Russian people: culture, traditions and customs. How did the peasants live in the Middle Ages? Tools and everyday life of medieval peasants Traditional holidays of the Russian people
How did the Russian peasants feel about family and marriage? You can learn about this from the notes about life in the Spassky and Laishevsky districts of the Kazan province, collected 100 years ago and recently published by the Russian Ethnographic Museum and the Ministry of Culture of Tatarstan. AiF-Kazan has selected the most interesting excerpts from this work.
Agility and purity
Here is how the people's correspondents described the family traditions of the peasants (they were zemstvo officials and teachers): “Although a guy keeps chastity for a short time - usually up to 15 years old and rarely remains chaste until marriage - up to 18 and 19 years old, the neighbors look at those who have lost their chastity with some contempt ... They say that such a milk sucker, but became a libertine - a "unlucky person."
The people have developed a very serious attitude towards the marriage union. Marriage is a contract, a law, and a promise before the holy cross and the gospel that a person had to follow.
If a person got married, he usually changed, and most often for the better, the peasants believed. Getting married was essential for every decent person. “A married person is much better and more peaceful to live,” the correspondent cites popular arguments. - Legitimate children feed their parents in old age, in case of illness there is someone to look after the sick. Marital life has a specific purpose - to live for oneself, and more for children and family, and celibate life is aimless and restless. Marriage is considered possible for a man from 17.5 to 60 years old, and for a woman from 16.5 to 70 years old. "
It was believed that it was necessary to prepare for marriage, especially for girls. There was even a custom - not to give a girl in marriage until she had been in the house for several years in the position of a worker. Having learned to manage the household in this way, she will no longer meet ridicule in someone else's family, and parents will not be ashamed of her daughter.According to the correspondent's observations, the bride was especially valued for her portly, dexterity and ability to work, integrity, health, obedience, and also if her family was good in all respects. When choosing a groom, the first thing they paid attention to was wealth, sobriety, hard work, and health. They also tried to find out if the family was meek, especially the mother-in-law. On this score, there were sayings: "A good wife is the head of the whole house", "Choose a cow by horns, and a girl by birth."
Girls had to be strong and healthy in order to master the housekeeping. Photo:
If the bride agreed to get married, after the matchmaking she had to give her best headscarf to the groom's matchmakers. In addition, during the bachelorette party, the bride had to give the groom a new embroidered handkerchief, and the groom in return presented her with a piece of scented soap. The family's wedding expenses were divided equally.
To mother-in-law - on a new road
It was believed that after the wedding, the young should not return home by the same road that the bride and groom took to church. "Something fancy may be imperceptibly laid on the old road, or they will cross this road with divination, so that the young will not live according to it," the correspondent writes. He gives another explanation: a new path is chosen so that those entering into marriage, going to church with dubious thoughts about each other, with uncertainty in mutual love, would throw these thoughts away from themselves once and for all.
If in our time a bride is kidnapped at a wedding, then in those days the groom disappeared from the wedding feast, or rather, went with several close relatives to the mother-in-law for blinks. While treating the newly-made son-in-law, she anointed his head with oil. Then he returned home and hid in the yard in the straw. A friend (the groom's representative), noticing that the newlywed was not with the guests, announced this to the newlywed, handed his wife a whip and ordered to look for a husband. The young woman, going out into the courtyard, lashed each guest who came with a whip, demanding the newlywed. As a result, she found him in the straw, and she was asked who it was. The wife had to call her husband by name and patronymic, after which they kissed and returned to the hut.The entire future life of the young was determined by the first days of their life together. At this time, the husband of the newlywed, his parents watched her, noticed all her techniques, dexterity, quickness, sharpness, conversations. This made it possible to understand how to behave with her. Clever husbands reprimanded their wives in private, so that the family would not know about it.
There were also divorces among the peasants, and then one of the spouses left the house. In the event of a divorce, the wife's dowry went to her. If all the children were boys, then half of them stayed with their husband, the other half with their wife. And if there were daughters and sons, then the husband had to take the girls, and the wife had to take the boys.
Watermelon in the bath for a woman in labor
“The birth of a child is seen as a blessing of God,” the correspondent writes. - When a woman gives birth, no one is allowed into the house. All household members are severely punished not to tell anyone about this moment. " It was a good omen if during the birth of the wife, the husband also had a pain, for example, the stomach. Immediately after giving birth, the woman in labor with the newborn was taken on a horse to a hotly heated bathhouse, covering her with a sheepskin coat from head to toe so that she would not catch a cold and so that no one would jinx it. We drove very quietly. In the bathhouse, the young mother lay for a week on the floor covered with straw. There she and her newborn were washed, bathed and fed every day much better than at home.
“Neighbors and relatives bring various pies, rolls, honey, scrambled eggs, fish, beer, red wine, watermelons, pickles,” the correspondent notes. “And the woman in labor notices what kind of cake, what, how much and who brought it, in order to repay them“ at home ”with the same." The child was baptized two or three days after birth. He was carried to church in clean white clothes. The godmother's task was to buy clothes for the baby, and the godfather had to buy a cross and pay for the christening.
About parenting
From an early age, there were punishments and prayers in the lives of children. According to the correspondent's observations, the children were punished very often - "for intolerant pranks and liberties." The instrument of punishment - a whip, hung in every house in the most conspicuous place. Children learned to pray in the first year of life. “When a child begins to understand objects and sound, he is already taught and shown where God is,” the notes say. “From the age of three they start taking people to church.”
From the age of two, children were taught to work. Photo: Russian Ethnographic Museum
From the age of two, children began to babysit their younger brothers and sisters, to swing their cradles. From the same age, they learned to look after pets, help with the housework. From the age of seven, peasant children begin to graze horses. From the age of six they learn to reap, from the age of 10 to plow, from the age of 15 - to mow. In general, everything that a peasant can do, adolescents should be trained from 15 to 18-20 years.
Russian peasant culture
For a long time, the peasantry constituted the bulk of the population of our region. In Russian culture, elements of Slavic mythology associated with pagan memories, with faith in the forces of nature, lingered for a long time. But gradually the peasant worldview adjusts to the new religion - Christianity: Perun (God of Thunder) - Ilya the prophet, Makosh (goddess of fertility) - Virgin Mary ...
The Russian Orthodox Church played a significant role in this. The Christian origin has formed a special Russian "seeking truth", the search for the kingdom of God, mercy and compassion for the suffering. All these qualities were formed among the people through communication with clergymen, through the perception of the world in the light of Christianity. In this regard, the personality of the priest, his behavior, the level of his education, wisdom became socially significant.
Warm relations often developed between clergy and parishioners: paternal on the one hand, respectful and respectful on the other. It happened that village priests worked the land with their own hands, worked in an apiary. Their appearance outside the church and their behavior corresponded to this. The peasants took part in the work of the priests, helped them in peasant work (more often during the harvest). Parting with a priest, who was forced to leave his parish for any reason, often touched parishioners to the core. The contact intensified if the priest not only became close to the peasants due to the common life and economy and good disposition towards his flock, but also, in his spiritual essence, became a true mentor.
But there were also conflicts between peasants and priests; not all church ministers met the necessary moral and professional requirements. The attitude of the peasantry towards the parish clergy depended on the moral level and behavior of the clergy themselves. The peasants were outraged by the unworthy behavior of the clergy and clergymen in everyday life, their irresponsibility, their formal attitude to their pastoral duties, extortion. But the manifestations of hostility were not of a principled, but of a personal nature: insisting on the removal of one priest, they asked to replace him with another.
Peasant community
The cultural life of the peasantry was based on strict foundations, they ordered their entire life on the basis of clear rules. On the one hand, obedience to the eldest in the family, on the other hand, reverence for the elders by the younger, the subordination of a woman to a man had the character of an unwritten law. By strong bonds, a person was connected with other members of his family, with neighbors and with the entire community. Family and communal solidarity, the preference for collective interest over personal interest was the norm in peasant life. This was associated with the practice of mutual assistance, mutual substitution, community support for the old and the crippled.
The Russian peasant community was an integral part of the well-known "theory of official nationality" - "Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality", where the people love their tsar, and he worries about his subjects as their children, the tsar and the Orthodox people, and honor traditions. The nationality was understood as the need to adhere to one's own Russian traditions and reject foreign influence. For centuries, the communal system was the basis of state power in Russia.
A characteristic phenomenon of peasant life is help: voluntary and selfless help from villagers in urgent and big work to a fellow villager (removing manure to the field, harvesting, mowing, removing timber, building a house, etc.). In the evening, after the completion of the work, the owner treated everyone who was helping with lunch. The typically Russian “our people - we will be numbered” significantly increased the resilience of Russian families.
On church holidays, up to four times a year, prayers were held, called by the name of the saint, on whose memory day the action fell. A fattened goby was slaughtered for Nikola. On the eve of Elijah - a lamb. The best part of the meat was carried to church. The rest was used to prepare meals for the brothers. It was the custom of a collective public treat: beer was brewed and a public feast was organized.
For Orthodox and national holidays, they usually went to different villages. On Shrovetide they always rode, decorated horses and sledges, seated girls, and guys with accordions. Everyone danced and drank, had fun, but they tried not to allow much drunkenness. All went drunk and cheerful. The enthusiasm reached such an intensity that it ruled out the traditional carnage between the various "bushes" of the villages.
Although it was rare for festivities to do without fights, because of the girls, single, and sometimes village to village, using stakes. A special role was assigned to adolescents, who were not allowed to "fight", but, if necessary, they brought stakes to peasants and older guys. Whoever wins walks. But they didn’t lead to murder.
The peasants paid special attention to their livestock and, above all, to the "cow", the nurse, the "Red Belly". Consolidated in rituals communication with livestock helped to establish a subtle emotional connection between man and animal. And this ensured the well-being of the cattle and the best quality of milk.
In the event of an epidemic, the animals were fumigated with "healing live" juniper smoke. Early in the morning, the peasants gathered around someone's faith (the pillar on which the gate is held). They took a juniper stake and, leaning against it in faith, turned it around until the appearance of a "native", "holy" fire. Often a stake was inserted between two posts and rotated with a rope. The campfire was usually set up in a run leading to the meadows. Juniper paws were thrown over the fire, giving off thick smoke. People and livestock passed "through the fire" in these original gates. It was believed that smoked with the smoke of a sacred tree, they would certainly be healed. And he has not yet become infected, he will remain healthy.
A family
One of the brightest moments in the life of the peasants was the young years before marriage. This is the time of joint games of girls and boys, get-togethers, round dances, Christmas carols; a time when many moral constraints are eased.
In each village, parties were held, sometimes they went to neighboring villages, but for the girls it was dangerous, you could get punches from the village guys. They didn't just sit at the parties, the girls usually weaved linen, and the guys played the accordion. They played games in the hut, danced in a round dance, danced, and sometimes drank wine or beer. For any mistake or oversight they gave out forfeits: the guys were forced to do something for the received forfeits, the girls were forced to kiss, the kissing ones were usually covered with a handkerchief. The local clergy condemned the evenings, but in fact the priests could not do anything about it.
