Soviet Communal Living - (Palgrave Studies in Oral History) by P Messana (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book brings together fascinating testimonies from thirty inhabitants of the Kommunalka, the communal apartments that were the norm in housing in the cities of Russia during the whole history of the Soviet Union. The Kommunalka was perhaps the most important social experiment undertaken by the Soviet regime, having arguably as much if not more of an effect on the outlook of inhabitants than external political realities. Beginning in 1920, almost overnight, multiple Russian families were crammed together into single apartments, purposefully chosen to represent different classes in the same space. The intent was not just to level out class differences, but also to create spy systems within homes so as to extend the governments surveillance abilities and its control over daily life"--

Book Synopsis

This book brings together fascinating testimonies from thirty inhabitants of the 'Kommunalka, ' the communal apartments that were the norm in housing in the cities of Russia during the whole history of the Soviet Union.

Review Quotes

"Thanks to the many testimonies that have been collected on the Nazi era, we have a sense of what life was like for ordinary people in Hitler s Germany, but until now very little has been available on what life was like for ordinary people in the Soviet system. Paola Messana has had a stroke of genius in gathering oral histories focused on the bittersweet experience that almost the entire Soviet population had of living in communal apartments. This look at a core part of daily life under Bolshevism changes our understanding not only of past Soviet history and culture but also of Russia and Russians today." - Wesley A. Fisher, Director of Research, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany"This book is both an invaluable new source regarding one of the most important social spaces of Soviet urban life, the communal apartment, and a wonderful collection of authentic voices of the twentieth century." - Kevin M. F. Platt, Professor, Chairman of the Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, the University of Pennsylvania"This book brings to life the formative world - the matrix of urban soviet civilization, hated and, on recollection and reflection, much beloved - of the communal apartment. To understand twentieth-century Russia and those leading this much troubled land into the twenty-first century, the thoughtful western reader needs to read, savor, and imagine the world described in Soviet Communal Living. It does what oral history can do at its best: replicate the spirit, sense, and feeling of a world we have lost but one that informs our humanity." - Jonathan Sanders, veteran CBS News Moscow Reporter and Professor, Communication and Media Studies Department, Fordham University

About the Author

PAOLA MESSANA New York Bureau Chief of Agence France-Presse, and the agency's former Moscow Bureau Chief. She holds degrees in Russian from the Sorbonne and Political Science from the Paris Institute of Political Studies, France.