Living Soviet style
on Tom Hutchison (Tajikistan), 07/Nov/2011 16:09, 34 days ago
Several people have asked me to describe my style of living. So here goes in small domestic detail:My apartments along with the rest of Micro-district 12 were built in 1986; In the Soviet town planning style. To understand living here you have to forget all your British experience of high rise housing estates. In the first place there was no previous slum clearance and the people who came to live here were of all types of profession and income. They were new and desirable places to live. Here is my block now it is definitely showing its history.You can see it was originally constructed with balconies which almost everyone went on to glaze over with wooden casements. Some people have gone further using bricks and UPVC double glazing. This effectively insulates all the rooms. Washing is hung on lines outside the windows. My flat with my very own hand washed laundry is just below the fluttering pants in the middle of the building. No one seems to paint or smarten up the outsides of anything but insides can be quite up to date depending on the occupant.All round these blocks the grounds are cut into small holdings with vines planted for shade and evidence of small vegetable culture and also summer living during hot weather. As the weather is turning these and mostly shut down for winter. However Yesterday being a public holiday there were many families setting up outside benches and tables as i walked across the estate. Here is a picture if the back of my block past the many decrepid metal garages. Here residents hide their new Mercedes and Opels and polish their treasures old Ladas.Inside my flat there is the original soviet wallpaper: all in good order but with no hangings. It feels like the student house I lived in in 1973 except I have three rooms and no flat mates. The kitchen has one cold water tap and all hot water comes from an electric kettle. There is a massive fridge freezer with not much in it and no working stove. The latter has not proved a problem as I am being fed form the flat across the landing. I have quietly shelved ambitions to cook. There is no central heating in the flat but I have just been given an old electric heater which just serves to make my one room feel a bit more cosy. The bathroom has an electric wall mounted boiler with a pipe that can swivel from basin to bath and has a shower button. Plenty of hot water provided i switch it on in advance and get lucky with the random water cuts. I am sure I would need a lot better heating later in the winter, but everyone here manages. I am sure everyone here would appreciate money being invested in outside maintenance but everyone knows the city does not have those resources: Yet.