Report on the daily life of the peasants. Peasant life style

A Russian dwelling is not a separate house, but a fenced yard in which several buildings, both residential and utility, were built. Izba was the general name of a residential building. The word "hut" comes from the ancient "istba", "stove". Initially, this was the name of the main heated residential part of the house with a stove.

As a rule, the dwellings of rich and poor peasants in the villages practically differed in quality factor and the number of buildings, the quality of decoration, but consisted of the same elements. The presence of such outbuildings as a barn, a barn, a shed, a bathhouse, a cellar, a barn, an exit, a barn, etc., depended on the level of development of the economy. All buildings in the literal sense of the word were chopped with an ax from the beginning to the end of construction, although longitudinal and transverse saws were known and used. The concept of "peasant yard" included not only buildings, but also the plot of land on which they were located, including a vegetable garden, a garden, a threshing floor, etc.

The main building material was wood. The number of forests with excellent "business" forests far exceeded what is now preserved in the vicinity of Saitovka. Pine and spruce were considered the best types of wood for buildings, but pine was always preferred. Oak was valued for the strength of the wood, but it was heavy and difficult to work. It was used only in the lower crowns of log cabins, for the construction of cellars or in structures where special strength was needed (mills, wells, salt pits). Other tree species, especially deciduous (birch, alder, aspen), were used in the construction, as a rule, of outbuildings.

For each need, trees were selected according to special characteristics. So, for the walls of the log house, they tried to pick up special "warm" trees, overgrown with moss, straight, but not necessarily straight-layered. At the same time, not just straight, but straight-layered trees were necessarily chosen for the roof board. More often, log cabins were collected already in the yard or near the yard. Carefully chose the place for the future home

For the construction of even the largest log-type buildings, they usually did not build a special foundation along the perimeter of the walls, but supports were laid at the corners of the huts - large boulders or the so-called "chairs" from oak stumps. In rare cases, if the length of the walls was much longer than usual, supports were also placed in the middle of such walls. The very nature of the log construction of the buildings made it possible to confine ourselves to relying on four main points, since the log house was a seamless structure.

The vast majority of buildings were based on a "cage", "crown", a bunch of four logs, the ends of which were chopped into a tie. The methods of such felling could be different according to the execution technique.

The main constructive types of logged peasant residential buildings were "cross", "five-wall", a house with a cut. For insulation between the crowns of logs, moss was interspersed with tow.

but the purpose of the connection was always the same - to fasten the logs together into a square with strong knots without any additional connection elements (staples, nails, wooden pins or knitting needles, etc.). Each log had a strictly defined place in the structure. Having cut down the first wreath, they cut the second one on it, the third one on the second, etc., until the log house reached a predetermined height.

The roofs of the huts were mostly covered with straw, which, especially in lean years, often served as fodder for livestock. Sometimes more prosperous peasants erected roofs made of plank or batten. Tes was made by hand. To do this, two workers used high goats and a long longitudinal saw.

Everywhere, like all Russians, the peasants of Saitovka, according to a common custom, when laying a house, put money under the lower crown in all corners, and a larger coin was supposed to be in the red corner. And where the stove was placed, they did not put anything, since this corner, according to popular beliefs, was intended for a brownie.

In the upper part of the frame, across the hut, there was a uterus - a tetrahedral wooden beam that served as a support for the ceilings. The uterus was cut into the upper crowns of the frame and was often used to hang objects from the ceiling. So, a ring was nailed to it, through which an ochep (flexible pole) of the cradle (unsteadiness) passed. A lantern with a candle was hung in the middle to illuminate the hut, and later a kerosene lamp with a lampshade.

In the rituals associated with the completion of the construction of the house, there was an obligatory treat, which was called "matic". In addition, the laying of the uterus itself, after which there was still a fairly large amount of construction work, was considered as a special stage in the construction of the house and furnished with its own rituals.

In the wedding ceremony for a successful matchmaking, the matchmakers never entered the house for the uterus without a special invitation from the owners of the house. In the folk language, the expression "to sit under the uterus" meant "to be a matchmaker." The idea of ​​the father's house, luck, happiness was associated with the uterus. So, leaving the house, it was necessary to hold on to the uterus.

For insulation around the entire perimeter, the lower crowns of the hut were covered with earth, forming a mound in front of which a bench was installed. In the summer, old people spent the evening on a mound and a bench. Fallen leaves with dry earth were usually laid on top of the ceiling. The space between the ceiling and the roof - the attic in Saitovka was also called the istka. On it, things, utensils, utensils, furniture, brooms, bunches of grass, etc., were usually stored. The children arranged their simple hiding places on it.

A porch and a canopy were necessarily attached to a residential hut - a small room that protected the hut from the cold. The role of the canopy was varied. This is a protective vestibule in front of the entrance, and additional living quarters in the summer, and a utility room where part of the food supplies were kept.

The soul of the whole house was the oven. It should be noted that the so-called "Russian", or, more correctly, an oven, is a purely local invention and quite ancient. It traces its history back to the Trypillia dwellings. But in the design of the oven itself during the second millennium of our era, very significant changes took place, which made it possible to use fuel much more fully.

Putting together a good stove is not an easy task. At first, a small wooden frame (oven) was installed right on the ground, which served as the foundation of the furnace. Small logs split in half were laid on it and the bottom of the oven was laid out on them - under, even, without tilt, otherwise the baked bread would turn out to be lopsided. Above the hearth of stone and clay, a furnace vault was built. The side of the oven had several shallow holes called stoves, in which mittens, mittens, socks, etc. were dried. In the old days, the huts (smoky ones) were heated in a black way - the stove did not have a chimney. The smoke escaped through a small portage window. Although the walls and ceiling became sooty, this had to be put up with: a stove without a chimney was cheaper to build and required less wood. Subsequently, in accordance with the rules of rural improvement, mandatory for state peasants, chimneys began to be removed above the huts.

First of all, the "big woman" stood up - the owner's wife, if she was not yet old, or one of the daughters-in-law. She flooded the stove, opened wide the door and the smoker. Smoke and cold lifted everyone. Small children were put on a pole to warm themselves. Acrid smoke filled the entire hut, crawled up, hung under the ceiling above human height. In an ancient Russian proverb, known since the 13th century, it says: "I could not bear the smoky sorrows, I did not see the heat." Smoked logs of houses rotted less, so chicken huts were more durable.

The stove occupied almost a quarter of the dwelling area. It was heated for several hours, but, having warmed up, kept warm and heated the room during the day. The stove served not only for heating and cooking, but also as a stove bench. Bread and pies were baked in the oven, porridge, cabbage soup were cooked, meat and vegetables were stewed. In addition, mushrooms, berries, grain, and malt were also dried in it. Often in the oven, replacing the bath, steamed.

