These are still common in Moscow or St. Petersburg. Just the background of co-living spaces is different. When the Russian Revolution freed up large mansions an

These are still common in Moscow or St. Petersburg. Just the background of co-living spaces is different. When the Russian Revolution freed up large mansions and huge flats of the former chivalry and businessmen, these were given to the working class on the basis of co-living spaces as "communal flats". Putin was born and raised in one of those in Leningrad.