The Russian hut has always been fine, solid and original. Its architecture testifies to the fidelity to centuries-old traditions, their durability and uniqueness. Its layout, design and interior decoration have been created over the years. Not many traditional Russian houses have survived to this day, but they can still be found in some regions.
Initially, huts in Russia were built of wood, partially deepening their foundation underground. This provided greater reliability and durability of the structure. Most often, it had 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, there were separate zones for men and women. All corners in the house were lined up in accordance with the cardinal points, and the most important among them was the eastern (red), where the family organized the iconostasis. It was the icons that the guests should have paid attention to immediately after entering the hut.
Russian hut porch
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 architects. It was the porch that connected the hut with the street and was open to all guests or passers-by. Interestingly, the whole family, as well as neighbors, often gathered on the porch in the evenings after hard work. Here 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 asymmetric placement and the unique architecture of the facade, the whole house looked very peculiar and beautiful. It was also quite common to find porches placed on poles 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, the porch was installed from the front of the house, attracting the attention of passers-by and neighbors with openwork carvings. They could be both on two steps, and with a whole staircase. Some home owners decorated their porch with a canopy, while others left it open.
canopy
In order to keep 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 the guests immediately saw at the entrance to the hut. In addition to keeping warm, the canopy was also used to store the yoke and other necessary things, it was here that many people made closets for food.
To separate the hallway and the heated living area, a high threshold was also made. It was made to prevent the penetration of cold into 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 just hit the bare bare.
Russian oven
The life of the Russian hut revolved around the stove. It served as a place for cooking, relaxing, heating and even bathing procedures. Steps led upstairs, there were niches in the walls for various utensils. The furnace has always been with iron barriers. The device of the Russian stove - the heart of any hut - is surprisingly functional.
The stove in traditional Russian huts was always located in the main zone, to the right or left of the entrance. It was she who was considered the main element of the house, since they cooked food on the stove, slept, she warmed the whole house. It has been proven that food cooked in the oven is the healthiest, as 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 lives. Garbage was never taken out of the hut, but burned in an oven. People believed that in this way all the energy remains in the house, which helps to increase the wealth of the family. Interestingly, in some regions of Russia, they steamed and washed in the oven, and also used it to treat serious diseases. The doctors of that time claimed that the disease can be cured simply by lying on the stove for several hours.
Furnace corner
It was also called the "woman's corner", since all the kitchen utensils were located exactly to make it. It was separated by a curtain or even a wooden partition. The 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 a curtain in the stove corner.
Here, women washed and dried things, cooked food, treated children and told fortunes. Almost every woman was engaged in needlework, and the stove corner was the most calm and convenient place for this. Embroidery, sewing, painting - these are the most popular types of needlework for girls and women of that time.
Benches in the hut
In the Russian hut there were movable and fixed benches, and already from the 19th century chairs began to appear. Along the walls of the house, the owners installed fixed benches, which were fastened with supplies or legs with carved elements. The base could be flat or tapered towards the middle, and its decor often included carved patterns and traditional ornaments.
There were also mobile shops in each house. Such benches had four legs or were installed on blank boards. The backs were often made so that they could be thrown to the opposite edge of the bench, and carved decor was used for decoration. The bench was always made longer than the table, and was also often covered with thick cloth.
Male corner (Konik)
It was to the right of the entrance. There was always a wide shop here, which was fenced on both sides with wooden boards. They were carved in the shape of a horse's head, so the male corner is often called "konik". Under the bench, the men kept their tools intended for repairs and other men's work. In this corner, men repaired shoes and utensils, as well as wove baskets and other wickerwork.
All the guests who came to the owners of the house for a short time sat down on a bench in the men's corner. It was here that the man slept and rested.
Women's Corner (Wednesday)
This was an important space in the fate of women, because it was from behind the stove curtain that the girl came out during the bride 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 a curtain.
Also, it was in the women's corner of the house of the guy she liked that the girl had to hide the overcast in order to get married soon. They believed that such a wrap would help the daughter-in-law to make friends with the mother-in-law and become a good housewife in the new house.
red corner
This is the brightest and most important corner, since it was he who 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 an angle, so the light falls, making the corner the brightest place in the hut. Icons and embroidered towels hung here, as well as faces of ancestors in some huts. Be sure to put a large table in the red corner and eat. 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 create a family in the future. It is bad luck to leave dirty dishes on the table or sit on it.
Our ancestors kept cereals, flour and other products in senniks. Thanks to this, the hostess 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 cattle and separate facilities for hay.
The word "hut" (as well as its synonyms "izba", "istba", "hut", "source", "firebox") has been used in Russian chronicles since the most ancient times. The connection of this term with the verbs "to drown", "to drown" is obvious. Indeed, it always denotes a heated building (as opposed to, for example, a cage).
In addition, all three East Slavic peoples - Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians - retained the term "stoker" and again meant a heated building, whether it was a pantry for winter storage of vegetables (Belarus, Pskov region, Northern Ukraine) or a tiny residential hut (Novgorodskaya , Vologda region), but certainly with a stove.
Building a house for a peasant was a significant event. At the same time, it was important for him not only to solve a purely practical problem - to provide a roof over his head for himself and his family, but also to organize the living space in such a way that it was filled with life's blessings, warmth, love and peace. Such a dwelling can be built, according to the peasants, only following the traditions of their ancestors, deviations from the precepts of the fathers could be minimal.
When building a new house, great importance was attached to the choice of location: the place should be dry, high, bright - and at the same time, its ritual value was taken into account: it should be happy. A place inhabited was considered happy, that is, a place that had passed the test of time, a place where people's lives passed in complete prosperity. Unsuccessful for construction was the place where people used to be buried and where a road or a bath used to be.
Special requirements were also imposed on the building material. The Russians preferred to cut huts from pine, spruce, and larch. These trees with long, even trunks fit well into the frame, tightly adjoining each other, retained the internal heat well, and did not rot for a long time. However, the choice of trees in the forest was regulated by many rules, the violation of which could lead to the transformation of a built house from a house for people into a house against people, bringing misfortune. So, for a log house it was impossible to take "sacred" trees - they can bring death to the house. The ban applied to all old trees. According to legend, they must die in the forest a natural death. It was impossible to use dry trees, which were considered dead - from them the home will have a "dryness". A great misfortune will happen if a "violent" tree gets into the log house, that is, a tree that has grown at a crossroads or on the site of a former forest road. Such a tree can destroy a log house and crush the owners of the house.
The construction of the house was accompanied by many rituals. The beginning of construction was marked by the ritual of sacrificing a chicken, a ram. It was held during the laying of the first crown of the hut. Money, wool, grain - symbols of wealth and family warmth, incense - a symbol of the holiness of the house, were laid under the logs of the first crown, the window pillow, the mother. The completion of construction was marked by a rich treat for all those involved in the work.
The Slavs, like other peoples, "deployed" the building under construction from the body of a creature sacrificed to the Gods. According to the ancients, without such a "sample" the logs could never have formed into an ordered structure. The "construction sacrifice" seemed to convey its shape to the hut, helping to create something reasonably organized out of the primitive chaos... "Ideally," the construction sacrifice should be a person. But human sacrifice was resorted to only in rare, truly exceptional cases - for example, when laying a fortress to protect against enemies, when it came to the life or death of the entire tribe. During normal construction, they were content with animals, most often a horse or a bull. Archaeologists have excavated and studied in detail more than one thousand Slavic dwellings: at the base of some of them, skulls of these animals were found. Horse skulls are especially often found. So the "skates" on the roofs of Russian huts are by no means "for beauty". In the old days, a tail made of bast was also attached to the back of the ridge, after which the hut was completely likened to a horse. The house itself was represented by a "body", four corners - by four "legs". Scientists write that instead of a wooden "horse", a real horse's skull was once strengthened. Buried skulls are found both under the huts of the 10th century, and under those built five centuries after baptism - in the 14th-15th centuries. For half a millennium, they were only put into a less deep hole. As a rule, this hole was located at a holy (red) angle - just under the icons! - or under the threshold, so that evil could not penetrate the house.
Another favorite sacrificial animal when laying a house was a rooster (hen). Suffice it to recall "cockerels" as a decoration of roofs, as well as the widespread belief that evil spirits should disappear at the crow of a rooster. They put in the base of the hut and the skull of a bull. Nevertheless, the ancient belief that a house is being built "on someone's head" was ineradicable. For this reason, they tried to leave at least something, even the edge of the roof, unfinished, deceiving fate.
Roofing scheme:
1 - gutter,
2 - chill,
3 - stamic,
4 - slightly,
5 - flint,
6 - princely sleg ("knes"),
7 - general slug,
8 - male,
9 - fall,
10 - prichelina,
11 - chicken,
12 - pass,
13 - bull,
14 - oppression.
General view of the hut
What kind of house did our great-great-great-grandfather, who lived a thousand years ago, build for himself and his family?
This, first of all, depended on where he lived, to which tribe he belonged. Indeed, even now, having visited the villages in the north and south of European Russia, one cannot help but notice the difference in the type of dwellings: in the north it is a wooden chopped hut, in the south - a hut-hut.
Not a single product of folk culture was invented overnight in the form in which ethnographic science found it: folk thought worked for centuries, creating harmony and beauty. Of course, this also applies to housing. Historians write that the difference between the two main types of traditional houses can be traced during excavations of settlements in which people lived before our era.
Traditions were largely determined by climatic conditions and the availability of suitable building materials. In the north, at all times, moist soil prevailed and there was a lot of timber, while in the south, in the forest-steppe zone, the soil was drier, but there was not always enough forest, so other building materials had to be turned to. Therefore, in the south, until very late (until the XIV-XV centuries), a semi-dugout 0.5-1 m dug into the ground was a massive folk dwelling. And in the rainy north, on the contrary, a ground house with a floor appeared very early, often even somewhat raised above the ground.
Scientists write that the ancient Slavic semi-dugout "came out" from under the ground into the light of God for many centuries, gradually turning into a ground hut of the Slavic south.
In the north, with its damp climate and an abundance of first-class forest, the semi-underground dwelling turned into a ground (hut) much faster. Despite the fact that the traditions of housing construction among the northern Slavic tribes (Krivichi and Ilmen Slovenes) cannot be traced as far into the depths of time as among their southern neighbors, scientists reasonably believe that log huts were erected here as early as the 2nd millennium BC. era, that is, long before these places entered the sphere of influence of the early Slavs. And at the end of the 1st millennium of our era, a stable type of log cabin dwelling had already developed here, while semi-dugouts dominated in the south for a long time. Well, each dwelling was best suited for its territory.
Here is how, for example, the "average" residential hut of the 9th-11th centuries from the city of Ladoga (now Staraya Ladoga on the Volkhov River) looked like. Usually it was a square building (that is, when viewed from above) with a side of 4-5 m. Sometimes a log house was erected directly on the site of the future house, sometimes it was first assembled on the side - in the forest, and then, having been dismantled, transported to the construction site and folded already "clean". The scientists were told about this by notches - "numbers", in order applied to the logs, starting from the bottom.
The builders took care not to confuse them during transportation: a log house required careful adjustment of the crowns.
In order for the logs to fit snugly together, a longitudinal recess was made in one of them, where the convex side of the other entered. The ancient craftsmen made a recess in the lower log and made sure that the logs turned out to be up on the side that was facing north at the living tree. On this side, the annual layers are denser and finer. And the grooves between the logs were caulked with swamp moss, which, by the way, has the ability to kill bacteria, and often smeared with clay. But the custom of sheathing a log house with wood for Russia is historically relatively new. It was first depicted in miniature manuscripts of the 16th century.
The floor in the hut was sometimes made of earth, but more often - wooden, raised above the ground on beams-logs, cut into the lower crown. In this case, a hole was made in the floor into a shallow underground cellar.
Wealthy people usually built houses for themselves in two dwellings, often with a superstructure on top, which gave the house the appearance of a three-story building from the outside.
A kind of entrance hall was often attached to the hut - a canopy about 2 m wide. Sometimes, however, the vestibule was significantly expanded and arranged in them as a barn for cattle. They used the canopy in a different way. They kept property in the spacious, tidy hallways, made something in bad weather, and in the summer they could, for example, put guests to sleep there. Archaeologists call such a dwelling "two-chamber", meaning that it has two rooms.
According to written sources, starting from the 10th century, unheated extensions to huts - cages - spread. They communicated again through the canopy. The cage served as a summer bedroom, a year-round pantry, and in winter - a kind of "refrigerator".
