Layout , Russia Space in communal apartments was divided into common spaces and private rooms "mathematically or bureaucratically", with little to no attention paid to the physical space of the existing structures. Most apartments were partitioned in a dysfunctional manner, creating "strange spaces, long corridors, and so-called black entrances through labyrinthine inner courtyards." Residents were meant to share the kitchen, bathroom and corridors amongst themselves, but even these spaces could be divided. For example, each family might have their own kitchen table, gas burner, doorbell, and even light switch, preferring to walk down the hall to use their light switch to turn on the bathroom lights rather than using a closer switch belonging to another resident. The hallways were often poorly lit, because each family had control of one of the lights hanging in the corridor, and would only turn it on for their own benefit. Though communal apartments were relatively small, residents had to wait at times to use the bathroom or kitchen sink. The kitchen was the primary place the residents interacted with one another and scheduled shared responsibilities. Wary of theft, residents rarely left groceries in the kitchen unless they put locks on the kitchen cabinets. However, they often stored their toiletries in the kitchen as opposed to the bathroom, because other residents could more easily use things left unattended in the bathroom. Laundry was left to dry in both the kitchen and the bathroom.
Dynamics The communal apartment was the only living accommodation in the Soviet Union where the residents had "no particular reason to be living together." Other forms of communal living were based around type of work or other commonalities, but the communal apartment residents were placed together at random, as a result of the distribution of scarce living space by a governing body. These residents had little commitment to communal living or to each other. In spite of the haphazard nature of their cohabitation, residents had to navigate communal living, which required shared responsibilities and reliance on one another. Duty schedules were posted in the kitchen or corridors, typically assigning one family to be "on duty" at any given moment. The family on duty would be responsible for cleaning the common spaces by sweeping and mopping the kitchen every few days, cleaning the bathroom and taking out the trash. The length of time a family was scheduled to work usually depended on the size of the family, and the rotation followed the order of the rooms in the apartment. Tenants in communal apartments are "like family in some respects and like strangers in others." Neighbors were forced to interact with each other, and they knew nearly everything about each other, their schedules and daily routines, profession, habits, relationships and opinions, prohibiting any sense of privacy in the communal apartment. A woman that lived in a
kommunalka described her experience of communal living, "both intimate and public, with a mixture of ease and fear in the presence of strangers and neighbours". The communal kitchen was an epicenter of the communal life in the apartment: gossips, lies, defamation, news, dramas, and nasty jokes. Spying was especially prevalent in the communal apartment like nowhere else, because of the extremely close quarters in which people lived and where everyone heard of each other. It was not unusual for a neighbor to look or listen into another resident's room or the common room and to gossip about others. Cultural theorist
Svetlana Boym stated that the communal apartment was "a breeding ground of police informants". Some people resorted to denouncing their neighbours for their conviction in the fight against elements opposed to the Soviet government, others to obtain their room in case they were imprisoned. One way that families were able to improve their living conditions was to "exchange" their living quarters. If a family was separated by divorce they could trade spaces, for example one could swap out one large space for two smaller units to accommodate a family. As result of all these unsolvable problems, many of the former residents of communal apartments look either fondly or negatively back on their experience in communal living, Historian Yuri Kruzhnov stated that
kommunalkas "breed a certain type of psychology. It was not uncommon for people to refuse to move out because they needed the companionship and interaction that came from living in such a place, even the antagonism and adrenaline", but nowadays most residents have a negative attitude towards communal apartments. ==In popular culture==