Soviet way of building sucked. You guys had it a tad easier, but in USSR-proper the standardisation sucked big time. It's damn fantastic now that building a custom private house in a legal way is doable, even without being a party elite. And soviet style of building wouldn't have happened without totalitarian control.
People aggregating and community is ripped away by interwebs. Although in USSR-proper it was iffy in any case. Yes, people spent a tad more time outside. But community building was very superficial and it was easy to get in trouble with KGB.
Some parts of society did enjoy the times. Other parts just enjoyed drinking their days away. And for many it was quite shitty.
Nowadays there're many more opportunities to enjoy the times. And I'm not talking about spending €€€ for fancy stuff. But the problem is there're too many modern distractions. Which would have been a thing wether soviet union survived or not. Just like soviets couldn't solve alcoholism which was the distraction #1 at the time.
> And soviet style of building wouldn't have happened without totalitarian control.
Todays new developments are done in roughly the soviet style. Blocks of flats. With minor adjustments like parking (also underground), lifts that go to ground level for accesibility and border fences to increase the sense of security, top level huge flats with huge terraces for the rich, thicker walls for acustic and thermal comfort.
I think at least 90% of newly created housing in post-commie city in central Europe is built this way. It just makes sense.
It's nowhere near soviet era planning. Soviet era planning was factory-made identical blocks of blocks of flats. Typically with apartment blocks surrounding kindergarten, school and a supermarket with a cafeteria. 3 minutes city if you will.
Which works nicely if people have no choice and no needs beyond what is available in the block. And as long as whole city is just a repetition of identical blocks with identical facilities - it sorta does work.
Modern development here throws away all of that. Custom buildings with highly customised apartments. Multiple identical buildings is rare, let alone identical copy-pasta neighbourhoods. From high-raises to low-raises to townhouses to detached houses.
On top of that, many soviet planning ideas were based on idea that you work in same place your whole life and possibly get an apartment close to your workplace. That assumption does not work anymore (for better or worse). And let's not talk about running small businesses targeting niche demographics.
Soviet way of building sucked. You guys had it a tad easier, but in USSR-proper the standardisation sucked big time. It's damn fantastic now that building a custom private house in a legal way is doable, even without being a party elite. And soviet style of building wouldn't have happened without totalitarian control.
People aggregating and community is ripped away by interwebs. Although in USSR-proper it was iffy in any case. Yes, people spent a tad more time outside. But community building was very superficial and it was easy to get in trouble with KGB.
Some parts of society did enjoy the times. Other parts just enjoyed drinking their days away. And for many it was quite shitty.
Nowadays there're many more opportunities to enjoy the times. And I'm not talking about spending €€€ for fancy stuff. But the problem is there're too many modern distractions. Which would have been a thing wether soviet union survived or not. Just like soviets couldn't solve alcoholism which was the distraction #1 at the time.