Russia Adventure; the Metro System

I am so in love with the Moscow Metro.
So here's what happens:

 You ride this giant escalator down, down, down, far enough that you think you're about to enter the mouth of hell, and then it stops. The current metro system was built during the Stalin era, and it was conceived to function also as a bomb shelter and evacuation system. After riding the long, steep escalator of foreboding (not really, it's actually very fun- I loved people-watching and reading the advertisements; I could spend forever riding up and down and travelling on the metro system) you step off into this concrete hallway. Just when you think that maybe the shuffling masses around you might actually be bearing you to the flaming pit, the concrete opens up into something like this:

 This is underground. This is the equivalent of a subway station. The prettiest stations are on the brown line, which runs in a circle around the center of Moscow (basically in a circle around the Kremlin). Stalin gave the mandate that architecture of public spaces be beautiful and represent the glory of the unified Soviet ideals. So here's a lovely photospam of the different stations on the brown line circling of the Kremlin;

 There were a few more, and they were all really pretty, but I am terrible at taking pictures and for that I apologize. The ones I've missed were
-A station dedicated to Mendeleev. It had a giant carved portrait of him on the wall, and a periodic table of the elements below that highlighting the ones Mendeleev discovered or predicted.
-A station with a giant stone statue of Lenin
-A station with a giant stone statue of an explorer or someone (there was no English placard or anything, but he was holding something that looked like a map and a telescope)
- A station with a giant stained-glass wall
They were all incredibly beautiful. I really miss the Moscow metro. I mean, I miss all of Moscow, but I could spend all my time on the train system. It was so great. All the stations looked very different; my theory was that different architects/designers were hired and assigned a station, because you can really see different styles throughout the stations.