There was little furniture in the peasant hut, and it did not differ in variety - a table, benches, benches, chests, dish shelves. The wardrobes, chairs, and beds familiar to us appeared in the village only in the 19th century.
TABLE occupied an important place in the house and served for daily or holiday meals. The table was treated with respect, called “the palm of God”, giving daily bread. Therefore, it was forbidden to hit the table and for children to climb on it. On weekdays, the table stood without a tablecloth; only bread wrapped in a tablecloth and a salt shaker could be on it. On holidays, it was placed in the middle of the hut, covered with a tablecloth, and decorated with elegant dishes. The table was considered a place where people came together. The person whom the owners invited to the table was considered “one of their own” in the family.
STORE Wood has traditionally served two roles. First of all, they were a help in economic matters and helped to carry out their craft. The second role is aesthetic. Benches decorated with various patterns were placed along the walls of vast rooms. In a Russian hut, benches ran along the walls in a circle, starting from the entrance, and served for sitting, sleeping, and storing household items. Each shop had its own name.
House of nanny Arina Rodionovna in Mikhailovskoye. Long shop.
The shop near the stove was called Kutnoy, since it was located in the woman’s kut. Buckets of water, pots, cast iron were placed on it, and baked bread was placed on it.
Vessel the bench ran from the stove to the front wall of the house. This shop was higher than the rest. Under it there were sliding doors or a curtain, behind which there were shelves with dishes.
Long shop - a shop that differs from others in its length. It stretched either from the conic to the red corner, along the side wall of the house, or from the red corner along the facade wall. According to tradition, it was considered a women's place where they did spinning, knitting, and sewing. The men's shop was called bunk, like the peasant’s workplace. It was short and wide, shaped like a box with a hinged flat lid or sliding doors where the working tools were stored.
In Russian life, they were also used for sitting or sleeping. BENCHES . Unlike the bench, which was attached to the wall, the bench was portable. In case of lack of sleeping space, it could be placed along the bench to increase the space for the bed, or placed next to the table.
Walked under the ceiling POLAVOSHNIKI , on which peasant utensils were located, and a wooden flooring was strengthened near the stove - POLATI . They slept in the tents, and during get-togethers or weddings, children climbed in and looked with curiosity at everything that was happening in the hut.
The dishes were stored in SUPPLIERS : These were pillars with numerous shelves between them. On the lower, wider shelves, massive dishes were stored; on the upper, narrower ones, small dishes were placed. Served for storing separate dishes CONSUMER - wooden shelf or open cabinet. The vessel could have the shape of a closed frame or be open at the top; often its side walls were decorated with carvings or had figured shapes. As a rule, the dishware was located above the ship's bench, under the hand of the mistress.
It was rare that a peasant hut did not have WEAVING LOOM , every peasant girl and woman knew how to weave not only simple canvas, but also swearing tablecloths, towels, checkered blankets, deposits for shushpans, chest covers, and bedding.
For a newborn, an elegant dress was hung from the ceiling of the hut on an iron hook. CASSET . Rocking gently, she lulled the baby to the melodious song of a peasant woman.
A constant part of the life of a Russian woman - from youth to old age - was SPINNING WHEELS . An elegant spinning wheel was made by a kind young man for his bride, a husband gave it to his wife as a souvenir, a father gave it to his daughter. Therefore, a lot of warmth was put into its decoration. The spinning wheels were kept throughout life and passed on as a memory of the mother to the next generation.
BOX
in the hut he took the place of the guardian of family life. It contained money, a dowry, clothes, and simple household items. Since the most valuable things were kept in it, in several places it was bound with iron strips and locked with locks for strength. The more chests there were in the house, the richer the peasant family was considered. Two types of chests were common in Rus' - with a flat hinged lid and a convex one. There were small chests that looked like boxes. The chest was made of wood - oak, less often birch.
While the chest was a luxury item and was used to store expensive things, there was STEST . It was similar in shape to a chest, but made more simply, roughly, and had no decorations. Grain and flour were stored in it and used to sell food at the market.
Peasant utensils
It was difficult to imagine a peasant house without numerous utensils. Utensils are all the items a person needs in his everyday life: utensils for preparing, preparing and storing food, serving it on the table; various containers for storing household items and clothing; items for personal hygiene and home hygiene; items for lighting fires, storing and consuming tobacco and for cosmetics.
In the Russian village, mainly wooden and pottery utensils were used. Utensils made from birch bark, woven from twigs, straw, and pine roots were also in widespread use. Some of the wooden items needed in the household were made by the male half of the family. Most of the items were purchased at fairs and markets, especially for cooperage and turning utensils, the manufacture of which required special knowledge and tools.
