrical Neoclassical style by Joseph Bove in the 1820s, with

Neoclassical Style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

buildings framing it. However, in the second half of the 19th century the Neoclassical ensemble was destroyed by new buildings in

eclectic style Eclecticism is a kind of mixed style in the fine arts: "the borrowing of a variety of styles from different sources and combining them" . Significantly, Eclecticism hardly ever constituted a specific style in art: it is characterized by the fact t ...

s, that were considerably taller than the original ones fronting the square. The square also has the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style TsUM (ЦУМ) luxury

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

building. It was during a meeting in then Sverdlov Square on 5 May 1920, that an iconic picture of

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

was taken.a review of ''Trotsky, a pictorial biography'' by David King
See footnote 54 "This photo was often published in the Soviet Union, but with

Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

and

Kamenev Lev Borisovich Kamenev. ( Rozenfeld; – 25 August 1936) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A prominent Old Bolsheviks, Old Bolshevik, Kamenev was a leading figure in the early Soviet government and served as a Deputy Premier ...

painted out of the picture." Retrieved 2008-11-14 File:Teatralnaya Ploshchad, 2000 01.JPG, Teatralnaya Ploshchad, 2001 File:Lenin Speech in May 1920.png, The iconic photo of

giving a speech at the square, May 1920 Bundesarchiv Bild 102-13138, Moskau, Bolschoi-Theater.jpg, Sverdlov Square (Theatre Square) in 1932. File:Moscow, 1760s, site of Theater and Lubyanka squares.jpg, Site of the future square in the 1760s, showing the

and the

bastion A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

s of the Kitai-gorod

References

Bibliography

* Moscow Encyclopaedia. Bolshaya Rossiiskaya Entsikolpediya, 1997. Article "Teatralnaya ploshchad". Squares in Moscow Tverskoy District {{Moscow-geo-stub