In a landmark decision taken by the Soviet authorities in October 1933, Sochi and Abkhazia were chosen as the places to build dachas for the top brass of the Soviet nomenclature – general secretaries. The building process lasted until the 1950s, producing a number of dachas that were very much like one another, sharing the same so-called 'Stalin' style.
This dacha on the Ritsa Lake in Abkhazia was put into service in 1947. German prisoners of war had built it
It's 40 kilometers away from Sukhum, accessible by a road that runs through a valley along the Bzyb River
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In the first years after the dacha was built, the road was so narrow that whoever was going to drive to the dacha had to phone it in advance to make sure that one one was driving from there - the road only allowed for one vehicle to travel at a time
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Stalin had a luxury restaurant and a hotel built across from the dacha on the other bank of the lake, making the place a major tourist attraction
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Alas, the restaurant and hotel buildings are no longer there, having perished in a massive fire decades ago
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The dacha on the Ritsa Lake is known as a place where the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong lived for a whole month
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The Soviet government had special building and engineering departments set up to oversee the construction of the dachas
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Nowadays, busfuls of tourists come here to have a look at Stalin’s plain, to the point of being ascetic, dacha
Credits:
Photos by Ibragim Chkadua, JAMnews