The article is concerned with the housing policy of Soviet state in pre-war and wartime, actualizes authorities' strategies, concerning housing problem solving, considers the projects of housing construction and its forms. Significant attention is attached to housing interior design and perception of housing conditions by the population of the day. It is stated that despite the efforts, made by the authorities, there was a lack of housing. Extracts from population appeals to the Soviet leadership, quoted in the article, confirm the difficulties in getting the housing. At the same time, the analysis of oral recollections by the participants and eyewitnesses of the Great Patriotic War enables to conclude that the housing was perceived as the necessary sign of wealth, dependent on state's opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]