Ah, so that's it! 5 strange features of “Khrushchev” buildings that not everyone knows about
Surely you yourself know, or someone from the older generation told you, that in the USSR they loved to build. Moreover, construction concerned all spheres of human life: sports, art, science, education, profession. But most of all they loved to build banal living space. Some new cities were built up literally in a month, where thousands of people moved and settled in a new place.
On average, it took 12 days to build a house. Some builders set a record: one team from Leningrad, for example, completed it in five days.
The content of the article
Features of "Khrushchev"
Having your own separate apartment in the 50s and 60s meant having freedom, so an ordinary citizen of the Soviet Union was infinitely happy about such an event. True, during Soviet times there was no need to count on excesses, but they were happy with what they gave.
However, any buildings built during the Soviet era are different even now - they were built competently, carefully and carefully thought out. The authorities have always taken care of sanitary standards, safety and compliance with civil defense requirements - this is undoubtedly a huge plus for the state. But it turns out that there are several strange features in the buildings of that time. Take, for example, the banal “Khrushchev”. In buildings of this type there are things that are still not understood, and it seems as if they are superfluous. But this is not true at all. There is a rational explanation for everything.
Through entrances
Some multi-storey buildings built during the USSR have through entrances. That is, you can enter from one side of the house and exit from the other. There have been a lot of rumors and unnecessary speculation around this decision for a long time.
In fact, the technical documentation states that such a through passage is designed for quick and easy transfer of a fire hose in the event of a fire in a house or in a separate apartment. That is, initially, through entrances were conceived as a quick way to throw a fire hose in order to quickly extinguish the fire. All other legends are just speculations of those who have nothing else to discuss.
Number of floors
In fact, most Soviet houses had either five or nine floors. But this was also not someone’s chaotic idea. This decision, of course, had a rational explanation.
Firstly, before the 1970s, it was necessary to build many houses to house people, but sanitary calculations showed that a person could only rise to the 5th floor without it affecting his health in any way in the bad sense of the word. Everything higher - sixth, seventh, eighth - already required an elevator. Architects of the USSR found an ideal solution to saving money - five floors would be enough so as not to spend money on an elevator.
Already in the early 70s, this decision did not suit everyone, since there were still many citizens who needed living space, so they began to build houses with more capacity. The production of elevators was put on stream, and multi-storey buildings began to be built. But here a problem arose - the fire truck’s boom ladder only reached 27–30 meters, so 9 floors became the optimal solution both for safety reasons and for cost savings.
Five floors is, according to medical standards, the maximum for a house without an elevator.There is a legend that Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, while signing documents, muttered: “Let them walk.” According to another version, he himself, having visited the construction site, never climbed to the fifth floor.
Window to the bathroom
Another very strange element that over the years has simply gotten stuck in the swamp of rumors and myths. In fact, the small window between the kitchen and the bathroom was invented for a reason, but to comply with sanitary standards.
Such apartments were built in the 1950s, when the USSR was actively fighting tuberculosis. It was believed that sunlight should enter apartments for at least 2 hours a day to prevent the development of the disease, since it was ultraviolet radiation that destroyed the tuberculosis bacillus. However, later this idea turned out to be extremely dubious, so the window was abandoned during construction.
Another explanation for the presence of a window is that in the presence of a gas water heater, it acted as a weakened element and, in the case of a burst of gas-air mixture, was knocked out by the resulting pressure wave without destroying the concrete structures.
Number of steps in the entrance
In Khrushchev buildings there are always either 9 or 11 steps per flight. And this is also not a coincidence at all.
Many building codes and regulations were developed in the Soviet Union in the 50s, when a construction boom began across the entire country. Many requirements have not changed and are still in effect today. So one of them is a clear number of steps in the entrance. The thing is that scientists have calculated the optimal amount for the human body, so that residents can conveniently start and finish the ascent/descent with one leg.
If the number of steps is even, then a person begins and ends the ascent or descent of the stairs with different feet, which increases the risk of losing stability and falling.
