The Moscow Metro offers Eduard Limonov a rare refuge in a city he experiences as gray, inhospitable, and difficult to navigate. Its stations stand out as palatial spaces, while a ride in one of its cars briefly steadies him during his anxious search for Natasha.

Setting and Contrast

In the morning, Limonov crosses Moscow on foot through crowded, dirty underground passageways beneath the great avenues. These passages are not described as Metro stations: they are places of rushing crowds and kiosks selling inexpensive goods, where people let swinging doors strike those behind them. Against this harsh public landscape, the Metro stations appear exceptionally beautiful—veritable palaces and, in his view, the finest things in the city.

Journeys Through the City

The Metro also carries Limonov across Moscow in search of Natasha. After finally reaching her mother by telephone, he travels by subway to her distant home, then wanders for a long time through a vast apartment complex before finding the tiny, meticulously kept studio. The journey links the city’s grand transit spaces to the intimate, anxious task of finding someone who has disappeared without telling her family where she is going.

Narrative Significance

During the journey to Natasha’s mother, Limonov notices that he feels least anxious inside the subway car. The Metro therefore has a practical role as transport and a subtler one as temporary relief: above ground, the city’s cold and hostility sharpen his isolation; within the moving car, his fear eases. That contrast makes the Metro one of the few places in this account where movement through Moscow brings not only disorientation, but a measure of calm.