Down at the dacha
July 9, 2011
Russia's capital, Moscow, can be unbearable in the summer.
More than 10 million residents crowd the city, most of them living in crowded high-rises dating from Soviet times. The temperature can reach above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and, aside from the polluted Moskva River and a just a handful of outdoor pools, there are hardly any places to swim.
But for many Muscovites there is a solution: They spend their weekends at their dachas - small summer or garden houses. Spending time at your dacha is a tradition that the Czars and Soviet leaders alike fostered and it remains popular today.
The only problem? Dachas are often located more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) away from the city and, with millions heading out of town at the same time, getting to the beloved dacha often means sitting in traffic.
Eight-lane gridlock
Car after car, bumper to bumper, the eight lanes of a main traffic artery in Moscow are packed on a Saturday in early July. Occasionally the traffic comes to a standstill.
"Without traffic jams we'd get there within an hour, but it can take three or four hours - it just depends on how it goes," says Yelena, who is sitting in the middle of it all with her sister Svetlana in their silver car. "On average we expect between two and two-and-a-half hours. My worst record is four hours.
"Despite that, everyone wants to go there. Me, for example, I can't relax in Moscow. I need to go to the dacha," she explains. "One of the reasons to leave the city whenever possible is the air pollution, and another is the constant feeling of stress."
Yelena and Svetlana are glued to the traffic reports on the radio and keep checking the situation on their mobile phones. Their dacha is located 85 kilometers from the city center. After an hour into the trip, they haven't even gotten out of the center.
They probably should have left earlier than 10 a.m., says Yelena. But then again, sometimes even with the best strategies you can't beat the regular dacha traffic jams.
"I used to leave Moscow on Friday night, right after work," says Yelena. "But there were awful traffic jams then too, and I decided that I would rather sleep in a bit on Saturdays. That way even though I will probably also be stuck in traffic, at least I'll be well-rested."
The road ahead unexpectedly clears and Yelena and Svetlana switch their focus from the traffic news to their plans for when they arrive at the dacha. They'll make lunch, go for a walk and take a swim in a nearby pond.
Plans for a relaxing weekend
Their mother, Ludmilla, is spending the whole summer at the dacha with Svetlana's 8-year-old son Nikita, who has three months off from school. This is a typical arrangement for many Moscow families. Most of the people living at their summer cabin are known as dachniki - people who live here only in the summer or on the weekends.
Yelena says their dacha, which has electricity but no hot and cold running water, has been in the family for decades. Other families have renovated their dachas, but they like to keep it simple.
Today, buying land and building a dacha around Moscow is very expensive, but in the past the dacha or at least a piece of land was given to people for free. The word dacha even comes from the word for "to give."
"During Soviet times, those who wanted [it] were given a piece of land by their employer," says Yelena. "My father was given one too. He worked for a ministry. But the size and type of little house you were allowed to build was very restricted.
"In the '90s when there was a food shortage in Russia, lots of people grew vegetables around their dachas. These days they're so exhausted by city life, they just come and rest."
A counterbalance to city life
After another two hours in the car, Yelena turns off onto the bumpy road overgrown with long grass that leads to the village where their dacha is located.
Near the end of the road stands the family's little crimson-colored wooden house. Their mother, Ludmilla, is waiting for the tired travelers with tea and cookies.
"When you're at your dacha, all problems vanish," Ludmilla says. "Here only day-to-day things count. You can calm down and relax. The rush and chaos of the city are far away."
Her daughter says she loves her weekends at the family dacha, but that she also likes her city life. She's never spent more than two weeks in a row at the dacha.
"I probably need both - the dacha and the city," Yelena says. Living here all the time would be quite boring. I am a city dweller after all, used to meeting up with people, going out. Here it would be a bit boring. But very healthy, that's for sure."
Until Sunday evening, though, Yelena will enjoy the quiet of country life. Then she'll get back into the car and head back to the city like all the other hundreds of thousands of dacha fans. And even though they're almost doomed to be stuck in traffic for hours yet again, they'll all be back next weekend.
Author: Mareike Aden, outside Moscow / hf
Editor: Martin Kuebler