Commie blocks are awesome, actually (a reply to Living Ironically in Europe & NFKRZ)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2024
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► Sources (cited)
Owen Heatherly, The Architectural Review, Housing in the Eastern Bloc (2015)
Edmunds V Bunkse, The Role of a Humane Environment in Soviet Urban Planning (1979)
Jack C. Fisher, Planning the city of socialist man (1963)
Henry W. Morton, Housing in the Soviet Union (1984)
Jiri Musil, Urbanization in Socialist Countries (1980)
Peter Lizon, East Central Europe: The Unhappy Heritage of Communist Mass Housing (1996)
Gyorgy Enyedi, Urbanisation in East Central Europe: Social Processes and Societal Responses in the State Socialist Systems (1992)
Owen Heatherly - Housing in the eastern block. The architectural review (2015)
► Sources (for further reading)
Herny W. Morton, Who Gets What, When and How? Housing in the Soviet Union (1980)
Alexander Block, Soviet Housing. The Historical Aspect (1954)
M. F. Parkins, City planning in Soviet Russia, Harvard University, Russian Research Center, (1949)
Anna Schpuntova, Soviet mass housing. Making a modernist dream a reality, Architectural Association School of Architecture, 2021
William Richardson, Architecture, Urban Planning and Housing During the First Five Year Plans: Hannes Meyer in the USSR, 1930-1936
► Music:
HeavenlyAir/FineTune Music - Commiserate
Rannar Sillard/Epidemic Sound - From here we can see
ChillOut/FineTune Music - Ambient nostalgic atmosphere (Too cold)
Mit-Rich/Jamendo - Piano ambient atmosphere
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What are your opinions on the Vatican? I’m not tryna start an argument I’m just curious.
Elon musk owns the United States. He’s the richest man alive and owns Twitter which is the puppets Donald trumps stomping ground. NATO has been cucked. Elon is the top my friend. The enemy of the revolution is cern and starling and nuero link mein freund
I am really enjoying your content and I was wondering if - since you live in Germany - you could do a video on the current state of German politics (e.g. the failure of the governing traffic light coaliton, the rise of the AfD, the upcoming elections in the EU, Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony and the founding of new parties like the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance and the Values Union) from a leftist perspective. Keep your great videos going and have a nice evening!
OMG... I am in the Balkins Commie blocks are horrible especially in Sofia etc. The original commie blocks you had to share bathrooms kitchens to discourage private property and ownership.
Better than studio home in new york. Or daravi india
Homelessness is orders of magnitude depressing than commie blocks will ever be
Hard to comprehend for those who like to pretend that those "below them" don't even exist
very good point
The eastern bloc didn't have homeless people, innit ?
@@virgilesme6658 idk prob havent watched the video yeah? or bein mentally fokkin Bri'ish maybe hinders comprehension innit... u dumb fukk
@@virgilesme6658practically nonexistent, yes. That's a fact, plain and simple.
To be fair to Roman (NFKRZ), he did grow up in a poorly maintained commie block in Chelyabinsk that was also covered in literal shit.
Fair
He is a big fan of western way of living, so naturaly he is spitting on everything non western. I used to watch his channel until 3 or 4 years ago, when he became so spoiled with western propaganda. I mean how can you hate your own country that much? I am not saying Russia is perfect, but some social benefits that people in Russia have, 90% of the world does not have.
@@sasabelov999 I wouldn't say that 90% doesn't have those social benefits. If you look to western europe you get a good social benefits even if unemployed. I see videos of rural russia where especially wlderly people are more or less left behind or rely on the help of others. Now this can be good and bad, it's a good part of this society that gets a bit lost in the west (helping neighbours) and can also lessen corruption bc the "donation" is direct and not under an organization such as the state). On the other hand it also puts a burden on private people and often those that are already struggling or not as well off as the top % of rich ppl. And also it isn't a secure way of social benefits.
Is he Boris From life is Boris or SCORPO tho? Because it lines up
@@adrianmartin1308 Question: Is that communist fault or Shock Therapy’s fault?
*Bulgarian here, who's lived in a commie bloc*
before I even watch this, I will say that any building that doesn't get maintained for over 35 years will look like shit. No matter capitalism, socialism, feudalism or whatever. Also, they always take the pictures in fokin winter mate, with dead trees at night with the title
"post-socialism" Yeah, dude. It's depressing in capitalism, get in line for a medal for this discovery
Also, the commie blocs were made cuz people needed housing. It was the only viable option so everyone got a home after the destruction of WW2 which hit the Eastern Front. Why are all these westerners so critical of this? We didn't have colonies in the third world to bail ourselves out of poverty like the West could :/
The first critics of this were "easterners". Russia did have colonies, was a imperialist power, invaded peoples, committed crimes against them and russians don't have any sense of guilt about that.... In fact they see that past proudly and russian imperialist chauvinism is alive and well.
It has a lot to do with the Cold War. The West wanted to make the East look bad, they did, and now it has stuck around in popculture in the Western sphere, namely America, today. As an American, the "American Dream" is to own a house, not live in government housing, because it was meant to show wealth compared to Communism. Now a days, as someone who lives in government subsidized housing myself, I can understand and appreciate this housing style more, especially given context.
That's exactly it - but it's fascinating how much the ex-Soviet abandoned building/estate/bunker mistique is milked nowadays for content. And always, always missing the context...
*ENGLISH GUY HERE LIVING IN A BULGARIAN COMMI BLOCK IN BURGAS* I absolutely love it - I have never felt more like I live in a village than living here - and I left a very "posh" village in the UK
The one I live in is well built and warm, the layout of the local area is amazing, I don't need a car, everything I need for daily life is available within 1km, we have many playgrounds for the kids, we have small meadows, a little wood, a local hospital, doctor, dentist, there are hundreds of fruit trees [free fruit for 4 months], great public transport. Most of all - I LIVE IN A COMMUNITY...!!!
They are insulating them and making them nice to look at - I rent mine and if the owner would sell it I would buy it in a heartbeat.
@@BalkanOdyssey_ Mmmm Every time I see a critique of the blocks I hear the line "it was necessary to build houses at great scale".
Estonian perspective here. As much as I appreciate commieblocks lifting millions of people out of homelessness, Soviet urban planning was also rather harsh towards places we now consider to have heritage value, destroying hundreds if not thousands of architecturally significant neighbourhoods. Not to say capitalism was any better, as American highways and their European equivalents clearly did just as much damage to Western towns.
As for letting them rot away in modern times: we don't do that here, and it breaks my heart to hear these buildings are so derelict in many other post-Soviet countries. In Estonia we treat them like any old houses: renovate and update them to avoid decay and keep them up with the times (like adding better insulation). They're not the most beloved houses to live in, not as cool and trendy as restored old wooden houses or brand new real estate developments, but still cared for and lovingly called 'home' by many.
Glad to hear at least someone cares about their buildings. Greetings from Serbia!
I don't know if you've seen the Netherlands's urban planning but highways are basically always routed towards the edges of a city to make sure it doesn't get in the way of public transport and people cycling. We also sorta have commie blocks in Overvecht, which is the most hated part of the city I live in. I'm also half Georgian and spent a lot of my childhood in a commie block myself (around 8 years) and it's still some of the most miserable living i've experienced. Although housing is better than no housing, commie blocks are pretty inefficient in making sure people can live close to where they need to be. which is the biggest reason why every commie block has a billion cars parked in front of it
@@inoo2345 I've actually lived in The Netherlands and taught myself quite a bit about its urban planning practices and how they came to be. The reason why highways are so tactfully routed around the city rather than through it, is because of the destruction caused by the very first project of such scale, which got the local communities on their hind legs in protest. I'm obviously talking about Weesperstraat in Amsterdam. At first car-centric American urban planning principles were imported to NL in the 1960s but thankfully the Dutch understood quite early on they'd destroy much of what makes their towns unique. Some of the early designs were rather horrible and rather devastating to the existing cityscape, I highly recommend googling some photos of those designs, they're pretty shocking. And mind you, the bicycle utopia that The Netherlands is today, started being developed in the 1980s. It was very car-centric before that, and I once again recommend googling photos of that era, it's once again pretty shocking looking at them now.
On the topic of West European equivalents to commie blocks, the changes made to development plans of Bijlmer (which I'm referencing since it's the best-known example) in the more recent decades and all the mid-density housing that's been added alongside shops and services has made the areas in question walkable and close to amenities. The original layout, however, had Bijlmer isolated from the rest of the city, which was not the case in former Soviet countries that tried to build functional districs rather than dead residential zones. Whether they actually are livable and walkable today is a whole other topic, but the intent was to create little townships within cities with most services within walking distance, whereas places like Overvecht or Bijlmer were pretty much as strictly residential.
As someone who lived their entire life in the US, seeing videos from the turn of the 20th century, of people having the entire city to walk through, is amazing to imagine.
i couldnt agree with you more. they destroy the sense of beauty and the soul with it. Serb here,.
What's worse than a gloomy, grey commie block?
Ugh... homelessness?
So the ladder goes homlessness and the next step commie block...just a step away from homlessness
I’ve never been homeless, but I have lived in field conditions for combat and yeah after that basically any modern housing with solid roof and walls plus climate control is like heaven.
You sure have a weird way of determining the quality of something:"what is worse than it ..."
Why not" what prevails -strenghts or weaknesses in the design?",
or:" does it matter,does it have a better alternative?" etc.
For me personally is almost everything other worse. Live in socialist appartment building is pretty good.
@@Georgi_Slavov79 Isn't the alternative waiting 20 years for "nice" and "diverse" houses while living in post war ruins?
An average apartment in a commie block in Sofia now starts at 200 000 euros, and during the commie times the people received them almost for free.
Same here in ex Yugoslavia
yep. When a relative of mine sold their house for 10k leva (5k euro), I started seeing double
Mind you, it had a massive backyard with a vine yard
Yeah because it's now like a historical building 😂😂😂. To be honest, that is one of the worst problems in no matter which state you live in. Housing is a 30-year loan chained to the bank, literally very close to servitude.
"Received" or were assigned to? Its great that people got a roof over their heads and all BUT they didn't really own it, did they? The fact that at the end of the day these apartments became someone's condos is an event of historical magnitutde
@@Radi0he4d1Dont know about other east countries but for Yugoslavia it was in ownership off company that gived them ,companies had obligation that workers who worked in their company to buy apartments to people who did not have own house or apartment .
