Chapter 36. Russia at the beginning of the XX century

State structure. ? Economic situation and population of Russia. ? Witte and the modernization of Russia. ? Monarchy is a truly Russian form of power. ? Occultism is a reflection of the moral decay of society. ? Education and culture.

State structure

At the beginning of the XX century. Russia continued to influence global world events.

The State Council remained the highest legislative body. The ministers of whom the council consisted were appointed by the king. The people called them "state Soviet elders" because the courtiers and dignitaries, of whom the council consisted, were of advanced age. All laws worked out by the State Council were invalid without the approval of the emperor.

The minister had three deputies, "comrades". The courts were carried out on behalf of the emperor. The emperor was the last and highest authority.

The emperor was also the head of the church, although the Holy Synod was directly in charge of all church affairs. Until 1905, the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod was K.P. Pobedonostsev.

Administratively, Russia was divided into 78 provinces, 18 regions and Sakhalin. The Russian Empire also included Finland, which had internal autonomy with its own government, police and monetary system. Provinces were divided into counties and regions into districts.

In Russia, the State Duma was elected for the first time by free expression of will in 1905. Thus, Russia became a legal state. The judiciary was practically separated from the executive.

During the reign of Nicholas II, the best labor legislation in the world was created with the choice of working elders, rationing of working hours, compensation in case of accidents at work and compulsory insurance of workers against illness, disability and old age.

But Russia remained like a huge noble patrimony, where the highest aristocracy retained privileges and had an advantage over the rest of the population. This position was guarded by the entire state system. The traditions and privileges of the few provoked the outrage of the rest.

The hard times of revolutionary terror were coming. At this difficult time, the government of Nicholas II was headed by Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin. In order to make way for the planned reforms, it was necessary to do away with the terrorists. Stolypin established courts-martial. The terrorists were hanged. However, the number of those executed was significantly less than the number of governors, generals and gendarmes killed by terrorist bombs. Under Stolypin, as a result of his land reform in just four years (1906 - 1911), an abundance of products appeared in the country, but Stolypin did not escape the attention of terrorists. In August 1911, an attempt was made on Stolypin's life at his dacha on Aptekarsky Island. Terrorists threw a bomb, which killed 20 people and wounded up to 30 people. This time Stolypin was not hurt. This did not suit the terrorists, and the next month they finished their dirty work and killed Stolypin.

On the monument to the great reformer are written the words addressed to the revolutionaries: "You need great upheavals, we need a great Russia."

This text is an introductory fragment. From the author's book

Memories of old St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 20th century Fire brigade yard What I want to tell you about is connected with my childhood memories of the life of the fire brigade yard. As a child I lived on the corner of Gorokhovaya Street (now Dzerzhinsky Street) and Zagorodny Prospekt. More precisely, it was

From the author's book

Chapter XII Distribution of taverns from 1552 to the beginning of the 18th century We saw that around 1552 in the entire Muscovite kingdom there was only one large tsars tavern, which stood in Moscow on Balchug. Tsar Fyodor allegedly ordered him to be broken and destroyed, but this did not prevent him from immediately

From the author's book

About jewelry fashions of the early 19th century With the death of Semiramis of the North, the “kingdom of skirts” ended in Russia, and with the tragic death of Emperor Paul I, it finally became a thing of the past and irrevocably passed the “gallant”, so magnificent and majestic “eighteenth” century, the age of “moral "

From the author's book

Russian art of the early 20th century (Modern) Modern (under various names: "Art Nouveau" in Belgium and France, "Secession" in Austria-Hungary, "Jugendstil" in Germany, "Liberty style" in Italy, "modern style" in Great Britain , "Tiffany style" in the USA, "modern style" in Russia)

From the author's book

Chapter 5. Russia in the second half of the 15th - first half of the 16th century Unity of the Russian ruler. ? Off-road of Russia. Moscow. ? Fall of the Novgorod Republic. ? Courts and punishments. ? Trade. ? Climate and gifts of nature. ? Dwelling. ? Customs and customs of Russians. ? The customs of the nobility and

From the author's book

Chapter 8. Russia of the XVI century Income of the Russian state. ? Laws, Courts and Punishments. ? Punishment for bribes. ? The moral charter of the Council of 1551? Superstition and piety. ? The abundance of Russian land. ? Tsarist dinners and Russian hospitality. ? Royal fun. ? Russian man. ?

From the author's book

Section II. Customs, life and moral state of Russia from the beginning of the XVIII to the beginning of the XX

From the author's book

Chapter 22. Russia of the XVIII century The domination of the Germans in Russia in the XVIII century. ? Moscow at the beginning of the 18th century. ? Army of the 18th century from Peter to Catherine. ? Trade. ? Churches of Vologda are the adornment of Russia. ? Russian abundance. ? A turn to pomp and grace. ? Change in the genealogy of the nobility. ? Church and

From the author's book

Moscow at the beginning of the XVIII century. De Neuville says that at the end of the XVII century. in Moscow, there were about 500 thousand inhabitants. About Moscow at the beginning of the 18th century. foreigners write that it never had so many stone buildings as at that time. It was extensive and continued to be built.

From the author's book

Yaroslavl frescoes of the early 18th century In Yaroslavl churches of the 18th century the amazing beauty of the painting has been preserved, distinguished by a rare major, decorative and folk images. All of them, due to the folklore of images and plots, remain wonderful sources

From the author's book

Chapter 22 Alexander Koyre on philosophy and the national problem in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century Philosophers expelled or fled from Soviet Russia ended up in Western Europe. The spread across countries turned out to be incredible: here and Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, and even Bulgaria (Bicilli), and

From the author's book

The architectural text of St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 20th century New codes that found application in the architectural text of St. Petersburg at the beginning of the century were developed within the framework of the Art Nouveau style, as well as retrospectiveism. The psychological dominance of numerous European architects and their

The epochal reign of Peter I, as well as his numerous reforms aimed at Europeanization and the eradication of medieval vestiges in everyday life and politics, had a huge impact on the way of life of all classes of the empire.

Various innovations actively introduced into the everyday life and customs of Russians in the 18th century gave a strong impetus to the transformation of Russia into an enlightened European state.

Reforms of Peter I

Peter I, like Catherine II, who succeeded him on the throne, considered his main task to introduce women to secular life and accustom the upper classes of Russian society to the rules of etiquette. For this, special instructions and guidelines were created; young nobles were trained in the rules of court etiquette and were sent to study in Western countries, from where they returned inspired by the desire to make the people of Russia enlightened and more modern. Basically, the changes affected the secular way of life remained unchanged - the head of the family was a man, the rest of the family were obliged to obey him.

Everyday life and customs of the 18th century in Russia entered into an acute confrontation with innovations, because absolutism, which reached its peak, as well as feudal-serf relations, did not allow the plans for Europeanization to be painlessly and quickly implemented. In addition, there was a clear contrast between the life of the wealthy estates and

Court life in the 18th century

Everyday life and customs of the royal court in the second half of the 18th century were distinguished by unprecedented luxury that surprised even foreigners. The influence of Western tendencies was increasingly felt: tutors-tutors, hairdressers, milliners appeared in Moscow and St. Petersburg; French became compulsory for learning; a special fashion was introduced for ladies who came to court.

The innovations that appeared in Paris were necessarily adopted by the Russian nobility. resembled a theatrical performance - ceremonial bows, curtsies created an acute feeling of pretense.

Over time, the theater gained great popularity. The first Russian playwrights (Dmitrievsky, Sumarokov) also appeared during this period.

