Dacha Idylls: Living Organically in Russia's Countryside

Dacha Idylls is a lively account of dacha life and how Russians experience this deeply rooted tradition of the summer cottage amid the changing cultural, economic, and political landscape of postsocialist Russia. Simultaneously beloved and reviled, dachas wield a power that makes owning and caring for them an essential part of life. Melissa L. Caldwell captures the dacha's abiding traditions and demonstrates why Russians insist that these dwellings are key to understanding Russian life.

"Anyone who has spent time in Russia knows the importance of `going to the dacha.' In this ethnography Melissa Caldwell reveals the mystique of rural life by exploring the social nature of gardening and making food, and Russian relationshisp to the land. It's truly an innovative study!"---Catherine Wanner, author of communities of the Converted: Ukrainians and Global Evangelism

"In this engaging ethnography, Melissa Caldwell brilliantly demonstrates what is peculiarly Russian about the dacha, long an object of literary and nostalgic imagining, while simultaneously situating the' vacation cottage' within larger histories of leisure, consumption, home, and postsocialist transition. A must-read for scholars of Russia or tourism."---Pamela Ballinger, author of History in Exile: Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans

Melissa L. Caldwell is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the author of Not by Bread Alone: Social Support in the New Russia (UC Press).