There is perhaps no better place to begin to understand the complexities of Moscow life, culture, and history than by exploring the Metro, as Moscow's subway is called. There, 6 to 8 million passengers make journeys each day, more than use the New York and London subways combined. As Muscovites move around their city every day, most give little notice to the spectacular subway decorations and architecture that are one of the great accomplishments of the Communist era, or to the lines of beggars and hucksters at the entrances, trying to make enough to survive another day. Deep below the surface streets, in one of the few parts of Moscow that runs efficiently, people move about between stations quickly and purposefully, stopping only perhaps to buy something interesting to read as they hurtle from station to station on the crowded and dilapidated trains. Both shiny and...