Apparently, the Communists are crying too. This is evidenced by the name of one of the St. Petersburg houses — “Tear of Socialism”. The hasty reprisal of the Bolsheviks with everything related to the bourgeois past led to many absurd, sad and even ridiculous consequences. This was an attempt to establish a new way of life in communal houses.

On the wave of general ideological inspiration, the craziest projects emerged and approved. Thus, at the construction site of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, constructivist architect N. S. Kuzmin proposed a project for a commune house, with shared bedrooms for six people and a separate “cabin for the night”. According to his idea, couples had to retire in the “cabin” in accordance with a special schedule.

More successful projects were also proposed. The most famous of them, “The Tear of Socialism”, on Rubinstein, 7, was the commune house of young engineers and writers. They tried to “socialize” the life of the new Soviet intelligentsia as much as possible: along the long corridors there were a number of doors to small bedrooms for couples for two beds, for single people for four. Everything else — toilets, showers, clothes and rest rooms — was shared. There were no kitchens, as it was common for the Communards to eat together and one meal in the dining room on the ground floor.

Apparently, the residents should have no secrets from each other, since the sound insulation in the house was completely absent. One could not help but cry from such a life, even though in the project this house was called the House of Joy. The practice of communal houses was condemned by a special decree “On the restructuring of everyday life” of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) in 1930.

But the house on Rubinstein continued to live. Its inhabitants got kerogases and primus primus and got the hang of cooking on windowsills. Later, the apartments were equipped with individual toilets and kitchens. However, the appearance remained the same — too ascetic, however, modern cities abound with such examples of architecture of socialism.

The house is also famous for the fact that Soviet poet Olga Bergholz lived in it for more than ten years. She herself called her home only “the most ridiculous house in Leningrad.” However, this condescending nickname hid not only inevitable irony, but also deep tenderness. Remembering the construction of Tears, Olga Fedorovna said: “We moved into our house with enthusiasm... And even the archi unattractive appearance “under Corbusier” with a mass of tall tiny balcony cells did not bother us: the extreme miserliness of its architecture seemed to us to be some kind of special rigor, appropriate time.”