Previously it was considered the primary item of rural life ROCKER ARM - a thick, arched wooden stick with hooks or notches at the ends. Intended for carrying buckets of water on the shoulders. It was believed that a person had strength as long as he could carry water in buckets on a rocker.
Carrying water on a rocker is a whole ritual. When you go for water, two empty buckets should be in your left hand, and a rocker in your right. The rocker had the shape of an arc. It lay comfortably on the shoulders, and the buckets, placed on the ends of the rocker in specially cut grooves for this purpose, hardly swayed when walking.
OUTRIGGER - a massive, upwardly curved wooden block with a short handle - served not only for threshing flax, but also for beating out linen during washing and rinsing, as well as for bleaching the finished canvas. Rolls were most often made from linden or birch and decorated with triangular-notched carvings and paintings. The most elegant ones were the gift rolls that the boys presented to the girls. Some of them were made in the form of a stylized female figure, others were decorated with through holes with beads, stones or peas, which made a peculiar “murmuring” sound when working.
The roller was placed in the cradle of a newborn as a talisman, and was also placed under the child’s head during the ritual of the first hair cutting.
RUBEL - a household item that in the old days Russian women used to iron clothes after washing. It was a plate of hardwood with a handle at one end. Transverse rounded scars were cut on one side, the other remained smooth and was sometimes decorated with intricate carvings. Hand-wrung linen was wound on a roller or rolling pin and rolled out with a ruble so that even poorly washed linen became snow-white. Hence the proverb: “Not by washing, but by rolling.” The ruble was made from hardwood: oak, maple, beech, birch, rowan. Sometimes the handle of the ruble was made hollow and peas or other small objects were placed inside so that they would rattle when rolled out.
To store bulky household supplies in cages, barrels, tubs, and baskets of various sizes and volumes were used.
BARRELS in the old days they were the most common container for both liquids and bulk solids, for example: grain, flour, flax, fish, dried meat, horse meat and various small goods.
For the preparation of pickles, pickles, soaks, kvass, water for future use, for storing flour and cereals they were used TUBES . The necessary accessories for the tub were a circle and a lid. The food placed in the tub was pressed in a circle, and oppression was placed on top. This was done so that the pickles and pickles were always in the brine and did not float to the surface. The lid protected food from dust. The mug and lid had small handles.
TUB - wooden container with two handles. Used for filling and carrying liquid. The tub was used for various purposes. In ancient times, wine was served there during the holiday. IN Everyday life they kept water in the tubs and steamed brooms for the bath.
BASH - a round or oblong wooden vessel with low edges, designed for various household needs: for washing clothes, washing dishes, draining water.
GANG - the same tub, but intended for washing in a bathhouse.
For many centuries, the main kitchen vessel in Rus' was POT . Pots could be different sizes: from a small pot for 200-300 g of porridge to a huge pot that could hold up to 2-3 buckets of water. The shape of the pot did not change throughout its existence and was well suited for cooking in a Russian oven. They were rarely decorated with ornaments. In the peasant house there were about a dozen or more pots of different sizes. They treasured the pots and tried to handle them carefully. If it cracked, it was braided with birch bark and used for storing food.
To serve food on the table, the following tableware was used: DISH . It was usually round or oval in shape, shallow, on a low tray, with wide edges. In peasant life, mainly wooden dishes were common. Dishes intended for holidays were decorated with paintings. They depicted plant shoots, small geometric figures, fantastic animals and birds, fish and skates. The dish was used both in everyday and festive life. On weekdays, fish, meat, porridge, cabbage, cucumbers and other “thick” dishes were served on a platter, eaten after soup or cabbage soup. On holidays, in addition to meat and fish, pancakes, pies, buns, cheesecakes, gingerbread cookies, nuts, candies and other sweets were served on the platter. In addition, there was a custom to serve guests a glass of wine, mead, mash, vodka or beer on a platter.
Used for drinking intoxicating drinks CHARKOY . It is a small round vessel with a leg and a flat bottom, sometimes there could be a handle and a lid. The glasses were usually painted or decorated with carvings. This vessel was used as an individual vessel for drinking mash, beer, intoxicated mead, and later wine and vodka on holidays.
Charka was most often used in wedding ceremonies. The priest offered a glass of wine to the newlyweds after the wedding. They took turns taking three sips from this glass. Having finished the wine, the husband threw the glass under his feet and trampled it at the same time as his wife, saying: “Let those who begin to sow discord and dislike among us be trampled under our feet.” It was believed that whichever spouse stepped on it first would dominate the family. The owner presented the first glass of vodka at the wedding feast to the sorcerer, who was invited to the wedding as an honored guest in order to save the newlyweds from damage. The sorcerer asked for the second glass himself and only after that began to protect the newlyweds from evil forces.
