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Dostoevsky subway station stirs controversy

This summer, Moscow unveiled a sombre Dostoevsky-themed subway station, filled with  macabre murals depicting stories from his novels. But instead of instilling Russian literary pride, the station is creating controversy among psychologists who say the depressing atmosphere could cause an increase in subway suicides and violence.

NPR reports:

The walls are gray and bare, except for murals capturing scenes from Dostoevsky’s famous novels: Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, and of course, Crime and Punishment, the book where Dostoevsky digs into the mind of his lead character, Raskolnikov, exploring a young man’s path to murder.

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The fictional character — poor, desperate for money to help his family and mentally tortured — ends up killing two women. And it’s all depicted in a mural right on the subway platform in which Raskolnikov holds an ax over a woman’s head, while a corpse lies on the ground.

The tale itself is stirring, and the underground tunnel and echo of subway trains make it even creepier.

According to NPR, Mikhail Vinogradov, the head of a Moscow psychological help centre, said that “[t]here will be suicides more often [due to the murals]. I can’t rule out people will commit murders or attacks.”

But Alison Flood of the Guardian countered: “I think they look pretty great, and while they might not actually brighten up a journey they’d certainly make it more interesting.” She also argued that looking art based on Dostoevsky novels in the subway is a lot less depressing than reading the ads.