[eps]

Striking, but hardly common.

You should clarify that in Russia they operate in "living space" sq.meters, meaning that 400 sqft will not include kitchen, corridors, bathroom, etc. Just the bedrooms and the living room.

Secondly, you are over-generalizing. While a part of population did in fact live in cramped conditions (or even in shared condos, whereby 2+ families shared a single apartment), more than enough people lived in a very decently spaced apartments, with living space ranging between 28 sqm to 40-50 sqm. So "400 sqft" apartments were nowhere close to being "luxury".

OTOH, a bathroom with a window - now that was indeed a true luxury (because how the vast majority of buildings where designed).

[sologoub]

Good point - size-wise, that's subpar for the number of people. My grandparents received a 95 sq.m. apartment for them and my aunt (teenager at the time) across from a beautiful park in Moscow, now that was considered super lucky.

[funkyy]

Two "lucky" strikes in the same family in Russia? It seems there might be more than just luck to that.

[sologoub]

Military families had better luck than others. Only politicians did better in USSR, but that's long gone.