Kuntsevo dacha today

Dachas

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Subject essay: James von Geldern

Once a sign of party privilege, the dacha, the little house in the countryside coveted by every Soviet citizen, became a possibility for broad sectors of the Soviet population under Khrushchev. Allotted through trade unions, institutes, factories and other professional organizations, the dacha became a prize plum in the Soviet system of spoils. City dwellers dreamt of having a small plot of land outside the city to flee to on summer weekends, away from the heat and dirt of the city. Cities themselves were growing at astonishing rates. Moscow incorporated outlying rural lands into its city limits, building them up quickly with new apartment buildings. Thus the chance to sneak outside the city to breath fresh air became all the more valued.

Privileged dacha communities such as Peredelkino, the writers community where Boris Pasternak, Kornei Chukovskii and others lived in homes allotted them by the Writers Union, or compounds for party leaders, cosmonauts, and star athletes, were nestled relatively close to t

After the death of Lenin in 1924, Stalin ultimately emerged as the Soviet Union’s de facto leader, confounding those around him who had misjudged his political acumen.

During the 1930s, his Five-Year plans drastically altered the socioeconomic makeup of the USSR at a terrible human cost. His innate paranoia then instigated a bloody purge of his one-time comrades in the Communist Party as he sought to consolidate his grip on power.

Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 marked the most vulnerable point in his dictatorship. Nevertheless, allied with Britain and America, the Soviet dictator would play a major role in reshaping the world following the defeat of Hitler’s regime in 1945.

By the time of his death in 1953, Stalinism – the ideology synonymous with his approach to statecraft and culture – had transformed the Soviet Union into a superpower. But not without cost: estimated tens of millions had perished due to his decisions. This would ensure his criticism by successors.

Where and when was Stalin born?

Josef Stalin was born as Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvi

Joseph Stalin's Dacha: The Riches of Power Beyond Authority

In the 1900s, dachas had already risen to extremely high levels of popularity and prominence across all social classes in Russian society, and esteemed political leaders were no exception. Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1950s had many dachas throughout Russia including the suburbs of Moscow and Sochi. (1) His most frequented one, however was situated right outside the political capital of the country in the former town of Kuntsevo, which is now a district of outer Moscow. The dacha, known as the Kuntsevo Dacha, was to Stalin just like to any other resident of a dacha in Russia, a source of refuge. According to Medvedev in his book The Unknown Stalin, the Kuntsevo Dacha was a place Stalin would retreat to on the weekends and the summertime. It was a refuge where Stalin “did not like his bodyguards to be too close.” (2) However, what made Stalin’s dacha quite different from the typical and commonplace dacha was not only its aesthetics and complexities, for each

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