Social inequality in housing allocation during the Soviet era: The case of Soviet Dnipropetrovsk as a high-priority “closed” metropolis

Abstract

The article focuses on the forms and patterns of social inequality in the process of administrative housing allocation and access to better housing conditions in Soviet Dnipropetrovsk (modern-day Dnipro, Ukraine). Ideologically, the primary objective of the communist housing distribution system was to equalise social and regional disparities in living conditions. In practice, however, communist regimes often produced significant housing inequality, typically linked to the status of the city and the social status of the housing recipient. A mixed-method approach is employed, including the analysis of archival documents related to housing allocation in Soviet Dnipropetrovsk, transcripts of in-depth interviews with local residents of Dnipro, and a curated body of relevant scholarly literature. It has been confirmed that in Soviet Dnipropetrovsk, due to its high-priority status as a “closed” city, there was a more pronounced social divide in the process of housing allocation and access, as well as in the quality of living conditions. This concerned not only unequal access to housing among different social groups, but also vertical housing inequality in terms of housing quality. The post-war elitist housing allocation policy laid the foundation for striking social inequality, which was gradually softened during the periods of de-Stalinisation and late socialism.