In the winter, the smoke from wood fires rises above the chimneys of snow-covered houses in Peski, set into the woodland just an hour’s train ride outside Moscow. In the summer, it is replaced by the smell of grilling meat and the sound of children playing outside.
The Russian dacha has a romantic reputation, conjuring up images of ornate wooden cottages and secluded country estates for aristocrats. The reality, however, resembles a Tolstoy novel far less than it does a vast Butlins holiday camp, with swathes of the world’s largest country given up to recently-erected chalets.