Interest in French literature is growing. Representatives of the aristocracy are paying more and more attention to the education and development of a multifaceted personality - this is becoming a kind of sign of good form.

In the 30s - 40s of the 18th century, during the reign of Anna Ioannovna, one of the popular entertainments, in addition to chess and checkers, was playing cards, which was previously considered indecent.

Life and customs of the 18th century in Russia: the life of the nobles

The population of the Russian Empire consisted of several estates.

The nobles of large cities, especially St. Petersburg and Moscow, were in the most advantageous position: material well-being and a high position in society allowed them to lead an idle lifestyle, devoting all their time to organizing and attending social receptions.

Close attention was paid to houses, the arrangement of which was significantly influenced by Western traditions.

The possessions of the aristocracy were distinguished by luxury and sophistication: large rooms tastefully furnished with European furniture, huge chandeliers with candles, rich libraries with books by Western authors - all this was supposed to show a sense of taste and become a confirmation of the family's nobility. The spacious rooms of the houses allowed the owners to arrange crowded balls and social receptions.

The role of education in the 18th century

Everyday life and customs of the second half of the 18th century were even more closely connected with the influence of Western culture on Russia: aristocratic salons became fashionable, where disputes about politics, art, literature were raging, debates on philosophical topics were conducted. The French language gained great popularity, which the children of the nobility learned from childhood by specially hired foreign teachers. Upon reaching the age of 15-17, adolescents were sent to educational institutions of a closed type: young men were taught here girls - the rules of good manners, the ability to play various musical instruments, the basics of family life.

The Europeanization of the way of life and the foundations of the urban population was of great importance for the development of the entire country. Innovations in art, architecture, food, clothing quickly took root in the homes of the nobility. Intertwining with old Russian habits and traditions, they determined the way of life and customs of the 18th century in Russia.

At the same time, innovations did not spread throughout the country, but covered only its most developed regions, once again highlighting the gap between the wealthy and the poor.

The life of the provincial nobles

Unlike the metropolitan nobility, representatives of the provincial nobility lived more modestly, although they tried with all their might to resemble the more prosperous aristocracy. Sometimes such a desire from the outside looked rather caricatured. If the metropolitan nobility lived at the expense of their vast estates and thousands of serfs working on them, then the families of provincial cities and villages received the main income from the taxation of peasants and income from their small farms. The noble estate was a semblance of the houses of the capital's nobility, but with a significant difference - numerous outbuildings were located next to the house.

The educational level of the provincial nobles was very low, teaching was mainly limited to the basics of grammar and arithmetic. Men spent their leisure time going hunting, and women gossiping about court life and fashion, without having a reliable idea about it.

The owners of rural estates were closely associated with the peasants, who served as workers and servants in their homes. Therefore, the rural nobility was much closer to the commoners than the capital's aristocrats. In addition, poorly educated nobles, like the peasants, often found themselves far from the innovations introduced, and if they tried to keep up with fashion, it turned out to be more comical than exquisite.

Peasants: life and customs of the 18th century in Russia

The lowest class of the Russian Empire, the serfs, had the hardest time.

Working six days a week for a landowner did not leave the peasant time to arrange his daily life. They had to cultivate their own plots of land on holidays and weekends, because the families of peasants were large, and they had to somehow feed them. The peasants' simple life is connected with constant employment and lack of free time and funds: wooden huts, rough interior, meager food and simple clothes. However, all this did not prevent them from inventing entertainment: on big holidays, massive games were organized, round dances were held, songs were sung.

The children of peasants, without receiving any education, repeated the fate of their parents, also becoming servants and servants at noble estates.

The influence of the West on the development of Russia

The life and customs of the Russian people at the end of the 18th century, for the most part, were completely influenced by the tendencies of the Western world. Despite the stability and ossification of old Russian traditions, the trends of developed states gradually entered the life of the population of the Russian Empire, making its wealthy part more educated and literate. This fact is confirmed by the appearance of various institutions in the service of which people who have already received a certain level of education (for example, city hospitals) consisted.

Cultural development and gradual Europeanization of the population are quite clear evidence of the history of Russia. Life and customs in the 18th century, modified by the policy of enlightenment of Peter I, laid the foundation for the global cultural development of Russia and its people.

The fates of many peasant families were similar to each other. From year to year, they lived in the same village, performed the same work and duties. The modest rural church did not impress with either its size or architecture, but made the village the center of the entire neighborhood. Even as an infant, a few days old, each person fell under its vaults during christenings and many times visited here throughout his life. Here, who departed into another world, they brought him before being buried. The church was almost the only public building in the area. The priest was, if not the only, then one of the few literate people. No matter how the parishioners treated him, he was an official spiritual father, to whom the Law of God obliged everyone to come to confession.
Three main events in human life: birth, marriage and death. So, in three parts, the records in the church registers were divided. At that time, in many families, children were born almost every year. The birth of a child was perceived as the will of God, which rarely came to mind to oppose. More children - more workers in the family, and hence more prosperity. On this basis, the appearance of boys was preferable. You raise a girl - you raise, and she goes to someone else's family. But this, in the end, is not a problem: brides from other households replaced the working hands of the daughters given to the side. That is why the birth of a child has always been a holiday in the family, and therefore it was illuminated by one of the main Christian sacraments - baptism. The parents carried the baptized child with the godfather and mother. Father, together with the godfather, read a prayer, then immersed the baby in the font, put on a cross. Returning home, they arranged a christening - a dinner for which they gathered relatives. Children were usually baptized on their birthday or the next three days. The priest gave the name most often, using the calendar in honor of the saint on whose day the baby was born. However, the rule to give names according to the calendar was optional. The godparents were usually peasants from their parish.

The peasants got married and got married mainly only in their own community. If in the 18th century peasants were married at 13-14 years old, then from the middle of the 19th century the legal age for marriage was 18 for a man and 16 for a woman. Early peasant marriages were encouraged by the landlords, as this contributed to an increase in the number of peasant souls and, accordingly, the income of the landowners. During serfdom, peasant girls were often given in marriage without their consent. After the abolition of serfdom, the custom of marrying with the consent of the bride was gradually established. Tough measures were also applied to young grooms. If someone did not want to marry, then dad forced the shaft. The oversized grooms and brides were dishonored.
Among the Ukrainian peasantry, it was a wedding, not a wedding, that was considered a legal guarantee of marriage: married couples could live apart for 2-3 weeks, waiting for the wedding. It was preceded by “loaf” - this is how the main ritual wedding bread was called in Ukraine, and the ritual of its preparation itself, which most often took place on Friday. On Saturday evening, rural youth said goodbye to the young. At the girls' evening, a wedding tree was made - "giltse", "viltse", "rizka", "troichetka". This dense flowering tree is a symbol of youth and beauty of the young, with which bread or roll was decorated. It was on the table throughout the wedding. Sunday was coming. In the morning, the girlfriends dressed the bride for the crown: the best shirt, embroidered skirt, namisto, a beautiful wreath with ribbons. The women cherished the wedding shirt as a relic until their death. His son took his mother's wedding shirt with him when he went to war. The groom also came in an embroidered shirt (it was supposed to be embroidered by the bride). The young people went to church to get married. After that, they came to the bride's yard, where they were greeted with bread and salt, sprinkled with rye, and the young woman invited guests to the table. The wedding was preceded by matchmaking. There was a custom: for the success of the business, people who went on a match were whipped with rods or thrown with women's headdresses in order to quickly catch the girl. The morning of the wedding day was interesting when the bride washed. She did not go to the bath alone. When the bride is washed and steamed properly, the sorceress collects sweat from the bride's handkerchief and squeezes it into a bottle. This sweat was then poured into the groom's beer to bind the young with indissoluble bonds.
Peasant weddings were usually played in the fall or winter when the main agricultural work was over. Repeated marriages were not uncommon due to the difficult peasant life and early death. The number of remarriages after epidemics increased dramatically.
Death overtook a person at any time of the year, but in the cold winter months, her work increased noticeably. The dead were buried until the beginning of the 19th century in the churchyard. However, due to the danger of contracting infectious diseases, a special decree ordered the cemeteries to be arranged outside the settlements. People prepared for death in advance. Before death, they tried to call the priest for confession and communion. After the death of the deceased, women washed them and put them on death-dealing clothes. The peasants hammered together a coffin and dug a grave. When the body was taken out, the lamentations of the weeping women began. There was no talk of any autopsy or death certificate. All formalities were limited to an entry in the birth register, where the cause of death was indicated by the local priest from the words of the relatives of the deceased. The coffin with the deceased was carried to the church on a stretcher-chair. The church watchman, already knowing about the deceased, rang the bell. 40 days after the funeral, a commemoration with a dinner was celebrated, to which a priest was brought for the service.