ENDOVA - a wooden or metal bowl in the shape of a boat with a spout for draining. Used to serve drinks at feasts. The endova was of different sizes: from those that could hold a bucket of beer, mash, mead or wine to completely small ones. Metal valleys were rarely decorated, since they were not placed on the table. The hostess just brought them to the table, pouring drinks into glasses and goblets, and immediately took them away. The wooden ones were very elegant. Favorite patterns were rosettes, twigs with leaves and curls, diamonds, and birds. The handle was made in the shape of a horse's head. The very shape of the valley resembled a bird. Thus, traditional symbolism was used in decoration. A wooden valley was placed in the middle of the festive table. It was considered tableware.
JUG - a container for liquid with a handle and spout. Similar to a teapot, but usually taller. Made from clay.
KRINKA - a clay vessel for storing and serving milk on the table. A characteristic feature of the krinka is its high and wide neck, the diameter of which is designed to fit your hand around it. Milk in such a vessel retained its freshness longer, and when soured it gave a thick layer of sour cream.
KASHNIK - a pot with a handle for preparing and serving porridge.
KORCAGA - This is a large clay vessel that had a wide variety of purposes: it was used for heating water, brewing beer and kvass, mash, boiling laundry. Beer, kvass, and water were poured into the pot through a hole in the body located near the bottom. It was usually plugged with a stopper. The pot, as a rule, did not have a lid.
A poker, a grip, a frying pan, a bread shovel, a broom - these are objects associated with the hearth and stove.
POKER - This is a short, thick iron rod with a curved end, which was used to stir coals in the stove and rake up the heat.
GRIP OR ROGAC - a long stick with a metal fork at the end, which is used to grab pots and cast iron and place them in a Russian oven. Usually there were several grabs in the hut; they were of different sizes, for large and small pots, and with handles of different lengths. As a rule, only women dealt with the grip, since cooking was a woman’s job. Sometimes the grip was used both as a weapon of attack and defense. The grip was also used in rituals. When a woman in labor needed to be protected from evil spirits, they placed a grip with horns towards the stove. When leaving the hut, she took it with her as a staff. There was a sign: to prevent the brownie from leaving the house when leaving the house, it was necessary to block the stove with a catch or close it with a stove damper. When a dead person was taken out of the house, a grip was placed on the place where he lay to protect the house from death. At Christmas time, the head of a bull or horse was made from a grip and a pot placed on it; the body was depicted as a man. When they came to the Christmas festivities, they “sold” the bull, that is, hit it on the head with an ax so that the pot would break.
Before planting the bread in the oven, coal and ash were cleared from under the oven by sweeping it with a broom. POMELO It is a long wooden handle, to the end of which pine, juniper branches, straw, a washcloth or a rag were tied.
With help BREAD SHOVEL They put bread and pies into the oven, and also took them out of there. All these utensils participated in one or another ritual action.
House of Pushkin A.S. in Mikhailovsky. Kitchen.
MORTAR - a vessel in which something is ground or crushed using a pestle, wooden or metal rod with a round working part. Substances were also ground and mixed in mortars. The stupas had different shapes: from a small bowl to high, more than a meter in height, mortars for grinding grain. The name comes from the word step - to move your foot from place to place. In Russian villages, wooden mortars were mainly used in everyday household life. Metal mortars were common in cities and among wealthy peasant families of the Russian North.
House of the stationmaster in Vyra, Gatchina district. Kitchen utensils: in the corner there is a mortar with a pestle.
SIEVE AND SIEVE - utensils for sifting flour, consisting of a wide hoop and a mesh stretched over it on one side. The sieve differed from the sieve in having larger holes in the mesh. It was used to sort flour brought from the village mill. Coarser flour was sifted out through it, and finer flour was sifted out through a sieve. In a peasant house, a sieve was also used as a container for storing berries and fruits.
The sieve was used in rituals as a container for gifts and miracles, in folk medicine as a talisman, and in fortune telling as an oracle. Water poured through a sieve was endowed with healing properties; children and pets were washed with it for medicinal purposes.
TROUGH - open oblong container. It was made from half of a whole log, hollowed out on the flat side. The trough on the farm was useful for everything and had a wide variety of purposes: for harvesting apples, cabbage and other fruits, for making pickles, for washing, bathing, cooling beer, for kneading dough and feeding livestock. When turned upside down, it was used as a large lid. In winter, children rode it down the slides, like in a sled.
Bulk products were stored in wooden containers with lids, birch bark boxes and beetroot. Wicker products were in use - baskets, baskets, boxes made of bast and twigs.
