The Soviet Union, which existed for 69 years, undoubtedly left its enormous mark on history. We still feel its influence now, almost 30 years after its collapse. And we probably feel it most strongly through Soviet houses, in which a huge number of people still live. However, most of them still know nothing about the houses in which they live. Now we will try to fix this.
It is a mistake to believe that all Soviet residential construction is just shabby Khrushchev buildings. This is wrong. There were (and still are) at least 3 types of Soviet residential buildings, not counting the various branches: “Stalinka” buildings, those same “Khrushchevka” buildings, and “Brezhnevka” buildings. Now let's get to know each one better.
Old fund
These are buildings that have survived from the end of the 19th century and were erected before the 1940s. Their walls are usually brick or wood, and the ceilings and internal structures are also wooden. But modernization could also be carried out (replacing the floors with metal ones).
Main advantages: location close to the city center, thick external walls and original layouts: such houses usually have many small rooms, long corridors, and often the kitchen is a walk-through and has no windows. Elite houses of this type have luxurious entrances with spiral staircases.
There are many disadvantages, and most of them are related to the age of the buildings: worn out communications, the need for frequent and complex repairs. Often in such houses it is troublesome or even impossible to obtain permission for redevelopment. Old houses need to be chosen very carefully: carefully inspect the house from the basement to the roof, read the documentation, compare the image of the apartment on the plan with reality. It is good if the house has undergone renovation and a recent inspection. The “old fund” may be unreasonably expensive due to its location.