So if that workers build own house they should return apartment that was given to them but in reality no one did that and they bought out that apartments for symbolic prices something like few hundred deuche marks for whole apparment
I had a friend who was 60-something years old. His childhood was in the years before commieblocks were built. He lived in a wooden barracks. He said: "Imagine that at night your stomach turns and you have to run to the toilet. And the toilet is outside. And now it's winter and it's -30 degrees outside. You put on warm clothes first and then run 50 metres to the toilet, if you'll make it." To the end of his life, he was grateful for khrushchevkas.
My grandmother was the daughter of a colonel, so she had no problems with housing as a child. She first encountered it in the 1950s, when she graduated as an engineer and moved to work in another city. Another republic, in fact. Every year new factories were built, more and more people came to work in them, and there was simply no time to build housing for all of them. She was put up in what was called a 'communal apartment' - a four-room flat in a stalinka, with a separate family living in each room, but sharing a kitchen and toilet. When khrushchevka was finally built and she and grandpa got their own flat, she couldn't believe it. She said: "Why do we need such a big flat? We only have two children and there are three whole rooms. Let's ask to swap it for a smaller one".
When talking about the quality of Soviet housing or the standard of living, we must first of all compare it not with Western countries, but with what existed before the Soviet Union. Then the scale of the achievements of the Soviet people becomes clear. For the majority of the population, their quality of life has skyrocketed.
That means that commie blocks improved lives for people in a certain period and should be appreciated for that, not that they're awesome or an example to be followed in the present or future etc. The Model T was a historically really important car, would you like to drive one today? The Lada motorized many countries, which you prefer to drive a 1970 Lada today or something else? Etc.
@@andrijapfcare you saying apartment blocks are bad or something ? Big houses are unsustainable, like most things in capitalist countries. 🤷
@@modkip25 I am saying Athens charter-type modernist apartment blocks (e.g. "commie blocks") are bad (and also, unsustainable!). Apartment buildings are of course all fine & good if done in a different manner (no I don't mean modern glass condo towers that's bad too). Commie blocks are also unsustainable, as shown by the state of most of them in most places (large concrete buildings require a lot of maintenance). Btw many suburbs have not so large houses (not everywhere is a McMansion) and house size is not the primary reason suburbia is unsustainable (there are lots of sustainable towns and city quarters where people live primarily in houses). What is sustainable differs from place to place - the solution for Hong Kong is not going to be the solution for Denmark, and vice versa.
Our house,one storey high,60 sqm was built in the 19 century, its in a beautiful,calm mountainous village, we renovated it,and its paradise, compared to these infested with cockroaches, ugly,depressive chunks of concrete, where you have no privacy whatsoever-a basic need for every normal person.
@@Georgi_Slavov79 Yeah, let's all abandon cities, abandon industry and civilization, move back to the villages and rejoice in our "new Middle Ages", just like Alexander Dugin suggests.
Also, I want people in the West to understand that while the blocks might look a bit bland and utalitarian, they were not meant to spend your day there. You were meant to clock out at 5 and go out with your neighbors and family out in the park or the town square or local garden next to the blocks and just socialize.
I can't stress this enough, *people didn't spend time at home* they were outside in the cinema or theater, which reminds me how there was a cinema in every town in Bulgaria, even my little old 20k had a massive one, but no more cuz now people's wages are small and nobody can afford it to be profitable 😮💨
If you struggle to imagine what it looked like, I recommend the Australian documentary "the Human Face of Russia", which while of the Soviet Union was similar to the life in most socialist countries. You can find it right here on TH-cam
Now now... Third Spaces are a myth!
/cynical sarcasm.
@@lostbutfreesoul third space, I learn new things every day, but yes. They were seriously taken into account. It boggles my mind how much you can achieve with a planned economy when it's not about commodity diversity, but just concrete things that you can standardize. No wonder those Caribbean republics had to be destroyed by the US, making a bad example of liberal economics.
Speaking of destroyed countries, RIP Allende, and Project Cybersyn. CIA was afraid of cybernetic socialism
Most westerners literally imagine an apartment as somewhere they spend their entire life gaming and posting their cliched doomer mentality on reddit. They think the entire world is like them and that things have always been this way.
@@DinoCism as someone living in the US, aside from posting doomer content on reddit, this is exactly how i plan to live lmao
THIS
What makes me CRAZY is the way people completely erase the context of "Commie blocks."
it's because the word "commie" is the end of discussion for most people, they don't bother to look beyond because they are pre-conditioned not to.
@@atomovbecause commies are commies and we don't like commies
People complain about how multiple families shared an apartment in 1930, come to my country and see multiple families share A ROOM because they can t rent in 2024
Ok
Idiot
im from former ussr country, i still live in commie block, as probably 80% of our nation people, its very comfy, all it needed was renovation in 90s, most were built in 60s 70s so after 30 40 years ofc they need some maintenance, this is why people started to hate them cause no one fixed them in time. western people have no idea what is feeling living 5min from school, shop, even work, no need car , can go on foot, in my case shop is on corner of other block so 2 min, and school is 3 4 mins away, my grandparents worker in few small factories 10 15 mins away on foot. also no one can match childhood in those yards and playgrounds inbetween those commie blocks, we had 20 - 30 kids playing in yards, always something to do always some kid outside to enjoy childhood together. when i look today at modern houses that are trending from west here too, im sad to see kids not even going outside cause of smartphones and computers and not just that but they dont have with whom to play since they live in separated house yard.... there were tons of trees and green nature too, maybe during building in 60s 70s not much but stuff was planted and in 90s when i grew up, we have small forest type parks in most microdistricts in big cities. And i need to mention that my both grandparents didnt pay a cent for those apartements? now they cost 60-80k euros, new families need to take loans just to buy older soviet era apartement.... im lucky my parents left my their apartement, other way i would be renting for 500 euros per month and barely having money to eat ...
Damn that pretty sick
Is
Born in 1997 Uzbekistan, I subscribe under everything in the comment above.
Im from ex-Yugoslavian republic and yup I can 100% confirm that.
@@Lukas-xr9ij thats similar in all socialist countries from past, ussr 15 nations, yugoslavia 6 nations, around 10 nations in eastern block etc etc, similar things all around, cause it was about equality
Hi! I am from Salgótarján. It is basically built up from a booming shack town in the communist era. Growing up there was a nightmare for me, it boring and far from anything that can be interesting for a teenager. But then I moved out for other cities, historical turist traps like Eger or the 7_th district of Budapest. I roamed a little bit in Cardiff and Montreal too.
And I realized how comfortabe was Salgótarján to live in. Everything was in 10 minute walking distance , no joke. (schools, groceries, offices, hospitals, everything)
My elders even had a saying "If you in a rush , you should go by walk."
Since then I moved the 20th district in budapest, which is an old commy block heaven. I can solve all of my needs just by walk. And I can choose between three park and 15 playground to go with my children.
In Bulgaria is the same with the ameneties. This is the Soviet mikrorayon "micro-region" urban planning model where you built everything within 5 min distance: cinema, theater, library, school, playground, store, public transit. Whole shabang
I'm from Slovakia and when we used to go to Hungary, many times we went through Salgótarján and I have always loved it! Such a beautiful city!
Bloc apartments are nice on the inside but ugly as shit on the outside. North Korea had the right idea painting their apartments. Even simple things like that really can improve a cityscape. Plus I’d prefer them to be more integrated with the cities they’re in
Here in Bulgaria they are insulating them and painting them - they look great when they are done.
The one I live in is well built and warm, the layout of the local area is amazing, I don't need a car, everything I need for daily life is available within 1km, we have many playgrounds for the kids, we have small meadows, a little wood, a local hospital, doctor, dentist, there are hundreds of fruit trees [free fruit for 4 months], great public transport. Most of all - I LIVE IN A COMMUNITY...!!!
1
@@piccalillipit9211 you Bulgarians really had the best east bloc experience tbh. Todor had his problems but the least drama of any Warsaw pact nation
Vienna has imo done this really well. Their blocks are both dense and utilitarian but also designed beautifully on the outside.
@@dftp one of the only useful things the social democrats ever did for Austria
@@Trashcom1917- Im not Bulgarian Im British - but I can agree. They seem to have had a generally very good life under socialism. Most of the people in my block have a house in the countryside for the weekend - all a leftover from communism.
Ive talked to hundreds about life under socialism, very few have bad memories even taking into account nostalgia - no. one in Romania is nostalgic about it.
As a brazilian, i hate everyone who speaks badly about Commie Blocks. My dream is that most Brazilian cities would have something similar. There is nothing more depressing than favelas, poorly planned neighborhoods, irregular occupations and homelessness
Agree my step mother comes from the State of Píaui and when i saw a recording of her town there i was shocked how people can live there.
At least take inspiration from central Europe, where commie blocks are actually taken care of, and not that depressing grey rectangle they have in russia.
Filipino here - I'd be dead if the anti-communists find out about this, but it's very true! To solve the ghettos and slums of Manila, there is a deep need to build more adequate houses, or wait and starve on the streets.
As a Turk, I wish they had commie blocks there, instead of the horrible cheaply built buildings by Erdoğan's cronies. They were built with bad foundations so contractors erdoğan gave insane contracts to could cut costs, and they were decimated by the earthquake last year.
@@yakkowarner21Indonesian here, I agree with you, I hate the fact that my house is inside of clusters of no planning house to the point that my house have no address at all, get flooded when rain, neighbour fighting because of their land space.
All of these can be solved with these blocks, the only thing that I don't like is i have to forget my motorcycle if we live in these blocks.
*I LIVE IN A COMMI BLOCK* I absolutely love it - I have never felt more like I live in a village than living here - and I left a very "posh" village in the UK
The one I live in is well built and warm, the layout of the local area is amazing, I don't need a car, everything I need for daily life is available within 1km, we have many playgrounds for the kids, we have small meadows, a little wood, a local hospital, doctor, dentist, there are hundreds of fruit trees [free fruit for 4 months], great public transport. Most of all - I LIVE IN A COMMUNITY...!!!
Like is nice but wouldnt you like it to be a little bigger? Its nice for one person but imagine living with your family there
💚💜
Exactly this...
@@nerdo6412- There are 3 bedroomed 95m2 apartments in my block. Mine is 1 bedroomed - 68m2
I have bedroom with balcony / bathroom / kitchen wiht separate large dining area, large balcony / living room / and an oddly large entrance area
I would not want to have 2 kids in this for sure. But for a couple with a baby its fine.
@@nerdo6412 under our current system many families are trapped in units smaller than the single person units available in the commie blocks.
I understand it may seem small, but when you realize that under capitalism our spaces are actually smaller (and shrinking) the critique falls flat.