Evenings and gatherings were divided by age into three groups: children 6-10 years old, adolescents 10-14 years old, and boys and girls over 15 years old.
The youngest played rounders, "priest", "zubar" ...; they drove homemade balls stuffed with rags. In winter, we got up on aspen skates, played with a snow woman, fiddled with a sled. Toys were made with their own hands from what was at hand.
For the elders, things went differently: they chose a hut where a lonely old woman lived, and agreed with her about payment. On account of her they brought food, who could what - potatoes, bacon, cabbage. They came to gatherings or "gazebos" necessarily with work, who embroidered, who spun the tow. Girls from 15 to 22 years old gathered at adult gazebos. A little later, the guys came with an accordion, a treat, and the fun began. It was the time when the girl had to show that she could not only work, but also sing and dance, and say apt word. The gazebos gave the young people the opportunity to get to know each other well before the wedding, to choose a groom or a bride for themselves. Games at gatherings also helped this.
For example, such a game as an exit to the “column” was interesting, that is, to another room or a hung “cage”, where a couple could retire for a few minutes. If a guy called the girl several times during the evening, it means he “offers friendship”. Sometimes the games and laughter continued after midnight, but there were also fights, the cause of which was girls who liked several guys at once. They fought in the hut, and the next morning the guys came and the whole world repaired the broken.
After the gatherings, the couples went to see off, and those girls who were left without a boyfriend had to spend the night in this hut and put everything in order in the morning. Every time they chose a new hut for gatherings, they usually met once every two weeks, and only in winter, since there was a lot of work in the summer.
Life expectancy was not great, in the 19th century it did not exceed 30-35 years, rarely when men reached the age of 50, women lived on average two to four years longer.
Therefore, they tried to conclude marriages earlier: young men were married at the age of 15-18, girls were married at 14-17 years old. There were frequent cases when a wife was 2-3 years older than her husband, which was due to human physiology. The girl who remained in the "girls up to 20-22 years old" was considered already old. At the end of the 19th century, with an increase in the life expectancy of the population, the age of those entering into marriage shifted by about a year or two.
According to age-old Russian traditions, families were created by sons. Moreover, the eldest son, after getting married, together with his wife and the nascent children, as a rule, remained to live in his father's family. And the next sons, as their family was created, stood out from the household of the parental family and began to live independently.
If there were only daughters in the family of parents, then, as a rule, one of the daughters (most often the youngest), when getting married, remained with her husband in the family of her parents. But for a man it was not very prestigious to be a "primak", that is, accepted into another family. In any case, aging parents with living children did not end up outside the family.
The parents married their son early, they did not postpone it far, trying to get a working daughter-in-law into the house. The initiative in the case belonged precisely to the parents of the young man, who chose a bride for their son, often without asking his wishes. Even if they got married and got married of their own free will, it is obligatory with the consent of the parents and with their blessing. If the boy's parents didn't like the girl, they looked for another daughter-in-law.
Everywhere it was customary to send matchmakers (matchmaker) to the bride - sometimes secretly, and sometimes openly. In any case, matchmaking was furnished with its own ritual, which included the semi-secret nature of the mission, figurative expressions in which the proposal was formulated. If the parties agreed to the marriage, a bride was arranged: some relative of the groom went to the bride to assess her appearance and determine what her character was. If everything was in order, a marriage conspiracy was drawn up with the obligations of the parties regarding the timing of the marriage, the cost of the wedding, the amount of the dowry from the bride's parents.
If necessary (if the groom was unfamiliar), the bride's parents went to inspect his dwelling, to get to know him himself, and their groom went back with them with a gift. Sometimes drinking and marriage was still arranged, and the arms were carried out separately; both were accompanied by feasts, lamentations of the bride. According to the recollections of the old-timers, the matchmakers ate and drank at the table, and the enlisted "howl" in the cage; “She’s glad herself, gladyoshenka, but howls.” The bride-to-be walked with a braided braid, in a low-tied shawl, and almost never appeared on the street.
In the second half of the 19th century, although matchmaking retained its role, young people, under the influence of innovations coming from the city, gained much more freedom in choosing a companion. But the Orthodox Church has unequivocally established the indissolubility of marriage. The law demanded: first marriage, then love. That is, young people had to first get married - become husband and wife, then they have children.
After the completion of the church part of the ritual, the wedding train headed to the groom's house. Here the groom's parents greeted the young with an icon of the Savior or St. Nicholas, bread and salt. They were showered with grain and hops, which signified fertility and wealth in the family, a rite preserved from pagan times (like many other rituals). The newlyweds, after the reception and parental blessing, were seated at the table. The "young" were seated on a fur coat turned upside down, which was considered a remedy for spoilage, contributed to a rich life, so that livestock could be found. A festive wedding feast began, where it was supposed not to cry, but to have fun, a musician, a gamer and a joker always became a welcome guest.
The first wedding night of the young spouses and the morning rituals of the next day were also extremely ritualized, which were a kind of test for the young wife. She, in particular, had to sweep the hut with a chopped-off broom of the house, and the guests interfered with her, or the basement of the garbage; checking not only the economy of the young wife, but also her patience. The festive walk with songs, dances and various undertakings lasted another day or two or three, which depended on the material condition, season and parental patience.
Although the daughter stayed in her husband's house, the parents of the young people usually established "brother-in-law" ties. Parents helped their children whenever possible. When a young family needed help, the husband and wife asked their parents in two voices: "Tyatya, help!" The two fathers of this young family sat down together and, like brothers-in-law, discussed how to "help their children."
The creation of any Russian family has always been aimed at having children. Most Russian peasant women had their first child by the age of 18-19. During her entire childbearing period, an average of 5-6 children grew up. Moreover, the period of growing up of all children in families stretched to 20-25 years. So it often happened when a woman gave birth to her last child, her eldest son or daughter already had a child, that is, her grandson or granddaughter. There was nothing surprising when the eldest grandson rocked his young uncle in his arms.
The frequency of births in Russian families was due to climatic conditions, difficulties in agricultural production and rather coarse food. Therefore, Russian mothers breastfed their children for several years, until the child's body acquired the ability to independently assimilate rough food. The interval between the births of children in Russian families was up to 3-4 years. Despite the concerns of mothers, infant mortality was high, but the tragedies of infant deaths in the community did not suit. Mothers cried, and relatives and neighbors consoled: "God gave, God took."
The strongest, healthiest children survived and grew up. On average, 6-7 children grew up in a family, 5-6 grew less. There were very few families with less than three children, the same with families with more than 8 children. It was these healthy children who grew up that ensured the doubling of the population of Russia on average for 50-60 years.
In the conditions of Russia, it is very difficult for a woman to raise several children alone. Therefore, a long time ago the Orthodox Church established the inviolability of marriage between a mother and a father of children born. The rule was: “Create your own family. Beget and raise your children. Raise them so that they will take care of your old age. "
It was in the family that the child learned "what is good and what is bad." In a family, children from an early age were taught to their future role in the family - the role of husband-father, or wife-mother. As soon as the child began to walk and babble, he was handed: the girl - a doll, the boy - toy instruments of protection and management. Children, growing up, little by little learned their future responsibilities. The family was a school where children learned skills and knowledge.
In the simplest process of changing generations, the child grew up, turning into a father (mother), and when he passed into the period of an aging grandfather (grandmother), then his grandson and granddaughter grew up to replace him. The rule was: "I grow myself - I raise children - I raise my grandchildren."
Our ancestors considered themselves unhappy people if they had few grandchildren. While on their deathbed, grandmothers used to say: “I have not lived my life in vain. Avon has grown up with my grandchildren. " And their faces shone with joy with happiness.
From time immemorial in Russia, the upbringing of a boy to a worker was the business of grandfathers, the upbringing of a future wife and mother lay on grandmothers ..
In the middle - end of the 19th century, the situation in the village began to change, elements of urban culture penetrated into the village. New manners come to the village, dress, dances and songs, tea and tobacco, dishes, furniture and wallpaper ... Moreover, the novelty is often perceived positively, because under the influence of city rules, more external decency is made in peasant life, decency enters, the guys already talk to the girls "You", in dealing with girls there is more restraint, there are fewer immodest jokes and songs, and so on.
The gusli and the flute are replaced by a talyanka (harmonica), serious, sad and sublime songs are replaced by a ditty, a tabloid city romance.
The traditional patriarchal system of family life gradually began to collapse, when the younger unquestioningly obeyed the elders. In the second half of the 19th century, the authority of seniority in the community was replaced by the authority of wealth. Rich peasants are respected, honored, but they are also envied.
House of the Russian peasant
Our ancestors always had their own views on the place where they had to live, raise children, celebrate, love, receive guests.
First of all, they chose the place of construction. Usually, the Russian settlement was set up on a hill on the banks of a river, lake, on springs and streams, where they made dams.
The peasant put the hut where the rays of the sun gave more warmth and light, where from the windows, from the porch site, from the territory of the courtyard, the widest view of the land he cultivated, where there was a good approach and an entrance to the house, opened up. They tried to orientate the houses to the south, "towards the sun"; if this was not possible, then "facing" to the east or southwest. A barn and a threshing floor were set up next to the house, a barn in front of the windows. A windmill was erected on a hill, and a bathhouse was built at the bottom of the water.
The houses of single-row settlements were oriented only to the south. The natural shortage of places on the sunny side with the growth of the settlement led to the emergence of a second row of houses, with facades facing north.
It was impossible to build housing where the road used to pass, "all the good will leave the house." It was also considered unfavorable for construction, the place where human bones were found, or someone was injured with an ax or knife to blood, or other unpleasant, unexpected events that were memorable to the village occurred. This threatened misfortune for the inhabitants of the future home. It was impossible to build a house on the place where the bathhouse stood. In the bath, a person did not just wash off the dirt, but, as it were, immersed himself in a vessel with living and dead water, was born again each time, subjecting himself to the test of fire and water, steaming at a high temperature, and then dipping into an ice hole or a river, or simply doused himself ice water. The bathhouse was both a maternity hospital and a dwelling place for the spirit of the bathhouse. The bathhouse is an unconsecrated place - there are no icons there. The bathhouse is a place where a lot of things can happen if you don't follow the rules. So the rule was not to go to the bathhouse after midnight and, fourthly, to always leave hot and cold water. After the people in the bathhouse, the bathhouse is washed with friends and neighbors "their own", when the brownie or the barnman calls, when the goblin or kikimoru. If the rules are not observed, the bannik can punish: a person will be poisoned with carbon monoxide, or scalded, they sometimes used to say about such people “worn out to death”.
The place where cattle lay down to rest was considered favorable for construction. The people attributed to him the power of fertility, which was associated with the old pagan beliefs in Veles (Volos).
The entire housebuilding process was accompanied by rituals. One of the obligatory customs is making a sacrifice so that the house will stand well. Usually, a red and black rooster was sacrificed to protect it from a fire, so dangerous for a peasant estate. “The thief will come - he will leave the walls, the fire will come - he will not leave anything”.
