Russian hut: where and how our ancestors built huts, structure and decor, elements of the hut, videos, riddles and proverbs about the hut and reasonable housekeeping.

“Oh, what mansions!” - this is how we often talk now about spacious new apartment or dacha. We speak without thinking about the meaning of this word. After all, mansions are peasant old house, consisting of several buildings. What kind of mansions did the peasants have in their Russian huts? How was the Russian traditional hut built?

In this article:

—Where were huts built before?
— attitude towards the Russian hut in Russian folk culture,
- arrangement of a Russian hut,
- decoration and decor of a Russian hut,
- Russian stove and red corner, male and female halves of a Russian house,
- elements of the Russian hut and peasant yard (dictionary),
- proverbs and sayings, signs about the Russian hut.

Russian hut

Since I come from the north and grew up on the White Sea, I will show photographs of northern houses in the article. And I chose the words of D. S. Likhachev as the epigraph to my story about the Russian hut:

“Russian North! It is difficult for me to express in words my admiration, my admiration for this region. When for the first time, as a boy of thirteen years old, I traveled along the Barents and White Seas, along the Northern Dvina, visited the Pomors, in peasant huts, listened to songs and fairy tales, looked at these extraordinarily beautiful people, behaved simply and with dignity, I was completely stunned. It seemed to me that this is the only way to truly live: measuredly and easily, working and receiving so much satisfaction from this work... In the Russian North there is the most amazing combination of present and past, modernity and history, watercolor lyricism of water, earth, sky, the formidable power of stone , storms, cold, snow and air" (D.S. Likhachev. Russian culture. - M., 2000. - P. 409-410).

Where were huts built before?

The favorite place to build a village and build Russian huts was the bank of a river or lake. The peasants were also guided by practicality - proximity to the river and boat as a means of transportation, but also by aesthetic reasons. From the windows of the hut, standing on a high place, there was a beautiful view of the lake, forests, meadows, fields, as well as of their own yard with barns, and a bathhouse near the river.

Northern villages are visible from afar, they were never located in the lowlands, always on the hills, near the forest, near the water on the high bank of the river, they became the center of a beautiful picture of the unity of man and nature, and fit organically into the surrounding landscape. At the highest place they usually built a church and a bell tower in the center of the village.

The house was built thoroughly, “to last for centuries”; the place for it was chosen to be quite high, dry, protected from cold winds - on a high hill. They tried to locate villages where there were fertile lands, rich meadows, forests, rivers or lakes. The huts were placed in such a way that they had good access and access, and the windows were turned “towards the summer” - to the sunny side.

In the north, they tried to place houses on the southern slope of the hill so that its top would reliably cover the house from the violent cold northern winds. The south side will always warm up well, and the house will be warm.

If we consider the location of the hut on the site, then they tried to place it closer to its northern part. The house was protected from the wind gardening part of the site.

In terms of the orientation of the Russian hut according to the sun (north, south, west, east) there was also a special structure of the village. It was very important that the windows of the residential part of the house were located in the direction of the sun. For better illumination of houses in rows, they were placed in a checkerboard pattern relative to each other. All the houses on the streets of the village “looked” in one direction - towards the sun, towards the river. From the window one could see sunrises and sunsets, the movement of ships along the river.

A safe place to build a hut it was considered a place where cattle lay down to rest. After all, cows were considered by our ancestors as a fertile life-giving force, because the cow was often the breadwinner of the family.

They tried not to build houses in swamps or near them; these places were considered “chilly”, and the crops there often suffered from frosts. But a river or lake near the house is always good.

When choosing a place to build a house, the men guessed - they used an experiment. Women never participated in it. They took sheep wool. It was placed in a clay pot. And they left it overnight at the site of the future home. The result was considered positive if the wool became damp by morning. This means the house will be rich.

There were other fortune telling - experiments. For example, in the evening they left chalk on the site of the future house overnight. If the chalk attracted ants, then it was considered good sign. If ants do not live on this earth, then better house don't put it here. The result was checked in the morning the next day.

They began cutting down the house in early spring (Lent) or in other months of the year on the new moon. If a tree is cut down on the waning Moon, it will quickly rot, which is why there was such a ban. There were also more stringent daily regulations. Timber harvesting began from winter Nikola on December 19th. The best time December - January was considered for harvesting wood, according to the first frosts, when excess moisture comes out of the trunk. They did not cut down dry trees or trees with growths for the house, trees that fell to the north when felled. These beliefs applied specifically to trees; other materials were not subject to such standards.

They did not build houses on the sites of houses burned by lightning. It was believed that Elijah the prophet used lightning to strike places of evil spirits. They also did not build houses where there had previously been a bathhouse, where someone was injured with an ax or knife, where they were found human bones, where there used to be a bathhouse or where there used to be a road, where some misfortune occurred, for example, a flood.

Attitude to the Russian hut in folk culture

A house in Rus' had many names: hut, hut, tower, holupy, mansion, khoromina and temple. Yes, don’t be surprised – a temple! Mansions (huts) were equated to a temple, because a temple is also a house, the House of God! And in the hut there was always a holy, red corner.

The peasants treated the house as a living being. Even the names of the parts of the house are similar to the names of the parts of the human body and his world! This is a feature of the Russian house - “human”, that is anthropomorphic names of parts of the hut:

• Brow of the hut- this is her face. The pediment of the hut and the outer opening in the stove could be called chel.
• Prichelina- from the word “brow”, that is, decoration on the brow of the hut,
• Platbands- from the word “face”, “on the face” of the hut.
• Ocelye- from the word “eyes”, window. This was the name of a part of a woman’s headdress, and the same name was given to the decoration of a window.
• Forehead- that was the name of the frontal plate. There were also “heads” in the design of the house.
• Heel, foot- that was the name of part of the doors.

There were also zoomorphic names in the structure of the hut and yard: “bulls”, “hens”, “horse”, “crane” - well.

The word "hut" comes from the Old Slavic “istba”. “Istboyu, stokkoyu” was the name for a heated residential log house (and “klet” was an unheated log house for a residential building).

The house and the hut were living models of the world for people. The house was that secret place in which people expressed ideas about themselves, about the world, built their world and their lives according to the laws of harmony. Home is a part of life and a way to connect and shape your life. Home is a sacred space, an image of family and homeland, a model of the world and human life, a person’s connection with the natural world and with God. A house is a space that a person builds with his own hands, and which is with him from the first to last days his life on Earth. Building a house is a repetition by man of the work of the Creator, because the human home, according to the ideas of the people, is a small world created according to the rules of the “big world”.

From the appearance of a Russian house one could determine social status, religion, nationality of its owners. In one village there were no two completely identical houses, because each hut carried its own individuality and reflected the inner world of the family living in it.

For a child, a home is the first model of the outside big world; it “feeds” and “raises” the child, the child “absorbs” from the house the laws of life in the big adult world. If a child grew up in a bright, cozy, kind home, in a house in which order reigns, then this is how the child will continue to build his life. If there is chaos in the house, then there is chaos in the soul and in a person’s life. From childhood, the child mastered a system of ideas about his home - the house and its structure - the matitsa, the red corner, the female and male parts of the house.

Dom is traditionally used in Russian as a synonym for the word “homeland”. If a person does not have a sense of home, then there is no sense of homeland! Attachment to home and caring for it were considered a virtue. The house and the Russian hut are the embodiment of a native, safe space. The word “house” was also used in the sense of “family” - so they said “There are four houses on the hill” - this meant four families. In a Russian hut, several generations of the family lived and ran a common household under one roof - grandfathers, fathers, sons, grandchildren.

The interior space of a Russian hut has long been associated in folk culture as the space of a woman - she looked after it, restored order and comfort. But the external space - the courtyard and beyond - was the space of a man. My husband’s grandfather still recalls the division of responsibilities that was accepted in the family of our great-grandparents: a woman carried water from a well for the house, for cooking. And the man also carried water from the well, but for cows or horses. It was considered a shame if a woman began to perform men's duties or vice versa. Since we lived in large families, there were no problems. If one of the women could not carry water now, then another woman in the family would do this work.

The house also strictly observed male and female halves, but this will be discussed later.

In the Russian North, residential and economic premises were combined under one roof, so that you can run a household without leaving your home. This is how the life ingenuity of the northerners, living in harsh, cold natural conditions, was manifested.

The house was understood in folk culture as the center of the main life values – happiness, prosperity, family prosperity, faith. One of the functions of the hut and house was a protective function. A carved wooden sun under the roof is a wish for happiness and prosperity to the owners of the house. The image of roses (which do not grow in the north) is a wish for a happy life. The lions and lionesses in the painting are pagan amulets that scare away scary looking evil.

Proverbs about hut

On the roof there is a heavy wooden ridge - a sign of the sun. There was always a household goddess in the house. S. Yesenin wrote interestingly about the horse: “The horse, both in Greek, Egyptian, Roman, and Russian mythology, is a sign of aspiration. But only one Russian man thought of putting him on his roof, likening his hut under him to a chariot" ( Nekrasova M, A. Folk art of Russia. – M., 1983)

The house was built very proportionally and harmoniously. Its design is based on the law of the golden ratio, the law of natural harmony in proportions. They built it without measuring tools or complex calculations - by instinct, as their soul dictated.