In all cases of life, the stove came to the aid of the peasant. And it was necessary to heat the stove not only in winter, but throughout the year. Even in summer, it was necessary to heat the oven well at least once a week in order to bake a sufficient supply of bread. Using the ability of the oven to accumulate, accumulate heat, the peasants cooked food once a day, in the morning, left the cooked food inside the ovens until dinner - and the food remained hot. Only at a late summer supper did the food have to be warmed up. This feature of the oven had a decisive influence on Russian cooking, which is dominated by the processes of languishing, boiling, stewing, and not only peasant, since the lifestyle of many small estate nobles did not differ much from peasant life.

The oven served as a lair for the whole family. On the stove, the warmest place in the hut, old people slept, who climbed there by steps - a device in the form of 2-3 steps. One of the obligatory elements of the interior was the floor - wooden flooring from the side wall of the furnace to the opposite side of the hut. They slept on the floorboards, climbing from the stove, dried flax, hemp, and a splinter. For the day, bedding and unnecessary clothes were thrown there. The shelves were made high, at the level of the height of the furnace. The free edge of the boards was often fenced with low railings, balusters, so that nothing would fall from the boards. Polati were a favorite place for children: both as a place to sleep and as the most convenient observation point during peasant holidays and weddings.

The location of the stove determined the layout of the entire living room. Usually the stove was placed in the corner to the right or left of the front door. The corner opposite the mouth of the furnace was the working place of the hostess. Everything here was adapted for cooking. There was a poker, a tong, a pomelo, a wooden shovel by the stove. Nearby is a mortar with a pestle, hand millstones and a sourdough tub for sourdough dough. They raked the ashes out of the furnace with a poker. With a grip, the cook caught pot-bellied clay or cast-iron pots (cast iron), and sent them to the heat. In a mortar, she crushed the grain, peeling it from the husk, And with the help of a mill, she ground it into flour. A pomelo and a shovel were necessary for baking bread: with a broom, a peasant woman swept under the stoves, and with a shovel she planted a future loaf on it.

A washcloth hung next to the stove, i.e. towel and washbasin. Beneath it was a wooden tub for dirty water. In the oven corner there was also a ship bench (vessel) or a counter with shelves inside, which was used as a kitchen table. On the walls were observers - lockers, shelves for simple tableware: pots, ladles, cups, bowls, spoons. They were made from wood by the owner of the house himself. In the kitchen, one could often see earthenware in "clothing" made of birch bark - economical owners did not throw away cracked pots, pots, bowls, but braided them with strips of birch bark for strength. Above was a stove beam (pole), on which kitchen utensils were placed and a variety of household items were stacked. The sovereign mistress of the stove corner was the eldest woman in the house.

The stove corner was considered a dirty place, unlike the rest of the clean space of the hut. Therefore, the peasants always sought to separate it from the rest of the room with a curtain made of colorful chintz or colored homespun, a tall wardrobe or a wooden bulkhead. Closed, thus, the stove corner formed a small room, which had the name "closet". The stove corner was considered exclusively female space in the hut. During the holiday, when many guests gathered in the house, a second table for women was placed near the stove, where they feasted separately from the men who sat at the table in the red corner. Men, even of their own families, could not enter the women's quarters without special need. The appearance of an outsider there was generally considered unacceptable.

During the matchmaking, the future bride had to be all the time in the oven corner, being able to hear the whole conversation. From the stove corner she came out smartly dressed during the bridegroom - the rite of acquaintance of the groom and his parents with the bride. In the same place, the bride was waiting for the groom on the day of departure down the aisle. In old wedding songs, the stove corner was interpreted as a place associated with the father's house, family, and happiness. The exit of the bride from the stove corner to the red corner was perceived as leaving the house, saying goodbye to him.

At the same time, the stove corner, from where there is an exit to the underground, was perceived at the mythological level as a place where people could meet with representatives of the "other" world. Through the chimney, according to legend, a fiery serpent-devil can fly to a widow yearning for her dead husband. It was generally accepted that on especially solemn days for the family: during the christening of children, birthdays, weddings, deceased parents - "ancestors" come to the stove to take part in an important event in the life of their descendants.

The place of honor in the hut - the red corner - was located obliquely from the stove between the side and front wall. It, like the stove, is an important landmark of the interior space of the hut, well lit, since both of its constituent walls had windows. The main decoration of the red corner was a goddess with icons, in front of which a lamp was burning, suspended from the ceiling, so it was also called "holy".

They tried to keep the red corner clean and smartly decorated. It was cleaned with embroidered towels, popular prints, postcards. With the advent of wallpaper, the red corner was often pasted over or separated from the rest of the hut space. The most beautiful household utensils were placed on the shelves near the red corner, the most valuable papers and items were stored.

All significant events of family life were marked in the red corner. Here, as the main piece of furniture, there was a table on massive legs, on which runners were installed. The runners made it easy to move the table around the hut. It was placed next to the oven when bread was baked, and moved while washing the floor and walls.

Behind him were both everyday meals and festive feasts. Every day at lunchtime, the whole peasant family gathered at the table. The table was big enough for everyone to sit. In the wedding ceremony, the matchmaking of the bride, her ransom from her girlfriends and brother took place in the red corner; from the red corner of her father's house she was taken to the church for the wedding, brought to the groom's house and also led to the red corner. During the harvest, the first and last harvested sheaf was solemnly carried from the field and placed in the red corner.

“The first compressed sheaf was called the birthday man. Autumn threshing began with it, sick cattle were fed with straw, the grains of the first sheaf were considered healing for people and birds. in the red corner under the icons. The preservation of the first and last ears of the harvest, endowed, according to popular beliefs, with magical powers, promised well-being to the family, home, and entire economy.

Everyone who entered the hut first of all took off his hat, crossed himself and bowed to the images in the red corner, saying: "Peace be to this house." Peasant etiquette ordered the guest, who entered the hut, to stay in half of the hut at the door, without going behind the uterus. Unauthorized, uninvited intrusion into the "red half", where the table was placed, was considered extremely indecent and could be perceived as an insult. A person who came to the hut could go there only at the special invitation of the owners. The most dear guests were put in the red corner, and during the wedding - the young ones. On ordinary days, the head of the family sat at the dinner table here.

The last of the remaining corners of the hut, to the left or right of the door, was the workplace of the owner of the house. There was a bench where he slept. Under it, a tool was stored in a box. In his free time, the peasant in his corner was engaged in various crafts and minor repairs: weaving bast shoes, baskets and ropes, cutting spoons, gouging cups, etc.

