City streets, gardens and dachas as a leisure space on the Russian Far East in the late XIX – early XX century

The article is devoted to the review of leisure in the cities of the Far Eastern outskirts of the Russian Empire in the late XIX – early XX century. The author has tried to demonstrate a variety of everyday and festive street entertainment of citizens and their changes. Military parades, mass celebrations, charity and sport’s events played an important role in the local community unit, filling the leisure time of citizens by the wholesome entertainment. The voluntary associations played an important role in the organization of outdoor activities of the citizens. Sporting events, camping trips contributed to the physical development of children and adults. The voluntary associations had paid a lot of attention to the organization of entertainment spaces: the construction of a variety of sports facilities in urban gardens and in the dachas area, decorating gardens during charity events. Most practices of street entertainment in the cities of the Russian Far East were not local invention. It was introduced from the European part of Russian Empire and Western Europe and China. Chinese migrants brought the New Year celebrations on the eastern calendar, the Chinese street performers, acrobats and jugglers on the Russian Far East. The new forms of social activity in the sphere of leisure became an expression of the transformation of the traditional culture and the development of urban lifestyle