Reader el suggested we discuss how the Soviet regime influenced interpersonal communications. I think this is a very fruitful discussion topic and a subject where I have a lot to say. (And what a surprise, eh?)
If you have any familiarity with the theory of communism, you have to realize that a communist society cannot be created until the very nature of the human beings undergoes a profound transformation. This is why from the very beginning of the USSR´s existence consistent efforts were made to transform people in a way that would make them more amenable to the gradual introduction of the communist elements into their daily lives.
Here is a short list of such measures:
1. Communal living. Families were brought to share one big apartment. This allowed to address the housing shortage, of course, but that was not the most important goal of creating these “communal apartments.” In a communal apartment, between 3 and a dozen families shared the kitchen, the toilet, the hallway and had to take turns using and cleaning these facilities. Such form of co-existence weakened the bonds between members of biological families, destroyed privacy and the contingent individualism. Also, it eroded the sense of personal shame.
2. Only collective forms of spending one´s free time were encouraged. People went on outings, hiking trips, excursions, museum visits in large groups. Again, this eroded family ties, which is something that the regime needed in order to ensure that one´s visceral loyalty to one´s family members would be substituted with the loyalty to the regime that provided all this fun.
3. Housing shortage and the absence of rental apartments ensured that members of several generations would share one small living space. I will let you figure out on your own how one starts feeling about one´s relatives when one has to sleep (and, obviously, have sex) in the same room with one´s parents, children, and often grandparents, too.
So what are the results of such policies?
For one, people tend to have the kind of relationships with their family members where everybody is very close in a really unhealthy way, yet everybody hates each other´s guts. Nobody has the slightest idea of what it means to respect anybody else´s privacy. People tend to be quite shameless and very rude. The respect for private property between family members is non-existent.
As you might well imagine, it will take more than one generation to get rid of these side effects of our social experiment.
Clarissa's Blog 
Sounds like a total nightmare.
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For people like me, absolutely. But most of the participants loved it. I never had the experience of living in a communal apartment but N. did. So I asked him and he said it was not bad at all. This is incomprehensible to me since he is the most private, reserved and unsociable person in the universe.
People are weird.
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//But most of the participants loved it.
My mother thinks most dreamed of getting their own apartment and get out asap. It makes more sense too than thinking most loved sharing a toilet. So, I am sure. you’re wrong here.
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I know people who can wax nostalgic for hours about their great lives in communal apartments.
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Would they go back to this communal apartment? Would they’ve refused to move out then? I think not. 🙂
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Interesting that some people love it. My thesis supervisor grew up in Ukraine, and lived in such an apartment, and he once told me that when he was a child he wanted to become a criminal because he figured that prisoners got more private livingspace than he did.
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When I stayed in Zimbabwe, I stayed in a high density suburb, where people live very close. The basis for community precedes socialism or communism and is socio-cultural. There were government spies in the area, keeping watch, and preventing me from photographing the vegetable markets. These spies are considered useful for keeping the social order, because envy, the imagination and the like can lead to neighbors accusing each other of witchcraft. The CIO steps in and presumably debunks any witchcraft theories. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crfi_93UvL0
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// I will let you figure out on your own how one starts feeling about one´s relatives when one has to sleep (and, obviously, have sex) in the same room with one´s parents, children, and often grandparents, too.
I now thought about Russian peasants, which were the majority of the population. Didn’t they traditionally live in a similar way, several generations in 1 house? If I am right, then for them there wasn’t a big change.
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//The respect for private property between family members is non-existent.
Which private property was there? Clothes? A watch or a ring?
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For instance, yes.
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To give an example, I don’t have any of the jewelry my grandparents left me because it was stolen by other relatives (who are actually not related to these grandparents) . You give them keys to water the plants while you are away and they just steal the stuff and never even apologize. Happened several times with different relatives, too.
Another relative stole a big sum of money her aunt had in a bank account after selling her apartment.
I can keep telling such stories for hours.
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I think it has to do with greed. In all countries some people are ready to do a lot for money.
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My brother in law and sister in law are thieves who stole valuable things from my mother in law. Awful people, and we have nothing to do with them.
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This sheds some light on something from my college days. I was dating a Russian fellow, and we visited his folks over one winter break. In the mornings, he walked around the house in nothing but a pair of briefs, and I was shocked his parents didn’t seem to care that nw was wearing just underwear in front of his girlfriend. I was also shocked he was comfortable wearing just underwear around his parents!
As to communal housing, I have a lot of friends who miss the sociability of college, and who e expessed the desire for some kind of multifamily home with a communal kitchen and central living area, but separate mini apartments for each couple.
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// I was shocked his parents didn’t seem to care that nw was wearing just underwear in front of his girlfriend
Why is it more shocking than having sex?
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Well, we weren’t having sex yet. Or even staying in the same room.
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// I have a lot of friends who miss the sociability of college, and who e expessed the desire for some kind of multifamily home
I would guess they don’t yet have kids. Or do they? 🙂
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Nope, no kids. Some plan to eventually, some don’t. Personally, I think it would be a great alternative to some Apartments.
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We love our family but we guard our space. When we visit them we stay in the condo we own, and in my home here I have my own office. It’s the only way to have good relationships over the long haul, at least for people like me.
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Reblogged this on OyiaBrown.
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