TUES (URAC) - box cylindrical with a lid and handle-bow, made of birch bark or bast. Tues differed in their purpose: for liquids and for bulk objects. To make a container for liquid, they took chipped wood, that is, birch bark removed from the tree entirely, without cutting. Tues for bulk products were made from plastic birch bark. They also differed in shape: round, square, triangular, oval. Each housewife had tues of different shapes and sizes, and each had its own purpose. In some, salt was well preserved and protected from moisture. Others contained milk, butter, sour cream, and cottage cheese. Honey, sunflower, hemp and linseed oil were poured into them; water and kvass. In the containers, food was kept fresh for a long time. We went into the forest with birch bark trees to pick berries.
In the children's department of the regional library in the village of Kolyshley, a "Corner of folk life". Here everyone can get acquainted with the history of the emergence of the village of Kolyshley, its sights, antiques, customs and rituals of our ancestors, and legends of their native land. This unique local history material is presented at the exhibition "The legends of deep antiquity."
Grandfather - local historian will help you find the necessary material in books and brochures, introduce everyone to the objects of Russian folk life and their purpose.
With interest, preschoolers and schoolchildren of the village get acquainted with the exhibition at public events. You can learn a lot of new things here. For example, what a grip and a ruble are, how they worked at a spinning wheel and what a spindle is needed for, how they used to iron with old irons and what a musical iron sounds like. Is it really possible to live without a samovar in everyday life? After all, they drank tea with pleasure and treated their guests to it. The samovar was the main decoration of the table.
Let's find out together the purpose of household items. Get ready to be transported back in time, plunge into antiquity, and learn more about the life of our ancestors.
Peasant hut
Izba is the home of a simple Russian peasant and his family. Here, in a peasant house, every piece of household utensil is a symbol of the people’s life, how the peasants lived and how they worked, doing household chores around the house. Household items are imbued with the Russian spirit and convey that image of the difficult peasant life in Rus'.
In Rus', huts were built on the banks of rivers or lakes, because fishing has been one of the important industries since ancient times. The place for construction was chosen very carefully. A new hut was never built on the site of the old one. An interesting fact is that pets served as a guide for selection. The place they chose to relax was considered the most favorable for building a house.
The dwelling was made of wood, most often larch or birch. It is more correct to say not “build a hut”, but “cut down a house”. This was done with an ax and later a saw. The huts were most often made square or rectangular. There was nothing superfluous inside the home, only the essentials necessary for life. The walls and ceilings in the Russian hut were not painted. For wealthy peasants, the house consisted of several rooms: the main dwelling, a canopy, a veranda, a closet, a courtyard and buildings: a flock or pen for animals, a hayloft and others. In the hut there were wooden objects of folk life - a table, benches, a cradle or cradle for babies, shelves for dishes. There could be colored rugs or runners on the floor.
Proverbs of the Russian people:
It is not the owner's house that is painted, but the owner's house.
Eat what they put in, and listen to the owner of the house!
Someone else's hut is assiduous. It sits more softly on someone else's bench.
The hut is red in corners, lunch is pies.
It’s light in the hut, but it’s brighter outside.
Without taking up an ax, you cannot cut down a hut.
Russian stove
Without this item it is impossible to imagine the life of our distant ancestors. The stove was both a nurse and a savior. In extreme cold, only thanks to her many people managed to stay warm. The Russian stove was a place where food was prepared and people also slept on it. Her warmth saved her from many diseases. Due to the fact that it had various niches and shelves, various dishes were stored here. Food cooked in a Russian oven is incredibly tasty and aromatic. Here you can prepare: delicious and rich soup, crumbly porridge, all kinds of pastries and much more.
But the most important thing is that the stove was the place in the house around which people were constantly present. It is no coincidence that in Russian fairy tales, the main characters either ride on it (Emelya) or sleep (Ilya Muromets).
"Mother Stove"
Olga Korshunova, Zarechny
Penza region
The Russian stove is like a mother:
Gives everyone warmth without leaving a trace.
Well built, strong stone,
And inside there is the excitement of a fiery dance.
The firewood will crackle - sparks in a round dance!
Having warmed up in the warmth, the cat sleeps on the bench.
The smells of the forest are sticky and birch trees.
How expensive everything is! Everything is cute to the point of tears!
From the stove in the house there is a spirit of hospitality:
The cabbage soup is rich, the pies are like fluff.
Not cast iron batteries -
We have been warming our souls with a stove for a long time.
The stove is blazing with heat - the frost is touching its tail!
Smoke from the roof spreads its way to the stars.