A tree was planted next to the house under construction, it carried a secret meaning: the person who planted the tree showed that the space around the house was not wild, but cultural, mastered by him. It was forbidden to cut specially planted trees for firewood or for other household needs. Most often they planted an apple or mountain ash, rowan fruits and leaves are similar to a cross, which means they are a natural amulet of Orthodox peasants.
A peasant hut is a wooden blockhouse with a gable roof. The entrance to the hut was preceded by a vestibule, the entrance to the house by a porch.
The porch is a few steps up, then the door leading to the entrance hallway, and the door leading to the hut. Doors have never been located on one straight line. The stream of air and everything that it carried seemed to swirl, weakened and it got into the hut itself already "cleaned", filled with the kind aroma of herbs drying in the passage.
They tried to decorate the entrances to the house - the porch and windows with carved carvings. In fact, it was a pagan rite that protected the house from all bad things.
Before going out on the street, the owners usually said: "God bless on a good day, save them from bad, evil people!" Before entering a strange house, a prayer was also read. These customs are associated with the fact that a person, on a subconscious level, distinguished the space of the house, where nothing threatened him, and the external space, where anything could happen.
The atmosphere of the Russian home seemed to "come to life", participating in family rituals associated with growing up children, weddings, receiving guests ...
The largest in the interior of the house is the Russian stove, it occupied an area of 2.5 - 3 square meters. m. The stove provided uniform heating of the hut throughout the day, allowing food and water to be kept hot for a long time, to dry clothes, and to sleep on it in damp and cold weather.
The stove is actually a home altar. She warms the house, transforms the food brought into the house with fire. The oven is a place near which various rituals take place. For example, if a smartly dressed woman comes into the house and almost without words comes up to the stove and warms her hands by the fire, it means that the matchmaker has come to woo. And a person who spends the night on the stove becomes "his own".
The point here is not about the oven as such, but about the fire. None of the pagan holidays was complete without lighting ritual bonfires. Then the fire migrated to the Orthodox church: the lights of the lamps, lit with prayer candles. In traditional Russian culture, a room without a stove was considered non-residential.
Each family member had their own space in the house. The place of the hostess - the mother of the family - is at the stove, which is why it was called “babi kut”. The place of the owner - the father - is at the very entrance. This is the place of the guardian, protector. Old people often lay on the stove - a warm, comfortable place. Children, like peas, were scattered all over the hut, or sat on the benches - a floor raised to the level of the stove, where they were not afraid of drafts during the long Russian winter.
The baby was swinging in a wobble attached to the end of a pole, which was attached to the ceiling through a ring fixed in it. This made it possible to move the shake to either end of the hut.
The indispensable accessory of the peasant dwelling was the shrine, which was located in the front corner above the dining table.
This place was called the "red corner". It was a home altar. A person began his day with prayer, and prayer, with his gaze turned to the red corner, at the icons, accompanied his entire life in the house.
It was in the front of the hut that there was a red bench, a table, and food was being prepared in front of the stove. A guest entering the house immediately saw the icons of the red corner and was baptized, greeting the owners, but stopped at the threshold, not daring to go further without an invitation, into this habitable space, kept by God and Fire.
Of the movable furniture, we can name only a table and one or two movable benches. The space of the hut did not imply excesses, but they were not possible in peasant life.
The completely rebuilt house is not yet a living space. It had to be properly populated and settled. A house was considered an inhabited family if any event that was important for the household took place in it: the birth of a child, a wedding, etc.
To this day, even in the cities, the custom has been preserved to let the cat ahead. In the villages, apart from the cat, the rooster and hen left for the night sometimes “settled down” in the house. The transition to a new residence was preceded by ceremonies associated with the “resettlement” of the brownie (they swept the garbage on a scoop from four corners and under the stoves of the old house, then transferred it all to the new house).
The brownie in the villages was revered as the owner of the dwelling, and, moving into a new house, they ask his permission: "Master of the brownie, let us live." It was believed that the brownie is invisible, reveals itself only by sounds, although under certain conditions it is possible to meet with him. For example, it was said that he rarely takes the form of domestic animals - the deceased owner of the house. He usually lives under the stove, and not because it is warm there. The stove in the pagan's picture of the world is a home altar. The brownie as a homely kind spirit, the guardian of the house, is connected with the central sacred place - the stove - with a living blazing fire. The brownie is considered the patron saint of the family. He is also a home oracle: he "warns" about events with various sounds - groans, groans, crying, laughter. Crying - to grief, laughter - to guests.
The brownie was a kind of guardian of morality in the house. This or that could not be done, since "He" could get angry. For example, it was strictly forbidden for a woman to walk with a simple hair, without a headscarf, and it was the brownie who “watched” this. The spirit could interfere with the secret sins of the spouses, punishing the culprit in various ways.
When moving to a new house, the first items that the owner brought into it were also important. It could be a fire in the form of a pot of coals, an icon, bread and salt, a bowl of porridge or dough. These things symbolized wealth, fertility, abundance and carried the idea of developing a new space. We see that in addition to the icon, the secret meaning of the introduced is determined by the pagan picture of the world.
Peasant furniture
An integral part of Russian culture was the decoration of a peasant hut, the main forms of which took shape over the centuries. Handicraft rustic furniture was made by the peasants themselves, and the secrets of craftsmanship were passed from father to son. Peasant furniture was made from local inexpensive wood species. It was made from pine, spruce, aspen, birch, linden, oak and larch. It was from larch that amazing chests were made, in which moths never started.
The development of the basic forms of peasant furniture is inextricably linked with the changes taking place in urban dwellings. Furniture forms that existed in cities, be they tables, benches, chests, suppliers or cabinets, gradually spilled over into the countryside.
The favorite forms of furniture were: chests, tables, supplies, later cupboards and cupboards (wardrobes).
The chest stood in almost every Russian house and was a kind of guardian of family life. Two types of chests were common - with a flat hinged lid and a convex one. They also varied in size: from small, close to caskets, intended for storing valuable jewelry, household items, money, as well as chambers, dowry chests, to huge ones intended for clothes or food. For strength, the chest was bound with iron strips, sometimes smooth, sometimes with a perforated pattern. Large locks were hung on large chests. Often the walls were covered with paintings. Usually these were fabulous subjects - heroes, herbs, "firebirds" ... Products decorated in this way brought the feeling of a holiday to a poor dwelling. The chest became the prototype of many folk furniture forms.
Firmly entered the interior of the Russian peasant dwelling and the table. In Russian peasant life, several table options were in circulation.
There were small kitchen tables on four legs, with one or two drawers, and side tables. Dining tables were large in size, installed on four legs with powerful balusters. As a rule, they were placed in the center of the room.
A kind of hiding place, which, however, was never hidden, but, on the contrary, was used as decoration, was the supplier.
The supplier of a peasant house is a low cabinet that was installed on a bench in a hut. It has become widespread. Folk craftsmen painted their upper and lower "blind" doors with ornaments, and decorated panels with various ornaments. Behind these doors the most valuable things were kept, without which they could not imagine their life - most often, objects of religious worship. Purchased ceramic and metal utensils were also placed there.
The continuation and development of the form of the supplier was the buffet, although only wealthy peasants could afford it. The sideboards were both single-tier and two-tier. In the peasant environment, this piece of furniture became widespread only at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the villages, there were low horizontal sideboards, corner sideboards, called slides, sideboards-dressers. The most common was a high two-tier sideboard.
With a typical unity, the sideboards differed in proportions, alternation and the ratio of blind and glazed parts, the presence and size of the middle and upper cornices, decorative elements, plinth or support legs, drawers, the nature of the panels, corrugation, painting. The lower part of the sideboard usually had a heavy plinth, less often - legs, two "blind" doors with various panels. Above the lower flaps, a drawer could be located - one or two, much less often - three. This was followed by a profiled middle cornice, above which a second tier, blind or glazed, towered. If full or partial glazing was used, they often resorted to binding. A simple binding visually shattered the glass into rectangles, while a complex, ornamental one resembled Dutch windows or stained glass. Occasionally, lifting cylindrical lids, reminiscent of those made for bureaus, were placed above the lower cabinet of the sideboard. The front of the sideboards was often decorated with overlaid carved elements. The sideboards were painted with dark and bright oil paints, sometimes they turned to light shades.
Wardrobes appear quite late, at the beginning of the twentieth century. This movable furniture form, which was a wardrobe for sleeping and table linen and clothes, also came to the village from urban life. This furniture form had two full-height doors, below, on the plinth, often one or two drawers were located. The furniture was covered with red or brick paint, imitating the capital's furniture made of mahogany or walnut.
At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, only the icon in the red corner remains of the former peasant furnishings. Wealthy residents subscribe furniture from the city, or local craftsmen make furniture according to urban models. In the interior of a peasant house, beds and couches, coasters and sideboards, mirrors appear, a simple roughly knitted table is replaced by a table on balusters or carved legs with drawers inside the table. Wealthy families have wallpaper on the walls, carpets on the floor and even bookcases never seen before. Gradually, the torch will be replaced with stearic candles and a kerosene lamp, and a samovar appears on the table.
In the second half of the XIX century. significant changes took place in the life of the Russian peasantry. The penetration of capitalist relations into the countryside, the intensification of migration processes, the departure of peasants to work in cities and other provinces significantly changed the peasant worldview, the control of villagers' behavior by the family, community and church became weaker. The long absence of the peasants tore them away from the everyday life of the family and community, thus excluding them from active social life and breaking their unity with their native community. While working, the peasant did not participate in the life of the Orthodox Church and did not take part in cultural activities, and therefore in the ritual activities that accompanied the daily activities of the villagers.
Influence of the Russian Orthodox Church
Over the centuries, the Orthodox Church has played a significant role in the political and social life of the Russian state, although the status of the church has changed several times at different stages of history.
The state entrusted the church with great functions: the registration of acts of civil status (birth, baptism, marriage, death), enlightenment, control and ideological work ("For the faith, the king and the fatherland").
Under Peter I, the church became part of the state apparatus, in fact, one of the ministries. The priests were viewed as officials, their positions corresponded to the table of ranks, they, as military ranks and civilians, were given orders, apartments, land, and paid a salary.
The decrees of Peter the Great introduced: a three-year exemption from taxes, duties and the return of recruits to all baptized gentiles. However, the sermons of individual priests among the pagan population found almost no response. The few who were baptized due to the benefits of the Mari continued to adhere to traditional pagan beliefs, but the policy of the authorities remained the same - reducing taxes and taxes for a short time, while shifting taxes to those who were not baptized.
In the settlements of the newly baptized, village elders were chosen local residents, "who are smarter." They were given the right to judge small cases. A large building of churches began, for every 250 yards it was ordered to build one wooden church.