The usual roof of Russian houses was wooden, hewn, shingled or shingled. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was customary to cover the top of the roof with birch bark from dampness; this gave her a variegation; and sometimes earth and turf were laid on the roof to protect against fire. The shape of the roofs was pitched on two sides with gables on the other two sides. Sometimes all departments of the house, that is, the basement, the middle tier and the attic, were under one slope, but more often the attic, while others had their own special roofs. Wealthy people had intricately shaped roofs, for example, barrel-shaped in the form of barrels, Japanese in the form of a cloak. On the outskirts, the roof was bordered by slotted ridges, scars, polices, or railings with turned balusters. Sometimes towers were made along the entire outskirts - recesses with semicircular or heart-shaped lines. Such recesses were mainly made in towers or attics and were sometimes so small and frequent that they formed the border of the roof, and sometimes so large that there were only a pair or three of them on each side, and windows were inserted in the middle of them.
If semi-dugouts, covered up to the roof with soil, were, as a rule, devoid of windows, then there are already windows in the Ladoga huts. True, they are still very far from modern, with bindings, vents and clear glass. Window glass appeared in Russia in the 10th-11th centuries, but even later it was very expensive and was used mostly in princely palaces and churches. In simple huts, so-called portage (from "drag" in the sense of pushing and pushing) windows were arranged to let smoke through.
Two adjacent logs were cut through to the middle, and a rectangular frame with a wooden latch that went horizontally was inserted into the hole. It was possible to look out into such a window - but that was all. They were called so - "prosvets" ... If necessary, they pulled the skin over them; in general, these openings in the huts of the poor were small to keep warm, and when they were closed, it was almost dark in the hut in the middle of the day. In wealthy houses, windows were made large and small; the former were called red, the latter were oblong and narrow in shape.
Not a small controversy among scientists was caused by an additional crown of logs encircling the Ladoga huts at some distance from the main one. Let's not forget that from ancient houses to our times it has been well preserved if one or two lower crowns and disorderly fragments of a collapsed roof and floorboards: sort it out, archaeologist, where is what. Therefore, various assumptions are sometimes made about the constructive purpose of the parts found. What purpose this additional external crown served - a single point of view has not been developed so far. Some researchers believe that he bordered the mound (a low insulating mound along the outer walls of the hut), preventing it from spreading. Other scientists think that the ancient huts were not encircled by dams - the wall was, as it were, two-layered, a residential frame was surrounded by a kind of gallery, which served both as a heat insulator and a utility pantry. Judging by the archaeological data, a toilet was often located at the very back, dead-end end of the gallery. It is understandable the desire of our ancestors, who lived in a harsh climate with frosty winters, to use hut heat to heat the latrine and at the same time prevent a bad smell in the home. The toilet in Russia was called "back". This word is first encountered in documents from the early 16th century.
Like the semi-dugouts of the southern Slavs, the ancient huts of the northern Slavic tribes remained in use for many centuries. Already in that old time, folk talent developed a type of dwelling that very successfully responded to local conditions, and life, almost until recently, did not give people a reason to move away from the usual, comfortable and traditionally consecrated models.
The interior space of the hut
In peasant houses, as a rule, there were one or two, less often three living quarters, connected by a vestibule. The most typical for Russia was a house consisting of a warm room heated by a stove and a vestibule. They were used for household needs and as a kind of vestibule between the cold of the street and the warmth of the hut.
In the houses of wealthy peasants, in addition to the hut itself, heated by a Russian stove, there was another, summer, front room - the upper room, which was also used in everyday life in large families. In this case, the upper room was heated by a Dutch oven.
The interior of the hut was distinguished by simplicity and expedient placement of the items included in it. The main space of the hut was occupied by an oven, which in most of Russia was located at the entrance, to the right or left of the door.
Only in the southern, central black earth zone of European Russia, the furnace was located in the corner farthest from the entrance. The table always stood in the corner, diagonally from the stove. Above it was a goddess with icons. Along the walls were motionless benches, above them - shelves cut into the walls. In the back of the hut, from the stove to the side wall, under the ceiling, a wooden flooring was arranged - a bed. In the southern Russian regions, behind the side wall of the stove there could be a wooden flooring for sleeping - a floor, a prima. All this immovable atmosphere of the hut was built together with the house and was called a mansion outfit.
The stove played a major role in the interior space of the Russian dwelling throughout all stages of its existence. No wonder the room where the Russian stove stood was called "hut, firebox." The Russian oven belongs to the type of ovens in which the fire is lit inside the oven, and not on the platform open from above. The smoke exits through the mouth - an opening into which fuel is laid, or through a specially designed chimney. The Russian stove in a peasant hut had the shape of a cube: its usual length is 1.8-2 m, width 1.6-1.8 m, height 1.7 m. The upper part of the stove is flat, comfortable for lying. The furnace furnace is relatively large in size: 1.2-1.4 m high, up to 1.5 m wide, with a vaulted ceiling and a flat bottom - a hearth. The mouth, usually rectangular in shape or with a semicircular upper part, was closed with a damper, an iron shield with a handle cut out in the shape of the mouth. In front of the mouth there was a small platform - a hearth, on which household utensils were placed in order to push it into the oven with a fork. Russian stoves have always stood on the guard, which was a frame of three or four crowns of round logs or block, a log roll was made on top of it, which was smeared with a thick layer of clay, this served as the hearth of the stove. Russian stoves had one or four stove pillars. Furnaces differed in the design of the chimney. The oldest type of Russian wind oven was a stove without a chimney, called a smoke oven or black oven. The smoke came out through the mouth and during the burning hung under the ceiling in a thick layer, which is why the upper crowns of logs in the hut were covered with black resinous soot. To settle the soot served pollavochniki - shelves, located around the perimeter of the hut above the windows, they separated the smoked top from the clean bottom. To exit the smoke from the room, they opened the door and a small hole in the ceiling or in the back wall of the hut - a smoke pipe. After the firebox, this hole was closed with a wooden shield, in the southern lips. the hole was plugged with rags.
Another type of Russian stove - semi-white or semi-smoky - is a transitional form from a black stove to a white stove with a chimney. Semi-white stoves do not have a brick chimney, but a branch pipe is arranged above the hearth, and a small round hole is made above it in the ceiling, leading into a wooden pipe. During the furnace, an iron round pipe is inserted between the pipe and the hole in the ceiling, somewhat wider than the samovar one. After heating the furnace, the pipe is removed, and the hole is closed.
The white Russian stove suggests a pipe for the exit of smoke. Above the brick hearth, a pipe is laid out that collects smoke that comes out of the mouth of the furnace. From the branch pipe, the smoke enters a burnt brick burr, laid out horizontally in the attic, and from there into a vertical chimney.
In former times, furnaces were often made of clay, in the thickness of which stones were often added, which allowed the furnace to heat up more and keep heat longer. In the northern Russian provinces, cobblestones were driven into clay in layers, alternating layers of clay and stones.
The location of the stove in the hut was strictly regulated. In most of European Russia and Siberia, the stove was located near the entrance, to the right or left of the doors. The mouth of the furnace, depending on the area, could be turned to the front facade wall of the house or to the side. In the southern Russian provinces, the stove was usually located in the far right or left corner of the hut with the mouth turned to the side wall or the front door. Many ideas, beliefs, rituals, magical techniques are associated with the oven. In the traditional mind, the stove was an integral part of the dwelling; if the house did not have a stove, it was considered non-residential. According to popular beliefs, under the stove or behind it lives a brownie, the patron of the hearth, kind and helpful in some situations, wayward and even dangerous in others. In a system of behavior where such an opposition as "one's own" - "alien" is essential, the attitude of the hosts towards a guest or a stranger changed if he happened to sit on their stove; both the person who dined with the owner's family at the same table, and the one who sat on the stove, were already perceived as "one's own". Appeal to the furnace occurred during all the rituals, the main idea of which was the transition to a new state, quality, status.
The stove was the second most important "holiness center" in the house - after the red, God's corner - and maybe even the first.
The part of the hut from the mouth to the opposite wall, the space in which all the women's work related to cooking was performed, was called the stove corner. Here, near the window, against the mouth of the furnace, in each house there were hand millstones, so the corner is also called a millstone. In the oven corner there was a ship bench or a counter with shelves inside, which was used as a kitchen table. On the walls were observers - shelves for tableware, cabinets. Above, at the level of the benches, there was a stove beam, on which kitchen utensils were placed and various household items were stacked.
The stove corner was considered a dirty place, unlike the rest of the clean space of the hut. Therefore, the peasants have always sought to separate it from the rest of the room with a curtain of colorful chintz, colored homespun cloth or a wooden bulkhead. The stove corner, closed with a wooden partition, formed a small room, which had the name "closet" or "prilub".
It was an exclusively female space in the hut: here women cooked food, rested after work. During the holidays, when many guests came to the house, a second table was placed by the stove for women, where they feasted separately from the men who sat at the table in the red corner. Men, even of their own families, could not enter the women's quarters without special need. The appearance of an outsider there was generally considered unacceptable.
The traditional fixed furnishings of the dwelling were kept for the longest time near the stove in the women's corner.
The red corner, like the stove, was an important landmark of the interior space of the hut.
In most of European Russia, in the Urals, in Siberia, the red corner was the space between the side and front walls in the depths of the hut, limited by the corner, which is located diagonally from the stove.
In the southern Russian regions of European Russia, the red corner is the space enclosed between the wall with the door to the canopy and the side wall. The stove was located in the back of the hut, diagonally from the red corner. In a traditional dwelling almost throughout Russia, with the exception of the southern Russian provinces, the red corner is well lit, since both of its constituent walls had windows. The main decoration of the red corner is a goddess with icons and a lamp, so it is also called "holy". As a rule, everywhere in Russia in the red corner, in addition to the goddess, there is a table, only in a number of places in the Pskov and Velikolukskaya provinces. it is placed in the wall between the windows - against the corner of the stove. In the red corner, near the table, two benches meet, and above, above the shrine, there are two shelves of a bench; hence the Western-South Russian name for the corner "day" (the place where the elements of the decoration of the dwelling meet, join).
All significant events of family life were marked in the red corner. Here, both everyday meals and festive feasts were held at the table, the action of many calendar rituals took place. In the wedding ceremony, the matchmaking of the bride, her ransom from her girlfriends and brother took place in the red corner; from the red corner of her father's house she was taken to the church for the wedding, brought to the groom's house and also led to the red corner. During the harvest, the first and last were installed in the red corner. The preservation of the first and last ears of the harvest, endowed, according to folk legends, with magical powers, promised well-being to the family, home, and entire economy. In the red corner, daily prayers were performed, from which any important business began. It is the most honored place in the house. According to traditional etiquette, a person who came to the hut could go there only at the special invitation of the owners. They tried to keep the red corner clean and smartly decorated. The very name "red" means "beautiful", "good", "light". It was cleaned with embroidered towels, popular prints, postcards. The most beautiful household utensils were placed on the shelves near the red corner, the most valuable papers and objects were stored. It was a common custom among Russians when laying a house to put money under the lower crown in all corners, and a larger coin was placed under the red corner.
Some authors associate the religious understanding of the red corner exclusively with Christianity. According to them, the only sacred center of the house in pagan times was the stove. God's corner and oven are even interpreted by them as Christian and pagan centers. These scholars see in their mutual arrangement a kind of illustration of the Russian dual faith; they simply replaced the older pagan ones in God's corner, and at first they undoubtedly coexisted with them there.
As for the stove ... let's think seriously, could the "kind" and "honest" Empress Stove, in the presence of which they did not dare to say a swear word, under which, according to the concepts of the ancients, the soul of the hut lived - Brownie - could it personify " darkness"? No way. It is much more likely to assume that the stove was placed in the northern corner as an insurmountable barrier to the forces of death and evil, seeking to break into the dwelling.
The relatively small space of the hut, about 20-25 square meters, was organized in such a way that a fairly large family of seven to eight people was accommodated in it with more or less convenience. This was achieved due to the fact that each family member knew his place in the common space. Men usually worked, rested during the day on the men's half of the hut, which included a front corner with icons and a bench near the entrance. Women and children were in the women's quarters near the stove during the day. Places for night sleep have also been allocated. Old people slept on the floor near the door, the stove or on the stove, on the golbets, children and unmarried youth - under the boards or on the boards. In warm weather, adult married couples spent the night in cages, passages, in cold weather - on a bench under the floor or on a platform near the stove.
Each family member knew his place at the table. The owner of the house sat under the images during a family meal. His eldest son was located on the right hand of his father, the second son - on the left, the third - next to his older brother. Children under marriageable age were seated on a bench running from the front corner along the facade. Women ate while sitting on side benches or stools. Violating the once established order in the house was not supposed to be unless absolutely necessary. The person who violated them could be severely punished.
