Katia stood on a street in the Basman district and said to the man next to her, "Voroja, this district is located within the Third Ring Road, and the environment is quiet, and the living situation seems to be very good." Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info" Katia looked at the apartment opposite and said: "This baroque apartment has a gorgeous appearance and a comfortable landscape, it should be for high-level cadres, right?" Could it be that this is our new home? ”

"A new home?" Manturov smiled wryly, seemingly with a hint of irony. "I don't want to live here, you'll know what's going on when you get in."

"No, this apartment building is so beautiful on the outside, it should be good on the inside, right?" Katia guessed.

"Isn't our task today to observe the living conditions of the general masses of Moscow? If it's nice inside, and the living environment here is really as beautiful as you say, then why should I bring you here? ”

Built in Tsarist times, this three-storey baroque apartment was formerly a middle-class residential area that housed doctors, lawyers, engineers, and military officers.

The building is built in a typical Russian Baroque style, with a large number of decorative motifs and sculptures carved on the exterior walls, which is not magnificent, but it can definitely be said to be exquisite and gorgeous.

"Okay. But in such a beautiful building, the living environment inside should also have a certain level of comfort, right? Katya, who was born into a family of "red aristocrats" and grew up living in a luxurious villa, did not know what was actually the situation of ordinary Moscow citizens.

"Your Royal Highness Princess, you'll know when you go in."

"Call Comrade Secretary!"

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"Ding Dong!" Katia walked to the door of an apartment unit and rang the doorbell.

"Click!" Soon, the door was opened. What appeared in front of the two of them was a middle-aged man with half-white hair.

"Who are you looking for?" The middle-aged man said.

Katya spoke before Manturov: "Hello comrade, I am from the Moscow Municipal Party Committee, and I have come to visit you today, hoping to learn about your living situation. ”

The middle-aged man began to frown, and seemed reluctant to let the two in. But looking at the clothes and appearance of the man and woman, he knew that they were not small, and they were not to be offended, so they had to let them in. "Comrades, please come in."

This is a typical shared apartment with 4 different families living in a space of 90 square meters.

In front of Katya's eyes was the head of the apartment, Alexander Valenkov, an old doctor who had joined the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War, worked as a medic in the Red Army, treated many wounded, and now worked in a nearby hospital; His daughter, Nadezhda, is an elementary school teacher who joined the party three years ago.

Such a family, by modern or contemporary standards, should not be classified as the bottom of society, let alone low-income people. However, their living space is no different from our low-income families today, and it is not too much to describe their home with the word "snail dwelling".

"Two comrades, what do you call you?" As the three of them sat down at the dinner table, the chief first asked each other's names.

Manturov pointed to Katya and said: "This is Comrade Katya Krimena Voroshilova, the second secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, I am her assistant and a friend of Vadik Nikolayevich (construction engineer, who lives in this apartment), you can call me Vladimir, you are welcome." ”

"It's Comrade Voroshilova!" The old apartment chief looked at the beautiful woman in front of him who was extremely good-looking and elegantly dressed, and couldn't believe his eyes: "My daughter also graduated from Moscow State University, and she also mentioned your name to me. ”

"Really?" Katia said confidently: "I didn't expect me to be so popular. ”

At this time, a black-haired man of medium stature and wearing a suit walked out, "Vladimir Fedorovich, I heard that you became the first deputy People's Commissar of Construction, why did you become Black Rose's assistant today?" ”

This man was none other than Manturov's college classmate, Vadyk Nikolayevich Shennikov. His grades in college were not good, and in his first year of college, he was even on the verge of passing or failing. It was only with Manturov's help that he passed the assessment and did not repeat a grade.

After graduating from university, he became a construction engineer, but due to his poor university grades and poor job performance, he did not get the opportunity to be promoted like Anyukov.

Because of his low status, he was not assigned to a separate apartment, but to this shared apartment, a room with an area of only 12 square meters.

Although only one room was allocated, for most Moscow residents, it was already a "luxury" to be able to occupy a room like Vadik.

In Moscow, three-quarters of people live in shared apartments, most of them sharing a room with others. Even if you count the quarter, with the access to independent apartments and the privileged class with villas in the suburbs, the average Moscow has only 8 to 9 square meters of living space per person, a third of the size of Novosibirsk.

If you don't count the privileged class with independent apartments and cottages, the average living space of the general population in Moscow is only 4 to 5 square meters, which is an unacceptable figure for the vast majority of modern Russians.

But in Moscow at the time, this was a normal and accepted phenomenon.

"Vadyk Nikolayevich." Manturov called out the name of his old classmate and said, "Katyusha is my wife, and I don't want to steal her face." ”

"Wife? I didn't expect that you, who had stayed at home and had almost no contact with any girls, could actually marry Black Rose home, which is really unpredictable. ”

"By the way, Wadic, how have you been doing lately? Let's talk about food. Manturov took the opportunity to inquire about Vadick's living conditions.

"It's so much better than before. I used to have to rely on black bread to feed my hunger; Now I get white bread, sausages and herring for every meal, as well as butter, eggs, cheese and canned food made at the Manturov Canneries in Novosibirsk! Do you know? Those canned goods are delicious, much better than what they used to be distributed! The factory where it was produced is still named after your last name! ”

After hearing this, the chief of the apartment showed a look of great surprise. He looked at the young man sitting across from him, dressed in a neat suit and with metal-rimmed glasses, and asked, "Vladimir Fedorovich...... Manturov? You are Comrade Manturov? ”

"Yes." After answering the question of the old military doctor, Manturov continued to ask his old friend: "It seems good, but I did not expect that this little thing I did in Novosibirsk would benefit the people of Moscow. So, what about what to wear? ”

"Before, you know, I only had two sets of clothes, and one of them was still in tatters. I now have six sets of clothes in perfect condition, one of which is imported from the UK and only worn to a banquet or a major meeting. ”

"Yes, this kind of life is better than most people."

Good? That's right, it's already good. In Moscow in the 30s, due to the lack of food supplies, there were not many food options, and most people only wanted three meals to eat. It was only in 1934 that the choice of food began to increase, food production began to recover, and from 1936 onwards, the food supply was only sufficient, but the quality was unacceptable.

In 1939, although the food supply was enough to feed almost all the people in the Soviet Union, meat, canned food, eggs, butter and so on were still luxuries for the workers. Only the privileged class, as well as the middle level of engineers, teachers, doctors, low-level cadres, etc., can get enough quotas.

As for clothes, in the past, most of the workers in Moscow had only one or two sets of tattered clothes, but with the development of the textile industry and the increase in the supply of clothes, people can afford to buy one or two new sets of clothes to replace the tattered old clothes. But the vast majority of people who have extra clothes are middle- and upper-class people.