Almost no log huts or dugouts were built in the Poltava district, so the hut should be recognized as a model of the local hut. It was based on several oak plows, buried in the ground. Poles were cut into the plows, straw or vines or cherry branches were tied to them. The resulting hut was covered with clay, removing the gaps and leveling the walls, and a year later covered with special, white clay.

The hostess and her daughters repaired the walls of the hut after each downpour and whitewashed the outside three times during the year: to the Trinity, the covers, and when the hut was furnished with straw for the winter from the cold. The houses were fenced partly by a moat with a lushly overgrown tree, ash or white acacia, partly by a wattle fence (tynom) at the gate, usually single-winged, consisting of several longitudinal poles. A cattle shed was being built near the street. In the yard, usually near the hut, a chopped square clod with 3-4 notches or bins for bread was built. Also, not a single courtyard could do without a clooney, which usually towered at a distance from the hut behind the threshing floor (current). The height of the entrance doors to the hut was usually 2 arshins 6 vershoks, and the interior doors were 2 vershoks higher. The width of the doors has always been standard - 5 quarters 2 inches. The door was locked with a wooden hook and painted with some dark paint. Sometimes shutters were attached to the windows of the hut, painted in red or green.

The outer door led into a dark hallway, where a piece of clothing, harness, utensils, and a wicker bread box were usually placed. There was also a light staircase leading to the attic. A spacious outlet also exited here, conducting smoke from the stove up through a pipe to the roof. In front of the entrance was set up another, warm section, "khatyna" - a shelter for old people from dust, women and children. Large huts also included a special front room (the parlor). The extreme corner from the door was all occupied by a stove, sometimes making up a quarter of a small hut. The oven was made of raw materials. It was decorated with clinics, circles, crosses and flowers painted with blue or ordinary ocher. The stove was anointed at the same time as the hut before the holidays. Between the stove and the so-called cold corner, several boards were laid along the wall for the family to sleep in. A shelf for women's things was nailed on top: a shit, a sliver, a spindle, and a pole for clothes and yarn was hung. The cradle was also hung here. Outerwear, pillows, bedding were left in a cold corner. Thus, this corner was considered a family one. The next corner (kut), located between the two corner windows and the side window, was called the pokutam. It corresponded to the red corner of the Great Russians. Here, icons of the father and mother, then the eldest son, the middle and the youngest, were placed on special tablets. They were decorated with paper or natural dried flowers. Bottles with holy water were sometimes placed near the images, and money and documents were hidden behind them. There was also a table or a hidden (chest). There were also benches (benches) and benches at the table along the walls. In the opposite room, there was a blind corner, located at the blind end of the door. It had only economic value. Here were the dishes on the shelf, spoons and knives. The narrow space between the doors and the stove was called "kocherizhnik" because it was occupied by pokers and shovels.

The common food of the peasants is bread, which they themselves baked, borscht, which is "healthy, use the head" and porridge, most often millet. Food was prepared in the morning and for the whole day. They used it as follows: at 7-8 o'clock in the morning - a breakfast consisting of cabbage, cakes, kulish or lokshina with bacon. On a fast day, lard was replaced with butter, which served as a seasoning for cucumbers, cabbage, potatoes, or hemp seed milk, which was seasoned with egg kuta, boiled barley, crushed millet, or hemp seed with buckwheat cakes.

We sat down for lunch from 11 o'clock and later, if threshing or other work delayed. Lunch consisted of borscht with bacon and porridge with butter, rarely with milk, and on a fast day, borscht with beans, beets, with butter and porridge, sometimes boiled beans and peas, dumplings with potatoes, pea cakes anointed with honey.

For dinner, they were content with the leftovers from lunch, or fish soup (yushka) and dumplings. Chicken or chicken meat was on the menu only on major holidays. By the end of the summer, when most vegetables and fruits were ripe, the table improved slightly. Instead of porridge, they often boiled pumpkin, peas, beans, and corn. For an afternoon snack, cucumbers, plums, melons, watermelons, and forest pears were added to the bread. From September 1, when the days got shorter, the afternoon snack was canceled. They drank mostly kvass and uzvar. From alcohol - vodka (vodka).
The clothes of the Little Russians, protecting from the climate, at the same time emphasized, set off, increased the beauty, especially the female one. Concerns about the appearance of a local woman were expressed in the following customs: on the first day of a bright holiday, women washed themselves with water, in which they placed a painted and ordinary egg, and rubbed their cheeks with these eggs to preserve the freshness of their faces. In order for the cheeks to be ruddy, they were rubbed with various red things: a belt, block, flower dust of rye, pepper and others. The eyebrows were sometimes lined with soot. According to popular beliefs, one could wash only in the morning. Only on Saturday evenings and on the eve of big holidays, the girls washed their heads and necks and, willy-nilly, washed their faces.

They washed their heads with lye, beet kvass or hot water, in which they put a branch of a consecrated willow and something made of fragrant herbs. The washed head was usually combed with a large horny comb or comb. Combing, the girls braided their hair both in one braid, in 3-6 strands, and in two smaller braids. Chignons were occasionally made, but with any hairstyle, the girl's forehead was open. The natural decoration of the hairstyle was both field flowers and flowers plucked from their flower garden. Multi-colored thin ribbons were also woven into the braid.

The main headdress of a woman is a point. Young women under 30 were considered a sin not to wear earrings, so from the second year of life girls' ears were pierced with thin, sharp wire earrings, which were left in the ear until the wound healed. Later, the girls wore copper earrings, at a price of 3-5 kopecks, the girls already wore earrings made of Polish and ordinary silver, occasionally gold, at a price of 45 kopecks to 3 rubles 50 kopecks. The girls had few earrings: 1 - 2 pairs. On the girl's neck, they wore a multi-colored namisto up to 25 threads, more or less lowered to the chest. They also wore a cross on the neck. The crosses were wooden, costing 5 kopecks; glass, white and colored, from 1 kopeck; copper in 3-5 kopecks and silver (sometimes enameled). The rings were also adornments.

