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The article studies the features of second home land development in Russia. Basing on the data of the All-Russian agricultural censuses, the author shows that organized second home development is represented by two quantitatively and qualitatively different processes, namely: development of residential dachas, observed in horticultural non-profit partnerships (HNP) with dominant residential, recreational and agricultural functions, and development of agricultural dachas (vegetable gardens), observed in gardening non-profit partnerships (GNP), performing only an agricultural function. Despite regional differentiation, the general developmental trend might be described as gradual strengthening of the recreational and residential functions of the HNPs, which is facilitated by institutional regulation. The absolute and relative scales of the GNPs extension are gradually decreasing, but due to the unique localization and long-term traditions of subsidiary gardening, they remain relevant, especially during periods of crisis. Therefore, in some regions, their share in the total land of garden and dacha formations substantially exceeds the national average. The desire of the owners to supplement the functions of the GNPs with a permit for the construction of houses leads to the transfer of gardening lands to other categories, but in the absence of such an opportunity, Russian GNPs remain an analogue of foreign «allotment gardens», where one cannot spend the night, but can do gardening.

The dacha community, as a characteristic phenomenon of Russian reality, increases its importance in the redistribution of the population in large cities of Russia. The dacha as a place of the seasonal living is transforming into the first home. The study of the genesis of the dacha community has established that nowadays, having transformed into a partnership of real estate owners, it has gained the potential to intensify the process of deurbanization of a large city through the transformation of its social, economic, communal-infrastructural and ecological subsystems. The article offers to introduce zoning of the location of dacha cottages from the point of view of geography. This zoning is based on transport services: a city, a neighbouring suburb, a distant suburb. The sample survey of 25 dacha communities in Volgograd with its suburbs and their grouping allowed to find out the following fact: those ones which are located in the border areas of the city and in the neighbouring suburbs have the greatest potential in transforming the dacha into the place of permanent home and promoting deurbanization.

This article delves into the proliferation of dacha as a second / temporary country residence for urbanites in Russia. The phenomenon is viewed from a socio-cultural and economic perspective, uncovering the reasons behind their popularity among Russian city dwellers­. These reasons are related to the geographical, historical, and economic features of the nation as well as to the evolution of rural areas and agriculture across various zones. The article analyzes the diversity of second homes, their types, quantities as well as ­preferences and activities of dacha dwellers ( dachniks ), their socio-economic composition­ and the challenges they face, contingent on the geographic location of these estates and the demand for them among specific urban groups. It is found that the interaction ­between dachniks who come from urban centers, local communities, and rural economies, as well as the distinctive facets of dacha life, vary markedly depending on the natural and socio-economic conditions, which are largely shaped by the remoteness of a place from cities. Special emphasis is put on the distribution and distinctiveness of dachas in the Non-Black Earth zone regions of central Russia, where their prevalence and significance are especially pronounced.

This study investigates the positive aspects of the impact COVID-19 pandemic has had on rural development, providing several examples from the post-Soviet space. It is predicted that the intensification of dacha recreation phenomenon, which has been significantly influenced by the pandemic, will spatially extend beyond the periurban areas of the largest cities and will create the preconditions for the restoration of abandoned villages, development of rural tourism and preservation of “archaic” living techniques and traditional lifestyle. In an interdisciplinary context, we learn about the increased tendency of city dwellers to own second homes (dacha) in the countryside. Attention is drawn to the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and a decrease in solar activity, along with the decrease in the disinfection capacity of solar UV radiation. The curative proprieties of landscapes are investigated, methods of their valorisation are proposed, and landscape therapy is proposed to be considered during pandemics, some of the most effective activities being open-air walks, with inhalation of negative oxygen ions, phytoncides, terpenes. The growth of uncertainties due to unlimited and uncontrolled human society development is postulated. It is proved that development must consider the unpredicted effects of a catastrophe and use this knowledge to prevent other more devastating events and effects. In this context, the preservation of the primary, although outdated, living techniques is proposed, since they can act as important survival factors in critical mode. It is concluded that COVID-19 pandemic should be perceived as a milestone in the reorientation of geography and ecology towards understanding and advocating for nature preservation to be able to sustain human society in a continuous transformation.

