1905 Square

1905 Square is the civic heart of Ekaterinburg — a large open plaza flanked by the city administration building and surrounded by some of the city's most important Soviet-era architecture. The central Lenin statue is enormous and theatrically posed, his arm extended as if indicating the direction of progress, which in this case points roughly toward Siberia. The statue is entirely sincere and utterly characteristic of Soviet urban planning, which rarely missed an opportunity to fill a square with a heroic figure.

The square serves as Ekaterinburg's main gathering point for official events, New Year's celebrations, and the occasional political demonstration. The underground metro station here — Ploshchad 1905 Goda — is one of the most central in the system. The surrounding streets contain interesting Soviet-era buildings, several of which show the shift from constructivist modernism to Stalinist neoclassicism that occurred in the late 1930s, sometimes mid-building. The square is a five-minute walk from the Weiner Street pedestrian promenade and a natural start or end point for a walking tour of the centre.

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The square is named for the 1905 Revolution, when workers across Russia rose up against Tsarist rule in response to the massacre of Bloody Sunday. In Ekaterinburg, as elsewhere, the events of 1905 were crushed but left lasting political effects. The square has served as the city's civic centre ever since — the place where official parades march, where political demonstrations gather, and where New Year's celebrations happen. The Lenin statue at its centre is one of the more imposing in Russia, and his raised arm points east toward Asia, which locals consider appropriate for a city on the boundary between continents.

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