After coming to power in Russia, the Bolsheviks created radically new housing policies. Although Soviet authorities enforced the scope of numerous new housing statutes, the provisions of these laws were often contradictory, and there was not a well-conceived program of housing. With the elimination of private real property in Soviet cities, the sale of land in urban areas was technically eliminated. However, disguised (and illegal) sales of municipal housing continued to occur during the era of the New Economic Policy (nep). During this period, a large part of the nation’s living space was managed by housing cooperatives, which were created after the Bolshevik assumption of power. However, these housing associations (known in Russian as zhiltovarishchestvо and by the end of 1924 reclassified as Zhakt [rental housing cooperatives]) were trapped by traditional (i.e. non-officially regulated) practices of housing allocation, which dominated the real estate market. As the urban population of Soviet Russia and then (after 1922) the Soviet Union (ussr) grew, a shortage of living space forced Soviet authorities to switch to stricter methods of property control in urban areas. This article describes the housing allocation processes involved in the second-largest city in Soviet Russia/ussr, Petrograd, which from 1924 was known as Leningrad. This article also investigates the functioning of the privately-driven property market mechanisms in the allocation of housing and the Soviet government’s efforts to eliminate them.
Housing associations diversifying into market renting: local contexts and (re)interpretation shaping strategic decision making
