How did planners design Soviet cities?

Watch this ad-free on Nebula: nebula.tv/videos/city-beautif...
Resources:
A. This video is a synthesis of the following sources:
-www.researchgate.net/profile/...
- Pille Metspalu & Daniel B. Hess (2018) Revisiting the role of architects in planning large-scale housing in the USSR: the birth of socialist residential districts in Tallinn, Estonia, 1957-1979, Planning Perspectives, 33:3, 335-361, DOI: 10.1080/02665433.2017.1348974
- www.citylab.com/equity/2017/0...
- www.rbth.com/longreads/khrush...
Produced by Dave Amos in sunny Sacramento, California.
Edited by Eric Schneider in cloudy Cleveland, Ohio.

[@FuchsiaShocked]

"Kitchens were tiny" *shows a kitchen twice the size of the one I share with four other tenants here in the UK*

[@floodland80s]

Lmao

[@natalienm5445]

@Vladimir "...live on the streets?" - like Americans do... БОМЖИ не по своей воле... Да уж, а я раньше мечтала там жить, вот дурко:)

[@WeMuckAround]

My bedroom is double the size of my kitchen in my student house haha

[@LastBastion]

@Vladimir not really, one housing at communist countries can hold three generations of family at one time

[@user-tc9sk4ei9y]

@@LastBastion what makes you think a capitalist housing couldn't hold three generations of family? Look at India, Mexico, Brazil or any other capitalist, but non top-of-the-ladder economic predator country. Not to mention you actually project post-communist experience on a communist country.

[@dia6474]

Ngl the micro-district hits really different when you're a kid. I remember it being so fun when all of the kids gathered in the park in the middle and we would play.

[@brotpros2306]

As if kids didn't play in suburban playgrounds? Now playgrounds are replaced with parking spaces because "genius" Soviet planners didn't expect that poor Soviet people would all own a car. And Russian cities are now also impossible to navigate without a car because of terrible public transportation.

[@emilyk8719]

It’s interesting that you say that because that’s what any American who was raised between 1950 and 1980 will say about the suburbs too! I’m really interested in studying and learning about the differences and similarities between American and Soviet mid-century life, and it’s crazy how, in so many ways, they kind of seem to be two sides of the same coin (that being said, there’s a lot that that sentiment does not apply to, as well, so I really hope that you don’t take this comment as being belittling or over-simplified at all!)

[@NikELbErGErBergel]

@@brotpros2306 bro the soviets dont exist any more... if you want to blame current lack in public transportation on someone blame it on the current regime and who tf even said anything about suburbs

[@brotpros2306]

@@NikELbErGErBergel Kid, I'm not your "bro". Soviet planners were terrible this is why there are huge traffic jams in each Russian city and they are impossible to live in without a car. They also destroyed all historic looks of Russian cities, they look the same. As for suburbs, I was responding to comment above implying as if micro-district is the only form of city planning where kids can gather - now in Russia all kids are behind a screen because playgrounds are replaced by parking spaces. At least the Scandinavins were smart enough to build underground parking in their 60s-70s projects...

[@retardedfishfrogs1]

@@brotpros2306 That's on the system in the sense that everyone owning a car is a US thing. Appropriate public transport would alleviate that. It's Russia now being more like the west and atomizing its citizens that has led to this, not bad city planning as most still active socialist countries rely on public transport.

[@TheMattastic]

When I compare this to the state of housing in the UK this kind of urban planning honestly sounds like a dream.

[@PoznanPiatkowo]

Important thing was that the blocks were all unfenced, if you left the house you found yourself immediately surrounded by open alleys and greenery like in a park, wchich always was close by. The streets were never in the way, only small ones to get to the parking lots, so you didn't really worry about cars. I never had more than 5 minutes way to the store, to school, to the park, to any playing field. And we kids all knew each other even from different blocks because we were running around all over the place. I only appreciate it now that I'm older and living in a deeply fenced part of town favoring cars and streets above all else. It's a nightmare.

[@Mutanninja]

Only problem was in a lot of the soviet union the trees were only green for a short part of the year.

[@cypdashuhn1603]

@@Mutanninja that's not something you could change.

[@thatguyoverthere9634]

@@cypdashuhn1603 true but that's probably why 99% of the time these housing districts look so depressed and desolate. That's compounded by the buildings exterirors rarely being cleaned or maintained properly meaning they are mostly a dull murky grey/white.

[@Afdch]

​@@thatguyoverthere9634 if one doesn't do basic maintenance for 30 years, yes buildings look very dirty. but in recent years many of those houses have been renovated, thermal seams refit, windows replaced and made uniform, walls cleaned and repainted. and what can you say, it looks really neat then.

[@gnas1897]

@@Mutanninja I don't think this is a "Soviet Union" exclusive problem...

[@Vitaly__-hq2oq]

We have so much land in Russia - we build skyscrapers HORISONTALLY

[@kira22.12]

then those aren't skyscrapers but groundscrapers lol

[@Vitaly__-hq2oq]

@@kira22.12 WIDE SKYSCRAPERS just like Putin

[@kira22.12]

@@Vitaly__-hq2oq lmao, exactly.

[@neoconwarhawk1001]

Russia dose not have that much land you can build on.

[@TheManinBlack9054]

@@neoconwarhawk1001 nice name you've got there

[@andyvalentine9791]

The key thing here is that they promised housing for everyone, and kept their promise. The houses were not pretty, but they served their purpose.

[@fragglegir9811]

but building look bad, they were also the red bad guys in bond movies

[@user-rw6xo9jc3n]

@@fragglegir9811 LMAOOOO

[@ShinSheel]

It's just intuition that says those houses were cheap solution for poor, in USSR they were upper-middle class housing just too expensive to ever fit for all. Mentioned Moscow and Leningrad were explicitly two cities where USSR kept the highest standard of living it could ever achieve so at least most of citizens lived in such blocks. In general these blocks were for the more wealthy 40% of society. Even at the best plans to 2020 USSR didn't hope to replace all defunct housing with block buildings from the video. Also, one third of people lived in countryside in outright favelas, government never built even the cheapest housing for them while forbidding any private building companies, so people lived in just what they did with hands from random materials(typically cowshit, straw and clay on south)

[@apestogetherstrong341]

@@ShinSheel this is simply not true, USSR built more and faster in Moscow because of its population and because Moscow was a central. Housing however was a solution for everyone. Everyone got free housing.

[@pedroSilesia]

Of course it is a naive statement and generalist to large extend. Blocks were extremely poorly made, once they gave you keys to it, you had a crew fixing it. Blocks are very ugly and cities with many similar blocks look depressing. Very often what was happening, entire parts of old towns were demolished just to build new blocks. I was born in Eastern Europe so I know how crappy their planning was.

[@ilia9048]

Hi from Siberia!) will add two things: 1) in the Soviet microrayons each house has a yard - a place with many trees for children to play and adults to communicate. Now many yards are filled with cars, but in my childhood, children played different games in the yards - there were slides, horizontal bars, a sandbox, etc., and adults played chess, dominoes, just talked; 2) on the territory of Soviet schools there is always not only the school building - there is a stadium, alleys, horizontal bars, etc - children and adults could walk and play, in winter they went skiing on the school grounds. Visiting cities in Europe and the USA, I was surprised that parents are forced to take their children to a park by car so that they can play - because there are no such yards and schools near the houses.

[@Frivals]

Capitalism stupidity. And they think they are the best and free.

[@keiralum1797]

I wonder why no one mentions the number of libraries in each microdistrict? We still have them - fortunately, capitalism has not yet reached them. Only in my area I have 3 libraries for adults and 2 for children around the corner.

[@Silver_Crow2295]

​@@keiralum1797 bcs of propaganda you will never hear something good that are from is not from the western states(usa,eu,nato).....

[@luizcastellar]

yeah, love the desdcription. i guess it was afordable too. here in brazil i live in a rental apartament, wich cost 1/5 of my income and i dont evn get to know my neighbors. its crazy to see westerners describing soviet housing in a demeanor way when all we see around are the concept of "tiny house", "tiny loft"and even people who lives in a car or so.

[@angryyordle4640]

I don't know where to europe you went, but where I live there's definitely small parks everywhere. I think the absence of parks is mainly in the really dense metropolitan areas of places like Paris or Rome. The US has this problem much more than europe, because their cities were designed around single family houses and car traffick. They absolutely lack public spaces, but have a higher rate of private gardens due to their large suburbs

[@jimmyl7511]

Well I moved from the UK to Moscow and Live in a Khrushcheyovka on an old Soviet period block, I can tell you, it's amazingly convenient and really green, you really come to appreciate it, it grows on you!

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

Just put color in bulding .🎉Made new

[@olehfeia]

“Moved from UK to Moscow” - what a prominent stupidity. You pay taxes and sponsor the war and genocide of Ukrainians.

[@Windwond]

I've been in a Kruszczew style communist estate in Warsaw for a year. I hate it.

[@davidfeltheim2501]

Mid century Soviet Union: Duplicated apartment blocks Mid century United States: Duplicated suburban houses

[@judsongaiden9878]

Communist conformity versus capitalist conformity.

[@leonardticsay8046]

Where is non-conformity less punished, celebrated even? Though our non-conformists demand conformity. Figures, yeah?

[@yang8244]

@@judsongaiden9878 that wasnt capitalist conformity, it was government planned and executed. Conformity is what happens when government is allowed reign.

[@josephc2801]

Current United States*

[@chingizzhylkybayev8575]

Yeah I'd pick a suburban house over an apartment any day

[@williamduke9630]

Imagine having your kids go to a school that's only five minutes away, by foot! Unthinkable in the US. It's crazy how we don't even realize how much valuable life time we waste with driving and traffic.

[@Sofia-hr8nd]

I was living in stalinka until my 17 years, my school and kindergarten were less than 5 minutes away))

[@Turbo_TechnoLogic]

Exactly. It does have its upsides. And in general to plan for the people to go out and socialize, not to live separated in their lairs. In Hungary I had my pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and elementary school all within 10 mins of walk, like all of my friends.

[@blanco7726]

Do small towns exist in the US? Like 5-20k with a center that has a couple shops, restaurants etc. Or is it all suburbs and cities?

[@williamduke9630]

@@blanco7726 Of course such towns exist, but they aren't densely populated, so you still need to drive a lot.

[@MyrMerek]

I couldnt understand why in america you had school buses when I was a kid since I had 2 schools across the street.

[@samolitheerd]

From the video, it may seem like living in such environment would be a dream to this day, but since the collapse of Soviet Union, some governments of the newly independent republics had no resources and time to maintain those buildings, and people still live in 50 to 70 year old houses without any renovation. Source: I live in a former soviet state, Kazakhstan.

[@rag4877]

yes, it is yet another instance of capitalism killing post soviet countries

[@DostoenVnimaniay]

The Government of Kazakhstan has the resources to buy houses in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Turkey.

[@gladiatorone9023]

@@DostoenVnimaniay almost every government in post Soviet countries has resources to buy houses in Western Europe and US. But they don't have resources for their own countries

[@DostoenVnimaniay]

@@gladiatorone9023 They have resources. They have no desire.

[@Frivals]

This type of blocks planning is a luxury in capitalistic countries. And you forgot the silence and relaxing atmosphere like in a village, instead of noisy traffic 24 hours

[@carlosfromearth]

I LOVE THE MICRO DISTRICT IDEA!! That’s so brilliant to have your housing and amenities within walking distance. Imagine having a public transportation system taking you from that cozy place to work and back? That would be incredible!! Cars would become non necessities!

[@lefunnyN1]

from one concrete and asbestos tower to another concrete and asbestos tower in a dirty bus, that's the reality

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

​@@lefunnyN1and can survive tank attacks, unlike usa paper houses

[@lefunnyN1]

@@carkawalakhatulistiwa hello sirs actually those commie blocks crumble when exposed to high stress, do you have indoor plumbing tho?

[@elweewutroone]

“Kitchens were tiny” HK Resident: *LAUGHS IN HONG KONG*

[@alexmax8979]

Russians expect large kitchens. They don't understand what the rest of the world isn't looking like suburban America.

[@dirzz]

You'd be surprised, how many are pretty similar to HK ones in size. Also HK is small, population is large. How big was Russia again?

[@dirzz]

@Царь Батюшка I'm not going to argue with you when you clealy lying by showing me a building made in 1991 (not 70s) with high class custom designed appartment which less than 15% of people in Russia can afford.

