The Czar Slept Here : Once lavish retreats for the USSR’s powerful, dachas now open to public

The sun poured in through sheer lace curtains on the French doors we had left open overnight. The breeze across the balcony carried the scent of lilacs and evergreen trees, and a faint hint of the seashore. Songbirds awakened us to a glorious dawn.

Ukraine? Am I dreaming? I nudged my husband, Doug, who was aching from the 23-hour train ride from Kiev the day before.

We walked out onto the balcony. At 5 a.m. the late-May sun had just moved above the horizon. It was a fireball that rose once, disappeared behind a cloud, then rose farther in the same blood-red color. Perhaps this is why Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II, chose to build his summer palace--his dacha--on this spot. Yes, we were still in the Ukraine, but it was not the Ukraine we knew. After the cold and dark winter months on diplomatic duty in the capital of Kiev, we were ready for this: living like royalty in a guest suite in Levadia Palace on the Crimean peninsula.

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Say the word dacha and to most people it evokes images of sublime country retreats used by the rich, famous or politically connected. But a dacha (pronounced DAH cha) can be as simple as a one-room shack by a stream or as elaborate as a mansion or palace. Many urban-dwellers in Ukraine and Russia own dachas in rural areas where they grow vegetables, raise pigs and chickens or just get away for the weekend. With the economies in the former Soviet Union still struggling after independence, many use food grown at their dachas as an important supplement to their daily diets. At the other end of the scale, dachas were often given to Soviet literary figures and party members as perks for their loyalty and the glory they brought to their country.

Say the word Crimea to a Ukrainian and you’ll get a wistful, “Aaah, Crimea” in reply. The peninsula’s attractions include its locally famous Massandra wines, swaying evergreen trees, health resorts and a mostly sunny climate (OK, it’s probably the climate). And now it’s possible to stay in dachas in the Crimea, the onetime crown jewel of the USSR’s Black Sea resorts--for a reasonable price.

The main building of Levadia Palace, our lodging and the place where Nicholas II and his wife, Czarina Alexandra, spent many months of the year, is well preserved. This granite renaissance-style estate, built in 1911, was a refuge from the harsh winters in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd), and the family lived here in grand style. Some of the original furnishings and many tapestries and paintings remain. The czar and czarina entertained foreign visitors and gave grand balls here.

Levadia is better known to Americans today as the site of the 1945 Yalta conference, where Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin Delano Roosevelt met to divide the spoils of World War II. Churchill and FDR stayed here during the conference; Stalin stayed at Josopov Palace, a dacha later controlled by the KGB, just a few miles away.

Josopov is a dacha with an interesting history. With its stone lions guarding the front entrance, beautiful rose gardens and bucolic setting, it is a striking estate with historical importance. Here, Stalin and his minister of foreign affairs, Vyacheslav Molotov, pondered plans for post-WWII Soviet dominance. Since 1945 and until the breakup of the Soviet Union, it was used as an exclusive summer retreat for the KGB and high-ranking Communist party members.

Now, Josopov Palace is one of four former government dachas in the Yalta area that rent rooms to tourists.

Though Stalin is said to have slept in a different bed each night, the main-floor suite that includes his private office and some original furniture can be rented for $350 nightly, if one can tolerate the notion of sleeping in Stalin’s bed. The garden-level suite that was occupied by Molotov rents for $250 a night.

We were glad to get back to our two-room suite in Levadia Palace, with its stone balconies facing the czar’s arboretum and, beyond that, the azure Black Sea. The view was so magnificent it was easy to overlook the lumpy beds, limited hot water and George Jetson-style furniture, including an elliptical couch and side chair covered in dark blue velvet with a bright pattern of the cosmos. There were beautiful fresh flowers in the room and on the balconies; the European-tile tub in the bathroom was big enough for two. And breakfasts were delicious: blinis one day, a strange and wonderful breakfast salad of cherries, carrots, apples and vegetables the next, followed by other courses of Western and Ukrainian dishes.

The main palace buildings--60 in all--are surrounded by acres of blooming acacia trees, wisteria, cypress and local redwood. From the main palace where we stayed, a lovely four-mile hiking trail winds through forests and flowers to a castle restaurant known as the Swallow’s Nest, which was built in the 1920s for a German businessman who wanted his dacha to be a reproduction of a medieval fortress clinging to a cliff. Today, it’s a rather expensive Italian restaurant, but we indulged ourselves for the atmosphere, ordered as little as possible (two plates of pasta and wine, about $30) and tried to ignore the tourists outside our window watching us, the only diners, dine.

In spring and summer, the sun rises at 4:30 a.m. and sets after 9 p.m. (Perhaps indicative of continuing links to Moscow, Crimean clocks are set to Moscow, rather than Kiev time.) For us, the long days meant more time to explore the quiet seaport town of Yalta. We spent hours at open-air bars on the waterfront pedestrian promenade, Naberezhna Lenina. Before the summer rush the promenade was full of families, young girls in short, white skirts and black stockings, old women with plastic sacks from the market, lots of large, well-groomed dogs and the usual assortment of shady-looking characters in shiny suits.

We were reluctant to try the tourist restaurants; they seemed too cavernous and uninviting. But we found good dining at an open-air shashlik (shish kebab) pit across from the chairlift ticket booth, one block uphill from the promenade. (The sign said, simply, shashlik in Russian, which my husband speaks and reads.) We bought several skewers of pork and a couple of local beers for $8. We rode the chairlift (a few cents, round trip) for a better view of the harbor, but found we were most intrigued by the views into the houses we passed. Many looked crowded, dark, in disrepair. The poverty in Yalta is not readily apparent--most locals who stroll the promenade are dressed well (after a fashion), and on our visit we noted plenty of commerce in the markets and outdoor art shows.

