The size is continental standard 4" x 6", unmailable without a cover. Published by the Soviet Artist Publishing House, circulation 25,000, very low by Soviet standards. The artist's name, L. Shepelev, is printed in the lower left-hand corner on the verso. His hand signature is seen in the lower right-hand corner of the image. The artwork is an offset print of Shepelev's 1961 painting presented at the 1961 All-Union Art Exhibition, and is part of the series Builders of the South-Western district of Moscow.

In excellent condition., showing only minuscule corner bumps. The ver

The size is continental standard 4" x 6", unmailable without a cover. Published by the Soviet Artist Publishing House, circulation 25,000, very low by Soviet standards. The artist's name, L. Shepelev, is printed in the lower left-hand corner on the verso. His hand signature is seen in the lower right-hand corner of the image. The artwork is an offset print of Shepelev's 1961 painting presented at the 1961 All-Union Art Exhibition, and is part of the series Builders of the South-Western district of Moscow.

In excellent condition., showing only minuscule corner bumps. The verso has a handwritten inscription looking like an archival or library code, and a rectangular ink stamp of the Library of the Artists' Union of the USSR, with inventory number 4227.

The theme of the painting reflects on a pivotal moment in the post-WW2 history of the Soviet Union: Nikita Khrushchev's project to provide adequate living conditions to the entire Soviet population. Up until then, the majority of the rank-and-file lived in the so-called kommunalka's, large apartments that had been seized by the Soviets from "the bourgeoisie." Entire families were packed into single rooms, sharing the kitchen and bathroom by as many families as there were rooms. Khrushchev's plan gave birth to thousands of mostly 5-story apartment buildings. They were shoddily slapped together from pre-fab concrete blocks by habitually drunk construction workers. All following the same design, the buildings looked identical, the apartments - ranging from studios to two-bedroom - were identical from building to building. Aesthetically, they were a nightmare, the queues to get an apartment in one of them lasted fifteen years, on average. They quickly acquired the moniker "Khrushchev's slums", but one apartment was given to one family, bathroom and all, and oh how precious they were, and how coveted, compared to a kommunalka!
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