[@dirzz]

​@Царь Батюшка Reread my initial comment. I didn't lie, because that's not what I said. More typical building series is Khrushchyovka which has kitchens around 5 square meter in size. Which is a new standart for HK kitchen sizes. I merely pointed out that in Russia - which is incredibly big, you somewhat think that it's justified to compare it to one of the most densely populated areas in the world with tiny land area.

[@monopalisa619]

@@dirzz Singapore is smaller but they handle their housing issues 10x better than HK

[@lendglif]

as one who live in a khrushchevka, when i first launched The Sims i was very confused that kitchen and dinner should be two different room, lol

[@phobos2077_]

Воистину ))

[@AggelosKyriou]

That's the norm outside of North America. Unless we're speaking about the upper classes

[@lantzreinheld9072]

Kruznetsov

[@JoeyvanLeeuwen]

for most working class, table is in the kitchen

[@silviasanchez648]

I would be very confused to and I don't live in a Soviet era building.

[@1merkur]

I grew up in Yugoslavia, which had similar housing policies, now living in the West. The apartments in Eastern Europe were equal size as the ones in the West of that time, and bigger than the newly built Western ones. Also, in the socialist countries I never saw an apartment without a hallway/entry room, which is so widespread in the West (entering directly into the living room). Next, no building put a shade to another, even if you lived on the first floor you had sunshine...nowadays, with urban mafias, it's all stack next to each other. I'm grateful to have experienced that lifestyle, new generations will never know what they missed.

[@ArunPunnathatta]

Breaking that system was easy...

[@benjaminpolitics]

@@ArunPunnathatta And the current system is on the way of destruction...

[@chompythebeast]

@birdsofkerala-in Behold the defensive anxiety of the sociopath who prefers competition to cooperation

[@1merkur]

That system didn't break. The country fell apart due to nationalists' wars.

[@CinCee-]

​@@1merkur✔️🎯

[@DanelRahmani]

My mothers family lived in one of these microdistricts in Kabul called makroyan. It was built in the 60's by the soviets and I've been to makroyan in Kabul and the houses still stand up remarkably well despite their age and the war that devestated Afghanistan. It definitely still is the best place to live within in Kabul in my opinion as it actually has some greenery and is less buzy and poluted that the rest of the city, i do think these microdistricts could serve as a way of solving the housing shortage which many countries have without destroying traffic but I highly doubt that most governments are competent enough to do such a thing without either completely undercutting the amount of public transport or taking an eternity to complete it

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

What you think about Soviet Afgan. the pick of Afganistan gdp percapital

[@AN-nr2ee]

A Russian here. The cities and such planning really give your place a unique atmosphere, it is hard to explain. Imagine coming outside of your house and wishing 5 minutes of walking you can get to your school, play soccer with your friends outside, and go grocery shopping It is very common for kids to play soccer outside and then hear your mom calling you out of the window for dinner :)))

[@user-df9iy1sn9v]

Я думаю планировка советских районов действительно очень удачная. Если бы не депрессивный вид, было бы вообще шикарно. Еще можно было бы в центре каждого подобного района создать что то типо мини делового центра, и на окраинах - производства, что бы не обязательно надо было ездить в центр на работу, и перегружать транспорт в направлении центра и окраин.

[@LeonserGT]

​@@user-df9iy1sn9v имхо, депрессивный вид у них стал сейчас, начиная с перестройки об этих (да и вообще всех походу) зданиях никак особо не заботились, не облагораживали, не поддерживали внешний вид. Ладно еще лихие 90-е, но что за упорное игнорирование этого и сейчас я не очень понимаю, в микрорайоне где я вырос, построенный в начале 90х, уже сейчас здания выглядят всрато. Обратный пример - сейчас живу в Праге, тут многие эти советские панельки знатно облагородили, переделали фасад и вообще крайне приятными сделали, покрасили разноцветно, привели в ухоженный вид, глаз радуется, хотя внутри видно что по сути те же хрущевки

[@user-df9iy1sn9v]

@@LeonserGT И тогда то же не норм они выглядели. Однообразные бетонные (ладно кирпичные) коробки. Ну а сейчас они еще почернели, обросли убогими балконами. В нашем городе с ними хоть что то пытаются сделать, обустривают дворы, и улицы напротив них, меняют крыши и стекло, облицовывают этой штучкой (хз как называется), но большинство конечно не тронуто с тех времен. Но тенденция к улучшннию есть.

[@harshalgurav7474]

Lovely. I wish to get a chance to live in such a settlement.

[@user-df9iy1sn9v]

@@harshalgurav7474 What do you like in it?

[@Michas333]

-This sounds familiar... **looks out of the window** -Oh yeah, that's why!

[@karpuzlufuzetea6868]

Lmao

[@FIoydMayweather]

Yeah dude that's the sad truth I feel at home everywhere in the soviet union, there are different countries now but it's all the same shit 🤷‍♂️

[@josephgeorge5741]

Yeah, but is it guaranteed to everyone to get one?

[@jehorberlizew4954]

@@josephgeorge5741 not anymore))

[@Sodomizxr]

me as a east-german lmao

[@ArizonaJewell]

I actually really like the planning put into the city design. Having everything available on foot sounds seriously awesome, and making and keeping the commitment to provide housing for all is a noble idea.

[@adrianstere]

As a guy from Romania 🇷🇴 I used to hate this socialist blocks (or communist blocks as we call them here.) I was believe they look horrible with no design at all. However, after I start to travel to Europe and I saw that even in Sweden they was have them I start to appreciate them more. Nowadays in Romania we paint them and refurbished them so they look a bit better I saw this in Poland too. But of course if you don’t maintain them after 40 years they will look horrible (grey and depressing) and that’s not the communist regime fault! It’s the fault of the regimes that follow after and didn’t bother to even paint them! However the apartments are quite cozy inside. Let’s be honest, in this times most of the people in Europe they don’t afford a real mansion anyway so they are quite ok for me. Also people who are bitching about so much tend to forget something: this apartments in Romania they use to be for FREE! Not to say that after the fall of the communist regime the government decided to sell the ones still in the state property with a value of 2 fucking Romanian salaries back then! Try now to buy an apartment with 2 salaries! It’s one of the things communists did good that explain why Romania has the highest ownership rate of apartments in all Europe. It’s because of this communist apartments. In this days you won’t get a cola for free! Back then the government was much more interested in everyone having a home and a job and less interested in the architecture/design style. Being a homeless is much worse than having a small apartment and a job! Also I like that this communists blocks have gardens around them with trees and small parks, grocery stores, schools, etc. basically there is a community there. Which I don’t find with the new ones this days that they remove as much is possible from space around in order to cut the costs! No trees, no parks, basically a prison type of building! Yeah, and people blame the communist?! What’s the point to start building mansions with beautiful design that cost 100.000€ if no one can afford them anyway?!

[@datpudding5338]

Well the bigger portion of people arguing against what you tell seem to be believing that it is completely normal that some dude - who's making more money per week than actual working people make in a year - just buys real estate to plant some ginormous mansion for himself and then only resides in it like 30 days a year while having this plot of land und 24/7 surveillance. For these people it's absolutely legitimate that those rich boys most of the time didn't do shit to get their starting capital but were just born into a family which already was wealthy to begin with - often this wealth is accumulated by exploitation, tax evasion and outright fraud. I mean they shall think what they want but just because they live in a mindset that's effectively just a sequel to feudalistic structures of the past doesn't mean they're right to force their beliefs onto everyone else...

[@yashvardhanojha6796]

👍👍

[@trondsjafjell4656]

AMEN TO THAT!!

[@SJRS700]

this destroys the economy and have severe effects, if you cater to the poor, it destroys the economy and the world

[@datpudding5338]

@@SJRS700 and that's where you're wrong.

[@nikisuc]

I'm a Russian urban researcher focusing on constructivism and living in Moscow. Your narrative is surprisingly exact, neutral and not ideologically coloured about the Soviet architecture like other American stories. I really appreciate it. Your example with the movie is very useful to understand the Soviet approach. It was a real solution of the housing deficit at that time.

[@nikob1712]

How did y’all build houses in the country side if there wasn’t any private property. Like if you build a log cabin, did it have to be approved by some government dude in some far away city, or was the private property ban relaxed in the country side?

[@nameq]

@@nikob1712 you had to join a gardening comradeship (садоводническое товарищество) or a country cooperative (дачный кооператив). It wasn't anarchy there, "dacha" was pretty solid private property and was a subject of discussion.

[@ornekali]

Niko B , Private property is a huge term, what was abolished in Socialism was private property over the means of production. Not your car or shoes

[@zsg87]

@@nikob1712 there were private houses, you could build a house yourself if you didn't want to wait in line for state individual housing (an interest-free loan was given), the USSR did not prohibit having individual housing in the property. My grandfather built a two-story house in 1970 in the village.

[@tokarev3094]

@@nikob1712 in Marxist terms, Private Property is something one owns which generates wealth (factory, hotel, restaurant, etc) Personal Property is something one owns, but does not generate wealth (house, clothes, bicycle, etc) Private Property was abolished in the USSR and replaced with Public ownership.

[@einarbye821]

I think it is important to mention that a huge part of the Soviet union was in total ruins after the war. Building a lot of identical and pragmatic buildings probably was the best solution to get dwellings to everyone fast. I would think so anyway. I really don't know.

[@maria.5974]

absolutely correct.

[@spinecho609]

Honestly we have the same thing in the UK, just vast wasteful suburbs with individual houses for nuclear families

[@theblackestvoid]

completely correct. Application of material conditions etc Despite that the buildings were very well built.

[@user-ho1eq4jq8h]

Moreover, there was also fast urbanisation in this century. USSR had housing problem before the war had started. And a consistent way to solve the problem appeared only in 50-60-s, where relevant machinery was developed. Many early chrushjovkas were build by hands of bricklayers, lol.

[@MrKeserian]

@@user-ho1eq4jq8h It's fascinating, and I love the concept of the micro-district that's connected to other micro districts/areas by mass transit. It also shows why private car ownership was a luxury in the Soviet Union, versus a necessity in the US. It also highlights why the sudden fall of communism created so much societal disorder. So, businesses invariably try to centralize to take advantage of economies of scale. That efficiency loss doesn't really matter when all of your stores and services are state owned: they aren't profit making enterprises, they're public services like the Police or water. But, once you switch them to bring privately owned (and my understanding is that this happened *very* quickly in the Russian Federation), profit becomes a primary factor and is going to favor centralization and the loss of some services from a great many areas. On top of that, private ownership now means no one is carefully balancing what stores and services are where. So if you relied on teh micro-district next to you having (I'm pulling random business out of my head) a barber shop, and that shop closes, just about anything could replace it. I mean, supply and demand will eventually balance everything back out, but the downside of a free market economy is that it takes a long time (years) for that process to balance out supply and demand.

[@UdarRusskihPudgei]

Quick note: Khrushchovkas' prototype was designed in France, and still can be seen in some cities, that were affected by WW2, like Brest. Also, keep in mind, that modern photos of Khrushchovkas you see are.. modern photos of buildings that were built in ~1970s and stood with no upkeep for 20 years following the fall of USSR. Same buildings in former GDR aged much better.

[@NatBKiev]

Khrushchovkas was built before 1970. I guess you are talking about Brezhnevkas. Yes, they look extremely ugly. But some homes get renovations. After renovations it looks pretty

[@QnA22]

They may have stood, but the amount of electricity and gas required to have a normal life in an apartment is too costly in the current age. I worked on modernizing these buildings in Kyiv from 2013 to 2018. The buildings required some structural improvements, but it was possible, in that economical climate, to improve the buildings in a cost efficient manner. However, the people living in those buildings had to pay a relatively small amount to have their building improved. It was noticeable that in areas where Russia had crushed the people more, getting these projects going was near impossible. Inhabitants who now we're owners of those buildings, still were of the opinion that the state has to pay it for them. Not just 80%. Kyiv was easy, Holodomor areas less so.

[@UdarRusskihPudgei]

@@QnA22 Outside of typical 'Russia did it' argument, modern Ukraine had (and afaik still has) a shitty communal law that requires you to have written approval from 100% of building's owners to form a Homeowner Association and manage your building together. This includes owners of commercial premises like shops or offices located in this building. And a typical commieblock building can have up to 1000 flats with 1000 separate owners. And single one can ruin all your efforts. So, most buildings are still managed by the descendants of Soviet state communal management companies, but now they work on commercial basis, i.e. extracting profit. No surprise owners don't want to do anything with their building and wait that city or state does it for them - it is legally impossible to do anything.

[@NatBKiev]

@@QnA22 That's true. Our bills for small apartament (45 sq.m.) in khruschovka were the same as we pay now for big appartament (100 sq.m.) in new house (built around 2010). And it's much warmer here in winter. Lost of heat in khruschevka is insane

[@xDSqxRazoRx]

@@QnA22 Central heating wipes out the need for electrical heating, you should look at the bills a private home generates.