As someone who lived in these commie blocks I have nothing but good to say about it. During the invasion of Afghanistan by USSR, 5 districts of Commie blocks were built. They go by the name Macrorayans and are differentiated by numbers which go like Macrorayan 1,2,3,4 and 5. These buildings go high up to five stories i think it is a smaller height than commie blocks in Eastern Europe. They come with a kitchen bathroom and balcony. Washrooms have hot and cold water with bathtub. Kitchens have their own refrigerators and bathrooms, ovens to bake naan and cakes. Most importantly these blocks have heating which maximizes comfort. It doesn’t end there. These blocks are set in a way that home invasion and robbery is almost impossible because of people living so close to each other that a simple noise will get the whole block out to kill the thief. Each of these blocks have a specific watchman who tends to trees and grass and usually do runs of groceries for grandmas that can’t go outside or if it’s cold. Every block have a courtyard type of playgrounds for kids to play and it’s set in a way that any parent can send their kid to play ground and can have their eyes on them from the inside from kitchen or balcony. Pretty much safe. The basements are dark and scary parents use it to scare their kids from venturing there. Every community have 1 minute walk to near convenience stores, ice cream sellers pass by and you can throw them your basket with money they will put your cream and you can rope them up. Living in these blocks are very comfortable. In Afghanistan only the privileged ones get to live in these blocks. We have this thing where if a girl lives in these blocks they are definitely a 10 because of their modesty and beauty. People in Afghanistan especially in Kabul have the perception that if someone has a soft and pale skin they definitely live in these blocks lol. On the other hand these blocks are so sturdy that during partisan war no building survived except these and quickly these blocks become a preferred place for groups to wage war over. Every fighters were promised an apartment if they fight and participate. Even after the war these blocks were highly preferred for people who prioritized safety and comfort which no other places in Kabul could offer. Rents are high and value of these are high. So these blocks are basically a luxury in Afghanistan which few can afford.
Everyone knows that most of the complaints that come are from people who live in a far away places and blocks that are not maintained. When you don’t renovate and clean up these block of course they become ugly and depressing. People like Roman NFKRZ or LIIE they mostly complain because their blocks they lived in were in far away provinces and under developed areas. I mean it’s the case with anywhere to be honest, if you live far away from capital, cities tend to look a bit ugly and not enough attention paid to it. From Afghanistan to Canada it’s the same inner city is good but if you venture far the outskirts get a bit bland and you start to smell livestock. Remember that these blocks were not made for Hollywood actors to live it was built to house war affected populations and just normal people who could live in safety. So now if these kids today tend to complain about how these blocks suck and is boring they should really go blame their parents for raising them in Chelyabinsk instead of Moscow. Typical moody teenagers blaming a piece of concrete for their sadness. At the end it is everyone’s dream to work hard and to get out of the countryside and move to capital and quite a few of them now makes money ranting on these blocks that gave them a chance to live safely.
The bit where Living Ironically in Europe says 'look at how pretty the city looked before the commie blocks!!1!!' is so funny in an annoying way to me, as a Brazilian.
We have the same thing in Latin America too, people will see some video like 'Rio de Janeiro in 1936' 'Santiago de Chile in 1920', and go all 'oooohh ahhh the city looks so much uglier now, how lovely were those times, when poor people had even less rights🥰☺️', not realizing there were also slums and favelas there, in the same or maybe worse proportion than there are today.
It's almost like when newspapers or people, especially the kind of middle to upper class person who would own a camera back then, made pictures of a city, just to show the city off, they'd pick the prettiest sights.
Like, c'mon guys, it's not that hard to figure out lol.
They complain about what communism "did to their country" and it's like, bruh, you were so young that you were in single digits in 1991 - you personally might take a 6yo's assessment of the political economy to which they have been witness to over a couple of short years but don't expect that I'm going to do the same thing or that I'm going to take seriously anyone who does. Get real.
They also never offer the same leniency for these socialist countries where they say "Look what the Tsar or the Qing Dynasty or the Dalai Lama and his Ganden Phodrang did to this socialist country..." and you've gotta stop yourself because it's so apparent how deeply they are steeped in idealism - it's not the material conditions that produce these things in society but actually it's just Bad Thing Happen, Blame The idea of Communism.
Anyway I'm sure that you can already assume the rest of my rant:
It's ahistorical
It's undialectical
It's inherently idealist and unmaterialist
Something about Orwell was mostly projecting and where he wasn't it was just cheap althistory fanfiction or outright slander
I'll spare you the time because you know that you can fill in the blanks.
@@jessl1934 the Tibet part with the Dalai Lama is so true. I just had an argument on TikTok about this. No, random TT user, the Dalai Lama loosing his slaves was good actually. Let them join China as free people, jfc
Not to mention all the photographs of the slaves in chains embracing the Chinese army men, and crying in their arms...
@@SinbathSparrow Man, I could tell you some stories about Tibetan history...
A prior Dalai Lama invited the Mongols to invade in order to depose the most prominent school of Tibetan Buddhism and establish the Dalai Lama as head of government.
Monasteries were sacked, people were killed, sacred texts were destroyed, monks were forcibly converted to the Dalai Lama's school.
Or Lungshar, a Tibetan elite, who was part of a delegation to Western Europe because of the Brit Younghusband Expedition (the Brits wanted to establish an embassy to expand the British Raj and they were courting the Dalai Lama and other key figures in government at the time) who decided he wanted to bring about liberal democratic reforms to the Dalai Lama's government. His son, who was being considered as a reincarnation of a fairly prestigious line dies under mysterious circumstances, and Lungshar-I kid you not-gets "discovered" with a piece of paper and someone's name written on it in his shoe and so for that he is found guilty of witchcraft and is sentenced to the highest form of capital punishment except for death in Tibet and he has his eyes gouged out. All because he wanted to bring about some structural reforms to the government.
There's the suppression of nuns in Tibet, the suppression of the Dorje Shugden movement, the attempted eradication of the Jonang School, the repression of the indigenous Tibetan animist/shamanist religion Bön at the hands of Tibetan Buddhism, the untouchable castes including the Muslims who would work as butchers for Tibet so they could accumulate all the bad karma for killing animals so the Tibetan population could eat...
What else is there?
A prior Dalai Lama outlawing the second in line in to the Kagyu school's reincarnation hierarchy (Think like how the Panchen Lama is to the Dalai Lama - that is who the outlawed Shamarpa is to the Kagyu "Dalai Lama", known as the Karmapa) arguably because of a political assassination at the hands of the government.
The delegation including a high-ranking Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul, who was crucial to the extremely-controversial and contested recognition of the current Karmapa (there's actually two recognized Karmapas alive today lol), driving in a new BMW/Mercedes that was just serviced by a mechanic, where the mechanic advised that they "test the brakes", driving straight off a cliff due to brake failure where every passenger died (I believe). Totally a coincidence though.
Oh and the fact that there was an ecumenical movement within Tibetan Buddhism that was established because the Dalai Lama's school was marginalizing other schools such that minor sub-schools were risking extinction and sacred texts were being lost, so this Rimé Movement sought to preserve the cultural history, sacred texts, and practices of Tibetan Buddhism. The Rimé movement was suppressed by the Dalai Lama(s) and it's only because very high ranking rinpoches (including Jamgon Kongtrul rinpoche - same name as the car crash guy, previous incarnation though) from schools outside the Dalai Lama's school, who were largely beyond the reach of the Tibetan government due to their status, decided to throw their weight behind the movement that a lot of stuff has been preserved.
But Tibetan Buddhism is all peace, love and understanding bro, trust me bro!
Anyone who is silly enough to talk to me about their concerns about the cultural destruction of Tibetan Buddhism who can't name the four major schools nor has ever heard of the Rimé movement gets absolutely roasted by me and the hours I wasted learning about Tibetan Buddhism lol.
I see this very often with Bucharest in particular even recently on reddit and the comments were pretty crazy. Multiple people saying "Image what Bucharest would be today if not for the communists" and it has me worried for their historical knowledge
@@D4V33. same thing with nationalistic indoctrination about Tsarist Bulgaria pushed in schools. Thinking that being an offshore tax haven for finance capital would have made Bulgaria prosperous, when it would have been just another Carribean country like Cuba under Batista or like Iran under the Shah. Lots of resorts for the rich and poverty for everyone else
Capitalists: “Commie block! LOL!”
Also Capitalists: “What homelessness epidemic?”
Yes, what homeless epidemic? Nixon era houses are still very much affordable. Beging gets you $100 a day on average, so over $3000 a month. How about you spend the money on rent over fentanyl.
@@ThePolistirennone of what you said is true. To start with:
The average beggar in the US makes between ten and thirty dollars daily, per the US National Institute of Health. All studies I found pointing to higher figures were unsourced blog posts on financial sites trying to sell advice and one unaccredited “university” that did not link to a peer reviewed journal. That would equate to a monthly take home of $300-900, and a yearly take home of $3600-10,800.
Secondly, the median home price in the US was $495,100 in 2023 according to the US census bureau. Note that that’s MEDIAN cost, not AVERAGE, so it’s unskewed by the exorbitant value of megamansions enjoyed by the jeff bezos level wealthy. To afford a house at that cost on a 30 year mortgage, you would need a yearly income of $80,536 before tax, not accounting for interest, following the almost universal advice that housing should cost no more than 25% of your income. Assuming the average minimum cost of food in the US ($100-125 weekly in 2023 according to the USDA and Social Security Administration), you would need to make at least $21,138 yearly to afford that if you were ONLY buying Food and everything else you made went to your mortgage. All of the above is also assuming that the person in question is able to secure the necessary credit, minimum income reports, and residency address to even get a mortgage in the first place. Or, if you want to go the other route and just rent, the average rent for Studio and One bedroom apartments in the US is $1323 monthly, also according to the US Census Bureau. That would require a reasonable minimum income of $63,504, or an absolute bare minimum, again assuming every dollar goes to rent or food, of $19,955 yearly.
Thirdly: according to the same study done by the National Institute of Health, less than 38% of homeless people in the US used any form of illicit drug in the past five years. When removing Marijuana from the above results (as weed is legal in about half of the country now), that number drops to just under five percent. When accounting for all substances (including Alcohol, Tobacco, and Caffeine) that same proportion is only about 56%.
So what I guess isn’t there to understand about your comment is how someone is supposed to afford a house that would require at least 21,000 dollars annually while only taking home 12,000 by cutting down on a substance that they never used or bought in the first place. Where is the extra 9,000 dollars per year supposed to come from? Is there not a homeless crisis when the US has a higher homelessness rate and lower available housing stock than any socialist or former warsaw pact nation (US census bureau and Eurobarometer)?