On weekdays, the hut looked rather modest. There was nothing superfluous in it: the table stood without a tablecloth, the walls were without decorations. Everyday utensils were placed in the oven corner and on the shelves.
On a holiday, the hut was transformed: the table was moved to the middle, covered with a tablecloth, festive utensils, which had previously been stored in crates, were put on the shelves.
The interior of the chamber differed from the interior of the inner space of the hut by the presence of a Dutch woman instead of a Russian stove, or by the absence of a stove at all. The rest of the mansion attire, with the exception of the blankets and the platform for sleeping, repeated the motionless attire of the hut. The peculiarity of the upper room was that it was always ready to receive guests.
Benches were made under the windows of the hut, which did not belong to the furniture, but formed part of the extension of the building and were fixed to the walls: the board was cut into the wall of the hut at one end, and supports were made on the other: legs, grandmothers, and benches. In old huts, benches were decorated with "edge" - a board nailed to the edge of the bench, hanging from it like a frill. Such shops were called "pubescent" or "with a canopy", "with a valance". In a traditional Russian dwelling, benches ran along the walls in a circle, starting from the entrance, and served for sitting, sleeping, and storing various household items. Each shop in the hut had its own name, associated either with the landmarks of the internal space, or with the ideas that have developed in traditional culture about the confinement of the activities of a man or woman to a specific place in the house (men's, women's shops). Various items were stored under the benches, which, if necessary, were easy to get - axes, tools, shoes, etc. In traditional rituals and in the sphere of traditional norms of behavior, the shop acts as a place where not everyone is allowed to sit. So entering the house, especially strangers, it was customary to stand at the threshold until the owners invited them to come and sit down. The same applies to matchmakers: they went to the table and sat on the bench only by invitation. In funeral rituals, the deceased was placed on a bench, but not on any, but on one located along the floorboards.
A long shop is a shop that differs from others in its length. Depending on the local tradition of distributing objects in the space of the house, a long shop could have a different place in the hut. In the North Russian and Central Russian provinces, in the Volga region, it stretched from the conic to the red corner, along the side wall of the house. In the southern Great Russian provinces, it went from the red corner along the wall of the facade. From the point of view of the spatial division of the house, a long shop, like a stove corner, was traditionally considered a women's place, where at the appropriate time they were engaged in certain women's work, such as spinning, knitting, embroidery, sewing. On a long bench, always located along the floorboards, they laid the dead. Therefore, in some provinces of Russia, matchmakers never sat on this bench. Otherwise, their business could go wrong.
Short Shop - A shop that runs along the front wall of a house facing the street. During a family meal, men sat on it.
The shop, located near the stove, was called kutnaya. Buckets of water, pots, cast irons were placed on it, freshly baked bread was laid.
The threshold bench ran along the wall where the door was located. It was used by women instead of a kitchen table and differed from other shops in the house by the absence of an edge along the edge.
Judgment bench - a bench that goes from the stove along the wall or door partition to the front wall of the house. The surface level of this shop is higher than other shops in the house. The shop in front has folding or sliding doors or is closed by a curtain. Inside it are shelves for dishes, buckets, cast iron, pots.
The men's shop was called Konik. She was short and wide. In most of the territory of Russia, it had the form of a box with a hinged flat lid or a box with sliding doors. The Konik got its name, probably, thanks to the horse's head carved from wood, which adorned its side. Konik was located in the residential part of the peasant house, near the door. It was considered a "men's" shop, as it was the workplace of men. Here they were engaged in small crafts: weaving bast shoes, baskets, repairing harness, knitting fishing nets, etc. Under the conic were the tools necessary for these works.
A place on a bench was considered more prestigious than on a bench; the guest could judge the attitude of the hosts towards him, depending on where he was seated - on a bench or on a bench.
Furniture and decoration
A necessary element of the decoration of the dwelling was a table serving for a daily and festive meal. The table was one of the most ancient types of mobile furniture, although the earliest tables were adobe and motionless. Such a table with adobe benches near it was found in the Pronsk dwellings of the 11th-13th centuries (Ryazan province) and in the Kyiv dugout of the 12th century. Four legs of a table from a dugout are racks dug into the ground. In a traditional Russian dwelling, a movable table always had a permanent place; it stood in the most honorable place - in the red corner, in which the icons were located. In northern Russian houses, the table was always located along the floorboards, that is, with the narrower side to the front wall of the hut. In some places, for example, in the Upper Volga region, the table was set only for the duration of the meal, after eating it was placed sideways on the counter under the images. This was done in order to have more space in the hut.
In the forest belt of Russia, carpentry tables had a peculiar shape: a massive underframe, that is, a frame connecting the table legs, was climbed with boards, the legs were made short and thick, a large tabletop was always made removable and protruded beyond the underframe in order to make it more comfortable to sit. In the underframe, a cabinet with double doors was made for tableware, bread needed for the day.
In traditional culture, in ritual practice, in the sphere of norms of behavior, etc., great importance was attached to the table. This is evidenced by its clear spatial fixation in the red corner. Any advancement from there can only be associated with a ritual or crisis situation. The exclusive role of the table was expressed in almost all rituals, one of the elements of which was a meal. With particular brightness, it manifested itself in the wedding ceremony, in which almost every stage ended with a feast. The table was interpreted in the popular mind as "God's palm", giving daily bread, therefore, knocking on the table at which they eat was considered a sin. In the usual, non-table time, only bread, usually wrapped in a tablecloth, and a salt shaker with salt could be on the table.
In the sphere of traditional norms of behavior, the table has always been a place where people united: a person who was invited to dine at the master's table was perceived as "one of his own."
The table was covered with a tablecloth. In a peasant hut, tablecloths were made from homespun cloth, both of simple linen weave, and made using the technique of warp and multi-shaft weaving. Tablecloths used daily were sewn from two patchwork panels, usually with a cellular pattern (the most diverse colors) or simply coarse canvas. Such a tablecloth was used to set the table during dinner, and after eating, they either removed it or covered the bread left on the table with it. Festive tablecloths were distinguished by the best quality of the linen, such additional details as a lace seam between two panels, tassels, lace or fringe around the perimeter, as well as a pattern on the fabric.
In Russian everyday life, the following types of benches were distinguished: bench, portable and attached. Bench bench - a bench with a reversible back ("swing") was used for sitting and sleeping. If it was necessary to arrange a sleeping place, the backrest along the top, along the circular grooves made in the upper parts of the side stops of the bench, were thrown over to the other side of the bench, and the latter was moved to the bench, so that a kind of bed was formed, bounded in front by a "line". The back of the bench was often decorated with through carvings, which significantly reduced its weight. This type of bench was used mainly in urban and monastic life.
Portable bench - a bench with four legs or two blank boards, as needed, was attached to the table, used for sitting. If there was not enough space for sleeping, the bench could be moved and placed along the bench to increase the space for an extra bed. Portable benches were one of the oldest forms of Russian furniture.
Side bench - a bench with two legs, located only at one end of the seat, the other end of such a bench was placed on a bench. Often this type of bench was made from a single piece of wood in such a way that two tree roots, chopped off at a certain length, served as legs.
In the old days, a bench or bench attached to the wall served as a bed, to which another bench was attached. On these lavas, a bed was laid, which consisted of three parts: a down jacket or feather bed, a headboard and pillows. A headboard or headrest is a headrest on which a pillow was placed. It is a wooden sloping plane on blocks, at the back there could be a solid or lattice back, in the corners - carved or chiseled columns. There were two headboards - the lower one was called paper and was placed under the upper one, a pillow was placed on the upper one. The bed was covered with a sheet of linen or silk fabric, and on top it was covered with a blanket that went under the pillow. Beds were cleaned more elegantly on holidays or at weddings, simpler on ordinary days. In general, however, the beds were the property of only rich people, and even those had more for appearance in their decoration, and the owners themselves slept more willingly on a simple animal skin. For people of a wealthy condition, felt served as an ordinary bed, and the poor villagers slept on stoves, putting their own clothes under their heads, or on bare benches.
Dishes were placed in stands: these were pillars with numerous shelves between them. On the lower shelves, wider, massive dishes were stored, on the upper shelves, narrower, small dishes were placed.
To store the separately used utensils, a dishware was used: a wooden shelf or an open shelf cabinet. The vessel could have the form of a closed frame or be open at the top, often its side walls were decorated with carvings or had figured shapes (for example, oval). Above one or two shelves of the dishware, a rail could be nailed on the outside for stability of the dishes and for placing plates on edge. As a rule, the crockery was above the ship's shop, at the hand of the hostess. It has long been a necessary detail in the fixed decoration of the hut.
Icons were the main decoration of the houses. The icons were placed on a shelf or an open cabinet called a goddess. It was made of wood, often decorated with carvings and paintings. The goddess often had two tiers: new icons were placed in the lower tier, old, faded icons in the upper tier. It was always located in the red corner of the hut. In addition to icons, the goddess kept items consecrated in the church: holy water, willow, an Easter egg, sometimes the Gospel. Important documents were put there: invoices, IOUs, payment notebooks, memorials. There was also a wing for sweeping over icons. A curtain was often hung on the goddess, covering the icons, or a goddess. This kind of shelf or cabinet was common in all Russian huts, since, according to the peasants, the icons should have stood, and not hung in the corner of the hut.
The god was a narrow, long panel of homespun canvas, decorated along one side and at the ends with embroidery, woven ornaments, ribbons, and lace. The god was hung out so as to cover the icons from above and from the sides, but did not cover the faces.
The decoration of the red corner in the form of a bird, 10-25 cm in size, was called a dove. It is suspended from the ceiling in front of the images on a thread or rope. Doves were made of wood (pine, birch), sometimes painted in red, blue, white, green. The tail and wings of such doves were made of splinter chips in the form of fans. Birds were also common, the body of which was made of straw, and the head, wings and tail were made of paper. The appearance of the image of a dove as a decoration of the red corner is associated with the Christian tradition, where the dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit.
The red corner was also decorated with a nakutnik, a rectangular panel of fabric sewn from two pieces of white thin canvas or chintz. The size of the buff can be different, usually 70 cm long, 150 cm wide. White collars were decorated along the lower edge with embroidery, woven patterns, ribbons, and lace. The nakutnik was attached to the corner under the images. At the same time, the goddesses or icons were girded on top by the god.
The Old Believers considered it necessary to cover the faces of the icons from prying eyes, so they were hung with gospel. It consists of two sewn panels of white canvas, embroidered with geometric or stylized floral ornaments in several rows with red cotton threads, red cotton stripes between the rows of embroidery, frills along the bottom edge or lace. The field of the canvas, free from stripes of embroidery, was filled with stars made with red threads. The blagovestka was hung in front of the icons, fixed on the wall or the goddess with the help of cloth loops. It was pulled apart only during prayer.
For the festive decoration of the hut, a towel was used - a panel of white fabric of home or less often factory production, trimmed with embroidery, woven color patterns, ribbons, stripes of colored chintz, lace, sequins, braid, braid, fringe. It was decorated, as a rule, at the ends. The towel cloth was rarely ornamented. The nature and quantity of decorations, their location, color, material - all this was determined by local tradition, as well as the purpose of the towel. They were hung on the walls, icons for major holidays, such as Easter, Christmas, Pentecost (Holy Trinity Day), for the patronal holidays of the village, i.e. holidays in honor of the patron saint of the village, to the cherished days - holidays that celebrated important events that took place in the village. In addition, towels were hung out during weddings, at a christening dinner, on the day of a meal on the occasion of the return of a son from military service or the arrival of long-awaited relatives. Towels were hung on the walls that made up the red corner of the hut, and in the reddest corner. They were put on wooden nails - "hooks", "matches" driven into the walls. Traditionally, towels were a necessary part of a girl's dowry. It was customary to show them to the husband's relatives on the second day of the wedding feast. The young woman hung towels in the hut on top of her mother-in-law's towels so that everyone could admire her work. The number of towels, the quality of the linen, the skill of embroidery - all this made it possible to appreciate the diligence, accuracy, and taste of a young woman. The towel generally played a big role in the ritual life of the Russian village. It was an important attribute of wedding, native, funeral and memorial rituals. Very often it acted as an object of veneration, an object of special importance, without which the ritual of any rite would not be complete.
