New Moscow metro opening deferred over fears that Dostoevsky images ‘could cause suicides’

MOSCOW - Moscow authorities have postponed the opening of a metro station named after painter-cum novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky over fears that his illustrations could turn the station into a “mecca for suicides”.

According to The Independent, the new station was decorated with black and white marble mosaics of scenes from Dostoevsky’s most famous novels, including Crime and Punishment, Demons, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov.

But unsurprisingly for a writer famously preoccupied with death, the scenes include images of suicide and murder.

On one wall, Rodion Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment brandishes an axe over the elderly pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna and her sister, his murder victims in the novel. Near by, a character from Demons holds a pistol to his temple.

The pictures quickly caused a sensation. Bloggers and websites called the images that appeared on the Internet in April “depressing” amid speculation that the images could attract suicides.

The opening of the station, which was meant to be today, has been put back indefinitely.

The metro has refused to comment but the daily Izvestia claims that it was the transport system’s chief who raised the question of changing the decorations when he visited the site last week. (ANI)