On a cold night you look at the village -
The pillars of smoke make your soul feel warm.
If the house “breathes”, it means the hearth is alive!
With a warming stove, I don’t wither away in the winter.
The stove is mother... I don’t want another one.
And honor to you and bow to the ground!
Proverbs of the Russian people:
The firewood in the stove fell apart - to the guests.
Coal fell from the stove - guests entered the yard.
The fire in the stove went out - an unexpected guest.
Be at home. Be at home: climb onto the stove.
Whoever sat on the stove is no longer a guest, but one of his own.
Whatever is in the oven goes on the table with swords.
You can’t carry it under the owner’s hollow stove.
Don’t feed him bread, just don’t drive him out of the oven!
The oven is cramped (as it cooks), but the belly is spacious.
If you want to eat rolls, don’t sit on the stove!
It’s good to lie on the stove for the finished bread.
Table
The table occupied a central place in the house, the corner where it stood was called “red”, that is, the most important, honorable. It was covered with a tablecloth, and the whole family gathered around it. Everyone at the table had their own place, the most comfortable one, the central one was occupied by the head of the family - the owner. In the red corner there was space for icons.
A large number of folk traditions and rituals are associated with the table. Before the wedding, the bride and groom had to walk around the table, and the newborn was carried around the table. These customs, according to popular beliefs, symbolized a long and happy life.
Proverbs of the Russian people:
God is on the wall, bread is on the table.
Bread and salt are on the table, and your hands are yours.
What is on the table is fraternal, and what is in the cage is the master’s.
Without a cake, the birthday boy is seated under the table.
They accept me, take me by both hands and put me in the red corner.
Drag the table to the corner (from the stove to the red corner).
Wait for your turn: when they take it from the table.
At least at the lower end, but at the same table.
They’ll set up a table and force you to work.
The table is God's palm: it feeds.
Duffel chest
For many years, people kept their valuables, clothes, money and other small items in chests. There is a version that they were invented back in the Stone Age. It is reliably known that they were used by the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. Thanks to the armies of conquerors and nomadic tribes, chests spread throughout the Eurasian continent and gradually reached Rus'.
The chests were decorated with painting, fabric, carvings or patterns. They could serve not only as a hiding place, but also as a bed, bench or chair. A family that had several chests was considered wealthy.
Grandma has a safe
Not new for a long time
It's not steel at all
And forged, oak.
He stands modestly in her corner.
In it the grandmother keeps dressing gowns, socks,
Cuttings for the dress, a little yarn,
A downy handkerchief and even a pension.
But not the door, but the lid on it
Very heavy with a padlock.
Samovar
Tea drinking at the samovar - distinguishing feature Russian traditional life. The samovar was not just a household item, it symbolized well-being, family comfort and prosperity. It was passed down by inheritance and was included in the girl's dowry. It was displayed in the most prominent place in the house, taking pride of place on the table.
The history of the Russian samovar goes back to the distant past. We owe the origin of the samovar to tea, which appeared in Russia at the end of the 16th century. Its popularity grew rapidly; by the 19th century, tea was considered the most popular drink in Rus'.
The samovar quickly won the hearts of Russian tea drinkers thanks to its unique functionality and beauty. The water in it remained hot for a long time, was fragrant from the combustion of dry birch chips, it was enough for large quantity guests and household members.
Master-master– samovar.
He's a tall and strong guy,
Swallows wood chips without difficulty.
Invites you to visit -
Treats in stock:
Here are the bagels, sugar,
Just try a little
And listen to our story...
Proverbs of the Russian people:
Have some tea and listen to the organ.
There's no harm in tea.
Kyakhta tea and Murom kalach, - the rich man is having an afternoon snack.
Gardener
The gardener was considered one of the most important subjects of the national economy in Rus'. It looked like a flat, wide shovel on a long handle and was intended for sending bread or pie into the oven. Russian craftsmen made an object from a solid piece of wood, mainly aspen, linden or alder. Having cut out the desired object, it was carefully cleaned.
Rogach, poker, chapelnik
With the advent of the stove, these items became indispensable in the household. Usually they were stored in the storage area and were always at hand by the owner. Often such utensils were made to order from a village blacksmith, but there were craftsmen who could easily make a poker at home.
The poker was the first assistant at work. When the wood burned in the stove, they used this object to move the coals and make sure that there were no unburnt logs.
The grip is the second assistant when working with the stove. Usually there were several of them, of different sizes. With the help of this item, cast iron pots or pots with food were placed and removed from the oven. They took care of the grips and tried to handle them very carefully.
They stood important by the stove,
Like steadfast soldiers
Pots of porridge from the oven
They pull with iron grips.