Although most of the peasant huts consisted of only one room, not divided by partitions, an unspoken tradition prescribed certain rules for the placement of members of the peasant hut. If the stove corner was the female half, then in one of the corners of the house a place was specially allotted for sleeping the older married couple. This place was considered honorable.

Shop

Most of the "furniture" was part of the construction of the hut and was motionless. Along all the walls not occupied by the stove, wide benches stretched, hewn from the largest trees. They were intended not so much for sitting as for sleeping. The benches were firmly attached to the wall. Other important pieces of furniture were benches and stools that could be moved freely from place to place when guests arrived. Above the benches, along all the walls, shelves were arranged - "slaves", on which household items, small tools, etc. were stored. Special wooden pegs for clothes were also driven into the wall.

An integral attribute of almost every Saitovka hut was a pole - a bar built into the opposite walls of the hut under the ceiling, which in the middle, opposite the wall, was supported by two plows. The second pole with one end rested against the first pole, and with the other - against the wall. The aforementioned structure in winter served as a support for the mill for weaving matting and other auxiliary operations associated with this fishery.

spinning wheel

The housewives were especially proud of chiseled, carved and painted spinning wheels, which were usually put in a prominent place: they served not only as a tool of labor, but also as a decoration for the home. Usually, with elegant spinning wheels, peasant girls went to "gatherings" - cheerful rural gatherings. The "white" hut was cleaned with home weaving items. The beds and the couch were covered with colored curtains made of linen checkered. At the windows - curtains made of homespun muslin, window sills were decorated with geraniums, dear to the peasant's heart. The hut was especially carefully cleaned for the holidays: the women washed with sand and scraped white with large knives - "mowers" - the ceiling, walls, benches, shelves, beds.

Peasants kept their clothes in chests. The more wealth in the family, the more chests in the hut. They were made of wood, upholstered with iron strips for strength. Often the chests had ingenious mortise locks. If a girl grew up in a peasant family, then from an early age, a dowry was collected for her in a separate chest.

A poor Russian peasant lived in this space. Often in the winter cold, domestic animals were kept in the hut: calves, lambs, kids, pigs, and sometimes poultry.

The decoration of the hut reflected the artistic taste and skill of the Russian peasant. The silhouette of the hut crowned carved

ridge (ohlupen) and roof of the porch; The pediment was decorated with carved lintels and towels, the planes of the walls - window frames, often reflecting the influence of the city's architecture (baroque, classicism, etc.). The ceiling, door, walls, oven, less often the outer pediment were painted.

Non-residential peasant buildings made up the household yard. Often they were gathered together and placed under the same roof with a hut. They built an economic yard in two tiers: in the lower one there were barns for cattle, a stable, and in the upper one there was a huge sennik filled with fragrant hay. A significant part of the household yard was occupied by a shed for storing working equipment - plows, harrows, as well as carts and sledges. The more prosperous the peasant, the larger was his economic yard.

Separately from the house, they usually put a bathhouse, a well, and a barn. It is unlikely that the then baths were very different from those that can still be found now - a small log house,

sometimes without a vestibule. In one corner there is a stove-heater, next to it are shelves or beds on which they steamed. In the other corner is a barrel for water, which was heated by throwing red-hot stones into it. Later, cast-iron boilers began to be built in to heat water in stoves. To soften the water, wood ash was added to the barrel, thus preparing lye. All the decoration of the bath was illuminated by a small window, the light from which was drowned in the blackness of the sooty walls and ceilings, since in order to save firewood the baths were heated "in black" and the smoke came out through the half-open door. From above, such a structure often had an almost flat pitched roof, covered with straw, birch bark and turf.

The barn, and often the cellar under it, was placed in plain sight against the windows and at a distance from the dwelling, so that in the event of a fire in the hut, the annual supply of grain would be preserved. A lock was hung on the door of the barn - perhaps the only one in the entire household. In the barn, in huge boxes (bottom boxes), the main wealth of the farmer was stored: rye, wheat, oats, barley. No wonder the village used to say: "What is in the barn, such is in the pocket."

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The culture and life of the Russian people in the 17th century underwent a qualitative transformation. Upon accession to the throne of the king. Peter I, the trends of the Western world began to penetrate into Russia. Under Peter I, trade with Western Europe expanded, diplomatic relations were established with many countries. Despite the fact that the Russian people were represented in their majority by the peasantry, in the 17th century a system of secular education was formed and began to take shape. Schools of navigational and mathematical sciences were opened in Moscow. Then mining, shipbuilding and engineering schools began to open. Parish schools began to open in rural areas. In 1755, on the initiative of M.V. Lomonosov University was opened in Moscow.

Advice

To assess the changes that have taken place in the life of the people after the reforms of Pera I, it is necessary to study the historical documents of this period.

Peasants

A little about peasants

Peasants in the 17th century were the driving force that provided their families with food and gave part of their crops for rent for the master. All the peasantry were serfs and belonged to the rich serf landowners.

Peasant life

First of all, the peasant life was accompanied by hard physical work on his land allotment and working off the corvée on the lands of the landowner. The peasant family was numerous. The number of children reached 10 people, and all children from an early age were accustomed to peasant work in order to quickly become assistants to their father. The birth of sons was welcomed, who could become a support for the head of the family. Girls were considered a "cut off piece" since in marriage they became a member of the husband's family.

At what age could one get married?

According to church laws, boys could marry from the age of 15, girls from 12. Early marriages were the reason for large families.

Traditionally, a peasant yard was represented by a hut with a thatched roof, and a cage and a barn for cattle were built on the farmstead. In winter, the only source of heat in the hut was a Russian stove, which was stoked on the "black" The walls and ceiling of the hut were black from soot and soot. Small windows were covered with either a fish bladder or waxed canvas. In the evenings, a torch was used for lighting, for which a special stand was made, under which a trough with water was placed so that the charred coal of the torch fell into the water and could not cause a fire.

The situation in the hut

Peasant hut

The situation in the hut was poor. A table in the middle of the hut and wide benches along the benches, on which the household was laid down for the night. In winter cold, young livestock (pigs, calves, lambs) were transferred to the hut. The poultry was also moved here. In preparation for the winter cold, the peasants caulked the cracks of the log cabin with tow or moss to reduce the draft.

Cloth

We sew a peasant shirt

Clothes were sewn from homespun cloth and animal skins were used. The legs were shod in pistons, which were two pieces of leather gathered around the ankle. Pistons were worn only in autumn or winter. In dry weather, bast shoes woven from bast were worn.