Features of painting entrances
All the entrances of the Khrushchev apartment buildings are painted the same way: half the walls are painted, the other half are whitewashed. This choice of coating for public spaces was associated with cost savings, because whitewash is a fairly cheap coating, and it looks quite elegant and nice.
As for the color of the paint, it is usually green or blue. And this is also not someone’s whim. It was believed that these shades had a beneficial effect on the human psyche, calmed the nervous system and were not irritating.
These are the features of the Soviet “Khrushchev” buildings, which many seem strange, but in fact turn out to be completely rational decisions.
Everything is very simple: during the design it was assumed that meals would be taken in the living/dining room, and food would only be prepared in the kitchen. That is why the kitchen area is the same for both 1-room and 4-room apartments.
In Khrushchev houses it was not intended to use the kitchen as a place for eating.As, by the way, is the place of its preparation. A Soviet woman should be free from the duties of a cook and laundress, said Nikita Sergeevich. Therefore, they built kitchen factories, canteens, cutlet houses, dumpling shops, etc. They developed a network of laundries. And in a kitchen the size of a handkerchief, only a kettle should fit)))) Moreover, two-burner gas stoves were installed in apartments with different numbers of rooms and family members.
The kitchen is the place where food is prepared, and therefore the area is the same. and there is enough space for one housewife. We are used to gathering in the kitchen.
Nothing strange. There is a simple explanation - it was customary to cook in the kitchen and eat in a room called the HALL.
The window from the bathroom to the kitchen was made according to fire safety requirements. In the room where the water-heating gas water heater was installed, there must be a window to relieve pressure in the event of a gas explosion in the bathroom.
We have never installed gas boilers in the bathroom. Only to the kitchen. These modern craftsmen now spit on the rules and drag them into the bathroom.
It may have a small kitchen, but it’s a separate apartment, not a communal apartment or a dorm, and it’s FREE!
A window between the bathroom and the kitchen is also needed so that you don’t have to constantly turn on the light if you go into the bathroom for a short time. Due to the fact that now there is a set in the kitchen and cabinets hanging in place of the window, there is a need to constantly turn on the light or keep the door open - very inconvenient.
There have always been power outages and there will always be
For example, in the states, a window in the bathtub/toilet facing the street is the norm
What?? Is it now inconvenient to turn on the light to relieve yourself? God, how old are you? 110?
The author, in the sentence “However, any buildings built during the Soviet era are different even now - they were built competently, carefully and carefully thought out. “Please delete the word “carefully” and insert the second “n” in the word “thoughtfully.”
Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority were built carelessly. Crooked and slanting walls in apartments, uncaulked frames and cases when, when driving a dowel, all the plaster collapses - this is the “talk of the town” during the USSR.
They built it quickly, so it was of poor quality. And materials were stolen in unlimited quantities. These are the realities.
Yes Yes Yes! In 12 days “neatly”. And most of the Khrushchev buildings were 4-story.
And the first, in the 1960s, “Khrushchev” buildings were built in brick, those with an arch between the corridor and the kitchen.
She lived in Khrushchev for 40 years. The window between the kitchen and the bathroom served: partly for heating, since there is no heated towel rail, partly for ventilation, all for the same reason.
In the original project (stolen in the West), the Khrushchev buildings were wider and there was a greater distance between the 2 windows at the end (see photo). They came up with the following - a hallway with a toilet and a bathroom at the end, making the rooms separate, to remove them altogether, and to make the kitchen smaller by placing on its territory a hallway, a corridor, a toilet and a bathroom, and behind it - what was left of the real kitchen. Well, the authorities in the USSR have always been able to steal something from the people! And make you thank them for it too.
Who knows why there is a hole in the wall near the sink in the kitchen? This is not only in Khrushchev buildings, but also in many sockets of that time!
And above the 9th floor there is no gas. All houses above 9 floors have electric stoves. This is also due to some technical features, I don’t remember what exactly.
And as for ultraviolet radiation: the houses are built in such a way that the sun shines into EVERY room at least briefly during the day.
Not true! We lived in a 12-story building, we had gas on all floors.
