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Kommunalka
Publisher
:
Éditions Jean-Claude Lattès
Parution date
:
2006
EAN
:
9782709614474
Description
Existing unedited English translation. Three sample chapters in English available.
A little-known but widespread social experiment in the Soviet Union, the Kommunalka, or communal apartment, still exists today. This book contains rare testimonies of those who lived in them.
Collected and transcribed by the New York bureau chief for Agence France Presse—formerly the Moscow bureau chief—over a period of five years, these are the testimonies of thirty residents of the Kommunalka, the communal apartments that were the norm in housing in Russian cities throughout the history of the Soviet Union. In her excellent introduction, prize-winning journalist Messana explains how from the 1920s on, the Kommunalka was perhaps the most important social experiment undertaken by the Soviet regime, having arguably as much, if not more effect on the outlook of those who experienced it as did external political realities. Beginning in 1920, a family living comfortably in a five-, six-, or seven-room apartment could be told that they immediately had to move into the living room, and that four or five other families were moving in. The incoming families were chosen to represent different classes, in order to level society and to create spy systems within the home. Writers tell of having to work in the toilet stall in the middle of the night so as not to be disturbed. People of different lifestyles were unable to maintain their own traditions, and were often despised by their closest neighbors. Narrow, dark hallways were commonly the only free space for children to play in.
Thirty interviews, two collected very recently, form the chapters of the book. They are all extraordinary, and have been chosen to illustrate a facet of the history of the Soviet Union through the social phenomenon of the communal apartment. These apartments have now mostly been reclaimed, and sell as prime real estate in all the major cities of Russia.
Author
Paola Messana : The author has just returned from Moscow and has material for two new final chapters, and a new introduction
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