Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

Summer, the short, sweet release from the interminable cocoon of Russian winter, is a time for swimming and riding, and sometimes both in the cottage community of Vyalki.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

The dacha is where Russians connect with nature and each other. On weekends (from left) 11-year-old German Shingel; his great-aunt Vera Zhelkina; his mother, Milana; and his grandmother Lyubov Saleyeva gather at their summer home in Valday.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

At his Valday dacha Sergey Yudin, deputy director of a pipeline repair firm, plants, burns weeds, and indulges the "inner peasant" who lives within many Russians. In pinched Soviet times such gardens grew some 90 percent of Russia's vegetables.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

Six-year-old Polina Merkulova hides in the bushes outside her family's dacha near Sergiyev Posad, about 50 miles northeast of Moscow. An hour's drive brings the family from city to country.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

To stand under the springs at Gremyachiy Klyuch, nine miles from Sergiyev Posad, where a saint once stopped to pray, is to be showered with blessings. Tourists from all over Russia come to collect the holy water—reputed to cure illness—in buckets.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

Midsummer Night, known as the festival of Ivan Kupala (St. John the Baptist), is marked by candles and flower garlands in Vladimirskoye. Celebrants walk three times around Svetloyar Lake, which legend says makes wishes come true.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

At the lavish end of the dacha spectrum are faux châteaux like these at Zelenyy Mys. Roughly half are permanent residences. A helicopter landing pad and yacht club are among the amenities for well-heeled owners.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

Shoes and inhibitions are shed during a party at a dacha belonging to a Muscovite in the film industry.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

Barrel-bellied bathers, picnicking near the Dubna River, are as much a part of the summer scenery as grilled meat and beer.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

Like many, Anna Merkulova is a weekend dachnik. She returns to Moscow on Mondays for her job as a dog groomer, leaving her children, Polina and Yegor, behind in the hands of their grandmother.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

German Shingel fills a tub for watering the garden under the watchful eye of his father, Yevgeniy. To outwit Russia's short growing season, many dacha owners set flats of seedlings on their urban windowsills in March.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

In the mishmash of a dacha community, an ersatz schloss and wooden shack may stand shoulder to shoulder. Here Zinaida Kondratyeva, owner of the modest wood house in the background, works in her garden with her daughter-in-law Alevtina in Lapshinka village, near Moscow. The castle-like house is owned by a lawyer.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

Tatyana Gvozdetskaya embroiders in her family dacha in Bykovo, near Moscow. "When are you going to the dacha?" Russians ask each other as the season approaches in May. Some take up permanent residence for the summer; others commute from the city on weekends, while those who live near their dachas go on a daily basis.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

The dacha community of Lyubitel-5, near the town of Elektrostal, sits in the shadow of a steel smelter and Elemash, a plant rumored by locals to produce fuel pellets for nuclear reactors. This gave rise to a local joke:
"Where do you work?" a woman from Elektrostal was asked.
"State secret," she replied.
"What do you do?"
"Military secret," she said.
How much do you make?"
"Not too much—5,000 rubles a bomb."

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

The Slavic festival of Ivan Kupala, here celebrated in Vladimirskoye, near Nizhniy Novgorod, falls on Midsummer Night. Bonfires are set to drive away evil spirits. It is believed that couples who successfully jump over the fire will marry by year's end.

Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen

In the short, sweet summer, after a long, dark winter, Russians trade wool coats and heavy boots for bathing suits and sandals. Near the dacha community of Vyalki, young girls ride horses and swim with them in a nearby pond.