Yesterday Fabrizio asked me if houses in Sokol village were still used as Dacia (or Dacha in English transcription), but the thing is that those houses never were used as Dacha. So I decided to tell you a little bit about Dacha in general.
Since the end of XIX century (I believe) people went out of city for summer time to stay in country house, of their own or rented. The rest of the year houses stood empty, awaiting for summer residents. So these houses were what we call Dacha.
In Soviet Union idea of Dacha became more and more popular; nearly every townman wanted to have his own house with a garden in the sountryside to spend there his leisure time. There were privileged categories of citizen, such as military officers, scientists, writers and poets, who had a right for a house in special Dacha villages, owned by govement, where house were large and comfortable. Other people were less lucky and had to jostle in tiny huts, often built by owners themselves.
During hard times, Dacha was a source of vegetables and friuts, and many people lived on it. Nowadays, those simple country houses are used for rest from city noise on summer weekends and some spend there vacation.
The photo, though, was taken in Sokol village; this house was never used as Dacha but people live there all year through.
