What Soviet Russia was like in 1935 (PHOTOS)

One of the main events of the year was the opening of the first Soviet subway. On May 15, 1935, the first train ran on the first line in Moscow.

The first passengers were the subway construction workers themselves.

As well as journalists.

In 1935, Moscow was being actively reconstructed under Stalin's master plan. New roadways were being built and everything that was hindering the transformation of the city was mercilessly demolished. And, on the main Gorky Street (now Tverskaya Street), they even moved entire houses in order to be able to widen it!

A historical photo. A Tajik girl, participant of the ‘Mamlakat Nakhangova’ pioneer Stakhanovite movement embraces Joseph Stalin. She came to Moscow to receive an order “for labor heroism” for picking cotton.

And below is Stalin and his daughter Svetlana, who is sitting on Lavrentiy Beria’s lap.

Two eras clash in one photo. A taxi stand by the Bolshoi Theater.

‘Turn of history’. This is exactly how this photo diptych by Mark Markov-Greenberg is called. The two-headed eagles, the symbol of the Russian Empire, are removed from the Moscow Kremlin towers and replaced with red stars. 

Meanwhile, traffic in Moscow was already busy.

Trams on Okhotny Ryad Street no longer run today. The ‘Moskva’ hotel is under construction on the left. 

One of the main Soviet holidays was May 1, aka Labor Day, which was always accompanied by mass demonstrations and a parade. This is what the Labor Day celebration looked like on Pushkin Square in Moscow that year.

Labor Day also saw a military parade on the Red Square. 

In summer, mass athletic parades were also held on the Red Square. Sports and physical fitness were a vital part of Soviet propaganda. 

Stalin and the party’s top leadership would greet athletes from the Mausoleum tribune.

Women rowers posing at the athletic parade on the Red Square.

Inspired by the sight of girls with paddles, Soviet sculptors created a standardized plaster sculpture that spread to parks throughout the country. 

Girls in the USSR, meanwhile, became actively engaged in what used to be considered “unfeminine” work. The photo depicts one of the first female tractor drivers.

And, below, young female cadets are being awarded ‘Voroshilov shooters’ badges. That means they had passed the standards for marksmanship. Kliment Voroshilov, the USSR People's Commissar of Defense, is posing with them in the center of the photo. 

Famous female photographer Eugenia Lemberg looks through the lens of a camera.

Whoever works hard should also have a good rest. That is why hundreds of sanatoriums and rest homes were built across the country. The photo shows vacationers in Sochi. 

The main place of recreation for the working population in Moscow was the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Recreation. 

And it had an unusual attraction, a parachute tower! 

Children loved sledding in Moscow's Sokolniki Park.

Chess was one of the main all-Soviet hobbies. The photo below shows a game between Mikhail Botvinnik and Viktor Goglidze at the 2nd Moscow International Chess Tournament.

Living Classics. Mikhail Bulgakov sits with his wife Yelena, who is considered the prototype of the protagonist of his famous novel ‘The Master and Margarita’. 

The main Soviet superstar, writer Maxim Gorky, is pictured outside Lenin's Mausoleum. 

In 1935, French writer Romain Rolland, who sympathized with the new country of the Soviets, visited the USSR. The face of the state security officer who accompanied the writer is obscured on the left. This is one of the signs of the era, as, most likely, he was repressed.