CCCP Underground

When you enter subway stations in Eastern Europe and in countries that were once part of the USSR today, time seems to stand still. The stations are chroniclers of the history and art of a long vanished world power. In this volume, photographer Frank Herfort presents around 20 metro systems of the Soviet era from Moscow to Bucharest, from Baku to Tbilisi.

His focus is on the details, capturing over 700 works of art with his camera. They were conceived as prestige projects, thousands of kilometers apart and created under different conditions in different times. The stations in his photographs come together to form a holistic and comprehensive representation of socialist art that does not stand alone but relates to the everyday life of people today.

With texts by Knesia Smirnova, specialist in monumental Soviet art and architecture, deputy director at Shchusev State Museum of Architecture.