The estimation of the housing crisis in the first years of soviet power (on the Tyumen data)

About the author:

Zinaida N. Sokova, Dr. Sci. (Hist.), Professor, Department of New History and Global Politics, University of Tyumen; z.n.sokova@utmn.ru; ORCID: 0000-0003-4366-3771

Abstract:

The reasons, the nature and consequences of acute housing crisis of 1919-1920 are analyzed on materials of Tyumen. It is found that it was based on a set of objective and mental circumstances, the content and appearance of the crisis are investigated. It is shown that thesis on housing crisis in Soviet Russia as some Bolsheviks deliberately planned destructive action voiced by some researchers is not supported by historical sources. The analysis showed that the housing policy of the Soviet government was determined not only by ideological postulates or class approach, but also the realities of life, requiring immediate and effective action, which in the extreme situation of war and economic collapse inevitably reduced to the methods of «redistribution» and largely coincided with social attitudes of the masses. The totality of these circumstances not only prevented the Bolshevik Party to develop any effective housing policies which even in the long term, would have to satisfy the natural human need for private space and privacy, but also to solve a specific problem - if not eliminate at least reduce the growing housing crisis. In these conditions, the resolution of the housing problem starts to contact with the adjustment of social and economic policy and civil foundations of life prevailing in war communism.

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