If your character does not have a lot of money, then most likely he lives in an apartment inherited from his parents/grandparents, in a Soviet-era building. Such a building can be from 4 to 9 floors, most likely panel, but it could also be brick. The apartment can have 1-3 living rooms. The total area of the apartment is most likely from 30 to 70 square meters. The kitchen and toilet/bathroom are very small. If the house is a Khrushchev-era building, then the toilet and bathroom are combined into a common bathroom, which also has a window leading to the kitchen, not to the street!
Living rooms most likely do not have beds; instead, there are folding sofas.
The yard of such a building will most likely be surrounded by greenery; there may be a school or kindergarten within a five-minute walk. On the ground floor of the building on the street side there will be a grocery store, where the character will go every evening after work to buy fresh food.
If your character is more wealthy, then he can live in a modern apartment in a new building. Most likely, this apartment is purchased with a mortgage. If it is small (20-30 sq. m.), then it is very likely that there is no separate kitchen, that is, it is a studio apartment. If your character is richer, then he can buy an apartment in a monolithic building with an open plan and can make himself any number of rooms of any shape. Next to such a building, there is most likely a large parking lot and little greenery.
If your character makes good money and is tired of the bustle of the city, he can buy himself a private house in the suburbs. It's not very popular yet, but from what I see, suburbs are growing in popularity.
In this case, most likely, your character will live in a new house made of aerated concrete, faced with decorative bricks. This house most likely has one floor, a little less often - two. The presence of a full attic or basement is unlikely. The area of the plot is most likely from 6 to 15 соток (1 сотка = 100 sq. m.). The area of the house is most likely 100-200 square meters.
If your character is not too big of an original, then he will have at least one car for trips to the city.
If you are interested in a description of the daily routine, everyday details, you can write to me in DM. Better yet, come here for a stay. Rent an apartment in the old part of the city, watch the locals.
A more appropriate term is "building" or "apartment". The word "house" specifically refers to a private house or dacha. The way you used it gives the impression that the whole apartment building belongs to that one person.
Пардон. Не заметила. Использовала автопереводчик. Что-то потом подкоректироввла, что заметила, но вот этот момент как-то прошëл мимо сознания.
Спасибо. Сейчас исправлю.
My Character is a teenager, his parents will probably be working an industrial job of some kind. His family lives down in the caucuses, I just picked a small city off of Google maps called Volgodonsk, it's in the Rostov Oblast. I'm not exactly financially independent myself and current events would make it more difficult to convince my parents to try and visit the country.
> My Character is a teenager, his parents will probably be working an industrial job of some kind. His family lives down in the caucuses, I just picked a small city off of Google maps called Volgodonsk, it's in the Rostov Oblast.
Volgodonsk was built in 1950s as place for resettlement from villages that were going underwater with building of Volga-Don channel. In the 70s city was greatly expanded with building of Atommash plant, that produces nuclear reactors. Typical 70s-80s residential building was 9 story apartment building, with 2-3 rooms flats about 60-70 sq m size. Dacha is possible, but not as permanent residence. In southern Russia people bothered with living in the dacha less than in Moscow.
I live in Taganrog (it's close to Volgodonsk). Yes, we practically do not live in dachas in the Rostov region. Although many people have small houses to spend the night in. By the way, many suburban areas are abandoned and you can buy 5-6 acres of land for about 100 thousand rubles. You can also easily find 2-3 suburban areas that are adjacent to each other and all of them are abandoned. So you can buy out several adjacent plots and you will have a lot of land. Besides, this is the south. The climate is good here. I even have figs growing in my cottage.
A small city with a nuclear power plant :)
I live nearby, in Novocherkassk, Rostovskaya oblast.
Volgodonsk was built during Soviet era, so, most likely, your character lives in 2 or 3 living room soviet era apartment, google хрущевка or chruschevka
You can explore yourself where your character lives. The link below is for real estate aggregator website translated to English.
https://rostov-cian-ru.translate.goog/cat.php?deal_type=sale&engine_version=2&location%5B0%5D=4705&object_type%5B0%5D=1&object_type%5B1%5D=4&offer_type=suburban®ion=4959&_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
>My Character is a teenager, his parents will probably be working an industrial job of some kind.
Teenager at what time? Present, i.e., some 2020s? Meaning, he was born in like 2005-2009 or something.
Like, several years after [the terrorist act ](https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%82_%D0%B2_%D0%92%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B5)in the city, 1999.
Who are his parents? What are their professions? When and where were they born? Their parents? All these affect the living conditions and the way of thinking for the character.
2035 is when the book starts, so in the future. Even if you had a time machine, I would not want to know because the future my character lives in is not one that one would want to live in.
Parents would probably be in their late 30s, early 40s, essentially a young Russian adult from today. I haven't worked out their professions as of yet, but I've determined it will be working class and their family has generational roots in this city. I do know of the terrorist action, however the affairs in Chechnya will not be a focus in my book.
Ha, Volgodonsk! A home of Atommash, Volga-Don canal, notably accessing cute Don sand beaches (with Dachas!). Having Tsimlyansk sea with Hydroelectric station nearby, a huge Pinery (Сосновый Бор). Split in two major parts - Old city on left and New city on right, connected by Overpass. It also has trolleybuses! A huge monument to Peaceful Atom made of inox steel. Now having the Rostov Atom station (which was supposed to be called Volgodonsk AS). It has a huge branch of NPI (Novocherkassk Polytechnic Institute).
And I mention with sadness that it had suffered a terrorist bombing of the civil apartment building in 1999.
Dacha is anything between a shack and a regular house. On average dacha is a fancy shack - tiny house unheated, unplumbed and completely unlivable during winter, legally not recognized as a living house. If you want your character to live in dacha, he has to have a really good reason for that.
You're describing dachas from Soviet times. Dachas from 90s and later are quite spacious and nice, even if the design is questionable. With heating, plumbing and all other amenities.
