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A ‘dacha’ is a country house, made of wood, used by Soviet
citizens to escape the rigors of the city for rural idyll.
Widespread in the countries of the former USSR, this important
cultural and architectural form has been largely ignored
academically. In Dacha Fyodor Savintsev documents this particularly
Russian phenomenon, his photographs constitute a unique record of a
rapidly vanishing fairytale wooden world. The word ‘dacha’ has
been used to describe constructions ranging from grand imperial
villas to small sheds. Originally bestowed by the Tsar to reward
courtiers, this custom continued following the revolution, with
Soviet cooperatives building dachas for their members. Supposedly
for the benefit of labourers, in reality they were destined for
those favoured by the State, including famous writers, architects
and artists – from Pasternak to Prokofiev. The fall of the Soviet
Union accelerated their use, as economic uncertainty forced city
dwellers towards self-sufficiency. The dacha tradition has survived
Revolution, war and the collapse of Communism, becoming an integral
part of life in the process. Using contemporary photographs to
showcase these uniquely individual buildings for the first time,
alongside an introduction explaining their historical and cultural
context, Dacha is the only publication of its kind.
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