Chernobyl's last wedding

DivingForGold•about 2 hours ago

I recall my ex-wife's family flat in Krasnodar. No air conditioner, One single 220 volt 20 amp circuit breaker for the entire flat. Bathroom door always kept closed to bottle up the stench. Her father always warned me that too often the walls of these buildings were made of "gyp" or gypsum, plaster of paris type stuff I guess. Cockroaches running everywhere. I finally brought a bunch of roach baits on one trip over.

He also warned me that some of the babushka's sitting together on benches outside were reporting back directly to the KGB, so keep quiet.

All the window AC's were blowing hot air at our wedding reception held at a local restaurant.

comrade1234•about 5 hours ago

"...her fiancé Serhiy Lobanov was asleep on a mattress in the kitchen."

That's some Soviet shit.

man8alexd•about 5 hours ago

In the USSR, you usually don't have a spare guest room. An unmarried young man would be lucky to live in a separate apartment; otherwise, it is usually just a bed in a dormitory. At best, it is a one-room (12-20 m2) apartment with a kitchen (10 m2). A hotel is too expensive, so you put your guests into your bed, a folding chair, or a folding cot and go to the kitchen to sleep on a mattress. There were families of 4-5 people who lived in such apartments permanently.

tjohns•about 4 hours ago

Even in the US, I don't know many friends with enough living space to have an entire spare guest room. When friends visit, they sleep on the living room couch or an air mattress. Is this not typical?

dkarl•about 3 hours ago

Flippant answer: in the U.S., in your twenties, you have no spare space, and visiting friends sleep on your couch. In your forties, you have a guest bedroom, and visiting friends stay at a hotel.

Possibly more accurate answer: it depends on what kind of housing people live in, if they have kids, and if they work at home. Most residential houses were built for couples with children, so if someone owns a house and is single and/or childless, they likely have spare bedrooms that serve as a home offices, hobby spaces, or guest bedrooms. People living in apartments usually don't pay for more space than required for their daily needs.

hiAndrewQuinn•about 4 hours ago

I think the operating word here is not "mattress" but "kitchen". How cramped do things have to be to need to put the guest mattress in the kitchen?

cyberax•about 2 hours ago

Somebody else was likely sleeping in the living room already. The reality of living conditions in the USSR was harsh.

You were typically allocated spacious 9 square meters (96 sq. ft.) of living space per person, with an additional 18 square meters for the head of the family. So a 4-person family would get about 45 square meters (485 sq. ft.)

And these were _typical_ numbers, not a guarantee. Plenty of families had less space.

bombcar•about 5 hours ago

To be fair it says "In a nearby apartment packed with guests" - if your house is oversubscribed, the host gets the worst accommodations is pretty common worldwide - "He had a horrible thought that the cakes might run short, and then he—as the host: he knew his duty and stuck to it however painful—he might have to go without."

heyitsmedotjayb•about 1 hour ago

1 Bedroom apartments near me in the free west are asking for more than 50% of the average wage and there's only a sliding door between the 'bedroom' and the kitchen.

cperciva•about 4 hours ago

My wife grew up in a one-room apartment with her parents and two older brothers.

I routinely tell her "I want our daughter to have everything you didn't get as a kid".

Chernobyl's last wedding

⚡ Community Insights

Discussion (12 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews