Housing construction issues in Irkutsk province (based on Vlast Truda materials)

Abstract

The article aims to select and study negative and positive materials on housing construction policies in Irkutsk province in 1921-1922 published in the Vlast Truda newspaper. These are materials on redistribution, preservation, and renovation of apartments, reconstruction of buildings, construction of affordable housing for workers and employees. Special attention is paid to the housing construction stages: building design by drawing and design offices, production of building materials, selection of qualified personnel, tendering for construction works. An analysis of living conditions of urban and rural residents is carried out. In this period, the systems of housing distribution and accommodation payment were based on the differentiated principle, taking into account the privileged party and government support. Newspaper periodicals as the most accessible and prompt source can help to recover lost information and find new facts when assessing the new national housing policy. At the same time, materials were presented on behalf of the editorial board which speaks for their subjectivity. There were no critical materials, but there were unverified facts. The article emphasizes the continuity of the Communist Party and Soviet press of the 1920s and modern Russian newspaper publications on the issues of housing construction whose improvement can raise the level of economic development and living standards.