Asked to explain the mechanisms of everyday survival in Russia, many people answer with one word: \"potato.\" Potato is a key factor in subsistence throughout postsocialist countries, but potato discourses and practices serve as well to dramatize the stark devolution of state--society relations and the ceaseless industry of the population. This essay posits potato as an axis of practice, around which myriad gestures of labor, exchange, and consumption are organized; it also presents potato as a complex system of knowledge, embedded in historical memory and encapsulating local theories of economic devolution. Several ethnographic and economic studies have analyzed the significance of postsocialist food growing; this essay focuses on the chief product of that labor and the narratives that circulate around it. It argues that although potato conveys popular critiques of social stratification, it also frames experiences of personhood.

Agricultural lands occupy a special place in the structure of urban lands. There are horticultural and gardening associations on these lands. The “belts” of horticultural associations surround large cities and small settlements; dachas and vegetable gardens play the role of individual subsidiary farms and recreation areas. In Russia, the area of such lands is about 1.5 million hectares; in the Orenburg region - 18.7 thousand hectares. Studies show that horticultural ecosystems differ significantly from the adjacent urban and agricultural ecosystems in terms of the characteristics of soil and plant cover. The reason for this is private investment in the development of these territories, which needs to be managed. For the consistent development of these socio-ecological systems (SES), it is necessary to implement a soft management system. The purpose of creating and supporting of socio-ecological systems in the agricultural use zone and suburbs is the formation of a sustainable complex of natural and social conditions for gardening and recreation of residents; optimization of the belt of lands separating the city from agricultural land to reduce the impact of adverse environmental factors on urban ecosystems (wind restriction, fire safety, pests, etc.); use of these lands as carbon polygons for capturing and retaining of carbon dioxide.

This article considers the salient features of counter-urbanization, which take place when urban residents, during the summer months, move to live in their second homes or their dachas [country homes or summer cottages]. Due to the social forces that are the result of incomplete urbanization, class polarization, and the rapid growth of major city centers, there are two powerful oppositional flows of migration taking place today in Russia. The first is centripetal migration or the movement of rural populations to large cities. The second form of migration is centrifugal migration or counterurbanization, which is the relocation of urban populations to rural areas. The article gives a theoretical overview of a new vision of migration as a part of modern flexible ‘liquid’ mobility, which enables urban residents to be constantly ‘on the move’, migrating between their urban apartments and suburban or distant dachas. A theoretical sociological background provides the field research, presented in the article, with an understanding of the realm of meanings of de-urbanization in a short and long historical run and in perspective. Russian men and women, who work in various professions due to advances in telecommunication technologies, are able to spend some extended periods at their dachas where they simultaneously work and enjoy the natural beauty and countryside. The different types of dachas in Russia that are either close to cities or in remote regions are examined. The case study of dacha counter-urbanization in the periphery region of Kostroma oblast' considers: 1) various features of the return counter-urbanization to remote dacha and 2) the social, economic and cultural effects that these dacha settlements have had on both the urban and rural residents.

Joseph Stalin was the unchallenged dictator of the Soviet Union for so long that most historians have dismissed the officials surrounding him as mere yes-men.On Stalin's Team overturns this view, revealing that behind Stalin were a dozen or so loyal and competent men who formed a remarkably effective team from the late 1920s until his death in.

The construction of new housing has been the most visible of all the spatial changes to have affected the post-socialist suburban landscape. It is argued in this article that former summer-home settlements are a hidden component of contemporary residential suburbanisation in former socialist countries. The building of summer or weekend homes (dachasettlements in the former Soviet Union) around major cities for urban residents was a specific feature of socialist metropolitan planning. After removing construction restrictions, the stock of vacantdachasstarted to support the supply side of the suburban housing market. Whiledachaswere a reserve of affordable housing during the recession of the 1990s, they served as a stock of building plots during the construction boom of the mid 2000s. In the Tallinn Metropolitan Area, former second homes are even more important than new post-1991 residential areas in terms of giving access to detached houses to the metropolitan population.