Shirt - the main part of the linen was called a chemise. In all seasons they wore a "kersetka", short, a little more than an arshin clothes, black, less often colored, woolen or paper, which opened the whole neck and top of the chest and tightly wrapped around the waist. Women put on shoes in the summer in high-heeled shoes (wedges), made of black leather, shod with nails or horseshoes, and in winter in black boots. The boys had their hair cut smoothly. Middle-aged men cut their hair "pid forelock, in a circle", that is, round, exactly over the entire head, cutting more on the forehead, above the eyebrows and behind. Almost no one shaved their beards, but only trimmed them. The peasant's head was protected from the cold by a lamb's cap, round cylindrical or somewhat narrowed upwards. The hat was lined with black, blue or red calico, sometimes with sheepskin fur. The generally accepted color of the cap was black, sometimes gray. In the summer, caps were also often worn. The men's shirt was different from the women's short.

Trousers were always worn with a shirt. Wearing pants was considered a sign of maturity. A gray woolen or paper vest was worn on top of the shirt, single-breasted, with a narrow stand-up collar, without a cutout and with two pockets. Above the vest, a black cloth or gray woolen chumarka was worn, knee-length, single-breasted, fastened with hooks, with a waist. The chumarka was lined with cotton wool and served as outerwear. She, like other outer clothing, was tied with belts. For the most part, men's footwear consisted only of boots (chobots). Chobots were made of yukhta, sometimes from a thin belt and "shkapyna" (horse leather), on wooden hairpins. The sole of the boots was made of a thick belt, the heels were lined with nails or horseshoes. The price of boots is from 2 to 12 rubles. In addition to boots, they also wore trolleys, like women's, "postols" - leather bast shoes or ordinary bast shoes made of linden or elm bark.

Service in the army did not pass the peasant share. These were the sayings about recruits and their wives. "To recruitment - what to the grave", "In our volost there are three pains: uncoolness, taxes and zemshchina", "Merry grief - a soldier's life", "A young man fought, but when he was old he was let go home", "A soldier is a wretch, worse than a bast shoe "," The soldier is neither a widow, nor a husband's wife "," For the soldiers' children the whole village is a father. " The service life of a recruit was 25 years. Without documentary evidence of the death of her husband, a soldier, the woman could not get married a second time. At the same time, the soldiers continued to live in their husband's families, completely dependent on the head of the family. The order of recruiting was determined by the volost gathering of householders, at which a list of conscripts was drawn up. On November 8, 1868, a manifesto was issued, according to which it was ordered to put up 4 recruits from 1000 souls. After the military reform of 1874, the term of service was limited to four years. Now all young people who had reached the age of 21, fit for service for health reasons, had to serve. However, the law provided for benefits on marital status.

The ideas of our ancestors about comfort and hygiene are somewhat unusual for us. There were no baths until the 1920s. They were replaced by ovens, much more spacious than modern ones. Ash was scooped out of the furnace. The floor was covered with straw, climbed in and steamed with a broom. They washed their hair outside the oven. Instead of soap, they used lye - a decoction of ash. From our point of view, the peasants lived in terrible mud. A general cleaning of the house was arranged before Easter: they washed and cleaned not only the floors and walls, but also all the dishes - smoked pots, grabs, pokers. Sennik mattresses filled with hay or straw were knocked out, on which they slept, and from which there was also a lot of dust. They washed the bedding and sackcloth with pylons, with which they covered themselves instead of blankets. In normal times, such care was not shown. It is good if the hut had a wooden floor that could be washed, and the adobe floor was just swept. There were no needies. The smoke from the black-sweated ovens covered the walls with soot. In winter, the huts were filled with dust from a fire and other spinning waste. In winter everyone suffered from the cold. Firewood was not prepared for future use, as it is now. Usually they will bring a cart of dead wood from the forest, burn it, then go for the next cart. We warmed ourselves on the stoves and on the couches. Nobody had double frames, so the windows were covered with a thick layer of ice. All these inconveniences were a familiar daily routine for the peasants, and there was no thought of changing it.

Saints - a list of saints of the Orthodox Church, compiled in the order of months and days of the year in which the saint is honored. The saints are included in the liturgical books. Separately published saints are called months.
When writing this article, the following materials were used:
Miloradovich V. Life of the Lubenskiy peasant // magazine "Kievskaya Starina", 1902, No. 4, p. 110-135, No. 6, p. 392-434, No. 10, p. 62-91.
Alekseev V.P. Granny oak // Bryansk, 1994, pp. 92-123.

In the villages of the Arkhangelsk region, the next morning after the first wedding night, the young man was brought eggs for breakfast, if he started eating from the edge, this meant that the wife turned out to be "honest", if from the middle she lost her virginity before the wedding.

Power in the countryside was seized by those who received Bolshevik sanctions in the regional centers. Usually these were men whose peasant male destiny did not take place.

Women and girls with a piece of meat. 1931, Magnitogorsk, South Ural, USSR. Photographer Margaret Burke-White (1904-1971), USA / Russian woman grimly holding a slab of meat as other peasant women staunchly stand by. Location: Magnitogorsk, Russia. Date taken: 1931. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

About the structure of the Russian village community in the twentieth century - on the eve and after the coming of the communist power. Continuation of the theme started in the material Russian woman: "She came to the barn, got up on her knees - and was born, the girl sings." Photos: Soviet village in the early 1930s and May-August 1941, captured by American photographer Margaret Burke-White (1904-1971). Some of the images are not rural. All images are clickable. If the signature of the LIFE archive says "Date taken: August 1941", it means that the picture belongs to a series of photographs published in LIFE in August 1941, that is, it does not have to be taken in August. Margaret Burke-White was in the USSR from early May to late September 1941.

The normal life of the peasant, the fulfillment of his century was determined by the successive living of these statuses-stages. Old man - rather an age rather than a status definition of an elderly man. In the ethnographic materials of the Soviet era, there is no information about the transfer of the majority to the younger man in the house, which can be explained by the degeneration of the institution of the male large in this period, which will be discussed below. (One of the meanings of the word " large"In Russian - the position of the owner or mistress in the family and home.) In the materials of the late XIX century. there is a mention that such an action was performed in case of physical weakness of the highway.

3.


The walls of the room are picturesque. The label of the print exported at the "Crafted Dream" exhibition at the Moscow Multimedia Art Museum, 18.12.2015-24.II.2016, reported: Margaret Burke-White. "Borsch", 1934. Collection of MAMM / MDF / LIFE: Russia. Russian peasant women eating food fr. the same bowl. Date taken: 1932. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

Female age definitions are as follows: girl / girl (from birth to marriage), pullet / young (from marriage to first child), woman (married woman, but not the mistress of the house), big lady, mistress, herself. A big-eared woman became when her husband went to the big, the death of her mother-in-law, or when the mother-in-law passed the most to one of the daughters-in-law in case of her physical weakness. Then the father-in-law remained the highway, and the wife of the eldest son was the mistress. The word "old woman", like "old man", was more often used as an age definition. Husband-highway could call his wife-bolshoy old woman. But the status understanding of the word was also possible: the woman herself, deciding to transfer the majority to the younger woman, recognized herself as an old woman. In the card file of the Pskov Regional Dictionary (records 1950-1970), the status of the bolshoi is described in great detail, which indicates that for the Soviet village of the second half of the 20th century. the idea of \u200b\u200ba female bolshoi was familiar.

4.


