{"id":1056,"date":"2010-12-03T17:55:05","date_gmt":"2010-12-03T09:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mdnphoto.com\/blog\/?p=1056"},"modified":"2010-12-03T17:55:05","modified_gmt":"2010-12-03T09:55:05","slug":"moscow-metros-darkest-corners-dostoevsky-underground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/2010\/12\/03\/moscow-metros-darkest-corners-dostoevsky-underground\/","title":{"rendered":"Moscow Metro&#8217;s Darkest Corners: Dostoevsky Underground"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature004.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1060\" title=\"Dostoevsky appears in a mural at the end of a long tunnel in the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" src=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature004.jpg\" alt=\"Dostoevsky appears in a mural at the end of a long tunnel in the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" width=\"950\" height=\"633\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"paragraph\">\n<p>Moscow bears the historical stigma of a brooding city fringed with murder, corruption and greed. Now these grim trappings of the Russian psyche have found a home underground. The Dostoevskaya Moscow Metro station, named in honor of Russia&#8217;s dark prince of literature, delves into the most gruesome nooks of Dostoevsky&#8217;s oeuvre. The graphic nature of the murals even went so far as to delay its opening earlier this year. A prominent Russian psychologist, Mikhail Vinogradov, declared before the unveiling, &#8220;The deliberate dramatism will create a certain negative atmosphere and attract people with an unnatural psyche.&#8221; There is no doubt that death hangs heavy over the polished marble of Dostoevskaya with depictions of Raskolnikov wielding an ax against an elderly pawnbroker and her sister from <em>Crime and Punishment<\/em> and the suicide-obsessed Kirillov holding a gun to his head from <em>The Demons<\/em>. Concerned Muscovites fear the station might become a magnet for those contemplating suicide, adding to the almost eighty committed on a yearly basis in the Moscow Metro. However, after my own visit, I felt such concerns are unwarranted. The entire station inspired a sense of reverence and awe. I felt like I was meandering through a church instead of a public transportation hub. The aura of Dostoevskaya was only punctured when a train screeched into the station and let off another teeming load of commuters. The artist behind the murals, Ivan Nikolayev, remains rightfully unapologetic, &#8220;What did you want? Scenes of dancing? Dostoevsky doesn&#8217;t have them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1057\" title=\"A suicide-obsessed character from Dostoevsky's The Demons holds a pistol to his head in the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" src=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature001.jpg\" alt=\"A suicide-obsessed character from Dostoevsky's The Demons holds a pistol to his head in the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" width=\"950\" height=\"633\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature012.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligntriplel size-full wp-image-1071\" title=\"A passenger passes in front of a mural at the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" src=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature012.jpg\" alt=\"A passenger passes in front of a mural at the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature005.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligntriplec size-full wp-image-1061\" title=\"Communters pass through the recently opened Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" src=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature005.jpg\" alt=\"Communters pass through the recently opened Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature007.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligntripler size-full wp-image-1063\" title=\"A mural in the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" src=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature007.jpg\" alt=\"A mural in the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature011.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligntriplel size-full wp-image-1067\" title=\"An old women looks at a mural depicting a hanging man at the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" src=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature011.jpg\" alt=\"An old women looks at a mural depicting a hanging man at the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature013.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligntriplec size-full wp-image-1068\" title=\"A mural in the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" src=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature013.jpg\" alt=\"A mural in the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature003.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligntripler size-full wp-image-1059\" title=\"A passanger exits the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" src=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature003.jpg\" alt=\"A passanger exits the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature010.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligntriplel size-full wp-image-1066\" title=\"A character holds a gun to the head of supine man in a mural at the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" src=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature010.jpg\" alt=\"A character holds a gun to the head of supine man in a mural at the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature009.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligntriplec size-full wp-image-1065\" title=\"Subway security guards monitor the platforms at the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" src=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature009.jpg\" alt=\"Subway security guards monitor the platforms at the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature002.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligntripler size-full wp-image-1058\" title=\"A mural depicts the main character from Crime and Punishment murdering an elderly pawnbroker and her sister with an axe in the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" src=\"http:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/20101111_moscow_metro_dostoyevsky_art_mural_russia_literature002.jpg\" alt=\"A mural depicts the main character from Crime and Punishment murdering an elderly pawnbroker and her sister with an axe in the Dostoevskaya Moscow metro station\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moscow bears the historical stigma of a brooding city fringed with murder, corruption and greed. Now these grim trappings of the Russian psyche have found a home underground. The Dostoevskaya Moscow Metro station, named in honor of Russia&#8217;s dark prince of literature, delves into the most gruesome nooks of Dostoevsky&#8217;s oeuvre. The graphic nature of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[30,120,134,241,266,276,335,358],"class_list":["post-1056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art_category","category-travel_category","tag-art","tag-death","tag-dostoevsky","tag-literature","tag-metro","tag-moscow","tag-russia","tag-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewniederhauser.com\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}