Our house, built in 1956, has 3 levels - 8, 9 and 10 floors. There is a gas stove everywhere, but hot water without a gas water heater. Therefore, your information about gas supply above the 9th floor is not correct.
I live in a 14-story building, we have gas
Did you just come up with this? I lived half my life in a twelve-story building with gas. And opposite there was a sixteen-story “tower” with gas.
No. 12-story buildings also have gas stoves
no, the fathers-in-law lived in a 12th floor building built in the 70s with gas
NK it was written - ok. standards, length of fire escape. Stalin cars have gas up to 11.
I live in a 12-story brick house built in 1968. buildings (Leningrad, Vyborg district).
All stoves from the 1st to the 12th floor are gas.
In 1990 I was in Leninokan. After the earthquake, new houses collapsed, burying thousands of people. Khrushchev's ones didn't even have cracks.
There is an explanation here. In areas where earthquakes are common, the earth's crust is riddled with faults, resembling a broken plate, where there are more or less stable areas separated by faults.If a house is located within one “stable” area, then during an earthquake it is less susceptible to destruction than those houses that fall on several such areas at once, separated by faults. These stable areas certainly change, but are often inherited over a long period of time. New houses are being built on the site of destroyed ones. And old ones, in stable areas, sometimes survive several earthquakes without major destruction. Hence the feeling that they built better before... including not stealing cement...
nothing is free, to get an apartment you had to work as a farm laborer and work as a farm laborer in one place for YEARS! Do you want to leave? You lose your place in line for an apartment. How is this better than a mortgage? Everyone. With a mortgage, you can change jobs as much as you like.
If you don’t find a job on time, you’ll go out on the street. And the money paid will stay with the bank! Beauty! And why bother? You work and receive your salary in FULL, and not nibbled off by a mortgage. Vouchers for a sanatorium, for children in a pioneer camp. That's the nasty USSR, or is it now - any whim for your money))))
There is no need to lie. How many years did you have to “work as a laborer”? Numbers! Keep quiet, but I know, because in Soviet times I received two apartments. The first, 2 years and 3 months after getting a job at DSK, the second, 4 months after the birth of the second child, and they were put on the waiting list for expansion based on a certificate of seven-month pregnancy, the damned commies mocked the people like that.
“They took a lot of trouble.” You always need to work.But it is certainly better to get an apartment and work for many years at one company than to work on a mortgage for an apartment all your life without the certainty that tomorrow there will be something to pay off the mortgage and you will not be kicked out of an apartment that has not yet been fully paid for with your own money.
You had to work in one place if the company provided you with an apartment. That is, a person came to the city from another place (city, village, etc.) and got a job at a plant (factory). If there is a city queue, then change jobs at least every month.
For painting the entrances, red, green and blue because the pigments for paint of these colors were the most efficient...
Khrushchev was a temporary housing option in order to quickly resettle all those in need from communal apartments and barracks. That's why the apartments are small. at that time it was quite good housing.
In addition to what is written, the window in the bathroom is also needed as a source of additional lighting. On the staircase, different colors are also needed to make it easier to navigate in smoke conditions
The first illustration is not a Khrushchev building!
Those who criticize “Khrushchev” never lived in basements.
Nine floors were also adopted due to the fact that up to the 9th floor central water supply is possible without additional pumps.
By the way, 12 days is the construction of only the box. Then internal work continued for another 3 months.
Strange comments for the most part. No heated towel rail? Yes, I lived in three Khrushchev apartments - they were everywhere.Are the kitchens small? So in the professorial building of Moscow State University they are no larger - it was believed that you need to eat in the dining room-living room, and for cooking 6-7 meters, or even less, is quite enough. Well, as for the fact that when leaving work the line was lost - that’s the line at production. And if you stand in the district executive committee, then it is always with you (there is more there). Well, for comparison: in 1991 we ended up in Austria in a studio. It was impossible for us to have a gas stove and water heater in a living room, even in our barracks. And so it was.
Commentators comment from 20-meter mortgage studios! They know better what is better))))
Elena, in the USSR you could only stand in one queue for housing. If you stood in line at work, they didn’t put you in line in the city. Only towards the end of the USSR, it seems, this was canceled...