Mass Christianization of the middle of the 18th century almost did not affect the inhabitants of the Armachinskaya (Romachinskaya) volost. Formally, they have been Orthodox since the beginning of the century. The nearest churches were located 60-80 versts in Yaransk and on Kaksha, so the priests rarely visited our places. But at the end of the 18th century, the question of building a church in the Armachinsky volost was raised, but the situation was complicated by the transfer of the volost to the Kostroma province, since the church administration remained in Vyatka. After lengthy negotiations between the dioceses, at the beginning of the 19th century, the construction of a church began in Tonshaevo, and not in the administrative center of the Romachi volost. In 1807, the church of St. Nicholas in the village of Tonshaevo was already listed as active. Gradually, the influx of the Russian population increased, so the Kostroma diocese decided to build another church. In 1851, the construction of the stone church of Michael the Archangel began in Oshminsky.
To serve the growing number of parishioners, more objects of worship were required. In 1861, two prayer houses of the Nikolskaya Church were already operating - in Bolshiye Ashkaty and Odoshnur. A year later, the prayer house in Ashkaty was closed, probably in connection with the beginning of the construction of the church in Pismener. The meetinghouse in Odoshnur closed in 1866, most likely for the same reason. There were no more houses of prayer in the parish, but in 1866 the first chapel of St. Nicholas Church was opened in the village of Sukhoi Ovrag. In 1969, the Vasilievskaya church was built in the village of Odoshnur.
Later, chapels were opened in Berezyaty, Bolshoy Lomu, Romachi, in Mukhachi, in Oshary. In 1895-1901, the stone building of St. Nicholas Church in Tonshaev was reconstructed, it was rebuilt and expanded. New churches were opened: in 1896 in Aleksandrovskaya in Shcherbazh, in 1903 in Troitskaya in St. Petersburg (the village of Kuverba in the documents of the Kostroma diocese, the modern village of Kuverba began to be called Kuverba on the mountain), in 1914 Ioanno-Zlatoustovskaya in Bolshiye Selki.
Lesson "Traditions and life of a peasant family"
Target: mastering the national culture and fostering a sense of national identity.
Tasks:
restoration of the traditional image of the family as the greatest shrine;
upbringing of traditional household and family culture, the need for a responsible and caring attitude towards family members;
the formation of a respectful caring attitude to the spiritual and historical heritage of their people, the traditions of Christian culture;
strengthening spiritual ties with previous and future generations of Russia;
activation of cognitive activity;
development and correction of mental functions and personal qualities of pupils.
Didactic equipment
Design of the workspace: posters with the image of a peasant family, domestic animals, pictures with antiques mentioned in the course of the lesson (spinning wheel, plow, loom, etc.)
Exhibition of books with stories and poems about peasant labor, the life of peasants.
Sheets indicating the types of work mastered by girls and boys, magnets.
A costume close to the Russian folk costume for the occupant.
Electric samovar, tablecloth, cups and saucers, tea, sugar, bagels, drying, tea jam.
Hello guys!
Our today's lesson is called: "Traditions and the way of life of a peasant family." That is, we will talk about what families were in Russia, what family members did and, most importantly, what I would like to draw your attention to, what traditions were observed in raising children in Russia.
As for the life of a peasant family, after the conversation we will go up to our school museum "Russian Upper Room" and you will try to tell me how the dwelling of a peasant family looked like, what objects and tools Russian people used in everyday life, and I will help you with this.
Since at the end of the last academic year we had a sightseeing tour of the museum, now you will be my assistants in describing the life of our ancestors.
Well, now the first part of our lesson.
Traditions of a peasant family in raising children.
Labor responsibilities in a village family were distributed according to gender. The families of the peasants were large and friendly. Parents with many children treated their children with love and care. They believed that by the age of 7-8 the child was already “entering the mind” and began to teach him everything that they knew and could themselves.
The father taught the sons, and the mother taught the daughters. From an early age, every peasant child prepared himself for the future duties of a father - the head and breadwinner of the family, or a mother - keeper of the hearth.
Parents taught children unobtrusively: at first, the child just stood next to the adult and watched him work. Then the child started giving tools, supporting something. He was already becoming an assistant.
After some time, the child was already entrusted with doing part of the work. Then the child was already made special children's tools: a hammer, a rake, a spindle, a spinning wheel.
The child was praised and presented for the accomplished work. The first product made by a child, he got it: a spoon, bast shoes, mittens, an apron, a pipe.
Now listen carefully to what the boys were taught. Because the next task will be to choose from the proposed types of work those that the father taught his sons.
The boys, together with their father, made toys from different materials - homemade products, weaved baskets, boxes, sandals, planed dishes, household utensils, made furniture.
Each peasant knew how to skillfully weave sandals. Men wove bast shoes for themselves and for the whole family. We tried to make them strong, warm, waterproof.
In every peasant household there was necessarily a cattle. They kept a cow, a horse, goats, sheep, a bird. After all, the cattle gave a lot of useful products for the family. The cattle were looked after by men: they fed, removed the manure, cleaned the animals. The women milked the cows, drove the cattle into the pasture.
The main worker on the farm was the horse. All day the horse worked in the field with the owner. Grazing horses at night. It was the responsibility of the sons.
For the horse, different devices were needed: clamps, shafts, reins, bridles, sleds, carts. The owner made all this himself together with his sons.
From early childhood, any boy could harness a horse. From the age of 9, the boy began to learn to ride and control a horse.
From the age of 10-12, the son helped his father in the field - he plowed, harrowed, fed the sheaves and even threshed.
By the age of 15-16, the son turned into the main assistant to his father, working on an equal basis with him. My father was always there and helped, prompted, supported.
If the father was fishing, then the sons were by his side too. It was a game for them, a joy, and their father was proud that such helpers were growing up with him.
On the table are sheets of paper printed on them. Select and attach with magnets to the board the ones that the father taught his sons in peasant families.
Now listen to what mothers taught their daughters.
The girls were taught to cope with all women's work by their mother, elder sister and grandmother.
The girls learned to make rag dolls, sew outfits for them, weaved braids, jewelry from a tow, and sewed hats. The girls tried: after all, by the beauty of the dolls, people judged what kind of craftswoman she was.
Then the girls played with the dolls: “they went to visit,” lulled, swaddled, “celebrated the holidays,” that is, lived a doll life with them. The people believed that if girls willingly and carefully play with dolls, then the family will have profit, prosperity. So, through the game, the girls joined the cares and joys of motherhood.
But only the younger daughters played with dolls. As they grew up, their mother or older sisters taught them how to care for babies. The mother spent the whole day in the field or was busy in the yard, in the vegetable garden, and the girls almost completely replaced their mother. The girl - nanny spent the whole day with the child: she played with him, calmed him down, if he cried, lullied
And so they lived: the younger girls - nannies are found with the baby, and the older daughters help their mother in the field: they knit sheaves, collect spikelets.
At the age of 7, peasant girls began to learn how to spin. The father gave the first small elegant spinning wheel to his daughter. The daughters learned to spin, sew, embroider under the guidance of their mother.
Often the girls gathered in one hut for gatherings: they talked, sang songs and worked: they spun, sewed clothes, embroidered, knitted mittens and socks for brothers, sisters, parents, embroidered towels, knitted lace.
At the age of 9, the girl was already helping the metria cook food.
The peasants also made the fabric for their clothes themselves at home on special looms. It was called that - homespun. The girl helped her mother, and by the age of 16 she was trusted to weave on her own.
The girl was also taught to groom cattle, milk a cow, harvest sheaves, stir up hay, wash clothes in the river, cook food and even bake bread.
Gradually, the girl came to the realization that she was a future mistress who could do all women's work.
Attach worksheets of the types of jobs that the girls were taught to on the board.
Let's read aloud again what boys and girls were traditionally taught in Russian peasant families.
Thus, in peasant families “good fellows” grew up - father's helpers, and “red maidens” - craftsmen - needlewomen, who, growing up, passed on their skills to their children and grandchildren.
Guys, what was the main tradition of raising children in Russian peasant families? (education in work)
And now we go up to the third floor to the school museum "Russian Upper Room".
Second part of the lesson.
/ A teacher in a Russian costume meets the guys at the entrance to the museum /
Wooden Russia, dear edges,
Russian people have lived here for a long time.
They glorify the dwellings of their relatives,
The split Russian songs are sung.
Today we have an unusual activity. Lesson - excursion to the museum of peasant life "Russian Upper Room".
Tell me, what was called the "room"? / Room in the hut /
What room is this? / Large, bright, warm /
Before our excursion begins, let's remember what a “museum” is and how to behave in a museum / do not touch anything, do not shout, do not interrupt the guide without permission /.
Well, well done. We can now begin our journey into the past.
And I will begin my story from the Russian stove.
A stove was placed in the middle of the room. They said about her: "The stove is the head of everything" / that is, the most important /.
Why is the main oven? / Feed, heat /
Mittens will help dry
will put children to sleep in warmth.
And the cat sings somewhere nearby,
How warm the stove is with you - mother / will warm, feed, like mother /.
The stove is the very first assistant of the hostess.
What did the peasants eat? / Cabbage soup, porridge /
So they said: "Cabbage soup and porridge - our food." On holidays, they ate pies, pancakes, jelly.
Cabbage soup, porridge, potatoes - everything was cooked in pots or cast iron different sizes. They were placed in an oven and removed from there with the help of grip.
It is made simply - a rounded slingshot is attached to a long handle; she - and then "grasps" the pot or iron pot "under the sides."
Guys, who wants to try to get a cast iron out of the oven with a grip? / Those who wish to try with my help /
Mortar- another item of rural use.
She is known to modern boys and girls from Russian fairy tales. It is on it that Baba - Yaga flies, waving a broomstick. Well, in free time from flights, the stupa was used for its intended purpose - grain was pounded in it.
The stupa was made simply: in a deck, a short thick log, in the upper part there is a hollow, where grain was poured. They beat him pestle- a small but weighty wooden rod with rounded ends.
They poured millet into the mortar and beat it with a pestle until flour was obtained from it.
In the everyday life of the peasant, there were necessarily scythe and sickle- serrated crooked knife for squeezing bread. The sickle has become a symbol of the work of the tiller. During work, the scythe, naturally, became blunt. And the mower sharpened it with a bar that was always with him - on the back belt in a wooden "holster" or wicker basket.
A child was born in a peasant family. Where will he sleep? / In a cradle or rolling /
Cradle made of wood. They were hung from the ceiling on a hook. They made a bed for the child from scraps of fabric. To make the child fall asleep, they sang lullabies to him.
There were no cupboards and cupboards before. Things were kept in chests. The chests were made of wood, decorated with carvings, and forged with iron. The chest has a lid, handles, and a lock. The handles and the lock were made of iron so as not to break. Things were put into a storage chest. Let's open our chest and see if there is anything / there are Russian folk costumes, costume elements in the chest /. The guys put on things / vests, caps with a flower, girls - scarves /.
The peasants were believers. What does it mean? / believed in God, prayed /. And what religion did our ancestors profess and what do we, modern Russian people, profess? / Orthodoxy /
Therefore, in the "red corner", obliquely from the stove, were placed icons.
Guys, who can be depicted on icons? / Jesus Christ, Theotokos and Canonized saints /
The decoration of the hut and the pride of the owner was a samovar, polished to a shine. “We have a samovar on the table and a clock on the wall,” the owner boasted.
