At the beginning of the XIX century. the cultural rapprochement between Russia and Western Europe continued, but only the upper classes of society participated in this process.

Life and life of a noble family

The life of a noble family had its own characteristics. Since the time of Peter I, the structure and relationships in the noble family were built on an ideology that linked service and dignity. At the head of the family hierarchy was the father, who was responsible for the representation of the family in society and society in the family. According to etiquette, he kept aloof, had separate rooms in the house. Literary works of that time show the trepidation with which children secretly entered their father's study, which even in adulthood remained inaccessible to them. The duties of the head of the family included arranging the marriages of the offspring and the careers of the sons. The attitude towards children in the noble family was strict. The high level of exactingness to the child was explained by the fact that his upbringing was built within the framework of the noble code of honor.

A family could consist of relatives by consanguinity and kinship. It often included members of the household (people who lived under a single roof), with the exception of servants and serfs.

V. A. Tropinin. Family portrait of Counts Carrots

There was a clear gender division in the family. Keeping the house was considered a specific female duty, doing things outside the home $-$ male. Sex differences were manifested in social activities: according to etiquette, men met in the evening, and women visited each other in the afternoon. The gender of the teacher always matched the gender of the child. A widower could only raise a son, but he was obliged to give his daughter to be raised by a relative.

Pushkin with uncle

Due to the high infant mortality, childhood up to the age of 7 was considered a time of purely biological existence. Caring for a child up to this age was entrusted to a nanny. From the age of 7, the child was regarded as a small adult, as it was believed that he had a mind. The education and upbringing of boys was focused on serving the Fatherland. The girl was brought up the ability to sacrifice herself as a wife and mother. After 7 years for the child, the behavior of adults became the standard of behavior. Children could be present and take part in the conversations of adults, read their books.

K. Gampeln. Portrait of the Konovnitsyn brothers

From the age of 7, a girl fell under the care of her mother, who, until her marriage, was fully responsible for her. The education and moral upbringing of girls was entrusted to governesses. For the first time, girls came out as potential brides. Since the marriage was mainly arranged by the head of the family, its advantage was that the girl was pulled out from under her mother's guardianship.

In marriage, the task of the wife was to serve her husband. Legally, the spouses were quite independent. There was no common property, spouses did not inherit each other. In society, they had a different circle of acquaintances, led an independent lifestyle and were perceived as independent individuals.

The most important role of a woman was motherhood. However, after the birth of a child, care for him was entrusted to a wet nurse and a nanny. The mother was not supposed to feed the child. The boy was raised by a nanny until the age of 7, the mother left general supervision behind her.

From the document (A. S. Pushkin. Nanny):

Friend of my harsh days,

My decrepit dove!

Alone in the wilderness of pine forests

For a long, long time you've been waiting for me.

You are under the window of your room

Grieving like clockwork

And the spokes are slowing down every minute

In your wrinkled hands.

Looking through the forgotten gates

To the black distant path:

Longing, forebodings, worries

They squeeze your chest all the time.

That makes you wonder...

The fate of Eugene kept:

At first Madame followed him,

Then Monsieur replaced her;

The child was sharp, but sweet.

Pushkin in Mikhailovsky with his nanny Arina Rodionovna

The father was engaged in the selection of uncles and teachers for his son, later he was responsible for choosing his career. There was no close relationship between father and son. The father remained inaccessible, his decisions were not challenged. Often for a child, the closest person in the family was an uncle.

From the document (Memories of Admiral Nikolai Semenovich Mordvinov and his family. Daughter's Notes):

Our parents led us in such a way that they not only did not punish us, they did not even scold us, but their will was always sacred to us. Our father did not like children to quarrel, and when he hears some dispute between us, he, without being distracted from his occupation, will only say: “Le plus sage sede” (The smartest one yields) $-$ and everything will be silent with us .

The teacher was engaged in the education of the child, whose duties also included the education of manners, stereotypes of behavior. The teacher accompanied the pupil everywhere. However, emotionally close relationships with the teacher, as a rule, did not arise, since the teacher in the family hierarchy occupied the position of a servant.

R. Redgrave. Governess

From the document (V. A. Sologub. Big light):

As soon as in the summer, in the country, I can breathe freely and cheerfully, and here Madame Point is now preventing me: everyone follows me and says: “Keep your back straight. Don't speak loudly. Don't go soon. Don't walk quietly. Lower your eyes…” But why is this? .. If only to be quite big as soon as possible!

The ideology of the nobility was based on the belief that the high position of a nobleman in society obliges him to be a model of high moral qualities: "To whom much is given, much will be asked." The child was oriented not to success, but to the ideal. As a nobleman, he was obliged to be brave, honest, educated.

Courage was developed through strong-willed efforts and training. A boy of 10-12 years old had to ride on a par with adults. To develop endurance in the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where Pushkin studied, “gymnastic exercises” were held every day: the lyceum students learned horseback riding, fencing, swimming and rowing. They got up at 7 in the morning, walked in any weather, ate simple food.

Attitude to appearance and clothing had an aesthetic character. Sharpened sharpness and polished nails, exquisite compliments and carefully styled hair complemented each other. According to the rules of good manners. even the most expensive and sophisticated outfit looked simple.

If a virgin The school after marriage automatically became an adult, then the young man was made an adult and independent by studying or serving in the army. Here, for the first time, the young man found himself in a company of people equal to him in position and age. The question of career and marriage was decided by the father. After marriage, a man, as a rule, left the service. Marriage for love was rare. The last step in acquiring the status of the head of the family and the servant of society was the death of the father.

As Russia draws closer to Europe, changes occur in the relationship and structure of the noble family. The family, as in the West, is beginning to be regarded as a place of special purity and moral refuge of a person from society.

Unknown artist. Portrait of E. I. Novosiltseva with children

The nobility spent their days not only in the service, but also in constant communication. In the houses of the capital's nobility, dinner was served daily for 100 people. And a ball or a party could cost the owner a significant amount. The city houses of the nobility resembled palaces: they were built mainly of stone, decorated with columns, sculptures, and stucco bas-reliefs.

G. G. Gagarin. Ball at Princess M. F. Baryatinsky. 2nd floor 1830s

Traditionally, at the beginning of summer, landlords moved to country palaces and houses. After spending the summer months and even part of the autumn in the bosom of nature, they returned to the cities in November. Then the city social life began with balls, masquerades, theatrical premieres.

In the first half of the XIX century. noble estates were real cultural centers. They embodied the dream of the owners to create their own world with special traditions, rituals, morality, a specific type of housekeeping, daily routines and holidays. The main events in the life of a nobleman were connected with the estate, so its arrangement was thought out to the smallest detail. Classicism dominated the manor construction during this period. Often the estate had a theater, a library, a temple, schools for serfs, an orchestra. The central position in the manor house was occupied by the main hall, where balls and receptions were held.

Yusupov's estate in Arkhangelsk

The second floor was the main one, where there were bright rooms, richly decorated with furniture, paintings, sculptures. The rooms were walk-through, sequentially adjacent to each other. By the middle of the century, in new buildings, all the main rooms opened onto a corridor. The office space was on the ground floor. Huge halls and living rooms were illuminated with chandeliers, candelabra, girandoles. The walls were finished with expensive foreign wallpaper. Traditional dishes made of gold and silver were used, as well as foreign dishes made of expensive Saxon or Sèvres porcelain. Oriental furniture, decoration of halls with carpets and weapons were popular. Representatives of the nobility invited domestic and foreign craftsmen to work on the decoration of the premises. In addition to the ceremonial elements (the master's house and parks), noble estates had economic buildings: horse and cattle yards, barns, greenhouses and greenhouses, which were built in the same style as the house and park. Practical owners began to build distilleries, brick, soap, cloth, glass, paper and other enterprises in the estates. The ancient hobbies of the nobles were hunting and horseback riding.

Park in the Yusupov estate in Arkhangelsk

The estate reflected the soul of the owner and revealed the features of his personality. It occupied a special place in the development of the cultural traditions of landlord Russia. As a natural and cultural space created for centuries, the estate has become a symbol of a noble family. A. S. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol, M. Yu. Lermontov, and especially I. S. Turgenev contributed to the formation of its poetics (the novel "The Noble Nest").

