Communal flats

For most of the people from overseas the city of Saint Petersburg is known as a cultural capital of Russia. Yes, that's true. The amount of beautiful royal and aristocratic palaces, museums, theaters and just older buildings of the former capital of the Russian Empire gives you this impression.

But, there is another less known to the guests of Saint Petrsburg side of the city history. And that is - the communal apartment phenomena.

Straight after the Communist revolution in 1917 and the Industrialisation a huge amount of people moved from the rural areas to the cities. The Bolsheviks cancelled the private property, the appartments of the rich had to belong to the common people. By 1917 80% of the Russian people lived in the country side and by the late 1920s - around 50%. Every person was entitled to have 8 sq. meters. Some appartments had up to 10 - 12 families living in them sharing common facilities such as - a kitchen and a bathroom. Quite often people of complitely different occupations shared an appartment . There could be like a university professor, factory worker and an artist families living together in one place. Some families have lived in this kind of accomodation for generations.

There are still 78 500 communal appartments accomodating 250 000 residents in Saint Petersburg officially. I should mention that the population of the city is 4.5 million of people.

During the tour you'll visit a typical communal appartment of Saint Petersburg and learn about the of the residents, skills and duties required of them to coexist peacefully in this type of the residential property.

Meeting time: any time during a day till 6.00 p.m.

Meeting point: lobby of your hotel

Duration: 2 hours

Reservation: required, no prepayment

Price: from 26 USD per person