Dec 5 (Reuters) - Communist-built housing will influence the townscape, culture and politics of eastern Europe for decades to come.

Countries are experimenting with ideas to improve the life of residents, ranging from demolition to renovation and repainting.

Here are some facts about the buildings' past, present and future.

STALINIST ORIGINS

Industrially pre-fabricated buildings first came to the Soviet Union with Stalin's 'Moscow Master Plan' in 1935, designed to prevent cities having a mixture of styles and sizes.

That ordered that new housing developments must be at least six storeys high and built in groups.

Concrete buildings also sprang up all over east Germany from the 1960s, with a massive building programme in 1972 which aimed to house up to 100,000 in such developments.

UNACCUSTOMED COMFORTS

Housing estates provided comforts to which many people were unaccustomed, such as their own bathrooms, running water and access to amenities.

However, flats were small and poorly built, with kitchens that would rarely contain the whole family.

Because of the wasteful district heating system, residents on one floor typically have to keep windows open at the height of winter, while a few storeys further down they freeze. In summer, everyone is too hot.

In Russia, there is no hot water in most flats in June and July when the pipes, which expand in winter and crack in the heat, must be repaired.

ROLE IN CULTURE AND POLITICS

A Polish song tells of a girl living in a block who seduces a man living across the way by changing in front of the window. The two never actually meet and just look at each other through the window, suggesting they are not free.

Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban lost many votes in a scandal when he called those living in prefabricated homes -- a huge part of the electorate -- "panelproli" or "the panel proletariat".

FUTURE OF HOUSING

Germany has a budget of 2.5 billion euros to spend on developing town and housing projects in the east between 2002-2009.

In an initiative by Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, Moscow's five-storey apartment buildings are being torn down and gradually replaced. Most new flats built in the city are also pre-fabricated and look identical. The only difference between them and those from the Soviet era is they are cleaner, experts say. (Reporting by Sylvia Westall in Berlin, Amie Ferris-Rotman and Simon Shuster in Moscow, Marynia Kruk and Barbara Sladkowska in Warsaw; compiled by Andras Gergely; editing by Andrew Dobbie)

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