[@JohnSmith-kd6ip]

I grew up in East Germany, so I am familiar with "Neubau" buildings on the edge of cities. My family used to live in a "Altbau" (from the late 1800s) neighborhood. Many of them were run down, but major streets had a variety of specialized stores. People were split about the Soviet style buildings that popped up in the 70s and 80s. Sure, they were ugly and were seen as chicken coops. But they had central heating. Many people preferred that over carrying coal from the cellars to heat multiple room ovens every day in the winter.

[@user-sr6pi5lp3q]

From late 1800th?

[@kebabremover970]

I have seen the renovation project of these panel buildings in Germany, they look great. I'm sure if the USSR had taken the 'socialism with a human face' route, things would look great now.

[@yaelz6043]

The Russians rebuilt all of Europe and in thanks all they got was a 4th reich. They should have wiped the place out.

[@Shurikova666]

When I watch American films about Russia, one thing strikes me: why are Russian cities shown with a gray light filter? Believe me, even Soviet cities were colored. We also have sunny and hot summers.)))

[@arturomartinez462]

Same with the sepia filter when portraying Mexico.

[@Shurikova666]

@@arturomartinez462 It is interesting how American producers and screenwriters are able to influence the perception of color by operators.. I think they regulate it with the size of the fee and words about American patriotism.

[@johnsmith-nv4sb]

Not enough time. Winter in Russia long. There is no filter. The same can be seen on Google Street view

[@livethefuture2492]

you know its actually funny, when portraying deserts like Arizona or New Mexico ,they add this yellowish filter, but then when i actually visited the place, i had half-expected that yellowish tinge everywhere, but it was actually just normal.

[@screwyouchris]

Because "Russia bad and cold. Nobody happy in Russia or USSR. Only death and oppression. But America never do this. That why we have colors."

[@somerandomguy4919]

The Soviet Union was playing City skylines with Cheats

[@deathbygrapes5]

You can achieve this without mods, just zone grids the same size buildings. Or using copy paste on Move It or plopping the same building over and over

[@9kaart]

Citizen: "complains about smt" USSR: "GO TO GULAG"!!!

[@MyNameIsEarl42]

@@deathbygrapes5 "you can do it without mods. Just use this mod to do it"

[@prototype_585]

more like workers and resources: soviet republic

[@someguy4512]

@@prototype_585 well yeah that's the goal of the game so yeah

[@FATHOLLYWOODB123]

Everyone said they were ugly, so I developed a love for the Brutalist and Modernist style of architecture they used to build Soviet housing. I know the ones Brezhnev built in the 70s and 80s were better than the ones Khrushchev built in the 60s, and had things like bathrooms, central heating, elevators, proper garbage disposals, and ofc bigger apartments, but I would live in both! I hear they are really cheap to rent today also! hahaha

[@marius4iasi]

growing up in one, i can confirm they are ugly and depressing AF. It's not about the building itself, it's about the lack of character that makes people have no respect for their oen home. It's the philosophy of it that make the people living in it not care for the buiding at all, but only for their own 4 walls.

[@slvaltva1392]

@@marius4iasi I dunno, I spent half of my childhood in suburban and half in a city like this and it never was ugly or depressing for me. In fact this kind of architecture always had this unexplainable romantic feel for me. I still love to walk around the streets when I visit eastern europe and look at cool buildibgs of that period, trying to guess when they were built, noticing small details like different balconies looking different, unusually designed front doors and such. It's the modern buildings that look dull to me. With older buildings like that it is always obvious that despite trying to build something effective, the architectors still dreamed, still wanted to add something unique, not just to sell it better, but to make it look better, that's beside the small changes that every person living the apartment added something, truly giving it personality. I guess it's not for everyone, but to people like me who like to change things around them

[@MyVanir]

@@marius4iasi I remember rather liking living in such a building as a child, the lack of character was ameliorated by having a fuckton of greenery and places to play in around it.

[@Frivals]

This type of blocks planning is a luxury in capitalistic countries. And you forgot the silence and relaxing atmosphere like in a village, instead of noisy traffic 24 hours

[@l.a.s8274]

​@@marius4iasiThey are way better than most apartments we can rent for U$400 here in Brazil. And have the advantage of some growing trees in between the buildings. For me, this is like a dream.

[@Wanes3110]

I'm from Russia. I received two apartments from my grandmother in a nine-story building built in 1963.The house was a cooperative (loan) and for 10 years you could pay for it, in addition to cooperative houses there were also free houses, and while you are in line you are given a hostel

[@00crashtest]

Since you're stuck in them for many generations anyway, do you just make the best out of what you have and try to improve the environment by treating your neighbors (who are all stuck in the same boat as you) with dignity and respect, as "one with them", and as inseparable priceless assets (despite the noise and footsteps) by being best friends with them, always playing with them, and prefer and enjoy them to be there, or do they think your neighbors are burdens and would rather not have them there but the building still there so you get more space? So do you enjoy and prefer to live lifelong and multigenerational (sharing the building with your neighbors and their children for generations to come) in your condo (most Eastern Europeans own their unit) in a microdistrict, or would you rather live in a spacious leafy suburb with single-family houses or even on a grand farm house if you could freely choose and money was not a factor? Are you relaxed and totally satisfied from living in an osiedle? Also, how is your relationship with all the neighbors who totally surround you in super close proximity cheek-by-jowl? Do you think they are priceless assets with whom you enjoy, have great social activities frequently, and prefer to be with them, or do think they are burdens and wish they were not there but the building was so you get extra space? So do you enjoy and prefer to live lifelong and multigenerational (sharing the building with your neighbors and their children for generations to come) in your condo (most Eastern Europeans own their unit) in a microdistrict, or would you rather live in a spacious leafy suburb with single-family houses or even on a grand farm house if you could freely choose and money was not a factor? Are you relaxed and totally satisfied from living in an osiedle? Also, how is your relationship with all the neighbors who totally surround you in super close proximity cheek-by-jowl? Do you think they are priceless assets with whom you enjoy, have great social activities frequently, and prefer to be with them, or do think they are burdens and wish they were not there but the building was so you get extra space?

[@Wanes3110]

@@00crashtest In this house, many tenants have already changed and are constantly changing, buying an apartment.Personally, I'm tired of the city, but I live in the city only because of work

[@annasolovyeva1013]

@@00crashtest you usually make the best out of the flat inside, but rarely do something to the common property. Neighbours... There are different people, we're friends with some, not friends with others and so on As for a surburb - definitely not in our climate. I mean you can use the yard only half a year, have to clean snow and maintain all around the year, outdoor pool is useless, and maintaining a private house in Russia is both expensive and worrying unless you have a billion dollars and have servants and guards for your palace.

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Soviet cities? We’re one step closer to you talking about Pyongyang

[@aeugenegray]

You devil Un, I knew youd end up on YT eventually.

[@CityBeautiful]

I'm getting there...

[@justyouraveragegamer8733]

City Beautiful I love your channel!

[@blaepic3693]

Yes!!! Kimmy we havnt seen you in a while!

[@12kenbutsuri]

Calm down, un.

[@user-ms7gt2km5f]

"Kitchens were tiny, only 6 square metres" ,,, cries in British housing

[@Galvion1980]

British renters shouldn't pay rent to their landlords, British landlords should pay compensation to their renters.

[@GRANOLA77]

6 square meters seems like a decent size. Then again I'm American.

[@LeoMkII]

@@GRANOLA77 hahaha

[@agme8045]

Granola77 yeah 6 square meters is actually a pretty good size for a kitchen in an apartment

[@GRANOLA77]

@Vassilios Pupkios Yeah the picture they showed gave me the idea

[@giannismaratos7030]

Hello. A Greek living in Cephalonia island in Greece who has visited Gomel,Belarus six times (to spend time with my in laws). I live in 52 sqm,they live in 62 SQM. And the 10sqm difference feels like 20-25 because the effectiveness of the Brezhnev era flat they live is great. It's a 1978 building ,looking scruffy on the outside but tip top on the inside... Great and very informative video by the way....

[@mrsmerily]

yeah, you forgot to mention how you can hear your neigbour fart in the night as well ;)

[@ElmiSpektr]

Actually Soviet cities are perfectly positioned (better than most cities in the West) for green transition. They are designed to be dense (hence can be much more efficiently heated), in places where they have been preserved, they are orders of magnitude greener in terms of surface area dedicated to greenery, they encourage walking (hence less car traffic), socializing and sharing. In Eastern Europe they have started retrofitting these buildings with elevators when none existed in the original plan and adding more insulation. In right hands, Soviet cities can be turned into amazing places to live, and are hidden gems of city planning waiting to be rediscovered. P.S. When watching this film pay attention to how few of the images of Soviet cities are shot in spring and summer, most of them are shown during the winter where they look more derelict than they actually are. This is an old tradition in the West.

[@MasterPetrik]

Wow, being Russian myself I was surprised by this video neutral non-political view and factual correctness of all data. You can literally see how deep digging work autor did here. This is really a great overview, thanks!

[@TrampMachine]

IKR? It's so hard to find anything that provides just an objective fact based analysis of Soviet life. 30 years later and the west still froths at the mouth if something even just neuteral is said.

[@masteryoba359]

Even claiming to be non-political, the author makes the mistake of saying that the big Stalinkas were only for the party elite. This is simply impossible, given how many of them were actually built, especially in large cities. In reality, both party members and citizens of the "middle class", as we are now saying, lived in them.

[@MrPaukann]

@@masteryoba359, yes, but it's the only one. There were Stalinka dorms (hotels) build for party members, actually, I've been to one.

[@TrampMachine]

@Skyle Andria I'd say Soviet Architecture beats the hell out of mass US homelessness.

[@elodgyori8793]

yes but the middle class still lived much better lives than the working class, simply because of the amount of comformity they showed towards the system, which in turn rewarded them.

[@ElisabethHarmand]

I live in a rather small soviet style neighborhood in Tallinn, Estonia and it's very interesting to see in here how the older side of the neighborhood has Stalinka style buildings and how they gradually change to the Khrushcheyovka style and in the other end of the neighborhood there are also some high rise towers. However most of these houses are now very nicely renovated and don't look anything like the ones showed in the video!

[@CityBeautiful]

Glad to hear that they've been renovated!

[@jbjaguar2717]

@@CityBeautiful I don't know about Russia, but in former Warsaw-Pact countries the Communist era housing has been massively renovated in many cases, with buildings covered in bright colours. It's actually really pleasant to look at. Although that's definitely not ubiquitous, it's mainly true in capital cities.

[@TheBombson]

​@@jbjaguar2717 the only way to renovate that tho really is to knock it down am I not right?

[@hanbanaroda]

"Panelák" in Czechia are renovated too with bright colors. The flats are quite often merging into a bigger ones so it fits todays needs. You can either have huge 140m2 flat in this type of building or build small 100m2 house, its really not that bad nowaydays. But the acoustic though...

[@jakubzaloha7147]

hanbanaroda czechia? né to ne. prosím. aspoň czech republic. 😂

[@rezap1356]

I lived in these apartments in Kazakhstan (4 different cities) over 7 years. The renovated old ones were generally much better than the apartments newly completed.

[@Frivals]

This type of blocks planning is a luxury in capitalistic countries. And you forgot the silence and relaxing atmosphere like in a village, instead of noisy traffic 24 hours

[@rezap1356]

@@Frivals totally agree. The insulation did wonders. You made me realise I lived next to main roads but never had noise problem.

[@user-dk3jf9tm8i]

The Soviet system had many shortcomings, but also many advantages. 1. Citizens received these apartments from the state for free. 2. Initially, the houses are connected to central heating. Therefore, the temperature in the apartment at 23 degrees Celsius in winter is the norm for Russians. At the same time, heating is cheap. Many Europeans can only dream of this. 3. Cities were planned for public transport, you didn't need a car. Because of this, public transport, for example, in Moscow is very developed, Americans can only dream of it. 4. Initially, public places were planned (theater, cinema, library, etc.) that were available to all citizens, while in the American suburbs you cannot live without a car. 5. Citizens also received dachas from the state free of charge. That is why many Russians now have both an apartment and a good house in the country, where they relax on weekends or live in the summer. У советской системы было много недостатков, но и много плюсов 1. Граждане получали эти квартиры от государства бесплатно. 2. Изначально дома подключены к центральному отоплению. По этому температура в квартире в 23 градусов цельзя зимой это норма для россиян. При этом отопление стоит дешево. Многие европейцы могут об этом только мечтать. 3. Города планировались под общественный транспорт, вам не нужна была машина. Из за этого общественный транспорт например в Москве очень развит, американцы могут только мечтать об этом. 4. Изначально планировались общественные места (театр, кино, библиотека и.т.д.) которые были доступны всем гражданам, в то время как в американской субурбии вы не можете жить без машины. 5. Граждане также получали от госуарства дачи бесплатно. По этому многие россияне сейчас одновременно имеют и квартиру и хороший дом на даче, где они отдыхают на выходных или живут летом.