Stop lying to people. We should absolutely be building commie blocks here.
@@ThePolistiren Begging gets your street boss 90 dollars you keep the 10 and only buy that drug crap on your day off
@@ThePolistiren You should go quit your job and live on the streets and start begging then
@@ThePolistirenanother ignorant imbecile living in denial
Westerner living in Kazakhstan here, I have to say that living in an Khrushchev-era apartment block has easily been my favorite way to live so far in my life. The communal nature of the courtyards and the walkability that is built around these apartment blocks are, in my view, far superior to living in disconnected homes on a sprawling street (the predominant form of housing in my native USA). Everything I need, including my workplace, stores, pharmacies, parks, the library, doctors' offices, gyms, theaters, and a bunch of good restaurants and bars are a maximum walk of 15 minutes away.
Of course, from the outside a lot of people would consider it "ugly" and "decaying," which is a fair critique from an aesthetic point of view. However, from a practical point of view they are well-furbished and clean inside, and provide a great deal of quality housing in a relatively-small footprint that lends itself well to a walkable (and thus healthier) lifestyle. So for me, the practicality and quality of living that Soviet urban planning provides outweighs any sort of aesthetic concerns.
Another thing worth noting is the robustness of Soviet-era buildings when compared to their modern counterparts... In Almaty for example, the largest city in Kazakhstan, they experience large earthquakes from time to time. There are memes spread around here about how the modern buildings, which should be superior, always end up damaged and unstable after an earthquake, while the supposedly "inferior" Soviet buildings remain basically indestructible.
are you being paid in western money yes or no?
Hello fellow , Westerner has also lived in the formerly Soviet world. One of the really big things I noticed, was actually making a number of real friends when I lived in these semi communal apartment blocks. Because we were in close confines end had to see each other almost every day, and not all your entertainment, which is gonna be crammed into the apartments. You end up finding new past times, like chatting and playing chess, or giving an audience to somebody, playing a musical instrument, or having a smoke while watching the birds and inviting passerby’s to join you. The sense of community meant you got to know a lot of people in a very real way. I think I built a good sense of community and even a strong sense of social empathy, you got to understand other parts of society, and other viewpoints and experiences of the people around you. My American house is much nicer, but I can’t say it’s necessarily made me happier.
@@angelcabeza6464 I do technically get paid in USD, but I convert it all to the local currency for obvious reasons and unfortunately it is on the same level as a typical Kazakh salary. However I'm still pretty young and I personally feel that having new experiences and pushing myself outside of my comfort zone is more important to me right now than making good money. My time here is temporary, I won't live here longer than a few years before moving back to the US (however if I get another opportunity to come back I would be open to it). My comment was already pretty long, but the general economic state of the country is certainly one major downside of living here. It is really difficult for people to afford things, even if the cost of living here is much cheaper compared to the US. Also, the infrastructure (such as roads) are in really bad condition. I don't want to over-glorify anywhere, every country has its problems. I think it's just been interesting and valuable to experience life from a different perspective.
@@Mortablunt What's up with the Donetsk profile picture?
@@maarten1115 Not all people are the same. Not all Ukrainians are Nazis. And not all Donbass people see Ukraine as their home.
"Commie blocks" were built all over Sweden (miljonprogrammet). It's not just an eastern bloc phenomenon
.. and other western countries.
@@MrDomingo55 Yes sir, I'm just speaking for my own country
Almost as if most countries started experiencing a population boom and mass migration into cities after World War 2 all the while those same countries were also impoverished due to fighting a constant war for years. 🤔
Honestly got no clue as to why people associate brutalist flats and skyscrapers built during the mid 20th century with Socialism.
Yes they are. But they are well build and maintained so internet people do not talk much about it because it would take the amercians out of their delusion that american city planing and zoning is the best and everyone who suggest builiding such builidings instead of giga-house in suburbs american 80ties style american dream, would be communist that is trying to take away their freedom
Commie blocks are different from western apartment blocks
I'll take commie blocks over the hobo tent cities we have now.
Where is that? Never seen a "hobo tent city".
I'd take commie blocks over sprawling suburban homes and oversized rural farmhouse.
The standard of living for most people increased massively. And if the alternative is having nowhere to live and that then I take that every day
Far better than the tent cities dotting every American city. Or even the luxury apartments built tightly together with a depressingly small outdoor space that pails in comparison to the outdoor space outside commie blocks.
The dignity of housing will ALWAYS outweigh the indignity and cruelty of poverty and homelessness.
Living in America a meme, I hate the absolute most is a picture of a homeless encampment with people living on the sidewalk in tents with the caption, saying, here is the housing plan under Socialism. No that’s completely wrong that’s the current housing plan under capitalism. The housing plan under Socialism is to get everybody into a semi private living space!
One information is wrong in this video. Only the temporary housing built after WW2 were poor in quality and were built just to put a roof over everyone's top. But the permanent housing built by Stalin were pretty high in quality than Krushchovka and Brezhnevka, and are also built with classic architectural touch. Today, renovated Stalinkas have a huge demand and are being sold off at a much higher price that many Russians can't afford.
Commie blocks are not awesome per se. The awesomeness was in the PLANNED district layouts - since the Soviet economy was planned as opposed to free market, the city architects could estimate upfront, how many houses for how many people should be built, and how many schools, kindergartens, hospitals, grocery and general stores etc had to be built nearby to support all that. A bunch of green plants like trees, bushes and flower patches were also planned in between, to avoid creating concrete jungle. Also, since housing was provided rather than sold and bought, people could move much easier than nowadays, if they switched jobs for example. That also helped with logistics immensely - not everyone, of course, but a huge amount of people lived near enough to their jobs to just walk there, without needing neither public nor, god forbid, private transportation daily.
Basically, had the Soc-Bloc not fallen to external pressure and internal counter-revolutionary tendencies, as the building material industry got more advanced, simplistic commie blocks should've been gradually replaced by more aesthetically pleasing houses. But we got the opposite - planning was replaced by market anarchy, every free square meter of space between apartment buildings filled with parked cars, and the buildings themselves are not getting any prettier over time. That's why libs and other reactionaries "hate commie blocks" - they hate the garbage that those turned into when capitalism was restored.
The capitalist mode of production can't do that on a city-wide scale, unless the government heavily regulates the process, overpays contractors greatly, etc. Which is, obviously, an exception which doesn't happen often IRL.
What happened in Lithuania is that public schools and kindergardens are getting closed because poorer people can't afford to have kids while lots of private schools are popping up in "rural"(I don't know how to call them, they are like american suburbs where middle class lives in) areas which are of course are not available to poorer classes because they are too far from cities and too expensive.
@@raigirdas1510 hiya neighbor, Latvian comrade here. Our fuhrers solve this matter even simpler - rural schools are getting closed without replacement, since many small rural settlements are naturally turning into ghost towns, lol. Would've been funny if it wasn't so damn sad.
And I hear ya - "optimization" (huge quotes) is probably the main slogan of restored ex-USSR capitalism after "privatization". We're all getting optimized to bits whether we like it or not :D
Very well said
b-but having a huge apartment means there will be minorities living next door and i cannot find parking space for my 5 meter gmc truck !
Why would you need a truco if you have everything at the other door?
@@nerdo6412 but depending on oil sector fuels our democracy and makes our burgers tastier. Also public transportation is communism
The horror....
@@BalkanOdyssey_ hehehe joking i am Turkish and have no money lol
@@emrecanarduc4378 Balkan solidarity on that one (yes I called you a Balkanoid)
Wake up honey new balkan oddyssey video is out
Building: *was left to rot for almost as long as communism was around in that country*
Corruption apologists: tHe ScArS oF cOmMuNiSm
Good thing that there's no corruption in socialism
@mekolayn there was but at least it wasn't systemically insentivised as "tHe EnTrEpReNeUriAL sPiRiT" or "eCoNoMiC fReEdOoM". But unlike SOME PEOPLE, we actually care about tackling corruption and don't just use it as a gotcha against systems we don't like while ignoring it for those we do, even tho corruption and inequality are objectively WWAAYYY WORSE there
@@delly2088 however despite not systematically incentivesed, the corruption in socialist states is much more widespread
@@mekolayn it's not. They just call it "lobbying" over there and hide it better. This is NOT to deny the corruption in the eastern bloc, ESPECIALLY after Khruschev
@@mekolaynfalse.
I literally cannot fathom how people believe that ugly buildings are worse than keeping people on the streets or forcing a family to choose between diapers or baby food. It makes no sense.
What makes no sense are people like this guy who glorify commie blocks. Sure, any home is better than no home, but that is still a home no one (besides crazies like him) would choose willingly.
Instantly Subscribed, you've been on my radar for a while but I've only started watching your TH-cam channel today. Good Video sir!
Welcome aboard!
@@BalkanOdyssey_ Good to be aboard!
Same, insta sub
It's weird i never noticed this channel before
Your video is very much covered the topic in depth. Hats off for that. However, I personally as I'm sure many of my fellow eastern europeans don't disagree with the functionality of the commie blocks & their fulfillment of dire need for housing in a post war world. Everything you stated in your point stands. However, my main criticism of them is their erection essentially ruined & replaced centuries of cultural heritage. As I briefly mentioned in one of my videos, Novi Sad, used to be one of the pearls of the Hungarian kingdom & later on Austro-Hungarian empire. It was also renowned for its architectural beauty in the Serbian world, as for the longest of times it was known as one of the prettiest & most developed Serbian settlements. However, after the 2nd World War the Yugoslav government decided to completely change the city in favor for a planned settlement & go for functionality, leaving very little of the previously rich cultural heritage in a small part of the center. In Romania historic buildings that survived the 2nd World War were purposely demolished to make way for these buildings. No one would really mind the commieblocks as much if their rise didn't coincide with the purposeful destruction of this heritage. One of the best examples of this was the demolition of Bucharest's historic old town which was leveled for the Palace of the People as well as copious amounts of commieblocks. Which many find so shameful, considering that because of the pre-communist architecture the city was known as the Paris of the east. There was & still is ample room for both of these styles to coexist, as can be seen throughout mid & smaller towns in the Eastern Bloc that have kept both the baroque, gothic, and neoclassical buildings as well as erected commieblocks in further parts of the town. Western European countries also followed this style by leaving larger parts near the center historic while building dense planned urban housing further out.
