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Kommunalka

Here's the communal apartment (kommunal'ka) I stayed in. On the wall is a one-channel radio. Because the Soviets didn't think you needed more than one radio station. They also didn't think you'd need an on/off switch, although they thankfully did provide a volume control. Now the station leases out programming space, so every hour you hear a different show. I suffered with one station the first trip. The second trip I begged them to bring me a shortwave. The local stations play BBC and VOA programs.

The porcupine thing is a light-up decoration that was popular at one time. The strings are fiber-optic wires, which light up in colors that gradually merge into other colors.

"Communal" apartment means your roommates are not chosen by you, but were instead assigned by the state. These are in fact the pre-Revolutionary mansions now subdivided.

I was really fortunate to be right in the center of town off Nevsky Prospect (the main street) near canal Fontanky.

St Petersburg, Russia -- September 1995

Copyright © 1999-2004 by Mike (Sluggo) Orr
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