Collective farmers are stocking up hay. May-summer 1941. THE USSR. Photographer Margaret Burke-White (1904-1971), USA. The picture belongs to a series of photographs published in LIFE in August 1941 / Russian farmers w. horse-drawn wagons stacking harvested hay crop on collective farm. Location: Russia. Date taken: August 1941. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

Being in a particular age status presupposed being included in a certain network of horizontal and vertical relations of the community, as well as certain property rules and certain status obligations. The horizontal relationship between people belonging to the same age group was a relationship of contract and competition.

5.

Closeup portrait of Russian peasant w. cigar in his mouth in Siberia. Location: Magnitogorsk, Russia. Date taken: 1931. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

The guys fought for prestige - "honor" and "glory". This prestige is determined by the daring and courage of personal behavior, as well as group valor in the battle of the "gang" against the "gang" (Shatia is a group of guys)... The leader was recognized as the "chieftain" of his "gang" (guys from one village), and he was also the undisputed favorite among the girls. The guy's status was determined not only by his behavior, but also by certain property relations. Any own earnings, which are quite rare, since the guys mostly worked for their families, could only be transformed into "right". The right included clothing, means of transportation, weapons, personal items. These items constituted the guy's symbolic capital. The decision on the right could only be made by the highway father. Respect of fellow villagers caused the one who "kept" the sons "well". The relationship between the groups of boys and girls was also adversarial. The stake in this competition was “honor”.

6.
Russia
Russian peasants posing in front of open gateway arch leading into the city. Location: Kolomna, Russia. Date taken: 1931. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

The task of the girls was to preserve their "honor" before marriage, the task of the boys was to acquire "male honor", which was determined by the number of love relationships, courage in dealing with girls and courage in fights.

7.


Kolkhoz chairman Tereshchenko and his wife. May-June (?) 1941. Photographer Margaret Burke-White. The picture belongs to a series of photographs published in LIFE in August 1941 / Collective farm chairman Tereshenko posing w. his wife on farm. Location: Russia. August 1941. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

So, the main features of a guy's behavior are daring, risk, the transformation of the earned funds into symbolic capital, a multiplicity of love affairs. The highway was responsible for its guys before the authorities and the world. The assessment group for the guy was his own gang and girls. But also the peasants of the village: from an early age, boys and guys took part in common men's work, the assessment of older men was extremely important for them. Unmarried youth obeyed their parents, as well as people of the same social age as their parents. This form of vertical relationship was preserved in the addresses of aunt and uncle to older men and women. The vertical relationship changed when a boyfriend or girlfriend got married.

8.

Woman playing a Russian button accordian as her young girl looks on. Location: Magnitogorskrosk, Russia. Date taken: 1931. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

The bride-girl went out of submission to her parents and, having become a young wife, was entrusted to her husband's family. The connection between the parents and the married daughter became horizontal. Mutual help, advice, visiting, festive guest, but not submission were supposed. Having married, a woman became subordinate to her husband and his parents - father-in-law and mother-in-law. The husband and the husband's parents were now accountable to the world for their daughter-in-law. The relationship of male subordination was established differently. Before the wedding, the guys obey their mothers-bolshoi, both their own and others' aunts.

9.


Russian elementary school students sitting stoically at desks in classroom in a remot village in the Volga region. Location: Russia. Date taken: 1931. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

Men emerged from the dominion of the mother class after marriage. This transformation of relations had a ritual setting. Almost everywhere, the Russian wedding ceremony included the "test of the young". The ritual check of the young man's household and her introduction into the household was performed on the first morning of her stay at her husband's house. On the second day of the wedding, a young woman sweeps the floor. Garbage is thrown on the floor: some old stuff, hay, sand, money. The mother-in-law gives the broom to the daughter-in-law. If the chalk is not clean, she was told: "Oh, the bride does not know how to take revenge, and she does not sweep cleanly" ... The stories we recorded in the villages about the trials of the pullets were accompanied by complaints from the storytellers about how difficult it was psychologically. The test could last as long as desired, the mother-in-law's friends were going to look at it, i.e. the young woman was surrounded by older strangers, her husband's relatives and neighbors, whose actions she had no right to resist. Only a young husband could stop the test.

10.


Silhouette of Russian orthodox church reflecting off the water of a lake at dusk. Location: Russia. Date taken: 1931. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

In the case of discussing the issue of virginity, it was he who decided what information to convey to the “public”. So, in the villages of the Arkhangelsk region, the next morning after the first wedding night, the young man was brought scrambled eggs for breakfast, if he started eating from the edge, this meant that the wife turned out to be "honest", if from the middle she lost her virginity before the wedding. The second day of the wedding was a day of trial for the young husband: for the first time in his life, he could give a public rebuff to his mother and women of her age - aunts, protecting his wife from them, or not to rebuff the big women and give his wife to their judgment, and therefore not deal with this initiatory situation. The mother's power over the man-son was supposed to end with his marriage, but the sons obeyed the older man, the father, the bolshak up to their own exit to the bolshoi or separation into their own house.

11.

Closeup portrait of a Russian Orthodox priest. Location: Moscow, Russia. Date taken: 1931. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

The social task of the young man was to gain recognition among the peasants in order to be accepted into the village gathering in due time. The gathering is the collegial governing body of the village, which consisted of male owners. From older men - fathers - they learned responsibility and decision making. In male places and in male intercourse - in fishing, artisanal work, construction, at beer holidays - they gained economic and social experience. Men devoted a lot of time to raising their sons: they were taken with them to long-term fishing and hunting industries, where, in addition to craft skills, young people learned a lot by listening to the conversations of older men. The bolshak fathers bore full responsibility before the world - state power and the community - for the behavior of all members of their family, as well as for its material condition.

12.


Russian peasants riding on a wagon in Siberia. Location: Magnitogorsk, Russia
Date taken: 1931. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

Relations between male generations change significantly with the advent of Soviet power. The Soviet government hit the male age hierarchy first. Physically destroyed "strong" highways, experienced and successful owners (in the language of the Sovdep - "kulaks" and "middle peasants"), by the beginning of the 1930s. the institution of the gathering was completely destroyed. Power in the countryside was seized by those who received Bolshevik sanctions in the regional centers. Usually these were men whose peasant male destiny did not take place. Having married and leaving their family or other guys, they left for the city. Actually, in the village of the 1920s. the “sons” of those who constituted the village gathering returned as authorized by the authorities. The revolution in the Russian countryside - and it happened with collectivization in the second half of the 20s - early 30s. - was largely a conflict between male generations. Historical data on the course of collectivization at the turn of the 30s. allow you to see their age status behind the "class" definitions of the participants in the events.

13.


Couple, standing nr. tractor, looking off into distance, on field being harrowed at Verblud (camel) state collective farm; south of Moscow, nr. Rostov, Russia, USSR. Location: Rostov, Russia. Date taken: 1930. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

So, for example, in the press in 1930, a letter from the Red Army soldier Voronov published in the newspaper "Red Warrior" (1930, February 13), which he wrote in response to his father's message that "the last bread is taken away, is not considered with the Red Army family. ": “Even though you are my daddy, you didn’t believe a word of your podkulatsky songs. I'm glad you were given a good lesson. Sell \u200b\u200bbread, carry the surplus - this is my last word " .

14.


