In my room, on my bed, but where am I? July 3, 2006

It seems to me the great equalizer in Russian cities is the general complexion of the apartment building exteriors.

I live in a beautiful apartment on the edge of town—television, computer with internet, new wallpaper, sturdy furniture, etc. Yet, from the outside you would swear I live in soon-to-be-condemned project housing. And all the apartments, I have seen, are in this state. Take some of the ugliest housing in New York City, make it over 10 stories high, and you have the state of living, superficially, in Novgorod.

However, I believe this does a fine job of upholding equality within a community, as “desired” by Soviet Russia. Of course, these buildings are relics of that period’s construction, but (seemingly) the ideal lives on simultaneously.

It doesn’t bother me as much now that I know that, in this case, the book’s cover is completely deceiving. Yet, I wonder what the tenets and citizens think about this compromise. Are the façade and true nature of these buildings just one more symbolic relic of the Communist Era?