Nutrition

We lay out the Russian stove

The food was cooked in a Russian oven. The main food products were cereals: rye, wheat and oats. Oatmeal was ground from oats, which was used to make kissels, kvass and beer. Everyday bread was baked from rye flour; on holidays, bread and pies were baked from white wheat flour. A great help for the table were vegetables from the garden, which was looked after and looked after by women. Peasants learned to preserve cabbage, carrots, turnips, radishes and cucumbers until the next harvest. Cabbage and cucumbers were salted in large quantities. For the holidays, they cooked meat soup from sour cabbage. Fish appeared on the peasant's table more often than meat. The children went to the forest in a crowd to pick mushrooms, berries and nuts, which were essential additions to the table. The wealthiest peasants planted orchards.

Development of Russia in the 17th century

Municipal state educational institution

"Atamanovsk basic comprehensive school"

Bredinsky district of the Chelyabinsk region

Individual project

Project type: information and educational project

Theme of the project: "Life of the Russian peasant"

Project mentor:

Sheludko Galina Vladimirovna, history teacher

village Atamanovsky

2019

Content

Introduction______________________________ page 3

1. Theoretical part __________________ page 4

1.1 Construction of the hut _________________ page 4

1.2 Interior design of the home_______page 4-6

1.3 Russian stove ______________________ page 6

1.4 Clothing for men and women __________ page 7

1.5 Feeding peasants ___________________page 7

Conclusion_________________________________page 8

References ______________________page 8_

Introduction

My research project is called "The Life of a Russian Peasant". I will try to uncover and study the history of Russian life, the arrangement of a village hut, get acquainted with the household items used by the peasants, their clothes.

Our 21st century is a century of high technologies. For a person, modern equipment does almost everything. And a few centuries ago, an ordinary person had to do everything himself: from making a simple spoon to building his own house.

I visited several small museums, in the village of Bredy there is a local history museum, and in our village and school there are small museum rooms. In museums, I saw a lot of old things that modern people have not used for a long time. In my grandmother's house, I saw things that had already gone out of use. I wondered how the peasants used to live in the countryside. And although in history lessons we study the life and life of peasants in different periods, I decided to study this topic in more depth and acquaint my classmates with interesting facts about the life of peasants. We also live in the village, but we do not know much about the life of our ancestors.

Target: expand the idea of ​​their own and classmates about the life of the peasants; to study and know the history of the life and life of the peasants of Russia and our village.

Tasks:

1. Analyze the literature and material of Internet sites on the topic of the project and select the necessary material.

2. Systematize the collected material about the life of the peasants.

3. Describe the life of peasant life

4. Create a small dictionary of historical terms used by peasants in everyday life

In the Russian outback, where the fields are,

With golden wheat, kissing the sky

In small villages, peasants live,

These are the people to whom they owe bread.

Their life is unpretentious, but cleanliness is around,

Here icons and shops are simple.

At the big table the soul rests,

Here and people live golden
Ivan Kochetov

1. Theoretical part

1.1 Construction of a peasant hut.

Knowledge of people's way of life, traditions, and customs gives us the opportunity to preserve historical memory, to find those roots that will nourish new generations of Russians.

The most important thing for a person is his home. A peasant dwelling is a courtyard where residential and outbuildings, a garden and a kitchen garden were built. The house was built slowly, thoroughly, as it had to be lived in for decades. The roofs of houses, most often, were thatched or wooden, often wooden figures of heads of various birds and animals were attached to the roofs. It served not only as a decoration of the house, but also as a talisman against the evil eye. The house itself was very often built of wood, mainly pine and spruce, because these trees do not rot well. The house was chopped with an ax, but later saws also became known. The house was placed in a dry place. The windows were small.

The main buildings of the peasant household were: “a hut and a cage”, a room, tumblers, a hay, a barn, a barn. The hut is a common residential building. The upper room is a clean and bright building, built on top of the lower one, and here they slept and received guests. Povalushki and sennik are cold pantries, in summer they could be living quarters.

1.2 Interior arrangement of the house

The internal layout of the peasant house was subject to strict laws. Along all the walls not occupied by the oven, wide benches stretched, hewn from the largest trees. Such benches could be seen in ancient huts not so long ago, and they were intended not only for sitting, but also for sleeping. Near the stove there was a court, or china shop, where the eldest woman in the house was the sovereign mistress. Icons were placed diagonally in the opposite corner from the stove, and the corner itself was called holy, red, kutny. Most often in this corner there was a table.

One of the obligatory elements of the interior was the floor, a special platform made of boards, covered with mattresses and canvas. where you can also sleep. In winter, calves and lambs were often kept under the beds.

Above the benches, along all the walls, they arranged shelves - “slaves”, on which they kept household items, small tools. Special wooden pegs for clothes were also driven into the wall, for order, so that nothing was lying around. Each thing in the hut had its own strict place.. In the home arrangement, the Russians had a noticeable custom to cover and cover everything. The floors were covered with matting, felts, benches and benches - with benches, tables - with tablecloths. The houses were lit with candles and torches.

In the hut, each place had a specific purpose. On the bench at the entrance, the owner worked and rested, opposite the entrance - a red, front bench, between them - a bench for spinning. On the shelves, the owner kept the tool, and the hostess kept the yarn, , needles and more.On the bench where the women spun, there were massive spinning wheels. Village craftsmen made them from a part of a tree with a rhizome, decorated with carvings. Before spinning wheels, peasant women used spindles. There are such spindles in our museum, and some grandmothers still know how to use them.

Icons were the main decoration of the house. The images were placed in the upper corner of the chambers and covered with a curtain - a torture chamber. Wall paintings and mirrors were banned by the Orthodox Church. Only small mirrors were brought from abroad, but girls from wealthy families could have them. And simple peasant women looked into the water and the polished samovar.

In the old days, every peasant family had a box - bast chests with rounded corners. They kept family values, clothes, dowry. "A daughter in a cradle, a dowry in a box." On a flexible pole - an eyelet - a bast cradle (unsteady) was suspended under a homespun canopy. Usually a peasant woman, shaking the shank by the loop with her foot, did some work, spun, sewed, embroidered. There is a riddle among the people about such a shaky eye: “Without arms, without legs, but bows.” A weaving mill was placed closer to the window, or in another way it was called “krosna”. Without this simple, but very wise adaptation, the life of a peasant family was unthinkable: after all, everyone, young and old, wore homespun clothes. Usually the loom was included in the dowry of the bride. On the farm, women used rollers. When washing, they slammed the canvas fabric to make it softer. They ironed linen with a rolling pin and a rubel, later with a cast-iron iron, inside of which hot coals were poured.

