Country house (dacha) as a space of autonomy for a modern subject

Many citizens in modern cities tend to spend their leisure time in their country houses (dachas in Russian). This kind of second houses normally fulfill a compensatory function and can be regarded as a space of day-to­day experience of modernity. In this way country houses give valuable data for comparison of different moder­nity projects, such as those implemented in the USSR and Western countries, and their consequences in every­day lives of ordinary people. On the basis of the variety of sources including field-work and archival data for the Soviet and Russian case and research literature from Western countries an attempt of such a comparison is un­dertaken in the article. Several general issues common for country house/dacha narratives in both Russia and Western countries were identified; every issue deals with a contradiction typical for modernizing societies. Firstly, life in a country house gives more opportunities for modern citizens to control their schedule, occupa­tions, quality of food. Secondly, a country house provides a friendlier environment which forms stronger emo­tional ties in comparison with depersonalized spaces of a modern city. Then, both dacha and country house act as an important source of authenticity in the global urbanized world. One can see it in the trend to furnish country houses with old rural items. The last issue is consumption. Western people perceive their country houses as a place to relax and leave the race for brand new consumption items behind. The Russians' habit to bring their old stuff to their dachas was first caused by the Soviet economy of shortage and later Russian crisis economy. How­ever those old things nowadays tend to be perceived as vintage and to evoke nostalgic feelings. Western and Soviet modern projects succeeded in creating the same kind of a modern subject who is seeking escape from the control of big systems to build his/her own autonomous enclave and to implement his/her own personal projects. Due to the limited variety of sources on Western country-houses this conclusion is rather a hypothesis and needs further testing.