Summerfolk

The influence of these ideas is felt in the growing self-assertiveness evinced by the residents of new settlements. As an editorial of 1909 proudly noted: “The life of these settlements is extremely original and absolutely does not fit within the limits of the concept of ‘dacha’ life in the narrow sense of this word.”98 Three years later, the leading dacha organ was more specific in identifying the change that had taken place: “Dacha life has ceased to be a whim and a luxury for rich people who used to leave the hurly-burly of the city for two or three months in order to relax in the open air, and at the present time it would be more accurate to describe dacha settlements in the Moscow region as suburban settlements.”99

These settlements, of which there were estimated to be several hundred in the Moscow region alone in the early 1910s, set themselves a number of practical goals in the early years of their existence: to improve rail links; to establish a regular police presence and a fire-fighting force; to provide medical care and schools; to improve sanitation; to plan and administer the territory of the settlement effectively; and, on the political front, to establish a productive working relationship with local councils (zemstva) and city authorities.100 In the 1900s and early 1910s dozens of settlements applied for registration to the Moscow guberniia administration. Almost all of them had their own societies for improving services and infrastructure (obshchestva blagoustroistva).

“Settlers” (poseliane) sought to develop their own way of life and a set of values clearly distinct from those of the city; their efforts to cultivate a new cultural identity were only fueled by the superficial and dismissive treatment they continued to receive from city journalists.101 Promotional brochures presented exurban settlements as the salvation of a “middle class” that was currently at the mercy of rapacious landlords in the big cities; as more and more people joined up and the level of infrastructure and services improved, a dacha suburb would become a cheap, healthy, and pleasant alternative to life in a cramped urban apartment.102 One prominent architectural guidebook of the time recommended the “detached house” (dom-osobniak) as the optimal form of dwelling for the “middle class of people”:

Here a person can spend his private life in peace, satisfying his personal requirements and inclinations, without troubling himself or others. Everything takes on the imprint of his individuality, everything acquires the more enclosed, intimate character that is so valuable for concentrated and productive work, for the development of independence, self-awareness, and the cultural strength that follows from these.103

But the value of the exurban settlement was not conceived of only in individualistic terms. Efforts were made to construct a new kind of collective spirit based on an informed commitment to community life. Periodicals representing the settlements complained of the unruly behavior of city dwellers who frequented the local theater and turned it into a “cabaret” and “seedy bar,” and discussed the problem—one of acute public concern in late imperial society—of thieves and “hooligans”; it also registered the difficulty of harmonizing the interests of settlement dwellers (posel’chane) with those of dachniki proper (the latter were unwilling to pay taxes and generally to pull their weight in maintaining the settlement’s infrastructure). Posel’chane were urged to develop their own communal self-help ethos.104

Constraints on Exurbanization

Through little fault of their own, the settlements achieved only limited success. The practical obstacles they faced were enormous. Public transport systems developed so slowly and sporadically that the possibilities of decentralization were limited.105 Adna Weber, an influential pioneer of comparative urban geography, in 1899 identified four principal means of avoiding unacceptably high levels of urban concentration: a shorter workday, ownership associations for workers, cheap transit, rapid transit.106 As of 1917, Russia had achieved none of them.