2026/07/07 by Ella Itkin · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Russia and Soviet political economy #Soviet and Russian History #Urbanization and City Planning
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0963926826101084
openalex publication_date 2026/07/07 · openalex created_date 2026/07/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/08
Abstract This article draws on archival sources and interviews to explore a key aspect of Nikita Khrushchev’s housing campaign of the 1950s and 1960s in the Soviet city of Novosibirsk. Alongside the campaign’s massive construction efforts were significant reforms in housing administration, particularly in the management of apartment waiting lists, which form the focus of this article. The analysis reveals local hierarchies of power, need and eligibility, as well as a locally embedded logic shaped by social attitudes and moral economy. By highlighting practices that defy formal institutional boundaries in a setting far from the Soviet centres of power, the article offers a new perspective on the processes and lived experiences of de-Stalinization.