Thanks to socialism: central heating as the main benefit of the Soviet regime

Journalist Pavel Pryanikov touched upon the problem faced by Russian emigrants in literally all civilized and not very, warm and not very warm countries of the world. This is the cold that prevails in the houses in winter. Only the countries in the tropics have been freed from it...

Gingerbread cites Israel as an example:

“In 2008-09, we spent a year and a half face to face with Anton Nosik - he was the editor-in-chief of the Business-FM website, I am his first deputy. I will not forget his stories about why he eventually returned from Israel to Russia and preferred to love Israel from a distance. One of his recollections was that "I never got so cold anywhere in winter as in Jerusalem".

In the winter of 2015, I experienced this myself, when my family and I also thought about moving to Israel and looked closely at the local life. I can also say that I have never been as cold as that winter in Tel Aviv. Not to mention that life there is now 2-2.5 times more expensive than in Moscow..."

The situation is greatly complicated by the fact that energy companies in these countries, taking advantage of this state of affairs, raise electricity prices, so that heating houses with heaters of various types becomes extremely expensive. For example, in extremely poor Bulgaria, residents of even large cities prefer to heat their homes from October to April in the old fashioned way - with firewood, which has a rather significant effect on the ecological situation. And the inhabitants of the apartment themselves, for the sake of economy, gather in one room, closing all the others. In winter, the capital of Bulgaria Sofia turns into one of the most disadvantaged cities in Europe - smog hangs over the city for almost the entire cold period.

However, alternative energy sources come to the rescue here, and first of all - solar panels, which greatly save on electricity. However, so far this option is not available to everyone, especially in the Balkan countries: installing solar panels is quite expensive.

In this regard, the Japanese experience is interesting: they use a very interesting invention for heating. It is a combination of a coffee table, an armchair, a mattress and a blanket called kotatsu. Inside, under the table, there is a heater that warms everyone who gathers around it. You can even sleep under it. His advantage, in addition to heating, lies in the social component, since he gathers the whole family around him.

“In our country, this function was once performed by a stove. But in an apartment, kotatsu looks much more aesthetically pleasing. Kotatsu are mobile, also called oki-gotatsu. In Japan, these are multifunctional pieces of furniture used in homes that tend to be poorly insulated and lack central heating.

Electric kotatsu are safe even for pets. Typically, the electric heater is located in the table frame, and all you need to do is connect the table heater to the mains, cover it with a blanket and place the countertop on top. You can comfortably dine at the table, work at your laptop, or chat with family and friends over a cup of tea. Of course, only the lower part of the body is warm, but this is enough to keep warm and feel the cozy atmosphere at home. Due to the blanket, kotatsu is much more economical than heaters that heat the air throughout the apartment. And the legs are warm, and comfortable, and economical..."

How not to glorify central heating in Russian houses here! The warmth in domestic apartments is seen as an incredible blessing. And not only for emigrants nostalgic for warm apartments in their historical homeland, but also for the inhabitants of these countries themselves.

At the same time, we often waste a lot of energy and heat. It can be so hot in our rooms that we have to open the windows in winter to ventilate the room. But heating tariffs in Russia are also constantly growing. And not only...

Here is what the social psychologist Alexey Roshchin writes about this:

“I have traveled a lot across Russia, collecting complaints about housing and communal services - I know very well that in many cities with heating of apartments, due to worn-out pipes and the entire infrastructure, everything is far from being, thank God, people, especially in small towns, often complain about” barely warm batteries. " I remember how I myself dealt with the grandmothers who suffered from the fact that the temperature in their houses did not rise above 15-16 degrees, and according to the standards (!) It should be around 20 degrees - and the local mayor was sweating and blushing, promising this fix it as soon as possible...

This is true - but the same immigrants from Europe often say that they have almost zero in their bedrooms at night!

Why did it happen that the climate in Russia is generally colder, and in houses in winter it is much warmer? It seems that we should directly thank communism for this, not otherwise. The fact that they nevertheless forcibly introduced a central heating system in the cities - that is, an UNRENETABLE, by the standards of modern Western society, thing. I draw this conclusion because I see that central heating itself does not arise even in the most civilized cities of the world.

And from here an even more interesting conclusion: it turns out, if the Bolsheviks had not seized power for 70 long years in the country in 1917, and instead of that Russia would have developed in a more organic, natural way, without "building a new society" - everything is the same in our country Would languish from the cold in winter, and YOURSELF, of their own free will (as emigrants do) - simply not wanting to give too much of their income for heat ?!

Or would it be that CHP plants would somehow appear in Russia, even under capitalism - simply because no one could stand to sit in total cold for 5 months a year instead of two European ones? Which would be stronger - greed or frost resistance?

What is all this central heating - a market necessity or a fluke, the jackpot that the Russians won for all the other horrors of communism?"

It's scary to even think what would happen in Russian houses if wild capitalism won out in the country, approximately the same as today - they would simply freeze out!