Housing the New Russia

摘要

When, in 1957, the Soviet President Nikita Khruschev pledged that all families would have a separate apartment, he launched not only the largest housing programme in history, but also signalled an emphatic shift away from reliance on kommunalka, the communal apartments in which several families would share kitchens, toilets and bathrooms. By the time the Soviet Union collapsed, one-quarter of urban households still did not enjoy the promised separate apartments, but the separate apartment was normalised and the idea that housing should be placed beyond the moral boundaries of the market had become entrenched.