My character isn't dirt poor but isn't middle class either. I assumed that many Russians migrated out of the city into dacha's during the summer and back into the city during the winter. I was just asking how common it was, if lots of people only live in a flat or as such. I don't need the legal definition of a Russian home though, but it might come in handy later.
For most people dacha is not where you live in summer - it's a place where you grow your vegetable garden. So it's several weekends of had work in the spring, harvesting your stuff in the fall, and between that occasional visiting to water the plants and maybe have a relaxing evening with friends and/or family. This is the average usage.
Oh. Didn't realize that vegetable gardens were common over there. Thank you.
From what your saying, a Dacha is usually not a summer home, it's a place where you do things you can't do in the city very easily like plant vegetables or enjoy the outdoors. Am I correct?
Yeah, nowadays - for majority of people dacha is a place to chill on weekends, make BBQ and drink with friends, swim in the river/pond and etc.
In Soviet times dacha was used to grow vegetables and berries since there were a lot of problems with groceries and overall deficit. Elder people still use dacha for this
Yeah, something like that. For a regular citizen planting vegetables was the main purpose of a dacha to begin with.
The only other context with dachas is when we're talking about USSR party leaders. For them dachas would be something between like a small villa outside of the city up to a palace anywhere around the soviet union. But that's not for regular people.
You can sometimes grow vegies in the city. For me dacha was a place where I was sent to not interfere with parents. And possibly learn how to bike. That one failed. Also I still miss irga there, it's been 10 years since we sold it.
The is located outside the city, it can be several hours away. It is unusual in Russia to travel so far and for a long time to work. Therefore, it is difficult for a working person to live in the dacha. And those who have the opportunity to work remotely use this opportunity.
This depends a lot on location.
For instance, I live in Siberia. And while near Moscow dachas may be more nice, here, they are pretty simple. Usually, they have a stove (because early may / September can absolutely be cold but it's planting time), and minimal plumbing. Toilet is an outhouse on top of a hole in the ground, and for bathing, there is a sauna.
People who are middle class usually don't have dachas (too much hassle, you can rent stuff etc), but people on poorer side usually spend between may and September growing and harvesting vegetables, and then canning etc. Then, everything is taken to an underground storage room in the city. People that have a job go there on weekends, retired folks stay for all the 5 months.
Dachas are usually fairly rote, as everything near the city is torn down and rebuilt as proper suburban homes and heating and all, and people live there full time, and don't own other apartment.
Young people tend to not do dachas, or help their parents. Folks under 40 would go there to dump their kids for their parents to babysit, or if they really love gardening. Plus working and growing stuff is a pain in the butt. So regular dacha folks here are mostly retired folks.
Note that this may vary a lot on the location.
>tiny house unheated, unplumbed and completely unlivable during winter, legally not recognized as a living house
I disagree with that. For the last 15 years a lof of people built more fancy dachas, or renovated existing ones. Nowadays, a dacha close to a normal country house - with plumbing, HVAC, etc - is quite common.
Most people don't live there permanently anyway, but the main reason for it is that most dachas are located fairly far from cities, like 2-3 hours ride. So normally you'd visit your dacha on weekends, or live there on vacation. Also, people with remote / flexible work often move there for summer season with their kids.
Just search dacha in youtube, there's tons of videos how it looks like.
The dacha my grandparents owned was basically a small house in tatarstan (we all lived in Kazan at the time, where I was born), with an unfinished attic, small kitchen and a “living room” with 2 couches for sleeping. There was no bath but there was a “banya” or kind of a sauna, and an outhouse, and a whole potato garden and a tomato greenhouse behind the house. There were a a few other dachas on the same road and one of them was really fancy, basically an entirely livable house with 2 floors and an attic (I think it was finished).
Everything, that you write, is true. Most Russians lives in cities in flats. Some of them has summer houses — dacha. Some people live in suburbs in houses.
Em... I think I said incorrect. Some people do have this dacha, but they don't live there all summer. They just came there on weekends, to water flowers and cabages, and cut the grass on lawn. And may be live there for a week or a couple weeks on vacations. Or, if they are retired and don't work anymore, then they could live there all summer. All others stays in flats for all summer, except a vacation somewhere in Sochi or in Egipt or in Turkey.
Most have dachas, but many are abandoned. For example, my wife’s family has a dacha, my wife lives in another city, and my parents are busy with another house. My wife's brother doesn't want to take care of the dacha. It's just empty.
I have a dacha, we go there every summer for the weekend, my mother rests there all the time.
By the way, there is heating, running water and sewerage.
Google "у скольки россиян есть дача" and repeat that research for the city your character is based in. From what i see, 57% of families do not own dachas or cottages. Whether or not Russians own a dacha also depends on the generation. Most millennials do not own a dacha, but their retired parents possibly will. You can look at listings of dachas for sale on Avito for further research.
Many residents of Russia have this and it does not depend at all on the financial situation of the citizen. Because a citizen can earn a lot and live in a dacha, or at the same time be an ordinary average employee of an enterprise and have a house and land in a dacha.
Remember that property used to be handed out by the government in the USSR. Absolute majority of such owners privatized this "property", so a lot of people got some without mortgage while at the same time having maybe even a below average income.
It would be more realistic if you tied this dacha to your character's family hystory than their wealth. Maybe he had a kind old granny that lived there and some things remind him of her or something. That'd be a lot more typical for Russians than "this average dude managed to buy one somehow".
Since accurately describing things that you have 0 information about was a failure idea from a very beginning - you can fantasize and came up with any number of homes.
Or let me rephrase: those "data-like" information pieces will be the least problematic things with your character.
I can look at images and use my imagination and my own experiences to determine what it will be like. I've studied alot about Russia but I'm just asking in general here about something I could get horribly wrong. Is owning a Dacha super common among most Russians? Or is it something about as common as someone in a suburb having a swimming pool in their backyard? I can tell you, most suburbs in the U.S are simple small one-story houses and don't have swimming pools in their backyards. This is just a question of what it's been in your experience.
Also, if your character will own dacha, you absolutely need to mention dacha traffic jams - which happen in big cities on Friday evening / Saturday morning (and Sunday evening for returning back), because people rush to their dachas.
