Check out Moscow's Palatial Underground Metro Stations

The subway in many cities is often an uninspired, claustrophobic experience — the London Underground and New York Metro are prime examples of this. It’s therefore a surprise that, out of all places, the capital of the former USSR has one of the most ornately decorated collections of subway stations anywhere in the world. Designed in the 1930s by Russia’s most famous architects, Stalin decreed that the Moscow Metro be built along the concept of svet — light – as “palaces for the people,” as well as serving as bomb shelters. Owned by the military, the stations are often devoid of advertising, and display the styles of rococo, Art Deco and Constructivism. Check out the photos below taken from photographer David Burdeny’s photo series A Bright Future: New Works from Russia, which he shot when recently granted the exceedingly rare opportunity to photograph these civil works of art.