Stories of House and Home: Soviet Apartment Life during the Khrushchev Years

Christine Varga-Harris

Published by Cornell University Press 2016

Stories of House and Home

Soviet Apartment Life during the Khrushchev Years

Christine Varga-Harris

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501701849

Overview
Contents

About this book

Stories of House and Home is a social and cultural history of the massive construction campaign that Khrushchev instituted in 1957 to resolve the housing crisis in the Soviet Union and to provide each family its own apartment.

Author / Editor information

Christine Varga-Harris is Associate Professor of History at Illinois State University.

Reviews

Stephen V. Bittner, Sonoma State University, author of The Many Lives of Khrushchev's Thaw: Experience and Memory in Moscow's Arbat:

Readers of Christine Varga-Harris's splendid book on Soviet apartment life during the 1950s and 1960s will discover that it is no surprise that so many urban Russians have embraced IKEA in recent years. The desire for an ordered, purposeful, and comfortable domesticity—all in the tight space of the single-family apartment—was deeply embedded in the Soviet past.

Julie Hessler, University of Oregon, author of A Social History of Soviet Trade, 1917–1953:

Housing tells us a great deal about both Soviet policy and the modernization of Soviet society during the Khrushchev years. Stories of House and Home illuminates the linkages, real and imagined, between single-family homes and the morals, tastes, and lifestyles of an emergent 'socialist way of life.'

Tracy McDonald:

This outstanding book by Christine Varga-Harris is a welcome addition to the developing literature on the history of the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin.... Stories of House and Home is an accessible, clear, and well-written work that draws the reader into the everyday world of the Soviet populace under Khrushchev. The book should have a broad appeal. General readers interested in these years will take away a nuanced, compassionate look at Soviet citizens. It is an invaluable addition to the growing body of literature for both graduate and undergraduate teaching on the Thaw.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
Note on Transliteration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
Introduction: Kommunalki, Khrushchëvki Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Building a Socialist Home Befitting the Space Age Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
2. Foundations: Revolution Realized Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
3. Interior Spaces: Building the Socialist Person from Within Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
4. Liminal Places: Corridors, Courtyards, and Reviving Socialist Society Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
5. The Quest for Normalcy: Coming Home, Settling Down, Moving Forward Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
6. Constructing Soviet Identity and Reviving Socialism on the Home Front Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
Conclusion: Beyond the Housing Campaign that “Shook the World” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 312
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 24
- Images: 24
- Other: 24 halftones
Keywords: Soviet Union; Khrushchev; housing crisis; Soviet populace under Khrushchev; urban planning; neighborhood planning; apartment life; urban Russians; socialist collectivism

eBook

Published: February 19, 2016
ISBN: 9781501701849