Transformation of the Everyday Life of the Soviet People in the 1960-s: the Role of a Private Kitchen

The following work is devoted to a very particular time and space intersection: the kitchen in brand-new separate flats in the late 50-s – early 60-s in the USSR. At the time, when “khrushchevki”’s are being demolished and the transformation the first “khrushchevka” into a museum is discussed, it’s high time to assess what kind of revolution in the everyday life mass industrial construction had caused or had been a cause for. Separate flats brought around a different: “one flat for one family” mode of life and the adaptation of several millions people to these circumstances form and organize the paradigm of life till nowadays. To enrich contemporary knowledge in the quotidian life of the Khrushchev Thaw, this research examines the possibilities of self-realization, which private kitchen gave to an “ordinary soviet man”. “Kitchens are as deeply social as they are political" (Oldenziel, Zachmann, 2009, 3) and coming after the “kommunalki”, individual/private kitchens became the pivot of the culture, giving birth to the new forms of social relations and daily habits. By comparative analysis of apartment plans, feature films, press and interviews we would argue that the kitchen changed her status from merely utility room to an almost living area compensating the lack of space. This shows the contradiction between rational and ergonomic principles of designing the kitchen space in the architectural projects and practical use of this space by the soviet families. Private kitchens were granted soviet people by the state that was fulfilling its public tasks in accordance with the requirement of the time, but inadvertently provided soviet people with an increased degree of freedom and individualization. Oldenziel R., Zachmann K. (Eds.) (2009) Cold War Kitchen: Americanization, Technology and European Users Cambridge, MA, MIT Press. P.3.