The Phenomenon of St Petersburg Tenement Building in the 1870s – Early 20th Century Review of Dokhodnye doma Peterburga: organizatsiya, vzaimodeistvie s gosudarstvennymi i kommercheskimi strukturami, povsednevnost' (1870-e gg. – nachalo XX veka): monografiya [Tenement buildings of St Petersburg: Organization, interaction with state and commercial structures, everyday life (1870s – early 20th century): A monograph], by D.M. Demidovich (Moscow: U Nikitskikh vorot, 2023)

Abstract

The monograph under reviewed is a study of tenement buildings in St Petersburg. For the first time in historiography, they are considered not only as a place of residence of citizens but also as a space where behavioral practices are formed as well as a new system of communication with homeowners, managers, servants and also the officials of the metropolitan state and commercial structures. The statistical information presented in the work regarding rental taxes, court decisions on violations of legislative norms related to house ownership, fines for offenses in that area, and the growth in the number of telephones contribute to the creation of a full-scale picture of functioning and development of tenement buildings. The author of the monograph was among the first to analyze the system of renting out the whole tenement buildings and the relationships between citizens that were formed around that as well as the conflicts that arose and ways to resolve them.

Keywords

• tenement buildings
• everyday life
• house owner
• rent
• urbanization