How people spent summer in the Russian Empire (PHOTOS)
When did the ‘dacha’ first appear in Russia?
Country estates had long been granted to Russian nobles as a reward for state service and were passed down through inheritance. They were located outside cities – sometimes far from the capitals – and were, for a long time, seen as a source of income, rather than a place for leisure.
The word ‘dacha’ (дача) appeared under Peter the Great and comes from the verb ‘to give’ (‘давать’). To prevent officials and nobles from leaving St. Petersburg for their distant family estates in summer, the emperor began giving them free plots of land near the city. Recipients were required to build elegant houses and parks in European style at their own expense.
Under Catherine the Great, a fashion emerged for spending time in nature, walking and contemplating natural beauty. Country estates began to be remodelled in the English style – with shady landscape parks and artificial ponds.
But, ‘dachas’ truly became popular in the 19th century, with the development of railways. At first, this pastime was common mainly among Petersburgers, who complained that the city lacked parks and recreation areas.
Later, ‘dachas’ spread throughout Russia. Every summer, officials, doctors, teachers and merchants left the city for the countryside. Landowners, who found themselves short of money after the abolition of serfdom in 1861, began dividing their lands into plots and renting them out to city dwellers.
Entire villages of wooden houses emerged around railway lines. Anton Chekhov wrote in his play ‘The Cherry Orchard’: “All cities, even the smallest, are now surrounded by dachas.”
How Russians started going ‘to the waters’
The tradition of visiting mineral springs in Russia, meanwhile, appeared in the 18th century. Peter the Great had visited European resorts (Karlsbad, Pyrmont, Spa) and enjoyed them so much that he decided to find healing waters in his own country.
The first resort was established in 1719 in the northern Olonets Governorate (modern-day Republic of Karelia). The first set of medical recommendations also appeared then: patients were advised to drink healing water on an empty stomach and walk more. Peter personally visited the resort several times, but it fell into neglect after his death.
Interest in mineral waters was then revived in the early 19th century. In 1805, Emperor Alexander I signed a decree establishing the Lipetsk Mineral Waters resort. Local water was said to be as good as foreign varieties.
Caucasian Mineral Waters
In the first half of the 19th century, treatment in the Caucasus was very basic and uncomfortable: patients bathed in pits and lived in nomadic tents. Moreover, the journey was unsafe, as local mountain tribes could attack at any moment.
In 1823, Professor of Pharmacy Alexander Nelyubin studied the healing waters of Pyatigorsk, Zheleznovodsk, Yessentuki and Kislovodsk and also discovered new mineral springs. As a result, the popularity of Caucasian resorts grew. One enthusiast of the Caucasian Mineral Waters was poet Mikhail Lermontov (he described his stay “at the waters” in his novel ‘A Hero of Our Time’).
In the early 19th century, aristocrats still preferred to travel to European spas. But, by the end of the 19th century, the infrastructure of Russian resorts had grown significantly: hotels, restaurants and theaters appeared. Healing baths were now taken in specialised (and very beautiful) complexes – for example, the Main Narzan Baths in Kislovodsk.
A trip to the waters was expensive. At the same time, many travellers went to resorts not only for treatment, but also to gossip, show off new outfits and have some affairs.
Seaside resorts: clinics, bathhouses & healing air
Before the1917 Bolshevik Revolution, one could holiday on the shores of the Baltic, Caspian, Azov, and Black seas.
The most well-equipped resort on the Baltic was Sestroretsk, near St. Petersburg. It had the only indoor pool in Russia, open all year round.
But, far more popular than the Baltic was the Black Sea coast, especially Crimea. Due to its comfortable climate, the southern coast of the peninsula was dubbed the ‘Russian Riviera’ or ‘Russian Côte d'Azur’.
In the late 19th – early 20th centuries, sanatoriums and clinics began to open in places like Yalta, Alushta, Gurzuf, Alupka, Simeiz, Yevpatoria, Saki, Feodosia and Sudak. Aristocrats bought land in Crimea and built summer residences and dachas there. Crimea was especially recommended for tuberculosis patients. Writer Anton Chekhov also had a house in Yalta.
In the late 19th – early 20th centuries, resorts also appeared on the Caucasian coast: Sochi and Anapa.
In the early 20th century, resorts began to build beaches, but they looked nothing like modern ones. Holidaymakers used weird bathing machines – tall wooden structures that were carried on wheels right into the sea. One had to change inside them, too.
Strict beach etiquette also applied: men and women could not bathe in each other's sight, as it was considered improper. In addition to such mobile bathhouses, there were also stationary public ones, often belonging to sanatoriums, placed on the shore at the water's edge or directly in the sea on stilts.
Before the revolution, going to resorts was very expensive. In 1914, a month of treatment at the Saki mud-bath clinic in Crimea cost 140–350 rubles – by comparison, the monthly salary of workers at metallurgical plants in southern Russia was just 40 roubles.
The full version of this article can be found (in Russian) on Culture.ru.