Dachniki and gardeners: The Presidential Library spotlights the history of the country life in Russia

Ever since Peter I initiated the donation of land, a unique phenomenon occurred and developed in Russia – the country life.

The first measurement and “dacha” (distribution) of “convenient and inconvenient lands” were meant for peasants and craftspeople. Evidence of that is the decree of June 3 (14), 1712 On distributing lands in Ingria as plots for the peasants’ and craftspeople’ settlement, the text of which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

The best lands were given to Peter’s entourage “for strolls and clear air”, as well as “for the fun of animal and bird hunt”. Dachas were located on the shores of the rivers, the Gulf of Finland and along the roads.

By the early XIX century, the country life captured not only “circles close to the emperor” but also officials and the bourgeoisie. Therefore, the “great dacha migration” happened. The travel guide Regarding the health benefits of Petersburg dacha areas (1881), available in the digital collections of the Presidential Library, says: “The main goal of relocating to dachas is “health improvement” and an opportunity to “touch the living rays of sunshine””.

Townspeople found it more convenient to rent a dacha, instead of owning one (“a good dacha could’ve been rented for 150-200 rubles, while buying one costs 600-700 rubles”). It was only a matter of picking a “dacha direction”.

The country life of Old Peterhof was especially luxurious. Here, dachas were owned by the “big” aristocratic families.

The most popular place for staying in dachas was Pavlovsk, as Petersburg residents considered the Pavlovsk Railway Station a “cultural centre” – orchestra and choir concerts were held there. The book Dachas and suburbs of Petersburg (1891), available in the collections of the Presidential Library, says: “Dachas in Pavlovsk were acquired, like seats in operas, year after year… and “the audience” not only knew who lives where, but also the amount of one’s dresses, hats, horses… Everyone had fun, and the Pavlovsk “trend” grew stronger”.

The dacha direction along the Nikolayevskaya Railway Road that connected St. Petersburg in Moscow was the most perspective in the first half of the XIX century. “Lately, Tosno, Sablino, Ushaki… give shelter to hundreds of families, and it is undeniable that all of these places have a future. If one wants to enjoy the summer village life, milk, fields and air, then he should definitely stay on the Nikolayevskaya line; dachas here are half the price of the Finnish ones and four times cheaper than the Baltic ones. It provides a complete privacy and the most natural village idyll”.

The Finland direction was also lively: “Over 5,000 dacha people leave this road every day”. The empty locations along the railway road were immediately filled up with dachniki. In 1903, the Kellomäki station (currently the settlement Komarovo) was founded on the spot of the “moose swamp” and became the centre of literary pilgrimage.

The country life of the XIX – early XX centuries consisted of reading, parties, woodland walks, sailing on boats, music and swimming in ponds. Dachniki didn’t do farming and considered it odd.

Despite the fact that “dachniki of Tsarist Russia” were associated with the bourgeois lifestyle, “middle-class comfort” and had an unspoken status of “idlers, only caring for entertainment”, the dacha culture not only survived the revolution, but also got a new development in the Soviet times.

In the second half of the XX century, “dachniki-idlers” transformed into productive gardeners. The gardening movement became a part of the agrarian policy of the state. It began in accordance with the Decree of the Council of Ministers of USSR of 1949 On the collective and individual farming and gardening of workers and officials. Therefore, the “collective gardens” owned by enterprises were created. New horticultural areas were founded near the railway platforms: Mshinskaya (Luzhsky District), Pupyshevo (Volkhovsky District), Chashcha (Gatchinsky District), Trubnikov Bor (Tosnensky District).

The 1970-1990s are associated with the gardeners’ dreams of “their own land”. Soon, these dreams became true and formed a new type of dachniki – “owners” of the gardens.

In the early XXI century, dachas with gardens transformed into real country houses where people could live all year round.

Alexandra Kasatkina’s abstract of theses Country conversations as a subject of ethnographic research: creating a method based on the materials of interviews about the development of garden plots in the 1980-1990s (2019) is available in the electronic reading room of the Presidential Library. Garden maintenance, plot’s planning, house renovation, socialization in villages, family members’ attitude to the dacha, - those seemingly “mundane” aspects of dachniki’s conversations became a material, revealing the great importance of country life for a contemporary resident of Russia.

Researchers, who study the phenomena of country life, view it as an evidence of a “special Russian way”. The correlation of the country life with the history of Russia reveals that the former mirrors the realities of the country. Depending on the situation, a townsman either became a dachnik-beholder, or a gardener and a farmer. Still, in both cases, the image of dacha had a special charm, evident in the excitement about going to dacha as some kind of “shelter full of meanings”, as well as the heroic cultivation of “your own garden”, accompanied by the traditional tea parties on the terrace and slow conversations about anything and everything.