Essays on Communal Everyday Life
Очерки коммунального быта
by Ilia Utekhin
[email protected]
You can find here draft versions of some chapters from my
book on
so called "communal apartments" in St.Petersburg
(Russia), a typical form of housing
in big Soviet cities. In communal apartments (CA), where up to 20
per cent of population
are still living at St.Petersburg, several families live
toghether sharing all the facilities.
Close interaction between non-kin families in their everyday
life, especially in heavily
overcrowded conditions as it was until mid 1980s, brought about
very specific ways
of living. Some aspects of values, attitudes and stereotypes of
behaviour of CA dwellers
are depicted in these chapters.
on collective storage-room
same in Russian, extended version/Очерк о кладовой общего пользования
on hygiene
same in Russian, extended version/Опасность чистоты
on privacy
same in Russian, extended version/На сцене жизни и в кулисах души
“Dwelling Place Paranoids”: On Cultural Determination Of A Psychopathology / Параноиды жилья: о культурных детерминантах психопатологии (in Russian only)
ABSTRACT. The late-life paranoid disorders partly consisting
of delusion whose content is related to dwelling place (theft and
damage produced by neighbours, etc.) are claimed to be highly
conditioned by social milieu and by ordinary life behaviour
stereotypes characteristic of so called “communal apartments”
(CA) in Russia. This kind of dwelling supposes that several
families are living together and share all the facilities; it was
during the Soviet period and still is widely spread in
St.Petersburg and Moscow. The way of life and special practices
of everyday neighbours’ interaction in CA are prototypic to
Soviet mentality with its specific means of dealing with
frustrated privacy and all-penetrating envy. It is shown that
clinical manifestations of so called “dwelling place
paranoids” are latently present in everyday phenomena of
ordinary CA life.
keywords: geriatric psychiatry, late-life paranoid disorders,
practices of everyday life, housing in the USSR
on greeting/"Я здесь здороваюсь когда хочу и с кем хочу..." (in Russian only)
on dwellers' ideas on local history / Представления об истории места и их функция (in Russian only)
questionnaire used in field research
same in Russian/примерный вопросник для полевого исследования
VIRTUAL MUSEUM OF COMMUNAL APARTMENT: DOZENS OF PICS
you can order a copy of the book in USA from Lexiconbridge website
MORE TEXTS BY ILIA UTEKHIN/некоторые другие статьи Ильи Утехина
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