Housing the New Russia

261 Pages·2012·1.559 MB·English

by  Jane R. Zavisca

Housing
tHe new Russia

Housing tHe
new Russia
Jane R. Zavisca
CoRnell univeRsity PRess
Ithaca and London
Copyright © 2012 by Cornell university
all rights reserved. except for brief quotations in a review,
this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any
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First published 2012 by Cornell university Press
First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2012
Printed in the united states of america
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zavisca, Jane R. (Jane Roj), 1972–
Housing the new Russia / Jane R. Zavisca.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-0-8014-5037-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
isBn 978-0-8014-7737-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Housing—Russia (Federation) 2. Housing policy—
Russia (Federation) 3. Residential real estate—Russia
(Federation) 4. Post-communism—social aspects—
Russia (Federation) 5. Russia (Federation)—social
conditions—1991– i. title.
HD7345.2.a3Z38 2012
363.50947—dc23 2011047164
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responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent
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Paperback printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my family

Contents
List of Figures and Tables ix
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xiii
Note on Translation and Russian Names xv
introduction: a Painful Question 1
Part I: The Development of the
Post-Soviet Housing Regime
1. the soviet Promise: a separate
apartment for every Family 23
2. transplant Failure: the american
Housing Model in Russia 49
3. Maternity Capitalism: grafting
Pronatalism onto Housing Policy 69
4. Property without Markets: who got
what as Markets Failed 86
Part II: The Meaning of Housing
in the New Russia
5. Disappointed Dreams: Distributive
injustice in the new Housing order 103
6. Mobility strategies: searching for the
separate apartment 130
7. Rooms of their own: How Housing
affects Family size 144
8. Children are not Capital: ambivalence
about Pronatalist Housing Policies 163
viii Contents
9. to owe is not to own: why Russians
Reject Mortgages 175
Conclusion: a Market that Could
not emerge 194
Appendix: Characteristics of Interviewees
Cited in Text 202
Notes 207
Works Cited 219
Index 237
Figures and Tables
figures
i.1 Residential buildings in Kaluga 17
i.2 Khrushchevka exterior 17
i.3 trends in housing construction and prices 18
1.1 Multiuse room in a soviet apartment 31
1.2 Post-soviet multiuse room in the soviet style 32
2.1 luxury apartment building in Kaluga 55
2.2 index of housing affordability 56
2.3 new mortgage lending 59
3.1 Mortgage affordability with and without maternity capital 83
4.1 Renovated kitchens 90
4.2 Housing tenure by age 91
4.3 Housing tenure by family structure and income 96
5.1 Room shared by a couple and their child 108
5.2 grandmother in kitchen shared with daughter-in-law 109
5.3 Room in a separate apartment 110
5.4 Detached luxury home 116
6.1 Prototypical property network 137
7.1 Children’s rooms 155
7.2 number of children by housing type and education 159
9.1 soviet and post-soviet apartment buildings 185
Tables
i.1 Description of qualitative sample 15
i.2 Kaluga oblast compared to other regions of Russia 16
1.1 Correlates of housing status in the urban ussR 38
1.2 odds of having a separate apartment in the ussR 40
4.1 trends in housing inequality 89
4.2 Housing quality by income quintile 95
ix