Thread: Коммунальная квартира

Something totally foreign to me, as an American...

Can't see the video.

I never personally met that phenomenon in real life and pretty sure that there are no kommunalkas in my provincial town of 300 000 (well, there are student's hostels organized in that way but it is temporary). I know that this kind of residence organization was widespread from the beginning to the middle of 20th century when many people in USSR moved from countryside to big cities but I am not sure if some of them still exist and used as a permanent residence by families.

Yes, some of them still exist today (not very often though). It's like a big appartment with several rooms where different tenants live, but kitchen and bathrooms are shared by the tenants.

Also there is usual 'obtschaga' type housing (not only for students).

"общага" is kinda a hostel, usually poor and untidy.

They definitely do exist! One of my friends lives in such an appartment, I visited him several times there. He occupies one room, another room is occupied by his neighbour, two more rooms are currently empty (for sale), and they share a single kitchen and bathroom.

Although yes, they are not so common now as they were in 1950-s or 1960-s.

PS Can't see the video either. Something's wrong with it...

Боб, it can be different - are you sure he is officially registered there? Don't they just rent a room in that apartment?

Maybe yes, I did not ask

Originally Posted by Боб Уайтман

...PS Can't see the video either. Something's wrong with it...

It's private.

Тем не менее еще есть классические коммунальные квартиры в старых домах (их уже очень мало). А также есть более новые т.н. "гостинки" - в них более длинные коридоры и комнаты более менее отделены, но, по сути, это те же "коммуналки" (осовремененные).

I don't know why it won't play, as it did for me...but here's the web page link; the video is down towards the bottom.
The kitchen, to me, would be the worst part...I'm of German decent and certainly have the cleaning trait in my blood!

i m sure you are decent...: (tongue in cheek)
i would worry more about the bathrooms

In Soviet times apartments were assigned by state authorities in accordance with the standards of living space designed for one individual, regardless of marital status so often 2-3 or even 4 persons ended up living in a room really meant for one person.

That’s true. Communal flats is a social experiment organized by communists. There were huge number of kommunalka with appalling living conditions in the former USSR, and lots of them still exist these days. According to Wikipedia, about 660,000 people lived in such flats in St. Petersburg in 2011. Lenin personally masterminded the creation of such accommodations in one of his works describing in detail the process of taking over the housings of richer people. In 20th and 30th former owners were evicted from the remaining rooms and devoid of civil rights.

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Коммунальная_квартира