[@craigstephenson7676]

The micro districts are kinda cute in a weird way. It’s like The Soviet Union was playing Cities Skylines

[@kristapsvalainis1671]

This video actually made me appreciate this sort of housing a bit more. Sure, they are ugly as hell, but I am always close to everything I need. (I'm from Latvia, btw)

[@billyrst]

@@kristapsvalainis1671 can you tell the difference of soviet era housing between every ssr?

[@kristapsvalainis1671]

@@billyrst I definitely can't. I probably wouldn't see a noticeable difference between Riga and Moscow. If it is possible, then you'd have to travel around the former Soviet Union a lot and have a good eye for detail.

[@ligametis]

@@kristapsvalainis1671 Moscow buildings are usually taller and longer. That is all.

[@ligametis]

The nice thing is that during Soviet times even those who wanted to have a garden, but had to live in a flat often got a peace of land in suburbs where they could indulge in gardening and growing vegetables. Moreover, the best of all, these areas also had public transportation.

[@leonardo9259]

"Kitchens were small" Mexican rural areas: THE ENTIRE FUCKING YARD IS MY KITCHEN MIJO

[@techissus7449]

Carne en la Parilla yeeeeeeeaaaaah!

[@l-kin3480]

Africa has the same mentality

[@blagoevski336]

@@l-kin3480 and North America

[@singletona082]

*pulls out the grill* *MURICA INTENSIFIES* Look, we shit on eachother constantly, right wrong, and my country has a whole host of faults but.... Dude. Open air cooking is pretty f'ing amazing.

[@leonardo9259]

@@singletona082 open air cooking with people is THE way humans are supposed to eat. Pretty amazing all across the world tbh

[@mushroomcommunist3888]

That video was actually objective and not ideologically biased against USSR, I like it, thank you

[@musiczkl98]

commumism never works

[@mushroomcommunist3888]

Communist is a classless, stateless, moneyless society, it has never been built so it you can't say it doesn't work What you're talking about is socialist counties, and they "fail" because of the total economic and military pressure from greatest capitalist powers

[@chompythebeast]

I want Mario to pick up a Communist Mushroom power-up one day, but to be honest, he'd probably look the same, with his red clothes, working class overalls, his hammer, his stomping boots, and his clenched fist that can break bricks. Might cause the music to change to Mushroom Kingdom's rendition of The Internationale, though!

[@georgyekimov4577]

@@chompythebeast okay I WANT THAT

[@aleksandarrudic3694]

I live in a micro-district (we call them blocks here) of New Belgrade, a Soviet-style planned district of Belgrade, Serbia, former Yugoslavia (never a part of Soviet Union but a communist country with planned economy nevertheless). I can testify that it's a positive and pleasant environment for living, especially for raising a family. It's very peaceful, very safe, everyone knows everyone else, there's a lot of open space between the buildings where children can play and people can hang out, and indeed all that you need in everyday life is within couple hundred meters.

[@00crashtest]

So do you enjoy and prefer to live lifelong and multigenerational (sharing the building with your neighbors and their children for generations to come) in your condo (most Eastern Europeans own their unit) in a microdistrict, or would you rather live in a spacious leafy suburb with single-family houses or even on a grand farm house if you could freely choose and money was not a factor? Are you relaxed and totally satisfied from living in an osiedle? Also, how is your relationship with all the neighbors who totally surround you in super close proximity cheek-by-jowl? Do you think they are priceless assets with whom you enjoy, have great social activities frequently, and prefer to be with them, or do think they are burdens and wish they were not there but the building was so you get extra space?

[@aleksandarrudic3694]

@@00crashtest Well, the "lifelong and multigenerational" living is a thing of the past, nowadays life here is very fluent (for all the good and bad reasons that you can imagine and more than that), so it's a matter of convenience and different life choices and priorities. I'm in my late 30s, with a wife and two small kids, and in an explosive phase of career growth, earning good money and increasing my investment portfolio aggressively. So for me time and people are critical resources. Also, I've been always a city-boy type (although I was born in the countryside) - and I still very much enjoy going night out in many Belgrade clubs and 'kafana's, dining in fine restaurants, going to festivals, concerts, museums, theaters, galleries, and the like (of course, when the time allows - I pray God every evening for 36 hours a day). Most of my neighbors are of roughly similar age, interests, and status. Most of us have kids of similar age. As you can imagine, I consider it a great opportunity for my kids to grow in a healthy environment with lot of friends. When they grow up a little, there are a few good schools within half a mile, 2 or 3 sport centers, couple of libraries, a science center is planned nearby, and the university is not too far. By then I'll possibly grow tired of all the hassle, in which case I'll most likely wish to move away somewhere closer to nature (leaving my condo to the kids, renting it out, selling, whatever). For the price of my 3-bedroom, slightly less than 100 m2 (approx. 1000 square feet) apartment, I can easily get 250 - 400 m2 suburban home. On the other hand, my parents already own 2 houses in a small town, if I wanted to I could move into one at any time. So in my case it's entirely a matter of convenience and lifestyle. Speaking of ranches - there's only a few of them here (it's Europe, we don't have nearly as much land as the US or Canada) and they only recently became a thing for ultrarich and famous, they often come with orchards, vineries, distilleries, stables for breeding race horses, and other vanities for the top percent of a percent. Prices are in tens of millions, and that's far beyond my reach and likely to stay so.

[@00crashtest]

@@aleksandarrudic3694 Glad you enjoy your neighbors then.

[@TheBrazilRules]

​@@aleksandarrudic3694 You go to nightlife with small children?!

[@aleksandarrudic3694]

@@TheBrazilRules You have no idea what party animals my little ones are! Joke aside - why wouldn't I?

[@derekgorin742]

I was a little disappointed this video didn't touch on "dachas" - Russian country houses. People were expected to stay in their little city apartment during the week and have a small plot of land out side of the city to relax and have a garden. At times, a personal garden was an important part of the food supply

[@andrapik2709]

there is no way americans can understand the beauty of "dacha". no way. only soviets, only hardcore :)

[@sophiatomson8413]

I believe that the dachas were an enormous help to many families during food shortages throughout the post 91 collapse

[@amobz23]

I appreciate u sharing this

[@arsonist8287]

In Poland, most people still own these. We call it „działka’s”

[@Ritaaw1]

They still exist. Some pensioners don’t get enough money so they grow their own food

[@kotka7957]

Yeah they’re not the most visually appealing housing, but the design makes so much sense. I love how everything you might need is literally almost all nearby. The convenience is intriguing

[@mattbanks3517]

it's horrible. Hateful, depressing, soul breaking gray concrete.

[@techpriest9230]

@@mattbanks3517 no it really isn't most of them get painted and i reaaally prefer the convenience of this style over the western style

[@imiy]

@@mattbanks3517 it all depends on the landscape design.

[@dariusanderton3760]

a small number of things in the Soviet Union were more efficient or better than in the West. But overall almost everything there was a disaster. That's why it all collapsed on itself so spectacularly.

[@Peonas501]

No, it is horrible.

[@adamhaynes1695]

people say Soviet architecture is depressing, but you know what's more depressing? homelessness.

[@PSP27699]

Welcome the army!

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

@@PSP27699 Soviet give 36m² home for free.

[@mrc9437]

@@carkawalakhatulistiwa it also depended on how big your family is and on your kind of work, for example, my family of 7 people worked at a factory that produced dishes and we got a five-room apartment with air conditioning in one of the rooms on the fifth floor next to the factory in Tajikistan. my family had to leave there after the collapse of the USSR and leave everything there, can say that the Tajiks kicked us out when everyone was divided, nationalism increased

[@Monikoue]

another Eastern European here... Thanks for all the effort put into this video and for all the documentation. However I must add some things. As somebody else mentioned in the comments, living in these kind of building is indeed atmospheric. The noise and the sounds are all a lot different than in Western cities. Also many of the neighborhoods are actually super green and they do have a peaceful vibe to them. I really dislike it when people from the West call these constructions dull or grey or identical. I mean yes, that is somewhat true, but that doesn't take away from their value. Whenever the socialists mass-produced something, they instantly became criticized (and still is for some reason, even though communism is 30 years in the past). But let's not forget that capitalism is also, even more so now, THE absolute mass-producer in the world. And the same people criticizing communism just seem to overlook this fact. As if mass-production is a problem only as long as the communists are doing it.

[@ArunPunnathatta]

They call it ugly only because Communists build it...

[@alienbsg]

Facts

[@dannielz6]

@Thomas What? America is one of the most industrialised countries in earth. What Americans criticize mass production?

[@pepeokatze]

@@dannielz6 literally any american arguing againts "socialism" saw "socialist mass production" as a negative side effect of socialism. When all of their common products in the store are also mass produced, yet since they are made by "capitalist" that means they are better.

[@zuklarFTW]

I grew up in a micro district like this in Romania. This video made me realize that indeed most of my life growing up was within this districts as you had everything you need there

[@matthewgoodman7588]

Is that convenient? Claustrophobic? Or something else?

[@Oyusuf1O]

​@@matthewgoodman7588 I was born in 2000, but I lived 14-15 years in micro district That was very convenient, you could see your school through the window, it was like 3 min walking to get to school Shop were nearby, 1st soviet planned shopping building and 2nd shop was built in 2000's Planned micro district had a larger space, but after the fall of USSR, government sold some space for private businesses (So, that 2nd shop covered forest view from our window and it was very loud 24/7 because of the shop's huge refrigerators under the window) There were 3 apartments buildings and between them there were playgrounds, it was convenient for our mother, because she could see us playing from the window Sometimes it was claustrophobic, if you paid attention that your playground is sandwiched between 2 9floor apartments buildings, but overall it was fine Some ppl say that this planned apartments depress them Some of them makes you feel that you live inside a wall, Attack on Titan XD

[@pavel94732]

@@matthewgoodman7588 Apologizing for my English. I lived until I was 18 years old in a similar 17-story apartment building, built in 1987, in a typical Soviet sleeping area on the outskirts of Moscow. A supermarket was built into the house, a school 5 minutes walk, a metro station 10 minutes walk, a clinic 5 minutes walk, a large shopping center where I hung out with friends was also 5 minutes walk, although it was built in 2006. In my area there was a huge market, 5 shopping centers, a bunch of shops, stalls, eateries, mcdonalds .. We are still building such housing, as the majority of the population has no money to afford housing in America or Western Europe. Now I live in such a house kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJypZX1qhKZnoKM

[@Cortesevasive]

@@matthewgoodman7588 Its very well planned, schools are close, there is plenty of parks and green spaces between houses. Its quite silent and nice to live in the middle of such districts. You can bash them a lot, but compared to the garbage they build today it was really good, the house is simple and meh, but the district plan is great.

[@matthewgoodman7588]

@@pavel94732 Thanks for the response! Your English is good. Much better than my Romanian :p

[@nicklindsey1765]

Fun fact: Japan's public housing, known as "Danchi", from that era was highly inspired by Soviet design and was built with the help of Soviet advisers. If you go into a "Danchi" district in a Japanese city you'll see the similarities between their housing and the Krushchyovka

[@fionafiona1146]

Germany uses "Platte" as in "platenbau" (concrete slab construction), usually associated with low income/high density housing in Eastern more Urban ares but they fulfil a social rule (currently not constructed for).

[@Kareszkoma]

Pretty damn cute, here from Hungary!

[@taylanbozkaya8521]

in Turkey we still have Krushchyovkas they are still being built since its so cheap

[@cloodberst]

@@artakbars no, he got it right the first time

[@WilsonianGarveyite]

That fact doesn't seem fun at all.

