15 июня 1931 года ЦК ВКП(б)  вынес постановление о строительстве Московского метрополитена

Finally – after all, the world's first underground opening dates back to 1863 in London. In 1902, the Russian engineer Pyotr Balinsky presented a project of an “off-street railroad” to the Moscow Duma, but he was utterly rejected. The main reasons for the refusal were named “violation of the device and the goodness of the streets and the belittling of the beauty of the temples of the God.” The last argument lost its force in 1917, but until 1931, New York, Berlin, Budapest, Paris, Philadelphia, Hamburg, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Tokyo, Barcelona, Oslo and Athens have already had their own subways. Our number turned out to be fourteen.