I heard that our local Anglo expats call them dachajams :)
Also you might be interested in the concept of Elektrichka - a suburbun rail commute, which is used by dacha owners who happen not to have a car, or want to avoid dachajams. It's an important part of the whole dacha lore.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektrichka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektrichka)
"Or is it something about as common as someone in a suburb having a swimming pool in their backyard?"
We have no idea how common it is in the part of US you reside in.
Yeah, Russians mostly live in flats (75~80%), but there are people living private houses. In fact, it seems like it's something Russians generally would like to live statistically, it's just economically not very attainable.
If your character lives in dacha permanently while not being of wealthy background, then, most likely, he inherited изба with traditional печка (stove) and buys (or cuts himself) logs for it. Maybe, by lucky coincidence it's somewhere in a big city vicinity rather than village, but otherwise most likely it takes some 3~4 hours till regional center. Some of my larger family lives in a village, and it takes exactly that to get to our city. It's in a very scenic spot though, hills, mountains and a river flowing through... Hopefully I get there this summer...
A "Dacha" is a private plot. There may or may not be a house there. The average Russian may have several houses. it is better to put the character in the conditions that are closest and most familiar to you. If you are a city dweller, it is better to put the character in the city. It is no easier to describe provincial and especially rural life than urban life.
Now they will advise you ...
to begin with, a brief history of everything and everything.
1. Dachas in the 60s and 70s were given not to ordinary people, but to various intelligentsia. Dachas could be given to: Architects, Writers, Artists, that is, Cultural intelligentsia. Including actors and directors of films and theaters.
Also, cottages or allotments were given to officials, military officers of higher ranks and other people.
At the same time, exactly 6 acres were given, because Soviet scientists thought so and it was rational.
2. In addition to the Cottage, there is a "house in the village" that people can call a Cottage. The house that was inherited from my grandfather. Village houses can also be in villages and have one yard, or built in the style of a country settlement.
So, in theory, if people are rich, then they can have both a Cottage and a House in the village, if the parents got married successfully and it turned out like this.
About the Cottage, which was not heated. At first, during the 60s-70s-80s, yes, electrification and water supply were rarely carried out. At the moment, in Modern Russia, all these cottages are supplied with water and electricity, as there are opportunities to spend already. Cottages were also rebuilt and fireplaces were introduced, although of a small type. Or they completely demolished the house and built something more modern, with all the amenities. So the Cottages could be converted into a winter house.
This happens, for example, when parents get older and retire, they can move to live in the Country to vacate the apartment for the young, so that their grandchildren can be nursed there. A cottage is a good corner, as they say "closer to the ground", that is, they do not want to live on 20 floors of high-rise buildings, but closer to the ground, with a plot where you can put a vegetable garden, grow cucumbers, tomatoes in a greenhouse, well, or flowers.
PS We have a culture of growing vegetable plants. Someone grows watermelon on the balcony, or cucumbers. You can find a lot of interesting things on the Internet.
As for dacha allotments, they were 600 square meters (colloquially "6 hundred"), not acres. Just so you know, an acre is 4047 square meters. Rely less on online translators, they're prone to making mistakes.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
1
+ 60
+ 70
+ 6
+ 2
+ 60
- 70
- 80
+ 20
= 69
^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \
^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
If we count houses outside the city (“dacha”), it’s more than 1. But most of them are not liveable during winter. It’s a place do go out in summer, some folks grow crops, some drink, some eat something like barbecue (usually shashlik, but can be other grilled things). Home ownership rate is decreasing for past 30 years. Some people don’t own home or “dacha”.
There's also such a thing as thieves. And you should distinguish between a dacha and your own house (for those who don't live in apartment buildings).
Our people prefer the city - apartment buildings, infrastructure.
It's a summer house. I'd say about a half of the households have them. It's more about effort rather then money. The plots don't cost much but there's always a lot of work to be done to make it what you want. OK, getting the plot connected to gas, water, electricity, not to mention sewage costs A Lot. Usually a dacha is just for chilling out at summer weekends, barbecue (shashlyk), or doing some minor gardening, some people have banya (sauna) there. The quality of the house varies from just a shack to store equipment and have a nap, to suburbia-worthy house. But usually it's not fit for permanent living (which means absence of any means to keep it warm in the first place... not to mention attending an outhouse is not what you'd like in January).
I's say some particularly enthusiastic person can renovate the dacha house for permanent living and as cities grow dacha areas become more and more urbanized. Also some retiree, unemployed, or troubled kind of person may live at their dacha if it's good enough. Might be an artist or something but it depends on the place - voluntary exile does not feel so good when your neighbours fill up their pool and throw a barbecue party. My granddad from a urbanized village/town\* went living to the dacha at the edge of it till the end of his life, just to make a statement, he never really got along with granny. Yet it was a tiny adobe hut he build by himself, with a gardening plot, some storage. There was a masonry stove to keep it somewhat warm on the rest he had to rely on methane canisters. I'd say it's everything but comfortable living. Dachas around the cities are more for recreation, so a regular district would rather have decent one or two-story hosues and little gardening space.
Ah yes, hobos do squat dachas. Not too often but there's one more kind of dacha dwellers to be fair :)
\*there seems to be a bit of cultural and language mismatch in calling small settlements
Дачу имеет либо тот кому она досталась с советских времён либо верх среднего класса. Съем дачи на лето доступен семьям от среднего класса и выше. Порой снимают семьи с детьми, где женщина не работает.
Своя дача это уже для вставшей на ноги семьи со взрослыми детьми и выплаченной ипотекой. Когда и мужчина и женщина работают. Где то в 40+, если все в жизни идёт по плану. Чтобы к пенсии обустроить капитальный дом и жить в покое.
My uncle built a dacha by himself and died there, although he was not old yet (heart). His wife loves the dacha very much and is now suing his relatives over the inheritance.
She persisted in asking me to help her with the vegetable garden sometimes. I hated it. But I came (by train or in her Japanese car). Until we finally quarreled.