The picture belongs to a series of photographs published in LIFE in August 1941 / Bolshevik pigs on Russian collectilve farm. Location: Russia. Date taken: August 1941. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

Another example: "Borisoglebsk Komsomol members in the process of dispossession liquidated several farm laborers for the fact that the daughters of the owners married the kulak sons" . Komsomol members (and these are young people) make the decision to repress the "owners", that is, Bolshakov.As a result of collectivization, together with the peasant economy as a family-production unit of society, the order of mastering the degrees of responsibility, organized in a traditional society through a system of transitional rituals, was destroyed: seeing off to the army, getting married, being accepted into a male artel (for example, fishing), going out to a large in the descent. Age-related socialization of men born in Soviet times successfully passed up to the stage of "men": a gang or gang, army / war, marriage. It was these behaviors that were effectively broadcast by the Soviet generations: a male group with strong collectivist ties, responsibility to it, risk taking and aggressiveness.

15.

Two Russian workers eating black bread and soup at a table in front of a wall covered with Soviet Communist Workers posters in Siberia. Location: Magnitogorsk, Russia. Date taken: 1931. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

At the stage of the development of Bolshaya, the Soviet institute for male age socialization failed: men went to the front and died, went to construction sites in the country, raised virgin lands, served in the army, sat in the zones, etc. etc. The only way for a man's social career was the party ladder. On each of her march, the form of relations was built like a "male union": the value of the partnership (team) was higher than the value of the family, and even more so - the values \u200b\u200bof individual.

16.


Russian teacher holding book as she presides over a lesson while children carefully read along fr. their copies at desks in classroom at elementary school. Location: Moscow, Russia. Date taken: 1931. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

In the psychology textbook of the Stalinist era, collectivism is described as a specific character trait of the Soviet person: "A Soviet person cannot set himself vital goals that would be opposed to the goals of the collective; the Soviet person does not consider his personal fate, his personal success, divorced from the fate of the collective, from the success of a common, collective cause."... The failure in male age socialization that occurred in Soviet Russia manifested itself with particular force in the post-war generations. The age crisis of the middle of life in traditional peasant culture was resolved by a change in social status: the man became the owner, the highway. Tradition made up for the behavioral limitations that accompanied each of the age transitions with status growth: losing part of his freedom, a person added in power and authority. The social institutions that supported the transition of men from one age scenario to another by the end of the twentieth century. in rural Russia were largely destroyed.

17.


Two sisters and their mother, in one of the collective farms on the eve of the war. May-June (?) 1941. THE USSR. Photographer Margaret Burke-White (1904-1971), USA. Photo published in LIFE in August 1941 / Young peasant sisters posing w. their mother on collective farm. Location: Russia. August 1941. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

Age-related socialization of women in the Russian pre-revolutionary village developed differently from that of men. A woman's sex and age status was marked by external signs - clothes, hair. Before marriage, a girl braided a braid, a married woman collected her hair in a bun or comb. The unmarried woman who remained an old maid continued to plait her braids. The old maidens were called "siblings". Girls began to teach women's work at an early age. From the age of 7, they could be sent to nannies to look after small children. From 10-12 years old, girls went with their parents to field work: mowing, rowing, throwing haystacks. At the same age, they were taught to cook, but she cooked and stoked the oven in the house of the bolshoi entirely, the younger ones could only help. By the time of her marriage, the girl already knew how, as a rule, to spin, weave, cook, and do other housework. But in her husband's house immediately after the wedding, the range of her duties was limited and was established by her mother-in-law. The willingness to obey the will of the mother-in-law, no matter how bad or good, was imputed to the future daughter-in-law in the act of the ritual. So, during the wedding, the bride learned the future rules of her behavior, announcing, with the help of older women who helped her to lament, the lament required of her in a situation of marriage. There are also known magical tactics aimed at influencing the new relations of power and subordination, in which a woman was involved when she got married and moved into her husband's family. While the mother-in-law was “on the Bolshoi”, she cooked, baked and cooked everything, looked after the little children. The young woman went to work in the field, washed clothes: "For the mother-in-law - the table, for the daughter-in-law - the yard"... When the big woman was no longer able to manage the entire economy, the transfer of the large took place. In the Vologda region, this ceremony was usually performed on Pokrov (October 14).

18.


Ukrainian women harvest wheat on a collective farm near Kharkov. Summer 1941. THE USSR. Photographer Margaret Burke-White (1904-1971), USA. The picture belongs to a series of photographs published in LIFE in August 1941 / Ukrainian women wheat harvesters on a collective farm nr. Kharkov. Location: Russia. Date taken: August 1941. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

Women - mother-in-law and daughter-in-law - baked rybnik together (rybnik - a pie with whole fish baked in it - was an important part of the wedding and funeral tables). The dough was kneaded in four hands - the older and the youngest women, thereby the mother-in-law passed the right to cook food to the daughter-in-law, and she became big. A significant area of \u200b\u200btraditional women's knowledge and responsibilities was subject to transfer only after a woman reached a certain age status. After the appearance of their own children, women could participate in funeral rituals, lament at funerals, and were involved in ritual activities related to the commemoration of their parents.

19.

Witch doctors, clerks, matchmakers are older women - big women or old women who gave most of them. Magical knowledge was also transferred as one moved from status to status. The girl was not given information about practical magical actions. A married, nulliparous woman - a young woman - was initiated into the magic of birth and childcare, but healing magic remained closed to her. They knew the healing magic of big women and old women. Lonely women - widows or lonely old women - more often than not, young people gathered for conversations. The old women kept and passed on the tradition, monitored the observance of rituals and customs.

20.


The picture belongs to a series of photographs published in LIFE in August 1941 / Russian women 's brigade using crude rakes to gather up hay harvest on a collective farm outside the capitol. Location: Moscow, Russia. Date taken: August 1941. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

Just as guys of the same generation remained "guys" for each other, so women of the same generation (of the same conversation) remained "girls" for each other. The relationship between the "girls" who had risen to the status of housewives differed significantly from the male relationships of bolshak: they were competitive. "All axes are together, but the rake is apart",- says the proverb about male and female relationships in the village. The evaluating group of the woman was “genus”. And the family for the woman was not her own family, but the family that she entered into when she got married. In the event of a divorce or the death of her husband, the peasant woman, according to our interlocutors, usually did not return to her parents' house.

21.

Russian woman grimly holding a slab of meat as other peasant women staunchly stand by. Location: Magnitogorsk, Russia. Date taken: 1931. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

The position of female authority, which in the village remains in the form of a community of older women-big ones, determines the age stage of the fortieth birthday. Bolshuha is the mistress of a peasant estate. A significant part of the economy (gardens, livestock, household utensils, clothes and everything related to its manufacture, procurement and stocks of food) is under her control, all women in the family, children and unmarried young men are subordinate to her. In society, the competence of the Bolshoi included control over the behavior of all members of the peasant community, the formation of a collective opinion and its public announcement. In the care of the big woman - the house, cattle and children (both her own and the children of her sons - grandchildren). The economic competence of the bolshoi was assessed by the highway. The criteria for his assessment are the health of the family and livestock, including protection from the magic spells of “envious neighbors”. The success of the Bolshoi's activity was manifested in the world between family members, the rational organization of life, supplies, clothing. She is responsible for organizing all family rituals: calendar holidays, where people visit "families", funerals, weddings, and seeing off to the army.

22.


Distant Russian peasant women raking up piles of wheat which has been cut during harvest at a collective farm 30 miles fr. Moscow. Location: Russia. Date taken: 1941. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

The responsibility of each of the age and gender classes in the Russian countryside was organized in different ways. The guy is responsible for himself and, if he is an ataman, for his "gang" before the elders. The girl is responsible for her "honor" to her parents. A married man is responsible for himself and his wife - before the father and “society”. The Bolshaks cared about both the family welfare and the welfare of the community: the gathering was responsible to the authorities for collecting taxes, distributing land, sending them to military service, etc. The condition for the welfare of the community was the reasonable and competent behavior of householders. The mistress, the big lady, was accountable to the highway, and only her sphere of responsibility was family-house-clan, both living and dead members of the clan - ancestors.

