This is what I read in a guidebook for foreign tourists published by the Federal Agency for Tourism:
Izba is the oldest traditional russian dwelling, sort of log house. A considerable part of the russians still lives in houses like this. An indispensable center of an izba, as well as of the whole Russian countryside life, is a huge stove. It’s used for heating, cooking and even for sleeping, for which there is a special bench, called polati…
But when I look at this house from Tomsk…I just cannot call it izba!
Yet nalichniki are here:)
Эта запись также доступна на: Russian