Medieval Europe was very different from modern civilization: its territory was covered with forests and swamps, and people settled in areas where they could cut down trees, drain the swamps and engage in agriculture. How did the peasants live in the Middle Ages, what did they eat and do?
Middle Ages and the era of feudalism
The history of the Middle Ages covers the period from the 5th to the beginning of the 16th century, until the onset of the modern era, and refers mainly to the countries of Western Europe. This period is characterized by specific features of life: the feudal system of relationships between landowners and peasants, the existence of lords and vassals, the dominant role of the church in the life of the entire population.
One of the main features of the history of the Middle Ages in Europe is the existence of feudalism, a special socio-economic structure and mode of production.
As a result of internecine wars, crusades and other hostilities, kings endowed their vassals with lands on which they built their estates or castles. As a rule, the whole land was donated together with the people living on it.
Dependence of peasants on feudal lords
The wealthy lord received all the land surrounding the castle, on which villages with peasants were located. Almost everything that the peasants did in the Middle Ages was taxed. Poor people, cultivating their land and his, paid the lord not only tribute, but also for the use of various devices for processing the crop: ovens, mills, a press for crushing grapes. They paid the tax in natural products: grain, honey, wine.
All peasants were in strong dependence on their feudal lord, practically they worked for him in slave labor, feeding on what remained after growing the crop, most of which was given to their master and the church.
Wars periodically took place between the vassals, during which the peasants asked for the protection of their master, for which they were forced to give him their allotment, and in the future they became completely dependent on him.
Dividing peasants into groups
To understand how the peasants lived in the Middle Ages, you need to understand the relationship between the feudal lord and the poor people who lived in the villages in the territories adjacent to the castle, cultivated land.
The tools of labor of peasants in the Middle Ages in the field were primitive. The poorest harvested the ground with a log, others with a harrow. Later, scythes and pitchforks made of iron appeared, as well as shovels, axes and rakes. From the 9th century, heavy wheeled plows were used in the fields, and a plow was used on light soils. For harvesting, sickles and threshing chains were intended.
All tools of labor in the Middle Ages remained unchanged for many centuries, because the peasants did not have the money to purchase new ones, and their feudal lords were not interested in improving working conditions, they were only concerned about getting a large harvest at minimal cost.
Peasant discontent
The history of the Middle Ages is notable for the constant confrontation between the large landowners, as well as the feudal relationship between the rich lords and the impoverished peasantry. This situation was formed on the ruins of an ancient society in which slavery existed, which was clearly manifested in the era of the Roman Empire.
The rather difficult conditions of how the peasants lived in the Middle Ages, the deprivation of their land plots and property, often provoked protests, which were expressed in different forms. Some of the desperate fled from their masters, others staged massive riots. The rebellious peasants almost always suffered defeat due to disorganization and spontaneity. After such riots, the feudal lords sought to consolidate the size of the duties in order to stop their endless growth and reduce the discontent of the poor people.
End of the Middle Ages and the slave life of peasants
With the growth of the economy and the emergence of production towards the end of the Middle Ages, an industrial revolution took place, many villagers began to move to cities. Among the poor and representatives of other classes, humanistic views began to prevail, which considered personal freedom for each person an important goal.
With the abandonment of the feudal system, an era came, called the New Time, in which there was no longer a place for outdated relationships between peasants and their lords.
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 visited here many times 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 one, then one of the few literate people. No matter how the parishioners treated him, he was the 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 that is why 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 the age of 13-14, 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 landowners, 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 bridesmaids dressed the bride for the crown: the best shirt, an 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, the bride came to the courtyard, 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 to court were whipped with rods or thrown with women's headdresses in order to quickly snatch 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 of work it noticeably increased. 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 a hut should be recognized as a model of a 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 stood 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 entrance, 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 department, "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 smeared simultaneously with 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 rail 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 - breakfast, consisting of cabbage, cakes, kulish or lokshina with lard. 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, 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, a block, rye flower dust, 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. It was considered a sin for young women under 30 not to wear earrings, so girls' ears from the second year of life 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. Around the girl's neck they wore a multi-colored namisto up to 25 threads, more or less lowered to the chest. Also, a cross was always worn around the neck. The crosses were wooden, costing 5 kopecks; glass, white and colored, from 1 kopeck; copper 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 entire 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 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. Above the shirt, a gray woolen or paper vest was worn, single-breasted, with a narrow stand-up collar, without a cutout and with two pockets. Over the waistcoat they wore a black cloth or gray woolen chumarka, 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 shoes consisted only of boots (chobots). Chobots were made of yukhta, sometimes of 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. "In recruitment - that in the grave", "In our volost there are three pains: lack of brutality, taxes and zemshchina", "Merry grief - a soldier's life", "A young man fought, and when he was old they let him 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 of the village, 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 her 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 nominate 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. They arranged a general cleaning of the house 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 bedding and sackcloth, which they used to cover instead of blankets, with pylons. 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 needy. 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 in 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.
