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Dachas by the Volga in Yaroslavl Oblast
A typical Soviet dacha

A dacha (Russian: да́ча; IPA: [ˈdatɕə]) is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of Russian and other post-Soviet cities.[1] A cottage (коттедж, kottedzh) or shack serving as a family's main or only home, or an outbuilding, is not considered a dacha,[1] although recently purpose-built dachas have been converted to year-round residences, and vice versa. In some cases, dachas are occupied for part of the year by their owners and rented out to urban residents as summer retreats. People on dachas are colloquially called dachniks (дачники); the term usually refers not only to presence on dacha, but to a whole distinctive lifestyle.[2] The Russian term is often said to have no exact counterpart in English.[3][4]

Dachas are very common in Russia, and are also widespread in most parts of the former Soviet Union and some countries of the former Eastern Bloc. It was estimated that in 1995 about 50% of Russian families living in large cities have dachas.[5] Most dachas are in colonies of dachas and garden plots near large cities, that have existed since the Soviet era, which consist of numerous small, typically 600 square metres (0.15 acres), land plots. They were initially intended only as recreation getaways of city dwellers and for the purpose of growing small gardens for food.[6] Dachas are used today for fishing, hunting, and other leisure activities, and growing garden crops remains popular, still seen as an important part of dacha life.

Dachas originated as small country estates gifted by the tsar, and have been popular among the upper and middle classes ever since. During the Soviet era, many dachas were state-owned, and were given to the elite of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). State dachas (gosdacha) continue to be owned by the government of the Russian Federation, for use by the president and other officials. They were extremely popular in the Soviet Union, because people did not have an opportunity to buy land and build a house where they wanted, and also because they lacked other opportunities to spend their time and money.[6]

As the size and type of dacha buildings for ordinary people was severely restricted during the Soviet time, permitted features such as large attics or glazed verandas, became extremely widespread and often oversized. In the period from the 1960s to 1985, these limitations were especially strict: only single-story summer houses without permanent heating and with living areas less than 60 m2 (646 sq ft) were allowed as second housing (though older dachas that did not meet these requirements continued to exist). In the 1980s, the rules were loosened, and since 1990, all such limitations have been eliminated.



A dacha near Moscow, 1917
An old dacha near Saint Petersburg

The first dachas in Russia began to appear during the 17th century, initially referring to small estates in the country that were given to loyal vassals by the tsar.[2] In archaic Russian, the word dacha means something given, from the verb "дать" [dat'] - "to give".[1] During the Age of Enlightenment, Russian aristocracy used their dachas for social and cultural gatherings, which were usually accompanied by masquerade balls and fireworks displays. The coming of the Industrial Revolution to Russia brought about a rapid growth in the urban population, and wealthy urban residents increasingly desired to escape the heavily polluted cities, at least temporarily.[2] By the end of the 19th century, the dacha became a favorite summer retreat for the upper and middle classes of Russian society.[6] In the tsarist era, dachas tended to have pleasure gardens, but not to be used much for growing food.[7] Anton Chekhov wrote a novelette entitled Dachniki (1885), about newlywed city-dwellers living a 'simple' summer life of walks in the countryside.

Soviet Union[edit]

Following the Russian Revolution, most dachas were nationalised. Some were converted into vacation homes for factory workers, while others, usually of better quality, were distributed among the prominent functionaries of the CPSU and the newly emerged cultural and scientific elite. All but a few dachas remained the property of the state and the right to use them was usually revoked when a dacha occupant was dismissed or fell out of favour with the rulers of the state. Building new dachas required permission from senior officials and was rarely granted during the early years of the Soviet Union.[8] The seniormost Soviet leaders all had their own dachas, and Joseph Stalin's favourite was in Gagra, Abkhazia.[9] New dachas started to built in larger numbers during the 1930s, and dacha colonies for artists, or soldiers, or various classes of party functionaries, started to form.[6]

There were legal size restrictions for dacha houses in the Soviet era. They had to have not more than 60 m2 (646 sq ft) of living area and be only one storey tall.[10] For that reason, they usually had a mansard roof, which was considered by authorities as just a large garret or attic, not a second storey.[11] Often ill-equipped and without indoor plumbing, dachas were nevertheless a solution for millions of working-class families, to have their own form of summer retreat. Having a piece of land also offered an opportunity for city dwellers to indulge themselves in growing their own fruits and vegetables. In the years before and after World War II, cultivation of garden crops on dacha plots was substantial, because of the failure of the centrally planned Soviet agricultural programme to supply enough fresh produce. Many dacha owners grew crops for market. Since then, growing garden crops has been of lesser importance, but continues to be widespread.[2][6] Many Russian dacha owners still see gardening as a key value of dachnik culture. Keeping historical food shortages in mind, they take great pride in growing their own food rather than buying it at a store.[12]



