Ghosts in the Stairwell: Anticipating Terminal Urban Change in Moscow’s Khrushchevki

In Moscow, an urban renewal program that was set to demolish thousands of Soviet-era housing blocks known as khrushchevki has stalled, leaving residents in limbo as they confront the prospect of leaving their long-term homes. Weaving together ethnographic and oral history interviews, this article examines how long-term residents envision their own future amidst the growing uncertainty of the renewal program. It argues that these imagined futures are haunted by a spatial culture that formed within the stairwells of the khrushchevki after the fall of the USSR. Unlike conventional understandings of haunting that focus on the enduring presence of past negative experiences, this article traces how residents are haunted by the future loss of a positive community ethos. By tracing the political, demographic, and material conditions that shaped the spatial culture in the stairwells, the article rethinks haunting as an anticipatory attachment to forms of social life currently at risk.