Czwarty wymiar moskiewskiego metra (rekonesans)

Abstract

THE FOURTH DIMENSION OF MOSCOW SUBWAY: A RECONNAISSANCE

The 81 years of the existence of Moscow subway has resulted in the emergence of numerous fantastic tales about it. They are most often referred to as urban legends. The majority of the stories concern encounters with ghosts of people who died a tragic, sometimes
suicidal, death. The stories are partly motivated by the location of the subway, which often crosses necropolises.The negative energy at some stops results in passengers’ unrest and suicidal thoughts.These places are also haunted by souls of the victims of tsarist and Stalinist prisons. There also exist tales about ghost trains, time travel, and mutant animals. The article attempts at explaining the origins and functions of the fantastic stories about Moscow subway. On the one hand, it seems that they can be ascribed to the land on which the subway was built; on the other, they originate in narrative patterns thanks to which similar experiences are always structured according to certain models of representation. Regardless of the civilizational progress, the tales about Moscow subway prove that we still deal with the world perceived sensually, which is very close to the folk understanding of reality.