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RE: An Aerochrome Soviet Saturday
Did they buy these places and just don't really care?
You're approaching the matter from the wrong direction.
During communism, companies offered apartments to workers and they paid rent. Many were happy to get an apparent and as you know, beggars can't be choosers and they were happy to have a roof over their head. Comfort, view area was a luxury many could not afford.
After the communist era ended, where it ended, many of these apartments could be bought at an affordable price and tenants had priority. When you lived there for X years, you call it home, so you buy it.
Another explanation is that when your budget is limited, yoh don't have the luxury to be fussy.
0.00000000 CASHMAP
Oh this brought back some dormant memories!
I was living in Tbilisi in a classic Khrushchevka (four floors, no lift, built in the Stalin era). It was incredibly decayed but the location was near perfect. The apartment was basically a studio: tiny main living room/bedroom and a separate small kitchen room. This was a tiny place that was built shortly after the Second World War. I suspect it doesn't have much time left with the condition it was in. Even with few belongings, I have no idea how anyone could've lived in that! Though it was arguably built at a different time. The other apartments in the building were a little bit larger, only the middle ones were the smallest.
Though even so the building was constructed in such a different time before people needed so much space for all their extra belongings, no huge televisions and the likes taking up space. And I suppose all a single worker would need is a small room and a place to cook. The oldest buildings in that area of Tbilisi had natural sulphur water that would be taken from the earth below; newer buildings didn't have it because of the difficulties and preferences people now have (one being not having the smell of rotting eggs when you shower), but the water was definitely the best part of it!
Anyway, rambling on a bit. Yeah it's interesting to see how people lived back then. I've seen buildings constructed a few decades later have apartments that look like modern penthouses. Massive places. Fancy lifts. The most beautiful balconies and oddly shaped windows to heighten that creativity in the architecture. Really shows how much changes within just such a few short decades.
Maybe I should tell you about the mentality and goals back then. When the state built those apartment buildings, the goal was to fit as many apartments and buildings in a place as possible, at the lowest cost possible. This is why those buildings are what they are and people were happy to get a flat for free.
These people were mostly industrial workers, with limited education, so their needs were simple and therefore their life as well wad simple. There was no internet, there were no big screen TVs. They went to work, went shopping on the way home, they also stayed in long lines for groceries and basics as that's how communism was designed and then did chores at home, when there was electricity.
So life was pretty simple and dull, days were repetitive, each day was pretty much the same and life was getting worse every day.
So what we have today is luxury, compared to those days.