A family of 10 or even 15-20 people sometimes lived in a Russian hut. In it they cooked and ate, slept, weaved, spun, repaired utensils, and did all household work.

Myth and truth about the Russian hut. There is an opinion that Russian huts were dirty, there was unsanitary conditions, disease, poverty and darkness. I used to think so too, that’s what we were taught at school. But this is completely untrue! I asked my grandmother shortly before she passed away, when she was already over 90 years old (she grew up near Nyandoma and Kargopol in the Russian North in the Arkhangelsk region), how they lived in their village in her childhood - did they really wash and clean the house once? a year and lived in the dark and in the dirt?

She was very surprised and said that the house was always not just clean, but very light and cozy, beautiful. Her mother (my great-grandmother) embroidered and knitted the most beautiful valances for the beds of adults and children. Each crib and cradle was decorated with her valances. And each crib has its own pattern! Imagine what kind of work this is! And what beauty is in the frame of each crib! Her dad (my great-grandfather) carved beautiful patterns on all household utensils and furniture. She recalled being a child under the care of her grandmother along with her sisters and brothers (my great-great-grandmother). They not only played, but also helped adults. It used to be that in the evening her grandmother would tell the children: “Soon mother and father will come from the field, we need to tidy up the house.” And oh - yes! Children take brooms and rags, put everything in order so that there is not a speck of dust in the corner, and all things are in their places. When mother and father arrived, the house was always clean. The children understood that the adults had come home from work, were tired and needed help. She also remembered how her mother always whitewashed the stove so that the stove would be beautiful and the house would be cozy. Even on the day of giving birth, her mother (my great-grandmother) whitewashed the stove, and then went to the bathhouse to give birth. The grandmother recalled how she, being the eldest daughter, helped her.

It was not like the outside was clean and the inside was dirty. They cleaned very carefully both outside and inside. My grandmother told me that “what is on the outside is how you want to appear to people” (the outside is the appearance of clothes, a house, a closet, etc. - how they look to guests and how we want to present ourselves to people clothes, appearance of the house, etc.). But “what’s inside is who you really are” (inside is the reverse side of embroidery or any other work, the reverse side of clothing, which should be clean and without holes or stains, inner part cabinets and other invisible to other people, but visible to us moments of our lives). Very instructive. I always remember her words.

Grandmother recalled that only those who did not work had poor and dirty huts. They were considered like holy fools, a little sick, they were pitied as people with sick souls. Those who worked - even if he had 10 children - lived in bright, clean, beautiful huts. Decorated your home with love. They ran a large household and never complained about life. There was always order in the house and yard.

Construction of a Russian hut

The Russian house (hut), like the Universe, was divided into three worlds, three tiers: the lower one is the basement, underground; middle – these are living quarters; the upper one under the sky is the attic, the roof.

Hut as a structure was a log house made of logs that were tied together into crowns. In the Russian North, it was customary to build houses without nails, very durable houses. The minimum number of nails was used only for attaching decor - piers, towels, platbands. They built houses “as proportion and beauty dictate.”

Roof– upper part hut - provides protection from the outside world and is the border between the inside of the house and space. No wonder the roofs were so beautifully decorated in houses! And the ornaments on the roof often depicted symbols of the sun - solar symbols. We know such expressions: “father’s roof”, “live under one roof”. There were customs - if a person was sick and could not leave this world for a long time, then so that his soul could more easily pass into another world, they would remove the ridge on the roof. It is interesting that the roof was considered a feminine element of the house - the hut itself and everything in the hut should be “covered” - the roof, the buckets, the dishes, and the barrels.

Upper part of the house (rails, towel) decorated with solar, that is, sun signs. In some cases, the full sun was depicted on the towel, and only half of the solar signs were depicted on the sides. Thus, the sun appeared at the most important points on its path across the sky - at sunrise, zenith and sunset. In folklore there is even an expression “three-bright sun”, reminiscent of these three key points.

Attic was located under the roof and items that were not needed at the moment and removed from the house were stored on it.

The hut was two-story, the living rooms were located on the “second floor”, as it was warmer there. And on the “ground floor,” that is, on the lower tier, there was basement It protected living quarters from the cold. The basement was used for storing food and was divided into 2 parts: the basement and the underground.

Floor they made it double to preserve heat: at the bottom there was a “black floor”, and on top of it there was a “white floor”. Floor boards were laid from the edges to the center of the hut in the direction from the facade to the exit. This was important in some rituals. So, if they entered the house and sat on a bench along the floorboards, it meant that they had come to make a match. They never slept and laid the bed along the floorboards, since they laid the dead person along the floorboards “on the way to the doors.” That’s why we didn’t sleep with our heads towards the exit. They always slept with their heads in the red corner, towards the front wall, on which the icons were located.

The diagonal was important in the design of the Russian hut. “The red corner is the stove.” The red corner always pointed to noon, to the light, to God's side (the red side). It has always been associated with wotok (sunrise) and the south. And the stove pointed to sunset, to darkness. And was associated with the west or north. They always prayed to the icon in the red corner, i.e. to the east, where the altar in the temples is located.

Door and the entrance to the house, the exit to the outside world is one of the most important elements of the house. She greets everyone who enters the house. In ancient times, there were many beliefs and various protective rituals associated with the door and threshold of the house. Probably not without reason, and now many people hang a horseshoe on the door for good luck. And even earlier, a scythe (a gardening tool) was placed under the threshold. This reflected people's ideas about the horse as an animal associated with the sun. And also about metal, created by man with the help of fire and which is a material for protecting life.

Only a closed door preserves life inside the house: “Don’t trust everyone, lock the door tightly.” That is why people stopped at the threshold of the house, especially when entering someone else's house; this stop was often accompanied by a short prayer.

At a wedding in some places, a young wife, entering her husband’s house, was not supposed to touch the threshold. That is why it was often carried in by hand. And in other areas, the sign was exactly the opposite. The bride, entering the groom's house after the wedding, always lingered on the threshold. This was a sign of that. That she is now one of her own in her husband’s family.

The threshold of a doorway is the border between “one’s own” and “someone else’s” space. In popular belief, this was a borderline, and therefore unsafe, place: “They don’t say hello across the threshold,” “They don’t shake hands across the threshold.” You cannot accept gifts through the threshold. Guests are greeted outside the threshold, then let in ahead of them through the threshold.

The height of the door was below human height. When entering, I had to bow my head and take off my hat. But at the same time, the doorway was quite wide.

Window- another entrance to the house. Window is a very ancient word, first mentioned in chronicles in the year 11 and found among all Slavic peoples. In popular beliefs, it was forbidden to spit through the window, throw out garbage, or pour something out of the house, since “the angel of the Lord is standing under it.” “Give (to a beggar) through the window - give to God.” Windows were considered the eyes of the house. A man looks through the window at the sun, and the sun looks at him through the window (the eyes of the hut). That is why signs of the sun were often carved on the frames. The riddles of the Russian people say this: “The red girl is looking out the window” (the sun). Traditionally in Russian culture, windows in a house have always been oriented “toward the summer”—that is, to the east and south. The largest windows of the house always looked out onto the street and the river; they were called “red” or “slanting”.

Windows in a Russian hut could be of three types:

A) The fiberglass window is the most ancient type of window. Its height did not exceed the height of a horizontally placed log. But its width was one and a half times its height. Such a window was closed from the inside with a bolt that “dragged” along special grooves. That’s why the window was called “volokovoye”. Only dim light entered the hut through the fiberglass window. Such windows were more often found on outbuildings. Smoke from the stove was taken out (“dragged out”) from the hut through a fiberglass window. Basements, closets, sheds and barns were also ventilated through them.

B) Box window - consists of a deck made up of four beams firmly connected to each other.

C) A slanted window is an opening in the wall, reinforced with two side beams. These windows are also called “red” windows, regardless of their location. Initially, the central windows in the Russian hut were made like this.

It was through the window that the baby had to be handed over if children born in the family died. It was believed that this could save the child and provide him with long life. In the Russian North there was also a belief that a person’s soul leaves the house through the window. That is why a cup of water was placed on the window so that the soul that had left a person could wash itself and fly away. Also, after the funeral, a towel was hung on the window so that the soul would use it to ascend into the house and then descend back. Sitting by the window, they waited for news. The place by the window in the red corner is a place of honor, for the most honored guests, including matchmakers.

The windows were located high, and therefore the view from the window did not bump into neighboring buildings, and the view from the window was beautiful.

During construction, free space (sedimentary groove) was left between the window beam and the log of the house wall. It was covered with a board, which is well known to all of us and is called platband(“on the face of the house” = platband). The platbands were decorated with ornaments to protect the house: circles as symbols of the sun, birds, horses, lions, fish, weasel (an animal considered the guardian of livestock - they believed that if a predator was depicted, it would not harm domestic animals), floral ornaments, juniper, rowan .

