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Some thoughts on the construction of privately owned housing in Russia.
A private home versus general crisis.
The state of minds is no less an important factor in overcoming the
crisis than the state of material and financial resources.
It is universally known that the inherent optimism of Westerners' has
played a major role in their country's history and success. The Russians
are more famous for tolerance and messianism, which have given them a
heavy mix of fatalism and pessimism. Today they are no longer setting
grandiloquent historical missions for society -- they must survive,
identify themselves as a nation, and formulate explicit national
interests and attainable objectives. At the present stage of primitive
accumulation the
exceptionalism of their spirit and history is at last giving way to
practical objectives. Society is passing through such a hard period of
adaptation and reconceptualization in respect to its past and present
that it finds it difficult to imagine its immediate future in optimistic
terms. However, there have been some positive signs of change.
All the signs point out that the decline in capital construction by
far surpasses the drop in the production of staple building materials
in 1993-1994. There is a suspicion (and a hope) that the construction of
a large and unaccounted number of private homes and summer cottages has
been going on against all odds. This is quite visible in the region
around Moscow and in the Far East -- the Russian areas situated far away
from local conflicts. The houses being built under crisis conditions are
durable, and most often made of brick. This attests to optimism, and a
slackening of local barriers. Those who build houses on their own are not
afraid to show that they have the wherewithal, and they feel more and
more confident. There is a hope that they are beginning to overcome the
Soviet syndrome of "temporary" construction and generally slipshod
practices. Of course, there is definite evidence of inequality, but as
the west's history has shown, it's impossible to build enough houses for the
whole nation at once. Some will be the first to start building, and
those who follow in their wake will try to build better. It will take
two to three generations to build up Russia anew.
Let's take a look at housing construction during Russia's
tragic history from the social-psychological point of view. How many times
the cities and villages were razed to the ground. They were set aflame
from a candle, from criminal or mischievous acts, from internecine
strife, from the attacks of nomads and the inroads made by conquerors. The
serpentine ramparts were built against nomads way back in the 3rd-4th
centuries by the ancestors of both Russians or Ukrainians. There was
one major war each generation, plus the accursed legacy of feudalism. The Russians'
defended Europe against nomads, they defended their religion, their
independence and their values. Their ancestors themselves set fire to
their cities to smoke out particularly persistent invaders. They could
not afford accumulating too much property at home so that it would be
easier to abandon and burn everything. On these grounds it was not so
difficult to persuade everyone to sacrifice themselves for another 70
years for the good of the state. But this also accounts for fatalism
and protracted pessimism: it was either shameful and unintelligent or else
"criminal" to build and demonstrate one's wealth.
Indeed, why should the Russians' ancestors have built out of stone? There was
no time to do that, and foes -- either domestic or foreign --would loot
it or burn it down. What kind of accumulation of domestic wealth could
there be, and what kind of labor ethics? God gave -- God took away.
Europe, for its part, used to save: the pirates invested their Spanish
dublons in good old England. Now the Russians' go to enjoy the sights of 12th-16th
century homes all over Europe. And during all these centuries, Russia's
finest men set out in springtime to guard the fords against nomads all the
way to autumn. In the west of Russia, the situation was somewhat unstable
before Peter the Great. They did not build manorial estates until the period
of the empire: they kept on either fighting or guarding. Nearly all the
stone structures they have inherited from the pre-Petrine period (not even
counting what was destroyed in Soviet times) are cathedrals and churches,
towers and a small number of old merchant homes. It is true that they
built good fortresses, from which their ancestors used to mount defenses.
There were rich villages and rich peasants, but their scope paled in
comparison to that of Europe.
An upsurge of Russia's economy is not yet in sight, and for this there
is a need for internal savings and accumulations. The dream -- a
privately-owned little home -- has been a major factor in social stability.
The householder is a solid and non-scandalous person: the house
requires improvements, normal work and general order. But in the West
there was also complete clarity regarding ownership of land, and no
external enemies. Yet what the Russians' need is not only the formalization of
rights, but also political stability and a predictable future for those who
are going to build their own housing. Look what a paradise Abkhazia and
Trans-Dniestria used to be, and what they are now. How can Russian-
speaking non-citizens in the Baltics build for themselves? The lack of
clarity with respect to property rights tends to create as many obstacles
to internal accumulation as political instability.
...It's still a long way to Western-style optimism, and yet,
judging by private housing construction, the Russians' are beginning to move
towards acquiring self-confidence. Housing construction is a sphere which
is relatively less affected by the general crisis. It is both possible
and necessary to consolidate the turn towards building individual
stone houses instead of temporary wooden lodgings. What is important is
that local conflicts along Russia's perimeter should not deflect resources,
and should not undermine the process of switching over people's mentality
from love for the state to love for the Motherland, in its human and
architectural manifestation. Confidence in one's safety and rights, and
reliance on civil society are the key factors for accumulating wealth and
extricating themselves from the economic crisis. For this, there is a need
for tranquillity along the republic's perimeter. Well, let's start
everything all over again. Let's hope that this will be the last
(third) and final Russian primitive accumulation. Then, in a
generation's time, the roads near Moscow will be more beautiful than they
are, say, in the Baltics.
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brick -- the optimists' weapon.
