Apartment buildings in Russian cities are huge--usually nine floors, minimum. They are split up into sections (called "pod'yezd"), so your staircase will only access four (or six) apartments on each floor. In most cases, the pod'yezd do not connect, in effect isolating your pod'yezd from the next section. While this stairwell arrangement may be good for "neighborliness," I hate to think what that means in terms of fire safety..... Actually, when you live in Russia, you can't worry about things like fire safety, because all you can do is live with it (and hope for the best) or leave Russia. Guess that is why the average expat stays in Russia only 2.5 years! (We were there nearly 5 years.) |
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Our first apartment was in |
The cramped inside of our |
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This view is from our second apartment's balcony.
Creepy note: in the distance you can see one of the apartment blocks that was bombed in the fall of 1999. Over 300 people were killed in their beds. Russia's President Putin used this act of terrorism as a pretext to go to war with Chechnya, even though the Chechens denied (and continue to deny) involvement in the bombing. |
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