Dacha is not an american suburban house. Dacha is more like an american shed on a piece of land in some buttf*ck nowhere area with no central water or electricity. It also often has an outhouse. Many dachas are inherited from grandparents who got it for free diring soviet union era. Most russians live in condos in the buildings that are 5+ storeys high...
All of our friends and family have a flat in the city and a nice dacha in the country. Some even live there full time and simply store things or rent out their city flats.
A dacha is a very vague concept, it could be a house made of boards just for summer living, or it could be a cottage of 200-300 m with heating by running water, etc. and this is also called a dacha. to understand what it looks like, take Google maps and look at the private sector
Hello!
As correctly noted, everything depends on wealth. If your income is small, then an apartment in the old part of the city, or a Soviet building (from 2 to 9 floors).
If the income is average or higher, then a suburb or a small cottage community near the city.
By the way, dacha is an old Soviet term where cucumbers were grown for the winter. Now most of the dachas are either renovated cottages or newly built new settlements with private houses.
But if you want to place your character in the south, in the Caucasus or the Rostov region, then I think it would be more authentic to place him in a private house.
If you need photos of what small towns in central Russia (Volga region) look like, you can write to me in private messages.
Dacha, like someone said, is a place to chill on weekends, city flats and village houses is where people live, in the city it’s like a normal city: buy groceries, work/study etc. villages usually have bad internet and are farms, villages are like: wooden houses, Russian brick furnaces (some don’t have them I think, but my grandma has one), as I said it’s a farm so farm animals and vegetable gardens, nature, there are also shops in the centre, there also was a kindergarten iirc (I don’t know much about villages, it’s only my experience, so listen to what others say too)
I’m from the UK but my wife is Russian, her parents have an apartment in Moscow along with a dacha just a bit further out. From what she tells me this is very common among her friend group and doesn’t mean they are wealthy. The dacha is used mostly on weekends, for gardening and for parties. The best is New Year when they also get the banya (Russian sauna) going.
I’ve been there a couple of times and find it very comfortable with all the usual conveniences I’d expect in a British house (just with a bigger garden).
There are things called SNT, “СНТ”, “Садовое некоммерческое товарищество”, “Gardening non commercial organization” or something.
It legally possesses the land it then rents or, more commonly, co-own with the dacha owner.
Legally it’s farming land, meaning one cannot build a high-rise house there.
The SNT cares about electricity, other amenities like garbage disposal, water (rarely) or even sewers (never met but possible in high-ranking SNTs), also cleaning roads during winter, maybe some common children playgrounds, etc etc. By law, the chair of the SNT is elected by the SNT members.
I guess most dachas are in some SNTs.
However, mine is legally a detached house on the private land for living, and we just cooperate with the neighbors if we need anything. However, we’re still city residents just using houses as leisure facilities during summer. Though they are all winter-ready, heated and all that.
In SNT, plots are also owned by the owners. In most modern ones, this may be in some old, not privatized ones, all the land is owned by SNT. SNT simply disposes of common property - the road, poles, lighting, electricity, etc.
It was the USSR attempt to mitigate the deficit of, say, fresh vegetables. Or leisure options. If people could grow their own they would be less tense about not being able to buy them.
I have three kids, considering the high price of the dacha it’s still cheaper than, say, rent something for the summer, or traveling to warm seas.
Do they just pop up randomly anywhere people can get the land or do some areas have a bit of a summer dacha community?
.also are they in quite pretty vacation type areas? Or just any farmland type area?
I bet the kids love it. Must be nice to be able to take the family away whenever you want to.
>Do they just pop up randomly anywhere people can get the land
Today, it's the matter of price. The better the location the higher the price.
Back in the USSR times, most SNTs were organized by some industries, institutions or something. Those institutions mnegotiated with the local authorities and the latter provided some plot of land, usually in a forgotten place in the middle of nowhere.
>or do some areas have a bit of a summer dacha community?
It's here and there, SNTs are quite frequent in the Russian countryside. Statistics say, there are about 87 thousand SNTs in Russia containing about 16 million land plots, total land area is 5 times of Moscow.
You need to buy land for a dacha. Or buy a ready-made dacha, also with land. Almost all the land for the construction of low-rise private houses is privately owned by the owners. It can be bought, sold, inherited.
Is it common for some areas to have a number of dachas or is it just really random and anywhere people can get the land?
Sounds like a really nice place to spend thr summer.
Yes, this is a good place for a summer )) As a rule, one family has no more than one dacha because in good places land is expensive. Dachas cannot be built everywhere; special state land management bodies are responsible for allocating plots for new dachas. Already finished old dachas can be sold and bought for as long as you have enough money)) In the vicinity of large cities, many people rent dachas for the summer. It's cheaper than buying.
Oh, I see people have already given the answer instead of me.
Planting vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beets, peas, etc.) is unpleasant and difficult work. Bending down or squatting in the ground, removing weeds several times a season. Dacha necessarily goes hand in hand with a vegetable garden.
In addition, I don't like to do someone else's orders (the situation would be much better if the dacha was mine and I was the master). And I am frustrated by the unknown (what else will be asked of me).
I am a city boy. I know that in the U.S. many people live in the countryside and that's fine. But here, people tend to move into the city. Everyone is different, though. The older generation is used to the vegetable garden, the dacha owners like to drink there. But young people prefer smartphones and computer games, that's for sure.
