Defenders of the “Khrushchev houses”, their speech and posters: Discourse and ethnography of the protest against the housing renovation program in Moscow

Abstract

The article presents the results of an anthropological study of the protests of the apartment owners in five-storey “Khrushchev” buildings' against the housing renovation program initiated by Moscow authorities in 2017–2018. We used in-depth interviews with residents of houses that fell under the renovation program (10 interviews) and results of observations made during street actions against the renovation law as research material. During the street rallies we have also recorded interviews (62 interviews in total) and “statements” (posters, badges, etc.) that subsequently comprised a database (1256 units). On the one hand, the authors of this article were interested in how opponents of the renovation described themselves, their housing, the actions of Moscow authorities and which discursive models they employed to express their attitude to the events. On the other hand, the authors' goal was to characterize the people who were mobilized by this wave of protest, to explain how and why they became involved first in grassroot activism, and later on in professional political work, and describe the dynamics of this process. Finally, by employing qualitative and quantitative methods, the authors identified the main reasons why the renovation program, originally conceived by the authorities as a “gift” to Muscovites, caused such a strong negative reaction among residents of fivestorey buildings. Based on their findings, they formulated some practical advice for developers on how to avoid such a reaction from people in similar situations.