Sieve
Sieve - an almost irreplaceable piece of utensils for home baking. In any hut, several types of sieves were stored, made of different materials and with cells of different sizes. A large sieve for sifting flour was a hoop with birch bark walls, open on one side and closed with a mesh on the other. Seeds, ash, and other bulk mixtures were sifted through a sieve (hence the origin of the name).
Sickle and millstone
At all times, bread was considered the main product of Russian cuisine. The flour for its preparation was extracted from harvested grain crops, which were planted and harvested by hand every year. They were helped in this by a sickle - a device that looks like an arc with a sharpened blade on a wooden handle.
As needed, the peasants ground the harvest into flour. This process was facilitated by hand millstones. For the first time, such a weapon was discovered in the second half of the 1st century BC. The hand millstone looked like two circles, the sides of which were tightly adjacent to each other. The top layer had a special hole (grain was poured into it) and a handle with which the upper part of the millstone rotated. Such utensils were made from stone, granite, wood or sandstone.
Proverbs of the Russian people:
Whatever you pour into a good millstone, everything will be washed away.
Grandpa rolls some bread.
Bread is the head of everything.
They don't refuse bread and salt.
Bread sleeps in a person (sleep gives satiety).
Bread does not follow the belly.
Don’t let the hungry cut bread (he will deprive him).
His mouth opened like a piece of bread.
Man lives by bread, not by trade.
Bread father, water mother.
As long as there is bread and water, it’s not a problem.
No one has lunch without bread or salt.
There will be no bread, there will be no lunch.
Bread and water are peasant food.
In the field with a sickle and a villa, and at home with a knife and fork.
He who grinds bakes bread.
Do not feast on feasts if you sow grain.
He who is not lazy to plow will produce bread.
The work is bitter, but the bread is sweet.
Rocker
Like bread, water has always been an important resource. To cook dinner, water livestock, or do laundry, it had to be brought. The rocker was a faithful assistant in this. It looked like a curved stick, to the ends of which special hooks were attached: buckets were attached to them. The rocker was made from linden, willow or aspen wood. The first records of this device date back to the 16th century, but archaeologists of Veliky Novgorod found many rocker arms made in the 11th-14th centuries.
Trough
In ancient times, clothes were washed by hand in special vessels. A trough served this purpose. In addition, it was used for feeding livestock, as a feeder, kneading dough, and making pickles. The item got its name from the word “bark”, because it was originally from which the first troughs were made. Subsequently, they began to make it from the halves of the log, hollowing out recesses in the logs.
Their shape has not changed over the centuries, it has always been the same as it is now - elongated, unlike basins and bowls, the purpose of which is very similar, but the shape is round. And the sizes varied: from the largest, reaching 2 m in length with a width of about 40-50 cm, to small ones, which had a length of 30-40 cm and a width of 15-20 cm. Small troughs were used in the kitchen for cooking, cutting and chopping small number of products.
Rubel
Upon completion of washing and drying, the laundry was ironed using a ruble. It looked like a rectangular board with notches on one side. Things were carefully wrapped around a rolling pin, a ruble was placed on top and rolled. Thus, the linen fabric softened and smoothed out. The smooth side was painted and decorated with carvings.
Here's a ruble - it's a wonderful name,
It is easy to use.
Irons linen with ease,
Chopped from wood.
Cast iron iron
The ruble was replaced by a cast iron iron in Russia. This event dates back to the 16th century. It is worth noting that not everyone had it, since it was very expensive. In addition, cast iron was heavy, and it was more difficult to iron than the old way. There were several types of irons, depending on the heating method: some were filled with burning coals, while others were heated on a stove. Such a unit weighed from 5 to 12 kilograms.
There is an iron in front of you,
At that time he was warming himself on the coals,
Which was in all the yards.
The iron will pass over the tablecloth,
He will return her neat appearance.
Don't be shy, come over
Look at the iron.
He is the king of things, he is the Master.
Wind, solid cast iron,
Gas and alcohol
Watery and musical
Electric – so brutal...
You can’t count all the species,
We have work to do about that.
Kerosene lamp
Fire helped not only in cooking, but also provided light in the dark, this was especially valuable in winter, when it got light late and dark early.At first, the peasants had a torch - a thin long sliver of wood that was lit to illuminate the peasant hut. We used a light - a stand for a torch. The torch was replaced by a candle - a stick made of a fatty substance with a wick inside, serving as a primitive source of lighting.Candles appeared very early, but the candle flame was open, which was not safe, and the wind could blow out the candle on the street. These problems were solved with the advent of kerosene, which is how kerosene lamps appeared.Kerosene lighting began to spread in the Russian village in 1860, from the time Baku kerosene came into everyday life.At the bottom of the lamp there was a vessel into which kerosene was poured, and a wick came out from there, which was set on fire. The fire was covered with a glass “hood”.With a kerosene lamp you could safely move around the house and street without fear of extinguishing the wick.Electric lighting replaced the kerosene lamp.
