The fabled communal apartment, or kommunalka, is seeing its dying days in Moscow. Last year alone brought the liquidation of 3,000 communal apartments, with dwellers dispatched to private apartments by government initiative. By 2014, in the midst of the financial crisis, the Russian government promises to fund an additional two-stage breakup of communal apartments in the city center. For comparison, 1997 data showed 151,000 functioning kommunalkas in Moscow; this year that number is 58,000.

It will be interesting to sit back and watch the smoldering emotions as the last kommunalkas are extinguished. These relics of Soviet life are deeply ingrained in Russians' collective memory, not to mention a lot of jokes. But like those who express nostalgia for the Stalin years, many who romanticize the kommunalka today have had decades to forget what it's really like — cramped, cluttered, and logistically impossible to renovate.

But if the idea of these iconic co-ops disappearing still troubles you, know that there is some hope that government will back out of its promise. Funding for Sochi 2014, once deemed untouchable, has already been slashed, so it seems entirlely possible that this less prestigious project will also wind up on the chopping block.

За год в Москве ликвидировали 3 тысячи коммуналок [Lenta.ru]

Photo courtesy of Club.foto.ru