From the outside, the windows were closed with shutters. Sometimes in the north, to make it convenient to close the windows, galleries were built along the main facade (they looked like balconies). The owner walks along the gallery and closes the shutters on the windows for the night.

Four sides of the hut facing the four cardinal directions. Appearance The hut is facing the outside world, and the interior is facing the family, the clan, the person.

Porch of a Russian hut it was often open and spacious. Here those family events took place that the entire street of the village could see: soldiers were seen off, matchmakers were greeted, newlyweds were greeted. On the porch they talked, exchanged news, relaxed, and talked about business. Therefore, the porch occupied a prominent place, was high and rose high on pillars or frames.

The porch is “the calling card of the house and its owners,” reflecting their hospitality, prosperity and cordiality. A house was considered uninhabited if its porch was destroyed. The porch was decorated carefully and beautifully, the ornament used was the same as on the elements of the house. It could be a geometric or floral ornament.

What word do you think the word “porch” came from? From the word “cover”, “roof”. After all, the porch had to have a roof that protected it from snow and rain.
Often in a Russian hut there were two porches and two entrances. The first entrance is the front entrance, where benches were set up for conversation and relaxation. And the second entrance is “dirty”, it served for household needs.

Bake was located near the entrance and occupied approximately a quarter of the hut’s space. The stove is one of the sacred centers of the house. “The oven in the house is the same as the altar in the church: bread is baked in it.” “The stove is our dear mother,” “A house without a stove is an uninhabited house.” The stove had a feminine origin and was located in the female half of the house. It is in the oven that the raw, undeveloped is transformed into cooked, “our own”, mastered. The stove is located in the corner opposite the red corner. People slept on it, it was used not only in cooking, but also in healing, folk medicine, small children were washed in it in winter, children and old people warmed themselves on it. In the stove, they always kept the damper closed if someone left the house (so that they would return and the journey would be happy), during a thunderstorm (since the stove is another entrance to the house, the connection between the house and the outside world).

Matica- a beam running across a Russian hut on which the ceiling is supported. This is the boundary between the front and back of the house. A guest coming to the house could not go further than the mother without the permission of the owners. Sitting under the mother meant wooing the bride. In order for everything to succeed, it was necessary to hold on to the mother before leaving home.

The entire space of the hut was divided into female and male. Men worked and rested, received guests on weekdays in the men's part of the Russian hut - in the front red corner, to the side of it towards the threshold and sometimes under the curtains. The man's workplace during repairs was next to the door. Women and children worked and rested, staying awake in the women's half of the hut - near the stove. If women received guests, then the guests sat at the threshold of the stove. Guests could only enter the women's area of ​​the hut at the invitation of the hostess. Representatives of the male half never entered the female half unless absolutely necessary, and women never entered the male half. This could be taken as an insult.

Stalls served not only as a place to sit, but also as a place to sleep. A headrest was placed under the head when sleeping on a bench.

The bench at the door was called “konik”, it could be the workplace of the owner of the house, and any person who entered the house, a beggar, could also spend the night there.

Above the benches, above the windows, shelves were made parallel to the benches. Hats, thread, yarn, spinning wheels, knives, awls and other household items were placed on them.

Adult married couples slept in beds, on a bench under the blankets, in their own separate cages - in their own places. Old people slept on the stove or near the stove, children - on the stove.

All utensils and furniture in a Russian northern hut are located along the walls, and the center remains free.

Svetlyceum The room was called a small room, a little room on the second floor of the house, clean, well-groomed, for handicrafts and clean activities. There was a wardrobe, a bed, a sofa, a table. But just like in the hut, all objects were placed along the walls. In the gorenka there were chests in which dowries for daughters were collected. There are as many marriageable daughters as there are chests. Girls lived here - brides of marriageable age.

Dimensions of a Russian hut

In ancient times, the Russian hut did not have internal partitions and was shaped like a square or rectangle. The average size of the hut was from 4 x 4 meters to 5.5 x 6.5 meters. Middle and wealthy peasants had large huts - 8 x 9 meters, 9 x 10 meters.

Decoration of a Russian hut

In the Russian hut there were four corners: stove, woman's kut, red corner, back corner (at the entrance under the curtains). Each corner had its own traditional purpose. And the entire hut, according to the corners, was divided into female and male halves.

Women's half of the hut runs from the furnace mouth (furnace outlet) to the front wall of the house.

One of the corners of the women's half of the house is the woman's kut. It is also called “baking”. This place is near the stove, women's territory. Here they prepared food, pies, utensils and millstones were stored. Sometimes the “women’s territory” of the house was separated by a partition or screen. On the women's side of the hut, behind the stove, there were cabinets for kitchen utensils and food supplies, shelves for tableware, buckets, cast iron, tubs, and baking equipment (bread shovel, poker, grip). The “long shop”, which ran along the women’s half of the hut along the side wall of the house, was also women’s. Here women spun, weaved, sewed, embroidered, and a baby’s cradle hung here.

Men never entered “women’s territory” and did not touch those utensils that are considered feminine. But a stranger and guest could not even look into the woman’s kut, it was offensive.

On the other side of the stove there was male space, "The male kingdom of the home." There was a threshold men's shop here, where men did housework and rested after a hard day. Underneath there was often a cabinet with tools for men's work.It was considered indecent for a woman to sit on a threshold bench. They rested during the day on a side bench at the back of the hut.

Russian stove

About a fourth, and sometimes a third, of the hut was occupied by a Russian stove. She was a symbol of home. They not only prepared food in it, but also prepared feed for livestock, baked pies and bread, washed themselves, heated the room, slept on it and dried clothes, shoes or food, and dried mushrooms and berries in it. And they could keep chickens in the oven even in winter. Although the stove is very large, it does not “eat up”, but, on the contrary, expands the living space of the hut, turning it into a multi-dimensional, multi-height space.

No wonder there is a saying “dance from the stove”, because everything in a Russian hut begins with the stove. Remember the epic about Ilya Muromets? The epic tells us that Ilya Muromets “lay on the stove for 30 and 3 years,” that is, he could not walk. Not on the floors or on the benches, but on the stove!

“The oven is like our own mother,” people used to say. Many folk healing practices were associated with the stove. And signs. For example, you cannot spit in the oven. And it was impossible to swear when the fire was burning in the stove.

The new oven began to be heated gradually and evenly. The first day began with four logs, and gradually one log was added every day to heat the entire volume of the stove and so that it was without cracks.

At first in Russian houses there were adobe ovens, which were heated in black. That is, the stove then did not have an exhaust pipe for the smoke to escape. The smoke was released through the door or through a special hole in the wall. Sometimes they think that only beggars had black huts, but this is not so. Such stoves were also found in rich mansions. The black stove produced more heat and stored it longer than the white one. The smoke-stained walls were not afraid of dampness or rot.

Later, the stoves began to be built white - that is, they began to make a pipe through which the smoke came out.

The stove was always located in one of the corners of the house, which was called the stove, door, small corner. Diagonally from the stove there was always a red, holy, front, large corner of a Russian house.

Red corner in a Russian hut

The Red Corner is the central main place in the hut, in a Russian house. It is also called “saint”, “God’s”, “front”, “senior”, “big”. It is illuminated by the sun better than all other corners in the house, everything in the house is oriented towards it.

The goddess in the red corner is like the altar of an Orthodox church and was interpreted as the presence of God in the house. The table in the red corner is the church altar. Here, in the red corner, they prayed to the icon. Here at the table all meals and main events in the life of the family took place: birth, wedding, funeral, farewell to the army.

Here there were not only images, but also the Bible, prayer books, candles, branches of consecrated willow were brought here on Palm Sunday or birch branches on Trinity.

The red corner was especially worshiped. Here, during the wake, they placed an extra device for another soul who had passed into the world.

It was in the Red Corner that the chipped birds of happiness, traditional for the Russian North, were hung.

Seats at the table in the red corner were firmly established by tradition, not only during holidays, but also during regular meals. The meal united the clan and family.

• Place in the red corner, in the center of the table, under the icons, was the most honorable. Here sat the owner, the most respected guests, and the priest. If a guest passed by and sat in the red corner without the host’s invitation, it was considered gross violation etiquette.
• The next most important side of the table is the one to the right of the owner and the places closest to him on the right and left. This is a "men's shop". Here, according to seniority, the men of the family were seated along the right wall of the house towards its exit. The older the man, the closer he sits to the owner of the house.
• And on the “lower” end of the table on the “women’s bench”, Women and children sat down along the front of the house.
• Mistress of the house was placed opposite the husband from the side of the stove on the side bench. This made it more convenient to serve food and host dinners.
• During the wedding newlyweds They also sat under the icons in the red corner.
• For guests It had its own guest shop. It is located by the window. It is still a custom in some areas to seat guests by the window.

This arrangement of family members at the table shows the model of social relations within the Russian family.