[@diii2001]

Они отличные - просто нужно не забыть что они считались временным решением и что просто были не достаточно качественные - Но в итоге - ссср нет - а они стоят - хотя уже пережили свой срок слубы в 30-50 лет

[@Frivals]

This type of blocks planning is a luxury in capitalistic countries. And you forgot the silence and relaxing atmosphere like in a village, instead of noisy traffic 24 hours

[@diii2001]

@@Frivals я сам с Ташкента - город строили современным - и проект "Дом Жемчуг" вот то что реально круто

[@borzhommm]

I grew up in Moscow and now I live in London. And especially this winter I have missed the comfort of Soviet apartments. They might look ugly from the outside but they are so comfy ones you are in and the most important thing is they are super warm compared to British houses and flats, on top of that you never have to worry about running out of hot water, it's literally unlimited. A colleague of mine, the same age as me (37), grew up in Manchester, not a small city by any means, but he didn't have hot water in his house at all, he told me they washed once a week. Honestly, I was shocked. The other guy told me, he fills a bottle with hot water and puts it in his bed to make the bed warm. It feels like some basic things have been turned into luxury in Britain.

[@olehfeia]

It is very easy to return this “comfort” - return back to Russia and die in trenches in Ukraine, go on

[@agnieszkatwardosz5106]

I live in Poland and honestly, the buildings from the 50s and the 70s are much better than the buildings built by private investors, not to mention urban planning. What's been happening to our cities since the transformation is just a shit show, investors keep building more and more buildings while no one takes the responsibility to build more public infrastructure, so the same roads, hospitals and schools that were built in the socialist era are now supposed to somehow provide services to many more people.

[@egord9101]

Thank you for insight. Most of the comments from polish people on legacy of USSR, that I see on youtube, are full of hate. Nice to see a positive one.

[@CzornyLisek]

@@egord9101 Simply cause it was mostly absolute shit. Doesnt mean modern people cant come up with even worse shit(tho most things are better) ; p

[@staszekr03]

@@egord9101 It seems the older people hate the USSR and everything they did. But many young people (like myself) are seeing that it isn't so black an white. Like Agnieszka said these new buildings and apartments are often built in the most bizzare places where you 100% need a car, there are no new services there. And honestly looking back at communism while Poland is getting richer the quality of new housing seems to be lower.

[@eness.2384]

I live in macedonia and there are buildings from Jugoslavian time,i think they're aesthetic.

[@FedorVinogradovGoogle]

The same situation in Russia. More and more tall houses are built in smaller areas, infrastructure comes a lot later if even comes, schools and kindergartens are frequently finished after court hearings. But the quality of houses are better in average and apartments have better planning and are more convenient.

[@mrvk39]

As someone who was born and raised in a Khrushchevka as part of a "mini-district", I have to say, I was pretty happy there. It's a giant city block with dozens of buildings and lots of trees between them, no car traffic, there were multiple playgrounds and soccer fields or basketball courts. My school was a 5 minute walk. Local clinic was like 15 minute walk. Supermarket was a 5 minutes away. 3 of us lived in a 2 bedroom small flat and that was considered "lots of space". There were literally 4 floor plans and all my friends had one of those 4 floorplans, so when I walked into a new apartment, i knew exactly where everything was. Kind of funny. Oh, and all the modern pictures of those grey, bleak, run down buildings - that wasn't the case in USSR. It was well-maintained - freshly painted and masonry fixed every few years. Lots of gardens and flowers. It wasn't terrible... still was poor compared to spaces in American suburban homes and multiple TVs and cars.

[@rogerdinhelm4671]

Even when maintained (not always) those buildings where designed to look rundown and bleak with most of facades decorated with gravel or simple bare concrete patterns. The lucky ones who got painted were choosing between 3 colors for the entire 1/6th of the planet : shitty red-brown, puking blue-green and light-blue.

[@grammarnazi8191]

Roger Dinhelm THIS, especially in Soviet republics like Poland they were Wayyyyy less maintained

[@igninis]

I still live in Khrushchevka, and all those who are crying that it was shait: if community is run down cest pit of alcoholics - then of course it is going to be in a gutter, but if community is at least half competent, they will arrange their living space to be maintained. The idea behind madness, just like who soviet union was good, execution and lack of forward thinking - well it brought that system down. With not a small nudge from west.

[@kensukefan47]

@@rogerdinhelm4671 I don't think they were designed to look like that. They were designed to look white, clean. And I don't know what you have against red-brown,and the other colours. The red makes me feel cozy and the other ones light the building a little bit up.

[@ghassanalfarra8935]

@@rogerdinhelm4671 the bigger problem was in the health hazardous construction materials that were widely used, and are still in place today, such as radon emitting gravel, asbestos, led pipelines .. ect. And of course there was no sound proofing, if you sat quietly in the living room or bedroom, you could hear and understand everything your neighbors were saying or doing, if the neighbor from above took his slippers off, every step he made barefooted would make a loud thumping noise on your ceiling.

[@constancestrawn1303]

I live in a Soviet German "locker for workers" in the central micro-district. You were really able to synthesize your research into an explanation that truly speaks on the lived reality. I think a big factor in these tiny dorm flats - mine is one of 1.8 million identical units - is that it really was designed for us to just sleep and bio break in but we have opportunities for a robust life outside the flat. My building itself has a courtyard for the residents to touch grass, hang laundry, and plant in a raised bed. On the next block is a small park with a playground. The next block over from that has the kindergarten, another playground, a community center, a grocery shop, pharmacy, and multidisciplinary doctor center. I used to live in an American city that was addressing its housing crunch with tiny flats that didn't even have kitchens, but was just bulldozing all the park land and making absurd "loitering" laws. This kind of living is not sustainable without those opportunities to be outside in your community. Even just the walk 2 blocks to your housing block's grocery store is the fresh air needed to make tiny flat living tolerable. Going from tiny living box to transport box on wheels to work box then back in the evening... kills the soul, man. Not even owning a car because everything that's not 1500m from your flat is 200m from the transit corridor 500m away... that's such a load off! Since this kind of living forces us all out into common areas, I have developed connections with my neighbors that I haven't experienced since the good old Gen-X childhood days. Even though we are in a central district of a major city, I'm the odd man out because I lock my door! The cashiers at the block's grocery store know me since I'm able to just pop in for bread on the way home and know I'm still struggling with German, so they're patient and kind. I think one thing that colors a western view of these "standard buildings" 😉 is rental terms in most cities. The idea of having a generic concrete cube _is_ depressing when you can't paint, hang shelves, and will have to renew every year or two. The lease I'm enjoying now is essentially lifelong (cancelation on either side is quite a process) and I have the freedom to do whatever I desire inside, as long as it's returned to a white concrete cube when I move out. Once you pass by the other cubes and open my door, there is no question of whose flat it is! I find my living space to be very individual. This is the first time I've ever been allowed to have my own curtains instead of the provided blinds. With the need to purchase my own fridge, I got a very energy efficient one so my electric bill is pretty great. Despite the pre-fab construction that was replicated over and over across a good third of this world, my tiny Soviet box is genuinely the most "me" dwelling I have ever had.

[@megablademe4930]

The only bad thing about these buildings is their ugly appearance, but that can be fixed. Most of them are built quite well and the residential zones are so good. You walk out of the block and you are directly on the street, which is like a park.

[@ps4games164]

Pained they look just like active prisons. Neglected they provide more sence for freedom. Like no one is using this thing. I'm from ex communist country, i know.

[@user-ge4uk9ui8y]

I grew up in a typical micro district. As a kid I didn't notice or care all the buildings looking the same, built out of the same gray concrete panels, they were just normal homes. My parents were safe to let me wander around the district, because you could walk almost everywhere without crossing any roads, there were stores 1-2 minutes away and my school 5 minutes away. There were 3 playgrounds right outside my apartament building, it was a 5 section, 5 floor building built in the 1980s.

[@MadaraUchiha-qq6op]

u got a nice name

[@lukazupie7220]

So when one kid plays basketball 100s of people listen??:) great!!:)

[@HoBoeBpeM9l]

​@@lukazupie7220 в те времена об этом меньше думали. Не стоит забывать о том, что потребности людей меняются, а также то, что в западных странах тоже не было современной звукоизоляции.

[@HoBoeBpeM9l]

​@@lukazupie7220 чтобы не слышать улицу достаточно заменить окна с деревянных на пластиковые (это массовый опыт), так что ваше замечание абсолютно бессмысленно, так как не зависит от строения, а зависит от времени.

[@PugilistCactus]

"Everything is built like a block in the USSR!" Walks around home town in Canada in neighborhoods built in the 80's... ah yes, we didn't make any block neighborhoods at all...

[@luisfernandoalmeida9114]

most residential neighborhoods in the U.S. have standard houses...

[@sxanep]

Oh, yeh, and who names streets with the same name in different cities? Like 1st street, 2nd street, 3rd street. So original!

[@arikstaley9888]

Or gentrified neighborhoods in American cities. Although the gentrified apartments tend to try to look "trendy" they all look the same, plus they tend to be built as cheaply as possible.

[@emilnad5078]

It's not the same

[@appa609]

standardization isn't bad

[@Drakislav9000]

The Soviets in my opinion were the masters of city planning, some other countries are even experimenting with the idea of micro-districts like Spain, I'm pretty sure they're doing it in Madrid.

[@yaelz6043]

lol Spain? Really? If Spain does it they will be surrounded by walls and guards and the media will be talking about how free it is and how the Soviet versions were the walled ones.

[@user-ui9xu8er8w]

Imagine the possibilities with modern methods. The improvement under Breshnew alone should prove that there is massive potential. Having all your necessities next to you and living in modernised (therefore bigger as well) apartments with this city planning sounds amazing.

[@Frivals]

This type of blocks planning is a luxury in capitalistic countries. And you forgot the silence and relaxing atmosphere like in a village, instead of noisy traffic 24 hours

[@alexxxXXXrus]

Nowadays city blocks planning in those principes.

[@fgkuv5232]

There was a wave of new buildings constructed in the 2000s with bigger flats and 17-24 stories tall. I suppose they can be called putinkas)

[@TropicalityCat]

The only problem is 1. You don’t own where you live 2. You cant choose where you live

[@fgkuv5232]

@@TropicalityCat that's wrong, here in Russia we do in fact own our real estates. Fuck communism

[@molonlabe5090]

Soviet Firearm Philosophy: Simple, easy to manufacture, mass production is key Soviet Housing Philosophy: Simple, easy to manufacture, mass production is key

[@roma540]

Soviet Everything Philosophy: Simple, easy to manufacture, mass production is key

[@ansonang7810]

its free, but you can't afford a new one low salary and business was illegal, its not your ideal smart house but its big gift.

[@RyszardRudy]

@@ansonang7810 actually, you didn't need to afford a new one. If you (really) need a bigger house, for example you have more kids on the way, you apply for new apartment and you're put in queue. One it's your turn, you're moved to a bigger apartment. That's more like my parents got our 3-roomer.

[@VelvetSage]

@@RyszardRudy you forgot to mention how much years you had to wait in the queue

[@homo-ergaster]

@@VelvetSage from 15 to 50 years usually. My parents get a place in a queue in 1971 and they doesn't get an appartment yet.

[@NikolaNevenov86]

as a person who lived and lives in the remnants of these cities...I just love how the soviet style city planning involved a lot of vegetation in their street plans. Every time I go pass one of those areas I feel like i can breathe again. Every time I move through the newer parts...everything feels just jammed so tightly together that it crushes you down.

[@wumi2419]

Every block has quite a lot of free space inside with houses on the outside. That free space which was usually taken by trees and other plants or shool/kindergarten before, in newer blocks is a few more buildings. My current home was built in space inside the block (which was very big because of ground quality in center, so still a lot of free space) One thing i loved before is being able to go to 16th floor and see most of district.

[@NikolaNevenov86]

@@wumi2419 yeah a lot of places here,between the buildings got sold to private contractors and they erected new buildings there. Yeah still some free space, but although I'm no fan of communism but I do prefer the old city planning. But that was also connected with controlled city population. I know a guy who researches that era, and he said that usually every municipality would be built in such a way that there is a balance between city and village population. To the extent that you needed a permit to move and live in the city if you were from the villages. Someone might say that's really oppressive, but when you look at it now... cities are overcrowded and villages are getting abandoned and forgotten.

[@wumi2419]

@@NikolaNevenov86 it is much harder for villages now because internet exists. Almost no villages have cable going to there and other ways of getting it are expensive, unreliable or both. And a lot of current society is built around internet. Cities being overcrowded also bring huge traffic problems. Plans did not include so many people having cars, so there's not much place for parking. Inside blocks it is very normal to have half of the road taken by parked there cars

[@Mic_Glow]

Depends which developer was building and how expensive/ how far away from city center the houses are. And cities grow, those "big slab" soviet buildings were once standing in bare fields, now they are surrounded.

[@kraanz]

"I feel like i can breathe again." Yes, enjoy the asbestos.