Pomelo and broom
The broom looked like a handle, at the end of which pine, juniper branches, rags, washcloth or brushwood were attached. The name of the attribute of purity comes from the word revenge, and it was used exclusively for cleaning ash in the stove or cleaning around it. To maintain order throughout the hut, a broom was used.
If there is trash on the floor,
Let's remember the broom.
spinning wheel
An important component of Russian life was the spinning wheel. In ancient Rus' it was also called “whorled spindle,” from the word “to spin.” Popular were the bottom spinning wheels, which looked like a flat board on which the spinner sat, with a vertical neck and a shovel. The upper part of the spinning wheel was richly decorated with carvings or paintings.
At the beginning of the 14th century, the first spinning wheels appeared in Europe. They looked like a wheel located perpendicular to the floor and a cylinder with a spindle. Women fed the thread to the spindle with one hand and spun the wheel with the other. This method of twisting fibers was simpler and faster, which greatly facilitated the work.
About life before us
People's lives were difficult:
We can't do it.
Spinning yarn in the evening,
We prayed to God before going to bed.
And, as the fairy tale says,
A new day must be born.
Proverbs of the Russian people:
Strand your hair, girl, don’t be lazy, don’t wander around the shops!
Ours were spinning, and yours were sleeping.
I got up early, but didn’t exert myself much. There was a needle, but she went to bed.
On a red day it’s lazy to spin.
The hut was the main living space of a Russian house. Its interior was distinguished by strict, long-established forms, simplicity and expedient arrangement of objects. Its walls, ceiling and floor, as a rule not painted or covered with anything, had a pleasant warm wood color, light in new houses, dark in old ones.
The main place in the hut was occupied by the Russian stove. Depending on the local tradition, it stood to the right or left of the entrance, with its mouth towards the side or front wall. This was convenient for the inhabitants of the house, since the warm stove blocked the path of cold air penetrating from the entryway (only in the southern, central black earth zone of European Russia the stove was located in the corner farthest from the entrance).
Diagonally from the stove there was a table, above which hung a shrine with icons. There were fixed benches along the walls, and above them there were shelves cut into the walls of the same width - shelf holders. In the back part of the hut, from the stove to the side wall under the ceiling, a wooden flooring was installed - a floor. In the southern Russian regions, behind the side wall of the stove there could be a wooden flooring for sleeping - a floor (platform). This entire immobile environment of the hut was built by carpenters along with the house and was called a mansion outfit.
The space of the Russian hut was divided into parts that had their own specific purpose. The front corner with the shrine and the table was also called large, red, holy: family meals were held here, prayer books, the Gospel, and the Psalter were read aloud. Here on the shelves stood beautiful cutlery. In houses where there was no upper room, the front corner was considered the front part of the hut, a place for receiving guests.
The space near the door and stove was called woman's corner, stove corner, middle corner, middle, middle. It was a place where women prepared food, worked various jobs. There were pots and bowls on the shelves, and near the stove there were grips, a poker, and a broom. The mythological consciousness of the people defined the stove corner as a dark, unclean place. In the hut there were, as it were, two sacred centers located diagonally: a Christian center and a pagan center, equally important for a peasant family.
The rather limited space of the Russian hut was organized in such a way that a family of seven or eight people could comfortably accommodate it. This was achieved due to the fact that each family member knew his place in the common space. Men usually worked and rested during the day in the men's half of the hut, which included the front corner with icons and a bench near the entrance. Women and children were in the women's quarters near the stove during the day.
Places for sleeping were also strictly allocated: children, boys and girls slept on the floors; the owner and the mistress of the house - under the sheets on a special flooring or bench, to which a wide bench was moved; old people on the stove or cabbage. It was not allowed to violate the established order in the house unless absolutely necessary. A person who violates it was considered ignorant of the commandments of the fathers. The organization of the interior space of the hut is reflected in the wedding song:
Will I enter my parents' bright room,
I will pray for all four directions,
Another first bow to the front corner,
I will ask the Lord for a blessing,
In a white body - health,
In the head of the mind-mind,
Smart with white hands,
To be able to please someone else's family.
I will give another bow to the middle corner,
For his bread for salt,
For the drinker, for the nurse,
For warm clothes.
And I’ll give my third bow to the warm corner
For his warmth,
For hot coals,
The bricks are hot.
