The cultural iceberg

of Russian culture.

Lyubov Obsholova
2 min readApr 5, 2021

Country home or dacha is one of the most famous Russian features that is known for the biggest part of Russian people. It is strongly connected with the other features, which are not so obvious, but are also important.

Why Russian people have dachas? Let’s find out!

  1. First, they love organic food. To grow vegetables and fruits with your own hands means that you know under what conditions it was done. In this case, you can be sure about the quality of products.
  2. Second, the dacha is a good way to spend your holidays and weekends. There are a lot of physical activities resulting from living in the country so it is possible way to spend your leisure time.
  3. The following feature is a bit deeper than 2 previous because it is based on Russian pathriotism. Russians love nature, they enjoy it from the bottom of their heart. Numerous poets, writers, songwriters and many others has been glorifying for a long time. For example, a poetry “Hey there, Russia, mother country…” by Sergey Esenin, written in 1914:

Hey there, Russia, mother country,
Cottages in icon guise…
Never-ending land of wonder,
Vistas blue that suck the eyes.

Like a passing holy pilgrim
On your fields I turn my gaze,
On the outskirts of poor villages
Rustling poplars pine and fade.

[…]

(Translated by Peter Tempest)

4. Country home is a good place to have the whole family round the table, come together by working, to speak about lives of each other. There is a famous expression: “And now we all together go to the dacha”. Attitude to the family members is less visible feature, I think.

5. The last one feature is the lack of money. To produce foods like potato, cabbage, carrots and so on is cheaper if you do it by your own. It’s a good way to safe money in the country where 13,5% of population are living below the poverty line.

There are a lot of Russian features to talk about, but I decided to choose dacha. I hope this entry was helpful or useful for you and your better understanding of the Russian culture.

Thank you for attention!

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