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Traditionally serving as a source of food during a crisis, dachas have been turned into secondary residences with multiple functions. In Kazan however, their agricultural function has not disappeared, since their residents create tight, informal relations with local farmers. They help sustain precarious farmers and develop the local food supply. Given this relation to the countryside, dachas are a key to an autonomous food supply, a self-sufficiency promoted by the regional authorities of Tatarstan. They thus help legitimate a fragile periurban agriculture, which has been the subject of few studies in Russia.