In apartments with gas water heaters, the heated towel rail was connected to the central heating; in the summer it was always cold.
there is little space in the kitchen with high ceilings, which is a discomfort...however, this was compensated for by the refrigerator under the window. In my opinion, this is a brilliant solution..
Have you seen kitchens in houses built according to the program? renovations? The Khrushchevs are resting. What's bad about socialism? And now the bourgeoisie are freaking out. Vote for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, it won’t get any worse! Workers of all countries unite! When will the ghost wake up and go wandering?
I don’t dislike the USSR, I lived in it for half my life, but under that system I would never have had my own apartment, separate from my parents—I wouldn’t have been able to get it or earn money. And I wouldn’t have seen other countries either.
But now there is no medicine or education. We live on the leftovers.
Each system has its advantages and disadvantages. But we will not be allowed to have our own meaningful voice under any system.
The kitchens are small because they planned to free housewives from constant cooking. It was supposed to take food in canteens and cookeries. I remember in the early 60s, sets of three bowls appeared on sale specifically for going to the dining room for the first, second and third.
I have a friend who, as a child, lived in a barracks-type house, where from the threshold you go straight into the kitchen, and the kitchen was 22 sq.m. Now she lives in a five-story building, two rooms, a kitchen of 4.5 sq.m. One day we sat down to drink tea, and then her husband and two children came, there was no more room at the table. I complained about modern kitchens, and she answered me: “What are you talking about! I remember how my mother ran around the kitchen from end to end! And I have beauty: I extended my hand and opened the tap, extended the other and turned on the gas, without leaving my place I opened the cabinet and took the cereal.”
This is correct - NOT KHRUSCHEVS - they were developed and designed under STALIN and began to be built, BUT it was KHRUSCH that seized power - so the people called this model of houses “Khrushchevs”...
so why do we pay so much for social housing, that’s the question, before we paid practically nothing and now the allowance is 1500t and the rent 4 incomes have fallen and you pay and the property is needed to ruin and you could sell your Khrushchev-era apartment Putin is wrong Lenin is right
Khrushchev buildings were still a step towards primitivization... After the “Stalin houses”, for a short time, simple “more residential” and comfortable prefabricated houses were built from expanded clay concrete blocks, which usually had 4 floors, there were basements for storing residents’ belongings, the apartments had built-in wardrobes and dark “dressing rooms”, in the kitchens there were “refrigerators” with an opening to the street, there were warmer double separate frames and interfloor ventilation (in the corners of the rooms there were ventilation holes on the floor) ...
Apparently, they were showing off in Krasnodar)))
We have 12-story buildings (!) built in the mid-1970s.
And regarding the window between the bathroom and the kitchen.
Just such a house no longer had gas water heaters, but there were windows!
In the 80s, they built enough 10-story buildings.
It’s annoying that there is only one elevator for the 9-10th floors, which is small. No, at least they made a cargo one!!!
And where there are 12, there are already TWO elevators.
I live in a 10-story building, the date on the house is 1989.
One entrance actually has a through passage, but mine does not, since the 1st floor was immediately dedicated to commercial activities.
There are no longer any windows between the bathroom and the kitchen.
My house, where I lived since childhood, was built in 1956. Brick, 8-10 floors (multi-storey. With gas, hot water, electricity, elevator. Built by the Germans. The kitchens had a built-in imported kitchen set, with a 2-bowl stainless steel sink, which was shared by neighbors like brothers)) And we had WINDOWS BETWEEN THE KITCHEN, TOILET and BATHROOM. Just like in Khrushchev buildings)) There was a gas meter under the window in the kitchen.
Regarding “they don’t supply gas above the 9th floor”
Since when? We all have gas in our old houses, but in new buildings they don’t even supply it at all, and somewhere only up to the 4th floor. But for some reason it was until 4.
“sanitary calculations have shown that a person can only rise to the 5th floor without it affecting his health in any way in the bad sense of the word.”
