Kommunalka:
Traditio-
nal Soviet-Russian Living.
to be share. (Kommunalka: traditional Soviet-Russian living, 2013) Everyone was living in Kommunalka: labours, professors, unemployed and other higher professions; it is calculated for instance that in Leningrado were living the 70% of people in Kommunalka. There were particular rules to follow in order to increase the positive environment of the co-habitation, some of them decided by Russian authorities, like curfew for noises and light and how to divide bills and cleaning roots. (Zirulia, 2017). The kitchen was the place of meetings and gathering, the place of discussion and decision of the house. Despite the possible conflicts, there were also a big interaction and help between the residents: they were helping each other to look after the children and elderly, plus they were helping each other in difficult moments, like money need or the reaseach of a job. At the end of the 50’s in URSS many mass - housing were built, so that each family were able to have his own personal apartment, in the 90’s mostly of the Kommunalka were empty. Today Kommunalka are not disappear, a lot of Russian people still choose this form of living; around 260000 of people in St. Petersburg are still living in this type of accommodation. Most of the existing Kommunalka today had been renovated and a family can be able to have more than one room inside; moreover, the personal bedroom who was only rentable in the past, today can be owned. People who are living today are variable: elderly, who were living in the kommunalka since the past, young students or young workers who can not afford other type of apartments in the centre or people from emarginate categories and with social problems. The Kommunalka is in Russia a solution for who would like to meet other people, save money and live in the city centre.
(2013). [video]. Zirulia, P. (2017). Perché le kommunalki rendono Pietroburgo più attraente e come sono cambiate dai tempi sovietici.
Ce
lo
racconta
l’antropologo Il’ja Utechin.. [online] Russia in translation. Available at: http://russiaintranslation.com/2017/11/10/ perche-le-kommunalke-rendono-pietroburgo-piu-attraente-e-come-sono-cambiate-dai-tempi-sovietici-ce-lo-racconta-lantropologo-ilja-utechin [Accessed 3 Jan. 2019].
The Soviet State built The Narkomfin Building (Dom Narkomfin) in Moscow as reflection of the political and ideological idea of the regime. It was designed by Moisei Ginzburg and Ignatii Milinis in 1928, for the employees of the Commissariat of Finance; a social and architectonical experiment in order to transform the daily life of the people following principles of the socialist citizen. New values were at the base of the building: a common and shared life between a community, the revaluation of the traditional family, the new role of women in the society and the education of the children. The building was composed by two blocks, one containing the private units and the other one with the shared facilities and collective activities, plus a common garden in the centre of the space. The private part was located in the longest block; it was composed by apartments of two typologies, K Types, that include bedroom, washroom, toilets, a space for cooking for the children and the F Type which include only the bedroom, toilet and washroom. The shared facilities were a common kitchen, a dining space, a laundry room, a gym, a library and a
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Life inside a Kommunalka apartment
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