On the day of the wedding, the towel was used by the bride as a veil. Thrown over her head, it was supposed to protect her from the evil eye, damage at the most crucial moment of her life. The towel was used in the ceremony of "joining the young" before the crown: they tied the hands of the bride and groom "for all eternity, for years to come." A towel was presented to a midwife who took birth, godfather and godfather, who baptized the baby. The towel was present in the ritual "babina porridge", which took place after the birth of a child. However, the towel played a special role in the funeral and memorial rituals. According to the beliefs of Russian peasants, in a towel hung on the day of a person’s death on the window, his soul was for forty days. The slightest movement of the fabric was seen as a sign of her presence in the house. In the forties, the towel was shaken outside the outskirts of the village, thereby sending the soul from "our world" to the "other world".
All these activities with a towel were widespread in the Russian countryside. They were based on the ancient mythological ideas of the Slavs. The towel acted in them as a talisman, a sign of belonging to a certain family and tribal group, it was interpreted as an object that embodied the souls of the ancestors of the "parents", who carefully observed the life of the living.
Such symbolism of the towel excluded its use for wiping hands, face, floor. For this purpose, they used a hand-rubber, utirka, utiralnik, etc.
Many small wooden objects for a thousand years have disappeared without a trace, rotted, crumbled to dust. But not all. Something was found by archaeologists, something may be suggested by the study of the cultural heritage of related and neighboring peoples. A certain amount of light is shed by later samples recorded by ethnographers... In a word, one can talk endlessly about the interior decoration of a Russian hut.
Utensil
It was hard to imagine a peasant house without numerous utensils that had accumulated for decades, if not centuries, and literally filled the space. In the Russian village, utensils were called "everything movable in the house, dwelling", according to V.I.Dal. In fact, utensils are the totality of items necessary for a person in his everyday life. Utensils are dishes for preparing, preparing and storing food, serving it to the table; various containers for storing household items, clothes; items for personal hygiene and home hygiene; objects for kindling a fire, storing and using tobacco and for cosmetic accessories.
In the Russian village, mostly wooden pottery was used. Metal, glass, porcelain was less common. According to the manufacturing technique, wooden utensils could be hollowed out, bolted, cooperage, carpentry, turning. In great use were also utensils made of birch bark, woven from twigs, straw, pine roots. Some of the wooden items needed in the household were made by the male half of the family. Most of the items were purchased at fairs, auctions, especially cooperage and turning utensils, the manufacture of which required special knowledge and tools.
Pottery was mainly used for cooking food in an oven and serving it on the table, sometimes for pickling, pickling vegetables.
Metal utensils of the traditional type were mainly copper, pewter or silver. The presence of her in the house was a clear evidence of the prosperity of the family, its thrift, respect for family traditions. Such utensils were sold only at the most critical moments in the life of the family.
The utensils that filled the house were made, purchased, and kept by Russian peasants, of course, based on their purely practical use. However, in separate, from the point of view of the peasant, important moments of life, almost each of its objects turned from a utilitarian thing into a symbolic one. At one of the moments of the wedding ceremony, the dowry chest turned from a container for storing clothes into a symbol of the prosperity of the family, the industriousness of the bride. A spoon turned with the notch of the scoop up meant that it would be used at a funeral meal. An extra spoon that ended up on the table foreshadowed the arrival of guests, etc. Some utensils had a very high semiotic status, while others had a lower one.
Bodnya, an item of household utensils, was a wooden container for storing clothes and small household items. In the Russian countryside, two types of day-to-day days were known. The first type was a long hollowed-out wooden block, the side walls of which were made of solid boards. A hole with a lid on leather hinges was located at the top of the deck. Bodnya of the second type is a dugout or cooperage tub with a lid, 60-100 cm high, with a bottom diameter of 54-80 cm. Bodnyas were usually locked and stored in crates. From the second half of the XIX century. began to be replaced by chests.
To store bulky household supplies in cages, barrels, tubs, baskets of various sizes and volumes were used. Barrels in the old days were the most common container for both liquids and loose bodies, for example: grain, flour, flax, fish, dried meat, horsetail and various small goods.
For the storage of pickles, fermentations, urinations, kvass, water, for storage of flour, cereals, tubs were used. As a rule, the tubs were cooperage work, i.e. were made from wooden planks - rivets, tied with hoops. they were made in the form of a truncated cone or cylinder. they could have three legs, which were a continuation of the staves. A necessary accessory of the tub was a circle and a lid. The products placed in the tub were pressed in a circle, oppression was laid on top. This was done so that pickles and urinations were always in brine and did not float to the surface. The lid kept the food free from dust. The mug and lid had small handles.
A bast basket was an open cylindrical container made of bast, the bottom was flat, made of wooden boards or bark. Made with or without a spoon. The dimensions of the basket were determined by the purpose and were called accordingly: "set", "bridge", "buttock", "mushroom", etc. If the basket was intended for storing bulk products, then it was closed with a flat lid put on top.
For many centuries, the main kitchen vessel in Russia was a pot - utensils for cooking in the form of a clay vessel with a wide open top, low rim, round body, gradually tapering to the bottom. Pots could be of different sizes: from a small pot for 200-300 g of porridge to a huge pot that could hold up to 2-3 buckets of water. The shape of the pot did not change throughout its existence and was well adapted for cooking in a Russian oven. They were rarely ornamented; narrow concentric circles or a chain of shallow dimples, triangles, squeezed out around the rim or on the shoulders of the vessel served as their decoration. In a peasant house there were about a dozen or more pots of various sizes. They valued the pots, tried to handle them carefully. If it gave a crack, it was braided with birch bark and used to store food.
The pot is a household item, utilitarian, in the ritual life of the Russian people has acquired additional ritual functions. Scientists believe that this is one of the most ritualized items of household utensils. In the beliefs of the people, the pot was interpreted as a living anthropomorphic creature that has a throat, a handle, a spout, and a shard. Pots are usually divided into pots that carry the feminine, and pots with a masculine essence embedded in them. so, in the southern provinces of European Russia, the hostess, buying a pot, tried to determine its gender and gender: is it a pot or pot. It was believed that cooked food in a pot would be tastier than in a pot.
It is also interesting to note that in the popular mind a parallel is clearly drawn between the fate of the pot and the fate of man. The pot has found quite a wide application in funeral rituals. So, in most of the territory of European Russia, the custom was widespread to break pots when taking the dead out of the house. This custom was perceived as a statement of the departure of a person from life, home, village. In the Olonets province. this idea was expressed somewhat differently. After the funeral, a pot filled with hot coals in the house of the deceased was placed upside down on the grave, while the coals crumbled and went out. In addition, the deceased was washed two hours after death with water taken from a new pot. After consumption, it was taken away from the house and buried in the ground or thrown into the water. It was believed that the last life force of a person is concentrated in a pot of water, which is drained while washing the deceased. If such a pot is left in the house, then the deceased will return from the other world and frighten the people living in the hut.
The pot was also used as an attribute of some ritual actions at weddings. So, according to custom, "wedding men" led by a friend and matchmakers in the morning came to beat the pots to the room where the wedding night of the young people was held, while they had not yet left. Breaking pots was perceived as a demonstration of a turning point in the fate of a girl and a guy who became a woman and a man.
In the beliefs of the Russian people, the pot often acts as a talisman. In Vyatka province, for example, to protect chickens from hawks and crows, an old pot was hung upside down on the fence. This was done without fail on Maundy Thursday before sunrise, when witchcraft spells were especially strong. The pot in this case, as it were, absorbed them into itself, received additional magical power.
To serve dishes on the table, such table utensils as a dish were used. It was usually round or oval, shallow, on a low base, with wide edges. In peasant life, wooden dishes were mainly used. Dishes intended for the holidays were decorated with paintings. They depicted plant shoots, small geometric figures, fantastic animals and birds, fish and skates. The dish was used both in everyday life and in festive use. On weekdays, fish, meat, porridge, cabbage, cucumbers and other "thick" foods were served on a dish, eaten after stew or cabbage soup. On holidays, in addition to meat and fish, pancakes, pies, buns, cheesecakes, gingerbread, nuts, sweets and other sweets were served on a dish. In addition, there was a custom to offer guests a cup of wine, mead, brew, vodka or beer on a dish. horses of the festive meal was indicated by the removal of an empty dish, covered with another or a cloth.
Dishes were used during folk rituals, divination, magical procedures. In maternity rituals, a dish of water was used during the rite of magical cleansing of a woman in labor and a midwife, which was performed on the third day after childbirth. The woman in labor "silvered her grandmother", i.e. she threw silver coins into the water poured by the midwife, and the midwife washed her face, chest and hands. In the wedding ceremony, the dish was used for the general display of ritual objects and for offering gifts. The dish was also used in some rituals of the annual cycle. For example, in the Kursk province. on the day of Basil of Caesarea on January 1 (January 14), according to custom, a roasted pig was placed on a dish - a symbol of the wealth of the house expected in the new year. The head of the family raised the dish with the pig to the icons three times, and all the rest prayed to St. Vasily about the numerous offspring of livestock. The dish was also an attribute of the Christmas fortune-telling of the girls, who were called "followers". In the Russian village there was a ban on its use on some days of the folk calendar. It was impossible to serve a dish of food on the table on the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist on August 29, (September 11), since, according to Christian legend, on this day Solomeya presented the severed head on a platter to her mother Herodias. At the end of the XVIII and in the XIX century. a dish was also called a bowl, plate, bowl, saucer.
A bowl was used for drinking and eating. A wooden bowl is a hemispherical vessel on a small pallet, sometimes with handles or rings instead of handles, without a lid. Often an inscription was made along the edge of the bowl. Either along the crown or over the entire surface, the bowl was decorated with paintings, including floral and zoomorphic ornaments (bowls with Severodvinsk painting are widely known). Bowls of various sizes were made - depending on their use. Large bowls, weighing up to 800 g or more, were used along with staples, brothers and ladles during holidays and eve for drinking beer and home brew, when many guests gathered. In monasteries, large bowls were used to serve kvass. Small bowls, hollowed out of clay, were used in peasant life during dinner - for serving on the table, stews, fish soup, etc. During dinner, dishes were served on the table in a common bowl, separate dishes were used only during the holidays. They started to eat at the sign of the owner, they did not talk while eating. The guests who entered the house were treated to the same things that they themselves ate, and from the same dishes.
The cup was used in various ceremonies, especially in the rites of the life cycle. It was also used in calendar rituals. Signs and beliefs were associated with the cup: at the end of the festive dinner, it was customary to drink the cup to the bottom for the health of the owner and hostess, whoever did not do this was considered an enemy. Draining the cup, they wished the owner: "Good luck, victory, health, and so that no more blood remains in his enemies than in this cup." The bowl is also mentioned in conspiracies.
A mug was used to drink various drinks. A mug is a cylindrical dish of various sizes with a handle. Clay and wood mugs were decorated with painting, and wooden mugs were carved, the surface of some mugs was covered with birch bark weaving. They were used in everyday and festive use, they were also the subject of ritual actions.
A cup was used to drink intoxicating drinks. It is a small round vessel with a leg and a flat bottom, sometimes there could be a handle and a lid. Cups were usually painted or decorated with carvings. This vessel was used as an individual dish for drinking mash, beer, intoxicated honey, and later - wine and vodka on holidays, since drinking was allowed only on holidays and such drinks were a festive treat for guests. Drinking was taken for the health of other people, and not for oneself. Bringing a glass of wine to the guest, the host waited for a return glass from him.
The cup was most often used in the wedding ceremony. A glass of wine was offered to the newlyweds by the priest after the wedding. They took turns drinking three sips from this cup. Having finished the wine, the husband threw the cup under his feet and trampled it at the same time as his wife, saying: "Let those who will sow discord and dislike among us be trampled under our feet." It was believed that which of the spouses was the first to step on her, he would dominate the family. At the wedding feast, the host brought the first glass of vodka to the sorcerer, who was invited to the wedding as an honored guest in order to save the young from spoilage. The sorcerer himself asked for the second cup and only after that he began to protect the newlyweds from evil forces.
Spoons served as the only device for eating until forks appeared. Mostly they were wooden. Spoons were decorated with painting or carving. Various signs associated with spoons were observed. It was impossible to put a spoon so that it rested with a handle on the table, and with the other end on a plate, since unclean forces could penetrate into the bowl along the spoon, like over a bridge. It was not allowed to knock spoons on the table, because from this "the evil one rejoices" and "the sinister creatures come to dinner" (creatures personifying poverty and misfortune). it was considered a sin to remove spoons from the table in a prayer, on the eve of the fasts laid down by the church, so the spoons remained on the table until the morning. You can not put an extra spoon, otherwise there will be an extra mouth or evil spirits will sit at the table. As a gift, it was necessary to bring a spoon for housewarming, along with a loaf of bread, salt and money. The spoon was widely used in ritual actions.
