When I first came to Russia I was confused because of the term village house and dacha. I used them interchangeably and realized later that they are not the same…
Svetochka and I have a village house we go to and I prefer the village over what Russian’s refer to as a dacha. Some people have very fancy dachas and others just have a little shed to keep tools in, that they work on their gardens with.
What is a dacha?
The best I understand is that dachas are get away places for people who live in the big cites. It allows them to get recharged by spending time in the countryside. Dacha is Russian word for seasonal or year-round second homes often located in the suburbs of big Soviet and big post-Soviet cities. A village is where people live year around and is self sustaining…
I do know, that people in Russia have changed how they look at dachas and many now like to live year around in what use to be considered just a summertime thing…
I talk considerably about our village that we go to and it is not a dacha because it is located hundreds of kilometers away from large cites. A dacha is usually located around 25 to 50 km away from the city.
Either way you go, a village or a dacha, to have a place to get away from a city of 15,000,000+ people is a good idea. 🙂
WtR