Very curious verbal portraits of Russian peasants in “Notes of the Hunter” give rise to interest in this social stratum in our time. In addition to artistic works, there are also historical and scientific ones devoted to the peculiarities of everyday life of past centuries. The peasantry has long been a large layer of the society of our country, and therefore has a rich history and many interesting traditions. We will analyze this topic in more detail.
What goes around comes around
From the verbal portraits of Russian peasants, our contemporaries know that this layer of society led a subsistence economy. Such activities are inherent in consumer nature. The production of a particular farm was the foodstuff necessary for a person to survive. In the classic format, the peasant worked to feed himself.
It was extremely rare to buy food in rural areas, but they ate quite simply. People called food coarse, because the duration of the preparation was reduced to the minimum possible. The farm required a lot of work, considerable effort, it took a lot of time. The woman in charge of cooking had neither the opportunity nor the time to prepare a variety of dishes or preserve food for the winter in some special ways.
From verbal portraits of Russian peasants it is known that people at that time ate monotonous. There was usually more free time for the holidays, so the table was decorated with delicious and varied products, prepared with a special delicacy.
According to modern researchers, before rural women were more conservative, so they tried to use the same ingredients for cooking, standard recipes and techniques, avoiding experiments. To some extent, this approach to daily nutrition has become a household traditional feature of the society of that time. The villagers were rather indifferent to food. As a result, recipes designed to diversify the diet seemed more of an excess than a normal part of everyday life.
About the diet
In Brzhevsky's description of the Russian peasant, one can see an indication of different food products and the frequency of their use in the everyday life of the peasant stratum of society. Thus, the author of interesting works noted that meat was not a constant element of the menu of a typical peasant. Both the quality and volume of food in an ordinary peasant family did not meet the needs of the human body. It was recognized that protein-enriched food was available only on holidays. Peasants in very limited quantities consumed milk, butter, cottage cheese. Basically they were served at the table if they were celebrating a wedding, a patronal event. That was the menu when talking. One of the typical problems of the time was chronic malnutrition.
From the descriptions of the Russian peasants, it is clear that the peasant population was poor, therefore, they received enough meat only on certain holidays, for example, in Zagovenie. As notes of contemporaries testify, even the poorest peasants by this significant day of the calendar found meat in the bins to put it on the table and eat plenty. One of the important typical features of peasant life was gluttony, if such an opportunity arose. Occasionally, pancakes made from wheat flour, oiled with butter, lard, were served to the table.
Curious observations
As can be learned from the characteristics of Russian peasants compiled earlier, if a typical family of that time was cutting a ram, then all the members ate the meat that it received from it. It lasted only a day or two. As noted by outside observers who examined the lifestyle, the product was enough to provide the table with meat dishes for a week, if you eat this food in moderation. However, in peasant families there was no such tradition, so the appearance of a large volume of meat was noted by its abundant absorption.
Peasants drank water daily, during the hot season they made kvass. From the characteristics of the Russian peasants, it is known that at the end of the nineteenth century there was no tradition of tea drinking in the countryside. If such a drink was prepared, then only sick people. Usually a clay pot was used for brewing, tea was infused in the oven. At the beginning of the next century, observers noticed that the drink fell in love with ordinary people.
Correspondents of the research communities noted that more and more often peasants finish lunch with a cup of tea and drink this drink during all holidays. Wealthy families bought samovars, supplemented household items with tea utensils. If an intelligent person came to visit, forks were served for dinner. At the same time, peasants continued to eat meat only with their hands, without resorting to cutlery.
Household culture
As the picturesque portraits of Russian peasants demonstrate, as well as the works of correspondents of communities involved in ethnography at that time, the level of everyday life in the peasant environment was determined by the progress of a particular locality and its community as a whole. The classic habitat of the peasant is the hut. For any person of that time, one of the familiar moments of life was the construction of a home.