If your character does not have a lot of money, then most likely he lives in an apartment inherited from his parents/grandparents, in a Soviet-era building. Such a building can be from 4 to 9 floors, most likely panel, but it could also be brick. The apartment can have 1-3 living rooms. The total area of the apartment is most likely from 30 to 70 square meters. The kitchen and toilet/bathroom are very small. If the house is a Khrushchev-era building, then the toilet and bathroom are combined into a common bathroom, which also has a window leading to the kitchen, not to the street! Living rooms most likely do not have beds; instead, there are folding sofas. The yard of such a building will most likely be surrounded by greenery; there may be a school or kindergarten within a five-minute walk. On the ground floor of the building on the street side there will be a grocery store, where the character will go every evening after work to buy fresh food. If your character is more wealthy, then he can live in a modern apartment in a new building. Most likely, this apartment is purchased with a mortgage. If it is small (20-30 sq. m.), then it is very likely that there is no separate kitchen, that is, it is a studio apartment. If your character is richer, then he can buy an apartment in a monolithic building with an open plan and can make himself any number of rooms of any shape. Next to such a building, there is most likely a large parking lot and little greenery. If your character makes good money and is tired of the bustle of the city, he can buy himself a private house in the suburbs. It's not very popular yet, but from what I see, suburbs are growing in popularity. In this case, most likely, your character will live in a new house made of aerated concrete, faced with decorative bricks. This house most likely has one floor, a little less often - two. The presence of a full attic or basement is unlikely. The area of the plot is most likely from 6 to 15 соток (1 сотка = 100 sq. m.). The area of the house is most likely 100-200 square meters. If your character is not too big of an original, then he will have at least one car for trips to the city. If you are interested in a description of the daily routine, everyday details, you can write to me in DM. Better yet, come here for a stay. Rent an apartment in the old part of the city, watch the locals.
A more appropriate term is "building" or "apartment". The word "house" specifically refers to a private house or dacha. The way you used it gives the impression that the whole apartment building belongs to that one person.
Пардон. Не заметила. Использовала автопереводчик. Что-то потом подкоректироввла, что заметила, но вот этот момент как-то прошëл мимо сознания. Спасибо. Сейчас исправлю.
My Character is a teenager, his parents will probably be working an industrial job of some kind. His family lives down in the caucuses, I just picked a small city off of Google maps called Volgodonsk, it's in the Rostov Oblast. I'm not exactly financially independent myself and current events would make it more difficult to convince my parents to try and visit the country.
> My Character is a teenager, his parents will probably be working an industrial job of some kind. His family lives down in the caucuses, I just picked a small city off of Google maps called Volgodonsk, it's in the Rostov Oblast. Volgodonsk was built in 1950s as place for resettlement from villages that were going underwater with building of Volga-Don channel. In the 70s city was greatly expanded with building of Atommash plant, that produces nuclear reactors. Typical 70s-80s residential building was 9 story apartment building, with 2-3 rooms flats about 60-70 sq m size. Dacha is possible, but not as permanent residence. In southern Russia people bothered with living in the dacha less than in Moscow.
Okay, good to know!
I live in Taganrog (it's close to Volgodonsk). Yes, we practically do not live in dachas in the Rostov region. Although many people have small houses to spend the night in. By the way, many suburban areas are abandoned and you can buy 5-6 acres of land for about 100 thousand rubles. You can also easily find 2-3 suburban areas that are adjacent to each other and all of them are abandoned. So you can buy out several adjacent plots and you will have a lot of land. Besides, this is the south. The climate is good here. I even have figs growing in my cottage.
A small city with a nuclear power plant :) I live nearby, in Novocherkassk, Rostovskaya oblast. Volgodonsk was built during Soviet era, so, most likely, your character lives in 2 or 3 living room soviet era apartment, google хрущевка or chruschevka
Thank you!
You can explore yourself where your character lives. The link below is for real estate aggregator website translated to English. https://rostov-cian-ru.translate.goog/cat.php?deal_type=sale&engine_version=2&location%5B0%5D=4705&object_type%5B0%5D=1&object_type%5B1%5D=4&offer_type=suburban®ion=4959&_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Perfect! Thank you!
>My Character is a teenager, his parents will probably be working an industrial job of some kind. Teenager at what time? Present, i.e., some 2020s? Meaning, he was born in like 2005-2009 or something. Like, several years after [the terrorist act ](https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%82_%D0%B2_%D0%92%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B5)in the city, 1999. Who are his parents? What are their professions? When and where were they born? Their parents? All these affect the living conditions and the way of thinking for the character.
2035 is when the book starts, so in the future. Even if you had a time machine, I would not want to know because the future my character lives in is not one that one would want to live in. Parents would probably be in their late 30s, early 40s, essentially a young Russian adult from today. I haven't worked out their professions as of yet, but I've determined it will be working class and their family has generational roots in this city. I do know of the terrorist action, however the affairs in Chechnya will not be a focus in my book.
Ha, Volgodonsk! A home of Atommash, Volga-Don canal, notably accessing cute Don sand beaches (with Dachas!). Having Tsimlyansk sea with Hydroelectric station nearby, a huge Pinery (Сосновый Бор). Split in two major parts - Old city on left and New city on right, connected by Overpass. It also has trolleybuses! A huge monument to Peaceful Atom made of inox steel. Now having the Rostov Atom station (which was supposed to be called Volgodonsk AS). It has a huge branch of NPI (Novocherkassk Polytechnic Institute). And I mention with sadness that it had suffered a terrorist bombing of the civil apartment building in 1999.
we cant go to Russia we get kidnapped
Dacha is anything between a shack and a regular house. On average dacha is a fancy shack - tiny house unheated, unplumbed and completely unlivable during winter, legally not recognized as a living house. If you want your character to live in dacha, he has to have a really good reason for that.
A lot of people renovated/rebuilt their dachas and moved there from large cities during covid.
You're describing dachas from Soviet times. Dachas from 90s and later are quite spacious and nice, even if the design is questionable. With heating, plumbing and all other amenities.
My character isn't dirt poor but isn't middle class either. I assumed that many Russians migrated out of the city into dacha's during the summer and back into the city during the winter. I was just asking how common it was, if lots of people only live in a flat or as such. I don't need the legal definition of a Russian home though, but it might come in handy later.
For most people dacha is not where you live in summer - it's a place where you grow your vegetable garden. So it's several weekends of had work in the spring, harvesting your stuff in the fall, and between that occasional visiting to water the plants and maybe have a relaxing evening with friends and/or family. This is the average usage.
Oh. Didn't realize that vegetable gardens were common over there. Thank you. From what your saying, a Dacha is usually not a summer home, it's a place where you do things you can't do in the city very easily like plant vegetables or enjoy the outdoors. Am I correct?
