NBC: Moscow's Subway System Is Stalin's 'Palace for the People'

February 17th, 2014 3:11 PM

In a report aired on Monday's NBC Today from the Sochi Olympic games, correspondent Stephanie Gosk toured the Russian capital: "Moscow evokes powerful images. The Kremlin, Soviet leaders, the Red Army. But beyond the Cold War symbols, this city of 10 million people is a modern bustling metropolis..." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Later in the segment, Gosk described the city's subway system as "one of Moscow's hidden gems," even to the point of praising the ruthless Soviet dictator who created it: "Stalin promised the metro would be a palace for the people, and so it is. Open architecture, mosaics, even chandeliers."

Under the Soviet Union, estimates are that between 8.5 million and 50 million people died of starvation, politically-motivated murder and in forced labor camps.

During the Olympic opening ceremony on February 7, a gauzy NBC-produced profile of Russia described the nation's brutal Communist past as "the revolution that birthed one of modern history's pivotal experiments."