Living A Communist's Life - Collective Housing

I live in a Soviet-era apartment building and not just any. It was built as housing for the worker families of the ХимЗавод, or chemical factory, of Vladimir. My host mother's family moved into the apartment shortly after its construction, in 1935. She has lived here her entire life... and so many others lived here too. During the Soviet times, the Communists decided that they wanted to collectivize life for its citizens. This ensured the equality of life.

In the collectivization of housing, many families would often live in the same apartment, as mandated by the government. For example, in the 3 room, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen apartment I presently live in, 2 families consisting of a total of 10 people would live together.

To realize that my room is intended to house a family of 4 is shocking. I estimate the total size of the apartment to amount to no more than 1000 square feet. While the room is large, I wouldn't expect more than 2 people to live in it at any one time.

While it was an era of communism, there still was not true equality for all during the Soviet times. I was surprised to find the director of the chemical factory, himself, used to live here in this very room. I was furthered surprised to find this was one of four rooms he was allotted for his family.

Collective housing also had other advantages for the Bolsheviks. Living in close quarters allowed the different families to make sure that everyone was a devoted communist and would not think or say anything to the contrary. For example, under communism, most churches were closed and the Bible was outlawed. Possessing the Bible was a serious offense, possibly resulting in your sudden disappearance.

In a time where disobeying the will of the government could result in you being sent to the gulag, a series of working camps mainly located in Siberia where many people were worked to death, you would be taking a serious risk in possessing the Bible. Also, to speak ill of Lenin or Stalin was considered blasphemy because for all intents and purposes of the Soviet people, Lenin is God and Stalin is his disciple.

To further describe the apartment in which I live, at the time of its construction, there was no hot water, no gas, no central heating, no washing machine and no refrigerator. These were installed only later.

Water had to be heated on the stove. Since there was no gas, in order to use the stove, you had to use another fuel source, such as wood. To this day, there is still no central heating for the apartment itself. Hot water is routed from a central city water heating plant that closely resembles the structure of a nuclear silo and transported to apartments across the city using a series of above-ground pipes. This hot water is delivered to apartments not only for use by its inhabitants, but also fed through a series of water radiators which keep the apartment warm.

On the radiators in my apartment, there is no way to regulate the temperature of the radiator. If there happens to be a problem at the central water heating plant of the city or a repair needs to be made to one of the many pipes supplying hot water to your apartment, you are without hot water. This has already happened to me twice, once in fall and again in winter. During these times, it is important to keep the windows closed tightly and use an extra blanket. If bathing, you need to heat water on the stove and take a bucket bath.

Clothing had to be washed by hand. In most Russian apartments, a special rack can be found in the bathroom. While this may look like a towel rack, it is actually much more. Its structure is actually a series of pipes through which hot water is running. This can be useful in order to dry your clothes more quickly. If you have a lot of clothes, you can also use your radiators as another location in which to dry your clothing.

Food had to be kept on the window sill to stay cool during the winters or preserved to be kept during the summers. While there were not the many luxuries that you would find in the West during this era, there was, however, electricity and indoor plumbing.