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Why, because you can't believe that Russian cities have some nice areas? Go, and see for yourself.
What's striking about Belgorod is that all the buildings are new. This is unusual, and it's because the city was almost completely destroyed during WWII. I must say, they've done a good job of maintaining the buildings in good condition. That does seem unusual. Maybe there was a recent repair project (ремонт).
In WWII Belgorod saw heavy fighting and changed hands several times, for all intents it was destroyed. Just to the north is Kursk where the largest battle of armor in history took place. It was rebuilt and when I was there I was in the same area Thrust was. I was in a rented apartment on Koneva St. I remember the apartments that have what looks like sails on them. They were new back then.
Russians don't seem to care much for looks or the maintenance of exteriors. A lot of the older Kruschovskis are usually in need of exterior work across the board.
In WWII Belgorod saw heavy fighting and changed hands several times, for all intents it was destroyed. Just to the north is Kursk where the largest battle of armor in history took place. It was rebuilt and when I was there I was in the same area Thrust was. I was in a rented apartment on Koneva St. I remember the apartments that have what looks like sails on them. They were new back then. Russians don't seem to care much for looks or the maintenance of exteriors. A lot of the older Kruschovskis are usually in need of exterior work across the board.
That's an understatement! It's not that the people themselves don't care. It's that the regime doesn't allocate funds for regular maintenance. In the Soviet system, there was no concept of protecting an investment; public housing as an investment by the regime. There was no concept of real estate as a commodity that had a cost, other than the initial construction cost.
So once buildings were built, they were allowed to deteriorate through neglect. This reached an extreme in the far north, where plumbing repairs never got done, so there is constant flow through the building onto the ground (you can see this, because the buildings are all on stilts, to avoid melting of the permafrost), and they eventually collapse. Around the city of Yakutsk, you can see half-collapsed apartment buildings. The residents are evacuated and re-assigned to other buildings. No one in the government has done a cost analysis to compare the cost of doing regular maintenance to the cost of building a new building every 30 years, or whatever, and tearing the old one down.
Haha, an UAZ jeep. We had those in the military. Terrible, horrible cars.
Are those the ones with no shock absorbers? So every time you hit a bump in the road or a pothole (very often, in Russia, especially in northern areas), everyone flies into the air and hits their head on the roof of the car?
Are those the ones with no shock absorbers? So every time you hit a bump in the road or a pothole (very often, in Russia, especially in northern areas), everyone flies into the air and hits their head on the roof of the car?
They had hydraulic shock absorbers, but you could turn them off. They also had a "dry" clutch, which meant that you had to hold the gas pedal down in order to change gears. The Finnish UAZ's were cabriolets so you hit only the canvas roof.
No one in the government has done a cost analysis to compare the cost of doing regular maintenance to the cost of building a new building every 30 years, or whatever, and tearing the old one down.
Yes, and in the US the government is constantly worried about "cost analysis", right? Yet, somehow so many sleep on the streets and in ghettos in the world's "richest" country.
Yes, and in the US the government is constantly worried about "cost analysis", right? Yet, somehow so many sleep on the streets and in ghettos in the world's "richest" country.
I was correcting someone's mistaken impression, or conclusion, that Russians aren't concerned with the exterior appearance of buildings. It's not that "Russians", somehow, as a nation or nationality, are indifferent to maintaining architectural beauty. That's absurd. It's entirely a matter of how the economy used to function, which has carried over into post-Soviet times, in spite of new market concepts entering the national, and governmental, consciousness. Hopefully, over time, that will change.
But now, with privatization of apartments, I suppose much of the maintenance question is up to the residents, collectively. This is a problem in the US, as well, now that condos have become a popular option.
I was correcting someone's mistaken impression, or conclusion, that Russians aren't concerned with the exterior appearance of buildings. It's not that "Russians", somehow, as a nation or nationality, are indifferent to maintaining architectural beauty. That's absurd. It's entirely a matter of how the economy used to function, which has carried over into post-Soviet times, in spite of new market concepts entering the national, and governmental, consciousness.
But now, with privatization of apartments, I suppose much of the maintenance question is up to the residents, collectively. This is a problem in the US, as well, now that condos have become a popular option.
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