Table- he was given great importance in the red corner of the house and in the hut in general. The table in the hut was in a permanent place. If the house was sold, then it was necessarily sold along with the table!

Very important: The table is the hand of God. “The table is the same as the throne in the altar, and therefore you need to sit at the table and behave as in church” (Olonets province). It was not allowed to place foreign objects on the dining table, because this is the place of God himself. It was forbidden to knock on the table: “Don’t hit the table, the table is God’s palm!” There should always be bread on the table - a symbol of wealth and well-being in the house. They used to say: “Bread on the table is the throne!” Bread is a symbol of prosperity, abundance, and material well-being. That's why it always had to be on the table - God's palm.

A small lyrical digression from the author. Dear readers of this article! You probably think that all this is outdated? Well, what does bread have to do with it on the table? And you bake at home yeast-free bread do it yourself - it's quite easy! And then you will understand that this is a completely different bread! Not like store bought bread. Moreover, the loaf is shaped like a circle, a symbol of movement, growth, development. When I baked not pies or cupcakes for the first time, but bread, and my whole house smelled of bread, I understood what real home- a house where it smells... of bread! Where do you want to return? Don't have time for this? I thought so too. Until one of the mothers whose children I work with, and she has ten of them!!!, taught me how to bake bread. And then I thought: “If a mother of ten children finds time to bake bread for her family, then I definitely have time for this!” Therefore, I understand why bread is the head of everything! You have to feel it with your own hands and your soul! And then the loaf on your table will become a symbol of your home and will bring you a lot of joy!

The table must be installed along the floorboards, i.e. the narrow side of the table was directed towards the western wall of the hut. This is very important because... the direction “longitudinal - transverse” was given a special meaning in Russian culture. The longitudinal one had a “positive” charge, and the transverse one had a “negative” charge. Therefore, they tried to lay all the objects in the house in the longitudinal direction. This is also why they sat along the floorboards during rituals (matchmaking, as an example) - so that everything would go well.

Tablecloth on the table in the Russian tradition it also had a very deep meaning and forms a single whole with the table. The expression “table and tablecloth” symbolized hospitality and hospitality. Sometimes the tablecloth was called “bread-salter” or “self-assembled”. Wedding tablecloths were kept as a special heirloom. The table was not always covered with a tablecloth, but in special cases. But in Karelia, for example, the tablecloth had to always be on the table. For a wedding feast, they took a special tablecloth and laid it inside out (from damage). A tablecloth could be spread on the ground during a funeral service, because a tablecloth is a “road”, a connection between the cosmic world and the human world; it is not for nothing that the expression “a tablecloth is a road” has come down to us.

For dining table the family gathered, crossed themselves before eating and said a prayer. They ate sedately, and it was forbidden to get up while eating. The head of the family - a man - began the meal. He cut food into pieces, cut bread. The woman served everyone at the table and served food. The meal was long, leisurely, long.

On holidays, the red corner was decorated with woven and embroidered towels, flowers, and tree branches. Embroidered and woven towels with patterns were hung on the shrine. On Palm Sunday, the red corner was decorated with willow branches, on Trinity - with birch branches, and with heather (juniper) - on Maundy Thursday.

It's interesting to think about our modern houses:

Question 1. The division into “male” and “female” territory in the house is not accidental. And in our modern apartments there is a “women’s secret corner” - personal space as a “female kingdom”, do men interfere with it? Do we need him? How and where can you create it?

Question 2. And what is in the red corner of our apartment or dacha - what is the main spiritual center of the house? Let's take a closer look at our home. And if we need to fix something, then we’ll do it and create a red corner in our home, let’s create it to truly unite the family. Sometimes you can find advice on the Internet to put a computer in the red corner as the “energy center of the apartment” and organize your workplace in it. I'm always surprised by such recommendations. Here, in the red - the main corner - be what is important in life, what unites the family, what carries true spiritual values, what is the meaning and idea of ​​​​the life of the family and clan, but not a TV or an office center! Let's think together about what it could be.

Types of Russian huts

Now many families are interested in Russian history and traditions and are building houses as our ancestors did. It is sometimes believed that there should be only one type of house based on the arrangement of its elements, and only this type of house is “correct” and “historic”. In fact, the location of the main elements of the hut (red corner, stove) depends on the region.

Based on the location of the stove and the red corner, there are 4 types of Russian huts. Each type is characteristic of a specific area and climatic conditions. That is, it is impossible to say directly: the stove has always been strictly here, and the red corner is strictly here. Let's look at them in more detail in the pictures.

The first type is the Northern Central Russian hut. The stove is located next to the entrance to the right or left of it in one of the rear corners of the hut. The mouth of the stove is turned towards the front wall of the hut (the mouth is the outlet of a Russian stove). Diagonally from the stove there is a red corner.

The second type is the Western Russian hut. The stove was also located next to the entrance to the right or left of it. But its mouth was turned towards the long side wall. That is, the mouth of the stove was located near the entrance door to the house. The red corner was also located diagonally from the stove, but food was prepared in a different place in the hut - closer to the door (see picture). A sleeping area was made on the side of the stove.

The third type is the eastern South Russian hut. The fourth type is the Western South Russian hut. In the south, the house was placed towards the street not with its facade, but with its long side. Therefore, the location of the furnace here was completely different. The stove was placed in the corner farthest from the entrance. Diagonally from the stove (between the door and the front long wall hut) there was a red corner. In eastern South Russian huts, the mouth of the stove was turned towards the front door. In western South Russian huts, the mouth of the stove was turned towards the long wall of the house facing the street.

Despite the different types of huts, they adhere to the general principle of the structure of Russian housing. Therefore, even if he found himself far from home, the traveler could always find his way around the hut.

Elements of a Russian hut and a peasant estate: a dictionary

In a peasant estate the farm was large - each estate had from 1 to 3 barns for storing grain and valuables. There was also a bathhouse - the building farthest from the residential building. Every thing has its place. This proverbial principle has always been observed everywhere. Everything in the house was thought out and arranged intelligently so as not to waste extra energy and time on unnecessary actions or movements. Everything is at hand, everything is convenient. Modern home ergonomics comes from our history.

The entrance to the Russian estate was from the street through a strong gate. There was a roof over the gate. And at the gate on the side of the street there is a bench under the roof. Not only village residents, but also any passerby could sit on the bench. It was at the gate that it was customary to meet and see off guests. And under the roof of the gate one could welcome them cordially or talk goodbye.

Barn– a separate small building for storing grain, flour, and supplies.

Bath– a separate building (the furthest building from a residential building) for washing.

Crown- logs of one horizontal row in the log house of a Russian hut.

Anemone- a carved sun attached instead of a towel to the gable of the hut. Wishing a rich harvest, happiness, and prosperity to the family living in the house.

Barn floor– a platform for threshing compressed bread.

Cage- a structure in wooden construction, formed by crowns of logs placed on top of each other. The mansions consist of several cages, united by passages and vestibules.

Chickens-elements of the roof of a Russian house built without nails. They said: “Chickens and a horse on the roof - it will be quieter in the hut.” This refers specifically to the elements of the roof - the ridge and the chicken. A water tank was placed on the chicken - a log hollowed out in the form of a gutter to drain water from the roof. The image of “chickens” is not accidental. The chicken and the rooster were associated in the popular mind with the sun, since this bird notifies about the sunrise. Rooster crow folk beliefs, drove away evil spirits.

Glacier– the great-grandfather of the modern refrigerator – a room with ice for storing food

Matica– massive wooden beam, on which the ceiling is laid.

Platband– decoration of a window (window opening)

Barn– a building for drying sheaves before threshing. The sheaves were laid out on the flooring and dried.

Stupid– horse – connects the two wings of the house, two roof slopes together. The horse symbolizes the sun moving across the sky. This is a mandatory element of the roof structure, built without nails, and is a talisman for the house. Okhlupen is also called “shelo” from the word “helmet”, which is associated with the protection of the house and means the helmet of an ancient warrior. Perhaps this part of the hut was called “okhlupny”, because when put in place it makes a “pop” sound. Ohlupni were used to do without nails during construction.

Ochelye – this was the name of the most beautifully decorated part of the Russian women's headdress on the forehead (“on the brow”) and also called part of the decoration of the window - the upper part of the “decoration of the forehead, brow” of the house. Ochelie - the upper part of the platband on the window.

Povet– a hayloft, you could drive here directly on a cart or sleigh. This room is located directly above the barnyard. Boats, fishing gear, hunting equipment, shoes, and clothes were also stored here. Here they dried and repaired nets, crushed flax and did other work.

Podklet– the lower room under the living quarters. The basement was used for storing food and household needs.

Polati- wooden flooring under the ceiling of a Russian hut. They settled between the wall and the Russian stove. It was possible to sleep on the beds, as the stove kept the heat for a long time. If the stove was not heated for heating, then vegetables were stored on the floors at that time.

Policemen– figured shelves for utensils above the benches in the hut.

Towel- a short vertical board at the junction of two piers, decorated with the symbol of the sun. Usually the towel repeated the pattern of the hairstyles.