The traditional utensils for the Russian feast were valleys, ladles, brothers, brackets. Valleys were not considered valuable items that needed to be put in the best place in the house, as, for example, was done with brothers or ladles.
A poker, a tong, a frying pan, a bread shovel, a pomelo are objects associated with the hearth and stove.
A poker is a short thick iron rod with a bent end, which served to stir the coals in the furnace and shovel the heat. With the help of a fork, pots and cast iron were moved in the oven, they could also be removed or installed in the oven. It is a metal bow mounted on a long wooden handle. Before planting bread in the oven, under the oven they cleaned it of coal and ash, sweeping it with a broom. A pomelo is a long wooden handle, to the end of which pine, juniper branches, straw, a washcloth or a rag were tied. With the help of a bread shovel, bread and pies were planted in the oven, and they were also taken out of there. All these utensils participated in various ritual actions.
Thus, the Russian hut, with its special, well-organized space, immovable attire, movable furniture, decoration and utensils, was a single whole, constituting a whole world for the peasant.
The Russian national dwelling - in Russian traditional culture, which was widespread back in the late XIX - early XX centuries, was a wooden structure - a hut built using a log or frame technology.
The basis of the Russian national dwelling is a cage, a rectangular covered one-room simple log house without outbuildings (log house) or a hut. The dimensions of the cages were small, 3 by 2 meters, there were no window openings. The height of the cage was 10-12 logs. The crate was covered with straw. A cage with a stove is already a hut.
How did our ancestors choose the place of residence and building material for the house?
Settlements often arose in wooded places, along the banks of rivers, lakes, since waterways were then natural roads that connected numerous cities of Russia. In the forest there is an animal and a bird, resin and wild honey, berries and mushrooms, “To live near the forest is not to be hungry” was said in Russia. The Slavs used to win back the living space for themselves from the forest, cutting and cultivating the cornfield. The construction began with felling the forest and a settlement appeared on the cleared land - a "village". The word "village" is derived from the word "derv" (from the action "drati") - something that is uprooted (forest and thickets). It wasn't built in a day or two. First, the area had to be mastered. They prepared the land for arable land, cut down, uprooted the forest. This is how the “zaimka” arose (from the word “to occupy”), and the first buildings were called “repairs” (from the word “initiation”, that is, the beginning). Relatives and just neighbors settled nearby (those who "sat down" nearby). To build a house, our ancestors cut down coniferous trees (the most resistant to decay) and took only those that fell with their tops to the east. Young and old trees, as well as dead wood, were unsuitable for this. Solitary trees and groves that grew on the site of a destroyed church were considered sacred, so they were also not taken to build a house. They cut down in frosts, because the tree was considered dead at that time (the wood is drier at this time). It was they who chopped, not sawed: it was believed that this way the tree would be better preserved. The logs were piled up, bark was removed from them in the spring, leveled, collected in small log cabins and left to dry until the fall, and sometimes until the next spring. Only after that they began to choose a place and build a house. Such was the experience of centuries-old wooden construction.
“The hut is not cut for the summer, but for the winter” - what was the name of the peasant log house and how did they choose a place for it?
The oldest and simplest type of Russian buildings consists of "cages" - small tetrahedral log cabins. One of the cages was heated by a “hearth” and therefore was called “istba”, from the word “istobka”, hence the name of the Russian house appeared - “hut”. Izba - a wooden (log) log house. Large houses were built, grandfathers and fathers, grandchildren and great-grandchildren lived all together under one roof - "A family is strong when there is only one roof over it." The hut was usually cut down from thick logs, folding them into a log house. The log house was made up of "crowns". The crown is four logs laid horizontally in a square or rectangle and connected at the corners with notches (recesses so that the logs “sit” tightly one on top of the other). From the ground to the roof of such "crowns" it was necessary to collect about 20. The most reliable, warm, was considered to be the fastening of logs "in oblo" (from the word "obly" - round), in which the round log ends of the logs were cut into each other and they came out a little outside the wall, the corners of such a house did not freeze. The logs of the log house were tied together so tightly that even the blade of a knife could not pass between them. The place for the house was chosen very carefully. They never built a hut on the site of the old one, if the former housing burned down, collapsed from troubles. In no case did they put a hut “on blood” or “on bones” - where at least a drop of human blood fell to the ground or bones were found, this happened! A bad place was considered a place where one day a cart overturned (there would be no wealth in the house), or a road once passed (misfortunes could come into the house along it), or a crooked tree grew. People tried to notice where the cattle likes to rest: this place promised good luck to the owners of the house built there.
What are the main elements of the decorative decoration of the hut called?
1. "Konyok - ohlupen" - guarded the house from evil forces. The horse was hewn out of a very thick tree, which was dug up with the root, the root was processed, giving it the appearance of a horse's head. Skates look to the sky and protect the house not only from bad weather. The horse in ancient times was a symbol of the sun, according to ancient beliefs, the sun is carried across the sky by winged invisible horses, so they piled a horse on the roof to support the sun. 2. A skillfully carved board descended from under the ridge - “Towel”, so named for its resemblance to the embroidered end of a real towel and symbolizing the sun at its zenith, to the left of it the same board symbolized the sunrise, and to the right - symbolized the sunset. 3. The facade of the house is a wall facing the street - it was likened to a person's face. There were windows on the façade. The word "window" comes from the ancient name of the eye - "eye", and windows were considered eyes on the face of the house, therefore, wooden carved window decorations are called "platbands". Often the windows were supplemented with "shutters". In the southern huts, one could reach the windows with one's hands, but in the north, the houses were placed on a high "basement" (what is under the cage). Therefore, to close the shutters, special bypass galleries were arranged - “ambulances”, which encircled the house at the level of the windows. Windows used to be covered with mica or bull bladders; glass appeared in the 14th century. Such a window let in little light, but in winter it was better to keep warm in the hut. 4. The roof of the house with front and rear walls in the form of log triangles symbolized the “forehead” on the face of the house, the Old Russian name for the forehead sounds like “brow”, and carved boards protruding from under the roof - “Prichelins”.
What did they symbolize and how were the upper and lower boundaries arranged in the living space of the hut?
The ceiling in the hut was made of tesa (that is, from boards hewn from logs). The ceiling served as the upper boundary of the hut. The boards were supported by "Matitsa" - a particularly thick beam, which was cut into the upper crown when the frame was erected. The matitsa ran across the entire hut, fastening and holding the walls, the ceiling and the base of the roof. For the house, the mother was the same as the root for the tree, and for the person, the mother: the beginning, the support, the basis. Various objects were hung from the mother. A hook was nailed here for hanging an eyeglass with a cradle (a flexible pole, even with a slight push, such a cradle rocked). Only that house was considered full-fledged, where the eyes creak under the ceiling, where the kids, growing up, nurse the younger ones. Ideas about the father's house, happiness, good luck were associated with the mother. It is no coincidence that when going on the road, one had to hold on to the mother. The ceilings on the mat were always laid parallel to the floorboards. The floor is the boundary that separates people from “non-humans”: brownies, etc. The floor in the house was laid from halves of logs (hence the word “floorboards”, and it relied on thick beams cut into the lower crowns of the log house. The floorboards themselves were associated with the idea of a path The bed (and in the summer they often slept right on the floor) was supposed to be laid across the floorboards, otherwise the person would leave the house.
What was the inner world of the Russian hut like?
In a peasant hut, every corner had its own meaning. The main space of the hut was occupied by a stove. The oven was made of clay with stones added to the thickness. The Russian stove was used for heating, cooking for people and animals, for ventilation and lighting of the room. The heated oven served as a bed for old people and kids, and clothes were dried here. Babies were washed in the warm mouth of the oven, and if there was no bath, then the adult members of the family also “bathed” here. Things were stored on the stove, grain was dried, it healed - they bathed in it in case of ailments. On the bench, next to the stove, the hostess was preparing food, and the bread taken out of the oven was also stacked here. This place in the hut was called "Oven Corner" or "Babiy Corner" - from the mouth of the furnace to the front wall of the house - the kingdom of a woman, here stood all the simple utensils that were in the household, here she worked, rested, raised children. A cradle hung on a flexible pole attached to a mat next to the stove. Here, near the window, hand millstones were always placed - a grinding device (two large flat stones), so the corner was also called "Millstone". The front part of the hut was the "Red Corner". No matter how the oven was located in the hut (to the right or left of the entrance), the red corner was always located diagonally from it. In the corner itself, there was always a “Goddess” with icons and a lamp, which is why the corner also received the name “Saint”. The "rear corner" has always been masculine. Here they placed a “horseman” (“kutnik”) - a short wide shop in the form of a box with a hinged flat lid, tools were stored in it. It was separated from the door by a flat board, which was often shaped like a horse's head. This was the owner's place. Here he rested and worked. Bast shoes were woven here, utensils and harness were repaired and made, nets were knitted, etc.
What is the purpose and location of the table in a Russian hut?
The most honorable place in the "red corner" at the converging benches (long and short) was occupied by a table. The table must be covered with a tablecloth. In the XI - XII centuries, the table was made of adobe and motionless. It was then that his permanent place in the house was determined. Movable wooden tables appear only by the 17th-18th centuries. The table was made rectangular in shape and always placed along the floorboards in the red corner. Any promotion of him from there could only be connected with a ritual or crisis situation. The table was never taken out of the hut, and when selling a house, the table was sold along with the house. The table played a special role in wedding ceremonies. Each stage of matchmaking and preparation for the wedding necessarily ended with a feast. And before going to the crown, in the bride's house, the bride and groom ritually went around the table and blessed them. The newborn was carried around the table. On ordinary days, it was forbidden to go around the table, everyone had to leave from the side from which they entered. In general, the table was conceived as an analogue of the temple throne. The flat tabletop was revered as the "hand of God" giving bread. Therefore, knocking on the table at which they sit, scraping with a spoon on the dishes, throwing leftover food on the floor was considered a sin. The people said: "Bread on the table, and the table is the throne, but not a piece of bread - so the table is a board." At normal times, between feasts, only bread wrapped in a tablecloth and a salt shaker with salt could be on the table. The constant presence of bread on the table was supposed to ensure prosperity and well-being at home. Thus, the table was a place of family unity. Each household member had his own place at the table, which depended on marital status. The most honorable place at the table - at the head of the table - was occupied by the owner of the house.
With the help of what and how did they illuminate the interior of the hut?
Mica, and bubbles, and even glass of that time only let light through a little and the hut had to be additionally illuminated. The most ancient device for lighting the hut is considered to be a "fireplace" - a small recess, a niche in the very corner of the stove. A burning torch was placed in the stove, a well-dried torch gave a bright and even light. A torch was called a thin sliver of birch, pine, aspen, oak, ash, maple. A little later, the stove was illuminated by a torch inserted into the Svetets. To obtain thin (less than 1 cm) long (up to 70 cm) wood chips, the log was steamed in an oven over a cast-iron with boiling water and pierced at one end with an ax, then torn into splinters by hand. They inserted torches into the lights. The simplest light was a wrought iron rod with a fork at one end and a point at the other. With this tip, the light was inserted into the gap between the logs of the hut. A torch was inserted into the fork. And for falling coals, a trough with water was substituted under the light. Later, forged lights appeared, in which several torches burned. On major holidays, expensive and rare candles were lit in the hut to complete the light. With candles in the dark they went into the hallway, went down to the underground. In winter, they threshed with candles on the "threshing floor" (covered area for threshing). The candles were tallow and waxy. Tallow candles were more often "Makans". For their manufacture, they took beef, lamb, goat fat, melted it and dipped a wick thrown over a splinter into it, froze it several times, and received "makans", which often came out skinny and uneven. Wax candles were made by rolling. The wax was heated in hot water, rolled into a roller, flattened into a long cake and, putting a wick of flax or hemp on the edge of the cake, rolled it into a roller again.
How were the poker, tong, pomelo and bread shovel used in the house?
The people said: "The poker in the oven is the mistress." In the old days, the stove poker was one of the symbols of the hearth, giving food and warmth, without which family well-being is impossible. While the stove is being heated, the poker-hostess works tirelessly. As soon as firewood flared up in the oven and burning logs need to be moved deep into the oven, the poker is right there. A piece of wood has fallen out of the fire and smokes in the far corner of the firebox, the same poker comes to his aid. "Uhvat" brought into the Russian stove cast iron (from one and a half to ten liters). Before sending the cast-iron to the furnace, it was placed on a hearth near the mouth and the horns of the tong were brought under its body. Next to the cast-iron, under the handle of the grip, a suitable-sized skating rink (a round log) was placed. By pressing the end of the handle, the cast iron was slightly raised and, leaning on the roller with a grip, rolled into the furnace and placed in the intended place of the hearth. It was not easy to do this without skill. The tongs, like the pots, were of different sizes, so there were many of them near the stove, they were taken care of and they served people for a long time. "Pomelo" is invariably located at the Russian wind oven and is intended for cleaning the hearth and hearth. Most often, under the oven was swept before baking pies. The pomelo was intended exclusively for the oven. It is strictly forbidden to use it for any other purpose. In the old days, when bread was baked in every village house, and pies were baked on holidays, it was supposed to have a wide wooden “shovel” on a long handle at the oven. A shovel made from a board was used to put bread in the oven. The bread shovel also demanded a respectful attitude. It was placed only with the handle down.
