Great humanists says “leave no child behind. Every child is precious.” As Putin says, “Leave no washing machine behind. Pilfer it.”

An important thing about Khrushchyovka, that we see nowadays in the news is; when you see a missile hit a housing block you'll see whole walls fall down, yet still be intact (in one piece). And, there doesn't need to be much of an explosion to do this. These houses were all built out of prefabricated concrete plates, just bolted together. So now, all a missile needs to do is break that bolt joint, and down comes that wall. And, it is why many of these older houses are death traps in such attacks. It takes less than half the explosive power to collapse one.

This reminds me very much of the 50's, 60's and 70's building they put up in the Netherlands to combat housing shortages because of WW II. Although a bit better in size and soundcontrol, but not that much bigger. I used to call it "Communist build". I can now see why.

Of course, if Anna were offering to have me over for tea, any Khrushchyovka flat would be considerably brightened by her presence! Thank you for the on-the-spot tour. Very informative. Salute to you and all in Ukraine from a retired U.S. Navy chief petty officer. 👍

I remember the first time I came to my wife's country: Slovakia. It was such a culture shock. All gray apartment flats like this. It was so depressing. Since they joined eu, they painted all the buildings in pastel coulors. Apperently this actually helped reducing suicide numbers. By the way, I love Slovakia's nature. It's awesome.

My daughter Emily's family (my ex is Russian) lived in Khrushchyovkas (Khrushchyovkee?) in Protvino, Russia. She spent summers there. We skyped quite a bit. It was remarkable how small they were. I could hear everyone's conversations, and they could hear ours. Other people in the apartment often spontaneously joined in our conversations.

I really liked the excursion! About ten years ago, I worked in Sakhalin Island oil field in Russia for a few months. I worked offshore on an oil rig, but when I had business in the city, I stayed in a hotel that the company paid for. I was told that at one time, the company had rented some apartments for employees to use when they had business in town, but that people refused to stay in them due to the poor condition and bad smells. I think that Anna was probably understated the horrible conditions in those apartments due to her good manners and not wanting to disrespect people who still live in places like this.

I liked this showing of Soviet era flats. On man who now lives here said the workers enclosed the area under the stairwell in his block of flats to give the flats more room. That slanted area became his bedroom when he was a teenager, and his parents hung a blanket over the space to give him some privacy. His friends came over and sat cross legged on his cot behind the blanket because it was the only private space they had.

Dyakuyu, thank you, for this visit. Please thank the host for opening-up their apartment. Wow. Yes, please introduce us to some Ukrainian words, especially words that would be helpful "when" we visit Ukraine (one day).

Brutalism architecture I always found them intimidating they're everywhere in Moscow these big tall square blocks with this horrible turquoise color and the smell of cigarette smoke everywhere drunk people sleeping on the stairs and very cold in winter. Very well done video Anna stay safe! 💙💛

My Polish wife grew up in these flats, I have been back there to mother in law for the last 12 years, they are very small, amazing that 4 lived in such a small space.

Awesome! :)))))))))

I am from Seattle. I stayed in one of those apartments in Saint Petersburg about 20 years ago. It is adequate as a hotel room for one person. A family of 5 living there permanently would be very difficult.

Looking at those cramped living conditions makes me a little depressed but I imagine living there would make me fully depressed 😳

I can relate as I lived in a few Khrushchovka’s when I lived in Hungary over a decade ago. Some were still very much decorated in a Soviet style, while some were more updated. Generally speaking, though, they aren’t the most comfortable and have a number of issues. Electrical problems weren’t uncommon, elevators were rickety (some you had to manually close the door, and you could stop the elevator in between floors if you opened it), and sound insulation was horrible. (I remember one apartment in particular where the neighbors underneath were always getting mad at us when we weren’t making any significant noise- the problem is that the sound would carry and amplify. I remember them tapping on the ceiling one day when we were just mixing something on the stove.) Also, on a semi-humorous note, in some apartments the bathrooms were so small that you could barely close the door while using it… 😬

Hi Anna,

Excellent view of Soviet life. Chinese urbanization follows a similar pattern in all of the tall apartments in Chinese cities.

Thank you for this vlog about the Khrushchyovka flats. I knew they existed, but did not know what they looked like inside or their history. On a vacation to Cuba, I saw many of them. Thank you for all you do, I very much appreciate it! Have a nice week, or as nice as possible!

45 sq meters = 484.376 square feet (for those like me who are bad at math) 😁

We actually had a carpet on the wall as well when I was a child. Thank you for this, Anna.