Why were the sailors from the peasants not subject to seasickness? When was the word "kvashnya" more a praise than an insult? How did the grapple for pulling the pots out of the stove help the militia in 1812, and the yoke helped one strong woman who met the Tatar-Mongols on Pochayna? The answers to all these difficult questions can be found in our entertaining dictionary of obsolete peasant household items.
Outrigger - not a holiday on February 14, but a massive, upwardly curved wooden block with a short handle. Served for threshing flax and for knocking out linen during washing. Rolls were made of linden or birch and decorated with carvings and paintings. Valyok was considered a wonderful gift from the groom to the bride - the guys kind of encouraged the girls for further labor exploits, grinding the rolls in the shape of a female figure, or with holes where pebbles and peas were placed. While working, they made gurgling sounds, delighting the ear of the workers.
"Garglers", F.V. Sychkov (1910)
Endova - a wooden or metal bowl in the form of a boat with a spout for draining. Used to dispense drinks at feasts. Another endova could easily accommodate a bucket of mash, because mash at that time was a low-alcohol drink!
"Bread, salt and brother", V.F. Stozharov (1964)
Millstones. One might think that the millstones were located only in mills. In fact, this bulky object was in every hut. Don't go to the mill for a sack of flour? This subject was not so simple. Its surface is divided by grooves to ensure gradual pouring of the finished flour from under the millstones. In addition, historians claim that the millstones were invented before the wheels and to some extent served as their prototype.
Shaky - was meant for. A small box was hung directly from the ceiling, to the central mattress beam, using a flexible pickpole. It is likely that the unsteadiness, and even the traditional peasant fun - the swing - "brought up" the child's excellent vestibular apparatus. It was noticed that the sailors from the peasants were not susceptible to seasickness and were not afraid of heights.
S. Lobovikov (early XX century)
Shops.In fact, the whole furnishings of the peasant hut consisted of benches stretching along the walls. In the red corner, under the shrines, there was a "red" shop - only guests of special honor, priests, for example, or those who were getting married on their wedding day sat on it. The owner worked and rested on the bench at the entrance, the bench opposite the stove was intended for spinning. At night, the benches served: old people on the stove, children on the beds.
"Red corner in the hut", M.V. Maximov (1869)
Splint. The peasant life, in which everything was strictly practical, also needed decoration. You can't live without! And aesthetics came to the village in the most accessible embodiment. Luboks, printed sheets of edifying, historical or humorous content, could be bought at a fair or from a peddler. Simple, vivid pictures were accompanied by text, sometimes in verse. They were basically comics.
Kvashnya - wooden tub for kneading dough. It was recognized by the ancestors not just as a household item, but as a living being of the highest order. The most expensive and best doughs were hollowed out of an oak trunk. The dough that came up in the oak sauerkraut was especially airy - the secret was the low thermal conductivity of the walls. And on the walls of the tub, over time, a white coating formed - molds, which had the ability to heal wounds.
Rocker- a thick, curved wooden stick with hooks or notches at the ends. Designed for carrying buckets of water. It lay comfortably on the shoulders, and the buckets did not splash when walking. The rocker arms were decorated with carvings and paintings. It is believed that it was the rocker that produced a smooth gait and good posture in Slavic girls. In addition, the yoke could well whack someone unsympathetic. According to historians, during the siege of Novgorod by hordes of Tatar-Mongols, one strong girl on the Pochayna River so departed the Tatars with a yoke that they cowed and lifted the siege.
Krosno (krosna) - a wooden weaving mill, which took up a lot of space in the hut. On it, women weaved linen. It was customary to decorate it with solar (solar) symbolism, because the woven clothing warmed the whole family. Now the mills are the lot of rare craftswomen, who break a monstrous price for their work.
from. Verkhne-Usinskoe Usinsky border district, 1916
Body - what the bear in the fairy tale carried Masha, an impressive box, woven from bast and birch bark. Worn over shoulders like travel backpacks. It looks very similar, and also some bucket dangles from the side.
Polati -shelf under the ceiling, going from the stove and above. Usually children lived there, of whom there were many in the huts of their ancestors. It was the warmest place in the hut. All sorts of items intended for drying were also dried there. “There is no feather bed, no bed, but the floor is warm in the hut,” wrote the poet Nekrasov.
