18 Soviet interiors depicted in Russian paintings (PICS)

Almost everyone in the Soviet Union lived in a typical Soviet apartment block (the most common type of housing in the country), spent their summers in their grandmother’s dacha (country house) or shared public space in communal housing. The interiors of these places became the cultural code for the entire country. Cupboards with weighty crystal vases and porcelain, geraniums on the windowsill, lace tablecloths on the table, a string of laundry hanging across the kitchen -  these little things shaped the Soviet interior with its unique aesthetic. 

Artists, likewise, paid attention to Soviet everyday life. Below are the most interesting paintings of the time.

1. Yury Pimenov. Lyrical house-warming. 1957

2. Konstantin Istomin. At the window (in the room). 1928

3. Anatoly Levitin. Warm Day. 1957

4. Mikhail Roginsky. Communal kitchen. 1992

5. Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. Behind the samovar. 1926

6. Konstantin Istomin. Vuzovki. 1933

7. Yury Pimenov. Quiet cafe. 1971

8. Yury Pimenov. Lights of the University. 1963

9. Nikolay Zaitsev. Conversation with mother. 1984

10. Stanislav Zhukovsky. Easter still life. 1915

11. Isaac Brodsky. Fallen leaves. 1929

12. Yury Pimenov. In the rooms. 1930s 

13. Andrey Tutunov. Popkov in Priluki. 1974

14. Nikolay Zaitsev. At Grandma Katya's. 1976

15. Yury Pimenov. Morning purchases. 1951

16. Natalia Egorshina. Figure and semi-figure. Kitchen interior. 1980

17. Yury Pimenov. Morning windows. 1959

18. Dmitry Zhilinsky. Portrait of the diplomat V.S. Semenov with his wife and daughter. 1978 

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