Another criticism is that the urbanization of these cities was also forced. Particularly in Romania & Bulgaria, forced deportations of families into commieblocs from the lands their families inhabited for centuries was enacted. For many this was an unwelcome change. In Romania in particularly Hungarian majority towns & cities, were also forcefully filled by the government with Romanian inhabitants as a way to dilute the demographics & establish stronger control over these regions. One of the most famous examples of this was Cluj-Napoca. In the Romanian revolution one of such deportations of a Hungarian minister was the catalyst to the flood gates (this is grossly simplifying it but still).
Another point of criticism is that many commieblocks especially the khrushchevka era ones were not envisioned to be a permanent solution, but to be a temporary stepping stone in industrialization. And while many were built to be sturdy & of quality, a lot weren't because of this. And they were never replaced (due to a variety of factors). A lot of the best quality commieblocks were also assigned to high ranking party leaders and VIPs of the government as was the case in New Belgrade & Bucharest, while the ones of less quality were given to the regular folk, which further garnered animosity.
The last but not least point of critique was the maintenance & renovation. Very few people have issues with their interior & planning. Hell, most people & I also compliment the 15 minute city design. However, the facades could have been restored to resemble the cultural heritage of the buildings that used to stand there. Even though the main critique for that is the lack of funds, lack of interest, and others, such projects were still successful & are still growing in popularity. For example Budapest, Warsaw, and Krakow have taken upon themselves to de-commify these buildings by restoring facades & bettering their aesthetics, and they have been quite successful in these endeavors.
Just as the vastly hated suburbs of the US are criticized there is also a lot to criticize about the commieblocks. While they did step in a crucial time to solve a certain problem (and were also forced upon many who opposed moving) it is very much valid to criticize their replacement & in a lot of cases destruction of centuries old cultural heritage. In modern day they also harm the tourism industry. Just as rarely anyone would want to go to a copy-paste American suburb or a copy-paste glass jungle in the Middle East, very few would want to visit a copy-paste city of commieblocks.
All in all, there is no reason for them not to coexist with historic & cultural buildings. And if that was the case with their erection, I'm sure many would have the same opinion of them as with the mass dense planned housing found in the residential areas of Lisbon or Madrid.
Not reading allat.
Damn respectful political discourse.
You mention Novi Sad,have you ever seen old photos off Novi Sad?99.9% off buildings still stand ,around that historic center was houses with 1 floor or with out floors that were in very bad shape and for sure not to be in heart off cities ,and they were replaced with buildings but not commies blocks,but houses that were off good quality were never demolished and they all still stand.And commies block were build on places were there was nothing what was then edge off the city ,Novi Sad had only 60 000 people in 1941
@@toppedtop5787 eastern Europeans have come a long way while west europeans will just get mad most of the time
Thanks for the response. I can't disagree on any of your criticisms, all valid from my point of view as well. Having that said, there's a few remarks:
I'm as big of a fan of traditional European architecture (baroque, gothic, and neoclassical stuff) and appreciate everything cities like Prague, Budapest, Vienna etc. have to offer. In those instances where such buildings were needlessly demolished, I think everyone can agree that it's a shame. Coexistence of those styles is of course possible, as you briefly mentioned. However, I'll always have a dose of understanding for certain necessities when it comes to urban planning and resettlement in the process of industrialization and urbanization - cities quickly became dysfunctional due to the rush of people and many things needed to be restructured. I guess I'll take that sacrifice over people being homeless and having an overall dysfunctional city with slums and capital-oriented neighborhoods.
Regarding urbanization - this process together with industrialization is by default a coercive one which, naturally, clashes with humanist principles. The western industrial revolution was equally harsh and brutal towards peasants and their villages, if not more. Over there, commons were forcefully stolen through enclosures and peasants were, forcefully, converted into wage-laborers. The socialist approach of (re)colonization and urbanization at least offered some incentives and a better standard of living and way of life opposed to the state of the villages back then. Societies needed to modernize, otherwise they'd be condemned to an eternity of being the backward underdeveloped appendage to western industrial powerhouses. In socialism, at least it was done for a noble cause and not to fill the pockets of a handful of industrialists. And to add to your other point - any type of forced deportation, especially along ethnic lines for the sake of social engineering, is obviously tragic and shouldn't happen.
Not much to add to the point about temporary commie blocks and their range of quality - obviously it would've been prefferable if it was otherwise, agreed. In terms of priviledes - sure, social stratification still existed to a good degree and will be criticized by every Marxist by default, especially when it comes to Party officials. However, pointing that out seems odd considering the fact that social stratification under capitalism is literally hundreds of times more prominent - and based on open and direct exploitation and theft.
Nothing against restoration, renovation, artistic expression - big fan of that as a matter of fact. Lack of interest and all that can be thanked to the circumstances both during and after socialism.
Just as I pointed out in that comment on your recent video - criticizing things is absolutely a duty and we should be ruthless with that, agreed. That's the only way for improvement. My only issue is when I see only criticism (like in your video) and no prior acknowledgement, which is often a silent political statement, which is also fine and fair. I think the info presented in this video shows that there is much more to praise and celebrate than there is to criticize. And that was indeed the point of the video. If socialism ever makes a return, commie blocks and urbanization sure won't be a topic of discussion - that whole topic is for the history books and can, next to many other things I'll cover in the upcoming video, serve as a benchmark of the capabilities of a planned economy. As for future issues, as the meme goes - modern problems require modern solutions.
I think he was referring to destroying old city centers Cathedral's etc. In Sarajevo many old Mosques and Churches were leveled down for building parks, and public offices. Stripping it from architectural beauty beauty.
Where I live in Slovakia, we are actually quite "lucky" to be one of the countries where socialist housing is actually cared about and a vast majority of it has had maintenance upgrades and thermic insulation. I strongly believe that life in socialist blocks is far better here than in one of the horrible new developers' projects. That being said, the situation on the housing market is quite dire and people under capitalism have to pay a surreal amount of money to live in these 60s - 80s commie blocks (which, by the way, were mostly free in Czechoslovakia, even though it was generally necessary to wait a few years to be assigned a flat). Czech and Slovak home prices are one of the highest in Europe when compared to the median income, whether sale or rent. It actually baffles me that in some cases, rent in a provincial Slovak city can be higher than rent in Vienna. That much I have to say about how "capitalism works".
Capitalism wants to maximise profit and it will continue to do as long as it can (aka as long as there is demand). If you built more homes then there would be more supply for the demand meaning they would have to sell/rent homes for cheaper to stay competitive in the market (or go out of business).
People could also decide not to rent/buy homes from those people forcing them to lower their prices to maybe actually end up turning a profit.
The reason prices are high is because it works, people pay, if they didn't there wouldn't be high prices. It's as simple as that.
The leftist to urban planning and vice versa pipeline is very much real. I got interested in urban planning after being a leftist for a while (and also after I saw some folks criticize Elon Musk's Vegas Loop for being a taxi hole and crappy subway, I.e a gadgetbahn, and the worse one to date. For real, just build a train 🚈).
It's interesting to see the context in which these "Commie Blocks" were constructed and how the housing/homelessness crisis that plague Western and imperial periphery countries where non-existent in these former socialist countries.
While urban planning isn't inherently a left-wing thing as there are tons of urban planning practices that did stuff like racial segregation, red-lining, car-dependency, etc. It's not surprising that folks who advocate for a more walkable community and transit advocate groups tends to be left-leaning while car-bros and especially pickup truck drivers (in North America) are right-wing reactionaries.
Anyways, take care, and have a great day. 🚩✊🚂
Urban planning is one of those things where politics and ideology become very well apparent as soon as you come in contact with some of the core tenets of the field...the differences between planned and market economies are simply impossible to not notice - and so is the superiority of planning.
Imperial periphery 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Well there is a reason why "Fountainhead" is such an idiotic book. You must be insane to care more about how building look rather than the people live there
@@ChudLite-vh6zk yes, Eastern Europe is a periphery to Western Europe. A source of cheap labor and educated brains who will work for a lesser wage than their native born western counterparts. When you go to university it's one of the first things you are educated on in Bulgaria by the professors, which is always followed by, "Will you go to work abroad or rot in Bulgaria?". I'm guessing is the same across Eastern Europe, so no. It's not inacurate to call it "Imperial Periphery", because it very much is
@@SinbathSparrow i wonder why eastern europe is like that hmmm
Yes I'll admit I have not watched the entire video yet, but even now, as someone that lives in one myself I just have to give my two cents: for their time they were revolutionary in many ways and living today in them can be as good as in any other kind of apartment if refurbished and modernized.
But they still got some flaws like faulty wiring and relatively often inaccurately placed panels leading to moisture getting into some apartments and the neighbourhoods surrounding them being not exactly being socially harmonic. Those which were renovated, at least in Germany, are in every way up to the standards one would set to any other apartment. Loud neighbours?
You can have those in any type of apartment really.
Bad neighborhoods? Not really the fault of the apartments themselves really, as it usually is the result of those apartments still being the most affordable due to location, number and the general perception of them. Heck some former GDR citizens even got to keep their former rent contracts. Any social issues that are seen and witnessed today in commieblock districts are the result of post-GDR policies.
Bland and ugly? Yes, even the ones with the brightest colour's are in the end still blocks with windows, but they fulfill their purpose of giving housing. But it should be remembered that even in western countries those blocks were originally planned with much less height and far more greenspaces in mind. Those were eventually replaced with parking lots, wide streets and other car-centric infrastructure, not to mention that suburban america is not exactly better in that regard. But at the very least usually large amalgamations of these commieblocks are connected via public transit including trams and busses. The best examples are Halle, Leipzig, Berlin and Zwickau.
Now as stated in so many videos before they are still despite their flaws even at their worst far more efficient at sustainably housing people than any suburban single family housing unit or even a block of those not to mention the far less car-centric infrastructure.
I strongly believe we (speaking for Germany at least here) could very well still build 'commieblocks' en masse, while at the same time giving those more attention to aesthetics, while not having issues with heating and insulation and while not requiring a car to get from a district with them, to the inner city. Heck, for good measure let's throw in an idea of my own: communal gardens and community spaces on the roofs, or at the very least spaces for grass and mosses, which would further contribute to their sustainability and give them positive social effects. Alternatively one can place solar panels on their roofs, and voila' one has an apartment block that can satisfy most of its energy needs on its own.
Commieblocks just have a terrible reputation due to, having indeed been well outdated in building procedures by the 90s, but that doesn't condemn the concept as a whole. Social housing in general is just not built anymore, cause property development has become a playground of the rich and powerful, a commodity to be traded and speculated about and not given to the people.
So while yes, 'commieblocks' got some considerable flaws, especially back when they were built, they also allowed for the housing of millions and the access to clean tap water, electricity and heating and the renovated ones prove especially well that the concept still got more legs than failing american suburbia. Having grown up in a district full of them had many advantages.
