Number of houses and apartments built in the U.S. and USSR 1975-1989

In comparing life in the Soviet Union with life in the United States, one major difference was in the average living conditions of the general public. Across the Soviet Union, it was much more common for citizens to live in apartments than in houses, as the government focused on maximizing space efficiency in major cities and combatting the housing crisis that had emerged during the Stalin era. In the1960s, the government quickly erected thousands of (usually) temporary housing blocks, known as Khrushchyovka (named after Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the USSR at the time). These blocks proved to be a great success in alleviating the housing shortage, and their construction continued well into the following decades, inspiring similar designs across the Eastern Bloc. Despite usually being a temporary solution, with an intended lifespan of 25 years, most of the buildings remained in use well beyond this time, and Khrushchyovka in general remain one of the most common forms of dwelling in Russia and other Soviet-successor states today.

When compared with the U.S. in the 1980s, a stark contrast is observable between living space types in the two countries. For example, in 1987 alone there were seven times more apartments built than houses in the Soviet Union, whereas the number of houses built in the U.S. more than doubled the number of new apartments. On average, housing in the U.S. was also of better quality with superior utilities, and therefore lasted longer; this is reflected in the fact that post-Soviet governments have spent considerable resources on the demolition and replacement of communist-era housing, whereas this transition is happening at a much slower rate in the U.S..