Information & Chat > The Expatriate Life: Living in the FSU, Asia or Elsewhere
How Russians Live
mendeleyev:
Find your lady on the balcony!
Soviet architects, in their grand wisdom, designed all Russian apartments with open, mediterranean-style balconies.
It is hotly debated as to whether the balcony is a curse, or blessing on the visual front. But make no mistake about it, Russians love a good balcony!
Really an all purpose room, a balcony is very popular.
Mixed use.
Above: a common arrangement is for businesses to be on the bottom floor and apartment above.
I have a Russian friend who thinks the balcony was a way to quietly revolt. His theory: Everything else in life was regimented to destroy individuality. The Communist party called it the "cult of the individual" to have your own style or preferences. Along came massive Soviet building programs and balcony construction and after the builders left gave way to a harmless outlet for expression of ‘cult of the individual’, consuming time and energy which might otherwise have been directed against the State. That is his theory and guess he's sticking with it. :chuckle:
Balcony comes standard on new apartments.
If your lady has a balcony it's probably not a "khrushchevki" the term for row upon row of five-story buildings, with no balconies, very tiny kitchens, box-like toilet and bathroom spaces, and thin walls separating the apartments allowing residents to hear everything that's going on in their neighbors' places. Those are being town down now all over and newer and more modern apartments rising like a Phoenix as if like magic.
No balcony makes laundry harder to dry.
Balcony = clothes dryer.
Construction ended with the open balcony style, leaving to each tenant to find happiness in the fresh air of an open space or devise a way of filling in those gaping holes - either as protection against the Russian winter, or as fortification for Russian society’s special security needs. Or simply to blot out any view of the adjacent, mud blown landscape.
A balcony to park the car! :laugh:
New and old side by side.
Balcony infill is not taught at any Russian technical school. Neither are there any known materials which bond easily with Soviet drill-resistant iron and concrete. Every unsuccessful attempt is therefore a triumph of individual creativity. Or something.
Balcony built in new.
mendeleyev:
A balcony is one of the most important "rooms" in a Russian/Ukrainian apartment.
Not pretty.
Shops and apartments.
Big apartment lots of balconies.
In mid size Ukraine city.
Ukrainian apartment balconies.
New style apartments.
The old and the new.
Some open, some enclosed
How do Russians/Ukrainians use a balcony:
- Uninsulated, it's an extra refrigerator from autumn to spring.
- Storage room.
- Dry clothes.
- Grow flowers.
- Children's play area.
- string a cord out and plug in a crockpot as a summer kitchen
and lots more........so tell us some of the ways your lady and her family use the balcony?
mendeleyev:
Up close and personal:
Soviet construction being what it was, more than a few surprised apartment dwellers have unexpectedly plunged down into the bowels of the forever hereafter when all they wanted to do was momentarily step out and water the lillies sitting on the ledge.
What are some of the things you've seen hanging off the end of a balcony in Russia and Ukraine?
Paul:
Cool thread Mendy, but it doesn't just apply to Russia and Ukraine :)
Communist era apartments in Bucharest, Romania. Notice the shops on the ground floor...
Ada:
:chuckle: another use would be as a place to smoke :smokin:
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