The household utensils of the peasants were monotonous. Clay bowls, wooden spoons. Forks, by the way, were very rare.
Guys, what is this? / Rocker / What was a rocker for, you know? / Carry buckets of water / Now let's try to move buckets of water using this baby rocker / in the corridor they try with my help, in buckets of water by a third /.
Now let's go back to the museum. You can go through again, see antiques. If you have any questions - ask / the guys walk, look, ask questions /.
/ sitting on a bench / Our lesson is coming to an end. Who can tell me what it was called? What items of peasant use did you learn about?
Well done boys. And now we will all go into the next room and, according to the old Russian custom, we will have tea from a samovar.
/ at the table / The old village cannot be imagined without a song. There were a great many songs: round dance, play, love, wedding, lullabies, even robberies ... Songs accompanied the peasant from birth to his last days. They sang at home, on the street, in the field. During work and play. All together and alone. So we will drink tea to the accompaniment of Russian folk songs / turn on the tape recorder /.
Russian dwelling is not a separate house, but a fenced yard in which several buildings, both residential and utility ones, were built. Izba was the general name for a residential building. The word "hut" comes from the ancient "isba", "source". Initially, this was the name of the main heated residential part of the house with a stove.
As a rule, the dwellings of rich and poor peasants in the villages practically differed in the quality and number of buildings, the quality of decoration, but they consisted of the same elements. The presence of such outbuildings as a barn, a barn, a barn, a bathhouse, a cellar, a stable, an exit, a bryozoan, etc., depended on the level of development of the economy. All buildings in the literal sense of the word were cut with an ax from the beginning to the end of construction, although longitudinal and transverse saws were known and used. The concept of "peasant yard" included not only buildings, but also the plot of land on which they were located, including a vegetable garden, a garden, a threshing floor, etc.
The main building material was wood. The number of forests with a wonderful "business" forest far exceeded what is now preserved in the vicinity of Saitovka. Pine and spruce were considered the best types of wood for buildings, but pine was always preferred. Oak was prized for the strength of the wood, but it was heavy and difficult to work with. It was used only in the lower rims of log cabins, for arranging cellars or in structures where special strength was needed (mills, wells, salt barns). Other tree species, especially deciduous (birch, alder, aspen), were used in the construction, as a rule, of outbuildings
For each need, trees were selected according to special characteristics. So, for the walls of the log house, they tried to pick up special "warm" trees overgrown with moss, straight, but not necessarily straight-grained. At the same time, not just straight, but straight-grained trees were necessarily chosen for the tessera on the roof. Most often, log cabins were collected already in the yard or near the yard. We also carefully chose the place for the future home.
For the construction of even the largest log-type buildings, a special foundation was usually not erected along the perimeter of the walls, but supports were laid in the corners of the huts - large boulders or so-called "chairs" made of oak stumps. In rare cases, if the length of the walls was much more than usual, the supports were also placed in the middle of such walls. The very nature of the log structure of the buildings made it possible to restrict the support to four main points, since the log structure was an integral structure.
The overwhelming majority of buildings were based on a "cage", "crown" - a bundle of four logs, the ends of which were chopped into a tie. The methods of such felling could be different in terms of execution technique.
The main constructive types of chopped peasant residential buildings were "cross-section", "five-wall", a house with a cut. For insulation between the crowns of the logs, moss was laid interspersed with tow.
but the purpose of the connection was always the same - to fasten the logs together in a square with strong knots without any additional connection elements (staples, nails, wooden pins or knitting needles, etc.). Each log had a strictly defined place in the structure. Having cut down the first crown, the second was cut on it, the third on the second, etc., until the frame reached a predetermined height.
The roofs of the huts were mostly covered with straw, which, especially in lean years, often served as fodder for livestock. Sometimes the more prosperous peasants erected roofs made of boards or shingles. The tes was made by hand. To do this, two workers used tall trestles and a long rip saw.
Everywhere, like all Russians, the peasants of Saitovka, according to a widespread custom, when laying the foundation for a house, put money under the lower crown in all corners, and a larger coin was supposed to be in the red corner. And where the stove was placed, they did not put anything, since this corner, according to popular beliefs, was intended for a brownie.
In the upper part of the log house, across the hut, there was a uterus - a four-sided wooden beam serving as a support for the ceiling. The uterus was cut into the upper rims of the frame and was often used to hang objects from the ceiling. So, a ring was nailed to it, through which an ochep (flexible pole) of the cradle (shackle) passed. A lantern with a candle was hung in the middle to illuminate the hut, and later a kerosene lamp with a shade.
In the rituals associated with the completion of the construction of the house, there was a compulsory treat called "matichnoe". In addition, the laying of the uterus itself, after which there was still a fairly large amount of construction work, was considered a special stage in the construction of the house and was furnished with its own rituals.
In a wedding ceremony for a successful matchmaking, matchmakers never went into the house for the mother without a special invitation from the owners of the house. In popular language, the expression "to sit under the womb" meant "to be a matchmaker." The uterus was associated with the idea of the father's house, luck, happiness. So, leaving home, it was necessary to hold onto the uterus.
For insulation along the entire perimeter, the lower crowns of the hut were covered with earth, forming a mound, in front of which a bench was installed. In the summer, the old men whiled away the evening on the bench and the embankment. Fallen leaves with dry soil were usually laid on top of the ceiling. The space between the ceiling and the roof - the attic in Saitovka was also called a stavka. It was usually used to store old-fashioned things, utensils, dishes, furniture, brooms, bunches of grass, etc. Children, on the other hand, arranged their simple hiding places on it.
A porch and a canopy were necessarily attached to the residential hut - a small room that protected the hut from the cold. The role of the canopy was varied. This is a protective vestibule in front of the entrance, and additional living quarters in the summer, and a utility room where part of the food supplies were kept.
The soul of the whole house was the stove. It should be noted that the so-called "Russian", or more correctly the oven, is a purely local invention and is rather ancient. It traces its history back to the Trypillian dwellings. But in the design of the oven itself during the second millennium of our era, very significant changes took place, which made it possible to use fuel much more fully.
Building a good oven is not easy. At first, a small wooden blockhouse (opechek) was installed right on the ground, which served as the foundation of the furnace. Small logs split in half were laid on it and the bottom of the oven was laid on them - under, even, without a slope, otherwise the baked bread would turn out to be crooked. Above the hearth of stone and clay, a furnace vault was erected. The side of the oven had several shallow holes, called stoves, in which mittens, mittens, socks, etc. were dried. In the old days, huts (for chickens) were heated in black - the stove did not have a pipe. The smoke was leaving through a small drag window. Although the walls and ceiling became smoky, this had to be tolerated: a stove without a chimney was cheaper to build and required less firewood. Subsequently, in accordance with the rules of rural improvement, obligatory for state peasants, chimneys began to be removed over the huts.
First of all, the "big woman" got up - the owner's wife, if she was not yet old, or one of the daughters-in-law. She flooded the stove, opened wide the door and the smoker. The smoke and cold lifted everyone up. The little guys were put on a pole to bask. Acrid smoke filled the entire hut, crawled upward, hung from the ceiling taller than a human being. An ancient Russian proverb, known since the 13th century, says: "I could not stand the smoky sorrows, they did not see the warmth." Smoked logs of houses were less exposed to rotting, so the chick huts were more durable.
The stove occupied almost a quarter of the dwelling area. It was heated for several hours, but when heated, it kept warm and heated the room during the day. The stove served not only for heating and cooking, but also as a stove bench. They baked bread and pies in the oven, cooked porridge, cabbage soup, stewed meat and vegetables. In addition, mushrooms, berries, grain, and malt were also dried in it. Often they steamed in the oven, which replaced the bath.
In all cases of life, the stove came to the aid of the peasant. And the stove had to be heated not only in winter, but throughout the year. Even in summer, the oven had to be well heated at least once a week in order to bake a sufficient supply of bread. Using the property of the oven to accumulate, accumulate heat, the peasants cooked food once a day, in the morning, left the cooked inside the ovens until lunchtime - and the food remained hot. Only in the late summer supper did the food have to be warmed up. This feature of the oven had a decisive influence on Russian cooking, in which the processes of languor, boiling, stewing predominate, and not only the peasant one, since the way of life of many small landowners did not differ much from the peasant life.
The stove served as a lair for the whole family. On the stove, the warmest place of the hut, old people slept, who climbed there by steps - a device in the form of 2-3 steps. One of the obligatory elements of the interior was a floor - a wooden flooring from the side wall of the stove to the opposite side of the hut. Sleeping on the beds, climbing from the stove, dried flax, hemp, torch. For the day, they threw bedding and unnecessary clothes there. The floors were made high, at the height of the stove. The free edge of the boulders was often fenced off with low balusters so that nothing would fall from the boulders. Polati was a favorite place for children: both as a place to sleep and as the most convenient observation point during peasant holidays and weddings.
The location of the stove determined the layout of the entire living room. Usually the stove was placed in the corner to the right or left of the front door. The corner opposite the mouth of the furnace was the hostess's workplace. Everything here was adapted for cooking. There was a poker, a grapple, a pomelo, and a wooden shovel at the stove. Nearby there is a mortar with pestle, hand millstones and a kettle for leavening the dough. With a poker, they raked the ash out of the oven. With a grip, the cook clings to pot-bellied clay or cast iron pots (cast irons), and sends them into the heat. In a mortar, she pounded the grain, peeling it from the husk, and with the help of a mill she ground it into flour. A pomelo and a shovel were necessary for baking bread: with a broom, a peasant woman swept under the oven, and with a shovel she planted a future loaf on it.
There was always a scraper hanging next to the stove, i.e. towel and washstand. Under it was a wooden tub for dirty water. In the stove corner there was also a ship's bench (ship) or a counter with shelves inside, which was used as a kitchen table. On the walls were observers - cupboards, shelves for simple tableware: pots, ladles, cups, bowls, spoons. The owner of the house made them from wood. In the kitchen, one could often see earthenware in "clothes" made of birch bark - thrifty owners did not throw out cracked pots, pots, bowls, but braided them for strength with strips of birch bark. Above, there was a stove bar (pole), on which kitchen utensils were placed and various household utensils were laid. The eldest woman in the house was the sovereign mistress of the stove corner.
The stove corner was considered a dirty place, unlike the rest of the clean space of the hut. Therefore, the peasants always tried to separate it from the rest of the room with a curtain made of variegated chintz or colored homespun fabric, a tall wardrobe or a wooden bulkhead. The corner of the stove, thus closed, formed a small room called the "closet". The stove corner was considered an exclusively female space in the hut. During the holiday, when many guests gathered in the house, a second table for women was set up near the stove, where they feasted separately from the men sitting at the table in the red corner. Men even of their family could not enter the female half without special need. The appearance of a stranger there was generally considered unacceptable.