We walked up a hill to Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a beautiful gold-domed, neo-Byzantine orthodox church that was built in the early 20th century but looks much older. Nearby is the dacha where Anton Chekhov wrote “The Cherry Orchard” and “The Three Sisters.” The Chekhov house is a museum now, with old manuscripts and mementos from his life.

When we tired of walking, we splurged on a car and driver, and were guided by Olymp Travel agency owner Gennady Shakurov, who became our key to the dacha experience. He drove us to Hurzuf, a picturesque beach town about 10 miles southeast of Yalta, where old wood houses of Crimean Tatars, descendants of Genghis Khan, can be found. The town is full of small private dachas and sanitariums.

There are numerous tourist attractions within a 50-mile radius of Yalta: prehistoric caves at Bakchesaray, a reproduction of a French chateau at Massandra, where Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev and other Soviet leaders met with heads of the republics and Soviet satellite states, and several other historic dachas, some of which are open to the public. The most infamous dacha of recent history, where Mikhail Gorbachev was held hostage during the 1991 Russian coup, is in Foros, 20 miles away, but our guide told us we could not stay there or visit. Even being seasoned travelers in Ukraine, we were unsure whether this meant “No” or “Not now.” But perhaps one day this dacha also will be available for rent.

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A 20-minute drive west of downtown, both of Gorbachev’s older dachas, now called the Veterans’ Pension, can be rented. They’re both situated on the Black Sea shore, on the hillside below Levadia Palace. Dacha No. 1, where Khrushchev and later Brezhnev spent spring evenings hosting foreign guests, including President Nixon, is available by the room or suite for $150 to $350 per night, including all meals. The dacha was a parting gift to the trade unions by Gorbachev when he left office.

Now the unions can’t afford to run it. The grounds are unkempt, but the rooms are clean and comfortable, if a bit spartan. A pool enclosed in a two-story glass house looked as if it hadn’t been used in several years. No wonder Raisa Gorbachev insisted that they move into the more modern Dacha No. 2. Even there, our guide told us, she wasn’t satisfied and thus, the Foros dacha was built with an elevator down to the sea, a grand living room with sweeping views of the coastline and “all the comforts of a comfortable lifestyle.”

Off the main lobby of dacha No. 1 is a large conference room, several sitting rooms and formal entertaining areas. Upstairs, in the Brezhnev suite, the twin beds and matching dressing table and chairs were crafted of light wood veneer in a style that made me think of Deco, only Soviet style. The bathrooms are not luxurious, but are clean and utilitarian.

On our visit, both dacha No. 1 and the newer dacha No. 2, were empty and eager for guests. Last month, Doug returned to Crimea on business and found he couldn’t take photographs of either the Stalin suite at Josopov or Dacha No. 2, since both were occupied by paying guests.

Crimea was once the sanitarium capital of the USSR, but now most state-run sanitariums are vacant ghost resorts. Resort owners are hoping for foreign tourist business, but English-speaking proprietors and tourist services are hard to find.

Still, except for Kiev, Crimea remains largely untouched by foreign cultural influences. There are no franchise restaurants, hotels or CNN. Not yet.

Apostol is a Malibu freelance writer whose husband is a foreign service officer assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Kiev.

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GUIDEBOOK: Dacha dos and don’ts

Getting there: Transero flies nonstop to Moscow (Sunday only) and then nonstop to Kiev. Advance-purchase, round-trip fares start at about $940. Delta flies nonstop to Frankfurt and connects with Air Ukraine to Kiev; fares start at about $1,420. Air Ukraine flies from Kiev to Simferopol, Crimea. Round-trip fares start at about $200.

Hire a taxi from Simferopol to Yalta: 90 minutes to two hours one way; fare about $50.

First-class, round-trip train fare about $120 per person from Kiev to Simferopol. Our cabin for two was clean and comfortable, but there is no food served on the trains and they are slow. Usually the trip takes 21 hours.

Precaution: Take a wire hangar or some Starburst candies to jam the lock on your train cabin door. A friend in the U.S. Embassy in Kiev told us a Starburst candy would fit perfectly in the door jamb and it did. There have been robberies on some trains. Secure doors at night.

Where to stay: Levadia Palace rooms and suites, $110 to $350 per night, including breakfast. Contact UKRINTOUR (formerly Intourist, now a public company) Xmelnitsky 26, Kiev; ask for Larissa Riazantseva or Tatiana Riazantseva, both speak English; open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. (10-hour time difference from Los Angeles); telephone/fax 011-38-044-212-5940 or 5840.

Josopov Palace, Stalin Suite: $350 per night; Molotov Suite, $200; Junior Suite, $120 (no bath); small room with bath, $150.

Veterans’ Pension dachas Nos. 1 and 2, $150 to $350 per night, including meals.

Tours: Gennady Shakurov, Olymp Travel, Yalta (best to fax first, then follow up with phone call; English is spoken); tel. office 011-38-0654-328-079, fax 011-38-0654-324-292; home 011-38-0654-323-576.

For more information: Embassy of Ukraine, 3350 M St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20007, (202) 333-7507.

--J.A.