Communal apartment
[1] When the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917 after the October Revolution, to cope with the housing shortage, they nationalised luxurious apartment blocks[2] from rich people[3] to make them available to the proletariat.
[2] The term communal apartments emerged specifically in the Soviet Union,[4] kommunalkas became the predominant form of housing for generations.
Due to the outbreak of second world war, to the large population influxes from the countryside and a lack of investment in new housing, kommunalkas still exist in some former Soviet cities, such as Saint Petersburg.
[2] The first communal apartments appeared in the early 18th century, when rental lodging was partitioned by the landlords into "corners", often walk-through tiny dwellings.
This campaign was a response to popular demand for "better living conditions, single-family housing, and greater privacy"; Khrushchev believed that granting the people private apartments would give them greater enthusiasm for the communist system in place and that improving people's attitudes and living conditions would lead to a healthier and more productive workforce.
[10] However, the new apartments were built quickly, with an emphasis on quantity over quality,[11] and in underdeveloped neighborhoods, with poor systems of public transportation, making daily life harder for workers.
This was then followed by Brezhnevkas which were built taller, had larger apartments, and came with heretofore unavailable amenities such as elevators, interior bathrooms, garbage disposals and central heating systems.
Today in Russia, Soviet-style apartment blocks are still built and are termed "Novostroika"; they are often painted colorfully and have all modern amenities.
Most apartments were partitioned in a dysfunctional manner, creating "strange spaces, long corridors, and so-called black entrances through labyrinthine inner courtyards.
Neighbors were forced to interact with each other, and they knew nearly everything about each other, their schedules and daily routines, profession, habits, relationships and opinions, prohibiting any sense of privacy in the communal apartment.
[22] Some people resorted to denouncing their neighbours for their conviction in the fight against elements opposed to the Soviet government, others to obtain their room in case they were imprisoned.
It was not uncommon for people to refuse to move out because they needed the companionship and interaction that came from living in such a place, even the antagonism and adrenaline", but nowadays most residents have a negative attitude towards communal apartments.