"In the hut", N.L. Ellert (1890s)
Pomelo - a bunch of grass, intended for cleaning the hearth and hearth of the oven before cooking. Today the pomelo is confused with a broom and a broom. But in the old days, the hostess, who swept the floor with a broom, or, on the contrary, with a broom - a stove, was subjected to public ostracism. It was like cleaning the dining table with a doormat. In addition, it was believed that the spirit of the home could be very offended and punish the slut with all sorts of domestic troubles. The pomelo was knitted from wormwood, which is abundant everywhere, and once a year, on Thursday during Holy Week, the hostesses made a pomelo from juniper or spruce twigs. The Thursday pomelo, according to legend, was able to scare off the devil if the unclean person wants to stick his head into the chimney.
"Peasant hut", V.M. Maximov (1869)
Supplier - a table, it is also a buffet. Unlike the dining table, it was not in the red corner, but next to the stove, and was higher - so that it was more convenient for a woman to cook. The ancestors also understood something about! Various utensils were placed inside the supplier.
Mortar - utensils hollowed out of a birch or aspen trunk for making and grinding flax and hemp seeds. When pounded in a mortar, the grain is freed from the shell and partially crushed. The stupa was taken very seriously, it was considered an infernal subject and close to the other world. Baba Yaga flew in the mortar - the Slavs remembered that they once buried their ancestors in hollow oval coffins, exactly like a mortar ...
Chest. Who doesn't know what a chest is? But this comfortable ancient piece of furniture has completely gone out of use. What a pity! It was possible to store many things there, it was possible on the chest, a musical mechanism was built into the locks of the chest ... And you will sleep well, and you will listen to music, and your home belongings are hidden away. And how can another rural painter paint him with instructive subjects - and you can't take your eyes off!
Styling - has nothing to do with hairstyle or to. Stacking is almost the same as chest, and many confuse the two. My dears, you must understand the difference! What's in the chest? Five scarlet sarafans, and one blue, a dozen shirts, the deceased's grandmother, a caftan, and thin boots. The rags, that is, they do not need to be closed - who is flattered by this good? And styling is another matter. Stowage is a secret chest with a tricky lock, money is kept there. In general - a safe, only primitive.
Grip - steel spear on a long stick. Intended for taking pots out of the oven. There could be several grabs on the farm, according to the diameter of the pots. In addition, the grip, according to L. Tolstoy, played an important role in the people's war of 1812, being adopted by the militia. And this is no joke - by the way, the combat grip has been known for a long time. And the household grip is no different from the combat one. Now the grip has been replaced with mittens and tacks. Well, how will a Frenchman trample on us again - will we brush aside with tackles?
Bread shovel - when bread and pies were baked in every house, a wide wooden shovel on a long handle was needed during the oven. A bread shovel was made from a whole piece of wood, more precisely, a linden, aspen or alder trunk. Even Baba Yaga had one - she almost baked Lutonyushka on it, but she herself turned out to be a fool.
Puppy - a pot for cabbage soup. It differed from the kashnik (porridge pot) only in its name.
The life of the Russian peasant was not rich, even meager. And yet people lived, rejoiced at something, played weddings, and what songs they sang, what fairy tales they told. Hence, in fact, happiness is better than wealth.
Alisa Orlova
My grandfather Pavel Antonovich was a peasant. He was born in 1906 in the Belarusian village of Kleshevo. Using the example of his life, I will tell you how the peasants lived in the USSR. At a history lesson in the 4th grade, the teacher told us about the difficult peasant life in pre-revolutionary times. Having arrived with my parents in the village for the holidays, remembering these words, I asked my grandfather directly: "Was it hard to live in tsarist times? The landlords tortured you?" His answer took me by surprise: " Lived well... We had a good gentleman and he rarely visited us. "
Painting by G. Myasoedov "The Time of Suffering", 1887
The "good" life of the peasants before the 1917 revolution
Peasant life has always been both light and heavy at the same time... Easy because people in the village provided for themselves, did not depend on almost anyone. The main thing was to have enough land. Do you want a satisfying winter? Plow the field, plant more potatoes, pumpkins, etc .; get a cow, sheep, chickens, turkeys, ducks; mow hay, and more so that the cow does not starve in winter. Do you want to stay warm in winter? Cut down a good hut, put down a large stove with a stove bench; prepare more firewood. And it was heavy because too much work for the peasants, moreover, from the early morning. My grandfather also told me that they had earthen floors, and hut illuminated at night with torches - long splinters inserted into a special metal clip at a certain angle, so that it does not burn out very quickly.
