On 25 August 1946, the USSR Council of Ministers adopted a decree "On Raising Wages and Constructing Housing for Workers and Engineering and Technical Personnel at Enterprises and Construction Sites in the Urals, Siberia and the Far East". In particular, it provided for:
“To provide workers, engineers and employees with an opportunity to acquire the ownership of a dwelling house, to oblige the State Bank of the USSR to grant a loan of 8,000 to 10,000 rubles to those buying a two-room dwelling house with a maturity of 10 years and 10,000 to 12,000 rubles to those buying a three-room dwelling house with a maturity of 12 years, charging 1% (one percent) per year for the use of the loan”.
In the face of an acute shortage of labour and funds, the country needed to develop far-flung territories and access to mineral resources and to establish transport and communication links with remote regions. The resolution shifted the financing of part of the housing construction directly to the citizens. Individual houses for workers were offered at the price of 8,000 rubles for a two-room wooden house with a kitchen; 10,000 rubles for a three-room wooden house with a kitchen, or a brick one, but two-room one with a kitchen; 12,000 rubles for a three-room brick house with a kitchen. The living area (including the kitchen) of a single-family house was 23 to 30 square metres, that of a two-family house - 30 to 39 square metres.
The intention was to make such housing more affordable by raising the wages of workers engaged in arduous labour in coal, ore, oil, metallurgy, construction, and loading and unloading work.
However, the programme was never completed. The lack of market price regulation under socialism made planning very imprecise, and it became impossible to implement the plan when faced with reality and the acute shortage of funds in the country recovering from the war. The programme was phased out as early as 1948.
Source:
“Party and Government Resolutions on Economic Issues”, in 5 volumes. Collection of documents for 50 years. Vol. 3, 1941-1952. - Moscow: Politizdat, 1968.
