Russian villa and vegetable garden place, Dacha is wonderful [home garden].
Hi everyone, this is Minami.
I know this is sudden, but have you ever heard about the Russian dacha culture?
My personal view is that there is not much cultural interaction between Russia and Japan (if you think about it (There are a lot of things that have Russian roots but are not known), to Russia. Unless you're very interested or have a Russian friend, if you've never heard of it before, you're not going to hear about it. I think that's most of it.
Dacha, often translated as "villa," has actually been a longtime fixture in the Russian home garden life.
A whopping 40% of the country's agricultural produce comes from dacha, according to a 2011 study Or so it seems. In a sense, it's outpacing farmers.
This article summarizes why so many Russians have a dacha, from the history to how to get there to see it in person.
Table of Contents
1: What is a dacha?
First, let's talk about the dacha itself.
As I mentioned above, a dacha is a Russian villa. If you write the word "villa" in Japanese, it sounds like a place where only the wealthy in Russia spend their holidays, right? You might think that this would be the case, but it's not.
The name comes from the Russian word "dacha" (дача), meaning "given land".
In fact, I've heard that not all Russians have it, but still, 2015 As of around 2006, half of the Moscow population owned it. I doubt that much has changed today.
Spending time in Dacia is mainly spent in the vegetable garden and relaxing with family, etc.
This vegetable garden is not to be done at my usual house, but rather at a dacha in a different location. It goes up to out of town, especially if you live in a city like Moscow.
People living in the capital Moscow spend weekends and summers with their families in the dacha. They all have a dacha on the outskirts of the city and drive there, so the roads are always crowded on weekends. Yo.
Dacha is still a little different from the Japanese language villa and the second home, and it's not the same as the Russian film. If you look at it, sometimes you'll see topics like "going to the dacha". That's how big the dacha is for many Russians.
There is a wide range of dachas, from the simple, chi-chi huts to brick structures to mansions that look like mansions and are aptly named "villa".
Around 1930, the dacha began to be given to public figures and bureaucrats as a creative outlet, and gradually It was also given to ordinary people living in urban areas. In other words, not all people were given the dacha, but only the urbanites were given it to have it. So it was.
2: Hard work for the Russians!
You would think that this dacha culture, they all like to do it as a hobby, but rather It's not popular with Russians. I thought at first that "Russians like to garden at home..." but not everyone does. There doesn't seem to be any.
According to Nahoko Toyoda, the Russians are not very good at managing their own dacha vegetable gardens. It doesn't seem positive. Plenty of bugs, and so rural that electricity and water are limited....
I asked a friend of mine who also has a dacha and he said, "I have to help my mom with her vegetables. I'll lose my vacation".
Sure, for those who don't want to do it, you're forced to help with the vegetables. That would be treated as quite a painful training.
In addition, you have to pull the electricity and water by yourself, and it takes a lot of work to make it a practical dacha It's going to cost a lot of money. Of course, you could call a contractor, but the cost seems awful.
But, of course, there are dacha lovers. After all, it's up to the individual to decide what he or she likes or dislikes.
3: How did the dacha culture come about?
Then, "If it's so much trouble, why don't you have a dacha in the beginning? You'd think, right? I agree.
But in reality, it's not so easy to do because of the historical context.
Dacha follows a policy set by the state as one way to escape the food crisis during the Soviet era when food was scarce.
When the Soviet government was experiencing food shortages, the government thought it would be more efficient and solve the problem of food shortages to the people if they were able to feed themselves.
In the midst of food shortages caused by the economic turmoil after the collapse of the Soviet Union, no one died of starvation because of the agricultural production of the Dacha The theory that it was because of the power (90% of the country's potato production came from dacha and other sources). There is a Dacha's presence is significant.
The great thing about this policy is that it gave us a share of land "for free" and "indefinitely". The fact that it is indefinite is the reason why there are still so many people who have it until now. It is true that Russia is a vast land and the population is not that large, so there are many people who want to use their land effectively. I think there was an intention.
Thanks in part to Dacha, the Soviet Union at the time managed to overcome the food crisis.
Even today, wages in Russia are not high, and the significance of the dacha for many Russian families can be said to be significant.
Some of them keep chickens and pigs and become self-sufficient in meat, eggs and other proteins. Tough guys, Russians.
... but the time is already 2019. Nowadays, some of the wealthy people already do not have a farm and take imported goods with them!
Instead of working in the fields, they have a space to do what they want without being disturbed by their surroundings. There's even a house with a guard dog. It's a picture-perfect villa, isn't it?
Currently, there is no rule that all Russian citizens must have a dacha, and more and more families are giving it up because of the difficulty of maintaining it.
4: I want to see the dacha! How do I get to it?
As there are currently only two major ways to look at such a fascinating dacha I feel.
It's inviting friends and acquaintancesortake a tour.
I've heard that when you get to know the Russians, they often invite you to the dacha.
I have not been to the dacha yet, unfortunately, but I would love to go there at least once.
In fact, some of them are going to see the dacha as a sightseeing tour, so the purpose of dacha is You can also contact a Russian travel agency or organization to find out if they have tours that include a visit to a dacha It's a good idea. There is almost no information in Japanese, so try to find it in English or Russian.
But the dacha for the tour is more of a dacha, which is the villa of someone who was a noble family. I feel like there are a lot of things that are going to be there. If you want to see something in a very folksy, country style, check it out.
How did you like the article?
There's still not a lot of information about dacha in Japanese, but if you're interested, you can find more information in English and Russian.
Reference
Nahoko Toyota (2013) "Dacha de suzu green weekend" WAVE Publishing
English 
Japanese