From the City to the Dacha: Socio-cultural Factors Behind the Creation of St. Petersburg’s Dacha Belt (Russia, Nineteenth/Early Twentieth Century)

Abstract

This article explores how and why the St. Petersburg city limits did not witness the same suburbanization that was typical of other European cities. Instead, a thick belt of single-family summer residences, or dachas, appeared: city-dwellers abandoned the city in the summer months, only to return to their apartments in the autumn. The Russian dacha of this time was conceptually linked directly to the idea of urban agriculture though, naturally, not in the form we have become used to in today’s world. In this case, the issue of the day was neither an economic crisis, nor a food deficit. Rather, this was a particular approach to solving the numerous problems of urbanization, by forming a special, “intermediate” type of agricultural area, which was so closely interconnected with the urbis, that it almost became a part of the city. In this “leisure zone” around the city, the usual agricultural activities of peasants were replaced by rudimentary service industries: peasants started offering the services and products in demand amongst the dachniki visiting their second homes. This was a sort of “no man’s land”—neither truly representative of the city or the country. Ecological history here is closely connected with the new social history. The dacha belt was partly developed by the middle class (numerous social groups, that were balanced in the center of a social ladder between the highest aristocracy and regular workers), and partly by enterprising inhabitants of the country, who worked to develop trade with the dachniki in their own locality. Dachas had become a sort of Russian panacea—the preferred solution for a multitude of urban problems and the best solution to public needs. In public discussions of the problems the city of St. Petersburg faced, the dacha inevitably appears as a refuge from the aggressive urban environment and destructive cultural elements. The construction of collector sewage disposal and prevention of infectious diseases, accelerating lifestyles and stress, the spread of railway networks, class differences and the fight for consumer rights—all of these topics had an influence, one way or another, on the development of the dacha belt. The middle class of St. Petersburg believed that the best thing you could do to strengthen your health, nerves and social standing was to set off from the city for the summer retreat. Yet, there were other ways of solving the city’s problems…