16 metro construction years

The track walls of the Sokolniki station of the BKL are decorated with panels with archival photographs of metro builders from different times. One of them was taken in May 1980 at the Kursk station: demobilized sailors of the Black Sea Fleet, who received Komsomol vouchers, arrived in Moscow and are about to go to the All-Union Komsomol shock construction of the metro. Mikhail Zotov saw himself there by accident.

– I came to look at the station after the opening of the site and saw a familiar photo. I’m on his right, with a diplomat and a white belt, that was the fashion among sailors back then. I remember that moment like it was yesterday,” he shares.

About the panel he notes: he is proud to be next to the honored workers of Metrostroy. After returning from service, Zotov went to learn a new profession: at the Metrostroy Technical School, the young man received the specialty of a miner. His career began at SMU-1 at the Shabolovskaya station on the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya line, which, however, was already “under traffic.” There he was involved in the assembly of platforms, sub-platform structures and the finishing of inclined passages.

As part of SMU-1, Mikhail Yuryevich also took part in the construction of the section between the Tulskaya and Nagatinskaya stations of the Serpukhov radius. According to his recollections, then a progressive design that was gaining popularity was used - an all-section lining. Later he moved to SMU-6, where he focused his activities on deep-level objects, including, for example, the running tunnels between Borovitskaya and Polyanka of the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya line. He worked as an insulator, then retrained as a blaster. In total, he devoted 16 years to work at Metrostroy.

Zotov’s further career was built in the Moscow Metro, where he worked his way up from an assistant electric train driver to an instructor at the Corporate University of the Moscow Transport Complex. Among his students were the first female drivers of the Filevskaya line in modern history. For his services, Mikhail Yuryevich received the title “Honorary Worker of Transport and Communications of the City of Moscow.” He currently continues to work in the rolling stock service of the Tramway Administration as deputy head of the Operations Department.