With the beginning of the XIX century. there were changes in the clothes of the nobles. The costume becomes European and secular, it expresses the psychological appearance of a person. The tailcoat, top hat, gloves, canes and colored vests, military $-$ uniform became the standard of civilian clothing. Women's fashion was dominated by "antique" dresses: dresses made of thin fabrics, with a high waist, short sleeves and a straight skirt with trim that bordered the hem. An important addition to the toilet were scarves and shawls.

The diet of the Russian nobility in the middle of the XIX century. consisted of more than 300 different dishes and drinks, including dishes of foreign cuisines. Coffee, oriental sweets, biscuits, French, German, Spanish wines became everyday products.

V. Pervuninsky. In the estate

life and life of a peasant family

The cultural gap between the upper and lower classes in Russia was huge. The peasants, unlike the nobles, remained true to the old customs. Traditional Russian culture prevailed in the village.

Easter card

Life and dwellings of the peasantry in the first half of the XIX century. preserved the features of the past. The main building material was wood, from which peasants' huts were built. At the base of the dwelling there was a basement, that is, a room for livestock, tools, and many things. Above the cellar (“on the mountain”) there was a room. Wealthy peasants had a light room above the room. Depending on the wealth of the owners, the houses were decorated with carvings. Instead of glass in the huts of the peasants, a bull bladder was used. The houses of wealthy villagers had mica windows.

The main place in the hut was near the stove. Icons dear to the owners hung in the red corner. The basis of the decoration of the house was stools and chairs. Near the stove, the hostess cooked food in clay pots and put them in the stove to keep warm. Near the front door there was a workplace for men, where they were harnessing, weaving bast shoes, repairing tools. There was a loom near the windows. Indispensable companions right on winter evenings were the light and the torch. The peasants slept on stoves or on planks (boards under the ceiling).

The staple food was rye bread. From millet, peas, buckwheat, oats, porridge and jelly were prepared. There were a lot of vegetables in the diet: cabbage, turnips, beets, carrots, garlic, cucumbers, radishes, onions. Used potatoes. Meat was rarely eaten, usually on holidays. His lack was filled with fish. Beet kvass, beer, sbiten, liqueurs and tinctures were popular among drinks. In the first half of the XIX century. tea became widespread.

I. A. Ermenev. Lunch (Peasants at dinner)

The peasants wore shirts and trousers. With the development of weaving production, homespun cloth for outerwear (zipuns, sermyag) was replaced by factory fabrics. In winter, they wore sheepskin coats and sheepskin coats, long sheepskin coats, girded with sashes. Hats ("sinners") were made by artisans. The main type of footwear for the peasants was bast bast shoes, which were worn with cloth or canvas shoes tied with braid. For the holidays, men wore leather boots, women $-$ "cats" (heavy leather galoshes). In winter they wore felt boots.

An important role in the life of the peasants was played by holidays associated with cultural and religious traditions. On the eve of Christmas and before Epiphany, they were guessing. The main rite for Baptism was a procession to the hole for holy water. The first spring holiday was Shrovetide, before Lent they ate tasty and fatty foods, baked pancakes. The favorite pastime of the population these days was sledding, sledding, logs from the mountains. On Easter they played babki, bast shoes, rode on a swing. On Trinity they walked in meadows and forests, on the feast of Ivan Kupala they swam in rivers and collected medicinal herbs.

V. Perov. Village procession at Easter

The peasant family united representatives of two generations of $-$ parents and their children. There were usually many children. The main family rituals were baptism, wedding, funeral. Boys usually got married at the age of 24–25, girls $-$ at the age of 18–22. A marriage concluded at a church wedding was considered legal. After his son's marriage, his parents and close relatives helped him build his own house. When giving a daughter in marriage, the parents gave the dowry to the husband. Among other things, it included things sewn by a girl before the wedding.

A. P. Ryabushkin. Peasant wedding in the Tambov province

life and life of citizens

In the first half of the XIX century. there is an industrial growth in St. Petersburg, Riga, Moscow, Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav. The population growth of cities is 2–2.5 times higher than the general population growth of the empire. The appearance of cities is gradually changing. Their streets, especially in Moscow, which burned down in 1812, were built up with large stone houses.

Moscow. Nikolskaya street

With the development of urban trade and transport, the area of ​​​​individual outbuildings is rapidly declining: barns, sheds, baths. The streets are getting busier. Among the residents of St. Petersburg, Sennaya Square, Tsaritsyn Meadow, Ekateringof were popular vacation spots. Taverns, tea houses, buffets are opened for those who could not dine at home.

V. Pervuninsky. Morning in Neskuchny Garden

Summer festivities of Muscovites took place along the main Moscow streets, around the Kremlin, in Sokolniki and in Maryina Roshcha, as well as in Tsaritsyno, Kuntsevo, Kuskovo, on Sparrow Hills, in Kuzminki, Ostankino, Kolomenskoye, Arkhangelskoye, which were then the outskirts of the city. In winter, the townspeople walked in the Kremlin Garden, on Tverskoy Boulevard, along the embankment of the Moskva River and Novinsky Val. In the summer, merchants and other city people took part in the festivities, while the nobles left for their estates outside of Moscow. Regimental music played in gardens or parks, gypsies sang and danced, and city dwellers rode in boats.

By the middle of the XIX century. Most Russian cities have been transformed from agrarian-administrative to craft-industrial and trade centers. In the cities, there was a transition from a composite family to a small one, from absolutism to democracy in intra-family relations, there was a rationalization of social relations.

The bulk of the merchants in the first half of the XIX century. adhered to the traditional way of life and methods of doing business. In the houses, strict subordination was maintained according to the "Domostroy". Merchants were the most religious part of the urban population. Charity was considered a good deed among merchants. The place of residence of merchants in Moscow was mainly Zamoskvorechye. Merchants' houses were built of stone. In the first half of the XIX century. in most merchants' houses, the front rooms were decorated richly, but not always with taste. The ceilings were painted with birds of paradise, sirens, cupids. Of the furniture, sofas were obligatory. In the front rooms, the owners hung their portraits and portraits of their ancestors, beautiful and expensive trinkets stood in glass cabinets.

V. G. PEROV Arrival of the governess to the merchant's house

The merchant environment has become one of the keepers of Russian culinary culture. The recipes were traditional, the dishes consisted of simple ingredients. The merchant's love for tea and tea parties is well known.

B. M. Kustodiev. Merchant for tea

In the first half of the XIX century. the older generation of merchants wore "Russian dress", while the younger generation wore European clothes. Merchants' clothes had traditional and European features. "Golden merchant youth" dressed in French fashion.

B. M. Kustodiev. Merchant with a merchant

At leisure, merchants with their families visited the theater, guests, festivities, fairs. Moreover, the fair was a traditional place of entertainment, and theaters were just becoming fashionable among merchants.

The life of the working people was hard. The workers of the first factories and factories lived in multi-story barracks, damp, semi-dark, with plank bunks infested with insects. The lack of clean water, the lack of light and air had a detrimental effect on the body. Mortality among them was twice the national average.

Interior view of barracks for factory workers Barracks for family workers

The workers' table was poor, mostly cereals and bread. The only entertainment available to the workers was a visit to a tavern or tavern.

Thus, only the upper classes of society participated in the process of cultural rapprochement between Russia and Europe. The gulf between high" culture of the aristocracy and noble merchants and the traditional culture of the lower classes was preserved.

In the 20s. in Soviet Russia, cultural life was on the rise. In art and science, it was mainly representatives of the pre-revolutionary intelligentsia who created. Natural scientists V.I. Vernadsky, N.I. Vavilov, A.L. Chizhevsky, A.A. Friedman, K.E. Tsiolkovsky, N.E. Zhukovsky, philosophers N.A. Berdyaev, V.S. Solovyov, P.A. Florensky, economists A.V. Chayanov, N.D. Kondratiev, historian S.F. Platonov; into art - artists V.V. Kandinsky, K.S. Malevich, A.M. Rodchenko, V.E. Tatlin, I.I. Brodsky, B.V. Ioganson, A.A. Deineka, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, writers A.M. Gorky, E. Zamyatin, B. Pilnyak, A. Platonov and others. Listing these names in one line does not mean that their fate was the same.

