Dolgiye Borody (residence)

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Dolgiye Borody, also known as Valdai and Uzhin, is a presidential residence in Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It sits on the southern end of a peninsula between Lake Uzhin and Lake Valdai, near the village of Dolgiye Borody, about 20 kilometers from Valdai. The official name is the Uzhin holiday home.

Construction began in 1934 as Object 201 for Joseph Stalin and was completed in 1939. Stalin visited only once, in 1939, because he disliked the remote location. In 1940 three buildings were built: Dacha No.1 and Dacha No.2 formed one complex, while Dacha No.3 stood nearer the village. The dachas were designed in a style similar to Stalin’s Volyn dacha.

During much of the Soviet era the Central Committee sanatorium was inside the property. In August 1948 Andrei Zhdanov died there while on vacation. Zhdanov’s son Yuri and Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva were married at the residence. It was also used by leaders such as Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Ryzhkov for vacations.

In the 1980s the residence was expanded with a 400-bed complex. Boris Yeltsin liked the place for fishing and visited at least two or three days, two or three times a year. His security chief, Alexander Korzhakov, considered nearby Kosmos camp and the Azure Coast resort a security risk, so a concrete wall was built in 1992 to enlarge the property; the camp and resort were demolished.

Vladimir Putin has been visiting the residence since 2000. The 100 hectares of the site are owned by Putin’s close ally Yury Kovalchuk, who leases it to the state. An adjacent 150 hectares are owned by the state and used by the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Today the residence is officially the Federal State Budgetary Institution The Holiday House Valdai, designed to host about 320 people. Between 2007 and 2010 Dachas No.1–No.3 were rebuilt to resemble their historical appearance, and a Congress Center was added. The main building includes an assembly hall. A notable private concert was held there in winter 2008 with Pyotr Shaboltai, the director of the State Kremlin Palace.