Where were clothes, fabrics and valuable household items stored?
"Chest" - this word denoted a large rectangular box made of sawn boards with a hinged lid, lockable. In it, Russian people kept clothes and valuables. For centuries, various chest products have been an important part of the interior of peasant huts; they were put in a prominent place testifying to the wealth of the family. The chests in which the bride's dowry was kept were often very large and were brought into the house only once - during its construction. In Russia, when a girl was born, they immediately began to prepare a dowry for her - this was called "pumping chests." Dowry was the key to a successful marriage. After marriage, the girl left her home and took with her dowry chests: pillows, feather beds, blankets, towels (made by the bride herself), clothes, household utensils, jewelry. In many houses, chests of various sizes were displayed in the form of a slide, i.e. put one on top of the other, sometimes their number reached the ceiling. In a peasant house, chests were used not only to store goods, but also served as a pillow stand, a bench, and sometimes a place for afternoon naps. Chests, headrests, caskets, hiding places, caskets were richly decorated. Usually they were bound for strength with strips of iron, tinned or blued. Customers presented certain artistic requirements to chest craftsmen: chests must be not only roomy, durable, but also beautiful. To do this, chests were painted with tempera paints diluted on egg yolk. Images of a lion or a griffin were often found on chest products; they were considered strong, courageous animals, good defenders of the goods acquired by a person.
What was the significance of the embroidered towel in peasant life?
In Russia, towels were hung in the hut for festive decoration. Their colorful patterns enlivened its log walls, giving festivity, making the home elegant. A towel bordered the goddess in the red corner, hung on windows, mirrors, walls. In the old peasant life, they called a towel - a panel of home-made white fabric, trimmed with embroidery, woven colored patterns, ribbons, stripes of colored chintz, lace, etc. The length of the towels was from 2 to 4 m, the width was 3638 cm. It was decorated, as a rule, at the ends, the cloth was rarely ornamented. Especially richly decorated was a large “hand-made” towel, the so-called “wall” (wall-length). During the handshake, it was presented to the groom, hanging around his neck. This meant that the bride was betrothed, and the groom threw a towel to his relatives. They decorated the goddess for the whole time of the wedding, and when traveling to the crown, they tied it to the arc of the wedding cart. “Gift” towels, with which the bride presented the groom’s relatives, were less decorated than hand-made ones. The bride was covered with a towel (and a shawl on top) when they were taken to church. The bride and groom were tied with a towel, as if symbolizing the strength of their family life. The towel played a significant role in maternity and baptismal rites, as well as in funeral and memorial rites. According to custom, richly ornamented towels were a necessary part of a girl's dowry. On the second day of the wedding, the young woman hung her hand-made towels in the hut on top of her mother-in-law's towels so that all guests could admire her work. The towel was present in many customs and rituals of the Russian family. This purpose of the towel excluded its use for wiping hands, face, floor. For this purpose, they used a "rukoternik or utirka".
What vegetable and animal oils were produced in Russia?
So what is "oil" really? Whatever you say, you love - you don’t love, and without fat, which is the basis of oil, human life would be impossible, since every cell of our body is surrounded by a protective fatty film. The most commonly used vegetable oils in Russia have always been linseed and hemp. And the sunflower oil familiar to us came into use much later, at the beginning of the 19th century. The use of vegetable oils was allowed even during the most strict multi-day fasts, so its second "folk" name is vegetable oil. Hemp oil is a fatty vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the hemp plant, usually by pressing, it has excellent nourishing, protective and regenerating properties. Unfortunately, in our time, hemp is perceived as a narcotic plant and is prohibited from cultivation. Linseed oil was not inferior to hemp oil and has always been one of the most valuable and important food products. Flaxseed oil is both food, medicine and cosmetics. But, if linseed oil has a specific smell, then pumpkin and cedar oil are among the most delicious. Rosehip and walnut oils were often used for medical purposes. Butter of animal origin in Russia was churned from cream, sour cream and whole milk. The most common way to make butter was to melt sour cream or cream in a Russian oven. The separated oily mass was cooled and knocked down with wooden whorls, spatulas, spoons, and often with hands. The finished oil was washed in cold water. Since fresh butter could not be stored for a long time, the peasants melted it in the oven, getting ghee.
Why did they say in Russia - "Without salt, without bread - half a meal"?
There was always bread on the table in a Russian house, and a salt shaker stood nearby, salt was a kind of amulet, because our ancestors believed that salt protected from hostile forces. In the old days, when subsistence farming dominated, salt was almost the only purchased product among the Eastern Slavs. Salt was very expensive, and it was protected. This explains the widespread sign that spilling salt is not good - punishment will follow. A loaf of bread and a salt shaker with salt adorned the wedding table, it was given as a housewarming gift, they came to a newborn child with it, as if with a blessing, and when a traveler and dear guest set off on the road, they offered bread - salt, with a wish for wealth and prosperity, thereby expressing your disposition towards them. A long time ago, the word "loaf" was pronounced and written as "cow". A long time ago, people, in order to appease the Gods, sacrificed domestic animals (cows), but life did not allow parting with the cow nurse. It was then that they began to sculpt cows from dough, and later - bread with horns, which was called "Korovai". Since the main grain crop was rye, they baked mainly rye bread. In Russia, since ancient times, rye bread has been a staple food, it was kneaded on natural sourdough and was of three varieties: 1) fur, or chaff, from poorly sifted rye and wholemeal flour; 2) reshot from rye flour, sifted through a very rare sieve (sieve); 3) sifted from rye flour, sifted through an ordinary fine sieve. But where wheat was sown, white bread was also baked. The best was considered "brick" - bread baked from well-sifted wheat flour. The grinding of flour, the thoroughness of its sifting determined the taste of bread.
“A good porridge, but a small cup” - they loved porridge in Russia, and from what cereals were they prepared?
Rye, oats, wheat, barley, millet, and buckwheat have been cultivated in our country since medieval antiquity. Today, in our country, the following types of cereals are produced from these cereals: from buckwheat - kernel and prodel; from millet - polished millet; from oats - cereals: not crushed, flattened, flakes and oatmeal; from barley - barley and barley groats; semolina is produced from durum wheat during grinding. For a long time our ancestors borrowed the skills of making flour, mastered the "secrets" of baking various products from fermented dough. That is why pies, pies, pancakes, pies, kulebyaki, pancakes, pancakes, etc. are essential in the food of our ancestors. ”from dough - on spring holidays, etc. Dishes from all kinds of cereals are no less typical for Russian traditional cuisine: various cereals, krupeniks, oatmeal kissels, casseroles. In the more northern parts of our country, dishes made from millet are of particular importance. Millet served as a raw material for making flour, cereals, brewing beer, kvass, making soups and sweet dishes. This folk tradition continues to this day. Porridge was everyday food and three main types - crumbly, viscous and liquid; milk, fat, butter, eggs, mushrooms, etc. were added to it. There are more than twenty of them in Russia: plain buckwheat, buckwheat with peas, millet, oatmeal, wheat, carrot, turnip, pea, etc. Kutya was a special dish in Russia; it was prepared from wheat grains with the addition of honey.
What vegetable crops were cultivated in Russia?
Not only grain crops were cultivated by our ancestors. From antiquity, through the centuries, crops such as cabbage, beets, turnips, swede, pumpkin, carrots, peas have come down to our days and have become the main crops in our garden. The most widely used in Russia was sauerkraut, which could be preserved until the next harvest. Cabbage served as an indispensable snack, seasoning for various dishes. Shchi from various types of cabbage is a well-deserved pride of our national cuisine, although they were prepared in ancient Rome, where a lot of cabbage was specially grown. It's just that many vegetable plants and recipes "migrated" from Ancient Rome through Byzantium to Russia after the adoption of Christianity in Russia. Turnip in Russia until the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. was as important as the potato is today. Turnips were used everywhere and many dishes were prepared from turnips, stuffed, boiled, steamed. Turnips were used as a filling for pies, kvass was made from it. The turnip contains in its composition very valuable biochemical sulfur compounds, which, when eaten regularly, are excellent immunostimulants. Later, turnips began to fall into disuse, but potatoes and a proverb appeared - “Potatoes help bread”, tomatoes and cucumbers began to be cultivated. Pumpkin appeared in Russia in the 17th century and immediately became popular with peasants due to its productivity, unpretentiousness, usefulness and ability for long-term storage. Beets were considered an exceptionally medicinal product; from early spring to late autumn, both root crops and tops of the plant were eaten.
“When it’s hot in the oven, then it’s boiling” - how is the Russian oven arranged?
The Russians have already in ancient times appeared and firmly entered the life of the so-called "Russian stove". A good stove is the pride of the owner, the holy of holies at home. The fire burning in the furnace gave light and heat, food was cooked on it. This unique building played the role of a kind of life center for the family. Russian stoves have always been placed on the "guardian". This is a small log house in three - four crowns of round logs. On top of it, they arranged a horizontal “roll-up”, which was covered with sand and smeared with a thick layer of clay. This clay served as the "hearth" for the furnace. The tong, the poker, the scoop were kept in the “under-furnace”, it was believed that the brownie lives there. The stove was made of stone (brick), and covered with clay on top, it had to keep heat as long as possible, and require as little firewood as possible. The shape of the pottery in which food was cooked (the so-called “Slavic pots” is also connected with the design of the oven. The fact is that in this oven the dishes are heated from the sides and therefore must have a large side surface. In addition, the shape of the pots is best suited for The furnace was almost cubic in size: length 1.8-2 m, width 1.6-1.8 m, height 1.7 m. The upper part of the furnace was made wide and flat, comfortable for lying. firebox", "crucible" - they made it large: 1.2-1.4 m high, up to 1.5 m wide, with a vaulted ceiling and a flat bottom - "hearth". A rectangular hole in front of the crucible - "brow", " mouth "- tightly closed with a large" flap ", in order to avoid heat loss. In front of the mouth they arranged a platform - a wide board -" hearth ", utensils were placed on it to push it into the oven with a grip. To the right and left of the hearth there were "ash pans", where hot coals were stored for a year.
“One day - a year feeds” - why was the timing of the cultivation of the land important for the farmer?
Peasants lived surrounded by beautiful but harsh nature. Their life depended on drought and rain, the number of workers in the family, the safety of the harvest. Farming is gradually becoming their main occupation. First, a section of the forest was cut down in winter. In the spring it was burned out, the ash served as fertilizer. After that, they loosened with a hoe, mixing the ashes with the ground, and then the field was sown. In most of Russia, the main arable tool was the "plow" or "plow", along with the plow, the "roe deer" was known, which was used to raise novi (uncultivated soil). To loosen the earth after plowing, mixing the layers and removing weeds, they used “harrows - knots” (the so-called large branch of a tree with not completely chopped off branches). For sowing grain, flax and hemp seeds throughout Russia, baskets were used - "sowers", for harvesting - "sickles", they were the most common tool for harvesting grain, for threshing grain crops - "flails", for threshing flax and hemp - "rolls ”, for winnowing - “shovels”, for processing grain into flour at home - “millstones”. The peasants sowed millet, wheat, barley, oats, rye, buckwheat, hemp, flax, less often beans and peas. The Slavs called bread "zhit" (from the word "live"), because they could not live without it: it was the main food product. Each village had its own experts who determined the timing of agricultural work. The peasant determined the necessary moment of “ripeness” of the land for plowing according to the centuries-old experience of his ancestors: he took the earth in a handful and tightly clenched it in his fist, released it. If a lump crumbled when falling, then the earth is ready for sowing, if it fell in a lump, it has not yet ripened (i.e., it has not dried out). In June, haymaking began, in July and August - a difficult time for harvesting grain.
Where did the proverb come from: “You sow flax and you reap gold”?
