People rushing to the Metro

Posted by Karsten (Dresden, Germany) on 25 December 2006 in Cityscape & Urban and Portfolio.

Since I am new to the community and the last days of the year are a good time for some retrospection, I will post some snapshots from 2006 in the upcoming days.

The picture shown above was taken in September in the Moscow Underground. Passing by, you sometimes feel like Soviet Union is still alive. All symbols from the area of communism are still there.

Each day, more people than in the city of London and New York together (around 9 Mio.) use the metro system.

One human beeing does not count anything in this city. Capitalism came over night and made and turned everything upside down in an unknown speed. All former values are not longer valid for Russian people. Life in Moscow is rough, hard and fast. People who can not manage this are the odd ones out, no one takes care of them. I have never seen such a diversity so close together, just imagine super rich "New Russians" and very poor people living side to side in the city.

Maybe the man on the bench is one of those people without illusions and hopes.