When: December 1997
Where: A midsized communal apartment in a building on Shpalernaya St., in a prestigious part of St. Petersburg. A room shared by Volodya and his mother Rozaliya Yurievna, Ilya's informants; we hear their voices in a number of audio recordings: "A nail and a sweater," "Helping out vs. privacy: somebody else's visitor," and "Switching oranges."
What: A tight space that holds a bed, an upright piano and a refrigerator.
Volodya (around 40) held some kind of technical position at a military academy. His main interest was jazz; he had a big collection of records, reel-to-reel tapes, cassettes, and CDs. We see a few disks on the piano.
Using the same room for various purposes at different times of the day is the only possible solution given the limited space.
It is not unusual or contradictory to find a baby grand in a communal apartment. Of course, an upright piano would have been more logical.