Only by building his own hut did the person turn into a homeowner, a householder. To determine where the hut will be built, they gathered a rural gathering, jointly decided on land acquisition. Logs were harvested with the help of neighbors or all the villagers; they also worked on the log house. In many regions, they built mostly of wood. A typical material for creating a hut is round logs. They were not punched. The exception was the steppe regions, the provinces of Voronezh, Kursk. Here more often erected oiled huts characteristic of Little Russia.
As can be concluded from the stories of contemporaries and pictorial portraits of Russian peasants, the state of housing gave an accurate idea of ​​how well-off the family was. Mordvinov, who arrived in the province near Voronezh in the early 1880s in order to organize an audit here, then sent high-ranking officials reports in which he mentioned the decline of the hut. He admitted that the houses in which the peasants live amazed at how wretched they look. In those days, peasants had not yet erected stone houses. Such buildings were only with landowners and other rich people.
Home and Life
By the end of the nineteenth century, stone structures began to appear more often. Well-off peasant families could afford them. The roofs of most houses in villages in those days were formed from straw. Less commonly used shingles. Russian peasants of the 19th century, as the researchers noted, did not yet know how to build brick centuries, but by the beginning of the next century, brick-built huts appeared.
In the works of researchers of that time, one can see references to structures under the “tin”. They replaced the chopped houses, which were covered with straw with a clay layer. Zheleznov, who studied the life of the inhabitants of the Voronezh region in the 1920s, analyzed how and from which people build their homes. About 87% were brick buildings, about 40% were built of wood, and the remaining 3% were cases of mixed construction. About 45% of all the houses he came across were dilapidated, in a mediocre state he counted 52%, and only 7% of the buildings were new.
Everyone will agree that the life of Russian peasants can be very well represented by studying the external and internal appearance of their homes. Not only the condition of the house, but also the additional buildings in the courtyard was indicative. Assessing the interior of the home, you can immediately identify how well off its inhabitants are. The ethnographic societies that existed in Russia at that time paid attention to the homes of people who were well off.
However, the members of these organizations were engaged in studying the homes of people who were better off, compared, drawn conclusions in written works. Of these, the modern reader can learn that the poor person lived in a dilapidated dwelling, one might say, in a shack. In his stable there was only one cow (not all), several sheep. Such a peasant had neither a barn nor a barn, nor his own bathhouse.
Wealthy representatives of the rural community kept several cows, calves, and about two dozen sheep. On their farm were hens, pigs, a horse (sometimes two - for traveling and for work). A person living in such conditions had his own bathhouse; there was a barn in the courtyard.
clothing
From portraits and verbal descriptions, we know how Russian peasants dressed in the 17th century. These manners have not changed too much in the eighteenth and nineteenth. According to the notes of researchers of that time, the provincial peasants were quite conservative, so their outfits were stable and following traditions. Some even called it archaic in appearance, since the clothes contained elements that appeared decades ago.
However, as progress progressed, new trends penetrated the countryside, so you could see specific details that reflected the beingness of capitalist society. For example, men's outfits throughout the province were usually struck by uniformity, similarities. There were differences from region to region, but relatively small. But women's clothing was noticeably more interesting due to the abundance of jewelry that the peasant women created with their own hands. As is known from the work of researchers of the Black Earth Region, in this region, women wore outfits that resembled South Russian and Mordovian models.
Russian peasant 30-40 years of the 20th century, like a hundred years before, had at his disposal clothes for every day and for the holiday. More often used homespun outfits. Wealthy families could occasionally acquire factory materials for sewing clothes. Observations of residents of the Kursk province at the end of the nineteenth century showed that the stronger sex mainly used the home-cooked linen of the instant type (from hemp).