During the matchmaking, the future bride had to be in the stove corner all the time, being able to hear the whole conversation. From the corner of the stove she came out smartly dressed during the show - the ceremony of introducing the groom and his parents to the bride. There, the bride was expecting the groom on the day of departure down the aisle. In ancient wedding songs, the stove corner was interpreted as a place associated with the father's house, family, happiness. The bride's exit from the stove corner to the red corner was perceived as leaving the house, saying goodbye to him.
At the same time, the corner of the stove, from where there is an exit into the underground, at the mythological level was perceived as a place where people can meet with representatives of the "other" world. Through the chimney, according to legend, a fiery serpent-devil can fly to the widow yearning for her dead husband. It was believed that on especially solemn days for the family: during the baptism of children, birthdays, weddings - the dead parents - "ancestors" come to the stove to take part in an important event in the life of their descendants.
The place of honor in the hut - the red corner - was located obliquely from the stove between the side and front walls. It, like the stove, is an important landmark of the interior space of the hut, well lit, since both of its walls had windows. The main decoration of the red corner was a shrine with icons, in front of which a lamp was burning, suspended from the ceiling, therefore he was also called a "saint".
They tried to keep the red corner clean and elegantly decorated. He was removed with embroidered towels, popular prints, postcards. With the advent of wallpaper, the red corner was often pasted over or isolated from the rest of the hut space. The most beautiful household utensils were placed on the shelves near the red corner, the most valuable papers and objects were kept.
All significant events in family life were noted in the red corner. Here, as the main piece of furniture, there was a table on massive legs, on which runners were installed. The runners made it easy to move the table around the hut. It was placed in front of the oven when bread was baked, and it was moved when the floor and walls were washed.
It was followed by both everyday meals and festive feasts. Every day at lunchtime the whole peasant family gathered at the table. The table was large enough for everyone to have room. In the wedding ceremony, the matchmaking of the bride, her ransom from her bridesmaids and her brother were performed in the red corner; from the red corner of her father’s house they took her to a church wedding, brought her to the groom’s house and also led her to the red corner. During the harvest, the first and last compressed sheaf was solemnly carried from the field and set in the red corner.
"The first compressed sheaf was called the birthday man. The autumn threshing began with him, the sick cattle were fed with straw, the grains of the first sheaf were considered healing for people and birds. The first sheaf was usually healed by the eldest woman in the family. It was decorated with flowers, carried to the house with songs and set up in the red corner under the icons. " The preservation of the first and last ears of the harvest, endowed, according to popular beliefs, with magical powers promised prosperity to the family, home, and the entire economy.
Everyone who entered the hut first took off his hat, crossed himself and bowed to the icons in the red corner, saying: "Peace be to this house." Peasant etiquette instructed a guest who entered the hut to stay in half of the hut at the door, without going behind the womb. An unauthorized, uninvited intrusion into the "red half" where the table was placed was considered extremely indecent and could be perceived as an insult. A person who came to the hut could go there only at the special invitation of the owners. The most dear guests were seated in the red corner, and during the wedding - the youngest. On ordinary days, the head of the family sat here at the dinner table.
The last of the remaining corners of the hut, to the left or right of the door, was the workplace of the owner of the house. There was a bench where he slept. A tool was kept under it in a drawer. In his free time, the peasant in his corner was engaged in various crafts and minor repairs: weaving bast shoes, baskets and ropes, cutting spoons, hollowing out cups, etc.
Although most of the peasant huts consisted of only one room, not divided by partitions, an unspoken tradition prescribed the observance of certain placement rules for members of the peasant hut. If the stove corner was the female half, then in one of the corners of the house there was a special place for the sleeping of the older married couple. This place was considered honorable.
Shop
Most of the "furniture" was part of the structure of the hut and was motionless. Along all the walls, not occupied by the stove, there were wide benches, hewn from the largest trees. They were intended not so much for sitting as for sleeping. The benches were firmly attached to the wall. Other important pieces of furniture were benches and stools that could be freely carried from place to place when guests arrived. Above the benches, along all the walls, shelves were arranged - "half-shelves", on which household items, small tools, etc. were kept. Special wooden pegs for clothes were also driven into the wall.
An integral attribute of almost every Saitovka hut was a pole - a bar embedded in the opposite walls of the hut under the ceiling, which in the middle, opposite the pier, was propped up by two plows. The second pole rested with one end against the first pole, and with the other against the pier. In winter, this design was the support of the mill for weaving matting and other ancillary operations associated with this fishery.
Spinning wheel
The hostesses were especially proud of the chiseled, carved and painted spinning wheels, which were usually placed in a prominent place: they served not only as an instrument of labor, but also as a decoration for the home. Usually, with elegant spinning wheels, peasant girls went to "get-togethers" - cheerful rural gatherings. The "white" hut was cleaned with household weaving items. The beds and the couch were covered with colored linen curtains. On the windows there were curtains made of homespun muslin, the window sills were decorated with geraniums, dear to the peasant's heart. The hut was especially carefully cleaned for the holidays: the women washed it with sand and scraped it white with large knives - "mowers" - the ceiling, walls, benches, shelves, and shelves.
The peasants kept their clothes in chests. The more wealth there is in the family, the more chests there are in the hut. They were made of wood, upholstered with iron strips for strength. Chests often had clever mortise locks. If a girl grew up in a peasant family, then from an early age a dowry was collected in a separate chest for her.
A poor Russian man lived in this space. Often in the winter cold, domestic animals were kept in the hut: calves, lambs, kids, piglets, and sometimes poultry.
The artistic taste and skill of the Russian peasant was reflected in the decoration of the hut. The silhouette of the hut was crowned with carved
ridge (goof) and roof of the porch; the pediment was decorated with carved moorings and towels, the planes of the walls - window frames, often reflecting the influence of the city's architecture (baroque, classicism, etc.). The ceiling, door, walls, stove, less often the outer pediment were painted.
Non-residential peasant buildings made up the household yard. Often they were gathered together and placed under the same roof as the hut. A household yard was built in two tiers: in the lower one there were cattle sheds, a stable, and in the upper one there was a huge sennik filled with fragrant hay. A significant part of the household yard was occupied by a shed for storing working equipment - plows, harrows, as well as carts and sleds. The more prosperous the peasant, the larger his farm was.
A bathhouse, a well, and a barn were usually placed separately from the house. It is unlikely that the then baths were very different from those that can still be found today - a small log house,
sometimes without a dressing room. In one corner there is a stove-stove, next to it there are shelves or shelves on which they steamed. In another corner there is a barrel for water, which was heated by throwing hot stones into it. Later, cast-iron boilers were installed to heat water in the heater-stove. To soften the water, wood ash was added to the barrel, thus preparing the lye. The entire decoration of the bathhouse was illuminated by a small window, the light from which drowned in the blackness of the smoky walls and ceilings, since in order to save firewood, the baths were heated "in black" and the smoke came out through the half-open door. From above, such a structure often had an almost flat pitched roof covered with straw, birch bark and sod.
The barn, and often the cellar under it, was placed in full view against the windows and at a distance from the dwelling, so that in the event of a fire in the hut, they would preserve the annual grain supply. A lock was hung on the door of the barn - perhaps the only one in the entire household. The main wealth of the farmer was kept in the barn in huge boxes (bottom-hole): rye, wheat, oats, barley. No wonder in the village they used to say: "What is in the barn, so is in the pocket."
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BBK T5 (2)
TRADITIONS OF PEASANT LIFE OF THE LATE XIX - BEGINNING OF XX CENTURIES (FOOD, HOUSING, CLOTHING) V. B. Bezgin
Department of History and Philosophy, TSTU
Presented by Professor A.A. Slezin and a member of the editorial board, Professor S.V. Mishchenko
Key words and phrases: hunger; homespun cloth; hut; bast shoes; nutrition; food consumption; bake; dishes; shirt; condition of the dwelling.
Annotation: The article examines the state of the main components of the everyday culture of the Russian village at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. The content of the peasants' daily food, the everyday living conditions of the villagers, the peculiarities of village clothes and the influence of urban fashion on it are analyzed.
Cognition of the historical reality of the life of a Russian village at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries is impossible without the reconstruction of peasant life. In peasant everyday life, both the traditional rural way of life and the changes that were brought about by the economic and cultural development of the country found their visible embodiment. The content of the everyday culture of the Russian village can be investigated by analyzing its material components: food, housing and clothing. In the conditions of the consumer nature of the peasant economy, the living conditions of a rural family adequately reflected the level of its well-being. The destruction of the habitual isolation of the rural world as a result of the process of modernization led to the emergence of innovations in such a conservative sphere as rural life. The purpose of this article is to establish the daily diet of the peasant using the example of the peasantry of the European part of Russia, to find out the everyday living conditions of a rural family and to determine the type of traditional village clothing. The objective of this study is to clarify the essence of the changes that have occurred in peasant life during the period under study.
In the conditions of the natural, consumer nature of the peasant economy, food was the result of the production activity of the farmer. Traditionally, the peasant was fed from his labors. A popular proverb says: "What you drown, so you burst." The composition of peasant food was determined by the cultivated field and garden crops. Purchased food in the village was rare. The food was simple, it was also called rough, since it took a minimum of time to cook. The enormous amount of housework did not leave the cook no time to cook pickles, and everyday food was
monotonous. Only on holidays, when the hostess had enough time, other dishes appeared on the table. In general, rural women were conservative in ingredients and cooking techniques. The lack of culinary experiments was also one of the features of the everyday tradition. The villagers were not pretentious in food, and therefore all the recipes for its variety were perceived as overkill. In this respect, the testimony of V. Khlebnikova, who worked in the mid-1920s, is characteristic. XX century a rural teacher in the village. Surava, Tambov district. She recalled: “We ate cabbage soup from one cabbage and soup from one potato. Pies and pancakes were baked once or twice a year on major holidays ... At the same time, the peasant women were proud of their everyday illiteracy. They contemptuously rejected the proposal to add something to the cabbage soup for the bite: “Nothing! Mine are already eating and praising. And, you will completely spoil commercials. "
On the basis of the studied ethnographic sources, it is possible with a high degree of probability to reconstruct the daily diet of a Russian peasant. Rural food consisted of a traditional list of foods. The well-known saying "Shchi and porridge is our food" correctly reflected the everyday content of the food of the villagers. In the Oryol province, the daily food of both rich and poor peasants consisted of "brew" (cabbage soup) or soup. On fast days, these dishes were seasoned with lard or "pork fat" (internal pork fat), on fast days - with hemp oil. In the Petrovsky post, the Oryol peasants ate "mura" or a jail made of bread, water and butter. The festive food was distinguished by the fact that it was better seasoned, the same "brew" was prepared with meat, porridge in milk, and on the most solemn days potatoes with meat were fried. On big temple holidays, the peasants cooked jelly, jellied meat from legs and offal.