And I’ll take my last bow
Kutny corner
For his soft bed,
Behind the title is down,
For sleep, for sweet slumber.
The hut was kept as clean as possible, which was most typical for northern and Siberian villages. The floors in the hut were washed once a week, and on Easter, Christmas and the patronal holidays, not only the floor, but also the walls, ceiling, and benches were scraped bare and sandy. Russian peasants tried to decorate their hut. On weekdays, her decoration was quite modest: a towel on the shrine, homespun rugs on the floor.
On a holiday, the Russian hut was transformed, especially if the house did not have an upper room: the table was covered with a white tablecloth; embroidered or woven towels with colored patterns were hung on the walls closer to the front corner and on the windows; the benches and chests in the house were covered with elegant paths. The interior of the upper room was somewhat different from the interior decoration of the hut.
The upper room was the front room of the house and was not intended for permanent residence families. Accordingly, its internal space was designed differently - there were no beds or a platform for sleeping, instead of a Russian stove there was a Dutch stove lined with tiles, suitable only for heating the room, the benches were covered with beautiful bedding, ceremonial tableware was placed on the shelves, and popular prints were hung on the walls near the shrine. pictures of religious and secular content and towels. Otherwise, the genteel attire of the upper room repeated the stationary attire of the hut: in the corner farthest from the door there is a shrine with icons, along the walls of the shop, above them there are shelves, many chests, sometimes placed one on top of the other.
It is difficult to imagine a peasant house without numerous utensils that accumulated over decades, if not centuries, and literally filled its space. Utensils are utensils for preparing, preparing and storing food, serving it on the table - pots, patches, tubs, krinkas, bowls, dishes, valleys, ladles2, crusts, etc.; all kinds of containers for collecting berries and mushrooms - baskets, bodies, containers, etc.; various chests, caskets, caskets for storing household items, clothing and cosmetics; items for lighting a fire and interior lighting at home - flint, lights, candlesticks, and many others. etc. All these items necessary for running a household were available in greater or lesser quantities in every peasant family.
Household utensils were relatively the same throughout the entire area of settlement of the Russian people, which is explained by the commonality of the household way of life of Russian peasants. Local variants of utensils were practically absent or, in any case, were less obvious than in clothing and food. Differences appeared only in the utensils served on the table on holidays. At the same time, local originality found its expression not so much in the form of tableware, but in its decorative design.
A characteristic feature of Russian peasant utensils was the abundance of local names for the same item. Vessels of the same shape, the same purpose, made of the same material, in the same way, were called differently in different provinces, districts, volosts and further villages. The name of the item changed depending on its use by a particular housewife: the pot in which porridge was cooked was called a “kashnik” in one house, the same pot used in another house for cooking stew was called a “shchennik”.
Utensils for the same purpose, but made from different materials, had different names: a vessel made of clay - a pot, a vessel made of cast iron - a cast iron pot, a vessel made of copper - a coppersmith. The terminology often changed depending on the method of making the vessel: a cooper's vessel for pickling vegetables - a tub, dug out of wood - a dugout, made of clay - a korchaga. The decoration of the interior space of a peasant house began to undergo noticeable changes in the last third of the 19th century. First of all, the changes affected the interior of the upper room, which was perceived by the Russians as a symbol of the wealth of the peasant family.
The owners of the upper rooms sought to furnish them with objects characteristic of the urban way of life: instead of benches, there were chairs, stools, canapels - sofas with lattice or blank backs, instead of an ancient table with a base - an urban-type table covered with a “loin” tablecloth. An indispensable accessory of the upper room was a chest of drawers, a slide for festive dishes and an elegantly decorated bed with plenty of pillows, and near the shrine hung framed photographs of relatives and a clock.
After some time, innovations also affected the hut: a wooden partition separated the stove from the rest of the space, and urban household items began to actively displace traditional fixed furniture. So, the bed gradually replaced the bed. In the first decade of the 20th century. The decoration of the hut was replenished with cabinets, sideboards, mirrors and small sculptures. The traditional set of utensils lasted much longer, until the 30s. XX century, which was explained by the stability of the peasant way of life and the functionality of household items. The only exception was the festive dining room, or rather, tea utensils: from the second half of the 19th century V. In the peasant house, along with the samovar, porcelain cups, saucers, sugar bowls, vases for jam, milk jugs, and metal teaspoons appeared.
In wealthy families, during festive meals they used individual plates, jelly molds, glass glasses, cups, goblets, bottles, etc. The change in the lifestyle of peasants in the 20th century, an orientation towards the style and lifestyle of a big city led to an almost complete replacement previous ideas about the interior decoration of the house and the gradual withering away of traditional everyday culture.