Prichelina- boards on wooden roof houses nailed to the ends above the pediment (edge ​​of the hut), protecting them from rotting. The piers were decorated with carvings. The pattern consists of a geometric ornament. But there is also an ornament with grape berries - a symbol of life and procreation.

Svetlitsa- one of the rooms in the mansion (see “mansions”) on the women’s side, in the upper part of the building, intended for needlework and other household activities.

Seni- a cold entrance room in the hut; usually the entryway was not heated. As well as the entrance room between the individual cages in the mansions. It's always utility room for storage. Household utensils were stored here, there was a bench with buckets and milk pans, work clothes, rocker arms, sickles, scythes, and rakes. They did dirty housework in the entryway. The doors of all rooms opened into the canopy. Canopy - protection from the cold. was opening front door, the cold was allowed into the hallway, but remained in them, not reaching the living quarters.

Apron– sometimes “aprons” decorated with fine carvings were made on houses on the side of the main facade. This is a board overhang that protects the house from precipitation.

Stable- premises for livestock.

Mansions- a large residential wooden house, which consists of separate buildings, united by vestibules and passages. galleries. All parts of the choir were different in height - the result was a very beautiful multi-tiered structure.

Russian hut utensils

Dishes for cooking, it was stored in the stove and near the stove. These are cauldrons, cast iron pots for porridges, soups, clay patches for baking fish, cast iron frying pans. Beautiful porcelain dishes were stored so that everyone could see them. She was a symbol of wealth in the family. Festive dishes were stored in the upper room, and plates were displayed in the cupboard. Everyday dishes were kept in wall cabinets. Dinnerware consisted of a large bowl made of clay or wood, wooden spoons, birch bark or copper salt shakers, and cups of kvass.

Painted baskets were used to store bread in Russian huts. boxes, brightly colored, sunny, joyful. The painting of the box distinguished it from other things as a significant, important thing.

They drank tea from samovar.

Sieve it was used for sifting flour, and as a symbol of wealth and fertility, it was likened to the vault of heaven (the riddle “A sieve is covered with a sieve”, the answer is heaven and earth).

Salt is not only food, but also a talisman. That’s why they served bread and salt to guests as a greeting, a symbol of hospitality.

The most common was earthenware pot. Porridge and cabbage soup were prepared in pots. The cabbage soup cooked well in the pot and became much tastier and richer. Even now, if we compare the taste of soup and porridge from a Russian oven and from the stove, we will immediately feel the difference in taste! Tastes better out of the oven!

For household needs, barrels, tubs, and baskets were used in the house. They fried food in frying pans, just like now. Knead the dough in wooden troughs and vats. Water was carried in buckets and jugs.

Good owners immediately after eating all the dishes were washed clean, dried and placed overturned on the shelves.

Domostroy said this: “so that everything is always clean and ready for the table or for delivery.”

To put the dishes in the oven and take them out of the oven you needed grips. If you have the opportunity to try to put a full pot filled with food into the oven or take it out of the oven, you will understand how physical it is hard work and how strong women used to be even without fitness :). For them, every movement was exercise and exercise. I’m serious 🙂 - I tried it and appreciated how difficult it is to get a large pot of food for a large family using a grabber!

Used for raking coals poker.

In the 19th century replaced clay pots came metal. They are called cast iron (from the word “cast iron”).

Clay and metal were used for frying and baking. frying pans, patches, frying pans, bowls.

Furniture in our understanding, this word was almost absent in the Russian hut. Furniture appeared much later, not so long ago. No wardrobes or chests of drawers. Clothes and shoes and other things were not stored in the hut.

The most valuable things in a peasant house - ceremonial utensils, festive clothes, dowries for daughters, money - were kept in chests. Chests always had locks. The design of the chest could tell about the prosperity of its owner.

Russian hut decor

A house painting master could paint a house (they used to say “bloom”). They painted strange patterns on a light background. These are symbols of the sun - circles and semicircles, and crosses, and amazing plants and animals. The hut was also decorated with wood carvings. Women weaved and embroidered, knitted and decorated their homes with their handicrafts.

Guess what tool was used to make carvings in a Russian hut? With an axe! And the painting of houses was done by “painters” - that’s what the artists were called. They painted the facades of houses - pediments, platbands, porches, porches. When white stoves appeared, they began to paint the huts, partitions, and cabinets.

The decor of the roof pediment of a northern Russian house is actually an image of space. Signs of the sun on the racks and on the towel - an image of the path of the sun - sunrise, sun at its zenith, sunset.

Very interesting ornament decorating the piers. Below the solar sign on the piers you can see several trapezoidal protrusions - the legs of waterfowl. For the northerners, the sun rose from the water and also set in the water, because there were many lakes and rivers around, which is why waterfowl were depicted - the underwater and underground world. The ornament on the sides represented the seven-layered sky (remember the old expression - “to be in seventh heaven”?).

In the first row of the ornament there are circles, sometimes connected with trapezoids. These are symbols of heavenly water - rain and snow. Another series of images from triangles is a layer of earth with seeds that will wake up and give a harvest. It turns out that the sun rises and moves across a seven-layer sky, one of which contains moisture reserves, and the other contains plant seeds. At first the sun does not shine at full strength, then it is at its zenith and finally sets down so that the next morning it begins its path across the sky again. One row of the ornament does not repeat the other.

The same symbolic ornament can be found on the platbands of a Russian house and on the decor of windows in central Russia. But window decoration also has its own characteristics. On the lower board of the casing there is an uneven relief of a hut (a plowed field). At the lower ends of the side boards of the casing there are heart-shaped images with a hole in the middle - a symbol of a seed immersed in the ground. That is, we see in the ornament a projection of the world with the most important attributes for the farmer - the earth sown with seeds and the sun.

Proverbs and sayings about the Russian hut and housekeeping

• Houses and walls help.
• Every house is held by its owner. The house is being painted by the owner.
• What it’s like at home is the same for yourself.
• Make a stable, and then some cattle!
• Not according to the house is the lord, but the house according to the lord.
• It is not the owner who paints the house, but the owner who paints the house.
• At home, not away: once you’ve been there, you won’t leave.
• A good wife will save the house, but a thin one will shake it with her sleeve.
• The mistress of the house is like pancakes in honey.
• Woe to him who lives in a disorderly house.
• If the hut is crooked, the mistress is bad.
• As is the builder, so is the monastery.
• Our hostess is busy with work – and the dogs wash the dishes.
• To lead a house is not to weave bast shoes.
• In the house the owner is more than the bishop
• Getting a pet at home means walking around without opening your mouth.
• The house is small, but it doesn’t allow you to lie down.
• Whatever is born in the field, everything in the house will be useful.
• Not the owner who does not know his farm.
• Prosperity is not determined by the place, but by the owner.
• If you don't manage a house, you can't manage a city.
• The village is rich, and so is the city.
• A good head feeds a hundred hands.

Dear friends! In this hut I wanted to show not just the history of the Russian home, but also to learn from our ancestors how to run a household - reasonable and beautiful, pleasing to the soul and eye, to live in harmony with both nature and your conscience. In addition, many points in relation to the house as a home our ancestors are very important and relevant now for us living in the 21st century.

The materials for this article were collected and studied by me for a very long time, checked in ethnographic sources. I also used materials from the stories of my grandmother, who shared with me the memories of her early years of life in a northern village. And only now, during my vacation and my life - being in the countryside in nature, I finally completed this article. And I realized why it took me so long to write it: in the bustle of the capital in the usual panel house in the center of Moscow, with the roar of cars, it was too difficult for me to write about the harmonious world of the Russian home. But here, in nature, I completed this article very quickly and easily, with all my heart.

If you would like to learn more about the Russian home, below you will find a bibliography on this topic for adults and children.

I hope that this article will help you talk interestingly about the Russian house during your summer trips to the village and to museums of Russian life, and will also tell you how to look at illustrations to Russian fairy tales with your children.

Literature about the Russian hut

For adults

1. Bayburin A.K. Dwelling in the rituals and beliefs of the Eastern Slavs. – L.: Science, 1983 (Institute of Ethnography named after N.N. Miklouho-Maclay)
2. Buzin V.S. Ethnography of Russians. – St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg University Publishing House, 2007
3. Permilovskaya A.B. Peasant house in the culture of the Russian North. – Arkhangelsk, 2005.
4. Russians. Series "Peoples and Cultures". – M.: Nauka, 2005. (Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology named after N. N. Miklukho-Maclay RAS)
5. Sobolev A.A. Wisdom of the ancestors. Russian yard, house, garden. – Arkhangelsk, 2005.
6. Sukhanova M. A. House as a model of the world // Human House. Materials of the interuniversity conference – St. Petersburg, 1998.

For children

1. Alexandrova L. Wooden architecture of Rus'. – M.: White City, 2004.
2. Zaruchevskaya E. B. About peasant mansions. Book for children. – M., 2014.