[@haoya5450]

You have to appreciate this kind of arrangement and planning. Nowadays most governments don't care about housing. People are just building wherever they want even wasting land for agricultural production

[@SorinOltean77]

so far we haven't found a way to eat buildings so agriculture still remains the main provider of our food.

[@VANdeVice]

Good job, man. Interesting information, fascinating presentation and most importantly, you have not forgotten anything (even about the infrastructure of the districts, such as schools, hospitals, leisure and sports). Everything is honest as it is. Great video. Respect.

[@meggrobi]

The western part of the USSR was devastated by WW2, they didn't have the luxury of picking and choosing for housing for the people made the homeless.

[@themaniac2448]

and siberia was hard to live in, so the soviets plus the eastern block were in a tough situation

[@San_Deep2501]

@@themaniac2448 your username and profile picture go hand in hand

[@themaniac2448]

@@San_Deep2501 eh

[@Pandamasque]

That plus rapid industrialisation and urbanisation meant lots of people moving to big cities or their outskirts.

[@Ailasher]

@@Pandamasque About 20 million. So, yea. This and about 1500 scorched to the ground towns and cities in WWII.

[@casperspiegel4042]

i live in poland, and seeing that every block looks exactly the same, that scenario is very possible. Thanks to the soviets, i dont have to ask my friends where the toilet is, since every apartment looks the same.

[@JakubB2000]

Yeah but seeing those apartment blocks everywhere us incredibly depressing

[@ImperativeGames]

@@JakubB2000 Is it better to die homeless or live in the ghetto, like many in the USA?

[@dion7288]

@@JakubB2000 lmao honestly looking at those blocks just symbolizes power, i like it.

[@cianakril]

@@JakubB2000 they look depressing only due to dilapidated state they currently in and the lack of maintenance. A bucket of paint makes it lot better. Not to mention the spaces in between were looking like a garden when it was properly maintained, too.

[@kestutisvaiciunas8663]

@@cianakril Yep, everyone here in Lithuania painted the grey block houses white and refurbished them. They look incredible to live in now.

[@kebabremover970]

My mother's family: She, brother, Mother and Father received from the Evil and Terrible Soviet regime a four-room flat in a newly-built house in 1980. Her parents had been on the waiting list for housing for five years. Her Father worked in a factory as Machinist-Lathe. Her mother worked in a steel factory. A this flat is now worth a 35-years mortgage with avarage workers salary...

[@ballstorture1]

As a East German living in those buildings giving you a nostalgic feeling that you still living in the GDR. The houses, which are called "Plattenbau" in Germany or were then pejoratively referred to as "Arbeiterschließfächer" (workers lockers), have of course already been renovated and look a lot nicer than the gray concrete blocks from back then, but there is so much history and culture in these houses that I think its really cool to live in such a district

[@aeuropeannotbritish7754]

Same

[@Frivals]

This type of blocks planning is a luxury in capitalistic countries. And you forgot the silence and relaxing atmosphere like in a village, instead of noisy traffic 24 hours

[@aeuropeannotbritish7754]

@@Frivals k

[@zemlidrakona2915]

As an American living in Russia here's my take...... I used to own a house in the US and hated the idea of living in an apparent. First off most apartments I had rented were wood, so you got a lot more noise from your neighbors. Of course living in the burbs I had to take my car to buy most everything, but I never thought much about it. However I now live in a somewhat newer (but not brand new) Russian apartment building. I've gotten used to it. First I'll say noise from neighboring apartments isn't too bad. Yes, you do hear your neighbors sometimes, but it's not the same as in a wooden apartment building and I don't really notice it. Second what I do REALLY like about where I live, is that you can get everything you generally need for living within a 5 minute walk, and a lot of stuff is within a 1 minute walk. Generally the bottom level apartments have all been converted to stores. I can even buy stuff to replace a faucet or change the locks on my doors from stores a couple minutes away. It's super convenient.

[@MrLiquar]

Where do you live?

[@zemlidrakona2915]

@@MrLiquar Krasnodar

[@MrLiquar]

@@zemlidrakona2915 got it. Never been there. So do you speak Russian and Ooverall how does it feel living as an American in Russia?)

[@zemlidrakona2915]

@@MrLiquar I know a bit of Russian but I'm not particularly good at it. My wife is Russian however and my son speaks Russian. A lot of Americans seem to think that you will be treated poorly in Russia being an American. It's actually not even slightly true. I mean like every place else you can meet the occasional person that rubs you the wrong way, but the vast majority of people are nice enough.

[@MrLiquar]

@@zemlidrakona2915 This is great that you get treated like that. Of course, all countries have their own fair share of *ssholes . I am sure this opinion on russia will change someday in the future. If you speak a bit of Russian, how do you find work, do you work online or teach English? Is it hard to find job in Russia without speaking the language?

[@jur4x]

Wow! As someone from that area, I'm amazed how accurate and well balanced this one is. Usually, westerners don't bother with details when talking about day-to-day life topics in USSR. However, I should point out few things missed out. 1. No mention of high push towards district heating and hot mains water supply in these houses. Larger area would get it's heating and hot water from big boiler house or electric power plant (waste heat utilisation) few km away. Which apparently is far more efficient than running individual boilers in every household. 2. Quite often people were awarded with small piece of land on the outskirts of the city (or further away from it) where they could do some gardening or grow homegrown vegetables. Or in some cases it would've piece of land where you could build a holiday house. Ps. The address in the film you mention is an interesting coincidence - it's not some generic street name (after some leader or significant person) it is 3rd Builders street.

[@jur4x]

@LE REDDIT COMMANDER Sometimes you might have some of your crops stolen. But since it was so common, there wasn't that much stealing before second half of the 80's. In terms of caloric intake, most Soviets were on par with american counterparts. However, americans invented fast-food chains and drive-through restaurants. And started eating way too much and moving too little. Communal gardens exist in modern day Britain and not a lot of looting here.

[@royk7712]

@LE REDDIT COMMANDER im actually impressed by this video and got me thinking, everything have a good side no matter what the ideology. taking the good from both side is better. micro district with modern fiture and connect them with mass transport system.

[@fionafiona1146]

@@royk7712 You might be surprised that the people who referenced Communism most successfully have been Faschists... Unless you count the Germans polling well enough in 1883 to have their demands (public Healthcare, disability pay and retirement funds) implemented before election day and failed to gain any seats.

[@theduck3876]

@@royk7712 The Soviet Union was a better place than people would like to admit. by the 80's it was actually pretty great from what i heard. disappointing to think of what it is now... the breakup really destroyed Russia

[@user-tj9vp8re4d]

@@theduck3876 sorry for bad english well my mother leaved in 80`s she wasn`t available to buy any good clothing because they all was the same for like middle or typical figure in her country house they have to make glue for wallpapers themselves from like grain or something like that because there was any available wood for the this house was gathered on the railroad there was a lot of abandoned shack s main beams was made of old wooden railroad ties that was thrown away by railroad workers after they were changed for concrete ones cars was... well volga for example was made in 60`s inspired by ford from 50`s and it made to the fall of ussr in 1991 without major changes to the design so basicly 40 years old car in 1990 ussr is the place where government tells you what do you need and it will produce respectively to that so if government thinks that 40years old car for you is fine so you will drive 40 years old car if government thinks that you don`t need good clothing with a wide variety of colors and forms so you don`t get it of course government itself would produce better products for themselves that are not available for masses because government is not some kind of plebs right

[@artegomiano]

Кратко: планировали быстро и дешево, но стоит до сих пор

[@alexmaximus9134]

I personally like this idea. To have everything you need right next to you. Pretty much every shop had its customers. Every home had a shop to get supplies from. And you could get everywhere you need without having to spend much money. Just using public transport could get you places. Rather than having homes in one area and shops in another separated by long roads meant to be used only with a car isn't that effective imo. Yea, you get to use your car, but, using your car daily for your everyday needs is quite costly. Imagine if you go to a shop and buy the stuff you need, but when you get home, you realise you forgot something. If you can walk there, it's no big deal, you'll arrive there quickly either by walking or cycling. It costs nothing to walk or cycle (it actually makes you healthier). But driving there costs you fuel money and on the way, you inhale pollution from other cars too.

[@alexmaximus9134]

@@SKYRGRLoft That was due to the gouverment having control of the supplies. And they'd redirect most of them to themselvs and push what was left back to the average people. What i mainly discussed in my comment is the style of building these systems where you'd have everything you need right next to your house, not about USSR's supplying system, because that is a whole separate discussion.

[@olehfeia]

I grew up in such soviet planned town (Kamianske). This is utopia, it doesn’t work. This khruschovka districts are terrible for life

[@alexmaximus9134]

@@olehfeia Why did it not work? Having every store in walking distance surely would improve the average life of a citizen.

[@ProjectHana]

this has long and deep effect on Chinese urban planning, the idea of micro district and standardizing is still the prominent way we build our cities now.

[@farsalami8605]

your comment was more thought provoking than this whole video lol

[@lctransit7233]

Not just Soviet Union, but also Hong Kong, Japan... It's more confusing that a lot of Japanese scholars translate 小区 (microdistricts in Chinese) into Danchi (団地), though I do believe microdistricts and Danchi are somehow connected

[@grantourismo0109]

but in China housing is privately owned and very expensive , treated like investment

[@sakeburyojo4218]

@@grantourismo0109 Legally all land in China still belongs to the state. By what you may refer as 'purchasing a house/apartment', you are actually granted with only 70 years of usage rights of the property. And since the country itself just over 70 years old, the policy's hidden kerfuffle have not yet emerged. Nobody clearly knows how their properties would be treated when the time is up. Is it inheritable? Or your grand-children would have to ridiculously pay for the property again? All in all it is a worse-than-capitalism sh*tty policy with a socialism charade.

[@sakeburyojo4218]

@@grantourismo0109 And talking about 'treated like investment', yes and no. Depending on the accessibility of public services, properties defers in their values. So your house is de facto investment, but de jure non-investments as implied by the government saying 'Equal rights to rental tenants and real estate buyers' ambiguously, which in reality is a total nonsense, especially during this COVID-19 thing. Many tenants from the hot zone were expelled from their former rental homes by local landlords, and in some cities you are not even allowed in unless you have certification of ownership of real estate in that city in the opening months of the pandemic.

[@MadDoggEntertainment]

I actually remember “The Irony of Fate” being on repeat every year around Christmas/New Year every year as a child.

[@ML-xp1kp]

Still is for me (first gen Canadian but Russian parents). I kind of see it as the Russian equivalent of Home Alone at this point.

[@HalfgildWynac]

The irony of the "Irony of fate" is that it showed a very particular project of a residential building. Only 3 such buildings exist (all in Moscow).

[@sjukfan]

I still haven't seen it, but got hold of it as a project to watch whatever other countries watch on new year. Us Swedes watches Ivanhoe kzbin.info/www/bejne/fWXbq4GaidN4ick

[@gatekeeping8528]

@@sjukfan In my country we watch american movies and here it doesn't even snow 😭😭😭😭

[@user-lg7wo7ip8k]

@@ML-xp1kp in Russia we watch Home Alone every New Year too. It's a time for soviet comedies (The Irony of Fate is the main of them), Home Alone, Ice Age and so on (even on TV).

[@foreverprogaming2421]

as a post soviet country Azerbaijan i live in micro district as you described. Gotta say that all things that you said are true. Because of micro districts everywere is like center. You dont need to waste 1 hour to reach any school or hospital. I live in Stalina(not sure) it has 5 floors and does not have elevator. Some people may think it makes person a fatigue to climb up to 5th floor bt it is not. The building which has not got elevator are kinda "short". I mean stair are tiny and ceiling is not high tho. And almost 1 of every 2 microdistrict has school. My district has schoo,hospital, sport complex and some other stuff that i can reach in less than 5 mins. So in this way we dont need to spend money to public and private transport. In my city i only use bus once in a three months

[@Frivals]

This type of blocks planning is a luxury in capitalistic countries. And you forgot the silence and relaxing atmosphere like in a village, instead of noisy traffic 24 hours

[@francescodondero4069]

I loved this video. thanks a lot

[@nayandusoruth2468]

The micro district idea is actually rather neat, as it allows for essential services to be nearby (cutting travel time and reducing need for transport infrastructure), as well as being modular, allowing for fairly extensive expansion... Thinking aloud, this could maybe be adapted, with a micro district with regularly used, easy to provide services in built (I.E convenience store, medical clinic, primary/secondary education...), whilst several micro districts come to form a larger district, which would have a centre where less frequently used services are located. This could also allow for different variants of micro districts based on need (I.E, residential, commercial, industrial...), allowing for a variable district makeup, without needing to vary the modular plan too much...

