Origins , 1917 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. In archaic Russian, the word
dacha means
something given, from the verb "дать" [dat'] – "to give". In the tsarist era, dachas tended to have pleasure gardens, but were not used much for growing food.
Maxim Gorky wrote a
novelette entitled
Dachniki (1885), about newlywed city-dwellers living a 'simple' summer life of walks in the countryside.
Soviet Union 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 Communist Party 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. The seniormost Soviet leaders all had their own dachas, and
Joseph Stalin's favourite was in
Gagra,
Abkhazia. New dachas started to be built in larger numbers during the 1930s, and dacha colonies for artists, or soldiers, or various classes of party functionaries, started to form. For that reason, they usually had a
mansard roof, which was considered by authorities as just a large garret or attic, not a second story. 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. at their dacha house, July 1981 The period after World War II saw moderate growth in dacha development. Since there was no actual law banning the construction of dachas, people began
occupying unused plots of land near cities and towns, growing gardens and building sheds, huts, and more prominent dwellings that served as dachas. As time passed, the number of squatters grew and the government had no choice but to officially recognise their right to amateur farming. The 1955 legislation introduced a new type of legal person into the
Soviet juridical system, a gardeners' partnership (,
sadovodcheskoye tovarishchestvo), similar to
community gardens in other countries. The gardeners' partnership received the right to permanent use of land exclusively for agricultural purposes and permission to connect to public electrical and water supply networks. 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. Tracts between lines of dacha land plots are usually unimproved or improved with crushed stone, and narrow (often about between fences) enough that two cars can hardly pass each other by. Dachas also started to be found in other
Eastern Bloc countries, especially in
East Germany (where it remains quite current even after
German reunification), and in
Czechoslovakia and
Yugoslavia.
Post-Soviet In the 1990s, there was great unemployment in Russia and other post-Soviet states, and salaries in factories and
research institutes that still functioned were sometimes not paid for many months. In these hard times potatoes grown in garden plots saved many people from hunger, and fruit and berries helped prevent
vitamin deficiency. Due to the rapid increase in urbanization in Russia, many village houses are currently being sold for use as dachas. Many Russian villages now have
dachniki as temporary residents. Some villages have been fully transformed into dacha settlements, while some older dacha settlements often look like more permanent lodgings. The advantages of purchasing a dacha in a village usually are lower costs, greater land area, and larger distances between houses. The disadvantages may include lower-quality utilities, less security, and typically a farther distance to travel. The means of transportation for people to get to their dachas, besides cars, are "
water trams", buses, and electric trains (colloquially called "
elektrichka"). Due to the large number of people traveling to dachas at weekends (especially during the summer), traffic typically builds up around large cities, and elektrichka and buses are filled to capacity. Dachas have started appearing in regions of North America that have high concentrations of immigrants from Russia and Ukraine. Russians and Ukrainians from New York, Long Island, and New Jersey have been retreating to their Russian-style dacha homes in the forests of
Upstate New York in order to recreate the dacha experiences they had during the Soviet era. ==Dacha gardens==