Microdistrict

Residential districts in most of the cities and towns in Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union were built in accordance with this concept.

Standards also regulated the accessibility of the public service buildings (excluding schools and pre-school facilities) by imposing a 500-meter (1,500–foot) limit as the farthest distance from any residential dwelling.

The exact number of buildings of each type depended on the distance requirement and the microdistrict's population density and was determined by means of certain per capita standards.

The system of the city block also required a developed network of roads, thus increasing the maintenance and construction costs and complicating the organization of public transportation.

Each microdistrict provided the people with facilities needed on a daily basis, whereas services in lesser demand were available on the residential-district level.

Humorous insights into the potential consequences of living in such a bland and repetitive atmosphere appear in the hugely popular Mosfilm production The Irony of Fate (1976).

After the economy was opened up more for commercial real estate developers, xiaoqu continued to be built in recent decades, but evolved in several ways such as differentiation in luxury, safety and available services.