Glukhovsky's Metro 2033 (1/3): The Stations, on Original Soviet Matchbox Label Art

September 07, 2018

By Péter MARTON
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This will be the first today in a series of brief posts about things that make Dmitry Glukhovsky's 2005 novel Metro 2033 very interesting, and a must-have in the collection of all true fans of speculative fiction. (Yes, the matchbox label art is also there. Scroll down first if you wish, and then come back to read this.)

The first reason I will name is the location. (To point out the obvious.) It's the Moscow Metro in the post-(nuclear)-apocalypse. A location that we, readers, along with chief protagonist Artyom and the rest of the survivors, are closed into. The plot traverses only around 25 stations - the full network consists today, as of 2018, of up to 14 lines and 245 stations over up to 419 kms ("up to," i.e. depending on how you count; note that the network has expanded since the writing of the book).

In this dark new world, some of the stations are autonomously governed, some link up with others into federations, some are under totalitarian rule, and some are experiments in various forms and degrees of anarchy. A pretty interesting premise, setting the (under)ground for an allegorical story. Check the map above for details of which station is controlled by whom in this peculiar subterranean metropolis.

And now for the special treat I can serve up for you today: Soviet matchbox label art showing you some of the very stations that are in the plot - three of them. I also add many more that are not in the plot, as a bonus. They all come from the family collection.