Mothers with strollers and small children, disabled people, elderly people, patients with a leg in a cast, probably could not get enough of such care.
God bless you, calculate the share of the unfortunate, and bring it to the number of apartments on the first floor (by the way, not the most popular - you could refuse and choose another... yes, you could. Patience and work - that's all, a smoke break!
The same size of the kitchen was made because in ancient times the kitchen was a place for cooking. Ate in the room at the dining table
it happened differently. Everything depended on the need for specific production for the national economy and the value of the employee. More on the possibilities of enterprise and urban construction. We got an apartment after 4 years of work, others after 10, sometimes, although very rarely, after a few months. It happened that people waited for decades until retirement for an apartment, but at the same time there were always hostels! Ultimately, everything depended on the person. Some, for example, remain single all their lives, despite the fact that there are a lot of girls around.
,
And in some brick Khrushchev buildings of the early-mid 60s, the floors were parquet. My mother now lives in such an apartment, and every time I visit her, I am surprised that the parquet is in perfect condition and does not creak at all.
Small kitchens were intended only for preparing tea and light snacks; it was assumed that Soviet people should eat in public catering establishments
The window in the bathroom (it always looks into the kitchen window) is, first of all, saving electricity for lighting the bathroom during the day.
Two-level painting of walls is the golden mean between elegance and practicality - the oil paint on the bottom does not stain and is easy to clean. Lime is light (elegant, expands space) and “breathable” (absorbs excess moisture and releases it when the air dries out, has some disinfecting properties), but it is unstable and easily soiled, so it’s only the top.
The number of steps is most likely an accident associated with the standard height of floors, but the height and width of steps are regulated parameters.
But, in general, the layouts of Soviet buildings (both houses and microdistricts) evoke the idea that they still thought about people more than about their own pockets, they strived for a bright and comfortable future, without frills, but with the necessary convenience, so that a person could relax and to gain strength after work (in a separate, albeit small room), children could study with concentration and the family could gather in a common room.
Who worked as a laborer? At our aircraft factory, workers were given a small family after three years of work, and if they refused it, then after another two years they were given a full-fledged apartment. No one was running from job to job, why? They are now working as laborers for the banks. What's good about a mortgage? You take a million, give it back in 20 years, five or more. If you lose your job and don’t pay your monthly payments, your apartment will be taken away along with the money paid.Previously, they simply worked for their salary, with which they did not pay any payments, neither to banks nor to anyone, and received an apartment for free!
You are right and wrong.
1. Overpayment by 4 times over 20 years? According to my estimates, overpaying a loan by four times is possible with monthly annuity (equal) payments and a loan interest rate of at least 25%! Are you delusional?
The apartment is taken away in case of non-payment. You are right here. Selling. Debts are collected, including fines and penalties. The remainder belongs to the debtor.
From my work, I knew many situations where borrowers overvalued an apartment, received loans that exceeded the cost of the apartment, made major renovations, then the crisis (2008, 2014) and difficulties with income. In these cases, their apartment, which had become cheaper during the crisis, was taken away from them and they still owed the bank.
I don't feel sorry for such cunning fools.
2. I worked at a construction site in the 80s, and heard stories from workers about getting an apartment in 2-3 years. Then in 4-5 years. Almost no one managed to get it with me. To get it, the workers had to work a bunch of extra hours (!!!) during non-working hours on the construction of the MZhK. I was a young engineer in poor health, so, firstly, I was not hired as an engineer, and secondly, I was not in the health to work hard as an installer or helper. In slave labor, in addition to hard work for a regular salary.
3. And you won’t be able to stand in line for an apartment either, since the norm is 6 sq.m. living space per person. They gave birth to two children, lived in a three-room apartment (40 sq.m. of living space) with their father-in-law and mother-in-law, with extremely difficult relationships. At least hang yourself, no prospects. Ten years of hellish torment (the family survived simply by a miracle...), until in the 90s I bought myself a separate apartment without loans.
