Marvels of Soviet engineering
I worked in a beautifully restored East German town about 10 years after reunification. Among the many interesting stories I heard from my local colleagues were some of the thousands of reasons they hated the Russians.

The Russian army had appropriated a largish chunk of the middle of town. Anyone who has been the to old Eastern Bloc countries knows the old communist mentality regarding architecture: build it, forget about it. Maintenance? Cleanliness? Paint? Who needs 'em?

In any case ... toilets. When the army moved into their nice, old HQ building, the Russian masters plumbers immediately proceeded to brick up the entire ground floor, windows, doors and all. Stairs were added outside for access to the new entry level, i.e. the next floor up (1st floor for us, 2nd floor for the Yanks) and a hole was cut in the floor of said 1st and/or 2nd floor. This was the toilet. The hole. With fantastic drainage into ... the floor below.

Well, fast forward through 20-30 years of borscht and cabbage being shat down in there and the Russians pull up stakes and leave the now reunified Germany.

The poor bastards given the job of restoring downtown were left with 30 years of petrified Soviet souvenirs to deal with. It was soon discovered that you can't clean or remove or dissolve or wipe up human waste on this scale.

They dynamited the historical building, coprolite and all, and carted it off in tiny little pieces.

... No wonder the Soviets treated the locals so badly: imagine working in the HQ on a hot summers day ...
( Ebay_is_"be"_in_Pig_Latin, Wed 7 Sep 2005, 9:24, Reply)