Painting by N. Pimonenko "Matchmakers", 1882 Indeed, at the end of the 1920s, all peasants began to be rounded up to collective farms. Rural workers had to work no longer for yourself, but for the state... Was personal workday system, according to which, in the end, they gave less food than the villagers produced for themselves before. Grandfather Pavel recalled that he had a horse on the farm. During collectivization, it was taken away from him, but he still came to the collective farm stables to feed her. There were two stables in the village. The collective farm chairman ordered to transfer grandfather's horse to the far one so that Pavel would go less to her. I remember crying when I learned about such a stupid injustice. In the 60s, life in the village became easier: electricity was installed in the houses, even a powerful tractor "Kirovets" appeared on the collective farm in addition to the "Belarus". Grandfather began to receive pension 24 rubles., like a disabled war veteran, and grandmother - 12 rubles. (the pensions of the townspeople at that time were about 60 rubles).
My grandfather Pavel with grandmother Antonina. 1968 year I will also indicate, in a thesis, how my grandfather Pavel lived in the village:
- for workdays ( collective farmers have received salaries since 1966.);
- as a serf ( without passport) until the 70s;
- without electricity until the 60s;
- worked on 2 "fronts": on the farm and in your garden;
- had to cut apple trees in the gardenwhen the tax on fruit trees was introduced;
- i made myself (or rather, with Baba Antonina) delicious pork sausage (nothing like this has yet been found in supermarkets!).
I remember the advice from my grandfather, apparently inspired by a difficult peasant life: "Never go to bed before sunset!"
The life and life of peasants in Russia depended on the area in which they lived. The house was significantly insulated in the northern regions, while in the south, huts were used. The location on the border or newly developed territories was accompanied by enemy raids. In addition, each province has its own traditions that make it possible to distinguish between residents of different regions.
But in general, the way of life of peasants in Russia in the 16-19 centuries was very similar.
House
The center of the peasant house was a stone bake... Walls made of logs (pine or spruce) were placed around it. The floor is earthen. Rugs were placed on it for warmth.
At the end of the 16th century, canopy... Entering from the street, a peasant found himself in a small "cold" room, where food was stored and so on. And only then into the dwelling itself. There were no windows in the entryway. This improvement helped keep the home warm.
In the hut window were covered with a bull or fish bubble. Glass was a rarity. The windows also served as a chimney, located higher.
Bake drowned in black, the smoke went into the hole in the ceiling and windows. First, the house warmed up better this way. Secondly, the walls were covered with a black coating of soot and soot, which clogged the cracks in the walls: insects do not crawl in summer, and in winter the wind does not blow. The cracks in the walls were additionally clogged with moss or straw. It was believed that the hut would remain so for a longer period, because the walls covered with soot did not rot. In addition, the stove required less firewood with this kind of kindling.
Only wealthy peasants could afford to drown in white. The poor did it only by the end of the 18th century.
They cooked food and washed themselves in the oven; not everyone had baths. The Russian stove, which was heated all year round, was used. as a sleeping place.
The hut was lit with a torch, which was stuck near the stove into a special stand. A bowl of water or earth was placed under the splinter to prevent a fire from accidentally falling coal. Mostly with darkness, everyone went to bed.
Interior decoration of the house
The decoration of the house is sparse. Obliquely from the oven - red cornerwhere the icon was located. Entering the house, the gaze fell on the icons. Those who entered were baptized, and only then greeted the owners.
On one side of the oven was located " female part", Where women cooked and did needlework. The large table at which the meal was held stood in the center, the number of seats was designed for the whole family. On the other side of the stove were the tools and a bench for men's work.
Stalls stood along the walls. They slept on them, hiding with homespun cloths and skins. A ring was driven into the roof, on which a cradle with a child was usually broadcast. While doing needlework, the woman rocked the cradle.
Mandatory attribute of a peasant house - chests with belongings. They could be wooden, leather upholstered or metal plates. For each girl, there was a separate chest with a dowry.
Dishes in the house there were two types: clay, in which they cooked, and wooden, from which they ate. Metal dishes were very rare and cost a lot of money.
Yard
In the courtyard were located outbuildings: barn, livestock corral (barn). In the 16-17th century, the construction of a two-tiered barn gained popularity in the northern regions: there were animals at the bottom, and hay and working equipment were stored on the second tier.
In winter, it was often necessary to take livestock directly into the house to protect it from frost.
