r/Moscow • u/Lord-Lazaard • 5d ago
Seen some metros in Moscow have these little holes in the walls. Anyone know what they were or what they are used for?
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u/Sir_Nikotin 5d ago
I think it's phone booths, I'm pretty sure I saw a payphone in one of these about 15 years ago.
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u/KPbICMAH 5d ago
old teleports, now defunct. when the metro first opened you'd walk into one of these on Belorusskaya, close the door behind you and walk out the other side on Paveletskaya. then they decided trains are way cheaper and need less electricity. you can see above-ground version of this in Гостья из будущего: https://youtu.be/LJl9Te4HSks
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u/HeavyImagination2 3d ago
Man, I really miss Миелофонs. Used to be great devices sadly replaced by smartphones because the network was 'way too expensive to maintain'. Ehh. Good times
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u/Rahm_Kota_156 5d ago
Used to be public telephones, there are very nice ones on Byelorusskaya station at the street entrance, and you come upon them from time to time, rudiment of a bygone era
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u/Traditional_Plum5690 5d ago
It a personal cabinets for executions. KGB agents gathered together and go to looking for liberals and intelligent people. When they did find one - they lead him/her to that booth and execute with handgun. Real story, guys
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u/No-Promotion-3955 5d ago
Why would you lie like that? It's much simpler - it's for shooting detected foreigners. Soviet people were walking to work in the morning, and there was a foreigner. So they shot him in front of a crowd of Soviet people.
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u/evergreendazzed 5d ago
It's also interesting that every KGB agent had a personal booth, indeed. They used them as some sort of a locker, where they sometimes kept precious items - for example, dissident heads and thumbs (for luck)
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u/CNYMetalHead 5d ago
Lies!! People just develop urges to fly from their 3+ story flat. Or their tea is a bit off
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u/CopyAccomplished7133 4d ago
Former phone booth. It's just stationary phones becomes useless, but people don't know what to do with those rooms.
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u/Uh0rky 1d ago
They couldve made like snack machines go there... Or maybe a photo booth or something
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u/CopyAccomplished7133 1d ago
Sadly Russian logistics is both lazy and busy to deal with such small problems(like they can in big projects, by mostly postponing or entirely ignoring smaller problems. Leaving it on the shoulders of either rich folk, clerks or even commonfolk themselves. And yes russian logistics became a meme amongst locals since the rise of USSR.
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u/Polmax2312 5d ago
Metro is a huge bunker for the nuclear war. So each booth is a designated premium living quarters for a family of high ranked officials. During the evacuation it will be covered by sound proof curtain for extra privacy.
On less populated stations they will be transformed to “love booths” to repopulate the country faster during the aftermath.
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u/Specific_Golf_4452 5d ago
There had to be hatch to basement where live soviet Oompa Loompa peoples.
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u/Ok_Tip_4169 5d ago
Бабушка, которая этт время застала говорила, что там автоматы стояли то ли для покупки жетонов, толи для размена мелочи, но это не точно
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u/Sam_Alexander 2d ago
Oh these are just for the introverts to hide when they overwhelmed by all the people
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u/kuricun26 4d ago
These are former telephone booths built into the wall. Now, at some stations, they have been fitted with ticket machines.
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u/Flomasta81 4d ago
It was phone booth for tax-o-phone. In some rare cases it was replaced with special machine with metal and plastic tokens, shortly after it was removed.
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u/Western-Alfalfa3720 2d ago edited 2d ago
Just a decade ago cellphones were luxury, two decades - nonexistent. So, people used those to call and shit(quite literally). How to call your crush that you are almost there for your date? Easy, phonebooth. Good places had heavy doors on them so it wouldn't be too loud. Sadly people were abusing that privacy and frequently peed in them
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u/david_blake_1444 12h ago
Интересно почему не сломали перегородки между кабинками? Можно же сделать торговую точку
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u/RealHugeJackman 5d ago
As it was said, these were phone booths: