A representative 1993 survey conducted in various cities of Russia by the
All-Russian Center of Public Opinion Polls revealed that three-quarters of
the respondents or their close relatives have a parcel of land which they use
to grow agricultural produce. In large cities, the number was 60%. And two-
thirds of the "have-nots" would like to obtain such a parcel. ¹

Such a pull towards land and the desire to engage in farming along with
one's principal job go back to the recent agrarian past of the nation, and to
the peasant roots of many urbanites. However, such factors as poverty, long-
term food shortages, urban overcrowding, and very meager personal living
spaces, especially in large cities, contribute to this thirst for land as well. For
all these reasons urbanites seek a second dwelling in the countryside, usually
a low-quality dwelling surrounded by a small parcel of land. According to
the 1993 poll, only 3% of the residents of large cities (population over
200,000) and 10% of those in medium and small cities (below 50,000
residents) have parcels sized 0.2 hectares and over. Between one-quarter
and one-third of the landholdings are less than 0.05 hectares.

Currently the country "estates" of Russian urbanites fall into four major
categories. Dachas, the oldest category, appeared long before the revolution
of 1917 as recreation sites of white-collar people, their version of the
traditional estates of the landed gentry. A dacha could be privately owned
or rented and was located, as a rule, close to a city -- a major difference
from traditional estates.

In the 1920s, government-owned and "departmental" (viedomstvennye)
dachas appeared to serve three major segments of the new Soviet elite: the
Party, economic management, and the intelligentsia. The expansion of
private recreation sites, but without formal ownership of land, began in the
1930s and continued for about 20 years after the war. Since that time
dachas have largely remained a perk of elite social groups. Land parcels for
private recreational construction were being distributed through places of
work, and dachniks were required to be members of a cooperative set up on
an institutional basis (e.g., a dacha cooperative of aircraft specialists) which

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