4.My children live in both capitals. Under the Soviet system this was not possible for them. One lives in an apartment on which there is no mortgage, the second pays a mortgage in Moscow of approximately 80 rubles. per month (this is already now, before it was more), but at the same time he has money left to live very normally and reinvest at an interest no less than on a mortgage, which gives him confidence in the future. They chose an apartment in Moscow in a building and in a place that they really liked.
I got an apartment when I was young and am happy. Home, work, home and we didn’t have time to pay attention to all the nuances. And there is another city and a new apartment. Again we are in a hurry to get somewhere, building something. In satellite towns, five-story buildings were built with a bang, cheaply and cheerfully.
You are good, young years!
We are destined for tomorrow, maybe
And meet love for the first time,
And discover new planets!
I fundamentally disagree with the steps. The reason is more that the optimally convenient height of the steps, or rather the ratio of height and depth is 15 by 30 cm. What you can see in all public institutions. And the number of steps, as we know, determines the height of the ceilings. Accordingly, the optimal choice was made. Therefore, the Khrushchev buildings had two ceiling heights: 2.4 and 2.7 m.
And there is one more feature - the depth of the room is 6 m. And it is not entirely related to insulation (the depth of light penetration into the room), but more from constructive considerations. This is the optimal length of the floor slab at which the strength characteristics are maintained.
In panel buildings, the height of the ceilings could be fractional, that is, a multiple of 5 cm. In our city, I have not seen ceilings of 2.4 m in Khrushchev-era buildings, the minimum is 2.5 m.
In my opinion, it is not the number of steps that justifies the height of the ceilings, but rather the height of the floor that justifies the number of steps. But this does not change the essence of the issue (here I agree with you), that is, the author is talking nonsense about scientists and the legs of residents.
small correction Mikitka Khrushch had no involvement in the development of these buildings... the author is an illiterate hamster Rashka... alas and ah.
Replace the word “clap” with “explosion”. Call a spade a spade.
I agree..
“...in the USSR they loved to build...” Oga. We don't need bread, let's build. We were such lovers of this business there, it really hurt our teeth. Everyone from top to bottom. These are empty general phrases. Who loved, when and where the orderlies were... In fact, in the USSR they “loved” reports, yes. Here's an example. Under dear Leonid Ilyich, I had the opportunity to work in the Sverdlovsk Regional Executive Committee in the Gasification Department. We didn’t like building at all, and it wasn’t like it was our profile. But we “loved” to install gas and household electric stoves in new buildings in the city and region. And they especially loved reporting on this to the ministry. By fucking phone. Why fuck? So it was I who was responsible for them at that moment in time. When I first arrived, I was a naive, curly-haired young man of a very tender age, with ideas... A month later I turned into a hunched old misanthrope. Why so? So I started by collecting their reports, under the surprised looks of the heads of inter-regional gas and gorgaz, putting them together into a monolith and trying to send them upstairs. To where they loved. To love us. I thought that nothing could be changed in the past; well, they installed, say, 1,700 of these slabs across the region in a month, so where to go now? That's a fact! It turned out not. It became worse both for me and for the fact.It was explained to me in a soft, unobtrusive manner exactly where my immediate superior would put my party card and what kind of erotic journey I personally would prefer. It was reminded that the plan is the law, and the fact that my report before this plan was missing 30 percent was my personal shortcoming. In response to my timid remark - they say, they haven’t built it, so there are certificates about the disruption of housing delivery plans, about postponing the delivery to the next period, and even about the failure to master the zero cycle, but how can you put slabs in something that doesn’t exist, they answered me categorically... In short, they answered. So they answered that the sabotage of me and the head of the Department ended there. Moreover, for a week I demanded new reports from those below, despite the fact that some of the signatories had gone on sick leave or gone on a drinking binge. The plan was implemented in all regions and cities. At least 100%. Always like this. Responsibility for lies was spread down to the grassroots.
What is this story for? Oh, no need to humanize Soviet production, no matter what. Nobody “loved” anything there; we were ordinary people and “loved” making bolts in exactly the same way as today’s Pyaterochka cashiers love selling cigarettes. There is no need to idiotize us, or at least me en masse. This is the first. And the second. Yes, there’s no point in trusting the Soviet numbers. It's always a mess. Not always on the upside, but always a mess.
