LIFE IN A KOMMUNALKA
(communal apartment)
Many
Soviet citizens lived in and grew up in communal apartments, including Vladimir
Putin. In some ways it was a defining feature of Soviet life, and as we will see
it was common in Eastern European communist countries as well. As such not
surprisingly the Kommunalka
became a subject of Soviet art and literature, as these images, including the
first one from Germany, and brief literary passages illustrate:
Zusammen ist man weniger allein/Together you are
less alone
Die Küche als Kristallisationspunkt
(The Kitchen as a Crystallization Point)/ Illustration: Hans Winkler
The
following images and snippets of literature come from the blog Kommunalki:
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Boris Vitkevich: "Pussy cat in the communal kitchen" |
Communal
Kitchen |
"Now
the tenants of the large communal apartment in which Lokhankin
resided had a reputation for being capricious and were notorious throughout the
building for their frequent brawls. Apartment 3 had even been dubbed the 'Crow
Colony.' Prolonged cohabitation had hardened these people, and they knew no
fear. Blocs of individual tenants maintained a balance of power, but
occasionally the inhabitants of the Crow Colony would all gang up on some
single lodger, and that lodger was in for a rough ride. The centripetal force
of litigation would snatch him up, drag him into the lawyers' offices, swirl
him through the smoke-sodden corridors of the law and thrust him into the
chambers of the Comradely and Peoples Courts. Long would the defiant lodger
roam in search of the truth as he struggled to reach All-Union Elder Comrade
Kalinin. And to his dying day he would sprinkle his speech with legalese he had
picked up in various judicial offices, saying 'punitive measures' rather than
'punishment' and 'perpetrate' instead of 'commit.' He would refer to himself
not as 'Comrade Zhukov,' as he had been known since the day he was born, but
'the aggrieved party.' Most often and with special relish, however, he would
utter the expression 'file a suit.' And his life, which wasn't exactly flowing
with milk and honey before, would really go sour."
From The little golden calf (1931) by
Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov
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This very short story (yes this is the whole
thing), entitled "Myshin's Victory" or "Myshin's Triumph," is from 1940 by Daniil Harms
(translated by Alice Nakhimovsky as part of the
Colgate University site "Communal
Living in Russia"):
Myshin was told: "Hey,
Myshin, get up!" Myshin said: "No I
won't," and continued lying on the floor.
Then Kulygin walked up to him and
said, "If you, Myshin, don't get up, I'm going to
make you get up." "No," said Myshin and continued
lying on the floor. Selizneva walked up and said,
"You, Myshin, are always lying on the hallway floor
and making it hard for us to go back and forth." "That's the way it's been, and
that's the way it's going to be," said Myshin.
"You know," said Korshunov, but he
was interrupted by Kulygin who said, "What's the
point of a long conversation? Call the police." They called the police and got
a cop. A half hour later in came the super with a cop. "What's going on here?"
asked the cop. "Get a load of this," said Korshunov,
but he was interrupted by Kulygin who said, "So. This
citizen keeps lying here on the floor making it hard for us to walk through the
hallway. We've tried all sorts..." But at this point Kulygin
was interrupted by Selizneva, who said, "We asked him
to leave, but he's not doing it."
"Yes," said Korshunov. The cop
walked up to Myshin. "What are you doing lying here,
citizen?" said the cop. "I'm relaxing," said Myshin.
"This is no place to relax," said the cop. "Where do you live, citizen?"
"Here," said Myshin. "Which room is
yours?" asked the cop. "He's registered in this apartment, but he doesn't have
a room," said Kulygin. "Hold on, citizen," said the
cop, "I'm having this talk with him. Where do you sleep, citizen?" "Here," said
Myshin. "Let me say something," said Korshunov, but he was interrupted by Kulygin
who said, "He doesn't even have a bed, he just sprawls out on the bare floor."
"They've been complaining about him for a long time," said
the super. "There's no way we can walk through the hallway," said Selizneva. "I can't keep stepping over a man. And he sticks
out his feet on purpose, and his arms too, and sometimes he turns on his back
and stares. I come home from work tired, I need my rest."
"Let me add," said Korshunov, but
he was interrupted by Kulygin who said, "He even lies
here at night. Everybody stumbles over him in the dark. I tore my blanket
because of him." Selizneva said, "He always has nails
falling out of his pocket. You can't walk in the hallway barefoot, if you don't
watch out you'll puncture your foot."
"Recently they wanted to pour kerosene on him and light it,"
said the super. "We poured kerosene on him," said Korshunov,
but he was interrupted by Kulygin who said, "We only
poured kerosene on him to scare him; we weren't intending to light it."
"I would not permit a living person to be set on fire in my
presence," said Selizneva. "But why is this citizen
lying in the hallway," exclaimed the cop. "That's a good one!" said Korshunov, but Kulygin
interrupted him and said, "Because he doesn't have any other space: this room
here is mine, and that one is theirs, and this fellow lives there, and Myshin here, he lives in the hallway." "That won't do,"
said the cop. "Every person has to lie in their own space."
"But he doesn't have any space except the hallway," said Kulygin. "That's the point," said Korshunov.
"He's always lying here," said Selizneva. "This won't
do," said the cop and left together with the super. Korshunov
leaped over to Myshin. "See?" he hollered. "You had
it coming to you." "Hang on," said Kulygin, and
stepping over to Myshin, said, "Did you hear what the
cop said? Get up off the floor."
"No I won't" said Myshin and
continued lying on the floor. "Now he's going to lie here on purpose forever,"
said Selizneva. "Absolutely," said Kulygin in an annoyed voice.
And Korshunov said, "I have no
doubt about it."
Tuesday, August 8, 1940
