Photographer Christopher Herwig documents the former USSR’s opulent subterranean network in his book Soviet Metro Stations, published in September (£24.95; Fuel Publishing). Herwig captures the astonishing architecture that was built between the 1930s and 1980s as a propaganda effort to promote communism as a “communal luxury” for all. This photo depicts the extravagant Avtovo station on the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya line of the St Petersburg Metro. Dedicated to the defence of Leningrad during the siege of the Second World War, the station has marble columns and glistening chandeliers that colour-match the turquoise tube trains. The 15 stations vary in their design, from mosaics to brutalist futuristic décor – look out for his earlier books on the weird and wonderful world of Soviet bus stops, too.
