Chapter 6. Lesson 6

«В гостях хорошо, а дома лучше» as the Russians say: "There's no place like home". And this is true even if home is in the taiga in Siberia, down along the Volga or beyond the Ural mountains. Russians in the major metropolitan areas and the larger cities live in high-rise apartment buildings, whereas those in the rural areas tend to live in single-family homes. A drive through провинция the provinces will reward you with glimpses of those homes which are usually wooden, single-story and often brightly painted and decorated. Quite a contrast to the concrete monsters in the major urban areas!

Housing, whether in terms of quality or quantity, has always been a problem in Russia and continues to be so today. The recent move toward privatization has made it possible for some Russians to buy their apartments from the government; others must continue to live in government-owned and subsidized housing. For the foreign buyer, while supply might exceed demand, real estate prices in Moscow and St. Petersburg proper rival those in cities such as New York, London and Tokyo. But many Russians still find themselves in situations where multiple families have individual rooms in a коммуналка communal apartment and others must live in cramped quarters with their extended families.