Saint Petersburg celebrates its unique communal flats
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Saint Petersburg
A LEFTOVER from the Soviet era, the communal flat or kommunalka with bathroom and kitchen shared by a dozen or so residents is very much alive in Russia's historic city of Saint Petersburg.
More than 25 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, these overcrowded dwellings are now admired as a unique - if disappearing - cultural phenomenon, featured on guided tours and discussed at academic conferences. The former imperial capital has even started up its own kommunalka festival run by a group of local artists. "Communal flats are part of the history of our country and of our city," said one of the festival organisers Svetlana Vorobyova. "Even though they are still numerous in Saint Petersburg, they are on the way out."
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