Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, the systematic construction of large panel system buildings () began in the

former Soviet Union The post-Soviet states, also referred to as the former Soviet Union or the former Soviet republics, are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they ...

and continues in modern Russia to provide fast and cheap housing. This approach was first implemented in the Soviet Union to address housing shortages, leading to the development of standardized series of buildings. Notable historical types include '' khrushchevkas'' and ''brezhnevkas'', named after the respective Soviet leaders under whom they were widely built. These structures were initially intended to supplement the more elaborate '' Stalin-era'' '' (Stalinkas)'' buildings and communal apartments (multifamily apartments), which had previously dominated Soviet urban housing.

Khrushchyovka

A ''khrushchevka'' ( rus, хрущёвка, khrushchyovka, p=xrʊˈɕːɵfkə) is a type of low-cost, concrete- paneled or brick three- to five-storied

apartment building An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement ( Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) ...

which was developed in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

during the early 1960s, during the time its namesake

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

directed the Soviet government. Khrushchevkas are sometimes compared to the

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese ''

danchi (, literally "group land") is the Japanese word for a large cluster of apartment buildings or houses of a particular style and design, typically built as public housing by government authorities. Older danchi are sometimes compared to Khrushchy ...

'', similar (often government-sponsored) housing projects from the same period, which by some accounts were directly inspired by them. Preceding this type of housing, the majority of the Soviet housing stock was of low-rise

communal apartment Communal apartments (, colloquial: ''kommunalka'') are apartments in which several unrelated persons or families live in isolated living rooms and share common areas such a kitchen, shower, and toilet. When the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917 aft ...

s. Khrushchevka"s had from two to five floors. The Soviet government developed khrushchevka apartments as part of self-contained

microdistrict A microdistrict or microraion is a residential complex—a primary structural element of the residential area construction in the Soviet Union and in some post-Soviet and former socialist states. Residential districts in most of the cities a ...

(Russian: микрорайо́н, mikrorajón En:microraion), which contain green areas, playgrounds, schools, shops, medical offices, transport infrastructure, and more.

Brezhnevka

A ''brezhnevka'', (Ru:Брежневка) is a panel or brick

that was built in the

from 1960–1980 under the leadership of

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...

, after whom the building type is named. The brezhnevka originated because of a desire for an update to the khrushchevka. As the needs of the population increased, so did the need to build updated housing. There are about 40 series of the brezhnevka. Common nine story versions are referred to as 'девятиэтажка' ('devyatietazhka', literally 'nine-storeyer').

Notes

{{Russia topics Architecture in Russia Architecture in the Soviet Union Economy of the Soviet Union Buildings and structures built in the Soviet Union Prefabricated buildings