Meat was not a permanent component of the peasant diet. According to N. Brzhevsky's observations, the food of the peasants, quantitatively and qualitatively, did not satisfy the basic needs of the organism. “Milk, butter, cottage cheese, meat,” he wrote, “in a word, all foods rich in protein substances appear on the peasant's table in exceptional cases - at weddings, when breaking the fast, on patronal holidays. Chronic malnutrition is a common occurrence in a peasant family. " The poor peasant ate meat to his heart's content only for the "zagvin", that is, on the day of the conspiracy. According to the testimony of the Ethnographic Bureau correspondent from the Oryol province, by this day the peasant, no matter how poor he was, was sure to cook for himself meat and gorge himself, so that the next day he lay with an upset stomach. Rarely did the peasants allow themselves wheat pancakes with lard or butter. Such episodic gluttony was typical of Russian peasants. Outside observers, not familiar with the life of the village, were surprised when, during the meat-eating period, after slaughtering a ram, a peasant family ate as much meat for one or two days as, with moderate consumption, would be enough for the whole week.
Wheat bread was another rarity on the peasant table. In his "Statistical Outline of the Economic Situation of the Peasants of the Oryol and Tula Provinces" (1902), M. Kashkarov noted that "wheat flour is never found in the everyday life of a peasant, unless only in gifts brought from the city, in the form of buns, etc. To all questions about the wheat culture we have heard the saying more than once in response: "White bread is for a white body." Of the cereals used by the peasants for food, rye was the undisputed leader. Rye bread actually formed the basis of the peasant ration. For example, at the beginning of the twentieth century. in the villages of the Tambov province, the composition of consumed bread was distributed as follows: rye flour - 81.2%, wheat flour - 2.3%, cereals - 16.3%.
Of the cereals used for food in the Tambov province, millet was the most widespread. From it they cooked porridge "plum" or kulesh, when pork fat was added to the porridge. The lean cabbage soup was seasoned with vegetable oil, and the short cabbage soup was whitened with milk or sour cream. The main vegetables used for food here were cabbage and potatoes. Before the revolution, little carrots, beets and other root crops were grown in the villages of the Tambov province. Cucumbers appeared in the gardens of Tambov peasants only in Soviet times. Even later, in the pre-war years, tomatoes began to be grown on personal plots. Traditionally, legumes were cultivated and eaten in the villages: peas, beans, lentils.
From the ethnographic description of the Oboyansk district of the Kursk province, it followed that during winter fasting local peasants ate sauerkraut with kvass, onions, pickles with potatoes. Cabbage soup was cooked from sauerkraut and sauerkraut. For breakfast, there was usually kulesh or dumplings made from buckwheat dough. The fish was consumed on the days permitted by the church charter. On short days, cabbage soup with meat, cottage cheese with milk appeared on the table. Wealthy peasants on holidays could afford okroshka with meat and eggs, milk porridge or noodles, wheat pancakes and pastry cakes. The abundance of the festive table was in direct proportion to the wealth of the owners.
The diet of the Voronezh peasants was not much different from the nutrition of the rural population of the neighboring chernozem provinces. Mostly lean food was consumed daily. It consisted of rye bread, salt, cabbage soup, porridge, peas and also vegetables: radish, cucumbers, potatoes. A modest meal consisted of cabbage soup with lard, milk and eggs. On holidays in Voronezh villages they ate corned beef, ham, chickens, geese, oatmeal jelly, and sieve pie.
The peasants' daily drink was water; in the summer they made kvass. At the end of the XIX century. in the villages of the black earth region, tea drinking was not widespread, if tea was consumed, then during an illness, it was brewed in an earthen pot in an oven. But already at the beginning of the twentieth century. the village reported that “the peasants loved the tea they drink on holidays and after dinner. The wealthier began to purchase samovars and tea ware. For intelligent guests they put forks for dinner, they themselves eat meat with their hands. " The level of everyday culture of the rural population was in direct proportion to the degree of social development of the village.
As a rule, the peasants had the following food order: in the morning, when everyone got up, they got something for themselves: bread and water, baked potatoes, yesterday's leftovers. At nine or ten in the morning we sat down at the table and ate breakfast with brew and potatoes. At 12 o'clock, but not later than 2 days, everyone had dinner, at midday they ate bread and salt. We had supper in the village at nine o'clock in the evening, and earlier in winter. Field work required significant physical effort, and the peasants, to the best of their ability, tried to consume more high-calorie food. Priest V. Emelyanov, on the basis of his observations of the life of peasants in the Bobrovsky district of the Voronezh province, reported to the Russian Geographical Society: “In the mild summer season, they eat four times. For breakfast on fast days, they eat kulesh with one rye bread, when onions grow, then with it. At lunchtime, they sip kvass, adding cucumbers to it, then they eat cabbage soup (shty), and finally steep millet porridge. If they work in the field, they eat kulesh all day, washed down with kvass. On short days, lard or milk is added to the usual diet. On a holiday - jelly, eggs, lamb in cabbage soup, chicken in noodles. "
The family meal in the village was carried out in a regular manner. Here is how P. Fomin, a resident of the Bryansk district of the Oryol province, described the traditional order of eating in a peasant family: “When they sit down to have lunch and dinner, then everyone starts to pray to God at the beginning of the owner, so they sit down at the table. No one can start a meal ahead of the owner. Otherwise, it will hit the forehead with a spoon, although it was an adult. If the family is large, children are put on shelves and fed there. After eating, everyone gets up and pray to God again. " The meal in a peasant family was common, with the exception of family members who were doing urgent work or were away.
In the second half of the 19th century, there was a fairly stable tradition of observing food restrictions in the peasant environment. An obligatory element of mass consciousness was the idea of clean and unclean food. The cow, in the opinion of the peasants of the Oryol province, was considered a clean animal, and the horse was considered unclean, unsuitable for food. The peasant beliefs of the Tambov province contained the idea of unclean food: a fish swimming with the stream was considered clean, and against the stream - unclean.
All these prohibitions were forgotten when the village was visited by famine. In the absence of any significant food supply in peasant families, each crop failure entailed the most serious consequences. In times of famine, food consumption by rural families was reduced to a minimum. For the purpose of physical survival in the village, cattle were slaughtered, seed material was used for food, and inventory was sold. In times of famine, the peasants ate bread made from buckwheat, barley or rye flour with chaff. After a trip to the hungry villages of the Morshansk district of the Tambov province (1892), the landowner K.K. ... This caused a terrible thirst, the children drank a lot of water, swelled up and died. " A quarter of a century later, the village still has the same terrible pictures. In 1925 (a hungry year !?) a peasant from the village. Ekaterinino of the Yaroslavl volost of the Tambov province A.F. Bartsev wrote in the “Krestyanskaya Gazeta”: “People tear up horse sorrel in the meadows, soar and feed on it.
Peasant families start to get sick from hunger. Especially children, who are plump, green, lie motionless and ask for bread. " Periodic famine developed methods of physical survival in the Russian countryside. Here are sketches of this hungry everyday life. “In the village of Moskovskoye, Voronezh district, in the years of famine (1919 - 1921), the existing food bans (not eating pigeons, horses, hares) were of little importance. The local population ate a little suitable plant, plantain, did not hesitate to cook soup from lo-shadina, ate "magpie and lizard." Neither cats nor dogs were eaten. Hot meals were made without potatoes, covered with grated beets, fried rye, quinoa was added. In the years of famine, they did not eat bread without additives, for which they used grass, quinoa, chaff, potato and beet tops and other surrogates. Flour (millet, oatmeal, barley) was added to them, depending on the wealth. "
Of course, all of the above are extreme situations. But even in prosperous years, malnutrition, a half-starved existence was commonplace. For the period from 1883 to 1890. consumption of bread in the country decreased by 4.4% or 51 million poods per year. The consumption of food products per year (in terms of grain) per capita was in 1893: in the Oryol province -10.6-12.7 poods, Kursk - 13-15 poods, Voronezh and Tambov - 16-19 poods ... ... At the beginning of the twentieth century. in European Russia, among the peasant population, there were 4500 calories per eater per day, with 84.7% of them being
of vegetable origin, including 62.9% of bread and only 15.3% of calories received from food of animal origin. At the same time, the caloric content of daily food consumption by peasants in the Tambov province was 3277, and in the Voronezh province - 3247. Budgetary studies carried out in the pre-war years recorded a very low level of consumption of the Russian peasantry. For example, villagers consumed less than a pound of sugar per month and less than half a pound of vegetable oil.
If we talk not about abstract figures, but about the state of intra-village consumption of food, then it should be recognized that the quality of food directly depended on the economic wealth of the family. So, according to the correspondent of the Ethnographic Bureau, the consumption of meat at the end of the XIX century. a poor family was 20 pounds, a wealthy one - 1.5 pounds. Well-to-do families spent 5 times more money on meat purchases than poor families. As a result of a survey of the budgets of 67 farms in the Voronezh province (1893), it was found that the cost of purchasing food, in the group of well-to-do farms, amounted to 343 rubles a year, or 30.5% of all expenses. In middle-income families, respectively, 198 rubles. or 46.3%. These families ate 50 pounds of meat a year per person, while the well-to-do had twice as much - 101 pounds.
Additional data on the culture of life of the peasantry is provided by data on the consumption of basic food products by the villagers in the 1920s. For example, the indicators of Tambov demographic statistics are taken. The main diet of the rural family was still vegetables and plant products. In the period 1921 - 1927. they accounted for 90 - 95% of the village menu. Meat consumption was negligible: 10 to 20 pounds per year. This is due to the traditional self-restraint for the village in the consumption of livestock products and the observance of religious fasts. With the economic strengthening of peasant farms, the calorie content of food consumed has increased. If in 1922 in the daily ration of a Tambov peasant it was 2250 units, then by 1926 it had almost doubled and amounted to 4250 calories. In the same year, the daily caloric intake of a Voronezh peasant was 4410 units. There was no qualitative difference in food consumption by different categories of the village.
From the above review of food consumption by peasants in the chernozem provinces, it can be concluded that the basis of the daily diet of a villager was made up of products of natural production, products of plant origin predominated in it. The food supply was seasonal. The relatively well-fed period from Intercession to Christmastide was replaced by a half-starved existence in the spring and summer. The composition of the food consumed was in direct proportion to the church calendar. The food of the peasant family was a reflection of the economic viability of the household. The difference in food between wealthy and poor peasants was not in its quality, but in quantity. Analysis of the traditional set of food products and the level of calorie content of peasant food gives grounds to assert that the state of satiety has never been typical for rural families. The alienation of manufactured products was not the result of its surplus, but a consequence of economic necessity.
The hut was the traditional home of the Russian peasant. Building a house for a peasant is an important stage in his life, an indispensable attribute of his acquiring the status of a householder. The estate for a new building was allocated by the decision of the village gathering. Procurement of logs and erection of a log house were usually carried out by means of mundane or neighborly help. In the villages of the region, the main construction
wood was used as the material. The huts were built from round, rough logs. The exception was the steppe regions of the southern districts of the Kursk and Voronezh provinces. The smudged Little Russian huts predominated here.