The fate of a worker of science and art in the Soviet state depended on the policy that it pursued in the field of culture. The introduction of the New Economic Policy was accompanied by a revival of the "bourgeois ideology", the expression of which was the "Smenovekhov" movement. In the fight against him, the government took harsh measures, creating censorship bodies such as Glavlit and Glavrepetkom, as well as expelling dissidents from the country. At the same time, in the 1920s scientific and creative discussions were allowed, there was a coexistence of such different trends in art as Proletkult, associations of avant-garde artists, futurists, "Serapion Brothers", Imagists, constructivists, "Left Front". The presence of pluralism in the cultural life of the country should be considered an achievement of this time.

Serious steps were taken to eradicate adult illiteracy, create a material base for public education, and form a network of cultural and educational institutions. However, in the absence of sufficient material resources in the Soviet state, fundamental changes in the field of raising the level of culture of the general population did not occur.

Significant changes took place in the 1920s. in the life of the population of Russia. Life, as a way of everyday life, is different for different segments of the population. The living conditions of the upper strata of Russian society, which before the revolution occupied the best apartments, consumed high-quality food, and enjoyed the achievements of education and health care, deteriorated. A strict class principle was introduced for the distribution of material and spiritual values, and representatives of the upper strata were deprived of their privileges. At the same time, the Soviet government supported the representatives of the old intelligentsia it needed through a system of rations, a commission to improve the life of scientists, and so on.

During the years of NEP, new strata were born that lived prosperously. These are the so-called Nepmen or the new bourgeoisie, whose way of life was determined by the thickness of their wallet. The party and state nomenklatura had a good existence, the position of which was directly dependent on how they performed their duties.

The way of life of the working class has seriously changed. From the Soviet government, he received the right to free education and medical care, the state provided him with social insurance and pension maintenance, supported his desire for higher education through the workers' faculty. However, the weak development of industrial production during the years of the New Economic Policy and mass unemployment affected, first of all, the workers, whose standard of living directly depended on wages.

Life of the peasantry in the 20s. changed slightly. Patriarchal relations in the family, common work in the field from dawn to dusk, the desire to increase one's wealth characterized the way of life of the bulk of the Russian population. The peasantry for the most part became more prosperous, they developed a sense of the owner. The weak peasantry united in communes and collective farms and organized collective labor. The peasantry was very worried about the position of the church in the Soviet state, because it connected its existence with religion.

The policy of the Soviet state towards the church in the 20s. was not constant. In the early 20s. repressions fell upon the church, church valuables were confiscated under the pretext of the need to fight hunger. The state carried out active anti-religious propaganda, created an extensive network of anti-religious societies and periodicals, introduced socialist holidays into the life of Soviet people as opposed to religious ones, and even changed the terms of the working week so that days off did not coincide with Sundays and religious holidays.

As a result of such a policy, a split occurred in the Orthodox Church, a group of priests formed a "living church", abolished the patriarchate and advocated the renewal of the church. Under Metropolitan Sergius, the church actively began to cooperate with the Soviet government. The state encouraged the emergence of new phenomena in the life of the church, directing repression against supporters of the preservation of the old order in the church.

Zakirova A.A.

Introduction

Relevance of the topic. The fundamental changes taking place in our country have given rise to contradictions between the need for positive socio-cultural transformations in society and the lack of highly spiritual people who are ready to implement them. Today, as never before, the crisis of spiritual and moral life is obvious, its roots going back to past centuries. And now there are rapid and significant socio-economic, spiritual and moral changes in Russian society and the state. In such times, the need to study the critical periods of national history increases.

To restore a more complete and profound historical picture of the events of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is necessary to study the spiritual and moral state of Russian society, since these events had not only socio-economic, but also spiritual and moral characteristics that were not previously sufficiently analyzed by historians. Supplementing the studied historical events with facts of a deeper spiritual and moral order has formed a special direction of this historical research, the problem of which is relevant for modern historians, political scientists, sociologists and theologians.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, despite the accelerating industrial development, the peasantry remained the main class in Russia. According to the 1897 census, its number was 84.1% of the total population of European Russia and 77.1% of the empire as a whole. On average, the financial situation of the peasantry improved.

The object of the study is the organization of life in the period of time of the late XIX - early XX century.

The subject of the study is the organization and living conditions of Russian workers.

The purpose of the work is to study the life of Russian workers of the late XIX - early XX century.

Tasks of abstract research:

1. To study the living conditions and household items of Russian workers;
2. Get acquainted with the social and everyday life of the Russian population of the XIX-XX centuries.
3. Consider the working conditions of the Russian population.

1. Life of Russian workers of the late XIX - early XX century

1.1 Living conditions

In the 19th century, peasants lived in large patriarchal families, which began to disintegrate only towards the end of the century. Large families, hard varied work, harsh climate forced the northerners to build complex houses that combine housing and outbuildings. On the village streets, there were usually several dozen monumental houses, each of which was inhabited by one peasant family. Barns were built next to the houses; closer to the river, lake - baths; beyond the outskirts - rigs with threshing floors.

During the construction of the house, any peasant did all the rough work, owning an ax, and craftsmen were invited to perform finer work. The huge house is beautiful from the outside, although it has almost no carvings, but it is especially excitingly beautiful inside. A living, warm tree, everything is lovingly made by the hands of the owner, thoughtfully, proportionately, large.

Ahead is the residential half, behind is the household half, between them is a canopy. The house turns out to be long, the residential and economic halves are of the same height. The main floor is raised by two meters. Under the residential half - underground, used as a pantry. The first Russian stoves were without a chimney, they were heated in a black way, and in our region too. There was a wooden pipe for the exit of smoke from the hut, which spread all over the ceiling. With the settlement of Karelia by Novgorodians, master stove-makers appeared who had experience in building stoves in boyar houses, which were heated in white, that is, the smoke from the stove went out into the chimney. The residential half is divided by a Russian stove, a door and a fence (cabinet partition) into two independent parts, which explains the presence of two red corners.

1.2 Household items

Dishes are represented by medium and large vessels, bowls, pots, round-bottomed bowls made of well-washed clay with an admixture of sand and crushed quartz. The firing is strong but uneven. Apparently, the items were fired in open fires.

Wooden utensils were an integral part of everyday life. When making it, the craftsmen paid more attention to the shape of the thing, and not to its decoration. Massive dugout-carved ladles, bowls of various sizes, bowls, salt shakers, spoons - in all these products one can feel the desire to successfully choose the proportions and shape. The material was pine, spruce, birch, strong birch growths - burls.

A significant part of household utensils were products made of birch bark. Tuesas, baskets, purses, salt boxes, beetroots (baskets) were made from it. Birch bark tuesas - cylindrical vessels made of a single piece of birch bark for milk or water served up to 25 years. Household utensils were also made from willow twigs and bast. Bast boxes, sieves, etc. were made from thin pieces of wood (aspen, linden). Rakes, rolls, hoops, details of looms, hunting skis were made from wood.

Metal products, in particular locks, forged chests, had an aesthetic value, as craftsmen gave them an elegant shape. The skill of a blacksmith was passed down from generation to generation, along the family line. The material of iron products was local ore: swamp, lake, mountain.

Various and beautiful household items ornamented with painted patterns were varied and beautiful. They attracted the attention of pre-revolutionary researchers, who noted that “the love for painting in the village is undeniable, it was not uncommon to find a hut in which a lot of home furnishings, cabinets, chests, doors were decorated with curious paintings, strange, fantastic, but satisfying the tastes of the village.” In our villages, fences, doors, cabinets were covered with brush painting, close to the style of the Vygoretsk workshops. Describing household items, tools, we can say that they are all works of folk art, although the main principle was the expediency of the manufactured items, practicality, and necessity.