23.


The picture belongs to a series of photographs published in LIFE in August 1941 / Russian farmers w. horse-drawn wagons stacking harvested hay crop on collective farm. Location: Russia. Date taken: August 1941. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

The presence of age and gender classes and related models of behavior, types of social ties, relations of domination and subordination presupposes a special organization of the peasant world. The life of a peasant society has a special structure: it cannot be presented as a single picture of life. People belonging to different sex and age groups and occupying different social positions live in different worlds: their projections of life are determined by their life experience and imputed to them by the status that they received through the transitional ritual. Reducing life projections to a single denominator - the "picture of the world", or "background knowledge", greatly simplifies the idea of \u200b\u200bthe life of the peasant society. It is more convenient to imagine this form as a collection of social worlds. The existence of each of these worlds is ensured by a group of people who, by their micro- and macro-actions, support a certain construction of their “own” reality.

24.

Russian peasant woman standing beside gated archway topped w. cross in Siberia. Location: Magnitogorsk, Russia. Date taken: 1931. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

The world of a peasant girl, with the expectation of her betrothed, protection of her own honor, agonal relationships with girlfriends, etc., differs significantly from the world of a young woman who is involved in the complex vicissitudes of relationships in someone else's family. And it is not at all like the world of the big one, in which the physical and the metaphysical are no longer at the level of fears of the unknowable, but at the level of having relations with the shadow sides of life - master spirits, magic, death. The "picture of the world" is rigidly connected with habit - a set of stereotypes of behavior inherent in a person in a given social position. A change in social position presupposes a change in behavior scenarios and, consequently, a change in life projection ("picture of the world"), which is due to a change in a socially given point of view. Psychologically, such an event for a person necessarily presupposes a certain experience: a previously unknown “part” of the world invades the inner living space and transforms it structurally, bringing it into line with the new “picture of the world” prescribed by the new social status. Such a psychological change presupposes a destructive phase - an explosion, fraught with the destruction of the inner identity of the individual.

25.

Russian peasant woman "aunt" Dasha. The picture belongs to a series of photographs published in LIFE in August 1941 / Russian peasant woman "Auntie" Dasha holding pad & pencil which she will use to figure out govt. work quotas for herself & other women wielding hoes in potato field on collective farm. Location: Russia. Date taken: August 1941. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

One of the functions of the transitional ritual as a social procedure is to transform (transform) one projection of life into another, in accordance with the movement of a person from one socially fixed position to another. The world of the Russian peasant woman underwent similar global transformations through the experience of several initiatory procedures. The first was the wedding, the second was the birth of the first child, the third was going out to the big, the fourth was the funeral ritual, when she had to mourn for the first time death, which changed her status to an orphan or widow. A special rite of passage, where she herself was both the initiator and the initiate, was the rejection of the Bolshoi.

26.

The Russian peasant woman "aunt" Dasha holds a pencil and a notebook in which she will write down the work standards for herself and other women wielding hoes on a collective farm potato field. Photographer Margaret Burke-White (1904-1971), USA. The picture belongs to a series of photographs published in LIFE in August 1941 / Russian peasant woman "Auntie" Dasha holding pad & pencil which she will use to figure out govt. work quotas for herself & other women wielding hoes in a potato field on collective farm. Location: Russia. August 1941. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White

This is how the hierarchical system of age and sex classes in the Russian countryside can be described in general terms - statically. Of course, this superficial description, of course, there are significant differences in the local ways of symbolizing this or that status or this or that transitional period. But the very existence of age and gender classes, understood in the above sense, organizing the hierarchy of the Russian countryside and determining the distribution of economic, social and power functions, seems to us an undeniable fact. "

27.

From a series of photographs published in LIFE in August 1941 / Ukrainian women wheat harvesters on a collective farm nr. Kharkov. Location: Russia. Date taken: August 1941. Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White.

Notes:

See: S. B. Adonyeva. Bigs and bigs // Adonyeva S.B. The spirit of the people and other spirits. SPb., 2009; Levkievskaya E.E. The magical functions of the owner in the East Slavic traditional culture // Male collection. M., 2001. Issue. 1.P. 106-114. In the illustrated encyclopedia "Men and Women: Male and Female in Russian Traditional Culture" (St. Petersburg, 2005), the statuses of the old man and the old woman are described as independent, but the peculiarity of this publication is that the description was made on the basis of material from three centuries - from the beginning of the 18th century ... until the 1990s

One of the meanings of the word " large»In Russian - the position of the owner or mistress in the family and home.

See: M.M. Gromyko The world of the Russian village. M., 1991. S. 103 - 109; Life of the North Russian peasants-farmers. Description of materials of the Ethnographic Bureau of Prince V.N. Tenishev (on the example of the Vladimir province). SPb., 1993. S. 181-182.

See: S. B. Adonyeva. On the ritual function of women in the Russian tradition // Living antiquity. 1998. No. 1. P. 26-28.

The card file of the Pskov Regional Dictionary is kept in the Interdepartmental Dictionary Office named after prof. B.A. Larina at the Faculty of Philology, St. Petersburg State University.

Shatia - a company of guys (Card catalog of the Pskov regional dictionary; Card catalog of the dictionary of Russian dialects of Karelia and adjacent regions (Interdepartmental vocabulary cabinet named after B.A. Larin at the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University)).

Adonyeva S.B., Bazhkova E.V. Functional differences in the behavior and role of women at different stages of her life // Belozerie: Almanac of Local Lore. Vologda, 1998. Issue. 2.P. 204-212.

See: Documents testify: From the history of the village on the eve of and during collectivization. 1927-1932 M., 1989; The tragedy of the Soviet village. Collectivization and dispossession. 1927-1939. Documents and materials: In 5 volumes. V. 1. May 1927 - November 1929 / Ed. V. Danilov, R. Manning, L. Viola. M., 2001.

The gathering as the governing body of the rural community, which was made up of household owners, was replaced by the kolkhoz board as the governing body of the socialized economy and the village council as the territorial governing body. See about this: Essays on the history of the organs of Soviet state power. M., 1949. S. 40, 47, 74, 77-82, 137-138, 151-152; Bodies of the Soviet state power on the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod province (1917-1929): A short guide. Gorky, 1982. S. 67-68; Korzhikhina T.P. History of state institutions of the USSR. M., 1986.S. 157.

Cit. by: Churkin V.F. Self-identification of the peasantry at a turning point in their history // History of State and Law. 2006. No. 7. P. 27-31.

Cit. Quoted from: Nikulin RL. Participation of the Komsomol organizations of the Chernozem region in dispossession of kulaks // Proceedings of the Department of History and Philosophy of Tambov State University. SPb., 2004. Issue. II. S. 83-89.

See: Borisov S. B. Honor as a Phenomenon of Russian Political Consciousness. Shadrinsk, 2001.

See: B.M. Teplov Psychology. M., 1953.S. 222.

See: Adonyeva S.B., Bazhkova E.V. Decree. op. P. 208.

On the competitive relationship of women housewives, see: G.I. Kabakova. Anthropology of the female body in the Slavic tradition. M., 2001.

See: Yu.M. Lotman Culture and explosion. M., 1992. S. 176-212.

