What everyday life looked like in the Soviet Union

Soviet authorities in Stalin's time considered private kitchens, dining rooms, and even apartments to be dangerous to the regime, so an idea was tossed around in the early days to force people to eat in communal cafeterias. So-called "kitchen politics," as a fascinating NPR feature explains, were such a threat that Soviet leaders wanted houses without kitchens at all. It wasn't just about preventing people from having privacy: the idea was also meant to "relieve a housewife from her daily chores so that she could develop as a personality" and "free the country from the czarism" and "bring happiness to poorer classes." The idea didn't pan out, and soon, widespread industrialization led to "120 different ethnic groups" being served "exactly the same stuff" such as canned soup, meat, and fish.