[@Salengot]

You don't need to ditch capitalism to obtain that, almost all European cities, post Soviet or not, achieved pretty similar results of having every necessity in your own neighborhood accessible by foot. You want to go to a shop walk 5 minutes, another shop in 7 minutes, haircut 10 minutes, clinic 15, school 20 and so on...

[@barvdw]

This is now the vision in Paris, creating/reinforcing the "15-min city", where you should be able to find everything you need within that time on foot. Brussels is interested in adopting it, too.

[@venomkiler1]

You basically just described a a neighborhood in New York. Micro district= neighborhood, bigger district= borough. Theres a reason they call them "corner stores" because they are usually on the corners of residential buildings. I've been to keiv as well as alot of different cities in america, and New York and seattle seem to be the closest in comparison to keiv, but you have to remember that america focused on greater metropolitan areas rather than inside the city itself. Essentially the city would be primarily commercial, retail, and industrial zones with some old residential zones as well, and then the majority of residents would live in suburbs and simply commute to the city. The reason for this is simply because america is capitalist. People had their own money, so they could spend it to buy a house that a private person built. In communism, no one is going to build houses for their people for free. Communism is all about doing the bare minimum, hence the tiny apartments.

[@deniska0]

venomkiler America lives in suburbs because of cars. Whole American life built around car. Everything by car, motel, diners, cinema, the whole Las Vegas architecture is design for cars (just signs on the road with hidden shed at the back), I’ve seen even atm drive through. Madness. People get fat without moving, barely walk, become very antisocial. Suburbia is social disaster, dream sold by car producers.

[@canstermeat8171]

Basically, a normal district but worse

[@walmorcarvalho2512]

At least these cities were planned, here in Brazil most cities are a jumbled mess of high-traffic avenues, overlapping bus lines, slums, luxurious high-income neighborhoods and sidewalks that barely fit the lamppost

[@isabelaoliveira2932]

Exactly! I was born in Ceará and can confirm.. But interesting: I moved to Brasília and, to some images shown in this video, I couldnt tell the difference hahah... funny that reading Niemeyer biography, it says his work was only influenced by european design...

[@JoseEduardo999]

@@isabelaoliveira2932 Niemeyer was a communist, so there is some truth to "european design", he just forgot to mention that it was eastern europe

[@JoseEduardo999]

brazilian main cities are mostly from the colonial era, they grew naturally you basically described the south zone of Rio, which is a byproduct of said natural growth, but in the very same city you have Barra da Tijuca and Recreio, two heavily planned (and depressing) neighborhoods I'd rather still live in the mess that the south zone is than to need a car to buy bread

[@xaviwarrior1]

Do you know Curitiba? For me, this city is awesome, coz there are great gardens parks, forest, a lot of trees and the air is fresh, except in downtown... kkkkk, but is gucci in relation with others south american cities

[@GNeves302]

​@@JoseEduardo999 Outside of historical cities and the old town of the main cities, very little of a place like Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo could be described as colonial. Also, to call Barra and Recreio planned in the comment section of this video seems to imply they are planned in the way soviet raions were, which they most certainly aren't outside of the system of avenues. Their entire urbanization of that region is based on private enterprise plopping buildings and gated communities for high income people expected to drive where needed.

[@livianegidius9772]

I live in Serbia and lived in these type of apatments .In one of these flats in microdistrict . And yes It was so .We had kindergarten, school and something alike moll with lot of green . Everybody knew everybody and my best friend lives it his microdistrict still. Since I love life in the suburbs and now live in the bussling centre of Belegrade my dream is tro go back to calm suburbs where i grew up. Good times.And you have forgotten one thing - in Soviet Union there was no homeless people back then. In Serbia too.

[@lance-biggums]

Microdistricts are a great idea. That's what the new urbanist vogue of "mixed-use neighbourhoods" should strive to achieve.

[@pavel8485]

4:30. No. The big houses were build not only for party elite. My grandparents have recived an apartment in "big stalinka" becouse they were cientists and engineers, as well as all their neighboors in this building

[@romanrussu3403]

This is generally a stupid thesis in the video, if you count how many of these houses have been built and how many not only "party elite", but even just officials existed.

[@yurieu5872]

They surely were important to the Party. How many other engineers got to live in cramped building with other proletariats?

[@GoklasM]

Look, in USSR 1% of population controlled 4% of goods. In modern Russia it's 51% of goods. USSR was the country of true equality. Yes, Stalin was cruel, but he BUILD it for future generations. And we fucked it up.

[@yurieu5872]

@@GoklasM zero plus zero equals zero. Nobody believes this communist fallacy

[@GoklasM]

@@yurieu5872, completely debunked me, m8 :D

[@grayhouseproductions7452]

“The Kitchens were tiny” *LAUGHS IN NYC*

[@EatMyShortsAU]

Move to Texas the kitchens there are probably bigger than your whole apartment.

[@liquidsnake6879]

If you choose to live in a metropolis where you need to share a single city with millions of people don't complain the living space is tiny lol

[@robertbalazslorincz8218]

I have lived in both a Stalinka (the larger variant), a Krushchyovka, and a Brezhnev era building. When it comes to kitchen, the ranking is as follows: 1. Brezhnev era 2. Large Stalinka 3. Krushchyovka (Although the difference between the latter two was very small!) I must say, this place has almost everything that a micro-district would need, with some exceptions as a result of being built between a railway line and a small village with a small river running through the northern side of the village.

[@arthuresparza2617]

@@EatMyShortsAU Have you seen the size of Texans? They don't design their kitchens for people but for cows.

[@PatheticTV]

Oh please, New York apartments are four times as late as here in Hong Kong.

[@SuperCuriousFox]

Some feedback: I prefer looking at relevant images while you're doing narration, rather than just looking at someone talking to a camera. I don't mean to offend, I just think it's more interesting to use the visual aspect of the video medium for relevant imagery. In other words, the segments without images were more boring, and reminded me of many a dull history lessons from high school. Hope you found this tip helpful, cheers!

[@Frivals]

Exactly

[@terencechengde]

Great video! Thank you for presenting this in such a way that is easy to understand! Good job!

[@friendsoftheamazonjungle]

I lived in a Soviet style flat in Poland for the first 10 years of my life. We kept our building very clean and colorful. We planted flowers everywhere. I guess, as the saying goes- "how you make your bed, is how you're gonna sleep" or something to that effect 🌴

[@robertfeinberg748]

I spent half a day in East Berlin on a congressional trip while the wall was still up. There wasn't much in the stores, but there were flower boxes everywhere, and I was told it was a higher living std than Russia.

[@napillnik]

​@@robertfeinberg748 definitely higher. My uncle was a mechanic serving in the army, stationed with his family in East Berlin. When they came over to visit they'd bring a lot of amazingly nice things, and I looked up to them, like they were from a different planet or something. He even brought back once, a couple of bananas. I remember as a kid I looked at that black fruit, and as I peeled it, and shared half with my sister, I was amazed at this new taste. Next banana I'd have would be in about 5 years from then.

[@robertfeinberg748]

@@napillnik I noticed that during my adult life bananas seemed to have lost their taste. I recently learned that it was due to a fungus blight. There's a video on it. As you know, bananas are the most popular product at W-M. I found they helped my digestion, but apparently they're actually bad for one's diet.

[@mwanikimwaniki6801]

@@napillnik I come from Kenya and I'm amazed because bananas are so common down here.

[@napillnik]

@@mwanikimwaniki6801 I know, right? :D This isolation was horrible. When I was reading the book "The making of the atomic bomb" or its sequel "The dark sun", I came across the testament of a scientist that left the USSR and started working for the US, and his motivation was that he just walked on the street and saw mountains of oranges on display right there, at dirt cheap prices, which to him was out of this world. I felt that. The USSR had cold winters all over, and bananas and other tropical plants wouldn't survive. Importing them would be very costly. We had plenty of sweets, like kakis, apples, pears, plums, cherries, peaches, all kinds of berries, etc. Just not bananas or other stuff that grows in warmer climates only.

[@elsharkone7]

Also Soviet cities weren't build with cars in mind unlike American cities. There were very few parking available and people had to rely on public transport (which is a good thing if you ask me).

[@CityBeautiful]

Yes, definitely!

[@Alex-tg2jp]

I agree and disagree with you at the same time. Yes, public transport was a almost alone type of trip in city, but at the same time Soviet Union's designed a wide highways in cities such as Leningrad's highway and Prospect Mira in Moscow. They thought "great future will begin soon and everyone has a private cars for trips". P.S. I'm from Moscow and I don't hate Soviet Union's architecture. I think it had a lot of advantage and disadvantage.

[@Alex-tg2jp]

@@CityBeautiful I agree and disagree with you at the same time. Check my comment below and then you understand why. P.S. I live in Moscow and I learn architecture history in my city:)

[@paveloleynikov4715]

They were some later cities that were in fact planed with massive car usage in mind, like Naberegnie Chelny (and Pripyat, if i remember correctly). Imagine LA filled with rows of similar 9 story panel buildings... Strange city (but wonderful people). Also, USSR mass transit was less then stellar, with poor reliability and extreme overcrowding.

[@Horesmi]

Yeah as an upside the public transport is much better developed. In many Soviet cities you can comfortably live without a car, while in US in many places human life without cars is impossible, it's just endless seas of concrete. Although maybe some credit for the reliability of the public transport I use goes to post-collapse government.

[@sansintierra]

I think the concept of micro-districts is brilliant. Not only it has the advantages of building community, if you manage to arrange production in the same way you have more sustainable and decentralized cities with less polution. You could even have localized "micro-farms" to provide some of the food for the district too.

[@NoNickNoKick]

Thanks. This video was the only tutorial I needed to plan my Soviet city on the city build game Workers and Resourcers Soviet Republic, I was missing the "little islands" point, and half my worker force had hard time to put their kids at school or Kindergarden, so they didn't went to work, and because of that electrcity or food didn't come at full size production.

[@rycka88]

I live in postsoviet country and I can tell that I admire soviet planning because space between houses is massive and filled with lawn and trees. Huge playing grounds for children. Now they squeeze houses next to each other. You can see your naked neighbour lol. Also you have to understand that people in soviet union rapidly transferred from poor village houses with literally no floor (which was just ground) to flats with running water and electricity. This was most progressive rise of living and sanitary conditions humanity ever experienced.

[@derekwampum8861]

same in China

[@gediminasmimas7638]

and they probably very energy efficient.

[@oatz0174]

chrisw more like your onto a ghetto

[@atikzimmerman]

You can't survive winter with no floor, of course, there were floors :)

[@attila840702]

@@atikzimmerman Maybe not everywhere. My mother lived in a Hungarian village as a child in the 50's and 60's, and they didn't have floor in one of the bedrooms. It was just dirt. They "decorated" it with newspapers.

[@DrBugaboo]

In my own studies, I've come across a few interesting related points: 1. In the 30s, a poll showed that housing was not a big concern for people. Yet, housing was a high priority for the state considering the rapid development in progress. 2. The housing of the Kruschev era was meant to be temporary. Economic stagnation led to them being used far longer than their intended lifespan. 3. Like "The Irony of Fate," it wasn't uncommon for Soviet films to make fun of aspects of the Soviet Union or even the political elites.

[@nahodny_marc]

@the Achaean i also heard they were meant to be temporary, i think they wanted to replace them later but now they are here for far longer than they should've been here

[@Kareszkoma]

Interesting, at 2,) I would mention that most "temporary" thing from the Soviet Union last 200 years. Our prefabs were only meant for like.. 50 years lol. But engineers tested the buildings and they say it's good to go for the next 200 years. A socialist microwave - that my aquiantance/guy - has lasted 40 years and it's still warms food like the same day it was made. Same with temporary school and hospital buildings. They are eternal. Today things that are supposed to last long.. don't really last long. Consumerism. They usually last like 10 years at best sorrowfully. 3,) People of the 60ies weren't pussies though. A rich soviet man didn't got offended cause you said he is rich and he got money for better shoes. You shouldn't mouth anyone, sure, but they didn't care. The people of the 60ies were much harder man, after the war. They didn't care about much. Cynical parodies and such were part of the culture. BUT. Not in the 70-80ies. Things changed. What was okay in the "dark-socialism", were not allowed in the new/light socialism. Every propaganda became subtle too.

