| Popis: |
By the late 1960s, the growth of apartments with indoor plumbing and bathing facilities took the pressure off the state to build banyas. Yet that growth was not universal enough to alleviate the need for banyas altogether. As the utilitarian need for banyas ebbed, the sense of the banya as a crucial meeting place only grew. Stories, films, and memoirs pointed to the banya as a place to escape from the pressures of public life and to reconnect with spiritual and communal identities. By the time the USSR collapsed, the banya was clearly more than just a institution of Soviet hygiene; it was also a symbol of Russian resiliency. |
