WikiLeaks Cables Reveal Ukraine's Past Cries For Help; Is Kerry's $1 Billion In Aid Too Late?

[Igel]

14. No. This is a holdover from Soviet times.

Centralized planning of apt. blocks and city blocks called for centralized services. You have a single boiler that handles a large population. The super for the building doesn't have to worry about shoveling coal (most of these are probably converted from coal boilers), you keep the logistics simple enough for a central planning office to handle.

It is horribly inefficient, but it simplifies things for the planners. Older buildings in the US had central boilers for a large building. Some older universities and colleges have central boilers and chillers with steam tunnels.

The downside is that you really can't regulate things at the individual level. But the governments, for many decades, didn't really care about things at the individual level.


In many older Soviet apts. you had centralized kitchens, as well. There'd be a kitchen or bathroom for a group of apts. Everybody had to share the stove, the oven, the sink. Those fell out of favor as Soviet society became a little better off, but putting in one heating unit for a "subdivision" (I don't have English words for them) was still standard in the '60s and '70s.