Those are some good points and yes they pretty much overlap with most of mine in the video. Thanks for the comment
I live in the Bosnian Serb Republc, to be exact in its capital city. I was born, raised and live in a commie block apartment building, in a commie block neighborhood. And other from my feelings coming from nostalgia, if you look at it more rationally, its really the best place to live. The urban planners were free to build massive green areas and playgrounds for kids, everything is close and everything (the elevators, build quality, isolation) is high quality. There are a lot of communal spaces and the the apartments are relatively huge compared to the other city neighborhoods. The streets are always keept clean and many new families move in every year. I wouldn't give them up for anything on Earth.
I go to Banjaluka later this month ,i rent 90 square meters apparment in communist building on booking ,its rare city in ex Yugoslavia that i never been yet so i am excited
@@dzonikg if you are coming here in the next 2 weeks, I can give you a tour of the city and the blocks.
Isolation? Sound insulation may be great, if they are IMS Žeželj prefab there are probably "stiffening walls" everywhere which are solid concrete. But thermal insulation is nonexistent!
@@jm036 yeah insulation. But no, it's not bad if you live in a better quality neighborhood.
Canadian here, I think Yugoslavian commieblocks look especially nice. It fills me with rage to see brutalist structures so terribly neglected, doubly so for housing.
Well the most ironic thing is that brutalist architecture didn’t originally come from Eastern Europe or Russia.
And a lot of trees and parks in between the blocks, it's beautiful..
Yugoslavia yes, but others? Nah.
@@thefullmetalmaskedduo6083Yugoslavia is Southern Europe anyways.
@@thefullmetalmaskedduo6083Well, it was.
Everything is relative. If you lived in rubble, anything is an improvement.
Living ironically in europe is desperately trying to get UN visa
Dudes got a American Passport if I recall correctly.
He's born in The US and currently lives in Romania
Dang thats a shame, lost another one to american culture and propaganda
To me Living ironically in Europe Is more Christian then Communist in my humble opinion
@@veldrensavoth7119in few of his videos he seid he is lib i think
My grandparents and their children, and myself briefly lived in a London "commie block" which was built in the late 60s / early 70s. These housed families and were built well.. Everything you needed was in walking distance such as the primary school, butchers, laundromat, community centre, clinic, church, supermarkets etc. A shame they were wilfully neglected and eventually torn down
Populations Grow, buildings had to be made bigger.
The real issue individuals have with 'Commie blocks' appear façade deep. If you take the same buildings and give them a face-lift, such as putting glass all over them, they would blend into any modern apartment block. Perhaps even be viewed as up-scale apartments, at the very least suburban apartments, given the amount of foot-space surrounding each one.
It is why I highlight the importance of a 'art budget' for any project like this.
If you are just walking past these buildings, you only ever see the façade.
True
A renovated commie block in Poland is the best you can possibly get if you want an appartment. They are the best buildings around and we love them. They have many rooms, like 3-4 unlike modern appartments, which have 1-2. They have good insulation. They have thick walls so you don't hear your neighbours kids screaming and running all day (unlike modern blocks which have paper thin walls). They almost always have a balcony or something similar, unlike many modern blocks which are built without this feature. Their sturdiness is time test-tested. These bad boys will still be standing after thousands of years in better shape than any Greek or Roman architecture ruins we have today and definitely way better than any modern building which are built with a budget of 5 złoty, some spit and tape but sold for millions.
Still depends a lot on a building, in poland we have both commie blocks that are basically kitchen-bedroom room (somtimes with door) + bathroom, and there are some with completly separate kitchen and 2-3 bedrooms.
Balcony is also debatable for commie blocks, again, depends on a building.
I actually really like Brutalist architecture. It wasn't just an Eastern Bloc thing as Western engineers and architects took it up in the 70s/80s for its pragmatism. Tons of office buildings, colleges, etc. in the US have brutalist structure that looks right out of the USSR.
I live with my family in a commie block in Czech Republic. We live in it as 5 people. For 5 people sure it's small as fuck, but if commies were still around we would get a new bigger apartment in no time. Our unit is ideal for the family of 3 or max 4 people if your kids are still small. I freaking love it here. There is everything around here, grocery shops, the mail, pubs, parks even a forest with space telescope on top of it, dog parks, library, every possible open air playing field, there was even an old school commie cinema, but they sadly demolished it. You can walk to everything without having to cross a major road, except when you go to the forest, which isn't even bad at all, because there are only 2 lanes in total.
Yes there are better and worse commie blocks, but if I could choose I would pick living in any commie block, rather than US suburbia. One part of Prague was clearly build by some US architecture cock sucker and it's the most hostile environment I've ever visited. Constantly breathing fumes, being stuck in traffic even in public transport for 15+ minutes, not being able to get to a store 300 meters away under 15 minutes, because you have to walk all the way around accross multiple 4-8 lane roads. I hated every second of it as I was walking there today, no wonder Americans drive everywhere. Their environment is made very hostile to human beings, only way to survive is a car.
Bro was trying to cook, and burned entire kitchen.
Stop cooking, forever
in the communist east "its just wast cheap human storage units"
in the capitalist west "its just wast expensive human storage units"
(long comment, beware)
This video explains precisely why and how "commieblocks" came to be, the relative luxuries they brought and how revolutionary they were for the time and circumstances. A big note from myself ; it is interesting to see how a large proportion of Western society, a society that left communal housing behind not so long ago in historical terms, completely neglects the conditions that non-industrialised and agrarian countries' housing is in. I live in Cyprus, which due to its nature of a sprawling resort island, completely reformed in the way housing is built and managed. Merely 50 years ago, something my parents and grandparents very well remember, most families lived in intergenerational houses that hosted multiple families (my father for example grew up in a house with 8-12 people spread across just 3 bedrooms, something unimaginable for a modern westerner, but the norm just for any agrarian society).This state of affairs is especially visible due to the military occupation of the northern part of the island, which left most villages frozen since 1974 - any,even the smallest houses you enter there have photos of 8+ members that lived there simultaneously. 30-20 years ago, due to the rapid rise of the hotel and tourism industry, much of the beachfront residences and villages were bought by international magnates and mega-luxurious were built all along the coast. From casinos to passive skyscrapers. Yet just a few kilometres away from the sea, you can still see the village and farm houses and their condition. But even worse, due to the rapid immigration and monopolisation of the housing industry, the need for new "affordable" housing was drowned in hastly built concrete box-houses that are completely in shambles just a decade after they were built (and their safety standards.... are very bad considering the amount of fires in these houses just in my area). And still these houses cost an immense ever-increasing rent, and following the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, homelessness, something that Cyprus never even had due to communal housing, appeared and became a rising problem. I truly praise all the socialist planners and builders that succeeded in combating problems in such conditions on an unprecedented scale, but the state of affairs today is truly depressing. Only degradation in sight as we move closer and closer to a capitalist crisis...
I must admit that looking back at the commie buildings, they had a lot more personality compared to post-soviet architecture, which now tends to be dominated by tall, shiny, flat, and sterile corporate buildings. I think this may be why the west in particular is so critical of the eastern architecture, building the stereotype of "20th century communism was all depressing and gray", as many buildings simply fell into decay after the dissolution of the USSR, which only serves to further paint the previous world as decadent and suffocated by poverty.
But a lot of buildings had an architecture (mostly brutalist) that has not been emulated since, and in some cases, even destroyed due to not being restored properly. Coincidentally, I have recently run into a page on Facebook of an organization that seeks to correct this. They are documenting the unique buildings and monuments built in this era and trying to find funds for their project to properly restore them to their glory. It's simply called Socialist Modernism. Some buildings I have seen there look almost like taken from Star Trek, wow.
Hey, I am Norwegian. I grew up in a typical suburb filled with only houses. Not exactly the same as the ones in the United States, but not too far off. People from certain western countries who say the eastern block looks depressing with their commie blocks, should take a look at their car infested suburbs with an objective lens. Please google American suburb, or suburbia on google and tell me what you see is beautiful. It really isn't. Suburbs in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Sweden look particularly ugly and depressing in my opinion, this contrasts Austria, which I think have very good looking suburbs. I daresay half of Western countries have uglier suburbs than most of the eastern block. I have always been fascinated with brutalism and buildings made with raw concrete, and as a kid I always dreamed of living in a flat on the top floor like in some tv shows i watched as a kid. Now after visiting Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, East Berlin, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and also Sweden and Finland (which has a lot of buildings very similar to commie blocks) I can say that it really isn't as bad as people say. During summer, I really like the contrast the grey concrete (or coloured concrete) has with the lush green trees. In the winter things look depressing, but honestly it's not any more depressing that how we have it in Norway during winter. This was a very good video btw.
I hope you become persona non grata in my country.
There's an urbanist and political channel called Adam Something - and the creator is a NATO stan with some questionable political takes (such as the infamous "nuclear war wouldn't be so bad" community post). But even he made a decent video in defence of the commie blocks from an urbanist perspective.
The video makes largely the same points as this one in that the blocks were a huge quality of life upgrade to the people who previously lived in cramped spaces with no running water and electricity.
i remember him, and remember enjoying his urban content and dubai criticism however as soon as i saw his horrible bloodthirsty ukraine war posts and his affiliation with vaush, his position soon became obvious
Azov SSomething
Addo has an irrational hatred of cars but honestly it probably is just sour grapes coming from a poor who can’t afford his own. Once you have a car of your own for the first time well, you just can’t go back, it’s like trying to go back to just masturbation after you finally do it with a girl, or going back to depending on frozen dinners after you learn to cook. The ability to do your own traveling entirely around your own wants and schedule is awesome.
@@Mortablunt
Carbrained take. I obviously disagree with his political views, but actually fully agree with Adam's take on urbanism: when driving a car is the only convenient mode of transportation for getting around due to inadequate public transport, driving is not a choice but a necessity - which is the opposite of freedom. And designing infrastructure around cars makes everything more spaced out and ugly, thus creating a feedback loop that makes people even more car dependant.
Come to a city like Barcelona, and you'll see that cars really are unnecessary if the infrastructure is designed properly.
@@GTAVictor9128
I've lived DC, Berlin, Gottingen, Kramatorsk, and Moscow. And I was car free in college. I've lived both enough times at different points in my life to absolutely never want to be without ever again. And fuck anything that involves having to carry heavy purchases. Like I said, it's like after you've gotten your first screw, you'll never be satisfied with wanking again.
You know what’s more depressing than a commie block?