2. Public life of a Russian city in the 19th - early 20th centuries.

2.1 Culture of the people

Since the 1890s, other class-professional clubs have been spreading in Russian cities, uniting wider sections of the townspeople. There were so-called clerk's, or commercial, clubs, around which employees of state institutions and private firms, lower-ranking officials, tradesmen from the burghers and part of the merchants - the middle strata of the townspeople, oriented in their aspirations to the bourgeois-noble elite, were grouped. Here they spent free evenings, had fun. There were clubs for small membership fees and voluntary donations. The main emphasis was on decency of behavior, respect for decency and good manners.

An attempt to create clubs for the people was an organization in the cities at the beginning of the 20th century. People's houses. They differed from class-professional clubs in their openness and in that, in addition to entertainment (games, dances), cultural and educational work was carried out in them by the local democratic intelligentsia (performances were staged, lectures were given, “foggy pictures” (transparencies) were shown on general educational topics) . The People's Houses were visited by workers striving for enlightenment. Sunday schools were of the same importance, which were organized on a voluntary basis by individual representatives of the intelligentsia, most often teachers. Schools were attended by workers, artisans and all those who wanted to receive or complete education. They were dominated by young men. Very often such schools were used by politicians for revolutionary propaganda.

Another type of associations in the cities were various interest societies, amateur or professional (local history, agronomy, horse breeding, sports, etc.). All of them had their charter, cash desk, sometimes a library. Societies of doctors and local historians at their meetings listened to reports on professional topics, which were sometimes published; agricultural societies, which consisted mainly of landlords and strong owners - peasants from farms - arranged exhibitions of fruits, productive livestock, and horses. Amateur circles were also widespread - theatrical, literary and artistic. This entire sphere of social activity was not extensive, but it had a wide public resonance, since it brought enlightenment and culture to the masses of the townspeople and the population of the nearest rural district.

Among the petty bourgeoisie, artisans and craftsmen, street games were widespread. Children, teenagers and adult boys and girls played almost before the wedding. These games were characterized by a noticeable division into men's and women's - men's games required greater strength and dexterity from the participants. The guys played towns, grandmas, leapfrog, walked on stilts, launched a kite. More boys also played bast shoes. The girls ran chasing, played pebbles, beads ("layout"). Young people from "decent" families did not take part in street games. They amused themselves in their midst when leaving the city or when they gathered with a company of acquaintances and relatives in their garden or yard. In the course were skittles and a ball, less often - croquet, golf; the children were swinging, chasing hoops.

In winter, a skating rink was filled in the city garden. In the evenings, lanterns were lit here, sometimes an orchestra played. The entrance was paid. The youth rode in pairs or small groups. A favorite winter pastime for young people from ordinary families is skiing from the mountains on a sleigh, benches, and ice-boats. Such entertainment went on from the onset of winter until the snow melted.

In the 1900s, sports activities began to develop: cycling, playing football. This concerned most of all young people from officials, employees and commercial circles. Representatives of the officer-landlord environment were more interested in equestrian sports; however, all the townspeople loved to admire the spectacle of equestrian competitions, especially races. A lot of people of different ranks and states gathered for the races.

Among the common people in men's companies, various competitions in strength and dexterity took place - for example, in lifting weights for a dispute. A special place was occupied by the youthful fun preserved from antiquity - fistfights, arranged from Thursday of Pancake week until the end of September-October, including the period of autumn fairs. This entertainment was most widespread among artisans, small traders, and some part of the workers, especially in provincial cities.

The social life of the village and the city was greatly influenced by the church, for the vast majority of the population - Orthodox. Religious and domestic regulations, concerning the most diverse aspects of life, was a kind of law of public and personal behavior of people. The alternation of work and rest, the forms and nature of leisure activities were largely determined by the dates of the religious calendar, which is mandatory for everyone. The fulfillment of religious prescriptions in the home was determined not only by the believer's feeling, "the fear of God", but also by the control of the family, especially the older generation, who monitored the observance of the proper attitude to icons, fasts, prayers, etc. Every peasant and city dweller, as a member of the church community, took part in public activities related to worship. The basis of religious and social life was church visits, the reception of a priest with clergy, who makes a round of his parish with a prayer service 4 times a year, large religious processions, regular or episodic, ceremonies associated with the most important moments in people's lives. The worship itself was a public matter.

A significant place in the life of a Russian person was occupied by regular church attendance. On Saturdays, Sundays, and especially on major holidays, not only adults, but also children went to church. In large fasts, it was supposed to fast, confess and take communion. All this was observed by both the clergy and society itself through certain groups exercising social control (in the city - through separate social groups, in the village - through the rural community, with which the church community often coincided). Of those who shared atheistic views or wavered in faith, only a few could afford to neglect Christian "duties." Such behavior was condemned and, at best, if a person had weight in society, qualified as eccentricity. Going to church itself was seen not only as a religious act, but also as a secular act that provided an opportunity for communication. At Mass, Vespers, and Matins, people regularly met with each other. The church gave the opportunity to "see" relatives, friends, acquaintances. They talked, learned the news, looked after the grooms and brides. Staying "in front of" society forced to pay special attention to their clothes, manners. They came long before the service and then did not disperse immediately. Church Square on holidays became a kind of center of public life. Street trade in delicacies, trifles, and children's toys often unfolded here.

On the days of great religious holidays and patronal days, many people gathered at numerous monasteries, at holy places, at temples with a miraculous icon. Pilgrims arrived not only from the nearest district, but also from distant places. They were located in taverns, in peasant, petty-bourgeois houses and lived for several days. Here, a specific social life developed, a mystical atmosphere was created.

A special place in religious public life was occupied by large religious processions, which were established on various occasions related to the history of a given area or the whole country (getting rid of an epidemic, loss of livestock, in honor of the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812), or were episodic (prayer for rain during drought). The processions were long and crowded, almost the entire population of church parishes took part in them, and the common people were especially willing. The religious procession as a religious and everyday ritual has developed for a long time and has hardly changed over time. In the 1900s, during religious processions in the cities, a peculiar street life was observed with a stall trade and some entertainment.

Ceremonies and customs dedicated to the dates of the Christian calendar played an important role in the life of the urban population. As early as the beginning of the 20th century. the ritual calendar, containing many layers of distant times, retained its traditional specifics in most of the territory of Russian settlement, although many archaic rites had passed away by that time, and the meaning of others was forgotten, and they, mixed with non-ritual everyday forms, were perceived as a festive fun .

Public life associated with folk calendar rituals manifested itself mainly in joint festivities and festive entertainment, which had many local differences. The Christmas and New Year cycle of customs and rituals associated with the winter solstice and aimed at ensuring fertility and all sorts of well-being in the coming year was called Christmastide. Christmas time was the busiest and most fun time of the year, especially for young people. According to unwritten laws, the responsibility of youth groups (territorial or social) included the organization and holding of Christmas and New Year caroling, which are widespread in Russia. Young people in a merry crowd went around the houses with wishes to the owners of all kinds of well-being and received a reward for this, most often with food. On New Year's Eve morning the boys went from house to house. They congratulated the hosts, sang a festive troparion and "sowed" - scattered the seeds. Children were usually given small change. Everything that the carolers received from the owners went to the organization of festive parties and conversations, which, as already noted, were especially revelry and crowded.

2.2 Labor conditions for the work of the Russian population in the late XIX - early XX centuries

Extremely complex and multifaceted problems are united by the concept of "working issue" in Russia. These include the formation of the working class, the size and structure, composition, working conditions and living standards of workers, the legal and political situation, etc. Taking into account the research tasks of the monograph, the author of the essay set a triune task: to explore the relationship between the government - entrepreneurs - workers, because politics , carried out by the state power, was one of the essential levers regulating the relations between entrepreneurs and workers (mainly through factory and labor legislation). The social policy implemented by the owners of enterprises was not only a regulator of their relations with workers, but also an important area of ​​entrepreneurial activity.
Power, entrepreneurs and workers in the 1860-1870s. 60-70s of the XIX century - the beginning of great changes in the country. It was also the time of an intensive start in trying to solve the "working issue". The fall of serfdom was one of the greatest events in the history of Russia in the 19th century. The reform of 1861 was associated with fundamental changes in the political and socio-economic life of the country. One of its most important results was the formation of a free market for hired labor of people deprived of the means of production and living solely by selling their labor power. The system of hired labor became the basis for the development of the national economy of Russia. The rapid development of capitalism in the post-reform period multiplied the ranks of hired workers, turning them into a class in Russian society. The latter was inextricably linked with the industrial revolution that took place in the country in the 50-90s of the XIX century.

