In 1896, Dakhovsky was renamed Sochi and retained settlement status till the revolution of 1917. Shortly after 1900 rich Muscovite, Khudlov, bought about 2700 acres of land near Sochi. Soon other commercial men followed suit. The government sought a rapid land reclamation and set up a commission to "populate and enliven" the coast. Its chairman, a member of the State Council, sold the best plots of land to reach people. Before this the tsar had given part of the land as gifts upon veterans of the war of the Caucasus. So the small peasant population who had just begun farming in the area were forced to retire into the mountains. "The whole of the Sochi seashore populated by consumers. The few producers it has live far away, beyond hill and deal, with no roads to reach them," wrote one journalist in 1903.
Khudlov invested 2.5 million roubles into land development around Sochi. Orchards and vineyards that might be planted there, he thought, held out promise of higher profits. His the winemaking scheme got under way. But shortly after the vineyards began to bear fruit, the southern varieties were frost bitten, and they degenerated, so that all wine had to be dumped into the river Sochi. It could have been used as vinegar in other regions of Russia, but estimates revealed that delivery costs would be too high.
In spite of all that, the road to Adler was lined with summer estates. Many villas, however, remained unoccupied. Private ownership stood guard over the estates, even if they remained desolate and uncultivated. Here and there, however, plants brought from overseas grew rank and wild in the new conditions. Among the new vegetation were slender cypresses, magnolia trees, oleanders. But whatever those few who occupied their villas needed for comfort had to be delivered by sea, or along newly built highway from more civilized places.
The area continued to advance. Industrialists invested money in the new lands, and the tsarist government displayed some "concern", too. It built what is thought were most vital contributions towards the progress of the region -- a prison, a wine shop, post office at a police station. But, what was most important, Sochi was increasingly attracting Russian scientists and enthusiasts who foresaw its great future.
In 1893, I. Struve, a scientist, examined a grotto in Matsesta. A group of scientists, after a study of Sochi's climate and mineral sources, concluded that no place in Russia could offer better natural facilities for building a climatic treatment resort. To have another expert opinion the government invited distinguished scientist E. Martel, later president of the Paris geographical Society. E.Martel took the risk of penetrating a cave in Matsesta to see if it had any outlets of hydrogen sulphide -- and nearly died of asphyxia. But nothing, not even the grimness of this experience, could prejudice his enthusiastic impressions about Matsesta and Sochi. The Matsesta Springs the Frenchman confirmed, should be rated higher than any of the then known sulphur Springs as to the number of ingredients and their combination. It was the world's richest in hydrogen sulphide.
The early 20th century added to Sochi's population. As before, land speculation ran rife; the city had no sewage; puddles of dirty water remained a permanent feature of the city seen, and bred malaria. Sochi did not get a pier built till 1900.
The first health centre named their Caucasian Riviera appeared in Sochi in 1909. The construction was financed by a businessman from Moscow, and it was begun in 1903 on the Northern bank of the river Sochi, just where it enters the sea.
In 1910, commercial counsellor Zenzinov hired from the government that the matsesta springs and together with Dr Podgorsky, set up a joint stock company to build the first bathhouse in old matsesta. But world War in 1914 ended the stockholders activities.
After Turkey let through the Bosporus and the German warships, which shelled Sochi and other places on the coastline, the tsarist government, alarmed by the menace, started the construction of the railway between Tuapse and Sochi. By urgent effort the railway was completed, stimulating the resort's growth.
Soviet government was established in Sochi January 1918. But soon the whole of the Sochi district was seized by the White guards of general Denikin. On April 29, 1920, the red Army was back in the city.
By that time the decree on curative localities of state importance, signed by Lenin in April 1919, had gone into operation all of the Soviet republic. The nation's potential and existing health resorts, wherever they were situated and to whomever they belonged, with all their structures, buildings and lands attached or assigned, were declared state property and we were to be used for health purposes only.
The local authorities launched the work of changing the villas and mansions which belonged to aristocrats and capitalists into sanatoria and holiday homes. Parallel with that, the Black Sea coastal railway which had been largely destroyed during the Civil War, was rebuilt, and the construction of many tunnels on the line between Tuapse and Sochi, was completed. Water and electricity were laid on in the town.
The year 1925 marked the beginning of regular passenger traffic on the new railway from Tuapse to Matsesta and a regular sea communication with Sochi. Links were provided to other cities and Sochi became a popular health and holiday centre in the USSR. In 1934 the USSR Council of People's commissars gave the Sochi matsesta scheme top priority together with major heavy industries then being set up. The USSR's best architects designed new sanatoria, railway stations, bridges and theatres for Sochi. Those years gave the city many health centres, parks, its magnificent theatre.
(to be continued..)
