Zdaniye Doma-Kommuny

An iconic and historical building of Smolensk !! It offers wonderful views of the city. But !!! This is abandoned !!!! Who climbs, dress dirtier, and it is especially dangerous to climb there. If the city had repaired it and made an observation deck in it, it would be great.

Would have been demolished for a long time if they did not want to restore

This shame must be removed!

Historically a very interesting place. Originally it was, one of the first residential high-rise buildings of the city of Smolensk, a commune house. At that time there was an impressive building, although without amenities (all amenities were in the courtyard). It is unfortunate that it came to us in such a deplorable state, and at the moment no one needs it. Unfortunately, judging by the condition of the building, our beautiful city will lose another unique attraction.

In the Great Patriotic War (the battles for Smolensk and its occupation took place in 1941-43), the communal house was badly damaged, but was restored already in 1949. Until the 1980s, people lived here. Now the house is abandoned, although it is recognized as a monument of history and culture, of regional significance. Nowadays, the communal house is one of the main mystical places of Smolensk, collecting informal youth and acquiring urban legends. This building, perhaps like no other, clearly demonstrates the full scope and depth of the global experiment that was conducted in our country in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It was a time of throwing to extremes. The communal house on the slope of the Ascension Mountain became the first Smolensk skyscraper (as many as seven floors) and was conceived as the residence of the commune-family, which the new and hot authorities saw as an enlarged cell of the society of the future. There were no toilets or bathrooms in the house, and there was no elevator, despite the decent height of the building. Of all the amenities, there was only light and a radio. Heated by stoves. It was assumed that such living conditions would bring people together, developing the ultimate collectivism in them. For the same purposes, there were no kitchens anywhere in the house, and there were none not only in the rooms, but also on the floors. For joint cooking and eating, there was a public dining room located on the ground floor. In a word, much was socialized and became common in that social experiment. Sometimes even spouses socialized. The experiment in the communal house was present in literally everything. The building is made in the flashy and unconventional style of constructivism, which was fashionable at that time and ruled the ball for only a dozen years. Already at the end of the 1940s, constructivism was officially declared an anti-national architectural trend, disfiguring the city and denying any aesthetics. In Smolensk, it was the communal house that was cited as such a negative example. The building was built of brick on a rubble foundation, reinforced concrete floors. The rounded corners of the square plan, designed for a circular view, give a kind of plasticity to the house. Facades opposite each other, oriented strictly to the cardinal points, are identical. The west and east have five axes of square windows (living rooms are located here), the north and south are divided by vertical shovels. In addition, on the northern façade, a glazing strip illuminates the stairwell adjacent to it, completed by a tower-like superstructure on the roof. The staircase in the communal house, on which the doors of all rooms open, is generally located in the center of the overall design and composition of the building, uniting all floors and spaces together. Unusual and external ornamental design of two-tone (gray-red) walls of the commune house. On the south facade of red brick zigzag masonry is made on a gray background. The further fate of the commune house is currently not clear. It is hoped that even before this interesting architectural monument the hands of the authorities and investors will one day reach, until it finally collapses. In 2013, Smolensk activists celebrated the 80th anniversary of the “teapot” in it, which means that interest in this building in Smolensk has not ceased.