Mandatory building - underground... A hole in the ground, which was covered with a lid. Food was put into it so that they would not spoil in the heat. In the cold season, food could be stored in the entryway in bags, or outside.
I must have been in the yard gardenwhere women and children worked. Vegetables were grown: turnips, beets, carrots, cabbage, radishes, onions. Depending on the region, they could grow berries or fruits.
Potatoes, peas, rye, oats, barley, wheat, spelled, eggs, litters, millet, lentils, flax, hemp sowed in the field... Annual and perennial grasses were also sown.
Mushrooms and berries were picked in the forest, mostly children. Dried for future use, made supplies for the winter. They collected honey from wild bees.
Fish caught in the river were stored in salted and dried form.
Peasant house, Kirov region
Food
All the peasants observed church fasting. Most often, vegetables, bread and porridge were on their table. Fish on permitted days. And meat dishes were eaten mainly on holidays.
Regular meals in every peasant family: cabbage soup with lard and black bread, sauerkraut with onions, lean soup, radish or beetroot with vegetable oil. Steamed turnip, rye turnip pie. Meat and white flour pies (rare) on holidays. Porridge with butter.
Milk was used to produce dairy products, which were also eaten on the days permitted by fasting.
They drank herbal tea, kvass, mead, wine. Kissel was prepared from oats.
Salt was considered the most valuable product, since it allowed meat and fish to be harvested without allowing them to deteriorate.
The work of the peasants
The main occupation, the life of the peasants is agriculture... Arable land, mowing, harvesting, in which both men, children and women took part (not always in arable land). If the family did not have enough workers, then they hired workers to help, paying them money or food.
Agricultural inventory depended on the wealth of the family. Forks, scythe, axes and rakes. Used a plow and plow.
The peasants had millstones for making flour and a potter's wheel.
After the end of agricultural work, men had time to crafts... Everyone in the village owned crafts, could do any job, children were taught from early childhood. Specialties that could be mastered by working as an apprentice, for example, a blacksmith, were highly valued. The peasants produced furniture, dishes, and various working implements on their own.
Boys in peasant families from an early age they were taught to work: to go after livestock, help in the garden. At the age of 9, the boy began to learn how to ride a horse, use a plow, scythe, and an ax. By the age of 13 he was taken to work in the field. By the age of 16, the boy already owned crafts, knew how to weave bast shoes.
Later, when universal primary education began, boys and sometimes girls were sent to schools that were located in churches. They taught to read, write and count, studied the law of God.
Women they did housework, looked after cattle and a vegetable garden, helped men in the field. Special attention was paid to needlework - they made all the clothes for the whole family.
From the age of 7, girls were taught to spin, embroider, sew shirts, weave, preparing them for adulthood. Each one prepared her own dowry, trying to decorate as best as possible. Those who by a certain age had not yet mastered the skill were ridiculed. This also applied to boys who did not know how to do something, for example, weave bast shoes.
Depending on the climatic conditions, the peasants also engaged in beekeeping, winemaking, and cultivated vineyards.
Men were engaged in hunting and fishing.
clothing
The main task of peasant clothing was comfort for work and warmth. The women themselves wove the material for their clothes.
Peasants wore long linen or linen shirts with gussets attached to the armpits, replaceable elements that collected sweat. There were also replaceable elements on the shoulders, back and chest - the lining - the background. A belt was worn over the shirt.
The peasants' outerwear is a caftan (fastened with buttons or fasteners) and a zipun (a narrow short dress). In winter, they wore sheepskin coats and hats (felted or from the skins of forest animals)
Women wore shirts, putting on a floor-length sundress from above and a long skirt.
Married women always covered their heads with a scarf, and girls wore a bandage in the form of a wide ribbon.
Bast shoes were put on their feet, and in some areas in the cold they wore shoes made of two pieces of leather sewn together. Weaved shoes from twigs, tying a leather sole to the leg with a belt.
Holidays
The peasants were very religious, believing people, so the holidays were mostly religious. At home they prayed before and after the meal, any business began with prayer, in the hope that God would not leave in a good undertaking.
The peasants attended church regularly on Sundays. It was obligatory to be present at confession at Holy Fourtecost before Easter. Easter was considered the main Orthodox holiday. ()
New Year was first celebrated in September, and after the reform of Peter the Great, January 1, 1700 became the first New Year according to the new calendar.
Nativity of Christ and the following Christmastide and Maslenitsa were accompanied by carols, fortune-telling, mass festive celebrations, round dances, sleigh rides.
In winter, on the days allowed by fasting, weddings were played, and they were necessarily accompanied by various wedding signs and traditions. ()
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