Communal apartment

Communal apartments (singular: Russian:коммуналка, коммунальная квартира, kommunalka) appeared in the Soviet Union following the Russian revolution of 1917. Communal apartments emerged as a response to a housing crisis in urban areas - authorities presented them as a product of the “new collective vision of the future”. Between two and seven families typically shared a communal apartment. Each family had its own room, which often served as a living room, dining room, and bedroom for the entire family. All the residents of the entire apartment shared the use of the hallways, kitchen (commonly known as the "communal kitchen"), bathroom and telephone (if any). The communal apartment became the predominant form of housing in the USSR for generations, and examples still exist in "the most fashionable central districts of large Russian cities".