Living Conditions

• Stalin announced that "life had become better" and "more joyous" due to his new policies
• The state did not make more apartments, it instead divided up already small apartments

  There was a lack of adequate housing

  Many people living together in blocks of apartments would have to share a communal bathroom + kitchen
• The average size of a family apartment declined from 5.5m squared to 4m squared in 1940

  Families often would live together in a single room, with communal bathroom and kitchen
• People waiting for housing were called 'corner-dwellers' and their home would often be a coal shed, under stair cupboard, corridor, or within the communal kitchen
• Basic items such as clothing and shoes were limited in supply

  There were very long queues which tended to form often of around a thousand people when any item of shoes or clothing became available
• watches and furniture were even harder to get hold of than clothing or shoes

  bread was rationed until 1935 - people would wait in long queues in the early morning cold just to be able to buy a loaf of bread
• Leisure Opportunities 


  Gorky Park - 1928

  • favourite destination for the people of Moscow
  • other towns had parks, football stadiums, athletics grounds and cinemas.
  • Magnitogorsk cinema had annual audiences of 600k - showed films of the civil war
  • 'mini Olympics' held between teams from various factories - led to regional level
• Crime level increased in towns making it dangerous to go outside at night