Homelessness
>comparing literal homelessness to any kind of housing
Not only do I appreciate the content and writing that went into this informative video, I also appreciate the soft music playing in the background. Thank you for your excellent work!
Glad you liked it!
Visited Super Andrija when I was in Zagreb last year and was beautiful seeing community out in the gardens and shops below the flats
i live in a place where 70' commie blocks are renovated every few years, and those look amazing
YEAH, those fricking 'youtubers' just saying "the west is so cool, and we have it very bad because communism was here like 30 years ago"
i was actually thinking about responding to them on my own, but i have no platform.
Lmao a gay commie making a edit of Fidel Castro, a guy that build concentration camps for gays
The West IS cool.
@@JmKrokY Considering the staggering amount of resources the west syphons from the third world, no it is not cool. It could be so, so much better
ПРАВДА!!!!!!!!! ОНИ ЕСТЬ
I life in finnish commi block. We call them neukku kuutio in finland meaning soviet cube. We was not even part of soviet union and we have them here
These type of videos are great, thank you.
It's a pleasure to make them, especially with this kind of reception
Man .. finally someone with reason :) .. im living in these right now... and im great full for it! By the way these where for free in socialism .. today in Slovakia where i live .. they are for ... hold on your pants... the price ranges from 80,000 to 130,000 EUROS ! they are for many slovakians luxury! btw.. these have central heating, optical internet, plumbing .. all you need .. and without any maintenance from your part! Now granted they are refurbished .. but still... the price is ridiculous.. and going up!
U sure about that, recently i went to search for some and your estimate feels quite low.
Yeah its awful how peple got them for half free and now are renting them for cosmic prices. Plus they will whine about lazy millenials who cant get their own flat today.
I lived in apartment that my grandmother got for free in early 70s and she left me apparment when she died ,i can sell now for 200 000 euros but i like to live here and i dont want to sell it.Before i lived in house in suburbs which my father build in 80s but there i need car for anything ,and here i drive car for pleasure but for 95% off things i dont need a car.
There is difference between USSR and Yugoslavia apartments ,like all apartments here have balconies, my apartment actually has 2 balconies and in basement you have your part where you can put stuff you dont use
here in Bratislava, some of them in my neighbourhood even are worth literally 300 000 euros, which is... horrible. The capitalist housing market is just beyond my comprehension.
Yeah its absolutely ridiculous what landlords can do especially when they band together
I life in east germany and most of the commie blocks are modernized from the in- and outside. Some even to the point they are now rented at astronomical prices.
Lived in Bulgaria for few years during the 90s , maybe the most difficult years for the locals.
Neighbours knew each other very well helping each other when needed and always celebrating together in green spaces in front of the commie blocks
None was homeless
the only complaint was that of ‘no money’ , just like the western society I grow up in
Best regards and love to any Bulgarian sisters and brothers here 🙏
My great grandparents moved out of a ruined wooden village hut to a brand new, over 70 square meters flat that had bathroom with a running water. It was like heaven for them.
Nowadays more and more young people prefer to start their families in the "old blocks" than in the new "developer buildings" because they are much better to live: they are much cheaper, there is much space, many rooms (even though small- it gives you privacy), a lot of trees around that were planted 50 years ago and now are magnificent, shade-giving beauties. Almost all flats were designed to get as much sunshine as possible, where if you look at the new buildings it makes you think whether they even considered sunshine to be necessary to a human being and what latitude we live in.
Back then they were making buildings for people, now they are making anthills.
Post Scriptum: I am talking about Poland. Now you almost can't find a commie block that hasn't been renovated, painted etc. and they are generally in a good shape.
I just cannot wrap my head around the mindset of liberals who look at Russia under the Tsar and the way that a Russian villager who was living under conditions comparable to those of a feudal serf from the middle ages - no running water, no flushing toilet, a fire for cooking and heating... (Not to mention wooden ploughs but don't get me started) and they think everything is totally okay for this situation in Europe in the late 1800s and earliest years of the 1900s.
Then, suddenly you have this incredibly ambitious undertaking across the communist bloc of creating panelki which offered modern heating, modern cooking fixtures, running water, flushing toilets for each house, showers and so on and it's happening at break-neck speeds even by comparison to the economically wealthy Western nations. But all of these dramatic advances to quality of life, public health, safety, energy efficiency and environmental footprint simply isn't good enough for the same liberals because "they looked grey and drab and it feels horribly oppressive when I see photos of them"
Bruh. Do you know what's really horrible and drab and oppressive?
The conditions that huge swathes of the population were lifted out of from under when they moved into panelki.
Of course the ineffectual Western countries have aesthetic complaints when all they are capable of producing is thinkers who are either some variety of rapacious capitalist or they are preoccupied with "radical" cultural critique that goes absolutely nowhere.
There's a homelessness crisis in my country (and probably yours too).
There's a hidden housing crisis of unliveable or grossly unacceptable housing that barely gets discussed.
Not only would these people in my wealthy western liberal shithole country jump at the opportunity to move into panelki but at the rates that people could rent or buy panelki back when they were first constructed nearly a century ago, there would be a staggering amount of demand from the population here that is living in stable, suitable accommodation too.
The liberals and the compatible left heaped a pile of rubbish onto the legacy of panelki and, what do you know, once again it was a tactic to divert attention away from the material conditions in the communist bloc and the material conditions domestically as well. But we've got, like, modern art, Hollywood wringing out every last cent from any franchise available, and there are fewer books that are banned here so I guess that's checkmate, commies 😏
Now where have I seen this exact same playbook, repeated note for note enough times throughout history that it's anything but coincidence? Hmmm...
Most liberals never think into it that deeply. To defend socialism you need to respond to every criticism ever made with sources and they still won't believe you. To criticize it you just need to toss out some well worn Cold War cliche that came out of some think tank and it has the ring of truth because people have heard it a million times before. It's almost like consent is manufactured.
People don't seem to understand that there's no perfect system, that both liberalism and socialism have pros and cons.
While most liberal people admit that there are certain cons with liberalism, they fail to see even one socialism pros... And that it's not a coincidence. The elites purposely do it in this way so that people just accept what they have, instead of looking at the other option because said option is automatically defaulted as the "worst" one
O lord, how I want to puke from the propaganda about backward tsarism.
Huge chunk of russians, about 20%, live without running water and still use outhouse, becasue there's no plumbing. That's 10x european average.
Despite cheap electricity and gas, a lot of russians still use wood and old stoves, because they can't afford central heating stove (that still can use wood, but central heating is central heating) or gas is not even distributed in their area.
In this metric russia is 2-3 times above european average.
@@Dread_2137 interesting claims, but would you be so kind to back your words up with some proofs? This 20% no plumbing thing is seen thrown around once in a while, but I have yet to see detailed report or study on that topic. So, I did a bit of research myself and found one, and it even does contain this 20% magic number!
A study on water supply and plumbing was conducted in 2019 by Rosstat, which says that more than 20% of households have no access to central sewerage. But there's always a 'but' that is never mentioned, when one appeals to this study: it further details the numbers. Here's a summary: in cities and settlements attached to cities 74% of households have central sewerage connection, 3% have connection to private sewerage system, 17% have individual sewerage, connected to septic tanks or cesspools (that is, these households have indoor plumbing, but wastewater is not disposed of centrally or is treated locally), and 6% have no sewerage access. That accounts for townsfolk, what about rural population, which is 25% of total populace? Same study shows that 18% of them have no plumbing. So let's do the math and count how many people have to use an outhouse: 9%. Is that a lot? Yes. Could it be better? Yes. Are the numbers comparable with EU countries? Also yes - France in 2023 and Hungary in 2018 show more or less similar sewerage connection numbers. Austria and Germany seem to have reached 95%+ rate, so that's neat and is for sure a good goal for further improvements in Russia. I guess, other EU countries would show similar 70% to 90% results.
Water supply rate is boring - 84% use central supply, around 15% have their pressurized system connected to local water wells, and others use other means of getting water - public pressurized water wells, basic water well, rivers or bottled water. I did not deemed necessary to study water supply in EU, so no comparisons.
So, turns out, that this "huge chunk of russians" you appeal to is not that huge, right? It's quite a far cry from your "20%, live without running water and still use outhouse", and is comparable to Europe. What a shocker, right?
As for burnable fuel stoves or lacking gas/electricity connection - I'll leave that be, as you did not provide any numbers to argue against, and I am not willing to do the research for my general enlightenment.
I'd love for you to continue this discussion in an polite and backed up manner, as I find it rather interesting to dig into statistics or to discuss general topics and differences, but something tells me you won't.
I live in a commie block in Poland, Warsaw. Block is nice, renovated. So much green around that you can forget that you live in a massive city. Flat is pretty big compared to new ones. I can live here forever, I love it.
Some cities, and especially Moscow, have recently begun to clean up the appearance of Soviet buildings. Painted in snow-white or light beige, these buildings are transformed beyond recognition and transform the urban area in which they are located. You begin to understand the happiness these houses caused when they were built and people received free warrants for apartments in them.
So there is no Soviet urban dullness; there is a failure by the establishment to fulfill its obligations to the people at whose expense it exists.
This is a great Video as always. Congrats on getting out there 👍
I've worked in residential and commercial construction and currently live in a Cappie block - it's barely 30 years old and has structural issues, the people who 'own' a 100 year lease on each apartment will soon be left with a worthless asset just in time to retire in poverty with no welfare state. I'm almost fortunate to be paying through the nose to live in this piece of crap because at least I don't end up holding the bag at the end of the day. We're barely building houses, the standard of new builds are terrible, and we have tonnes of empty investment homes while people sleep on the streets or live in mold and squalor.
I did a 14 hour shift today, and walked for an hour back to the ruined chapel in which I am squatting. I live in England, in 2024. There's Victorian ghosts in this cemetery that feel sorry for me!
Also, Living Ironically... &c is wrong to say that the reason Germans and Brits don't flock to Serbia is because of its socialist architecture: it's because all most Brits know about the ex-Yu is the warcrimes. Croatia seems to get a free pass, because they have beaches and they're willing to pander to people who want to be drunk every waking hour. But the words "Bosnia" and "Serbia" are now so tainted in the general imagination that even people who don't remember the seige of Sarajevo, Srebrenica or Gospić recoil in automatic distaste. The only people travelling to either BiH or Serbia from "the west" are Yugophiles, thrill seekers and contrarians.
And, IMHO, long may it stay that way, lest Belgrade pander to the British in the way that Split has.
We had many relatives and aquaintances living in these concrete beehives. You don't have any privacy there.
Whatever you do, your neighbours (housemates) will hear, as the dividing walls are thin and badly insulated.
