Summerfolk

As well as expanding enormously, the dacha market became much more differentiated in the last third of the nineteenth century. Rented summer accommodations were sought by everyone from craftsmen to aristocrats; accordingly, dachas varied enormously in size, level of amenities, and cost. The humblest dachniki would have an annual income of just a few hundred rubles; solid “middle-class” salaries in the major cities began at around 1,000 rubles, while certain categories of professionals (university professors, the upper ranks of the civil service) might easily bring in more than 2,000 rubles, as well as enjoying additional perks such as free or subsidized apartments. Dacha prices for the season reflected this spread of incomes. They could be as low as 40 rubles for a peasant izba; they were typically in the range of 150 to 200 rubles for something a middling civil servant might consider respectable; the grander summer residences might cost 1,000 rubles or more.10 By the 1880s, advertisements were found for modest dachas of as little as two rooms, some of them intended “for a solitary person”; at the top end of the market were spacious villas of twenty rooms or more; while a typical medium-sized family dacha might consist of six or eight rooms with modest servants’ quarters and a couple of outbuildings. This many-layered stratification was reflected in new, more elaborate terminology adopted in many newspaper advertisements of the time. Rather than referring simply to a “dacha,” they employed a range of compound nouns. Near the bottom of the range was a “dacha apartment” (kvartira-dacha), which in most cases comprised a few rooms rented in someone’s house. A more private and spacious option was a “dacha house” (dom-dacha) or a “detached dacha” (dacha-osobniak). Tenants who wanted accommodations for use outside the summer months could rent a “winter dacha” (zimniaia dacha). Customers with more refined tastes might require a “lordly dacha” (barskaia dacha) while those with manorial aspirations could look for a “dacha estate” (dachnoe imenie or, less grandly, usad’ba-dacha).

The increasingly differentiated requirements of the dacha market are reflected in the articles and books on dacha design and construction that proliferated in the 1890s. Architects, like advertisers, began to employ subtle distinctions among the “dacha,” the “house,” the “dacha house,” the “detached house,” and even the “detached dacha house,” with variations in price to match.11 They also showed increasing awareness of the material constraints and other practical difficulties likely to be facing their customers, who by and large represented an identifiably new type of dachniki: “working people who don’t possess large financial resources and who therefore aim to build themselves a dacha or a house as economically as possible.”12 Many such volumes of the 1900s contained detailed advice on building materials and instructions on how to draw up agreements with contractors. The dacha neophyte would also be advised on interior and exterior decoration. Indoors, wallpaper might be hung or patterns stenciled on the walls; for the outside, yellow was the recommended color.13 Instructions were also given on the design of gates, benches, pavilions, terraces, and verandas.14

From the early 1870s many traders addressed themselves specifically to the dacha consumer. The market in consumer goods included garden furniture, clothing, cutlery, and bathroom appliances (with water closets, perhaps unsurprisingly, represented most prominently). By the 1890s a much greater spread of goods was being offered, and emphasis was increasingly placed on modern convenience and functionality. General advertisements for furniture and baths were replaced by specifics: fold-away storage cupboards, electric bells, steel cutlery, nails, hammocks, bidets, “American trays,” spades, and coat hangers. Among the less functional goods offered were terra-cotta vases, ladies’ pelerines, and candleholders. The dacha gourmet might be tempted by hampers stuffed full of delicacies such as olive oil from Provence and Scots porridge oats.