All Of Our Buildings Together Would Cost The Same As A Few Days Of War

In winter, the temperature inside the two-story wooden building at 123 Gulyaev Street in Arkhangelsk is about 12º Celsius (54º Fahrenheit). And winter at these latitudes can last from October to May. In the bathrooms on the first floor, the pipes will freeze if you turn the water off even for a minute. Not long ago, the floor caved in – it had completely rotted out – and a toilet fell through. It was retrieved from the basement and put back into place using spray foam. By official count, Arkhangelsk Oblast has 6,274 buildings like this, long declared unfit for habitation and destined for demolition. It’s not just a trial to live in them – it’s actually dangerous. They burn down, they flood, and in June, when it warms up and the ground thaws, these buildings can shift off their pile foundations and slip sideways. Rehousing their residents would cost R160 billion. That’s how much Russia spent on five days of war last year; this year, it plans to increase its rate of spending. We went to investigate the lives of some of the Russian citizens who continue to live in these unlivable buildings while their country kills people in Ukraine.

Arkhangelsk has earned the title “the capital of substandard housing.” Wooden buildings known as derevyashki that are crooked, decaying and unfit for habitation (yet still inhabited) exist in other parts of Russia, of course, but nowhere else are there as many as in Arkhangelsk Oblast. The region was once known as “the country’s lumber mill,” and Soviet authorities rushed to build housing for the workers needed to power the timber industry. They built it hastily, with materials that were cheap and easily available – which meant the lumber logging operations sent floating down the Severnaya Dvina River. People were promised that communism was right around the corner, and that the wooden buildings would soon be replaced with durable stone ones.

There are currently 1,763 condemned buildings in Arkhangelsk alone (within the city limits). By law, their residents should have been rehoused at state expense, but people have been waiting 10 to 15 years for this to happen. And there are just as many buildings in similar condition that have simply not been condemned. Governor Alexander Tsybulsky proudly declared in 2024 that, under his thoughtful leadership, the oblast was continuing to “increase the pace of housing construction in order to resettle people from condemned buildings” and had rehoused 5,700 people.