Introduction

This chapter shows how chaotic transformations followed clear spatial and cultural principles and were strictly characteristic of the post-Soviet condition. It covers apartment dwellers wherein domestic change was among the ways of gaining a new post-Soviet identity and the newly redefined social success. It also describes urban apartment homes during perestroika and the first post-Soviet decades. The chapter addresses how a dwelling transforms along with and under the pressure of historical upheaval and how a dwelling helps in understanding large-scale changes that may be difficult to comprehend. The chapter focuses on the lived experiences that materialized through everyday space transformations and continuities that took place in the years leading to the collapse of the USSR and after.