The 'panelák' was designed in Russia - under the 1957 re-building programmes that Nikita Krushchev devised to solve the chronic housing shortage in Russian cities.
The very first experimental blocks were built in a place called Novye Cheryomushki in the southern suburbs of Moscow. You can see this same design from the Berlin Wall to Vladivostok.
True story - the staircases on the first blocks were so narrow, that when somebody died on the new estates, the coffin had to be lowered down on ropes to the ground.
The composer Dmitri Shostakovitch wrote a satirical operetta about these buildings........
Cheryomushki! Cheryomushki!
Remember your new address,
In every flat, on every floor,
Municipal happiness!
We beautify the Moscow sky,
With orange construction cranes,
And flocks of giant apartment blocks,
Devour her ancient lanes!
They'll all have drains and window panes,
So Comrades raise your glass,
A brand new flat,
Now fancy that!
A miracle come to pass!
Cheryomushki! Cheryomushki!
Shall bloom a thousand blooms,
Of happiness, and dreams come true,
In a thousand concrete rooms!