After the subway bombings

It was an interesting week in Moscow after the subway bombings. It was a bit surreal for me, as up until 2 months ago, for several years every day I rode the subway line (the red, or sokol’nicheskaya line) on which the blasts occurred (and at the time they occurred). From my point of view inside Russia, Foreign Policy magazine published the best take on the aftermath of the story: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/03/30/the_moscow_bombings_dont_matter

With my blog being focused more on the economics of everyday life, I will turn to more prosaic, yet important details. Things returned to normal quite quickly, and it appears that Moscow reacted with amazing efficiency to the tragedy. One victim recalled that there were already ambulances outside the subway when he emerged seeking help (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/if-i-hadnt-gotten-out-id-be-dead/403099.html ). The city dispatched a multitude of free busses to help transport people diverted from subway, which had sections temporarily shut down; the Moscow metro carries anywhere up to 8 million passengers a day, with the red line carrying over 1 million, making it the 4th busiest line. The subway had resumed full service by evening hours.

Both the federal and city governments announced compensation payments for those injured or to the families of those killed in the attacks. A colleague who braved the commute following the blasts related that he saw the entire range of human reaction that you would see anywhere else in the world, ranging from sympathetic, cynical, hysterical, incredulous and finally merely annoyed at the massive inconvenience of the stalled morning commute.

I think Muscovites’ biggest reaction had to do with taxi drivers: there were accounts that they had charged 2-3 times more than usual to stranded passengers trying to get to work. It was such big news that Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church even publicly condemned the behavior. However, numerous people then came forward with tales of kind drivers ferrying people for free, and many people donated blood to help the victims. As a friend of mine said, these kinds of events bring out both the best and worst in people.

If you would like to speculate about the city’s reaction from automobile traffic, I can give you a recount: A friend who drives to work described the morning commute on Monday as busier than usual, with the evening commute eerily peaceful. Tuesday’s traffic was light all day, and Wednesday brought heavier than normal volumes all day.