The 1980s saw the peak of the dacha boom, with nearly all affluent families—over a third of families in urban areas—having a dacha of their own.[14][15] Dacha houses built since the late 1980s are significantly larger than older ones because legal size restrictions were liberalized, and new dacha areas became fields of relatively big houses on tiny land plots.[16] Tracks between lines of dacha land plots are usually unimproved or improved with crushed stone, and narrow (often about 6 m (20 ft) between fences) enough that two cars can hardly pass each other by.[citation needed]

Dachas also started to be found in other Eastern Bloc countries, especially East Germany, where the concept was unknown before 1945, but even after German reunification remains quite current, and Czechoslovakia.[1][17][18]






Dacha gardens[edit]

See also: Household plot
One of many dacha plots surrounding Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast


Due to custom and the perceived high costs of good equipment, even relatively large plots of land are often cultivated manually using equipment such as a spade or a spading fork.[19][3] In autumn the grown potatoes and other crops are gathered and transported to the city where they are stored in cellars, dugouts (usually located on unused plots of ground), or in personal automobile garages.[citation needed]



Elite dachas[edit]




Dacha of Boris Pasternak in Peredelkino, near Moscow

Modern elite dachas[edit]


With construction costs often reaching into the millions of U.S. dollars, the dachas of the country's elite bear no resemblance to the small dachas of the Soviet era. Comparable in size and décor to mansions and palaces, they become an elaborate display of social status, wealth and power.[6][24][25] Most dachas of the elite are constructed with brick and concrete, unlike the middle-class dachas that are mostly constructed with wood.[2][26] These new symbols of prosperity are designed by professional architects, usually in eclectic style—that older dachniks look down upon as reflecting the nouveau-riche tastes of their owners—and feature ostentatious items such as marble statues, fountains and exotic plants.[27][23][26] Some have state-of-the-art sporting facilities such as an indoor swimming pool, multiple tennis courts and stables for race horses. A few privately owned estates even have small forests and lakes.[citation needed]


See also[edit]

Types of houses or gardens similar to the dacha:


  1. ^ a b c d Brockhaus Enzyklopädie (in German) 26. Mannheim: F. A. Brockhaus. 1995. 
  3. ^ a b Mitchell, Ian (May 2010). "Summer Dachas: Country Life". Passport Magazine (Moscow). 
  4. ^ Newman, Cathy (June 2012). "Russian Summer". National Geographic (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society). 
  5. ^ Struyk, Raymond J.; Angelici, Karen (1996). "The Russian Dacha phenomenon". Housing Studies 11 (2): 233–250. doi:10.1080/02673039608720854. 
  6. ^ a b c d e f Beumers, Birgit (2005). Pop Culture Russia!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle. ABC-CLIO. pp. 349–350. ISBN 1851094598. 
  8. ^ Lovell, Stephen (2002). "The Making of the Stalin-Era Dacha". The Journal of Modern History 74 (2): 253–288. doi:10.1086/343408. 
  9. ^ Walker, Shaun. "Abkhazia: where Stalin’s ghost holds sway". The Week. Archived from the original on 18 September 2007. 
  12. ^ a b Zavisca, Jane (2003). "Contesting Capitalism at the Post-Soviet Dacha: The Meaning of Food Cultivation for Urban Russians". Slavic Review 62 (4): 786–810. JSTOR 3185655. 
  13. ^ Mesyats, V. K., ed. (1989). Sel'sko-khozyaystvennyy entsiklopedicheskiy slovar' Садоводческое товарищество [Sadovodcheskoye tovarishchestvo] (in Russian). Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya. 
  15. ^ Fitzpatrick, Sheila (9 October 2003). "The Good Old Days". London Review of Books 25 (19): 18–20. 
  16. ^ "Russian Dachas". Liden & Denz Language Centre. Retrieved 29 September 2014. 
  24. ^ "Russian dacha craze risks environmental carnage". Johnson's Russia List. Reuters. 
  28. ^ "Dachas Offer Bucolic Charms, and Elite Modern Comforts". The St. Petersburg Times (1074) (Saint Petersburg). 31 May 2005. 

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