From ancient times in Russia, flax was cultivated, which fed and clothed people, our ancestors said with respect about it: "You sow flax, and you reap gold." For processing flax stalks into fiber, from fiber into thread, “crushers”, “ruffles”, “combs”, “roller”, “spinning wheels”, “self-spinning wheels”, “spindles” were used. The spinning wheel was a necessary subject of peasant use: it was a tool of labor, a decoration for a hut, and a wedding gift. For centuries, the technology of growing and processing flax has remained unchanged. Ripe flax is pulled, that is, pulled out of the ground, and along with the roots. Then it is dried, freed from the seed heads (combed), threshed, soaked, which allows the fiber to be separated from the woody part of the stem, crumpled and shaken. The tattered flax is combed and a twisted thin ribbon is obtained - a roving. From it, on long winter evenings, women spun linen yarn - they twisted flax fibers into a thread on spindles or spinning wheels. During spinning, the fingers of the left hand had to be moistened to give the thread a "fortress". Spinning is a rather complicated and monotonous work, so that it would be more fun to work, the girls gathered in a hut, sang and talked there, but did not forget about work either. Everyone tried to work as best as possible, because by what kind of thread they get, they will judge the skill of the girl. Having received a sufficient number of threads, they made fabric on a handloom. Linen was grown in Russia not only in order to obtain from it linen fabric, which is very valuable in its properties. It is known that in ancient Russia, delicious bread and cakes were baked from flaxseed flour, obtained from ground flax seeds, and linseed oil was added to food on fasting days.
What material was used to make dishes in Russia?
The peasants did everything necessary for the household themselves. Dishes were made from tree bark (cups, bowls, buckets, barrels), carved from wood (spoons, cups, basins), molded from clay, then fired in a furnace. Dishes of the same purpose, but made of different materials, were called differently: a vessel made of clay - "pot", made of cast iron - "cast iron", made of copper - "copper". Clay pots and jugs served people for a very long time for cooking. Pots were made in a variety of sizes. The main advantage of the pot was its durability. On the farm, pots were valued and taken care of. If the pot cracked, it was braided with birch bark ribbons and cereals were stored in it. Later, the pot was replaced by cast iron - tinned metal vessels, they retained the shape of the pot. Over the centuries, a huge variety of products made of wood, clay, and metal have been created. Among them there were many truly artistic creations, when a household item, without losing its utilitarian qualities, at the same time became a work of a high aesthetic level. It is hard to imagine a peasant house without numerous utensils accumulated over decades. “Utensils” are utensils for preparing, preparing and storing food, serving it to the table - pots, patches, pelvises, krinks, bowls, dishes, valleys, ladles, korchiki (from which they drank honey, kvass, beer), etc. .; all kinds of containers for picking berries and mushrooms - baskets, bodies, tuesa, etc .; various chests, caskets, caskets for storing household items, clothes and cosmetic accessories; items for kindling a fire and interior lighting at home - fire flint, lights, candlesticks and much more.
“Only bast shoes are woven on both legs, and mittens are discord” - what and how did they dress in Russia?
The work of Russian masters - artisans served a variety of aspects of peasant life, including the manufacture of clothes and shoes. For the peasants, the main clothing was the "shirt", both for men and women. It was believed that all the vulnerabilities of the human body had to be covered. Everyone had shirts everyday and festive. Everyday clothes were only sewn along the seam and edges with red thread to block the way for evil. Festive shirts were richly decorated with embroidery. It was believed that with the language of the pattern, a person conveys his requests to God. In different regions of Russia, a “poneva” or “sarafan”, an “apron” or a “soul warmer” were worn on a shirt, they were decorated in every possible way. The Russian headdress has always been an important part of the costume. The girls wore “ribbons”, and married women covered their heads with a scarf or hid them under the kokoshnik, which was called differently in different places: kika, duckweed, heel. Men wore wide trousers - "ports" and "shirt-shirts". All clothes were girded with a "sash". They wore a cap on their heads. In winter and summer, the peasants put on "bast shoes" on their feet. They were woven from the inside of lime or birch bark - bast. Bast shoes were usually worn on canvas (in summer), woolen or cloth (in winter) windings (“onuchi”). Onuchi were fastened on the leg with “ruffs” - leather or hemp ropes, they were attached to the bast shoes, wrapped around the leg and tied under the knee. Bast shoes were woven without distinction between the right and left legs. Everyday bast shoes without additional devices had a shelf life of three to ten days. Bast weaving was mainly done by old people. A good master could weave two pairs of bast shoes in a day.
Litvinova Elena Evgenievna
che, bp ,htdyf Wooden log hut is a symbol of Russia. Archaeologists believe that the first huts on the territory of modern Russia appeared 2,000 years ago BC. Many centuries of architecture...
che, bp ,htdyfA wooden hut made of logs is a symbol of Russia. Archaeologists believe that the first huts on the territory of modern Russia appeared 2,000 years ago BC. For many centuries, the architecture of a wooden peasant house did not change, it combined all the functions necessary for the life of a peasant family, because it fulfilled all its main purposes: a roof over your head, kept warm and a place to sleep. The Russian hut has always found its place in the work of writers and poets. With love for Russia, for its people and everything that surrounds this people, writes M.Yu. Lermontov in "Borodino":
With joy, unknown to many,
I see a complete threshing floor
Thatched hut,
With carved shutters window ...
The poetry of the famous Russian poet is closely intertwined with the life of the people, with their way of life and, of course, the huts ... The huts, surrounded by yards, fenced with wattle fences and “connected” with each other by a road, form a village. And the village, limited by the outskirts, is Yesenin's Russia, which is cut off from the big world by forests and swamps, "lost ... in Mordva and Chud." Here is how Yesenin poetically describes the peasant life in Russia:
It smells of loose drachens,
At the threshold in a bowl of kvass,
Over turned stoves
Cockroaches climb into the groove.
Soot curls over the damper,
In the oven, the threads of popelits,
And on the bench behind the salt shaker -
Husks of raw eggs.
Mother with grips will not cope,
bending low,
An old cat sneaks up to the shawl
For fresh milk.
Restless chickens chuckle
Over the shafts of the plow,
In the yard I will have a slender dinner
The roosters are singing.
And in the window on the canopy are sloped,
From the fearful noise
From the corners puppies are curly
They crawl into collars.
Peasant life in the hut was simple and unpretentious, the boyars, merchants and landowners built richer houses for themselves: larger in area, often several floors - real towers. Together with the rest of the surrounding wooden buildings, the tower was a manor. The traditions of building houses from a log house took shape over the centuries, and collapsed in the 20th century. Collectivization, urbanization, the emergence of new materials... All this led to the fact that the Russian village became smaller, and in some places practically died. New "villages", the so-called "cottage villages", began to be built up with houses made of stone, glass, metal and plastic. Practical, spectacular, stylish, but the Russian spirit does not live there, and there is no smell of Russia there. Not to mention the insufficient environmental friendliness of such buildings.
However, not so long ago, wooden construction in the Russian style experienced the first stage of a revival.
Fortunately, already at the end of the past century and with the advent of the new millennium, the traditions of the Russian estate began to revive among those who like to lead a country lifestyle, surrounded by nature, among peace and quiet. And the very environment in such housing is conducive to peace and tranquility.
The "country" style has been confidently retaining the preferences of many developers of suburban housing for the 3rd decade. Someone prefers German country, someone - Scandinavian or American rustic style, someone likes Provence, but when it comes to a wooden country house or dacha, the choice is increasingly being made in favor of interiors in the style of a Russian village.
Where is the Russian style of interior appropriate?
The interior in the style of a Russian hut can be fully recreated only in a wooden house from a log house, chopped from a log. The interior in the style of a tower, a manor is appropriate in any wooden house from a log house. In other cases, when it comes to a brick house, for example, or an apartment in a multi-storey building, one can only talk about stylization, about introducing some features inherent in a Russian hut or tower.
What was the interior of the Russian hut like?
The center of the Russian hut has always been a stove, which was called the queen of the house. The stove in the tradition of the ancient Russians was a kind of reflection of the universe as a triune world: heavenly, earthly and afterlife. They slept on the stove, washed in it, and in addition, they considered it the abode of the brownie and the place of communication with their ancestors. She warmed and fed, and therefore was perceived as the center of the house. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the expression "dance from the stove." The hut was zoned into the female half, the male and the red corner. A woman was in charge in the oven corner. In the women's corner, there were shelves with various kitchen utensils and crockery. In their corner, the women received, sewed and did various types of needlework. Women's themes are generally quite widely represented in connection with the stove, and this is understandable: who is messing around near it, baking pies and cooking porridge! That's why they said: "a woman's road - from the stove to the threshold." And they also laughed: "a woman flies from the stove, seventy-seven thoughts will change her mind" (with fear).
The man spent more time in the men's corner, under the curtains.
The largest and most beautiful place in the peasant house, where they ate and met guests, was the upper room. It was both a living room and a dining room, and sometimes a bedroom. In the upper room, diagonally from the stove, a red corner was arranged - a part of the house where the icons were installed.
Near the red corner there was usually a table, and in the very corner on the goddess there were icons and a lamp. Wide benches near the table were, as a rule, stationary, built into the wall. They not only sat on them, but also slept on them. If extra space was needed, benches were placed at the table. The dining table, by the way, was also stationary, adobe.
In general, the stop of peasant life was modest, rude, but not without embellishments. Shelves were placed above the windows, on which beautiful dishes, caskets, etc. were placed in plain sight. The wooden beds were with beautifully carved headboards, covered with patchwork quilts, on which feather pillows were located. In almost every peasant hut one could find chests for various purposes.
During the time of Peter the Great, new pieces of furniture appeared, which took their place in Russian huts, and even more so in towers. These are chairs, cabinets, partially replacing chests, slides for dishes and even armchairs.
In the towers, the furnishings were more varied, but on the whole the same principle was preserved: a large hearth, a red corner, the same chests, beds with many pillows, mounds of dishes, shelves for displaying various decorative items. Flowers were placed on windowsills in simple vases: wildflowers in the summer months and garden flowers in October. And, of course, there was a lot of wood in the towers: these were walls, floors, and furniture. Russian country style is a tree, only a tree and almost nothing but a tree.
Creating the style of a Russian hut or a Russian estate in the interior of your home.
1. Choice of direction.
First you need to decide on the style of the era ... Will it be a stylization of an old Russian hut or a hut of the first half of the 20th century? And someone prefers the colorful and elegant atmosphere of Russian towers, almost like from a fairy tale or wooden landowner houses of past centuries, which was sometimes described in the works of the classics, when features of other styles were brought into typical village life: classicism, baroque, modern. After choosing a certain direction, you can also choose suitable furniture, interior items, textiles and decor.
2. Creating the style of a Russian hut
Main. Wooden walls are best left unfinished. A massive board is suitable for the floor - matte, possibly with the effect of aging. Under the ceiling are dark beams. You can do without a stove, but the hearth is still necessary. Its role can be played by a fireplace, the portal of which is lined with tiles or stone.
Doors, windows. Plastic double-glazed windows will be completely inappropriate here. Windows with wooden frames should be complemented with carved platbands and wooden shutters. Doors should also be wooden. As platbands for doorways, you can use boards that are uneven and deliberately roughly processed. In some places, instead of doors, you can hang curtains.
Furniture. Furniture, of course, is preferably wooden, not polished, but possibly aged. Cabinets, slides and numerous shelves can be decorated with carvings. In the dining area, you can arrange a red corner with a shrine, a massive, very heavy table and benches. The use of chairs is also possible, but they should be simple and solid.
The beds are high with carved headboards. Instead of bedside tables, you can put chests in the Russian style. Patchwork bedspreads and numerous pillows are perfect - folded in piles from largest to smallest.
One cannot do without sofas in a modern interior, although, of course, there were none in the huts. Choose a simple sofa with linen upholstery. Upholstery color - natural natural. Leather furniture will be out of style.
Textile. As already mentioned, it is worth giving preference to bedspreads and pillow covers made in patchwork technique. There can be quite a lot of textile products: napkins on pedestals and small tables, tablecloths, curtains, etc. All this can be decorated with embroidery and simple lace.
By the way, you can’t spoil the interior of the hut with embroidery - women in Russia have always loved to do this needlework. Embroidered panels on the walls, embroidered curtains, embroidered bags of herbs and spices hanging from the kitchen beam - all this will be in place. The main colors of textiles in the style of a Russian hut are white, yellow and red.
Lighting. For an interior in the style of a Russian hut, choose lamps in the form of candles and lamps. Lamps with simple lampshades would also be appropriate. Although lampshades and sconces are more suitable for a house, the interior of which is stylized as a Russian estate.
Kitchen. It is impossible to do without household appliances in a modern hut, but technical design can ruin the integrity of the picture. Fortunately, there is a built-in technique that helps with the housework, but does not violate the harmony of the Russian style.