Russian hut: video

Video 1. Children's educational video tour: Children's Museum of Village Life

Video 2. Film about a northern Russian hut (Museum of Kirov)

Video 3. How to build a Russian hut: documentary for adults

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"Speech development from 0 to 7 years: what is important to know and what to do. Cheat sheet for parents"

In the morning the sun was shining, but only the sparrows were squawking loudly - a sure sign of a blizzard. At dusk fell frequent snow, and when the wind rose, it was so purring that you couldn’t even see an outstretched hand. It raged all night, and the next day the storm did not lose strength. The hut was swept up to the top of the basement, there were snowdrifts as tall as a man on the street - it was impossible to even get through to the neighbors, and it was impossible to get out beyond the outskirts of the village. But you don’t need to go anywhere in particular. Unless you go to the woodshed to get firewood. There will be enough supplies in the hut for the whole winter. In the basement there are barrels and tubs with pickles, cabbage, mushrooms and lingonberries, bags of flour, grain and bran for poultry and other livestock, lard and sausages on hooks, dried fish; In the cellar, potatoes and other vegetables are filled into piles. And there is order in the barnyard: two cows are chewing hay, with which the tier above them is piled up to the roof, pigs are grunting behind a fence, a bird is dozing on a perch in a chicken coop fenced off in the corner. It's cool here, but there's no frost. Constructed from thick logs, the carefully caulked walls do not allow drafts to pass through and retain the warmth of animals rotting manure and straw.

Wooden house with outbuildings in a Karelian village.

And in the hut itself there is no memory of frost at all - the hot stove takes a long time to cool down. It’s just that the kids are bored: until the storm ends, you won’t be able to leave the house to play or run around. They lie on the beds, listen to the tales that the grandfather tells...

The most ancient Russian huts - until the 13th century - were built without a foundation, burying almost a third of them in the ground - this way it was easier to conserve heat. They dug a hole in which they began to collect crowns from logs. Plank floors were still a long way off, and they were left earthen.

A hearth was laid out on a carefully compacted floor of stones. In such a half-dugout, people spent winters together with domestic animals, which were kept closer to the entrance. And there were no doors. A very small entrance hole - just to squeeze through - was covered from the winds and cold with a shield made of half-logs and a fabric canopy.

In the center of Gorodets Nizhny Novgorod region Entire streets of ancient wooden houses have been preserved.

Centuries passed, and the Russian hut emerged from the ground. Now it was placed on a stone foundation. And if on pillars, then the corners were supported on massive decks. Those who were richer made roofs from planks, while poorer villagers covered their huts with shingles. And doors appeared on forged hinges, and windows were cut, and the size of peasant buildings increased noticeably. We are best familiar with the traditional huts, as they have been preserved in the villages of Russia from the western to the eastern borders. This is a five-walled hut, consisting of two rooms - a hallway and a living room, or a six-walled hut, when the living space itself is divided into two by another transverse wall. Such huts were erected in villages until very recently.

Reconstruction of a northern Russian hut.

But the peasant hut of the Russian North was built differently. In fact, the northern hut is not just a house, but a module for the complete life support of a family of several people during a long, harsh winter and cold spring. A kind of laid up spaceship, an ark traveling not in space, but in time - from heat to heat, from harvest to harvest. Human housing, housing for livestock and poultry, storage facilities for supplies - everything is under one roof, everything is protected by powerful walls. Unless woodshed Yes, the barn-hayloft is separate. So they are right there, in the fence, and it’s not difficult to make a path to them in the snow.

Such a dwelling was built in two tiers. The lower one is a utility one, there is a barnyard and a storage area for supplies - a basement with a cellar. Upper - people’s housing, upper room (from the word upper, that is, high, because at the top). The heat of a barnyard rises, people have known this since time immemorial. To get into the room from the street, the porch was made high. And, climbing it, you had to climb a whole flight of stairs. But no matter how the snowstorm piles up the snowdrifts, they will not cover the entrance to the house. From the porch, a door leads to the vestibule - a spacious vestibule, which is also a transition to other rooms. Various peasant utensils are stored here, and in the summer, when it gets warm, people sleep in the hallway. Because it's cool. Through the entryway you can go down to the barnyard, and from here there is a door to the upper room.

A residential hut built from powerful logs more than a hundred years ago.

You just need to enter the upper room carefully. To conserve heat, the door was made low and the threshold high. Raise your legs higher and don’t forget to bend down - at an uneven hour you’ll hit a bump on the ceiling.

The spacious basement is located under the upper room, the entrance to it is from the barnyard. They made basements with a height of six, eight, or even ten rows of logs - crowns. And having started to engage in trade, the owner turned the basement not only into storage, but also into a village trading shop - he cut a window-counter for customers onto the street. However, they were built differently. In the Vitoslavlitsy museum in Veliky Novgorod there is a hut just like an ocean ship inside: behind street door passages and transitions to different compartments begin, and in order to get into the room, you need to climb up the ladder-ladder to the very roof.

A hundred-year-old wooden hut on the shore of the White Sea.

You cannot build such a house alone. Therefore, in northern rural communities there is a hut for young people - new family- they put it to the whole world. The whole village built: together they cut down and transported the forest, sawed huge logs, laid crown after crown under the roof, together they rejoiced at what they had built. Only when itinerant artels of master carpenters appeared did they begin to hire them to build housing.

The northern hut seems huge from the outside, and there is only one living space in it - an upper room with an area of ​​twenty meters, or even less. Everyone lives there together, both old and young. There is a red corner in the hut where icons and a lamp hang. The owner of the house sits here, and guests of honor are invited here.

The main place of the housewife is opposite the stove. It's called kut. And the narrow space behind the stove is a nook. This is where the expression huddled in a nook came from - in a cramped corner or tiny room.

The most elegant and bright room in the hut is the light room. Museum of Wooden Architecture "Malye Korely" near Arkhangelsk.

“It’s light in my upper room...” is sung in a song that was popular not so long ago. Alas, for a long time this was not the case at all. To preserve heat, the windows in the upper room were cut small and covered with a bull or fish bladder or oiled canvas, which hardly allowed light to pass through. Only in rich houses could one see mica windows. The plates of this layered mineral were fixed in figured bindings, making the window look like a stained glass window. By the way, even the windows in Peter I’s carriage, which is kept in the Hermitage collection, were made of mica. In winter, ice sheets were inserted into the windows. They were carved on the frozen river or frozen into shapes right in the yard. It came out lighter. True, it was often necessary to prepare new “ice glasses” to replace melting ones. Glass appeared in the Middle Ages, but the Russian village only discovered it as a building material in the 19th century.

A room in a residential hut in Karelia.

For a long time, in rural and even urban huts, stoves were installed without pipes. Not because they didn’t know how or didn’t think of it, but for the same reasons - how best to conserve heat. No matter how you close the pipe with dampers, frosty air still penetrates from outside, cooling the hut, and the stove has to be fired up much more often. The smoke from the stove entered the upper room and went out into the street only through small smoke windows near the ceiling, which were opened for a while. And although the stove was heated with well-dried “smokeless” logs, there was enough smoke in the upper room. That is why the huts were called black or chicken huts. Pipes appeared only in the 15th-16th centuries, and even then in places where winters were not too severe. Huts with a chimney were called white. But at first the pipes were made not of stone, but of wood, which often became the cause of fire. Only at the beginning of the 18th century, Peter I, by a special decree, ordered that stoves with stone pipes be installed in city houses of the new capital - St. Petersburg, either stone or wooden. Later, in the huts of wealthy peasants, in addition to Russian stoves in which food was cooked, Dutch stoves brought to Russia by Peter I began to appear, which were convenient for their small in size and very high heat transfer. Nevertheless, stoves without pipes continued to be installed in northern villages until the end of the 19th century.

The main thing in the hut is the Russian stove. She will warm you, feed you, and put you to sleep.

The stove is also the warmest sleeping place - a couch, which traditionally belongs to the eldest in the family. Between the wall and the stove there is a wide shelf - a shelf. It’s also warm there, so they put the children to sleep on the floor. Parents sat on benches, or even on the floor; The time for beds has not yet come.

The architecture of the Russian hut gradually changed and became more complex. There were more living quarters. In addition to the entryway and the upper room, a light room appeared in the house - a really bright room with two or three large windows already with real glass. Now most of the family’s life took place in the room, and the upper room served as a kitchen. The room was heated from the back wall of the stove. And wealthy peasants divided the vast residential log hut with two walls crosswise, thus partitioning off four rooms. Even a large Russian stove could not heat the entire room, so it was necessary to install an additional Dutch stove in the room farthest from it.

The bad weather rages for a week, but under the roof of the hut it is almost inaudible. Everything is going as usual. The housewife has the most trouble: early in the morning she milks the cows and pours grain for the birds. Then steam the bran for the pigs. Bring water from the village well - two buckets on a rocker, one and a half pounds with a total weight! But this is not a man’s business, this is how it has been done since ancient times. And you have to cook food and feed your family. The kids, of course, help as much as they can.

