Authors

Discussion

Homes for older people in the Soviet Union have hitherto received little scholarly attention. In this paper I examine what it was like for older people to live in spaces that were often shared with young ‘invalids’ or that did not meet older people's medical or social needs. I also assess the different types of care home that were built in the late Soviet period and how these were supposed to meet the needs of older people. Although most older people chose to remain in their own homes and/or with family, a small number still ended up in state care homes and their story is important in helping us to understand more about how the state provided for its old age citizens in the late Soviet period.