(Photo credits: TASS/N.Zheludovich)
The Dachas came to be long before the communist revolution in 1917. In those times, only wealthy families could afford to have a spare countryside house for a summer stay outside the city. This would be a piece of land with a big house. Families would move from their city apartment to a dacha for the whole summer. Dachas were meant purely for summer leisure. In early communist times, dacha tradition was continued. Having a dacha was a privilege of communist party rulers and soviet elite of all kinds. Back in those times, ordinary people were not allowed to have a dacha and, in most cases, could not afford to have one.
Dachas, as we know them today, started to evolve in the early 1950s. Back then, the Soviet government realized that the soviet agricultural system was not efficient enough to provide food for the entire population of the country. They started to give pieces of land for free, so people from cities could grow their own produce and feed their families in this way.
Each soviet organization or factory was given a piece of land for dachas. That piece of land was split into smaller chunks and each worker received their own piece. This is how dacha “villages” were formed. Dacha is never a standalone place, it’s always a part of the dacha “village”. The only allowed use of dacha was to grow vegetables and fruits. There was no electricity, no water and the toilet was (and still is in most cases) outside. Now there are thousands of dacha villages around larger cities. All of them are accessible by car, some can be accessed by public transportation. Very few people had cars back in Soviet times, so to get to their dachas, people had to take a train, bus and do a lot of walking.
The typical standard size of a dacha land is 600 square meters. In Russian this is called “6 sotok” (shest’ sotok). There are larger pieces of land, but not much, unless one family owns two or even three pieces of land next to each other. Initially, dacha land was just a piece of raw undeveloped field or wood. To make it usable, trees and bushes had to be removed and soil had to be cultivated for agricultural use. A house or some basic shelter had to be built on the dacha. Developing dachas took lots of physical hard-work and sweat. In Soviet times, when everything was in shortage, people had no cars, no equipment and construction materials, developing a dacha was tough. Almost everything had to be done manually.
People worked hard on their dachas and developed them by planting fruit trees, growing vegetables and everything else that can grow on land. In Soviet times, some dacha owners harvested an excellent crop; too much produce for a single family to consume. That extra crop was sold on farmers markers in cities. Those were real farmers markets, with real organic produce. Nowadays, “farmers markets” are just fancy looking imitations with no real farmers.
In the decades of soviet and post-soviet history, dachas have been continuously developing. Although no new dachas were given after the USSR collapse, existing ones have been used, maintained and developed. Many people say, food grown on dachas, helped them survive the tough 1980s and 1990s. For many, dacha is still a substantial source of food, as not every family can afford to buy produce from retailers.
Most dachas now have electricity. Dacha houses vary in size and amenities. Some dachas still have simple shelters or small summer cabin type houses with no running water (or seasonal water supply). Some evolved into full, sometimes very large houses, insulated for a winter stay, with heating, running water and sewage, gas and many other amenities. Those dachas, well-equipped, are suitable for full-time living and very often used as primary homes. With the new legislature, dacha owners can get registration on their premises, so it becomes an official place of residence.
For the majority of dacha owners, dacha still (although large and well-equipped) serves as a summer house visited only on weekends. On Friday evenings, late April through late October, habitants of larger cities flee to their dachas to spend weekends there.
What do people do on dacha? Many are just relaxing and doing whatever they would do at home. Some people do landscaping on their dachas. The majority of dacha owners still grow fresh produce on their land. That includes seasonal vegetables, berries and fruits. Some have green houses to grow produce in the off-season. Dacha is probably the only way to get truly organic produce. Growing produce requires a good deal of physical labor and time. Some people just do simple gardening, some feed their families off their dachas. If the crop is reach, people might do canning and make jams on dachas. Some dachas have lakes and rivers nearby, so swimming can be a fun dacha activity. Some dacha owners install swimming pools. The list of activities can go on forever as there is no limits to what you can do on your own piece of land in your own house.
Family and friend gatherings are quite popular on dachas. This involves cooking food, grilling shashlik, drinking, having a good time. If dacha has banya on its premise, which is not uncommon, banya activity becomes a part of dacha time.
Largely, dacha is an escape from the concrete apartment block buildings of big cities. Being in the nature, gardening, cooking food, relaxing — are all good ways to unwind stress and restore the psyche. Many people do not have their own dachas and simply rent them for the summer. The market is large, and a good number of offers are always there. Buying a dacha is also an option and dachas can be relatively inexpensive depending on proximity to the city, type of dacha housing and other amenities.