BLOHINA STREET 18

2010 Video research, 5:11 min

The anthropological video research about forms of communal living in Russia, shows the coordinate system of one daily routine in a Kommunalka in St. Petersburg.

Once Lenin dreamed about new art of communal living

„Is proletariat able to hold political power?“

“The proletarian state has to lodge forcibly an extremely poor family in a rich man‘s apartment. Our Workers‘ Militsiya troop consist of approximately 15 per- sons: two sailors, two soldiers, two class-conscious workers (even if only one of them belongs to the party or feel with it), then one intellectual and eight persons from the working underclass, obligatory not less than five women, servants, ma- nual workers etc. The troop comes into a rich man‘s apartment, looks over it and detects two women and two men living in five rooms. — „You‘ll have to make room and stay in two rooms, and the other two do prepare for the two families from the basement. For the time we with help of engineers (you are one, aren‘t you?) will build nice apartments for all, you have to move closer together. Your telephone will be in use by 10 families. It will save about 100 working hours, unne- cessary running about shops etc. There are also two idle labours, able to work half-day and to do light labor: a female comrade of 55 years, and a comrade of 14 years. They will be on duty daily for three hours, controlling food distribution for 10 families and make the necessary notes. Comrade-student, who is part of our troop, writes down this government order in two copies, and you, be so kind, give us a receipt that you obliged to follow it.“
(V. I. Lenin)