There were no wardrobes or chests of drawers before. Instead, there were chests in which clothes and all the most valuable things were stored. The chests were of different sizes (small and huge), they were decorated in different ways (carving, forged corners). A lock was always hung on the chest. The key to the chest was kept by the mistress of the house. The chest had a large compartment and a small one. A small compartment was for little things: threads, handkerchiefs, combs, beads, buttons. Sundresses, bloomers, kokoshniks, caps, men's shirts were folded in a large compartment.

1. 3 Russian stove

One of the most important elements of the dwelling of the peasants has always been a stove. In the harsh climate of our country, one cannot do without stove heating for seven to eight months. In order to put a Russian stove in a hut, one had to have great skill for this work. So that the stove does not smoke, burns well and keeps warm. “Russian”, and most correctly the wind oven, as they said in the old days, is a very ancient invention. The history of the creation of such a furnace goes back to the 10th-11th centuries.

Furnaces were used not only for heating and cooking, but also as a stove bench. Children sat there in winter, they played, often old people slept with them. It was nice to climb on a warm couch after the frost and warm the frozen hands and feet.

Bread was baked in it, mushrooms and berries were dried for the winter, and grain was dried. In all cases of life, the stove came to the aid of the peasant. And it was necessary to heat the stove not only in winter, but throughout the year. Even in summer, it was necessary to heat the oven well at least once a week in order to bake a sufficient supply of bread. Using the property of the oven to accumulate, keep warm, the peasants cooked food once a day, in the morning, left the cooked food inside the oven until dinner - and the food remained hot. Only at a late summer supper did the food have to be warmed up. This feature of the oven influenced Russian cooking, which still uses the processes of languishing, boiling, stewing.

1.4 Clothing for men and women

The men's costume consisted of a canvas shirt, woolen pants and bast shoes with onuchs. A narrow belt adorned with figured metal plaques brought a decorative accent to this simple-cut clothes.

The shoes of the common people were bast shoes made of tree bark - ancient shoes, used since pagan times. Wealthy people wore boots and shoes. These shoes were made from calf, horse leather. Poor peasant women wore bast shoes, like their husbands.

Men's shirts were white or red, they were sewn from linen and canvas. The shirts were belted low with straps in a weak knot.All Russian men wore belts, and it was considered indecent to go without a belt. In addition to the belts on the shirt, they wore belts or sashes over the caftan and flaunted them like stripes and buttons..

Women's clothes were similar to men's, only they were longer. A flyer was worn over a long shirt. It had a slit in the front that fastened with buttons all the way to the throat. All women wore earrings and headdresses.The head of a married woman was removed with a hairdresser or underbush. These were hats made of silk fabric. According to Russian concepts, it was considered both a shame and a sin for a married woman to leave her hair on display: to goof off (open her hair) was a great dishonor for a woman.

1.5 Feeding peasants

Peasant cuisine was Russian, national. The best cook was the one who knew how other housewives cook. Changes in food were introduced imperceptibly. The dishes were simple and varied.

According to custom, the Russian people sacredly kept the posts. Therefore, the dishes were cooked fast and lean. And according to supplies, food was divided into five types: and dishes were prepared fish, meat, flour, dairy and vegetable. The floury products included rye bread - the head of the table, various pies, loaves, casseroles, kalachi; to fish - fish soup, baked dishes; for meat - side dishes, quick soups, pates.

Particular attention was paid to the decoration of the table. Salt shaker has always occupied the central place on it. It was woven from birch bark or from roots, but more often it was cut from wood. They carved it in the form of a duck, because it was considered the patroness of the house, the family. On the tablecloth of the wedding table, the salt shaker - the duck was placed first.

But one of the most striking features of Russian traditional life has long been considered tea drinking behind a samovar. The samovar was not an ordinary household item.Not a single family event or reception was complete without a samovar. It was handed down as a gift. Carefully polished, he showed off in the most prominent and honorable place in the room.In the old days, people used only fire samovars. There is a pipe inside the samovar. Dry pine cones or charcoal were poured into it. They set fire to them with a torch and fanned the fire with a boot. And the tea from it was delicious, with the smell of smoke from coals. And today, in our village, residents use on holidays not an electric samovar, but a smoky one. The whole family drinks such tea with pleasure, very often they like to sit over a cup of tea after a bath. The samovar unites the family, serves as its symbol.

Aso that the products do not deteriorate, they were put in an icebox. A glacier was a deep pit (cellar), into which ice was laid in winter, it was covered with straw, and the pit was covered with a lid. Sour cream, butter, meat, milk were removed there, and this glacier served the peasants instead of a modern refrigerator. Drinks were prepared from berries and honey.

Conclusion.

Bibliography

1. Gromyko M. M. Family and community in the traditional spiritual culture of Russian peasants in the 18th – early 19th centuries. // Russians: family and social life. M., 1989. P.5, 2001

Elekthrone resources:

1.Schi.ru Russian peasant life-

2. Life of a peasant -

3. http://stihi-pro.pp.ua/sid_0_cid_1_tid_0/stihi_pro_krest%27yan.html

4. http:// www. ppt- backgrounds. net/ border- frames/4302- elegant- black- frame- backgrounds

5. http:// photo- album. spb. en/ i/ album_ fairy tale/21. jpg

6. https:// fishki. net/1280621- tradition- Russian- kitchen. html 7. materials/51485/ po- clothing- vstrechayut

Dictionary

historical terms on the topic

"Life of Russian peasants".

1.Valek - a wooden block curved upwards with a short

handle, served to knock out linen.

2. Endova - a wooden bowl in the form of a boat with a spout.

3. Zybka - a box suspended from the ceiling with a pole -

ochepa, for a small child.

4. Lavki - long and wide wooden benches in the hut, on

which sat during the day, and adults could sleep at night.

5. Krosna - a wooden loom on which women wove or

girls canvas from linen.

6. Polati - a shelf under the ceiling, which went from the stove to the door,

where children and old people lived during the cold season.

7. Kvashnya - a small wooden tub for kneading

test.

8. Fork - a steel horn with a long wooden handle, with

help tongs put and removed cast iron from the furnace

with food.

9. Rubel - a board with a wooden handle, on one side it had transverse rounded scars, and the other side was smooth or decorated for beauty.

10. Povalushi and sennik - cold pantries

11. Korobeyka - a small bast box

12. Underbushnik - a women's headdress that covers a woman's hair.

It is hard to imagine that these photographs were taken about 150 years ago. And you can consider them endlessly, because, as they say, subtleties can only be considered in detail. And there are many other interesting things to consider. These pictures are a unique opportunity to plunge into the past.

