With travel to Russia prohibited for the foreseeable future, I’ve been reflecting on my own experiences in this most culturally diverse, complex, fascinating and unique collection of countries. Russia is just that: a collection of regions, towns and cities. Each with its own language, foods, traditions and sadly united under another despot. With singular devotion to the arts: performance, architectural, sculptural, pictorial. In metallurgy and mosaics, in marble, frescoed and …
Meet my friend Natasha. She hosted a lunch at her dacha for me a few years ago. This was formerly her great grandparents’ vacation home but is now permanent residence for her family… her husband and son. What is a Dacha? The noun “dacha”, coming from verb “davat” (to give), originally referred to land allotted by the tsar to his nobles; and indeed the dacha in Soviet times is similar to the allotment in …