After reading some books by Mikhail Bulgakov, who often describes the struggles of life inside Soviet communal apartments, I got curious as to how one would get sorted out with housing in the Soviet Union. Especially in popular areas in large city's, where demand would be high, I wonder what the process for ordinary citizens was like. Was housing just appointed to you, or could you apply for places that were on the market? Could you inherit a room in a communal apartment? Were you free to swap, rent out or even 'buy' houses?
I fear my questions are a bit all over the place, but the whole idea of communal ownership en housing is intriguing to me. Answering any part of any of the questions I posted above would be greatly appreciated.
I think you just read the either magical apartment swap chapter in Master and Margarita, or Dog's Heart.
Urban Housing was a major issue in the Soviet Union. Kвартирный вопрос (the apartment question) was something that the average Soviet citizen faced throughout their lives.
Let’s focus on Communal apartments - this is something that became commonplace after the 1917 Revolution. Уплотнение (thickening?) was a decree by the Central Executive Committee to "reduce living space excess" and remove private real estate ownership to benefit individuals of Proletarian origin.
In practice, large apartments were subdivided and allocated at the discretion of local authorities. Housing Soviets were established, and building committees were established, and they were responsible for allocating apartments, rooms, etc. This is one of the central themes in Master and Margarita, as it was a huge part of Soviet city life in the 1920s and 30s.
MosSoviet (the highest level of city government in Moscow) decreed the following (my translation):
City residents will be subdivided into four categories
Organized communists and families of Red Army soldiers who fought in the Civil War will remain in the residencies
Workers and low-level intelligentsia can apply for "good rooms in other houses"
high-level intelligentsia and bourgeois without real estate property, and Soviet rank and file civil servants will be "thickened" according to norms
Bourgeois that have liquidated their holdings and who are living off their hidden Capital will be stripped of their property, given bed sheets, a change of close, and will be escorted out of Moscow.
As a result of this policy in Moscow, 3,197 families were forced to leave Moscow (about 15000 people), and 20000 workers moved in. Similar story in Leningrad.
In 1957, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (ZK KPSS) started housing reforms aimed at providing individual apartments for Soviet families. This started a large apartment construction initiative that lasted until the collapse of the USSR. To give you an idea of how prevalent this was, there were STILL 660,000 people living in 105,000 communal apartments in St Petersburg in 2011 according to the Housing Department of St Petersburg.
I have to run now, but let me know if there are questions on this particular part.