1. Local resident

Peasants in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century made up the majority of the population. Speaking about how the peasants lived in pre-revolutionary Russia, it should be noted that historians still do not have a common opinion on this important issue. Some believe that everyone, without exception, skated "like cheese in butter", while others speak of general illiteracy and poverty.

2. Firewood

The well-known French economist Edmond Terry said in his time: "... If the great European nations do things in the same way between 1912 and 1950, as they did between 1910 and 1912, then by the middle of the present century, Russia will dominate Europe politically, economically and financially."

3. Houses of wealthy peasants

Peasants in the first half of the 19th century were divided into two main estate communities - landlord and state. The landlord peasants constituted the largest category of the peasantry in terms of numbers. The landowner completely controlled the life of a simple peasant. They were freely bought and sold, beaten and punished. Serfdom undermined the productive forces of the peasant economy. The serfs were not interested in doing a good job. Therefore, industry and agriculture in the country did not develop.

4. Peasant yard

The Russian peasants were a completely separate class from the landowners and the nobility. Most of the peasants were actually serfs - people who legally belonged to their masters until the reform of 1861. As the first major liberal reform in Russia, it emancipated serfs, allowing them to marry without the need for their masters' permission, allowing them to own property and property.

5. Firewood harvesting by villagers

However, the life of the peasants continued to be difficult. They made their living by working in the fields, or in unskilled jobs, earning less than the average wage.

6. Indigenous people

By the end of the 19th century, the problems of buying out landlords' lands still remained a heavy burden for about 35% of the peasants. The bank issued loans to peasants only when buying land from landowners. At the same time, the bank's land prices were twice as high as the average price in the market.

7. Camping

The redemption of land plots by peasants with the help of the treasury was greatly facilitated by the fact that most of all serfs were mortgaged in pre-reform state mortgage banks.

8. Russia, 1870s

In an attempt to understand how Russian peasants lived at the beginning of the last century, let us turn to the classics. Let us cite the testimony of a person who is difficult to reproach for inadequacy or dishonesty. Here is how the classic of Russian literature Tolstoy described his trip to the Russian villages of various districts at the very end of the 19th century:

9. Friendly family

“The farther into the depths of the Bogoroditsky district and closer to Ephraimovsky, the situation gets worse and worse ... Almost nothing was born on the best lands, only seeds returned. Almost everyone has bread with quinoa. The quinoa here is unripe, green. That white nucleolus, which is usually found in it, is not at all, and therefore it is not edible. Bread with quinoa cannot be eaten alone. If you eat one piece of bread on an empty stomach, you will vomit. From kvass, made on flour with quinoa, people go crazy "

10. Peasants in national costumes

A century ago, the peasantry constituted the absolute majority of the population of Russia and could rightfully be considered the foundation of the country. The life of peasants in pre-revolutionary Russia has long been the subject of political speculation. Some argue that it was unbearable, the peasants lived in poverty and almost died of hunger, they were the most destitute in Europe.

Other, no less tendentious authors, on the contrary, paint the life of the pre-revolutionary peasantry almost like a patriarchal paradise. How did Russian peasants live? Were they really the poorest among the peasantry of other European countries, or is it a lie?

Let's start with the fact that the myth of the age-old poverty and backwardness of the Russian people was happily reproduced and replicated over the centuries by haters of the Russian state of various political persuasions. We come across different interpretations of this myth in the articles of pre-revolutionary liberals and socialists, in Nazi propaganda, in the writings of Western historians and "Sovietologists", in the conclusions of modern liberals, and, finally, in tendentious Ukrainian agitation. Of course, all the listed groups of authors and distributors of this myth had or have their own, often not intersecting interests. It was important for some to overthrow the monarchy with its help, for others to emphasize the supposedly original “savagery” of the Russian people, and for others they used it to establish some ideal model for the development of the Russian state. In any case, this myth was often based on all sorts of unverified claims and inferences.

The vast territory and colossal climatic, geographical, economic differences of the Russian regions throughout the entire history of the country caused a completely different level of development of agriculture, different material security and everyday comfort of Russian peasants. To begin with, by the way, you need to decide what to understand as a whole by the peasantry - an estate in the pre-revolutionary sense, or, from the point of view of a more modern approach, groups of people employed in agriculture - agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, etc. In the latter case, the differences between the peasants of pre-revolutionary Russia are even greater. Pskov and Kuban, Pomorye and the Don, the Urals and Siberia - Russian peasants lived everywhere, as well as farmers, cattle breeders, hunters and fishermen of other peoples of Russia. And their position differed, among other things, in proportion to geographical features. In the Pskov region and in the Kuban, agriculture has different opportunities for its development, as in other regions of Russia. This must be understood when considering the life and well-being of the Russian peasantry.

But let us delve into history and begin to consider the life of the Russian peasantry back in pre-Petrine Russia. In those distant centuries, peasants everywhere lived bleakly. In the countries of Western Europe, their position was far from being as successful as the “Westernizers” are now trying to present it. Of course, the unconditional progress of a number of European countries in comparison with Russia was the gradual destruction of feudal relations in the countryside with the subsequent liberation of the peasantry from feudal duties. In England, Holland, and a number of other European countries, the manufacturing industry was rapidly developing, which required more and more new workers. On the other hand, agrarian reforms contributed to the outflow of the population from villages to cities. Not from a good life, English peasants from their native villages rushed in search of food to the cities, where, at best, hard work in factories awaited them, and at worst, the position of an unemployed and homeless marginal with all the ensuing consequences, up to the death penalty according to the then British laws. With the intensification of the development of overseas territories in the New World, in Africa, Asia, thousands of European peasants rushed there in search of a better life, without fear of possible death during long sea voyages, proximity to dangerous tribes, death from diseases in an unusual climate. Not all of the settlers were born adventurers, it was just that life in Europe was such that it “pushed out” those who did not shine at home, across the sea in search of a better life.

The most difficult was the situation of the peasantry in Southern and Northern Europe. In Italy, Spain, Portugal, the feudal order was preserved in an unshakable state, the peasants continued to be exploited and often became victims of the arbitrariness of the landowners. In Scandinavia, due to climatic conditions, the peasants lived very poorly. No less difficult was the life of the Irish peasants. And what was at that time in Russia? No one can say better than contemporaries.

In 1659, a 42-year-old Catholic missionary Yuri Krizhanich arrived in Russia. Croatian by origin, he was educated first in Zagreb, then in Austria and Italy, traveled a lot. In the end, Krizhanich came to ecumenical views and argued the need for a single Christ Church of Catholics and Orthodox. But such views were negatively perceived by the Russian authorities and in 1661 the arrested Krizhanich was exiled to Tobolsk. There he spent a long fifteen years, during which time he wrote several very interesting works. Krizhanich, who traveled practically through all of what was then Russia, managed to become very closely acquainted with the life of the Russian people - both the nobles and the clergy, and the peasantry. At the same time, Krizhanich, who suffered from the Russian authorities, can hardly be accused of pro-Russian tendentiousness - he wrote what he considered necessary to write, and set out his own vision of life in Russia.

