A group of sleepy dachas, decorative wooden houses, curling smoke from the chimneys, fruit hanging from the trees – the untutored eye might take this for a simple village, untouched by time. This is not quite the case.

‘Dacha’ actually refers to a portion of land, given by the state, enabling families to have a summer retreat from town life and also a place to grow their own food (a kind of glorified allotment, if you will). Initially the preserve of the wealthy, dacha settlements were frowned upon by the early Soviet state, becoming accepted and eventually encouraged from the 1940s onwards. Ironically, this had become necessary because of a rather opposite process known as collectivisation, in which farms and peasant smallholdings were appropriated and amalgamated into large state-owned collective farms, or kolkhozi. Needless to say, this ‘efficiency drive’ pleased very few, and down to mismanagement and ill-feeling, signally failed to bring milk and honey to a hungry nation. The Second World War left the government with no choice but to allow individual food production. The dacha scheme was refined in the 1950s and proved immensely popular. Dachas have gone up and down in popularity since, but are still a huge part of Russian life..

A village is a village, a dacha is a dacha.

Most people used part of their land to build shelter, often a basic wooden building in Soviet times, now possibly a fully functioning house, in traditional or modern style. Although the dacha settlements can look a quite like a real village, in theory there are certain ways to tell the two apart. For example, the uniform size of the plots, the absence of a church, and the location in the commuter belt can help you spot a settlement.

Many families with a dacha spend as much of the summer as possible there, enjoying the peace and quiet, and tending to their crops. Popular vegetables to grow include spring onions, onions, potatoes, cabbage, cucumbers, peppers and various herbs. Many people also cultivate fruit trees, preserving most of the cherries, plums and apples for the winter. Of course, people also like to relax, with the ideal dacha situated near a river or lake to allow for fishing and swimming. A banya (Russian sauna) is also a good addition to the basic dacha, soothing muscles and steaming off grime after a hard day’s gardening in the sun. Banyas can range from basic to very swanky, in line with the dacha itself.