I'd traveled to St Petersburg, Moscow and Tashkent last year precisely to satiate this fascination. Stayed in an Airbnb in central Moscow in an old soviet-style

I'd traveled to St Petersburg, Moscow and Tashkent last year precisely to satiate this fascination. Stayed in an Airbnb in central Moscow in an old soviet-style apartment (most of which are now luxury apartments with BMWs parked out front). The biggest difference was their approach to public infrastructure. The metro stations in all three cities are absolutely gorgeous. The trains are old and creaky, but the stations look like palaces (which is exactly what they wanted to create - "palaces for the people").