Don't forget, those one or two room (room, not bedroom) apartments in the cities were rent-free, too. (subsidized housing).
There is always a carrot (even if it looks good but is rotten) to wave along with the stick.
@Smokin Joe Yes,but a "minor detail" or two were overlooked because the Soviets never bothered to tell them they
would NEVER own those new apartments with all the conveninces. They would just be allowed to live there
rent-free as long as they accepted the state was their master that could kick the slaves (them) out into
the snow anytime the state even SUSPECTED them of being disloyal.
When "The State" in the USSR,where the patterns were made for all this,created this system,they did so
using programs like this as "Bait" to lull the citizens in who might have otherwise been resistant to
losing their freedoms.
Given a choice between comfort and freedom,comfort wins every time.
Don't believe me,consider the typical resident of public housing.