In the course of the industrial revolution in Russia, a large-scale machine industry was created and established, and a new social type of permanent workers was formed, concentrating on large enterprises in the leading industrial centers of the country. There was a formation of the working class, the basis of which was made up of permanent workers, deprived of the means of production, who broke off the connection with the land and their own economy and worked all year round in factories and plants.

However, by the end of the 1850s, in government circles, among their most liberal representatives, an understanding had matured that with the emancipation of the peasants it was no longer possible to maintain the old laws on workers, that the need to develop factory legislation was obvious. From that time on, special commissions began to be created by various Russian departments one after another. The first of them was formed in 1859 in St. Petersburg under the capital's governor-general. St. Petersburg entrepreneurs took an active part in its work. The commission was entrusted with the task of conducting a survey of the factories and factories of St. Petersburg (and its county) - the largest commercial and industrial center, where the largest number of the working population was also concentrated.

The result of the work of the commission was the preparation of the "Draft Rules for Factories and Plants in St. Petersburg and the District", which regulated the working conditions of workers and the responsibility of entrepreneurs.

In the 60-70s of the XIX century. the position of the workers remained disenfranchised and was characterized by cruel forms of labor. Often, factory enterprises had internal regulations, drawn up by the owners themselves and introduced without any explanation to the workers. In the Moscow province, the most typical was a 12-hour working day, but at a number of enterprises it lasted 14, 15, 16 hours or more. In most factories, the number of working days per year was large, and Sunday work was a common occurrence. The workers were subjected to extreme arbitrariness on the part of the owners. The latter included in the work contract such clauses that deprived the worker of any freedom. The system of penalties was developed to virtuosity. Often the amount of fines is not determined in advance. Fines from workers, levied on the most diverse reasons and without reason, without specifying the reason, came at the full disposal of the employer. They sometimes reached half of the earnings, i.e. the worker from the earned ruble gave the owner 50 kopecks. There were cases when, in addition to fines, another penalty was imposed, for example, 10 rubles for leaving the factory. The total amount of fines in some factories reached several thousand rubles a year and was an important source of income.

The factory owners considered themselves entitled, contrary to the law, which forbade them to arbitrarily reduce wages, before the expiration of the contract, to reduce it at any time at their discretion.

The workers had to beg the manufacturer for the money they had earned as a special favor. In some factories, the following procedure was also practiced: they were not given to the worker at all for a year (until the end of the term for hire). The end of 1860 - the beginning of the 1870s was marked by the growing discontent of the workers and the strengthening of the labor movement. Relations between workers and entrepreneurs are especially aggravated in the textile, primarily cotton, industry - the leading industry in the country.

During the strike movement of the 1870s, the government and its local bodies, the police and the gendarmerie took all measures to suppress workers' protests, persecuting their active participants, mainly administratively on the basis of the circulars of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of 1870, 1878-1879, and then the Regulations on the enhanced and emergency protection of 1881, which allowed the deportation of strikers to their places of registration.

As early as the 1870s, it became more and more obvious that the working class and the labor question, precisely in the Western European sense, existed in Russia.

Conclusion

The life of a worker at the turn of the century was difficult to envy even for a small-land peasant. The concept of the "economic situation" of workers includes such factors as employment in production, sanitary and other working conditions, occupational morbidity, and injuries. In turn, the concept of "standard of living" is made up of estimates of the provision of proletarians with work, their life expectancy, wages, food quality, housing conditions, medical care, the ratio of work and free time.
According to statistics, at the turn of the century, workers ranked last in terms of savings per saver. In most cases, the income of the father of the family was not enough, so more than half of the workers' wives also worked. And this is almost 3 times more than the number of working married women in more industrially developed Germany and England. In the period of the formation of domestic industrial capitalism, fate prepared great trials for female workers and adolescents, who by the beginning of the 20th century made up a little less than half of the working people. Discontent among the common people gradually acquired a mass character.

Among the factory and factory workers, artificially landless nobles and landless peasants, who replenished the ranks of the "worldwide homeless proletariat", malice and social hatred developed as a challenge to God.

List of used literature

1. Kopyatkevich. Olonets artistic antiquity // News of the Society for the Study of the Olonets province. - Petrozavodsk, 1914. - No. 5.
2. Muller G.P. Essays on the history of the XVI-XVIII centuries. - Petrozavodsk, 1947.
3. Labor movement in Russia in the 19th century. T. II. Part 1. 1861-1874. - M., 1950.
4. Russians: family and social life / Ed. ed. MM. Gromyko , T.A. Listova. - M., 1989.
5. Tikhomirov L.A. Christianity and Politics. The labor question and Russian ideals. http://apocalypse.orthodoxy.ru/

Notes

The working class of Russia from its inception to the beginning of the 20th century. - M. 1998. - 367 p.

When implementing the project, state support funds were used, allocated as a grant in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 11-rp dated January 17, 2014 and on the basis of a competition held by the All-Russian Public Organization "Russian Union of Youth"

“I have been living in Moscow for more than two decades, but in terms of the convenience of life, nothing has changed in it.”

Surely one of our contemporaries would immediately subscribe to these words. Or, at least, would refer them to the not so long past times of the “model communist city”. A deep connoisseur of the history of Moscow would say that "this judgment can be connected with both the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries."

Nevertheless, this harsh verdict came from the lips of a Muscovite ... in 1900. And what is characteristic is that he, as it were, drew a line to an era when life in Moscow really flowed relatively slowly and measuredly. But the entry of the ancient capital into the 20th century led to an unprecedented acceleration in the rate of change in the urban appearance.

Overnight, cozy mansions began to disappear, and multi-storey "skyscrapers" appeared in their place. The eight-storey house, which appeared near the Red Gates, was singled out on the city plan as a landmark. Things got to the point that for those wishing to admire Moscow from a bird's eye view, access to the bell tower of Ivan the Great was closed, and instead they arranged an observation deck on the roof of a house built not far from Myasnitskaya.

Such achievements of civilization as plumbing, sewerage, electricity, and telephone became integral signs of a new life. The slow horse-drawn carriage was replaced by the tram. Dominance on the streets was increasingly conquered by furiously racing cars.

And yet, "Moscow-mother" would not be itself, if all the innovations for some time did not get along with the "signs of sweet antiquity." For example, before 1917, the same sewage system was laid only within the Garden Ring. Elsewhere in the vast city, residents continued to pinch their noses as the cesspool carts rolled past them.

“Next to the six-story hulk in the decadence style,” a contemporary wrote about Moscow contrasts in 1910, “a two-story rickety shack with colorful curtains and a signboard suddenly nestled: “Galoshes and shoe patches hurt here.”

Cars rush along the deadly pavements. Through the square flooded with electric light, an antediluvian horse-drawn horse dragged slowly and indifferently, and the pair of bay horses that drew it looked contemptuously at the surrounding splendor. Between two rows of kerosene oil lamps, a lightning-fast tram flies with a crash and a roar.

And behind the Moscow River, you can also watch such a miracle of miracles: a horse-drawn carriage crawls along the same rail track, and behind it, restraining its electric agility, a tram dutifully drags along.

At the beginning of the 20th century, local residents were still driving cows around Pokrovka. And in 1910, real gardens, according to eyewitnesses, were located almost in the center of the city: “... near Sukharev Square, where a square sazhen of land is valued at about 1,000 rubles, there is a huge area occupied by greenhouses, vegetable gardens, etc. [...]

There is also a small gardener's house. A number of huts. Scarecrow. Goats and kids roam. In general, a complete idyll.

The famous “Khomyakovskaya Grove”, about which V. A. Gilyarovsky wrote, was liquidated only in 1911, when the city authorities paid the owner a final ransom for this patch of land.