The principles of psychological and social work of Russian peasant transitional rituals were considered in detail in the following works: On the ritual function of women in the Russian tradition // Living antiquity. 1998. No. 1. P. 26-28; Ethnography of Northern Russian lamentations // Bulletin of the phonetic fund of the Russian language. Appendix No. 7. Ritual poetry of the Russian North: crying. SPb .: Bochum, 1998. S. 63-85; "I" and "You" in the ritual text: the situation of the border // Border consciousness: border culture. SPb., 1999. S. 47-74; The pragmatics of folklore. SPb., 2004.

Full article, citation source:
[*] Laura Olson, Svetlana Adonyeva. Soviet peasant women (gender and age identity: structure and history) // New literary review No. 117 (5/2012). Semiotics of August in the 20th century: transformation of the life of a private person in the era of social cataclysms / Transformation of the gender order
Authors book:
[**] Laura Olson, Svetlana Adonyeva. Tradition, Transgression, Compromise: The Worlds of a Russian Country Woman / Per. from English A. Zinder. - M .: New literary review, 2016 .-- 440 p .: ill. ISBN 978-5-4448-0518-3. Series: Scientific Library

The beginning of the 20th century was not easy for Moscow. A little earlier, in 1896, the tragedy on Khodynka marked the accession to the throne of the last Russian tsar. K. Balmont in one of his poems prophesied: "Whoever began to reign - Khodynka, will end - standing on the scaffold." A little later, in 1905, Bloody Sunday happened in neighboring St. Petersburg. Echoes reached Moscow as well. And off we go. More and more Muscovites from families of workers and peasants attend closed meetings of the Bolsheviks, organize strikes, and fight for their rights. More and more aristocrats are leaving their mansions and rushing abroad. The mass departure of the intelligentsia and the high society will begin later, when the revolution sweeps across the Moscow land in a rolling wave. But even now the situation is so tense that it seems that the slightest impulse - and an uprising may break out.

1900 is such a peculiar feature. The era of Moscow, measured, judicious, merchantly complacent, has ended. And the leap began, the race for time and events. The pace of life has increased several times. Now everything was happening faster, faster.

Muscovites preferred to celebrate New Year in restaurants. The newspaper "Russkoe Slovo" describes such a New Year's party: "Those present almost drowned a newborn (available in the form of a New Year) in a sea of \u200b\u200bchampagne. And they almost left him deaf, because the orchestras were playing loudly, the ladies were screaming, and the men were thundering toasts."

The Moscow "society" was very conservative about the choice of restaurants. The "Hermitage" and "Slavianski Bazaar" gathered industrial aces and oligarchs of the "new spill", the "Metropol" was chosen by the regulars of the races and athletes, the "Prague" was walked by the military and lawyers, and the actors preferred to go to the "Bar" side street.

But the main event for high society was the Leadership Ball, where only people of "blue blood" were allowed. A special commission carefully filtered invitations, sending them only to a select few. Getting a ticket to the Leadership Ball was considered the highest sign of honor.

But gradually this tradition became obsolete. Aristocrats became less and less, and by 1910 the leader's ball was already open to any public: merchants and commoners danced, the ladies of the half-world were openly flirting with the officers.

The same thing happened with the masquerades. Once the joy of the nobility, masquerades are now a real lottery. Here one could meet a dressmaker, a laundress, a maid, a countess, a petty employee, and a leader of the nobility.

After celebrating the New Year, a series of entertainment followed, which lasted until Maslenitsa. Then - a strict post. After Easter, Moscow was empty, because everyone who could went to their dachas, students and actors left for vacations.

Moscow revived with the onset of September. A new season was opening in theaters, classes began in schools, gymnasiums and universities, and social life was resumed. And so on until December. And there - again New Year, and the circle closed.

Speaking about everyday life, it is worth mentioning that the life of Muscovites has become much more comfortable. Many houses already had running water and electricity, the telephone became commonplace. Sewerage was laid, though so far only in the center, in the Garden Ring area. But Moscow was built and grew. The last all-Russian population census of 1897 showed that over a million inhabitants already live in Moscow. Wastelands on the outskirts were hastily settled, new districts grew.

Despite the huge staff of janitors (each house had 2-3 janitors), Moscow streets were not clean. There were no urns, and a huge number of horses left behind mountains of dung. In the summer, dust was in the air, because the streets were watered only in the center. It was better in winter: the snow hid all the dirt, wrapping houses and trees, domes of churches and roofs of houses with a snow-white blanket. The snow was not cleared off, since it was necessary for the sled to move. And the sidewalks were sprinkled with ash or sand.

And there was also a problem on Moscow streets, if not with floods, then with an undeveloped drainage system after heavy summer rains, when the pouring rainwater accumulated overflowing floods on the old city streets.

Trams were already running around Moscow, pouring their chimes along the central streets. A few cars rustled past, of which there were only a few in Moscow at that time. The main transport is animal-drawn: cabs and carts, draymen and reckless drivers. In winter, the carts were changed to sleds. But traffic jams existed even then!

The Moscow public was now a motley mixture of aristocrats and cadets, officers and merchants, workers and merchants, servants and waiters, beggars and cripples. The estate could be recognized not only by manners, but also by clothes. If there was no special charter for women, except for Parisian fashion magazines, then almost all men dressed according to the uniform order.

Each educational institution had its own uniform, officers went exclusively to the military, officials put on uniform frock coats with buttonholes and caps with cockades. Small employees wore stand-up collars. And ordinary people dressed in a woolen undercoat, a cap and accordion boots. They did not go without a headdress even in summer.

You could buy clothes in special stores. Expensive goods were offered in the shop "Mus and Meriliz" - the future Central Department Store and in large passages. One of the most famous - the Upper Trading Rows - the future GUM.

The largest markets were on Sukharevskaya and Smolenskaya squares - here they sold all kinds of old stuff. Vegetables and fruits were sold at the Bolotny market, and a zoo market was operating at Trubnaya Square.

They preferred to buy food in shops and stores, which were numerous on any street. Products were often sold on credit. Debts were recorded in a special "fence" book.

In addition to shops, products were also sold from the stall. Lotters flooded the scraps of Moscow from early morning until late at night. You could buy fruits, watermelons, beaten poultry, fish from them.

But most of the products were on the famous Hunting Row, which is superbly described by Gilyarovsky. There were also elite grocery stores: from Gromov, Belov, Eliseev. The assortment in them was richer, but the prices were too high. The same herring, which was sold for 3 kopecks in the market, cost all 30 at Eliseev's. But delicacies were sold here: caviar and oranges, pineapples and expensive champagne.

We must not forget that such a complacent and well-fed life in Moscow existed due to the labor of numerous workers and servants, cabbies, clerks, janitors and waiters, doormen and shoemakers.

Those who came to Moscow hoping to earn money, these people very soon lost in the city's millionth population. It's good if by old age you managed to save up at least some pennies in order to return to your native village. The majority, having left the service, fell into poverty and vagrancy. Beggars in Moscow at the beginning of the twentieth century were incredible. And they also stole: godlessly and everywhere.

There were also areas with increased crime, for example, Khitrovka and Tsvetnoy Boulevard - areas where it was scary to enter even in daylight. Here was the "bottom" of the Moscow public: thieves, robbers and ladies of easy virtue. These areas were remarkably described by B. Akunin in his novel "The Death of Achilles".

Such was Moscow at the beginning of the twentieth century - with incredible contrasts and monstrous grimaces of a big city, learning to live in step with the times, abundant and impoverished at the same time.