Still, as a person from the “Soviet formation” it is pleasant, just as there are no countries under its rule, although the old plans of the CPSU are fulfilled, although the CPSU itself is long gone.
In April 1986, one of the most famous resolutions of the late USSR was adopted – “On the main directions of accelerating the solution of the housing problem in the country”, according to which each Soviet family should have a separate apartment or house. 2000 But this task was not completed on time, and the USSR itself managed to disintegrate before the stated date. However, it can be said that the targets have been achieved in general with a delay of more than 20 years. Although, paradoxically, the damned housing problem continues to torment and spoil our compatriots. But in a new way. Objective conditions have changed radically, so now the solution or unresolved housing problem is determined by completely different criteria than in the Soviet Union.
Up to 2.25 billion square feet was designed for construction by 2000 when the “Party’s Housing Program” was adopted. meters of housing, which would have allowed the resettlement of about 10 million families (one in seven) living in shared apartments and dormitories at the time. They also took into account the increase in the population of the USSR, which in the same 15 years amounted to about 30 million people. At first, things went smoothly: a year (until the collapse of the USSR) 130 million square meters were built. housing m. But this is all over the USSR. In the RSFSR, the record figure for the entire Soviet era was almost 73 million square meters in 1987. metre. For comparison: last year, 102.7 million square meters were built in Russia. m, which is 11% more than in 2021.
At the same time, individual housing construction, which did not really exist in the USSR, provided more than half the volume – 57.2 million square meters. Moreover, objectively, it would be time to abandon the talk of “multi-apartment human settlements” in concrete slums and actively promote individual housing construction. But this, of course, is against the interests of the construction industry and will therefore meet with opposition of opinion. But the idea that “Every family should live in their own home” has been relegated to the status of a highly national idea. Including “more convenient and comfortable” to be productive and multiply.
This is what the life-giving market and a highly motivated (through various channels, including selfish) construction complex and large mortgages do. Let’s not forget the contribution of demography to the solution of the “housing problem”. Negative. Since in the post-Soviet years there was no significant increase in population in Russia (meaning the former region of the RSFSR), moreover, it has been declining in recent years. Less people – more oxygen, as they say.
In the last Soviet years, the average living space provision increased by a modest 2 square meters. m per person – from 14.6 to 16.5 square meters. m. At the beginning of 2022, this figure was already 27.8 square meters. m per person In terms of housing provision per capita, Russia is quite good 30-32. It is located in rows (in terms of providing individual rooms per person – 36th row). At the same time, the pace of housing commissioned in recent years has confidently surpassed even Europeans.
As the CPSU ordered in 1986, communal flats as a phenomenon in the country were virtually eliminated. As of the beginning of 2022, no more than 1% of the population lived in such apartments (the other 2% in hostels). As a more or less massive phenomenon, the communal apartments are only in St. Petersburg, the “city of the Russian revolution” as it was called in Soviet times. He stayed in Petersburg. This, of course, is symbolic in its own way. The peculiarities of the housing stock and the fact that the proletariat, which had won on time, began to settle in the apartments of the former masters en masse – “squeezed” affect. Even today, more than 67,000 shared flats remain in the city, where approximately 230,000 families live.
In the country as a whole, approximately 70% live in separate apartments and the remaining approximately 30% in single-family homes (97.2% of the total population). At the same time, the quality of housing has increased significantly since the turn of the century. On average, of course. Electricity is available in 99% of households, stove heating in use has decreased to 10%. At the same time, central heating use has fallen from 63% to 56% of households in the last 10 years; this is in line with global trends and growth in individual housing construction. The share of households without a hot water supply decreased from 25% to 11% in 10 years, and the share of those without a sewerage system decreased from 17% to 5%.
But new problems arose. For example, dilapidated housing, which is becoming more and more dilapidated against the background of the worsening crisis of all housing and communal services. Up to 70% of new buildings remain unsold: People simply don’t pull prices that the building complex sets in collusion with mortgage bankers. Have you ever seen a house built in the USSR empty?
Instead of being listed in apartments that are shared by old standards, people often rent housing in collaboration with other people who are completely strangers to them and are not relatives. With a semi-ancient, but largely preserved registration/registration system, it is often impossible to tell which flat is officially a “common flat” and which is not. Different contacts can be registered in it. Sometimes citizens simply move to their cottage and live there permanently, but the “hut” is often not officially considered suitable for permanent residence. And such. Finally, the country’s dwindling population continues to contribute to the “solution of the housing problem”.
Thus, the market solved for the Soviet communists many of the problems that arose in the aforementioned Central Committee resolution of the CPSU. However, in the days of the USSR she gave birth to many who were not even suspected of being relevant to our life.
Many people naively believe, nostalgically for Soviet times, that only good things can be “returned from there”, but that all bad things can be ignored and left in the past. This won’t happen. The wheel of history is never reversible. No matter how many people want it. It just rolls forward and dusts restoration attempts. For those who “vomit”, the main thing is also to recover in time.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.