Stories of house and homeis a social and cultural history of the massive construction campaign that khrushchev instituted in 1957 to resolve the housing crisis in the soviet union and to provide each family its own apartment decent housing was deemed the key to a healthy productive home life which was essential to the realization of socialist collectivism drawing on archival materials as . This book is a social and cultural history of the massive construction campaign that khrushchev instituted in 1957 to resolve the housing crisis in the soviet union and to provide each family with its own apartment decent housing was deemed the key to a healthy productive home life which was essential to the realization of socialist collectivism. Download citation stories of house and home soviet apartment life during the khrushchev years by christine varga harris ithaca cornell university press 2015 xx 289 pp notes bibliography. Christine varga harris is a historian with particular interest in soviet everyday life who is currently associate professor of history at illinois state university usa in stories of house and home she focuses on the mass housing campaign launched by nikita khrushchev in 1957 taking as a starting point the housing crisis of the mid 1950s which was exacerbated by the postwar devastation and . Stories of house and home is a social and cultural history of the massive construction campaign that khrushchev instituted in 1957 to resolve the housing crisis in the soviet union and to provide each family its own apartment decent housing was deemed the key to a healthy productive home life which was essential to the realization of socialist collectivism