The first apartments in Moscow’s iconic Narkomfin building have gone on sale ahead as part of a major renovation of the celebrated constructivist landmark.
Completed in 1932,
the building was designed to embody the early-Soviet ideal of communal living,
with shared bathrooms and kitchens for all the building’s residents. But
the apartment block and its “Trotskyist” ideals soon fell out of favour with
the authorities, slowly crumbling into decay and disrepair. A small, creative
community began to establish itself inside the tumbledown block in the 2000s,
making the area a hotspot for young start-ups and businesses. There
will be 46 apartments up for sale in Narkomfin, the cheapest of which will cost
30 million rubles ($486,000). The most expensive apartment will be the
four-room penthouse suite which once hosted Soviet Finance Minister Nikolai
Milyutin, although an official price is yet to be released. The
reconstruction is planned to finish by June 2019.