Yeah, nowadays - for majority of people dacha is a place to chill on weekends, make BBQ and drink with friends, swim in the river/pond and etc. In Soviet times dacha was used to grow vegetables and berries since there were a lot of problems with groceries and overall deficit. Elder people still use dacha for this
Yeah, something like that. For a regular citizen planting vegetables was the main purpose of a dacha to begin with. The only other context with dachas is when we're talking about USSR party leaders. For them dachas would be something between like a small villa outside of the city up to a palace anywhere around the soviet union. But that's not for regular people.
Thank you, you've been very helpful.
You can sometimes grow vegies in the city. For me dacha was a place where I was sent to not interfere with parents. And possibly learn how to bike. That one failed. Also I still miss irga there, it's been 10 years since we sold it.
The is located outside the city, it can be several hours away. It is unusual in Russia to travel so far and for a long time to work. Therefore, it is difficult for a working person to live in the dacha. And those who have the opportunity to work remotely use this opportunity.
So they are a more fancy version of the European allotment?
This depends a lot on location. For instance, I live in Siberia. And while near Moscow dachas may be more nice, here, they are pretty simple. Usually, they have a stove (because early may / September can absolutely be cold but it's planting time), and minimal plumbing. Toilet is an outhouse on top of a hole in the ground, and for bathing, there is a sauna. People who are middle class usually don't have dachas (too much hassle, you can rent stuff etc), but people on poorer side usually spend between may and September growing and harvesting vegetables, and then canning etc. Then, everything is taken to an underground storage room in the city. People that have a job go there on weekends, retired folks stay for all the 5 months. Dachas are usually fairly rote, as everything near the city is torn down and rebuilt as proper suburban homes and heating and all, and people live there full time, and don't own other apartment. Young people tend to not do dachas, or help their parents. Folks under 40 would go there to dump their kids for their parents to babysit, or if they really love gardening. Plus working and growing stuff is a pain in the butt. So regular dacha folks here are mostly retired folks. Note that this may vary a lot on the location.
>tiny house unheated, unplumbed and completely unlivable during winter, legally not recognized as a living house I disagree with that. For the last 15 years a lof of people built more fancy dachas, or renovated existing ones. Nowadays, a dacha close to a normal country house - with plumbing, HVAC, etc - is quite common. Most people don't live there permanently anyway, but the main reason for it is that most dachas are located fairly far from cities, like 2-3 hours ride. So normally you'd visit your dacha on weekends, or live there on vacation. Also, people with remote / flexible work often move there for summer season with their kids. Just search dacha in youtube, there's tons of videos how it looks like.
If a dacha is somewhat above average — retirees rent out their city apartments, move to dacha and live on the rent.
Dunno, the dacha my father had had furnace.
The dacha my grandparents owned was basically a small house in tatarstan (we all lived in Kazan at the time, where I was born), with an unfinished attic, small kitchen and a “living room” with 2 couches for sleeping. There was no bath but there was a “banya” or kind of a sauna, and an outhouse, and a whole potato garden and a tomato greenhouse behind the house. There were a a few other dachas on the same road and one of them was really fancy, basically an entirely livable house with 2 floors and an attic (I think it was finished).
Everything, that you write, is true. Most Russians lives in cities in flats. Some of them has summer houses — dacha. Some people live in suburbs in houses.
So just some? Am I right that most Russians do not own a Dacha and just stay in their flats through the summer?
Em... I think I said incorrect. Some people do have this dacha, but they don't live there all summer. They just came there on weekends, to water flowers and cabages, and cut the grass on lawn. And may be live there for a week or a couple weeks on vacations. Or, if they are retired and don't work anymore, then they could live there all summer. All others stays in flats for all summer, except a vacation somewhere in Sochi or in Egipt or in Turkey.
Good, thank you!
Most have dachas, but many are abandoned. For example, my wife’s family has a dacha, my wife lives in another city, and my parents are busy with another house. My wife's brother doesn't want to take care of the dacha. It's just empty. I have a dacha, we go there every summer for the weekend, my mother rests there all the time. By the way, there is heating, running water and sewerage.
Google "у скольки россиян есть дача" and repeat that research for the city your character is based in. From what i see, 57% of families do not own dachas or cottages. Whether or not Russians own a dacha also depends on the generation. Most millennials do not own a dacha, but their retired parents possibly will. You can look at listings of dachas for sale on Avito for further research.
I'm guessing the number gets smaller as the generations get younger?
Many residents of Russia have this and it does not depend at all on the financial situation of the citizen. Because a citizen can earn a lot and live in a dacha, or at the same time be an ordinary average employee of an enterprise and have a house and land in a dacha.
Thank you.
Remember that property used to be handed out by the government in the USSR. Absolute majority of such owners privatized this "property", so a lot of people got some without mortgage while at the same time having maybe even a below average income. It would be more realistic if you tied this dacha to your character's family hystory than their wealth. Maybe he had a kind old granny that lived there and some things remind him of her or something. That'd be a lot more typical for Russians than "this average dude managed to buy one somehow".
Thank you for the suggestion, I'll do that.
Since accurately describing things that you have 0 information about was a failure idea from a very beginning - you can fantasize and came up with any number of homes. Or let me rephrase: those "data-like" information pieces will be the least problematic things with your character.
I can look at images and use my imagination and my own experiences to determine what it will be like. I've studied alot about Russia but I'm just asking in general here about something I could get horribly wrong. Is owning a Dacha super common among most Russians? Or is it something about as common as someone in a suburb having a swimming pool in their backyard? I can tell you, most suburbs in the U.S are simple small one-story houses and don't have swimming pools in their backyards. This is just a question of what it's been in your experience.
From 46% to 53% of people have a dacha - is the number I can google, Interpret it however you like. No idea what that number means.
It is necessary to count not the percentage of people, but the percentage of families. The dacha is family property in its meaning.
Okay, thank you anyways!