I am a builder myself, and until 1990 we built exactly according to these patterns, and I still think that Soviet designers were head and shoulders smarter and creatively gifted people than modern people, look at the new buildings, no taste, no quality, in a word, humanists, someone like that great description of modern builders.In their pursuit of floors, they completely forgot about safety and basic sanitary standards. Alas!!!
Yes, I remember this “benign” poisonous green color that infuriated me at the very sight of it. And the creepy tiny kitchens and the same corridors. Moreover, yes, as noted above, for any apartment the size of the kitchen is about 4-6 sq.m.
No, of course it’s free and yours. But. For example, many then lived in a one-room apartment as a family of four with children of different sexes all their lives.
Also, pay attention to the distance between five-story buildings. During the Cold War, the distance between houses was chosen so that during a bombing one house would not fall on another and create a domino effect.
For those who criticize the small area of Khrushchev apartments: in Moscow they are already building apartments with an area of, if I’m not mistaken, 11 sq.m. And where, you may ask, was life worse?
“It was believed that sunlight should enter apartments for at least 2 hours a day in order to prevent the development of the disease, since it was ultraviolet radiation that destroyed the tuberculosis bacillus”
Is there anything that glass doesn’t let UV rays through? If you didn't learn physics well at school, try sunbathing on the glassed-in balcony.
1. The first thing they did after moving in was closing the through passage. I didn't hear the firemen making a fuss. Either the building management set up a warehouse there, or they gave it to merchants for a store, or they expanded the neighboring apartment at the expense of part of the through passage. 2.In Soviet times, they never built individual houses, but only microdistricts. That is, housing, a clinic, a kindergarten, a school, shops... Now they are only looking for housing. It turns out to be a human being. 3.The window into the bathtub and toilet from the kitchen is primarily about saving electricity. During the day it is light enough to not miss the toilet, wash your hands and take a bath. The myth about ultraviolet radiation is fundamentally wrong. Ordinary glass, not quartz, does not transmit ultraviolet radiation. One layer is enough.
“during Soviet times there was no need to count on excesses” but now we are well-fed! A 10-meter studio is already worth the happiness of a mortgage for the rest of your life.
Large-panel housing construction during the time of Brezhnev
Something about some of the photos about five-story buildings - four-story buildings...
The number of floors, first of all, it was taken into account to which floor, and in what year the fire escape installed on the fire truck could extend. And with the development of firefighting equipment, the number of floors also increased.. Because in some cities there were no 9-story residential buildings at all, until some time. There were no such cars in the city.. And the window between the bathroom and the kitchen was also for safety reasons; according to statistics, a person taking a bath or shower may become ill from a change in temperature or when taking a bath (possibility of drowning) in order to provide assistance. .
9-story buildings were also built based on savings, since a 10-story building should already have 2 elevators.
Otherwise, how can we explain that there were 12-story buildings of the same years?
Last year we bought an apartment in a 1979 building. The layout is like in the Khrushchev buildings. And, you know, this is the best layout I've ever seen. A small kitchen, bath, toilet is not a minus, it is a rational use of space. Every meter is verified, nothing superfluous. Everything is optimal. Modern houses have huge corridors and huge kitchens. And the rooms themselves are small.For what?
photo with a swimming pool: a yard full of kids, greenery all around. and now - a yard full of cars. greenery awww, the children are at home talking at their computers.
So, for your information... Through entrances are a legacy of the Stalin era. It was automatically transferred to the project and then removed. Elevators in 5-story buildings - they were installed, mounted. Opportunities were not available everywhere. The window in the bathroom and the glass in the kitchen door are also from old projects and were left as is. Yes, and the gas water heaters were removed, but the stoves were left. Quality - yes, uncaulked windows, communications in the wall. Everything was.
There are no through entrances in Khrushchev buildings, but I have seen them in Stalin buildings.
Another very strange feature was the same kitchen area in both the one-room and four-room apartments. Although everyone understands that a four-room apartment is designed for a large family!