For example, Krizhanich was very indignant at the ostentatious luxury of Russian people who did not belong to the upper classes. He noted that “even people of the lower class line whole hats and whole fur coats with sables ... and what can be more ridiculous than the fact that even black people and peasants wear shirts embroidered with gold and pearls? ..”. At the same time, comparing Rus' with Europe, Krizhanich indignantly emphasized that in European countries there is nowhere “such a disgrace”. He attributed this to the high productivity of Russian lands compared to Poland, Lithuania and Sweden, and in general to better living conditions.

However, it is difficult to reproach Krizhanich with excessive idealization of Russian life, since in general he was rather critical of the Russian and other Slavic peoples and all the time strove to emphasize their differences for the worse from Europeans. Among these differences, Krizhanich attributed the extravagance, simplicity, sincerity of the Slavs in comparison with the rationalism and prudence, resourcefulness and intelligence of the Europeans. Krizhanich also drew attention to the great inclination of Europeans to industrial activity, which was greatly facilitated by their puritanical rationalism. The Russian, Slavic world and the West at Krizhanich are two completely different civilizational communities. In the 20th century, the outstanding Russian philosopher and sociologist Alexander Zinoviev spoke of "Westernism" as a special type of social development. Centuries later, he often noticed the same differences between the Western and Russian mentalities that Krizhanich once wrote about.

Krizhanich, by the way, was far from the only foreign traveler who described the prosperous and well-fed life of the Russian people in comparison with residents of other countries. For example, the German Adam Olearius, who visited Russia as secretary of the embassy of the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein in 1633-1636, also noted in his travel notes the cheapness of food in Rus'. The memories left by Olearius testify to the rather prosperous life of ordinary Russian peasants, at least judging by the everyday scenes that he witnessed on the way. At the same time, Olearius noted the simplicity and cheapness of the everyday life of Russian people. Although there is plenty of food in Russia, most ordinary people have few household utensils.

Of course, the Petrine reforms and the numerous wars that the Russian Empire waged throughout the 18th century affected the position of the Russian common people. By the end of the 18th century, the ideas of the philosophers of the Enlightenment were already beginning to spread in Russia, which contributed to the formation of a negative attitude towards the existing social and political orders among a part of the Russian elite. Serfdom becomes the main object of criticism. However, at that time serfdom was criticized, first of all, from humanistic considerations, not as an outdated form of socio-economic organization, but as an inhuman "slavery" of the peasants.

Charles-Gilbert Romm lived in Russia for seven years - from 1779 to 1786, working as a teacher and educator of Count Pavel Aleksandrovich Stroganov. In one of his letters, an educated Frenchman, by the way, who later took an active part in the French Revolution, wrote to his friend that in Russia "a peasant is considered a slave, since the master can sell him." But at the same time, Romm noted, the position of the Russian peasants - "slaves" is generally better than the position of the French "free" peasants, since in Russia each peasant has more land than he is physically able to process. Therefore, normal hardworking and savvy peasants live in relative prosperity.

The fact that the life of Russian peasants favorably differed from the life of their European "colleagues" was noted by many Western travelers in the 19th century. For example, an English traveler, Robert Bremner, wrote that in some areas of Scotland, peasants live in such premises that in Russia would be considered unsuitable even for livestock. Another British traveler, John Cochrane, who visited Russia in 1824, also wrote about the poverty of the Irish peasants against the background of the Russian peasantry. It is quite possible to trust their notes, since in most European countries and in the 19th century the peasant population lived in deep poverty. The mass exodus of the British, and then representatives of other European peoples, to North America is a typical confirmation of this.

Of course, the life of the Russian peasant was hard, in lean years and hungry, but at that time this did not surprise anyone.

The situation of the peasantry began to deteriorate rapidly just in the second half of the 19th century and especially at the beginning of the 20th century, which was associated with the progressive social stratification of the Russian village, high birth rates and lack of land in Central Russia. In order to improve the situation of the peasants and provide them with land, programs were conceived to develop the vast territories of Siberia and the Far East, where it was planned to resettle a large number of peasants from the provinces of Central Russia (and this program began to be implemented under Pyotr Stolypin, no matter how they treated him later) .

In the most difficult situation were those peasants who moved in search of a better life in the cities. Vladimir Gilyarovsky, Maxim Gorky, Alexei Svirsky and many other prominent representatives of Russian literature tell about the bleak life of the slum dwellers. The "bottom" of the city was formed as a result of the destruction of the usual way of life of the peasant community. Although representatives of various classes poured into the marginal strata of the population of Russian cities, they were formed by the peasantry, or rather its poorest part, from which at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. moved in large numbers to the cities.

Considering the huge size of the peasant population, for the most part illiterate and unskilled workers, low prices for unskilled labor remained in Russia. Unskilled workers lived poorly, while craftsmen received quite subsistence money. For example, turners, locksmiths, foremen received at the beginning of the twentieth century an average of 50 to 80 rubles per month. For comparison, a kilogram of beef cost 45 kopecks, and a good suit cost 8 rubles. Unskilled and low-skilled workers could count on much less money - they received about 15-30 rubles a month, while domestic servants worked for 5-10 rubles a month, although cooks and nannies "dined" at their place of work and there but, most often, they lived. In the United States and a number of Western European countries, workers received relatively large amounts of money, but it was no less easy to get, and the unemployment rate was very high. Recall that the intensity of the struggle of workers for their rights in Europe and North America in the late XIX - early XX centuries. was no less than in the Russian Empire.

Life in Russia has never been easy, but it cannot be called particularly horrifying and poor in comparison with other countries. Moreover, Russia has experienced so many trials that no other European country, not to mention the United States or Canada, has endured. Suffice it to recall that in one twentieth century the country experienced two world wars that claimed millions of lives, a civil war, three revolutions, a war with Japan, large-scale economic transformations (collectivization, industrialization, development of virgin lands). All this could not but be reflected in the level and quality of life of the population, which, nevertheless, increased rapidly in Soviet times.