But the main thing is that the life of Muscovites continued to flow, obeying the long-established "seasonal" rhythm: after Christmas, Christmas time came - a time of unbridled fun, New Year's Eve, balls. For Muscovites, the ball season ended with Maslenitsa.

After the "pancake" frenzy, a period of strict fasting began. Restaurants were closed, theaters stopped working, actors left “on vacation”. They were replaced by foreign guest performers - only they could perform at that time on the stage of Moscow theaters.

At the end of the post, there was always a “cheap” thing - a sale of goods. Forgetting about everything in the world, the ladies literally stormed stores and shops to buy goods at bargain prices. The Easter holiday meant not only the arrival of spring, but also the approach of the summer season. After the traditional May Day festivities, the city began to empty. Everyone who could afford it moved to live outside the city - away from dust and unpleasant odors.

The end of summer is the time to search for apartments. Having found a roof over their heads, Muscovites returned to the city. The school year has begun for the children. "Public" life resumed: meetings of various organizations and societies, vernissages, visits and journalism. A new theater season has begun.

In a pleasant pastime, the days flew by unnoticed. Autumn was replaced by winter, and with it the Christmas holiday - the circle was closed.

It seemed that nothing could disturb the usual course of events. The alternation of weekdays and holidays took place in strict accordance with government orders and ancient customs. For example, in 1901, exactly thirty “non-present” were indicated in the “monthly word”, i.e. public holidays when institutions and businesses were closed. In addition, according to tradition, the days of Christmas time were non-working - from Christmas to Epiphany (from December 25 to January 6, old style).

Official holidays were divided into "royal" and church. In the first case, for the population of Russia, the red dates of the calendar were the birthdays and name days of the emperor, empress, empress dowager and heir to the throne. Church holidays were associated with the state religion - Orthodoxy. A detailed description of these holidays and everything that the inhabitants of pre-revolutionary Moscow associated with them can be found in the book of the remarkable Russian writer Ivan Shmelev, “The Summer of the Lord.”

The world war did not immediately, not suddenly, but nevertheless changed the way of life of Muscovites. Then, one after the other, two revolutions broke out, and the old world was indeed destroyed “to the ground” and went into the realm of legends, like the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome.

Alas, today we cannot see in its entirety the life of “that” Moscow that has gone forever. One thing remains: like archaeologists patiently piecing together some ancient vase from pieces, to recreate from the “fragments of antiquity” - descriptions of the past preserved in archival documents, on the pages of newspapers, in the notes of contemporaries and memoirs - a picture of a bygone era.

Of course, we understand that there will be blank spots in this picture, and a strict critic will surely be able to find “distortion of perspective and insufficient elaboration of chiaroscuro”, but we still give our work to the judgment of readers. As they said in ancient times: "Feci quod potui, faciant meliora potentes". Everything that we managed to learn about the life of Muscovites at the beginning of the 20th century is set out on the pages of this book.

Necessary clarification about the frequent citation in our work of the works of V. A. Gilyarovsky. We have tried, without the most extreme necessity, not to turn to his popular and quite accessible to any reader book "Moscow and Muscovites". All descriptions of the episodes of the life of Moscow, made by the "king of reporters", are taken from pre-revolutionary newspapers, which explains the originality of the style in which they are written.

All dates are given in the old style book.

Trying to give the fullest possible picture of the life of Muscovites before the revolution, we present various financial indicators: housing and food prices, wages. To link them to the present, we used the data on the gold reserves of Russia in 1914, published in the Geo Focus magazine (2004, No. 9, p. 112): “It amounted to 1 billion 695 million gold rubles (about 19 billion 153 million dollars at current exchange rates). A simple calculation shows that the gold-backed pre-war ruble of the Russian Empire is equivalent to approximately $11.3.

Using this figure, readers themselves can translate the prices of a hundred years ago into a modern way.

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Peasant life of the late XIX - early XX century.

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offline ingrem

Good afternoon others.

Yesterday, while walking through the old village, an idea came to mind. And why in the old tracts there are so few companions. Of the finds, coins, crosses, rarely icons, even more rarely dies and folds.

And where are all the things that the peasants used in everyday life?

I climbed into the Internet and found a very interesting article about peasant life.

She basically answers my question. I say right away that there are a lot of letters, but it's worth reading.

V. B. Bezgin. Traditions of peasant life of the late XIX - early XX century.

Knowledge of the historical reality of the life of the Russian village at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries is impossible without the reconstruction of peasant life. In peasant everyday life, both the traditional rural way of life and the changes that were brought to life by the economic and cultural development of the country found their visible embodiment. The content of the everyday culture of the Russian village can be explored through the analysis of its material components: food, housing and clothing. In the context of the consumer nature of the peasant economy, the living conditions of a rural family adequately reflected the level of its well-being. The destruction of the habitual isolation of the rural world, as a result of the modernization process, led to the emergence of innovations in such a conservative area as rural life. The purpose of this article is to use the example of the peasantry of the European part of Russia to establish the daily diet of a peasant, to find out the everyday living conditions of a rural family and to determine the type of traditional village clothing. The objective of this study is to clarify the essence of the changes that have taken place in peasant life during the period under study.

Food

In the conditions of the natural, consumer nature of the peasant economy, food was the result of the agricultural activity of the farmer. Traditionally, the peasant was fed from his labors. A folk proverb says: "What you stomp, you will burst." The composition of peasant food was determined by the grown field and garden crops. Purchased food in the village was a rarity. The food was simple, it was also called rough, as it required a minimum of time to cook. The huge amount of housework left the cook no time to cook pickles and everyday food was monotonous. Only on holidays, when the hostess had enough time, did other dishes appear on the table. In general, rural women were conservative in the components and methods of cooking. The lack of culinary experiments was also one of the features of everyday tradition. The villagers were not pretentious in food, and therefore all recipes for its diversity were perceived as excess. In this regard, the evidence of Khlebnikova, who worked in the mid-1920s, is characteristic. 20th century village teacher in Surava, Tambov district. She recalled: “We ate cabbage soup from one cabbage and soup from one potato. Pies and pancakes were baked once or twice a year on major holidays ... At the same time, peasant women were proud of their everyday illiteracy. The proposal to add something to the cabbage soup for “skus”, they rejected with contempt: “Necha! Mine already eat, but praise. And, you’ll completely spoil it. ”

Based on the studied ethnographic sources, it is possible with a high degree of probability to reconstruct the daily diet of the Russian peasant. Rural food consisted of a traditional list of dishes. The well-known saying "Schi and porridge is our food" correctly reflected the everyday content of the food of the villagers. In the Oryol province, the daily food of both rich and poor peasants was "brew" (shchi) or soup. On fast days, these dishes were seasoned with lard or "zatoloka" (internal pork fat), on fast days - with hemp oil. During the Petrovsky Post, the Oryol peasants ate “mura” or tyurya from bread, water and butter. Festive food was distinguished by the fact that it was better seasoned, the same “brew” was cooked with meat, porridge with milk, and on the most solemn days they fried potatoes with meat. On big temple holidays, peasants cooked jelly, jelly from legs and offal.

Meat was not a permanent component of the peasant diet. According to the observations of N. Brzhevsky, the food of the peasants, in quantitative and qualitative terms, did not satisfy the basic needs of the body. “Milk, cow butter, cottage cheese, meat,” he wrote, “in a word, all products rich in protein substances appear on the peasant table in exceptional cases - at weddings, when breaking the fast, on patronal holidays. Chronic malnutrition is a common occurrence in a peasant family. The poor peasant ate meat to his heart's content exclusively for "zagvinas", that is, on the day of the spell. According to the testimony of a correspondent of the Ethnographic Bureau from the Oryol province, by this day the peasant, no matter how poor, always cooked meat for himself and ate enough, so that the next day he lay with an upset stomach. Rarely did peasants allow themselves wheat pancakes with lard or cow's butter. Such episodic gluttony was characteristic of Russian peasants. Outside observers, not familiar with the life of the village, were surprised when, during the period of the meat-eater, having slaughtered a ram, a peasant family for one or two days had as much meat as, with moderate consumption, it would have been enough for it for the whole week.