[@RusStarik]

@the Achaean my mother's parents were construction workers, both had 60+ years of experience behind their backs, were involved in construction of everything from make shift wooden and metal housing for sientists in the field, to few undisclosed military objects (one underground, one some gov thing in the middle of some big city). But mostly they were involved in construction of housing. So, currently I live in a house that was made in 1977 and was planned to be there for only 20 years. Was part of "clearing the middle of the city for renovation" program. All people who were ment to be moved into it were either construction workers (that's why we're here now) from other regions, or residents of city center who were ment to be moved back when renovation is complete. So, it was placed here only for 20 years, but from the start it had renovation plans for every 2 (minor) and 20 (big one) years, and was approved (as well as most houses) to house people up to 120 years, and for use for other means for 200 years. Just a "small" back up plan in case something happens to that renovation program. And something happened. It's a concrete reinforced with steel, it's a human made mountain with ton of caves in it. With proper care it'll last, well, not forever, but for a damn long time. And it's very easy to maintain it because how it is constructed. The only big downside is that local company, who supposed to take care of this building, was evading (using forgery and holes in laws) its duties from 1991 till 2010, so first 19 years of its existance. Thus house missed not only a lot of minor repairs, but also its frist big renovation, and the next one by modern plan is due 2033-2038. >_>

[@heliveruscalion9124]

@the Achaean it wouldn't surprise me if the USSR just said that to try and hide their economic failings a bit by overselling the fact that those housing blocks were planned to still be up, even though they were supposed to be temporary. Like if you passed in a draft of a picture for art class because you didn't get the full thing done

[@MoveOnUpMusicEvan]

Your third point is slightly true, during Khrushchev’s various thaws it was acceptable to criticise, but not too much. Then like someone has already said, the 70s and 80s were full of oppression from the KGB with Andropov’s suppression of dissidents and then monitoring of popular discontent. I do say tho, your other two points are spot on and the black market during the 70s and 80s was nicknamed the “second economy” and sold all sorts of Western goods so even though the state was still very authoritarian (70,000 people received a formal warning from the government during the 70s), people still had a lot more access to the West than their parents/grandparents in the Stalin era

[@gandalfwiz20007]

Microdistricts are briliant! It's logical that you have everything you need near your living space

[@damcyk4]

Wow. In early noughties I worked for removal company in UK. It was staggering how similar all houses were. 8 of 10 houses were exactly the same inside. Most interesting: people kept same sort of stuff in exact same places. And I'm not talking about linen inside airing cupboard, obviously with boiler right in the middle of it. Surprising how similar it was to what You described at the beginning of the film. I know trends are trends but it felt like all the building projects came out from one place.

[@johnolsen8772]

As someone who lives in a suburb in australia, I wish our urban planning was as conciderate as this. You have to drive everywhere and everyone goes to the city for work and back out after. If you put all the jobs in one place, why are you wondering why there is so much traffic?

[@sten260]

nobody "put" all the jobs in one place, its just people naturally move closer to each other for work

[@johnolsen8772]

@@sten260 thats the urban planning part of it. Areas have to be zonned to have large office buildings or shopping centres put in them and by putting majority of those offices within a 10km radius (as the bird flies) they force all the surrounding people to congregate in a relatively small area. This causes ridiculous traffic and is a big problem in LA too from what I hear.

[@sten260]

@@johnolsen8772 nobody is planning that stuff, it just happens naturally because private investors buy the land and they build the office spaces and malls etc next to center

[@johnolsen8772]

@@sten260 zoning laws are still a thing though. The government won't build sky scrapers but you still have to be allowed too. For example, a few apartment buildings were declined from being built because the local infrastructure can't support that many more people from living in the area. Councils also have their own rules and in my area, they recently changed so you are allowed to build studio flats on your land if you have the space to increase density.

[@lozoft9]

Soviet cities were similar but ppl took transit instead of drove. The micro district was for all other needs like schooling and shopping.

[@Immanatum]

Some tweaks: 1) the architecture of soviet cities wasn't built based on a socializm ideology with restricting private property. It was built to fit the needs of fast urbanization caused by fast industrialization. At the very beginning of young Soviet State it was among the urgent problems to solve - Russian Empire was definitely an agroindustrial(more agro then industrial) country with huge amount of rural population (Even in this video you can see the difference between late Russian Empire style and Stalin's epoch). Also ask anyone from post-soviet union about "kommunalka" or "obshchezhytiye". 2) After WW2 Soviet cities lied in ruins and once again the problem of living space was among urgent one. Khrushchyovka was an answer - cheap, unified, fast-to-built (especially panelled ones). Moreover - they were built as a substitute and were planned to be in use for 5 years, as a temporary measure, until things become better, and new better buildings with appartaments will be built and people will move to them. 3) indeed, soviet architecture school experienced heavy influence of western schools. The "Mikrorayon" or microdistrict is a compilation based on a famous Unit d'Habitation and modulor ideology. In conclusion, among other achievements (both good and bad) architecture of soviet cities is the unique case, where very prophetic ideas has been realized in improper environment)

[@AlexanderSeven]

ППКС

[@skyworm8006]

Yea his emphasis on this vague 'equalising' idea is nonsense. The main reason for this housing is rural people (the majority of the population) moving to economic centres upon industrialisation. The choice of having everything nearby, as well as communalism, is just one of convenience and good design no matter the context.

[@costasvrettakos]

Yeah for 5 years... Most people still live in such block buildings

[@Immanatum]

@@costasvrettakos nothing lasts longer than the temporary:)

[@aaaavss]

I am from Bulgaria and still live in simillar flat for more than 45 years. My Flat is with brickwalls and after small renovation is very warm and comfortable. And it was very cheap - about 25 monthly salaries of army seargent with 30% percent downpayment and dirt cheap mortgage payment about 5 kilos of meat a month, and when inflation hit in early nineties the total initial price was equal to 2 bottles of wine....Thanks to USSR for the design of Brezhnevkas with low price, Currently the price of the same flat is about 150 000 dollars. And the strangest fact is that the price of the flat was the same in whole country without discretion of the location -the same price in centre of Sofia, and exactly the same price in the gipsy area in small town next to the turkish border...

[@Victorcolongarcia]

I love many of the concepts explained in this video. The fact that most neighbours had similar houses is great to me. I am all for equal opportunities in life.

[@ghostpee1203]

I grew up in one of these micro-districts in a huge 10 floor building in T-shape. And living there was extremely comfortable, everything I ever need was within 2-5 minutes from my door. There was a supermarket built into the actual living quarters, lots of restaurants, a hospital, police department, storage units/gatages train station, kindergarten, clothing shops and even a bunker underneath the place I lived (but it wasn't maintained good, so it was halfway broken, so me and other kids used to sneak in and explore it) also all those building used to look the same from outside, but after fall of Soviet Union when people started becoming richer than started changing outside of their own apartments. So now most of those buildings look like badly made mosaic. Also all most of my friends/relatives had the same type of apartments in different cities.

[@socialaccount1421]

And the market is supposed to be more efficient?

[@ghostpee1203]

@@socialaccount1421 Don't really get what you are saying, but it was very efficient. It had all types of things you would need like drinks, foods, clothes, toys, body wash type stuff, things for the garden. After living in the USA for a while I could say that the supermarket is more efficient for an everyday busy life. Because let's say it's 2 AM and you want some muffins, you can quickly run out and it will take you no time at all. So yes, I would say it was very efficient.

[@socialaccount1421]

@@ghostpee1203 Market economies are efficient for providing the middle and upper classes with goods that they really don't need, they are terrible for waste and sustainability. Supermarkets cause massive amounts of food waste, free market urban planning is awful and products are designed to break.

[@Pheer777]

@@socialaccount1421 Markets produce the things that people want to buy. People "need" very little, so once you start making blanket value judgements about what kinds of things people need, you reduce people's abilities to actually actualize their own desires and dreams. Also, markets clearly produce way more food and essentials than a planned economy anyway - welfare helps the people that are on the margins and homeless shelters make it so basically nobody has to be on the street. Freedom does mean that some people will just be degenerates though and not do shit, the difference is they're not shipped off for forced labor.

[@BadhopRUS]

What you call restaurants in USSR?)

[@round5soundsfetchmetheirso827]

America: CRTL+C CRTL+V Suburbs Russia: CRTL+C CRTL+V Apartments

[@user-zi3th4xx7p]

*round 5 sounds* fetch me their souls ты что тут по клавиатуре проходишься, Обама ты молочный

[@loveshork77]

@@user-zi3th4xx7p скройся

[@wdwuccnxcnh7022]

Yeah. But at least the American houses actually look nice.

[@ebolapie]

@@wdwuccnxcnh7022 That's debatable.

[@Ritaaw1]

Same with UK suburbs

[@mightymads2406]

You researched the topic really well!

[@Nightwindale]

That intro story is simply brilliant. I don't know how you came by it since it's a local thing, but couldn't imagine better fit for the plot.

[@oleksiyraiu7190]

4:21 My grandmother was a junior school teacher. My grandfather was a sailor. They were given a flat in a "stalinka" building of the class you describe "for the elites", right in the center of the city.

[@AllyCreative]

Sailors were elite. My whole family is sailors and there were so many perks because of that, even access to special shops that sold jeans and authorised trips abroad.

[@Aviatorchik]

Grandfather of my friend was a sailor and got stalinka apartment too. My grandpa however was considered as a dissident (not supporting communist ways) and got prison cell.

[@jmi5969]

Разные бывают ситуации. В июне 1941 года один из моих дедов служил в береговой артиллерии Балтфлота в звании полковника. Не матрос, но близко ;). Первую отдельную квартиру получил в 1955, уже после хрущевского сокращения. Дети уже успели вырасти. А семья другого деда жила как раз в сталинке... вот только на четверых была одна комната.

[@iwantnod]

Author is definitely wrong about Stalin buildings were intended for communist elites, but countries elites lived there: scientists, artists, musicians, conventional store directors etc.

[@ivanv.8882]

What a small world it is to find a former coworker under a random KZbin video I watched :D Hi from Stuttgart!

[@andenp8233]

I'm an American who has been to Russia several times, staying a few months each time. I have to say that the micro district model is kind of awesome. There are children who play in the courtyards, buses and consistent and affordable transport to get you everywhere (and I mean everywhere), and access to grocery stores, food, bakeries, and other shops within a 3 minute walk at all times. It is AMAZING to not need a car and have access to food and transport. Not everywhere, but many people take good care of their apartments because they own them and care about how they look and function. I lived in a block with probably 1,000 other apartments and it was quiet! Access to things like this is so rare here in America and I think we could benefit from a little bit of this. Great video.

[@jokubas3391]

I live in a post soviet courntry. I don't really know where there are there microdistricts in my cities. Maybe they are only in the major cities. From what I've heard, public transport isn't that great and especially consistent in other post soviet courntries. Many people rely on marshrutkas which are bad and that is because the official bus systems lack funding. I'm my country it is great but in other post soviet countries in Caucasus and Russia it is bad. Accessing to stuff fast by foot is great but it is always like that if it is high density. There is nothing new. Yes people take care of thier apartaments a lot. But the problem is that if it is not thier property (corridors or the entrance) they don't care of it too much. Because of quite cold winters and the terrible ouside look, most want to renovate the building. But some people for some reason refuse it and it is hard to get the permission do the renovation.

[@spacy9571]

@@jokubas3391 where do you live?

[@jokubas3391]

@@spacy9571 Kaunas, Lithuania

[@kuzmaglazovskii2789]

I live in Russia, here i live at microdistrict in Moscow. I studied urban science a lot by myself and at the university, that's why i can tell you something. Microdistricts is very ineffective in terms of land use - there is a lot of unused land there. Also, they were not designed to accommodate lots of private businesses - you can find a grocery shop there, bakery, but outside of that there are little suitable places for restaurantes for instance. After that this districts are very monofunctional, we call them "spal'niki", that can be translated as sleepy districts, cause the only thing that you can do there is sleep - that causes enormous transit out of the districts at mornings (just not enough workplaces near home). And the one more - they are so similar to each other so there is no feel that it is "your space", there is now territorial identity, people do not give a lot of value to their district because there are a lot of the same one. It's not the complete list of disadvantages of microdictricts, but for me it's enough to build blocks instead

[@mendjelire8392]

@@jokubas3391 Tirana-Albania is solving this with electing a property administrator from the inhabitants and collecting maintenance fee from each unit. If they decide to do renovation they can apply to the municipality and they will get a grant for 50% of the total value of the renovation. The mayor, Erion Velia, studied political sciences in USA and EU Integration in UK.

[@KarolYuuki]

This video explains a lot of why Workers and Resources is the way it is. And also everything I was doing wrong in it. Thanks!

[@user-hj4md8fn8w]

These houses were built in a quick order, as it was necessary to quickly provide housing for hundreds of millions of people. They were designed for 30-50 years, after that people had to move to more comfortable ones.