And it's not only the sound, the smells too. You have at least 4 families to listen to, or to smell their cooking pissing and taking a dump.
Heat gets out quickly in winter, but it gets back in the summer. The insulation can't even keep out all the rain sometimes.
Don"t try to explain that these architectural catastrophes are depressing just because of the decades of neglect.
They were shitty even when they were brand new.
I remember the 1980-s, and the communism. It was a bag of crap all round.
Couldn't have been said better. They look ugly because they are unmaintained. And if you consider how Baroque facades are created, with the amount of money the government could save by building panel houses over modernist houses, they could easily repurpose that money either repairing the run down neighborhoods, or upgrading the new ones, adding baroque facades onto the faces of the buildings or simply painting them.
I mean, even Azov Something, the ultimate anti communist, admitted in a video that these apartments are actually of good quality
*YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER* what you consider nice is a function of your conditioning - Am3ric4n suburbia is the ugliest thing ever created by humanity in my opinion...
But thats MY opinion and its shaped by my life and experiences - as is your belief [if you have it] that commi blocks are ugly
Very nicely made and informative video! Instant subscriber:)
your videos are super high quality, and they give a profound non-biased insight based on material analysis. Keep on going and informing us!
The USSR did try their best at providing the Fastest and still pretty efficient and good designed Building for the People and they for most part succeeded but we shouldn't forget it's flaws so if an another revolution comes we know what to do and how to do.
Also i realized that a lot of people in the comments see this as a Communist Propaganda but i didn't see no such comments under the Videos of City Beautiful and Adam Something who also talked about it in a similar light that you did.
China has many neighborhoods more or less like this. And they are pretty great. They are maintained. They look between pretty good and great. They allow entirely walkable neighborhoods. 10 or even 5 minute cities.
To anyone who wants to see what correctly maintained soviet blocks look like, look no further than east Germany. I lived in a soviet built WG in east Germany and it was nicest cheap Appartement I’ve ever lived in, by far. 15 minute walk to nature, a body of water, multiple grocery stores, entertainment and every level of education. The city planning and the actual building itself was perfect.
This is a beautiful video, thank you
No offense, high density apartments are awesome and all, but more color would be hella nice. I personally like brownstone buildings but I wish they had more than 2-4 stories. Nice vid
Too much money to put in during communism.
Tho some countries like Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Romania and few others, unlike russia, put effort into renovating and painting them, so they look pretty nice, even during grey winter.
Personally I enjoy a lack of colour (at least on the outside of buildings). I feel like tones of white and grey look especially nice if you have trees, grass, and shrubbery around. It makes the green really pop
Croatian youtuber explaining how commie blocks are actually awesome from his flat in Berlin
💀
He's a Bosnian Serb if I remember correctly.
I live in Easter Europe and literally everyone I know, hates them... Especially the ones who have shared kitchens and Showers...
As a Romanian, I can tell u that ppl here love these apartments and the new ones built are still selling like hotcakes and there's very few difference between the old and the new ones.
I wonder if the Eastern bloc is still around today, will there be a shift in more aesthetically pleasing architecture. To slowly replace the housing units that should last at the maximum of 3 to 5 decades. North Korea currently has a newer style architecture dotted with pastel colours.
For the context, google for the Wiki article 'Moscow Urban Renewal Initiative': there you will find out that in Moscow 5000+ are being demolished and there won't be any khrushchevka left in Moscow in 2032. Of course Roman will never mention it. 🙄
I'm from Serbia: in 50s and 60s commie blocks were really gray, boxy, symmetrical buildings, but in the 2nd half of 80s those were significantly improved in terms of aesthetics.
@@takoto2610in east Berlin here. Similar situation with the commie buildings. I see some from the the 60s that look really depressing. I live in one but they added Insulation and painted with nicer patterns. But the buildings from the late 80s are way better. However these buildings helped lead to the end of the east German state. They even lied about how may homes built. The plan was for 3 million in 30 years but they only built 2million and destroyed many historical buildings in the process.
@@takoto2610”Moscow” lol
If the eastern bloc was still around today somehow it would be too broke to afford to upgrade its people places of living especially for nations like Poland and Romania. The communist model was to basically give the people the bare minimum for as long as the people didn’t complain too much.
@@benlittle8922 yeah that bankrupted east Germany. The people wanted more freedom and voting. So the Leader tried to give more and more every decade to keep them happy but nicer commie blocks and color tv was not enough. Funny enough I've heard old german villagers say they had more freedom to do what they want on there private property than today.
When maintained commie blocks are awesome.
Commie block with PROPER standard is great, for example in East Germany and North Korea. Commie block in Vietnam is just a mess since resident turn them into a farm and most of the apartment didn't have toilet (I know, every single thing in Vietnam is a mess).
Apartment blocks were way forward perhaps in remote and undeveloped parts of the Soviet Union, everywhere else it was a disaster.
I have lived in one and I am so grateful I don't have to anymore, it is completely inhumane way of living. They are not exclusive to Eastern Europe, there were built in France, Germany and Sweden, and they always end up in the same way - they turn into a ghetto. There is no pride in your home, no interactions with neighbours, you are only one small cog in dehumanised superstructure.
In Czechoslovakia the life was the best in times of Austro-Hungarian Empire, that's when people built lovely houses and apartment buildings, houses were both, practical and beautiful. People were living in organic communities, had animals, went to church together Communists ruined all of that.
Great video. You're right to say we have the resources to house everyone but not a system that allows for it. Here in Ireland vacant houses outnumber the homeless almost 20:1, which would obviously be an even more stark ratio if we put more than 1 person in a building.
Commie blocks may look bland, but that's a small price to pay for a roof over one's head.
we should take those empty houses and put Iranian and Subsaharan Africans in them. also kick out the Irish from their homes and replace them with more Muslims.
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 awww my man want to give free houses to everyone
Remember Red Vienna
Great video as usual! Keep up the good work.
As a Civil engineering student, commie block always fascinated me, bcs of simply they are to be build and how functional they are. Also the typical soviet district where commie block usually was builded are so cool, I mean, a good designed road pattern, public transport, parks, and etc...To me its a concept sooo cool...
Probably the only things communism did right was civil engineering
Fantastic video!
Thanks!
Oh shit! a valid arguement has been made! lets see how this socialist slav can fend off the westernized slavs.
In all fairness, they have their ups and downs, but they do bring some sort of nostalgia everytime we (or atleast, i) see them.
Love from a Serb in a western nation! ❤
If Commie blocks weren't so epic, western europe wouldn't have copied them
Just a correction, by the USSR's own numbers they had around 500,000 homeless people
tl;dr Some guy born in the late 90s think communism was great.
Communism was great. You are a homosexual.
He doesn't say that
so i lived in various blocks. 'fancy built in the 90s' 'built in 80s for doctors and cops' 'built in 70s for workers employed in coal mine' blocks, and all sucked tbh. one of the blocks was famed Katowice star blocks (osiedle Gwiazdy), a whole complex of blocks shaped like stars along with one smaller star school and one smaller star for stores. i lived in two different ones, both managed by different companies(?) and were different on the inside. in one we had large piece of kitchen ceiling fall on us and maintenace just shrugged it off. constant water pipes issues, broken elevators. usually when those buildings only get painted on the outside and inside... well.
the process of getting a flat in such block was hard and complicated. i'm polish and to me polish people have strange relationships with bloki, some hate them, some like the look, you know how it goes. seeing how ugly and poorly built 2020s "apartament" buildings are... how are they any different than the blok you grew up in 🤔 Katowice is notorious for letting developers do whatever, like in Trzy Stawy they let them cut forest and build 5+ floors buildings with underground parking lot... 10m away from ponds. and those stand 200m from old, falling apart blocks. really strange sight
same experience in east germany
That title is said by anyone without other alternatives.
Now the young generations are living in almost the same holes except that they rent them for half of their salary with a vision of not owning anything ever and "being happy" even though we are miles ahead in productivity and often work much harder and longer hours.
i love commieblocks here in prague theyre now full of lush vegetation and more tight community than suburbs
WTF why does this stuff make me emotional??? I have literal tears in my eyes! Excellent video! Subscribed. (I've watched a bunch of your videos before, but I'm cautious/stingy with likes and subs.)
Glad to hear that I caught your interest then, thank you!
Maybe you are experiencing an old saying that we have here in post-Communist countries: ''I'm not sad for the past, I'm sad for the future we lost'' or something like that.
@@insanekos1 that sounds exactly right
I think the main issue people have with socialist blocks are their aesthetics. That is, most of them fall either under socialist modernism or brutalism. Thus, their aesthetic value is at best "stagnant", if not outright depressing. The simplistic nature, the concrete monstrosities stretching forever, it _feels_ hollow. Despite being filled with life, and often a relatively good place to be, they just lack the diversity and charming vibes of a traditional city. There's no history there, everything is built to be functional for its' inhabitants - thus, it's super easy to get to the nearest school or basketball court or shop. _But_ , there is nothing particular except people. Façades are uniform and very much intimidating, especially after being run down for so long. It can feel empty at times. Excluding the summer time, it's really just a place to inhabit, and nothing more. And since we believe that cities are more than just cells for inhabitants, we see lesser value in it.
We also forget that blocks exist everywhere. Go to suburbs of Paris, hell, go to central London, and you'll see fragments of it. It's just that their urbanists were more about integrating them into the already existing large urban fabric. Whereas cities in Eastern Europe were expanding at a rapid pace - few were places that hadn't been destroyed several times at least mildly (if not levelled) during several wars, just in the previous two centuries. So, while Paris had the time to slowly annex smaller charming towns, and then fill out the remaining space with housing blocks, we had to create new cities. These new cities rarely had a central point, _the_ city. Still, our blocks did not turn into banlieue due to new populations being native working class that slowly became middle class. In a sense, they helped create more equality and carve out a new class.
All in all, I wouldn't say blocks are "awesome", but they're something that have given and must work with. But to create 20 floors cheap megaliths to house the increasingly gentrified cities - it's pointless, and would only create more problems. Times have changed, and we must work out ways to create new urban cores, instead of independent blocks with no outside value. Yes, it's cool that you have very little noise in your little alley in your 123 block with beautiful trees and a sense of community - but you're still congesting the traffic when you go down to _The city_ .
How could we do that? I do have some ideas, but they're a different topic. Planned cities always end up bad, but perhaps just creating a central satellite town core could be the thing. Just as villages around large capitals turned into towns and slowly merged with the city in a metropolitan area. We need more of _that_ , as opposed to mountains of concrete.