Wheat bread was another rarity on the peasant table. In the “Statistical Essay on the Economic Situation of the Peasants of the Oryol and Tula Provinces” (1902), M. Kashkarov noted that “wheat flour is never found in the everyday life of a peasant, except in gifts brought from the city, in the form of rolls, etc. To all questions about wheat culture, I heard the saying more than once in response: “White bread is for a white body.” Of the cereal crops used by the peasants for food, rye held unconditional primacy. Rye bread actually formed the basis of the peasant diet. For example, at the beginning of the twentieth century. in the villages of the Tambov province, the composition of the consumed bread was distributed as follows: rye flour - 81.2%, wheat flour - 2.3%, cereals - 16.3%.

Of the cereals eaten in the Tambov province, millet was the most common. Porridge "slivukha" or kulesh was cooked from it, when lard was added to the porridge. Lenten cabbage soup was seasoned with vegetable oil, while lean cabbage soup was whitened with milk or sour cream. The main vegetables eaten here were cabbage and potatoes. Carrots, beets and other root crops before the revolution in the villages of the Tambov province were grown little. Cucumbers appeared in the gardens of Tambov peasants only in Soviet times. Even later, in the pre-war years, tomatoes began to be grown on personal plots. Traditionally, legumes were cultivated and eaten in the villages: peas, beans, lentils.

From the ethnographic description of the Oboyan district of the Kursk province, it followed that during the winter fasts, local peasants ate sauerkraut with kvass, onions, and pickles with potatoes. Shchi was cooked from sour cabbage and pickled beetroot. Breakfast was usually kulesh or dumplings made from buckwheat dough. Fish was consumed on the days allowed by the church charter. In fast days, cabbage soup with meat, cottage cheese with milk appeared on the table. Wealthy peasants on holidays could afford okroshka with meat and eggs, milk porridge or noodles, wheat pancakes and pastry shortcakes. The abundance of the festive table was directly dependent on the wealth of the owners.

The diet of the Voronezh peasants differed little from the nutrition of the rural population of the neighboring black earth provinces. Mostly lean food was consumed daily. It included rye bread, salt, cabbage soup, porridge, peas and also vegetables: radish, cucumbers, potatoes. Skoromny food consisted of cabbage soup with lard, milk and eggs. On holidays in the Voronezh villages, they ate corned beef, ham, chickens, geese, oatmeal jelly, and sieve cake.

The everyday drink of the peasants was water, in the summer they prepared kvass. At the end of the XIX century. in the villages of the chernozem region, tea drinking was not widespread, if tea was consumed, then during illness, brewing it in a clay pot in an oven. But already at the beginning of the twentieth century. from the village reported that “the peasants fell in love with tea, which they drink on holidays and after dinner. The more affluent began to purchase samovars and tea utensils. For intelligent guests, they put forks for dinner, they themselves eat the meat with their hands. The level of everyday culture of the rural population was directly dependent on the degree of social development of the village.

Usually the order of food among the peasants was as follows: in the morning, when everyone got up, they were reinforced by something: bread and water, baked potatoes, yesterday's leftovers. At nine or ten in the morning they sat down at the table and had breakfast with brew and potatoes. At 12 o'clock, but no later than 2 in the afternoon, everyone dined, in the afternoon they ate bread and salt. They dined in the village at nine o'clock in the evening, and even earlier in winter. Field work required considerable physical effort and the peasants, to the best of their ability, tried to eat more high-calorie food. Priest V. Yemelyanov, based on his observations of the life of the peasants of the Bobrovsky district of the Voronezh province, reported to the Russian Geographical Society: “In the bad summer time, they eat four times. For breakfast on fasting days, they eat kulesh with one rye bread, when onions grow, then with it. At lunch, they sip kvass, adding cucumbers to it, then they eat shchi (shty), and finally, cool millet porridge. If they work in the field, they eat kulesh all day long, washing it down with kvass. On fast days, lard or milk is added to the usual diet. On a holiday - jelly, eggs, lamb in cabbage soup, chicken in noodles.

The family meal in the village was carried out according to a routine. Here is how P. Fomin, a resident of the Bryansk district of the Oryol province, described the traditional order of eating in a peasant family: Before the owner, no one can start a single meal. Otherwise, it will hit the forehead with a spoon, although it was an adult. If the family is large, the children are placed on the shelves and fed there. After eating, everyone gets up again and prays to God. The meal in a peasant family was common, with the exception of family members who performed urgent work or were absent.

In the second half of the 19th century, there was a rather stable tradition of observing food restrictions among the peasantry. An obligatory element of the mass consciousness was the idea of ​​clean and unclean food. The cow, according to the peasants of the Oryol province, was considered a clean animal, and the horse unclean, unfit for food. The peasant beliefs of the Tambov province contained the idea of ​​unclean food: fish swimming with the current were considered clean, and unclean against the current.

All these prohibitions were forgotten when famine visited the village. In the absence of any significant food supply in peasant families, each crop failure entailed grave consequences. In times of famine, food consumption by a rural family was reduced to a minimum. For the purpose of physical survival in the village, cattle were slaughtered, seed material was put into food, inventory was sold. During the famine, the peasants ate bread made from buckwheat, barley or rye flour with chaff. The landowner K. K. Arseniev, after a trip to the hungry villages of the Morshansky district of the Tambov province (1892), described his impressions in the Bulletin of Europe as follows: “During the famine, the families of the peasants Senichkin and Morgunov fed themselves cabbage soup from the unusable leaves of gray cabbage, heavily seasoned with salt . This caused terrible thirst, the children drank a lot of water, swelled up and died. A quarter of a century later, the village still has the same terrible pictures. In 1925 (a hungry year!?), a peasant from the village of. Ekaterino, Yaroslavl volost, Tambov province, A.F. Bartsev wrote to the Peasant Newspaper: “People tear horse sorrel in the meadows, soar it and these feed. … Peasant families begin to fall ill from hunger. Especially children who are plump, green, lie motionless and ask for bread. Periodic hunger has developed in the Russian village methods of physical survival. Here are sketches of this hungry everyday life. “In the village of Moskovskoye, Voronezh district, in the years of famine (1919-1921), the existing food bans (do not eat pigeons, horses, hares) were of little importance. The local population ate little - a small suitable plant, plantain, did not disdain to cook horse soup, ate "magpie and varanyatina". Neither cats nor dogs were eaten. Hot dishes were made without potatoes, covered with grated beets, fried rye, and quinoa was added. In famine years, they did not eat bread without impurities, which they used as grass, quinoa, chaff, potato and beet tops and other surrogates. Flour (millet, oatmeal, barley) was added to them, depending on the income.

Of course, all of the above are extreme situations. But even in prosperous years, malnutrition, a half-starved existence was commonplace. During the period from 1883 to 1890, the consumption of bread in the country decreased by 4.4. % or 51 million pounds per year. Food consumption per year (in terms of grain) per capita in 1893 was: in the Oryol province - 10.6 - 12.7 pounds, Kursk - 13 - 15 pounds, Voronezh and Tambov - 16 - 19 pounds . At the beginning of the twentieth century. in European Russia, among the peasant population, one eater per day accounted for 4,500 calories, of which 84.7% of them were of plant origin, including 62.9% of bread and only 15.3% of calories received from food of animal origin . At the same time, the calorie content of the daily consumption of products by peasants in the Tambov province was 3277, and in the Voronezh province - 3247. Budget studies conducted in the pre-war years recorded a very low level of consumption of the Russian peasantry. For example, sugar consumption by rural residents was less than a pound per month, and vegetable oil - half a pound.

If we are not talking about abstract figures, but about the state of intra-village consumption of products, then it should be recognized that the quality of food directly depended on the economic prosperity of the family. So, according to the correspondent of the Ethnographic Bureau, meat consumption at the end of the 19th century. a poor family was 20 pounds, a wealthy family - 1.5 pounds. Wealthy families spent 5 times more money on the purchase of meat than poor families. As a result of a survey of the budgets of 67 households in the Voronezh province (1893), it was found that the cost of purchasing food, in the group of prosperous households, amounted to 343 rubles a year, or 30.5% of all expenses. In middle-income families, respectively, 198 rubles. or 46.3%. These families, per year per person, consumed 50 pounds of meat, while the wealthy twice as much - 101 pounds.

