You're reading: Soviet-style residential complexes: Same on outside, different inside

Most of the buildings constructed in Kyiv during the 20th century, 70 years of which were the Soviet period, have a similar look – grey and gloomy.

The center of the city, however, boasts buildings from both sides of the Soviet era – pre-revolutionary neoclassical apartment blocks, many dating back to the 19th century, and post-Soviet multi-story residential and business constructions.

Nevertheless, the bulk of Kyiv’s housing stock still dates from the times of Soviet leaders Josef Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev. Their architectural styles reflect the standards, styles and policies of that long-dead empire.

Constructivism, post-constructivism

Kyiv’s first Soviet-era architecture style was constructivist, which started to appear on the capital’s streets in the 1920s and lasted until the early 1930s. This new school of architecture challenged traditional design aesthetics and ideas, rejecting conventional ornamentation for strict geometrics and new building materials. Many buildings were often stark, experimental, sometimes pompous but rarely emotional, as the Soviet Union tried to establish a new style that was dissimilar to Russian imperialistic architecture.

Since Kharkiv was Ukraine’s capital during the 1919 – 1934 period, Kyiv’s real estate did not develop as rapidly the eastern city did during this time.
The most notable of the constructivist buildings in Ukraine thus appeared in Kharkiv, creating a similar architectural vibe as in Minsk and Moscow. That is not to say that Kyiv was completely overlooked – its Central Railway Station, the TsUM department store, and the Doctor’s House on 17/2 Velyka Zhytomyrska St. were all built in the constructivist style.

Constructivism, however, was replaced by post-constructivism in 1932, which lasted until the beginning of World War II.

Postconstructivism brought back to buildings decorative elements, such as paintings on facades – an architectural element common during the Russian Empire. Most postconstructivist buildings are residential, like the one on 30 Peremohy Ave., which was built in 1934. These buildings often had facades that were decorated with murals depicting the Soviet proletariat at work.

 

A woman enters an old Soviet building on Khreshchatyk Street, built in the Stalinist Empire style in the late 1930s-1955, with a Soviet emblem on the front door, on April 23, 2015. (Volodymyr Petrov)

A woman enters an old Soviet building on Khreshchatyk Street, built in the Stalinist Empire style in the late 1930s-1955, with a Soviet emblem on the front door, on April 23, 2015. (Volodymyr Petrov) (VOLODYMYR PETROV)

Historian Semen Shyrochyn says that during the 1930s there were two types of Soviet architects: the young generation, familiar only with constructivism, and the older generatio of experts who vividly remembered the Russian Empire and its architectural preferences.

Post-constructivism thus provided a rare case in history when the older generation felt much more comfortable working in the new style, Shyrochyn says. Unlike constructivism, the new style minimized the use of steel and cement, and returned to more primitive masonry with wooden floors and partitions.

But the adjustments required careful attention from architects as they decided how to balance the new style: it was not uncommon for architects to be jailed if they indulged in an excessive amount of decoration, as the Soviet government tried to gradually erase architectural leftovers from the Russian Empire.

“It was hard to guess the level of changes,” Shyrochyn says. “Architects wondered if they should add more asymmetric facades, or copy classical architecture.”

Stalin era

A murderous dictator he was, but nonetheless, Ukraine’s Soviet-style architectural aesthetics saw progress. The Stalinist style, also referred to as

A residential building on Peremohy Avenue, built in 1960s and decorated with mosaics showing the state emblem of the Soviet Union, the hammer and sickle. (Volodymyr Petrov)

A residential building on Peremohy Avenue, built in 1960s and decorated with mosaics showing the state emblem of the Soviet Union, the hammer and sickle. (Volodymyr Petrov) (VOLODYMYR PETROV)

socialist classicism, is a term given to the Soviet architecture period between the late 1930s and 1955.

The Stalin era brought back to life classical architecture, with its high-columned entrances, large, solemn buildings and new construction materials such as metal, ceramics and mosaic facades.

Shyrochyn said the higher quality of these buildings was Stalin’s expression of power.

“Stalin aspired to express the greatness of Soviet cities through architecture,” Shyrochyn says. Buildings had to be comfortable on the inside and breathtaking on the outside.

Stalin-inspired buildings are often nicknamed “Stalinkas.” Their spacious rooms, big bathrooms, high ceilings and parquet floors mean they are still considered desirable properties.

After Stalin’s death, however, the architecture changed again and cheap, easy-to-build housing became the new norm.

Cheap, easy, simple

In 1955 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev ordered the elimination of anything that was considered to be “excessive” in engineering and construction. This resulted in cheaper and simpler Soviet buildings that were easier to build.

Since 1958, these simple buildings, called Khrushchovkas, started emerging all over Kyiv. The five-story residential buildings had small four-to-six-square-meter kitchens, thin brick walls and tiny rooms. Some typical examples of this style of building can be found on Druzhby Narodiv Boulevard near Druzhby Narodiv metro station, and on Nimanska and Mykhaila Boichuka streets.

Historian Lev Shevchenko says that Khrushchovkas gradually improved.

“Khrushchovkas became more spacious, higher, and with bigger enclosed balconies,” Shevchenko says. Examples of these later Khrushchovkas can be found on Ihoria Shamo Boulevard and Amvrosiya Buchmy Street.

The era of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who was in power from 1964 to 1982, saw residential buildings become even simpler, made from prefabricated materials, and higher – in many cases 16 floors or more high. While many of these simple and rapidly constructed buildings were ugly, and of poor quality, by the mid-70s new buildings were being constructed with more than one balcony per apartment. For a time it seemed that the Soviet Union was beginning to tackle its chronic problem of housing shortages.

However, it was at this time that the Soviet Union’s economy entered the era of stagnation – a long period of economic, social and political decline that would eventually put an end to Soviet mass housing projects, an end to Soviet architectural innovation and an end to the Soviet Union itself.

Kyiv real estate, by the numbers (2016, early 2017 estimates)
Office: 1.8 million square meters
Retail: 1.2 million square meters
Hotels: 110 hotels.
Residential: 1.1 million apartments, 65 million square feet; 22.6 square meters per resident’ average price per square meter in February was $879 for a new apartment; average price of used apartment in Kyiv was $35,566 in 2016.
297,300 – 1 room (26.7 percent)
442,800 – 2 room (39.8 percent)
311,100 – 3 room (28.1 percent)
49,900 – 4 room and more (4.5 percent)
Sources: Ukrainian Trade Guild, Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE, Colliers International Ukraine