[1][2] Opened on 1 January 1950 as part of the first segment of the fourth stage, the station is a pylon-trivault built in the style of the late 1940/early 1950s Stalinist architecture to a design by architects Nikolai Kolli and I. Kasetl.

The station's vestibule is built into the corner of the Garden Ring and Zemlyannoy Val, and occupies the ground floor of the building there.

Inside above the escalator is a circular mosaic panel by Pavel Korin Red Square which depicts the Lenin's Mausoleum and the Saint Basil's Cathedral, framed by a bas-relief with typical soviet banners and floral arrangements with names of Volga cities on the sides.

A direct corridor was opened only on 30 July 1955, which saw the addition of large staircases surrounded by marble balustrades in the centre of the platform.

The other major change was that initially in the end of the station was a large medallion with image of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, but during the 1961 de-Stalinization drive this was removed and instead replaced by the present artwork by Pavel Korin showing the Coat of Arms of the Soviet Union being held by a worker man and peasant woman amid floral backgrounds.