Housing
The Disappearing Mass Housing of the Soviet Union
The grim prefab Khrushchyovka helped solve the USSR’s housing crisis after World War II. Now, Moscow plans to demolish 8,000 of them, displacing more than 1.5 million people. Should any be preserved for posterity?
Sergey Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, announced last month that the Russian capital—with the blessing of President Vladimir Putin—will launch an ambitious effort to demolish 8,000 Soviet-era public housing blocks.
Known as Khrushchyovkas—named after the Soviet leader who initiated their mass production in the late 1950s—the distinctly banal architectural type has long outlasted its planned 25-year shelf life. As Khrushchev took power, the USSR’s capital city had twice the population it housing stock could accommodate. Five-story Khrushchyovkas popped up in newly planned microdistricts, designed to house tens of thousands of people in hopes of alleviating the severe housing crisis exacerbated under Joseph Stalin.