Three-tier Russian hut. Museum of wooden architecture "Vitoslavlitsy" in Veliky Novgorod.

In the large northern hut, the living half and outbuildings were located under one roof. A platform was often built at the door of the hayloft, along which horses brought hay in carts.

Men have fewer worries in winter. The owner of the house - the breadwinner - works tirelessly all summer. He plows, mows, reaps, threshes, chops, saws, builds, catches fish and forest animals. From dawn to dawn. As he works, his family will live until the next warm season. Therefore, winter for men is a time of rest. Of course, without male hands you can’t get by: fixing what needs fixing, chopping and bringing firewood into the house, cleaning and walking the horse. And in general there are many things that neither a woman nor children can do.

The northern huts, cut down by skillful hands, have stood for centuries. Generations passed, and the ark houses still remained a reliable refuge in harsh natural conditions. Only the mighty logs darkened with time. In the museums of wooden architecture “Vitoslavlitsy” in Veliky Novgorod and “Malye Korely” near Arkhangelsk there are huts whose age has exceeded a century and a half. Ethnographers searched for them in abandoned villages and bought them from owners who had moved to the cities. Then they were carefully dismantled, transported to the museum grounds and restored to their original form. This is how they appear to numerous tourists who come to Veliky Novgorod and Arkhangelsk.

OVEN FROM PETER I

The Dutch oven (gollandka, galanka) appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 18th century. Peter I brought the first ten such stoves from Holland. Very soon, stoves in Russian houses began to be built in their image and likeness. Compared to the Russian stove, the Dutch stove had considerable advantages - modest dimensions (width 1 m, depth up to 2 m) and great return heat due to winding smoke channels in which hot air completely gave off the heat, heating the bricks. A well-heated stove warmed a small house for 12 hours in cold weather.

Dutch ovens were lined with beautiful tiles or tiles with patterns. Quite quickly they gained such popularity that they significantly displaced traditional furnace structures, especially in city houses. Even today, many homeowners in rural areas prefer to heat their homes with stoves of this particular type.

Such Dutch ovens began to be installed in Russian houses at the beginning of the 18th century.

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Cage- rectangular one-room log house without extensions of size
most often 2x3 m.

Cage with stove- hut.

Podklet(podklet, podzbitsa) - the lower floor of the building, located under the cage and used for economic purposes.

The Russian hut has always been nice, solid and original. Its architecture testifies to its fidelity to centuries-old traditions, their durability and uniqueness. Its layout, design and interior decoration were created over many years. Not many traditional Russian houses have survived to this day, but you can still find them in some regions.

Initially, huts in Russia were built from wood, with their foundations partially buried underground. This ensured greater reliability and durability of the structure. Most often there was only one room, which the owners divided into several separate parts. An obligatory part of the Russian hut was the stove corner, to separate which a curtain was used. In addition, they stood out separate zones for men and women. All corners in the house were lined up in accordance with the cardinal directions, and the most important among them was the eastern (red), where the family organized an iconostasis. It was the icons that guests were supposed to pay attention to immediately after entering the hut.

Porch of a Russian hut

The architecture of the porch has always been carefully thought out; the owners of the house devoted a lot of time to it. It combined excellent artistic taste, centuries-old traditions and the ingenuity of the architects. It was the porch that connected the hut with the street and was open to all guests or passers-by. It’s interesting what’s on the porch in the evenings after hard work The whole family, as well as neighbors, often gathered. Here the guests and owners of the house danced, sang songs, and children ran and frolicked.

In different regions of Russia, the shape and size of the porch were radically different. So, in the north of the country it was quite high and large, and the southern facade of the house was chosen for installation. Thanks to this asymmetrical placement and the unique architecture of the facade, the whole house looked very unique and beautiful. It was also quite common to see porches placed on pillars and decorated with openwork wooden posts. They were a real decoration of the house, making its facade even more serious and solid.

In the south of Russia, porches were installed from the front of the house, attracting the attention of passers-by and neighbors with openwork carvings. They could be either two steps or with a whole staircase. Some home owners decorated their porch with an awning, while others left it open.

Seni

In order to retain the maximum amount of heat from the stove in the house, the owners separated the living area from the street. The canopy is exactly the space that guests immediately saw when entering the hut. In addition to keeping warm, canopies were also used to store rockers and other necessary things; this is where many people made storage rooms for food.

A high threshold was also made to separate the entryway and the heated living area. It was made to prevent cold from entering the house. In addition, according to centuries-old traditions, each guest had to bow at the entrance to the hut, and it was impossible to go inside without bowing before the high threshold. Otherwise, the guest simply hit the doorframe naked.

Russian stove

The life of a Russian hut revolved around the stove. It served as a place for cooking, relaxation, heating and even bathing procedures. There were steps leading up, and there were niches in the walls for various utensils. The firebox was always with iron barriers. The structure of the Russian stove - the heart of any hut - is surprisingly functional.

The stove in traditional Russian huts was always located in the main area, to the right or left of the entrance. It was considered the main element of the house, since they cooked food on the stove, slept, and heated the entire house. It has been proven that food cooked in the oven is the healthiest, since it retains all the beneficial vitamins.

Since ancient times, many beliefs have been associated with the stove. Our ancestors believed that it was on the stove that the brownie lived. The garbage was never taken out of the hut, but burned in the oven. People believed that this way all the energy remained in the house, which helped increase the family’s wealth. It is interesting that in some regions of Russia they steamed and washed in the oven, and were also used to treat serious diseases. Doctors of that time claimed that the disease could be cured simply by lying on the stove for several hours.

Stove corner

It was also called the “woman’s corner” because all the kitchen utensils were located there. It was separated by a curtain or even a wooden partition. Men from their family almost never came here. A huge insult to the owners of the house was the arrival of a strange man behind the curtain in the corner of the stove.

Here women washed and dried things, cooked food, treated children and told fortunes. Almost every woman did needlework, and the quietest and most comfortable place for this was the stove corner. Embroidery, sewing, painting - these are the most popular types handicrafts of girls and women of that time.

Benches in the hut

In the Russian hut there were movable and fixed benches, and chairs began to appear in the 19th century. Along the walls of the house, the owners installed fixed benches, which were secured using supplies or legs with carved elements. The stand could be flat or tapered towards the middle; its decoration often included carved patterns and traditional ornaments.

There were also mobile benches in each house. Such benches had four legs or were installed on solid boards. The backs were often made so that they could be thrown over the opposite edge of the bench, and used for decoration carved decor. The bench was always made longer than the table, and was also often covered with thick fabric.

Men's corner (Konik)

It was located to the right of the entrance. Must have stood here wide bench, which was fenced on both sides wooden planks. They were carved in the shape of a horse's head, which is why the male corner is often called "konik". Under the bench, men stored their tools intended for repairs and other men's work. In this corner, men repaired shoes and utensils, and also wove baskets and other products from wicker.

All the guests who came to the owners of the house for a short time sat down on the bench in the men's corner. It was here that the man slept and rested.

Women's corner (Seda)

This was an important space in a woman’s life, since it was from behind the stove curtain that the girl came out during the viewing party in elegant attire, and also waited for the groom on the wedding day. Here women gave birth to children and fed them away from prying eyes, hiding behind the curtain.

Also, it was in the women's corner of the house of the guy she liked that the girl had to hide the sweeper in order to get married soon. They believed that such a sweeper would help the daughter-in-law quickly become friends with her mother-in-law and become a good housewife in her new home.

red corner

This is the brightest and most important corner, since it was considered a sacred place in the house. According to tradition, during construction, he was allocated a place on the eastern side, where two adjacent windows form a corner, so the light falls, making the corner the brightest place in the hut. Icons and embroidered towels always hung here, as well as in some huts - the faces of ancestors. Be sure to put it in the red corner large table and ate food. Freshly baked bread was always kept under icons and towels.

To this day, some traditions associated with the table are known. So, it is not advisable for young people to sit on the corner in order to start a family in the future. It is bad luck to leave dirty dishes on the table or sit on it.

Our ancestors stored cereals, flour and other products in hay barns. Thanks to this, the housewife could always quickly prepare food from fresh ingredients. In addition, additional buildings were provided: a cellar for storing vegetables and fruits in winter, a barn for livestock and separate structures for hay.

Ecology of consumption. House: Lost in the forests of Chukhloma is the stunningly beautiful ancient Russian house-terem of the village of Pogorelovo. Two storey with bay windows...

Old Russian house-terem

Lost in the forests of Chukhloma is the stunningly beautiful ancient Russian house-terem of the village of Pogorelovo. The two-story wooden house with bay windows and a turret is truly unique and is definitely an excellent example of wooden architecture, if not an architectural monument

The ancient Russian house-terem in Pogorelovo is original in its eclecticism - a building with a complex volumetric layout, echoing the best examples of country dachas in the Russian style, with incredibly rich interiors of the front rooms, at the same time completely practical from a village point of view - everything here is done wisely and everything is adapted for farming.

Having exceeded 100 years of age, the house has never been restored, thereby preserving its original decor and original painting interiors.

