ИСТИНА

This paper analyses the phenomenon of the Russian “dacha” in the context of finding the strategies of dacha residents with historical hindsight and the value of dachas in the Soviet and post-soviet societies. Special attention is paid to environmental and social aspects of the lives of dacha residents in different regions of Russia. Dachas are still an important part of the social and cultural history of the post-soviet states also located in extremely difficult natural climatic and engineering-geological conditions. At present a “dacha” or a dacha community is a typical place in the post-soviet space that has survived the transformations during the past 3 decades. From a summer residence for upper classes with historical hindsight to the modern shelter of an urban resident who is exhausted by constant stress; this is the range where completely different social strata, economic strategies, town-planning approaches, and absolutely different understandings of life have existed. Cases from different Russian (also northern) cities show that for socialist and post-socialist urban livelihood, the dacha has become an indispensable counterpart of life in the urban concrete housing blocks for most Russian inhabitants. The importance of dacha for identity of urban dwellers can be explored in the way that dachas gradually re-introduces rurality to urban life in the high urbanised regions of Russia so permanently that dacha places start losing their seasonal character. Dachas can be perceived as a way of adaptation to environment through creating attachment to place and shaping a part of “wild” but “friendly” nature for citizens’ life beyond industrial work in the city.