In the real estate lexicon, in addition to “dvushka”, “treshka” or “odnushka”, the words “deposit” and other specific terms, there are special concepts that mean a group of projects that prevailed in a particular era. It is said “dvushka-Khrushchev-third”, and immediately before my eyes there appears an apartment with a small entrance hall, a five- or six-meter kitchen, an entrance hall and a small bedroom located on the third level of a five-story building.
Under the personal control of I.V. Stalin
Before the mass resettlement of the suffering citizens from basements, barracks and crowded communes, there was another era that lasted from the mid forties to the late fifties. It cannot be said that the Soviet houses built then were named after the Soviet leader. His formidable metal name was carried by tanks, steam locomotives and other examples of powerful equipment, but aircraft were designated with the first letters of the name of the general aircraft designer. It was impossible even to allow the very idea that Stalin fell, and even with his nose down ... Naturally, the houses built from 1945 to 1960 began to be called Stalin after his death, the mention of the “in vain” name of the “father of peoples” could threaten some complications and a fundamental change in further biography. In general, cost a modest number of the project.
Soviet houses are named after the Soviet leader not only because they were built during the years of his life. The appearance and interior decoration showed the spirit of the era and aesthetic preferences of Joseph Vissarionovich himself, who was not lazy to inspect all the samples intended for mass production (and much more) personally, including cars, radios, movies and, of course, housing projects.
Stalin's Empire
Post-war life in the USSR was characterized by a demonstrative stratification of people into classes and ranks. Officials of various ministries wore uniforms with insignia and departmental emblems, just like in tsarist Russia. And different ranks relied on different living spaces, at least in freedom. For the very best, including academics, cultural figures and members of the government, special buildings, skyscrapers were built, and only in the capitals of the Union republics. There was everything: huge kitchens, and tall ceilings, and bathrooms (the area with an ordinary living room), and bay windows (not everyone knows that this is the protruding part of the wall, glazed on three sides). This splendor looked impressive from the outside. Curls, hammer-sickles, stars, sheaves of wheat and other ideologically seasoned symbols of creative work unobtrusively emphasized that only Soviet houses could be so beautiful and comfortable. Named in honor of the Soviet leader were not some separate buildings and structures, but entire areas and cities. But there couldn’t be enough elite housing for everyone, therefore the expression “type of house - stalinka” is not a complete description of the property. In each case, further clarification is required.
Stalin, good and different
Despite the fact that most Soviet citizens huddled in extremely uncomfortable communes and barracks, in which one latrine sometimes accounted for a double-digit number of rooms, there was still a need for good housing, and a considerable one.
All housing projects developed in the post-war Stalin years had several common features. They were built of bricks, equipped with separate bathrooms and balconies, built-in wardrobes were an indispensable part of their interior. Ceiling height - at least three meters.
The simplest stalinkas (project 1-255) had a low number of storeys (2-3 levels), a small total area and a small (6-9 sq. M.) Kitchen. Captured German soldiers were often involved in their construction, which in combination with the use of improvised materials taken from the post-war ruins caused a low quality of construction work.
Until 1961, houses for improved projects of the 1-414 and 1-433 series were built for the party-Soviet nomenclature, with an eight-meter kitchen, a spacious entrance hall, large and square rooms. Storeys, and therefore the requirements for the foundation, have increased. Mostly, wooden floors were laid in all types of stalinok, except for the most elite ones.
Khrushchev: still need more
The technological lag of the USSR was manifested in many aspects, including in construction. Most of the stalin houses were built in the Khrushchev years. The pace of their construction left much to be desired, as well as quality.
The Soviet leadership in the mid-fifties realized the futility of the approach adopted at that time to the problem of mass development. New technologies were required, and they were borrowed abroad. Prefabricated housing for workers, cheap and relatively comfortable, seen by N. S. Khrushchev in the Paris suburbs, seemed to him a way out of a difficult situation. Architects urgently developed projects for which they began to build model houses. The Khrushchevs - so they began to be called almost immediately after the first housewarming, without investing any maliciousness in the new term. After cramped basements and barracks, the apartments, though small, but ours, seemed modern palaces, bright and comfortable. So a strategic choice was made between comfortable housing for the elite and modest, but for many, although still not for everyone.
Despite the enormous funds that the Soviet government invested in construction, it was not possible to completely solve the housing problem. In the seventies, new apartment projects began to be called anonymized: "Moscow", "Czech", "Kharkiv", "sixteen-story building." It is understood that all of these Soviet houses are named after the Soviet leader L. I. Brezhnev, but there are too many types for the concept of "brezhnevka" to have a specific meaning. Sometimes this term realtors still use, as a rule, to catch up with the fog.