The shirts worn by the peasants had a slanting collar. The traditional length of the product is to the knee. Men wore trousers. A belt went to the shirt. It was knitted or woven. On holidays they wore a linen shirt. People from wealthy families used clothes made from red chintz. The outer clothing was suites, zipuns (caftans without a collar). At the festival, you could wear a hoodie woven at home. People were richer in their stocks of fine-woven caftans. In summer, women wore sundresses, and men wore shirts with or without a belt.
The traditional shoes of the peasants were bast shoes. They were woven separately for the winter and summer, for weekdays and for holidays. Even in the 30s of the 20th century, in many villages, peasants remained faithful to this tradition.
Heart of life
Since the life of the Russian peasant in the 17th, 18th or 19th centuries was concentrated around his own house, the hut deserves special attention. Housing was not called a specific building, but a small courtyard, limited by a fence. Residential facilities and buildings erected for households were erected here. For the villagers, the hut was a place of protection against incomprehensible and even terrible forces of nature, evil spirits and other evil. At first, only the part of the house that was heated by the stove was called a hut.
Usually in a village it was immediately evident who was in a very bad situation, who was living well. The main differences were in the quality factor, in the number of components, in the design. In this case, the key objects were the same. Some additional buildings allowed themselves only wealthy people. This is a bogeyman, a bathhouse, a barn, a barn and others. In total, there were more than a dozen such buildings. Mostly in former times, all structures were cut down with an ax at each stage of construction. From the works of researchers of that time, it is known that earlier masters used different types of saws.
Yard and construction
The life of the Russian peasant in the 17th century was inextricably linked with his court. This term meant the land on which all the buildings were at the disposal of man. In the courtyard there was a garden, here - a threshing floor, and if a person had a garden, then he would be included in the peasant's yard. Almost all the objects erected by the owner were made of wood. The most suitable for the construction were considered spruce, pine. The second was at a greater price.
Oak was considered a tree that is difficult to work with. In addition, its wood weighs a lot. When erecting buildings, they resorted to oak while working on the lower crowns, during the construction of a cellar or object, from which they expected super strength. It is known that oak wood was used in the construction of mills and wells. Deciduous species of trees were used to create farm buildings.
Observation of the life of Russian peasants made it possible for researchers of past centuries to understand that people picked up wood wisely, given important signs. For example, creating a log house, we stopped at a particularly warm, moss-covered tree with a straight trunk. But straightforwardness was not an obligatory factor. To make the roof, the peasant used straight straight trunks. The log house was usually prepared in the yard or nearby. A suitable place was very thoroughly selected for each building.
As you know, an ax as an instrument of labor of a Russian peasant during the construction of a house is both an object that is convenient to use and a product that imposes certain restrictions. However, there were many such during construction due to imperfect technologies. When creating buildings, they usually did not lay the foundation, even if it was planned to build something big. In the corners they placed supports. Their role was played by large stones or oak stumps. Occasionally (if the length of the wall was significantly higher than normal), the support was placed in the center. The blockhouse in its geometry is such that four reference points are sufficient. This is due to the all-related type of design.
Stove and house
The image of the Russian peasant is inextricably linked with the center of his house - the stove. She was considered the soul of the house. The oven, which many call Russian, is a very ancient invention, characteristic of our area. It is known that Tripoli houses already had such a heating system. Of course, over the past thousands of years, the design of the furnace has changed somewhat. Over time, they began to use fuel more rationally. Everyone knows that the construction of a quality furnace is a difficult task.
First, on the ground they placed guardianships, which was the foundation. Then the logs were laid, which played the role of the bottom. Under did the most even, in no case not inclined. They set a vault above the hearth. Several holes were made on the side to dry small objects. In ancient times, the huts were set massive, but without a pipe. To remove smoke in the house provided a small window. Soon, the ceiling and walls turned black due to soot, but there was nowhere to go. A stove heating system with a pipe was expensive, it was difficult to build one. In addition, the lack of pipes allowed saving firewood.
