Communal apartment

Communal apartments (singular: Russian: коммуналка, коммунальная квартира, kommunalka, kommunal'naya kvartira) appeared in the Soviet Union following the Russian revolution of 1917. Communal apartments emerged as a response to a housing crisis in urban areas - authorities presented them as a product of the “new collective vision of the future”. Between two and seven families typically shared a communal apartment. Each family had its own room, which often served as a living room, dining room, and bedroom for the entire family. All the residents of the entire apartment shared the use of the hallways, kitchen (commonly known as the "communal kitchen"), bathroom and telephone (if any). The communal apartment became the predominant form of housing in the USSR for generations, and examples still exist in "the most fashionable central districts of large Russian cities".

In the 20th century, the Soviet Union undertook “intensive industrialization and urbanization,” shifting from eighty percent of the population living in rural villages and towns at the time of the Revolution, to nearly the same percentage living in cities by the 1990s. People were driven from the countryside by poverty, collectivization, and Soviet industrialization campaigns. This exodus put enormous pressure on existing urban housing accommodations. Communal apartments were one answer to the housing crisis, and many considered them a step up from the alternatives of housing communes, hostels and barracks.

Lenin conceived of the communal apartment, and drafted a plan to “expropriate and resettle private apartments” shortly after the Russian revolution. His plan inspired many architects to begin communal housing projects, to create a “revolutionary topography.” The communal apartment was revolutionary by “uniting different social groups in one physical space.” Furthermore, housing belonged to the government and families were allotted an extremely small number of square meters each.

After Stalin’s death in 1953, Khrushchev’s regime “embarked upon a mass housing campaign,” to eliminate the persistent housing shortages, and create private apartments for urban residents. 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. However, the new apartments were built quickly, with an emphasis on quantity over quality, and in underdeveloped neighborhoods, with poor systems of public transportation, making daily life harder for workers. These apartment blocks quickly became called ‘khrushchyoby,’ a cross between Khrushchev’s name and the Russian term for slums.

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