The house – “ticket to the Muravia country”

The 4th house in the October Revolution Street, located on the crossing of two streets Smolensk — the October Revolution and the Karl Marx street, was built in 1954-1956 by order made by the Smolensk department of the railway.

Smolensk, which had a strategically important geographical location in the 1868-70’s, earlier than others began to build rail road line, thanks to which in the beginning of the XX century it had a fairly extensive network of railways. This circumstance provided a quick specialization of agriculture and the rapid growth of trade. People engaged in the railway sector, had good welfare and were considered to be the elite of society. It is not surprising that for the so-called railway elite were built houses in the center of Smolensk using the up-to-date architectural trends, and the 4th house in the October Revolution Street is an example of it. But it is not the only thing that made this building for the old-timers of the city so remarkable. There was a railway tickets pre-sale box office on the ground floor of the building and wishing to go to the «invented happiness» country lined up in long lines there. The existing railway network giving access to the capitals (Moscow and St. Petersburg), to the west, south, and also to the Baltic ports. While searching “the Muravia country“ people moved around the country very, very actively. People were captured by «wanderlust». Fortunately the railway tickets were not expensive for them.
Nowadays, the building is used for housing, it is the object of cultural heritage.
The author of the project – the architect Bukhteev V.I.