Massive furniture is suitable for the kitchen: a kitchen table with pull-out shelves and cabinets, open and closed sideboards, various hanging shelves. Furniture, of course, should not be polished or painted. Kitchen structures with facades finished with glossy enamel, pvc film, glass inserts, aluminum frames, etc. will be completely inappropriate.
In general, in the interior in the style of a Russian hut there should be as little glass and metal as possible, and plastic would be completely inappropriate. Choose furniture with simple wooden fronts - they can be decorated with Russian folk style paintings or carvings.
As a decor for the kitchen, use a samovar, wicker baskets and boxes, onion braids, barrels, earthenware, wooden products of Russian folk crafts, embroidered napkins.
Interior decor in the style of a Russian hut. Decorative linen textiles with embroidery, many wooden items. A wooden wheel, a spinning wheel and fishing nets will fit perfectly if the house is located near a river, lake or sea. Knitted round rugs and self-woven paths can be laid on the floor.
The interior decoration of the Russian hut is an integral part of the history and culture of Russia. It was she, the old hut, that became the main part of folklore and even the heroine of many fairy tales and legends. Recall at least the hut on chicken legs - the fabulous home of Baba Yaga, a terrible sorceress who scares young children. She is often circled around the finger by the main fairy-tale characters.
So, Ivan Tsarevich turns to her for help in order to save his beloved from the terrible fate, and not without cunning receives the gifts of the old sorceress. Grandmother-Yozhka is a negative character who helps Koshchei the Immortal, the Serpent Gorynych and the Cat Bayun in the creation of atrocities. But at the same time, this "heroine" is quite cheerful, funny and satirical.
About origins
The word "hut" in Russia had many interpretations depending on the place of residence of people, and therefore was called differently. There are such synonyms as: yzba, istba, izba, fire and source. These words are often used in Russian chronicles, which, again, speaks of the inseparability and connection of housing with human life. Such a phrase has a direct connection with such Russian verbs as "drown" or "stoke". This building had, first of all, a functional load, since it was designed to warm in cold weather and shelter from natural conditions.
What was the hut in general
It is difficult to imagine the interior of a Russian hut without a stove, since it was she who was the center of the room and her favorite part. It is known that many East Slavic peoples, Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians, retained the term "stoker". Well, as mentioned earlier, it denoted a heated building. These were pantries for storing stocks of vegetables, and living quarters of various sizes.
To know how to draw the decoration of a Russian hut, you need to understand what it meant to a person. A significant event was the construction of a house for a peasant. It was not enough to solve a practical problem and secure a roof over your head. First of all, the house was a full-fledged living space for the whole family. The decoration of the hut had to be, as far as possible, filled with all the necessary blessings of life, provide the residents with warmth, give them love and a sense of peace. Such housing can be built only according to the ancient precepts of the ancestors, and the peasants have always observed the traditions very carefully.
About traditions
During the construction of the house, particular importance was given to the choice of location, so that the building would subsequently be light, dry and high. Ritual value was no less important.
A happy place is one that has passed the strict test of time and was inhabited earlier: it became prosperous for the former owners who lived here. Territories near burial places, baths that were built there earlier, as well as near the road were considered unsuccessful. It was believed that the devil himself walks along this path and can look into the dwelling.
About building material
The materials for the construction of the hut were chosen very carefully. The Russians used pine or larch logs for the construction. These trees have long and even trunks, lie evenly and tightly adjoin each other. They keep the internal heat well and do not rot for a long time. The choice of logs in the forest was a rather difficult task; for centuries, a set of rules, an algorithm for selecting a log, were passed from fathers to children. Otherwise, if you choose the wrong, unusable material, the house will bring trouble and misfortune.
Even the interior decoration of the peasant's hut could not be cut down sacred trees. They could bring serious illnesses into the house. There was a belief that said that such special breeds should only live in the forest and die a natural death. If the ban is violated, they will bring death and grief to the house.
Dry wood was also unsuitable for construction. The place where the trees grew was also important. The tree that grew at the crossroads of forest roads is "violent" and can bring great misfortune to the house - destroy the log house and thereby kill the owners of the house.
Rites
The process of building a house was not complete without rituals among the Slavs. At the beginning of construction, a sacrifice was made. In this case, a chicken or a ram was considered a victim. Such a process was carried out when laying the first crown of the hut. Money, wool and grain were placed under the logs as symbols of wealth, prosperity, love, family warmth. Also, incense was placed there as a sign of the holiness of the house, as well as a kind of amulet against evil spirits. At the end of the work (construction), all participants in the process sat down at the table and treated themselves to delicious dishes.
The sacrifices were carried out for a reason. The sacrifice was to create a fortress for the house and protect it from adversity. Sometimes a person was brought as a gift to the gods, but this is in rare cases in order to protect the entire tribe from enemies. Most often, cattle were betrayed to suffering: a bull or a horse. During archaeological excavations on old houses, it was their skeletons, as well as horse skulls, that were found.
For the ceremony, a special hole was made, the remains had to be placed there. She was under the red corner, where the icons and other amulets were located. There were other favorite animals for building sacrifice. Such a favorite for the Slavs was a rooster or chicken. This is evidenced by the tradition of placing weathercocks in the form of cockerels, as well as the image or statuette of this animal on the roof of the house.
One can cite as an example the immortal classic work of N.V. Gogol "Viy". All evil spirits disappeared after the cock crow. Therefore, the "screamer" is called upon to protect the dwelling from evil spirits. Photos, the decoration of the Russian hut, which is shown in all its glory, are presented in this article.
Roof device diagram
The roof was also made according to a special scheme:
- gutter;
- chill;
- stamic;
- slightly;
- flint;
- princely sleg (knes);
- general slug;
- male;
- fall;
- prichelina;
- chicken;
- pass;
- oppression.
General view of the hut
The decoration of the Russian hut outside, such as our great-grandfathers imagined and built, was special. According to the old traditions, the huts were built for thousands of years. The Russian decoration of the hut depended on where the person lived and to which tribe he belonged, since each tribe had its own traditions and laws by which they could be distinguished.
And even now it is impossible not to distinguish the huts on the European territory of Russia. After all, log houses predominated in the north, since there were plenty of forests there. In the south, there were huge reserves of clay, so mud huts were built from it. The interior decoration of the Russian hut was also designed in the same way. Photos are a good example of this.
According to ethnographers, not a single folk thought was created immediately in its original form, such as we can observe now. History, culture, and with them the thought of people, is changing and developing, bringing harmony, beauty and the great power of love to everything that has been created. This also applies to the dwelling, which was formed and became more and more functional and comfortable. These statements are proved by the mass of archaeological excavations carried out.
The Russian decoration of the hut largely depended on the climatic conditions in which people lived, and on the available building material. So, in the north there was moist soil and dense forests full of logs suitable for the construction of dwellings, while in the south other products predominated and were actively used. Based on this, a semi-dugout was common in the southern regions. This doom was with a recess of one and a half meters into the ground, respectively, had a bulk floor. This type of dwelling in Russia existed until the 14th-15th centuries.
After this time period, they began to build ground buildings with a wooden floor, as they learned how to process logs and make boards from them. They also made houses raised above the ground. They were more multifunctional, as they had 2 floors and provided opportunities for a comfortable life, storage of vegetables, hay and housing for livestock in one house.
In the north, with an abundance of dense forests and a fairly damp cold climate, semi-dugouts quickly turned into ground houses, faster than in the south. The Slavs and their ancestors occupied a fairly large territory and differed from each other in centuries-old traditions, including in the construction of housing. But each tribe in the best way adapted to the surrounding conditions, so it cannot be said that some huts were worse. Everything had its place. Now you can understand how to draw the decoration of a Russian hut.
More about construction
Below is a photo. The decoration of the Russian hut on it is demonstrated the most typical for Ladoga, corresponding to the time period of the 9th-11th centuries. The base of the house was square, that is, the width was equal to the length, which reached 5 meters.
The construction of a log hut required a careful and thorough approach, since the crowns had to match, and the logs had to fit snugly against each other, otherwise all the work was in vain.
The bars had to fit as tightly as possible in order to protect the inhabitants from cold winds and drafts. Therefore, recesses were made in the log house through one log. Another beam was placed in this hole with a convex edge. The grooves between them were insulated with swamp moss, which carried not only thermal insulation value, but also antibacterial. From above this building was smeared with clay.
About the nuances of construction
The interior decoration of the Russian hut sometimes assumed that it was poured with water and rammed, which made it hard and smooth. During cleaning, a layer of dirt was simply swept away with a broom. But most often, the interior decoration of a peasant hut assumed a wooden floor and raised above the ground to a height of one and a half meters. This was done in order to build an underground. A hatch led from it to a living room with a stove. All vegetable stocks were kept underground.
The Russian decoration of the hut of wealthy people assumed another superstructure on top. From the outside, this house looked like a three-story house.
About outbuildings
The interior of the Russian hut also had several nuances. Russian people often attached a hallway with large wide windows to their dwelling. It was called Seni. So, at the entrance to the house, it was necessary to first go into the hallway, and then enter the upper room. This hallway was 2 meters wide. Sometimes the vestibule was connected to a cattle shed, therefore, accordingly, they were made larger.
In addition, this extension had a lot of other purposes. Goods were kept there and something needed was made in bad weather, since the peasant never sat idle. In the summer, you can also put guests to bed after a noisy holiday. Scientists-archaeologists gave the name “two-chamber” to such a dwelling, since it consisted of 2 rooms.
The interior decoration of a peasant hut could not do without a cage. Since the beginning of the 10th century, this room has served as an additional bedroom, which was used only in summer because it was not heated. Food could be stored there all year round. And in winter - even perishable dishes, because it is always cold there.
How the carpet was built
The roof in the hut was made according to several techniques: it could be wooden, shingled, hewn or from shingles. With the development of history, and with it the skills of the people, in the time period of the 16-17th centuries, the Slavs developed a unique concept of covering the roof with birch bark, which protected from leakage. It also carried an aesthetic purpose, as it betrayed the diversity of the building. A little earth and turf was laid on the roof. This was the old "smart technology" to protect the house from fire.
Dugouts and semi-dugouts, as a rule, did not have windows. Because of this, the interior of the Russian hut looked, of course, not the way we used to imagine. There were small window openings covered with the stomachs of cattle. However, later, when the hut "grew" above the ground, they began to make large glazed windows that not only let in light, but also made it possible to see what was happening on the street. The external decoration of the Russian hut assumed glazed ones, which at the beginning (10th century) were only for wealthy owners.
The toilet in Russia was called "back" and was located, as a rule, in the hallway. It was a hole in the floor, which "looked" down towards the ground level, where cattle were usually kept. He appeared in the huts since the 16th century.
About building windows
The Russian decoration of the hut at a later time was not presented without windows. Usually the window opening consisted of 2 adjacent logs, which were cut in half. A rectangular frame was inserted there, having a valve that "went" in a horizontal direction.
The interior space of the hut
The interior of the Russian hut consisted of one to three living quarters. The entrance to the house began from the canopy. The room intended for habitation was always very warm and heated by a stove. The interior of the hut (photo) perfectly illustrates the life of commoners of those times.
As for wealthy peasants and people with a high rank, in their dwelling there was a place and an additional room, which was called the upper room. The hosts received guests in it, and it was also very warm, bright and spacious. Heated with a Dutch oven.
The interior of the Russian hut could not be imagined without an oven, which occupied most of the room, which was located at the entrance. However, in the southern part of the country, it was located in a far corner.
The interior decoration of the Russian hut was distinguished by a special, but at the same time quite simple, placement of objects. The dining table usually stood in a corner, diagonally across from the stove. Directly above it was a "red corner" with icons and other amulets. There were benches along the walls, above them there were shelves built into the walls. Such interior decoration of the Russian hut (photo) was found almost everywhere.
The oven had a multifunctional load, since it brought not only warmth and delicious food, but also had a sleeping place.
The interior of the Russian hut also demonstrates that there was much in common with the traditions of the East Slavic peoples, but there were also differences. In the north of Russia, people built stone ovens. They got their name because they were built of stone without the use of any bonding solution.
In the areas of Staraya Ladoga, the base of the stone firebox was one and a half meters in diameter. The decoration of a peasant hut in the Izborsk region assumed a stove made of clay, but on a stone base. In length and width, it reached up to 1 meter, as well as in height.
In the southern regions of the East Slavic countries, the oven was built larger and wider, its stone foundation was laid with an approximate calculation of one and a half meters in length and 2 in width. In height, such furnaces reached 1.2 meters.