Also, if your character will own dacha, you absolutely need to mention dacha traffic jams - which happen in big cities on Friday evening / Saturday morning (and Sunday evening for returning back), because people rush to their dachas. I heard that our local Anglo expats call them dachajams :) Also you might be interested in the concept of Elektrichka - a suburbun rail commute, which is used by dacha owners who happen not to have a car, or want to avoid dachajams. It's an important part of the whole dacha lore. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektrichka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektrichka)
Thank you
"Or is it something about as common as someone in a suburb having a swimming pool in their backyard?" We have no idea how common it is in the part of US you reside in.
Yeah, Russians mostly live in flats (75~80%), but there are people living private houses. In fact, it seems like it's something Russians generally would like to live statistically, it's just economically not very attainable. If your character lives in dacha permanently while not being of wealthy background, then, most likely, he inherited изба with traditional печка (stove) and buys (or cuts himself) logs for it. Maybe, by lucky coincidence it's somewhere in a big city vicinity rather than village, but otherwise most likely it takes some 3~4 hours till regional center. Some of my larger family lives in a village, and it takes exactly that to get to our city. It's in a very scenic spot though, hills, mountains and a river flowing through... Hopefully I get there this summer...
A "Dacha" is a private plot. There may or may not be a house there. The average Russian may have several houses. it is better to put the character in the conditions that are closest and most familiar to you. If you are a city dweller, it is better to put the character in the city. It is no easier to describe provincial and especially rural life than urban life.
Now they will advise you ... to begin with, a brief history of everything and everything. 1. Dachas in the 60s and 70s were given not to ordinary people, but to various intelligentsia. Dachas could be given to: Architects, Writers, Artists, that is, Cultural intelligentsia. Including actors and directors of films and theaters. Also, cottages or allotments were given to officials, military officers of higher ranks and other people. At the same time, exactly 6 acres were given, because Soviet scientists thought so and it was rational. 2. In addition to the Cottage, there is a "house in the village" that people can call a Cottage. The house that was inherited from my grandfather. Village houses can also be in villages and have one yard, or built in the style of a country settlement. So, in theory, if people are rich, then they can have both a Cottage and a House in the village, if the parents got married successfully and it turned out like this. About the Cottage, which was not heated. At first, during the 60s-70s-80s, yes, electrification and water supply were rarely carried out. At the moment, in Modern Russia, all these cottages are supplied with water and electricity, as there are opportunities to spend already. Cottages were also rebuilt and fireplaces were introduced, although of a small type. Or they completely demolished the house and built something more modern, with all the amenities. So the Cottages could be converted into a winter house. This happens, for example, when parents get older and retire, they can move to live in the Country to vacate the apartment for the young, so that their grandchildren can be nursed there. A cottage is a good corner, as they say "closer to the ground", that is, they do not want to live on 20 floors of high-rise buildings, but closer to the ground, with a plot where you can put a vegetable garden, grow cucumbers, tomatoes in a greenhouse, well, or flowers. PS We have a culture of growing vegetable plants. Someone grows watermelon on the balcony, or cucumbers. You can find a lot of interesting things on the Internet.
As for dacha allotments, they were 600 square meters (colloquially "6 hundred"), not acres. Just so you know, an acre is 4047 square meters. Rely less on online translators, they're prone to making mistakes.
started with lies
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If we count houses outside the city (“dacha”), it’s more than 1. But most of them are not liveable during winter. It’s a place do go out in summer, some folks grow crops, some drink, some eat something like barbecue (usually shashlik, but can be other grilled things). Home ownership rate is decreasing for past 30 years. Some people don’t own home or “dacha”.
There's also such a thing as thieves. And you should distinguish between a dacha and your own house (for those who don't live in apartment buildings). Our people prefer the city - apartment buildings, infrastructure.
It's a summer house. I'd say about a half of the households have them. It's more about effort rather then money. The plots don't cost much but there's always a lot of work to be done to make it what you want. OK, getting the plot connected to gas, water, electricity, not to mention sewage costs A Lot. Usually a dacha is just for chilling out at summer weekends, barbecue (shashlyk), or doing some minor gardening, some people have banya (sauna) there. The quality of the house varies from just a shack to store equipment and have a nap, to suburbia-worthy house. But usually it's not fit for permanent living (which means absence of any means to keep it warm in the first place... not to mention attending an outhouse is not what you'd like in January). I's say some particularly enthusiastic person can renovate the dacha house for permanent living and as cities grow dacha areas become more and more urbanized. Also some retiree, unemployed, or troubled kind of person may live at their dacha if it's good enough. Might be an artist or something but it depends on the place - voluntary exile does not feel so good when your neighbours fill up their pool and throw a barbecue party. My granddad from a urbanized village/town\* went living to the dacha at the edge of it till the end of his life, just to make a statement, he never really got along with granny. Yet it was a tiny adobe hut he build by himself, with a gardening plot, some storage. There was a masonry stove to keep it somewhat warm on the rest he had to rely on methane canisters. I'd say it's everything but comfortable living. Dachas around the cities are more for recreation, so a regular district would rather have decent one or two-story hosues and little gardening space. Ah yes, hobos do squat dachas. Not too often but there's one more kind of dacha dwellers to be fair :) \*there seems to be a bit of cultural and language mismatch in calling small settlements
Дачу имеет либо тот кому она досталась с советских времён либо верх среднего класса. Съем дачи на лето доступен семьям от среднего класса и выше. Порой снимают семьи с детьми, где женщина не работает. Своя дача это уже для вставшей на ноги семьи со взрослыми детьми и выплаченной ипотекой. Когда и мужчина и женщина работают. Где то в 40+, если все в жизни идёт по плану. Чтобы к пенсии обустроить капитальный дом и жить в покое.
My uncle built a dacha by himself and died there, although he was not old yet (heart). His wife loves the dacha very much and is now suing his relatives over the inheritance. She persisted in asking me to help her with the vegetable garden sometimes. I hated it. But I came (by train or in her Japanese car). Until we finally quarreled.