540 km from Moscow, between Sudai and Chukhloma, lies a picturesque region stretching along the banks of the Vigi River. Just 25 years ago, the village of Pogorelovo was located here, the first written mention of which dates back to the beginning of the 17th century. Today, all that remains of the village is just the name and the skeletons of wooden log houses.

But, nothing less than a miracle, on a small hill there is still a single surviving and living house.

This house was built in 1902-1903. local peasant otkhodnik I.I. Polyashov.

Residents of the village of Pogorelovo were state (state-owned) peasants who could go to work (as opposed to appanages) or carry out crafts in their native land.

One of these otkhodniks was Ivan Ivanovich Polyashov, popularly nicknamed Polyash.

Ivan Ivanovich had artels of carpenters and carvers - he was engaged in construction country houses and small architectural forms in St. Petersburg and its environs, i.e. was a contractor.

The tower is a 2-story building, made of logs, on a brick plinth and sheathed on the outside with heat-treated planks.

The large volume is complicated on the facades by risalits, a bay window and a low turret; The roof is completed by a skylight and a mezzanine. The roof overhangs are decorated with sawn ornamental valances, the openwork pattern of which resembles embroidery. The facades are decorated with exquisite saw-cut patterns and several types of platbands of various shapes.

On one side, a 2-story utility part of the house was originally attached to the house (dismantled in 1973, now it looks like a veranda), which is typical of peasant houses in the northern region.

According to one version, the construction of this house was carried out by a German architect who helped Polyashov with a mill and sawmill on the Vige River.

According to another, the design of the house was made by Polyashov himself, who in his lifetime built many dachas near St. Petersburg. This version seems more plausible.

The Pogorelovsky tower echoes the best examples of country dachas in the Russian style, with incredibly rich interiors of state rooms.

Along the main staircase you can immediately ascend to the 2nd floor, where the living rooms and bedrooms of the owners were located. But perhaps the most beautiful place in the whole house is the front hall.

So richly decorated, both with carvings and paintings, that if not pastel colors, it would be dazzling in my eyes.

It’s just amazing that, a century later, all this has come to us in its original form. And not anywhere in big city, but in a real wilderness.

Although, after 1917, all the agricultural equipment and livestock were taken away from the Polyashovs, they left the house for the family. Before collectivization, the family lived in their own house, after which Ivan Ivanovich and his family were left only a small part of the house on the 1st floor, and the remaining premises were occupied by various offices.

Polyashov died in his home, but his wife had to leave the village immediately after her husband’s funeral.

While there was life in the village, the house housed and kindergarten, and a forestry office, and a school.

But by the end of the 1960s the village became unpromising.In 1972, the village council closed and moved out of the Polyashovsky house.

The house would undoubtedly have disappeared if not for pure chance.A couple of Moscow avant-garde artists - Anatoly Zhigalov and Natalya Abalakova - made a kayak trip along the Viga River that same summer and, quite by chance, spotted this house and bought it.

Since then, only Anatoly’s own efforts have somehow maintained the house. published . If you have any questions about this topic, ask them to the experts and readers of our project .

Decorating houses in the Russian style is becoming increasingly popular. Russian style in the interior is the personification of centuries-old traditions and rich culture. Such houses are a real work of architectural art; they are unique in their design.

In addition, Russian-style housing has good thermal insulation, is environmentally friendly and easy to use.

Style Features

Modern houses in the Russian style combine centuries-old national traditions in architecture and the latest technologies in construction. In the design of a classic ancient Russian interior, it is most appropriate to use natural materials. The main material of this type is wood.

Traditionally, in Russia, wooden houses were built from coniferous tree logs (pine, larch).

Nowadays timber is a popular material in construction.

The main features of houses made of timber in the Old Russian style include:

• Abundance carved patterns in the exterior decoration of the home. These are carved wooden window shutters and trims, porch railings, gable decorations and much more. Designers are ready to offer original sketches of patterns for wood carving.

• Availability of a spacious and bright room. Traditionally, part of the upper room was occupied by a Russian stove. IN modern house in the Old Russian style, the stove is replaced with less bulky heaters.

• Unheated hallway. Traditionally, such a room was called a vestibule.

• Gable roof with a strong slope.

Popular decorative finishing timber, imitating walls made of logs, which allows you to create a feeling of antiquity.

For interior decoration the houses also use natural wood, which makes neo-Russian-style housing as environmentally friendly as possible.

For the rustic style, it is not advisable to use red wood in construction and interior design. For finishing the room mainly Coniferous trees, oak, birch, ash are used.

The interior can be complemented with natural stone or limestone.

Designers identify three separate trends in the Old Russian style:

• “a la rus”: in other words – “Russian country”;
• "Russian hut";
• "terem".

Russian country is the most common interior design style of an old Russian house. A characteristic feature of this direction is the use of folk crafts and symbols of ancient Rus' in the interior.

• Style "Russian hut"» not replete with unnecessary decorative items, but is more practical and strict in design.
• "Terem" style recreates the appearance not of a simple ancient Russian hut, but of a merchant's house or a prince's chamber. This design looks more impressive and fabulous.

Russian classicism has another direction - “Russian estate”. Characteristic Features of this direction are:

• Decoration of buildings with relief and through artistic carving on wood.
• Design of the roof ridge.
• Canopy over the porch.
• Carved shutters and window frames.
• The predominance of pagan animal symbols in the decor (birds, snakes, horses, roosters).

When decorating houses in a rustic style, floral patterns predominate. The furniture in the room is artificially aged. It is appropriate to use wooden benches and large tables in the interior. Natural fabrics with bright patterns, embroidery or lace are often used for home decor.

Exterior

Traditionally, Russian-style houses are made of wood, but many construction companies are ready to offer turnkey housing made of brick. Russian stone houses are considered a separate direction in architecture. A brick house, just like a wooden one, is decorated with various carved elements.

Log house remains the main material in the construction of houses in classic style. Now the construction of houses from logs has many different directions - Russian, Finnish, Norwegian felling.

The construction of houses in the Russian style has certain features, for example, round logs that are connected to each other “in a cup” (in other words, in a circle). The connection elements in this case are semicircular grooves. The logs are connected in such a way that their end parts protrude forty centimeters beyond the walls.

As alternative options Connecting logs is also used by fastening methods “in the paw” (without protrusions of the logs beyond the walls) and “in the clap”. Assembling "into a bowl" takes place in the shape of a bowl, but the bowl itself is always upside down. In this case, each subsequent log is laid with a notch on the previous one.

Choosing an interior

There are many options for decorating the interior of a Russian hut. The interior design can be executed in both rustic rough and rich merchant styles. The choice of interior design will depend only on the preferences of the owner of the house. Designers are ready to draw up a project modern house in Russian style for any tastes and preferences.

One of the main attributes of the interior of a two-story country house is wooden staircase. Such stairs are decorated with carved pillars with various patterns.

A large stove is often installed in the living room to give it an antique atmosphere.

A one-story house cannot boast of this a large number free areas, like multi-storey cottages. Installing a large Russian stove in a one-story home is not always appropriate or practical. An analogue of a large Russian stove in the house can be a fireplace decorated in the national style.

Walls

When decorating the walls of a Russian-style house, the most suitable material is wood. If the house was originally built from timber, then additional finishing There is no need to resort to walls. The timber walls themselves will be part of the decor.

As an exception, instead of wood, it is permissible to use whitewash or paint. Often the walls are decorated with fabrics or wallpaper with authentic patterns. Designers recommend not making the walls too dark, since the furniture in the room should be at least a tone darker than the walls.

Furniture

Old Russian style involves the use of massive wooden furniture (benches, cabinets, chests of drawers, tables, stools). It is acceptable to use furniture upholstered in fabric. Furniture is covered mainly with velor or other expensive high-quality fabric.

The legs of chairs and tables are often decorated with artistic carvings. Also popular artificial aging pieces of furniture.

Pine is most often used as a material for making furniture in the Russian style. Such wood has high quality, attractive color and wood grain, and is also low cost.

One more distinctive feature Furniture made in the Old Russian style is characterized by simplicity of design. Kitchen units, cabinets, living room walls, chests of drawers should not consist of many sections and have many drawers and shelves.

Lighting

Lighting fixtures in the form of lamps or candlesticks will harmoniously combine with other interior items and decorative elements.

To recreate the “terem” or “Russian estate” styles, it is worth using luxurious lamps with exquisite lampshades or forged candlesticks as lighting fixtures.

Decor

National ethnic items that can be purchased in an ordinary souvenir shop are often used as home decor in the classic Russian style. To give a special atmosphere you can use wooden barrels, chests or caskets with carvings. It is recommended to exclude plastic items.

It is advisable to further decorate modern equipment.

Objects made of ceramics and porcelain are often decorated with Russian folk painting, which is known as Gzhel. Traditionally, Gzhel is a complex hand painting in blue or blue tones on a white background. It is worth noting that now Gzhel is not only a folk craft of producing and painting porcelain, but also a separate stylistic direction in interior design.