The state of peasant dwellings fully reflected the material wealth of their owners. Senator S. Mordvinov, who visited the Voronezh province with an audit in the early 1880s, said in his report: “Peasant huts have fallen into decay and amaze with their poor appearance. Stone buildings among the peasants of the province are noted: among the former landowners - 1.4%, among the state ones - 2.4%. At the end of the XIX century. wealthy peasants in villages began to build stone houses more often. Usually, rural houses were covered with straw, less often with shingles. According to the observations of researchers, at the beginning of the twentieth century. In Voronezh villages, “huts” were built of bricks and “tin” instead of the former “chopped” ones, covered with straw on “clay”. The researcher of the Voronezh Territory F. Zheleznov, who examined the living conditions of peasants in the early 1920s, made the following grouping of peasant huts (based on wall materials): brick buildings accounted for 57%, wood accounted for 40% and mixed 3%. The condition of the buildings looked like this: dilapidated - 45%, new - 7%, mediocre - 52%.
The condition of the peasant hut and outbuildings was a reliable indicator of the economic condition of the peasant family. "A bad hut and a collapsed courtyard are the first signs of poverty, the same is evidenced by the absence of cattle and furniture." By the decoration of the dwelling, it was possible to accurately determine the financial situation of the residents. Correspondents of the Ethnographic Bureau described the interior of the houses of poor and well-to-do families in the following way: “The situation of a poor peasant's family is a cramped, dilapidated hovel instead of a house, and a little shed with only one cow and three or four sheep. There is no bathhouse, barn or barn. The well-to-do always has a new spacious hut, several warm sheds, in which two or three horses, three or four cows, two or three calves, twenty sheep, pigs and chickens can be accommodated. There is a bathhouse and a barn. "
Russian peasants were very unassuming in household use. An outsider, first of all, was struck by the asceticism of the interior decoration. Peasant hut of the late 19th century differed little from the rural dwelling of the previous century. Most of the room was occupied by a stove, which served both for heating and for cooking. In many families, she replaced the bathhouse. Most of the peasant huts were drowned "in black". In 1892, in the village. Kobelke Epiphany Volost, Tambov Province, out of 533 households, 442 were heated "in black" and 91 "in white". Each hut had a table and benches along the walls. Other furniture was practically absent. Not all families had benches and stools. They usually slept on stoves in winter and on barks in summer. To make it not so hard, they laid straw, which was covered with sackcloth. How not to recall the words of the Voronezh poet I.S.Nikitin:
The daughter-in-law went for fresh straw,
She made her bed on a bunk on the side, - She put a zipun against the wall at the head of the bed.
Straw served as a universal floor covering in a peasant hut. The family members used it for their natural needs, and, as it became dirty, they periodically changed it. The Russian peasants had a vague idea of hygiene. According to A.I. Shingareva, at the beginning of the twentieth century, baths in the village. Mokhovat-ke there were only two for 36 families, and in the neighboring Novo-Zhivotinniy - one for
10 families. Most of the peasants washed themselves once or twice a month in a hut, in trays, or simply on straw. The tradition of washing in the oven was preserved in the village until the Great Patriotic War. Semkina (born in 1919), recalled: “Previously, people bathed at home, from a bucket, there was no bath. And the old men climbed into the stove. Mother will sweep the stove, lay the straw there, old people climb in, warm the bones. "
Constant work on the farm and in the field practically did not leave the peasant women time to maintain cleanliness in their homes. In the best case, the rubbish was swept out of the hut once a day. The floors in the houses were washed no more than 2-3 times a year, usually for the feast day, Easter and Christmas. Easter in the village has traditionally been a holiday, to which the villagers put their homes in order. “Almost every peasant, even a poor one,” wrote a village teacher, “before Easter, will certainly go into a shop and buy 2-3 pieces of cheap wallpaper and several paintings. Before that, the ceiling and walls of the house are thoroughly washed with soap. "
The dishes were exclusively wooden or earthenware. Spoons, salt shakers, buckets were made of wood, pots and bowls were made of clay. There were very few metal things: cast iron, in which food was cooked, a grapple for pulling cast iron out of the oven, set on a wooden stick, knives. The peasant huts were illuminated with a torch. In the late 19th - early 20th centuries, peasants, at first wealthy, began to acquire kerosene lamps with glass. Then in the peasant huts appeared a watch-walker with weights. The art of using them consisted in the ability to regularly, about once a day, tighten the chain with a weight, and, most importantly, set the arrows in the sun so that they would give at least an approximate orientation in time.
The rise in the material condition of the peasants during the NEP period had a beneficial effect on the condition of the peasant tenant. According to the authors of the collection "Russians" in the second half of the 20s. XX century in many villages, about 20-30% of existing houses were built and repaired. New houses accounted for about a third of all buildings in the Nikolskaya volost, Kursk province. During the NEP period, the houses of wealthy peasants were covered with iron roofs, and a stone foundation was laid under them. Furniture and good dishes appeared in wealthy houses. Curtains on the windows entered everyday life, the front room was decorated with fresh and artificial flowers, photographs, and wallpaper was glued to the walls. However, these changes did not affect the poor peasants' huts. Peasant V. Ya. Safronov, resident of the village. Krasnopolye Kozlovsky district, in his letter for 1926, described their condition as follows: “The hut is wooden, rotten. The windows are half closed with straw or rags. The hut is dark and dirty ... ".
In the clothes of the peasants of the provinces of the central Chernozem region, traditional, archaic features that were formed in ancient times were preserved, but new phenomena characteristic of the period of development of capitalist relations were also reflected in it. Men's clothing was more or less uniform across the entire study area. Women's clothing was distinguished by a great variety, bore the imprint of the influence on the South Russian costume of the clothing of ethnic formations, in particular, the Mordovians and Little Russians living in this territory.
Peasant clothing was subdivided into casual and festive. The predominantly peasant dress was homespun. Only the well-to-do part of the village could afford to buy factory fabrics. According to information from the Oboyansk district of the Kursk province in the 1860s. the men in the village wore homemade linens, a knee-length slant-collar shirt, and harbors. The shirt was girded with a woven or knotted belt. On holidays, linen shirts were worn. Wealthy peasants sported red chintz shirts. Outerwear in summer consisted of zipuns or retinues. Homespun robes were worn on holidays. And the richer peasants - the caftans of thin cloth.
The basis of the everyday clothes of Tambov peasant women was the traditional South Russian costume, which experienced a significant influence of urban fashion at the end of the 19th century. According to experts, in the village of the studied region, there was a process of reducing the territory of the spread of poneva, replacing it with a sundress. Girls and married women in the Morshansk district of the Tambov province wore sundresses. In a number of places, among the villagers, a checkered or striped “paneva”, on their heads “kokoshniks” and hairnails with elevations or even horns, have been preserved. The usual women's shoes "cats" (chobots) gave way to shoes or ankle boots "with a creak."
The festive clothes of the peasant women differed from the everyday ones in various decorations: embroidery, ribbons, colored headscarves. The villagers made fabrics with ornaments that were original for each locality on home machines. They dressed up in festive clothes not only on holidays, for village festivities and gatherings, in church, when receiving guests, but also for some types of work, haymaking.
Ethnographer F. Polikarpov, who studied at the beginning of the twentieth century. the life of the peasants of the Nizh-nedevitsky district of the Voronezh province, noted: “There are dandies who put on“ Gaspod ”shirts - calico shirts, light boots, no longer wear“ hamanas ”on their belts. Even within the same county, ethnographers discovered a variety of rural clothing. “In some places they wear“ panevs ”- black checkered skirts, in others they wear“ skirts ”of red colors, with wide trimming at the hem - from ribbons and braid. Girls mostly wear sundresses. From outerwear in the southeast of the Nizhnedevitskiy district, they wear "zipuniks", and in the northeast of the district - "shushpans". Everywhere the shoes are bast shoes with "anuchi" and "par-tianki". On holidays, they wear heavy and wide boots with horseshoes. Peasant shirts are not neatly cut - wide and long, the belt was tied up with "belly sweat", clinging to it "haman".
An innovation in rural fashion was the material from which the dress was made. Factory-made fabric (silk, satin) has practically supplanted homespun cloth. Under the influence of urban fashion, the cut of the peasant dress has changed. Peasant S. T. Semyonov on changes in the clothes of peasants at the beginning of the twentieth century. wrote that “self-woven fabrics were superseded by chintz. Zipuns and caftans were replaced by sweaters and jackets. " Men wore underwear, jackets, trousers, not printed, but cloth and paper. Young people wore jackets, belting their trousers with belts with buckles. Traditional women's hats were a thing of the past. Country girls walked bareheaded, decorating it with artificial flowers, throwing a scarf over their shoulders. Rural women of fashion wore fitted blouses, polts, and fur coats. Have got umbrellas and galoshes. The latter became the "squeak" of the village fashion. They were worn more for decoration, since they were worn in the thirty-degree heat, going to church.
Peasant life was not only an indicator of the socio-economic and cultural conditions for the development of the Russian village, but also a manifestation of the everyday psychology of its inhabitants. Traditionally in the village, much attention has been paid to the ostentatious side of family life. In the village they well remembered that they were "greeted by their clothes." To this end, well-to-do owners even on weekdays wore high boots with countless assemblies ("in an accordion"), and in warm weather they threw over their shoulders blue, fine factory cloth, caftans. And what they could not show, they said that "at home they have a samovar and a clock on the wall on the table, and they eat on plates with cupronickel spoons, washed down with tea from glass glasses." The peasant always strove to ensure that everything was no worse for him than that of his neighbor. Even with small funds, free funds were invested in the construction of a house, the purchase of good clothes, sometimes furniture, in the organization of the holiday "on a grand scale" so that the impression of the prosperity of the economy was created in the village. Family wealth had to be demonstrated on a daily basis, as a confirmation of economic well-being.
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Traditions of Peasants' Lifestyle at the End of XIX - Beginning of XX Centuries (Food, Dwelling, Clothes)
Department of History and Philosophy, TSTU
Key words and phrases: famine; home-made cloth; peasant's log hut; bast shoes; food; food consumption; stove; utensils; shirt; dwelling condition.
Abstract: The state of main components of Russian village culture at the end of XIX - beginning of XX centuries is studied. The everyday peasants' food, living conditions, specific features of their clothes and the influence of town trends in fashion are analyzed.
Traditionen der Bauerlebensweise des Endes des XIX. - des Anfangs des XX. Jahrhunderts (Nahrung, Behausung, Bekleidung)
Zusammenfassung: Es wird den Zustand der Hauptkomponenten der Lebensweisekultur des russischen Dorfes des Endes des XIX. - des Anfangs des XX. Jahrhunderts betrachtet. Es werden die tagliche Bauernahrung, die Alltagsbedingungen des Lebens der Dorfbewohner, die Besonderheiten der Dorfbekleidung und die Einwirkung auf sie der Stadtmode analysiert.
Traditions du mode de vie paysanne de la fin du XIX - debut du XX siecles (repas, logement, vetement)
Resume: Est examine l'etat de principaux composants de la culture du mode de la vie paysanne de la fin du XIX - debut du XX siecles. Est analyze le contenu des repas de chaque jours des paysans, les conditions de leurs logements, les paticularites du vetement des paysans et l'influence du mode de vie urbaine sur le mode de vie paysanne.