In 1980s Soviet Russia there was a practice used by artists and musicians to acquire communal rooms and then expand into other rooms. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there were many collectively organised housing occupations by families and refugees. The groups would attempt to legalise in some cases and not in others. There were also art squats, for example in Saint Petersburg there were Pushkinskaya 10, Na Fontanke and Synovia doktora Pelia. In the early 1990s, the Government of Moscow prepared to renovate buildings then ran out of money, meaning that squatters occupied prime real estate. By 1996, 40% of Tverskaya Street rented illegally or squatted.