Not unusual, spent some time in the poorer districts of Hamburg and Sydney amongst others and “Terrible Stairwell, damp building, nice but small apartments, needs a bit of work but could be really nice.” is pretty universal for anything but between 1930 and 1980.

did they also have really thick concrete walls between units?

Most of them are a few housing buildings built around a central green area where residents can congregate and do social activities. Much less alienating than private yards and fosters good sense of community.

People genuinely don’t know what the Soviet housing blocks were actually like. Like they’ve literally never even seen a picture of one that wasn’t a black and white photo taken in the middle of winter.