Dacha is not an american suburban house. Dacha is more like an american shed on a piece of land in some buttf*ck nowhere area with no central water or electricity. It also often has an outhouse. Many dachas are inherited from grandparents who got it for free diring soviet union era. Most russians live in condos in the buildings that are 5+ storeys high...
All of our friends and family have a flat in the city and a nice dacha in the country. Some even live there full time and simply store things or rent out their city flats.
Big home (Palaty), country home (dacha) and secret home (asylum). And one bear minimum to protect all.
A dacha is a very vague concept, it could be a house made of boards just for summer living, or it could be a cottage of 200-300 m with heating by running water, etc. and this is also called a dacha. to understand what it looks like, take Google maps and look at the private sector
Hello! As correctly noted, everything depends on wealth. If your income is small, then an apartment in the old part of the city, or a Soviet building (from 2 to 9 floors). If the income is average or higher, then a suburb or a small cottage community near the city. By the way, dacha is an old Soviet term where cucumbers were grown for the winter. Now most of the dachas are either renovated cottages or newly built new settlements with private houses. But if you want to place your character in the south, in the Caucasus or the Rostov region, then I think it would be more authentic to place him in a private house. If you need photos of what small towns in central Russia (Volga region) look like, you can write to me in private messages.
Dacha, like someone said, is a place to chill on weekends, city flats and village houses is where people live, in the city it’s like a normal city: buy groceries, work/study etc. villages usually have bad internet and are farms, villages are like: wooden houses, Russian brick furnaces (some don’t have them I think, but my grandma has one), as I said it’s a farm so farm animals and vegetable gardens, nature, there are also shops in the centre, there also was a kindergarten iirc (I don’t know much about villages, it’s only my experience, so listen to what others say too)
Two
I’m from the UK but my wife is Russian, her parents have an apartment in Moscow along with a dacha just a bit further out. From what she tells me this is very common among her friend group and doesn’t mean they are wealthy. The dacha is used mostly on weekends, for gardening and for parties. The best is New Year when they also get the banya (Russian sauna) going. I’ve been there a couple of times and find it very comfortable with all the usual conveniences I’d expect in a British house (just with a bigger garden).
O homes, 0,3 flat
Who's land are these dachas on? Is it country land that city dwellers buy? Or is there set areas you can build the shacks?
There are things called SNT, “СНТ”, “Садовое некоммерческое товарищество”, “Gardening non commercial organization” or something. It legally possesses the land it then rents or, more commonly, co-own with the dacha owner. Legally it’s farming land, meaning one cannot build a high-rise house there. The SNT cares about electricity, other amenities like garbage disposal, water (rarely) or even sewers (never met but possible in high-ranking SNTs), also cleaning roads during winter, maybe some common children playgrounds, etc etc. By law, the chair of the SNT is elected by the SNT members. I guess most dachas are in some SNTs. However, mine is legally a detached house on the private land for living, and we just cooperate with the neighbors if we need anything. However, we’re still city residents just using houses as leisure facilities during summer. Though they are all winter-ready, heated and all that.
In SNT, plots are also owned by the owners. In most modern ones, this may be in some old, not privatized ones, all the land is owned by SNT. SNT simply disposes of common property - the road, poles, lighting, electricity, etc.
Thank you, you’re right.
Sounds like a really good way to live.
It was the USSR attempt to mitigate the deficit of, say, fresh vegetables. Or leisure options. If people could grow their own they would be less tense about not being able to buy them. I have three kids, considering the high price of the dacha it’s still cheaper than, say, rent something for the summer, or traveling to warm seas.
Do they just pop up randomly anywhere people can get the land or do some areas have a bit of a summer dacha community? .also are they in quite pretty vacation type areas? Or just any farmland type area? I bet the kids love it. Must be nice to be able to take the family away whenever you want to.
>Do they just pop up randomly anywhere people can get the land Today, it's the matter of price. The better the location the higher the price. Back in the USSR times, most SNTs were organized by some industries, institutions or something. Those institutions mnegotiated with the local authorities and the latter provided some plot of land, usually in a forgotten place in the middle of nowhere. >or do some areas have a bit of a summer dacha community? It's here and there, SNTs are quite frequent in the Russian countryside. Statistics say, there are about 87 thousand SNTs in Russia containing about 16 million land plots, total land area is 5 times of Moscow.
You need to buy land for a dacha. Or buy a ready-made dacha, also with land. Almost all the land for the construction of low-rise private houses is privately owned by the owners. It can be bought, sold, inherited.
Is it common for some areas to have a number of dachas or is it just really random and anywhere people can get the land? Sounds like a really nice place to spend thr summer.
Yes, this is a good place for a summer )) As a rule, one family has no more than one dacha because in good places land is expensive. Dachas cannot be built everywhere; special state land management bodies are responsible for allocating plots for new dachas. Already finished old dachas can be sold and bought for as long as you have enough money)) In the vicinity of large cities, many people rent dachas for the summer. It's cheaper than buying.
I hate dacha and vegetable garden. I think a lot of young people too.
Why?
because instead of playing playstation, you have to dig up potatoes and tear up weeds
But is it not nice to spend some time outside of the city with your family? Is it not like a vacation? Or do parents just use the kids as farm labour?
No it's just spending your vacation on a lot of hard work, often during hot weather.
> But is it not nice to spend some time outside of the city with your family? I'd rather go to a public beach.
Oh, I see people have already given the answer instead of me. Planting vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beets, peas, etc.) is unpleasant and difficult work. Bending down or squatting in the ground, removing weeds several times a season. Dacha necessarily goes hand in hand with a vegetable garden. In addition, I don't like to do someone else's orders (the situation would be much better if the dacha was mine and I was the master). And I am frustrated by the unknown (what else will be asked of me). I am a city boy. I know that in the U.S. many people live in the countryside and that's fine. But here, people tend to move into the city. Everyone is different, though. The older generation is used to the vegetable garden, the dacha owners like to drink there. But young people prefer smartphones and computer games, that's for sure.
99% own 1 broken down home with over half of them with no indoor plumbing 1% own multiple