Since the work of the Russian peasant is regulated not only by public notions of morality, but also by a number of rules, it is predictable that sooner or later they accepted the rules regarding stoves. Legislators have decided to necessarily remove pipes from the furnace over the hut. Such requirements applied to all state peasants and were accepted for the improvement of the village.
Day after day
During the enslavement of Russian peasants, people developed certain habits and rules that made it possible to make a rational lifestyle so that work was relatively effective and the family was prosperous. One of the rules of that era was the early rise of the woman in charge of the house. Traditionally, the first wife woke up. If the woman was too old for this, duties passed to the daughter-in-law.
Waking up, she immediately began to heat the stove, opened a smokers, opened the windows. Cold air and smoke woke the rest of the family. The kids were seated on a hearth so that they would not chill. Smoke spread throughout the room, moving up, hovering under the ceiling.
As shown by centuries-old observations, if a tree is thoroughly smoked, it will rot less. The Russian peasant knew this secret well, so chicken huts were popular due to their longevity. On average, the fourth part of the house was reserved for the stove. They only drowned it for a couple of hours, because it remained warm for a long time and provided heating for the entire dwelling during the day.
The stove was an object that heated the house, allowing cooking. They lay on it. It was impossible to make bread or cook porridge without an oven; it stewed meat and dried mushrooms and berries collected in the forest. The stove was used instead of a bath in order to steam. In the hot season, it was drowned once a week to prepare a weekly supply of bread. Since such a structure kept heat well, food was prepared once a day. The cauldron was left inside the oven, and at the right time food was taken out hot. In many families, this home mate was decorated as much as they could. In the course were flowers, bread ears, bright autumn leaves, paints (if they managed to get it). It was believed that a beautiful stove brings joy to the house and scares away evil spirits.
Traditions
Dishes common among Russian peasants appeared for a reason. All of them were explained by the design features of the furnace. If today we turn to the observations of that era, we can find out that the dishes were languished, stewed, boiled. This extended not only to the everyday life of ordinary people, but also to the life of small landowners, since their habits and daily routines hardly differed from those inherent in the peasant layer.
The stove in the house was the warmest place, so a stove bench was made on it for old and small. In order to climb up, they made attacks - up to three small steps.
Interior
It is impossible to imagine the house of a Russian peasant without taxes. Such an element was considered one of the main for any residential premises. Floori is a flooring made of wood, starting from the side of the stove and lasting to the opposite wall of the house. Polati used to sleep, rising here through the oven. Here flax and a splinter were dried, and during the day they kept sleeping accessories, clothes that were not used. Usually the party was quite high. On their edge put balusters, preventing the fall of objects. Traditionally, children loved the party, because here you could sleep, play, watch the festivities.
In the house of the Russian peasant, the arrangement of objects was determined by the setting of the stove. More often she stood in the right corner or to the left of the door to the street. The angle opposite the stove mouth was considered the main place of housework. It housed appliances used for cooking. Near the stove lay a poker. They also kept a broom, a shovel from a tree, and a grasp. Nearby usually stood a mortar, pestle, sour milk. They poured ash with a poker, moved pots with a grasp, processed the wheat in a mortar, then turned it into flour with millstones.
Red corner
Almost everyone who at least once looked into books with fairy tales or descriptions of everyday life of that time heard about this part of the Russian peasant hut. This section of the house was kept clean and decorated. For design we used embroidery, pictures, postcards. When the wallpaper appeared, it was here that they began to use it especially often. The owner's task was to isolate the red corner from the rest of the room. Beautiful items were put on a shelf nearby. Values ​​were stored here. Every event important to the family was celebrated in a red corner.
The main piece of furniture located here was a table with runners. It was made quite large so that there was enough space for all members of the family. After him they ate on weekdays, organized a feast on holidays. If they came to get married to the bride, ceremonial ceremonies were held strictly in the red corner. From here the woman was taken to the wedding. Starting harvesting, the first and last sheaves were carried to the red corner. They did it as solemnly as possible.