Many modern schoolchildren, studying works of Russian art, can not always answer the question of who the barge haulers are. Meanwhile, these people once evoked different feelings among their contemporaries: from pity to complete rejection. We will try to consider this issue in more detail.
What does this profession mean?
Burlaks in Russia called hired workers, as a rule, immigrants from the poorest sections of the population, who pulled ships with the help of long ropes sailing against the tide. It was hard physical labor, which was seasonal. The period of burloom lasted from spring to autumn. In order to support each other, these people united in artels. As a rule, burlak work did not cause much respect and was considered a forced way of earning.
Wages were quite low, so this work became the lot of rootless beggars and often homeless. Often, former convicts and people of dubious reputation became barge haulers.
Today, the issue of what the haulers pulled is relevant. Mostly they had to pull large vessels that were devoid of steamship pulls. These ships were used to transport various cargoes.
Burlachestvo as a way of life
For some of the tramps, their unprofitable profession has become a real way of life. Burlak is a person, as a rule, deprived of a family and serious obligations. A kind of tumbleweed, a person who is free from many social obligations and deprived of many benefits of life.
Most of the artels were on the Volga. Their capital was the city of Rybinsk.
Thus, answering the question of who the barge haulers are and what they did on the Volga, one can answer this way: this is a certain social class of the Russian Empire of the model of the beginning of the year before last, consisting of people with certain value orientations, often representing people from the social bottom.
The image in Russian art
The bourlack image was most strongly expressed in Russian art, which always looked for a universal way of representing a person from a people. People like no other fit this ideal: strong, powerful, bold and free, who personified the rebellious Russian character.
N. Nekrasov wrote about the hounds and their hard share in the poem "On the Volga" (1860), which aroused great interest of his contemporaries.
This theme was reflected in their works by many other writers and poets. But, probably, the most famous work is still the painting of I. E. Repin under the title "Barge Haulers on the Volga". This monumental canvas aroused great interest from lovers of the artist. As always, Repin portrayed different people who perceive their share of the burlak in different ways: from desperate to ready to fight for their happiness.
By the way, this canvas was bought by one of the great princes from the Romanov dynasty and often showed it to his guests.
Who are the barge haulers: history in Russia
This topic was also actively covered in the documentary literature of the century before last. The famous Muscovite and journalist V. Gilyarovsky wrote a lot about the huts. Together with them, the wanderer Gilyarovsky passed many roads and knew their life and their life well.
Gilyarovsky briefly answered the question of who the barge haulers are: these are people, different people, often just in difficult life situations, but not without a human image and human soul.
The interest in the barge haulers aroused interest in their folklore. The famous singer F. Chaliapin successfully performed one of their songs “Oh, cudgel, let’s get out!”.
Burlachevo as a social class began to disappear from the middle of the century before last, when steamboats appeared, no longer needing to be pulled from the shore by people.
However, this topic continued to gain popularity, so even the liberal intelligentsia knew who the barge haulers were. As a rule, the image of these people among revolutionary-minded youth was identified with the oppression that the Russian people are experiencing.
Officially, burlak work was banned only in the USSR. However, it was also used during the years of World War II.
Today, this topic is known to our contemporaries, rather, on works of art. Therefore, there are new songs, and new artistic canvases that tell about who these barge haulers are.