Gender and housing in Soviet Russia

An acute housing shortage was one of the defining features of Soviet life. This book explores the housing problem throughout the 70 years of  Soviet history, looking at changing political ideology on appropriate forms of housing under socialism, successive government policies on housing, and the meaning and experience of  ‘home’ for Soviet citizens. The author’s main concern is housing as a gendered issue. To this end she examines the use of housing to alter gender relations, and the ways in which domestic space was differentially experienced by men and women.  

Attwood places her research firmly in the context of existing literature. While this includes a number of short works which consider the gendered implications of housing policy in specific periods, Attwood is the first to provide a detailed and sustained analysis of housing as a gendered issue throughout Soviet history, comparing and contrasting housing policy and the experience of home life under different leaders.

Much of Attwood’s material comes from Soviet magazines and journals, which enables her to demonstrate how official ideas on housing and daily life changed during the course of the Soviet era, and were propagandised to the population. Through a series of in-depth interviews, she also draws on the memories of people with direct experience of Soviet housing and domestic life. Attwood has produced not just a history of housing, but a social history of daily life which will appeal both to scholars and those with a general interest in Soviet history.

Contents:-

Introduction
1. New byt, new woman, new forms of housing
2. The new economic policy
3. Housing cooperatives
4. Communes, hostels and barracks
5. The ‘Second Socialist Offensive’ 
6. The retreat from new byt.
7. Communal living by default
8. The Great Patriotic War and its aftermath
9. The Khrushchev era: ‘To every family its own apartment’
10. The Brezhnev year.
11. The Gorbachev era: The end of a Socialist housing policy
12. Personal tales
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index