Ilya Polonsky

Pre-revolutionary life in grandmother's stories

I, a young Soviet schoolgirl, asked this question to my grandmother in 1975. It was a school assignment: to ask your relatives about their hard life under the tsar and compose a story. In those years, many grandparents were still alive, who remembered pre-revolutionary life. My grandparents, born in 1903 and 1905, were simple Old Believer peasants from a Siberian village, they were guided by the principle "All power is from God" and did not get into politics. Therefore, I prepared to write down a vivid story-illustration for a school textbook from the first hand. What they told me was surprising and new for me then, so I remember that conversation so vividly, almost verbatim, here it is:

- We lived, you know, in a village near Novosibirsk (Novonikolaevsky), - the grandmother began her reminiscences, - our father, the breadwinner, died early in an accident: a log fell on him when he was helping to build a hut for his brother. So our mother, your great-grandmother, remained a young widow at 28 years old. And with her 7 kids, little-small-less. The youngest was still lying in the cradle, and the eldest was barely 11 years old.

Therefore, our orphaned family was the poorest in the village. And we had 3 horses, 7 cows on the farm, but we never counted chickens and geese. But there was no one to work behind a plow in the family, how much one woman plows the land? And this means that the family did not have enough bread, they could not hold out until spring. But bread was the head of everything for us. I remember that on Easter, my mother would cook fatty cabbage soup for us, bake a whole goose in the oven, make potatoes with mushrooms in sour cream in a large cast iron, make up the testicles, cream, cottage cheese are on the table, and we little ones cry and we ask: “Mommy, we would have some bread, we would have a pancake.” That's how it was.

It was only later, when three years later the older brothers grew up and were able to plow well - that's when we again healed like everyone else. At the age of 10, I was a chariot in plowing - my duty was to drive horseflies and gadflies away from the horse so that they would not interfere with her work. I remember that my mother gathers us for plowing in the morning, bakes fresh rolls and one huge roll around my neck broadcasts like a collar. And in the field I drive away gadflies from a horse with a branch, but I eat that kalach around my neck. Moreover, I don’t have time to drive away the gadflies from myself, oh, and they bite me in a day! In the evening, they immediately went from the field to the bathhouse. We’ll steam up, steam up, and immediately the forces seem to be taken anew and we run into the street - to lead round dances, to sing songs, it was fun, it was good.

- Wait, granny, because everywhere they write that the peasants lived very poorly, they were starving. And you say something else.

“For a peasant, my dear, the land is a breadwinner. Where land is scarce, there is starvation. And in Siberia, we had plenty of land here for plowing, so why starve? Here, perhaps only some lazy or drunkards could starve. But in our village, you understand that there were no drunkards at all. (Of course, I understand that their village was an Old Believer. People are all devout believers. What kind of drunkenness is there. - Marita).

There are flood meadows with waist-deep grass, which means there is enough food for cows and horses. In late autumn, when the cattle are slaughtered, dumplings were prepared for the future for the winter by the whole family. We sculpt them, freeze them and put them in large self-woven bags, and lower them onto the glacier. (Granny called the glacier a deep cellar with ice, in which the temperature was always minus - Marita). In the meantime, we are sculpting them - we will boil them and we will eat like that! We eat them, we eat them, until the last dumpling in the throat rises. Then we, kids, clap on the floor in the hut and roll on the floor, play. The dumplings will get smarter - so we will eat more supplements.

In the forest, both berries and nuts were collected. And there was no need to even go to the forest for mushrooms. Here, you just go beyond the edge of the garden, and without leaving your place you will pick up a bucket of mushrooms. The river is full of fish again. You go at night in the summer, and the little squints sleep right with their noses on the shore, they could be pulled a lot with a loop. I remember, since my sister Varvara accidentally "caught" a pike in the winter - she went to the ice-hole to rinse her clothes, and the pike grabbed her hand. Varvara, well, yell, and she herself, together with a pike grabbing under her arm, runs, calling her mother. The ear was then oily.

Granny smiles at me with her soft, gentle smile. Oh, grandmother, I would give a lot just to see that smile again and talk to you. I carefully keep in my memory your unhurried simple stories. And I still keep the memory of the love that you bestowed on your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

(in the photo - a real peasant hut in the village of Martyanovo, captured 100 years ago by photographer Prokudin-Gorsky)

And this is a photograph of a rural hayfield from the same photographer. 1909 Please note: haymaking in the pre-revolutionary rural community was a common, community affair.

From the life of the Siberian village before and during the revolution

Episode one.

"We lived and worked as always, and the whites and reds fought with each other, sometimes far from our village, sometimes near it, and once in the evening there was a fight between them right for our village. From the shots, from fear, we all fled for vegetable gardens, lay down behind the bushes and wait for one of them to finally win, and then the battle will stop and we can return to the houses.But the forces were apparently equal, neither of them entered into a direct battle, did not enter the village , but they only fired.

Next to me in the grass lay our neighbor, who was very worried about her cow. Her cow was young, a first-calf heifer, and had just finally milked normally. And here, as a sin, such an opportunity: the time of evening milking, and we are lying in the bushes. Cows moo, suffer, the udder is full. So the neighbor could not stand it - crawling, crawling, crawling, she made her way into her hut, there she grabbed a pitchfork, put a pillowcase on them, and put it over her roof like a flag. And since her pillowcases were red, it turned out that, supposedly, the red ones had already occupied the village and hung out their flag. At least the whites apparently thought so and moved away. And the Reds at that time occupied the village. Well, we are satisfied in our homes and returned to our business.

Episode two.

“In winter, the whites retreated across our lands, through our village. Apparently they had already been beaten badly, since the retreat was very large. There were many wounded, sick, frostbite among them. The charioteer. And try to disobey! From our yard it fell out for me to ride as a driver. The women howled at us - the charioteers, as if they were dead, they understood that it was unlikely that we would be able to return home alive. I went to harness the horse to the sleigh, and I myself roared: does not love! We are seven children, and she chose me from all of them!".

In fact, my mother did the right thing. It was a pity to send the older children, because the household was kept on them (our father died early), and the younger ones could not cope. But I was - average, then I was 14-15 years old. So we went. The frost then hit already good, although winter had just begun. It’s a long way to go to another village, and I suggested to them somewhere halfway: “There is a forester’s hut on the sidelines. this forest hut. They quickly headed there, and I pretend to tie my horse and straighten the harness. Only the last one disappeared in the door, I jumped in the sleigh and went on! So I ran away from them. Of the whole village, I was the only one who returned, not only herself alive and well, but also with a horse. The rest of the charioteers drove their horses with the retreating ones until the horses fell, and some returned home on foot, and some completely disappeared forever. "

P.S. It is a pity that we did not talk much with our grandparents - living witnesses of history. Here I have only a few fragmentary episodes preserved. The more valuable each even such a short passage. I invite other KONT members not to be shy and not to shelve, but to write everything who remembers what. At least bit by bit collect history from its eyewitnesses.