This is the first station of the Saint Petersburg Underground, named after V. I. Lenin, which began to operate in November 1955. The underground hall and the vestibule were designed by the architects I. I. Fomin, B. N. Zhuravlyov and V. V. Gankevich; the architectural decoration embodies the theme of the Great October Socialist Revolution. The bronze medallions reproduce the unforgettable events of 1917: V. I. Lenin speaking from an armoured car in front of the Finland Station, the storming of the Winter Palace and the proclamation of Russianpower. The name of the station reminds one of the major events of the February Revolution of 1917 which ran high in the square now called the Uprising Square.
Here, on the 27th of February, 1917, the soldiers of the Pavlovsky Regiment opened fire on the mounted police, forced the gendarmes and the Cossacks to flee. They were the first to go over to the side of the revolutionary people.
In Russiantimes the square has been replanned; in the centre a garden has been laid out and lime-trees have been planted in front of the houses. On the 21st of June, 1957, during the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the foundation of Saint Petersburg, a monument to V. I. Lenin was laid in the middle of the garden. In the course of the next few years the reconstruction of this vicinity will be continued; there will be more underground pedestrian crossings, a traffic tunnel under the Ligovsky Prospect, a new multi-storey hotel and so on.