Additional data on the culture of life of the peasantry is provided by data on the consumption of basic foodstuffs by the villagers in the 1920s. For example, the indicators of Tambov demographic statistics are taken. The basis of the diet of a rural family was still vegetables and plant products. In the period 1921 - 1927, they accounted for 90 - 95% of the village menu. Meat consumption was negligible: 10 to 20 pounds a year. This is explained by the traditional for the village self-restraint in the consumption of livestock products and the observance of religious fasts. With the economic strengthening of peasant farms, the calorie content of food consumed increased. If in 1922 it was 2250 units in the daily diet of a Tambov peasant, by 1926 it had almost doubled and amounted to 4250 calories. In the same year, the daily caloric intake of a Voronezh peasant was 4410 units. There was no qualitative difference in the consumption of foodstuffs by different categories of the village.

From the above review of food consumption by the peasants of the chernozem provinces, it can be concluded that the basis of the daily diet of the villager was natural products, it was dominated by products of plant origin. Food supply was seasonal. A relatively well-fed period from the Intercession to Christmas time gave way to a half-starved existence in spring and summer. The composition of the food consumed was in direct proportion to the church calendar. The food of a peasant family was a reflection of the economic viability of the court. The difference in the food of wealthy and poor peasants was not in quality, but in quantity. An analysis of the traditional set of food products and the level of calorie content of peasant food gives grounds to assert that the state of satiety has never been characteristic of rural families. The alienation of manufactured products was not the result of its excess, but was a consequence of economic necessity.

dwelling

The hut was the traditional dwelling of the Russian peasant. Building a house for a peasant is an important stage in his life, an indispensable attribute of gaining the status of a householder. The estate for a new building was assigned by the decision of the village meeting. The harvesting of logs and the construction of a log house was usually carried out with the help of worldly or neighborly help. In the villages of the region, wood was the main building material. Huts were built from round unhewn logs. The exception was the steppe regions of the southern districts of Kursk and Voronezh provinces. It was dominated by smeared Little Russian huts.

The condition of peasant dwellings fully reflected the material wealth of their owners. Senator S. Mordvinov, who visited the Voronezh province with a revision in the early 1880s, reported in his report: “Peasant huts have fallen into decay, and they amaze with their miserable appearance. Stone buildings among the peasants of the province were noted: among the former landlords - 1.4%, among the state - 2.4%. At the end of the XIX century. wealthy peasants in the villages began to build stone houses more often. Usually rural houses were covered with straw, less often with shingles. According to researchers, at the beginning of the twentieth century. in Voronezh villages they built "huts" of brick and "tin" - instead of the previous "chopped", thatched on "clay". The researcher of the Voronezh Territory F. Zheleznov, who examined the living conditions of peasants in the early 1920s, compiled the following grouping of peasant huts (based on wall materials): brick buildings accounted for 57%, wooden buildings accounted for 40% and mixed 3%. The condition of the buildings looked like this: dilapidated - 45%, new - 7%, mediocre - 52%.

The condition of the peasant hut and outbuildings was a true indicator of the economic condition of the peasant family. “A bad hut and a collapsed yard are the first sign of poverty; the absence of cattle and furniture testifies to the same.” According to the decoration of the dwelling, it was possible to accurately determine the financial situation of the residents. Correspondents of the Ethnographic Bureau described the interior of the houses of poor and prosperous families as follows: “The situation of a poor peasant's family is a cramped dilapidated shack instead of a house, and a stable, in which there is only one cow and three or four sheep. There is no bathhouse, barn or barn. The prosperous always have a new spacious hut, several warm barns, in which 2-3 horses, three-four cows, two-three calves, two dozen sheep, pigs and chickens are placed. There is a bathhouse and a barn.

Russian peasants were very unpretentious in household use. An outsider, first of all, was struck by the asceticism of the interior decoration. Peasant hut of the late XIX century. little than differed from the rural dwelling of the previous century. Most of the room was occupied by a stove, which served both for heating and for cooking. In many families, she replaced the bath. Most of the peasant huts were heated "in a black way". In 1892 in the village. Out of 533 yards, 442 were heated “in black” and 91 “in white”. Each hut had a table and benches along the walls. Other furniture was practically absent. Not all families had benches and stools. They usually slept on stoves in winter, and on tents in summer. To make it not so hard, they laid straw, which was covered with sackcloth. How can one not recall here the words of the Voronezh poet I. S. Nikitin.

The daughter-in-law went for fresh straws,

She laid it on the bunk aside, -

She put a zipun against the wall at the head.

Straw served as a universal floor covering in a peasant's hut. Family members sent their natural needs to it, and it, as it got dirty, was periodically changed. Russian peasants had a vague idea about hygiene. According to A.I. Shingarev, at the beginning of the twentieth century, baths in the village. Mokhovatka had only two for 36 families, and in the neighboring Novo - Zhivotinny one for 10 families. Most of the peasants washed once or twice a month in a hut, in trays or simply on straw. The tradition of washing in the oven was preserved in the village until V. O. V. Orlovskaya peasant woman, a resident of the village of Ilinskoye M. P. Semkina (b. 1919) recalled: “Before, they bathed at home, from a bucket, there was no bath. And the old people climbed into the oven. Mother will sweep the stove, lay straws there, the old people climb in, warm the bones.

Constant work on the farm and in the field left little time for peasant women to maintain cleanliness in their homes. At best, rubbish was swept out of the hut once a day. The floors in the houses were washed no more than 2-3 times a year, usually for the patronal feast, Easter and Christmas. Easter in the village was traditionally a holiday for which the villagers put their homes in order. “Almost every peasant, even a poor one,” wrote a village teacher, “before Easter, he will certainly go into a shop and buy 2-3 pieces of cheap wallpaper and a few paintings. Before that, the ceiling is thoroughly washed, and the walls of the house with soap.

The dishes were exclusively wooden or earthenware. Wooden were spoons, salt shakers, buckets, earthenware - lids, bowls. There were very few metal things: cast irons in which food was cooked, a tong for pulling cast irons out of the furnace, impaled on a wooden stick, knives. Peasant huts were illuminated with a torch. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, peasants, at first prosperous, began to purchase kerosene lamps with glass. Then watches appeared in peasant huts - clocks with weights. The art of using them consisted in the ability to regularly, about once a day, pull up a chain with a weight, and, most importantly, set the arrows according to the sun so that they give at least an approximate orientation in time.

The increased ties with the city, the rise in the material condition of the peasants during the NEP period had a beneficial effect on the condition of the peasant tenant. According to the authors of the collection "Russians" in the second half of the 20s. 20th century in many villages, about 20 - 30% of the available houses were built and repaired. New houses made up about a third of all buildings in the Nikolskaya Volost of the Kursk Governorate. During the NEP period, the houses of wealthy peasants were covered with iron roofs, and a stone foundation was laid under it. Furniture and good dishes appeared in rich houses. Curtains on the windows entered into everyday life, the front room was decorated with natural and artificial flowers, photographs, wallpaper was glued to the walls. However, these changes did not affect the poor huts. Peasant V. Ya. Safronov, a resident of the village. Krasnopolie of the Kozlovsky district in his letter for 1926, described their condition as follows: “The hut is wooden, rotten. The windows are half-boarded with straw or rags. The hut is dark and dirty ... ".

clothing

The clothes of the peasants of the provinces of the central Chernozem region retained traditional, archaic features that had been formed in ancient times, but it also reflected new phenomena characteristic of the period of development of capitalist relations. Men's clothing was more or less uniform throughout the study area. Women's clothing was very diverse, bearing the imprint of the influence of ethnic formations on the South Russian costume, in particular the Mordovians and Little Russians living in this territory.

Peasant clothing was divided into everyday and festive. Mostly peasant dress was homespun. Only a part of the prosperous village allowed itself to buy factory-made fabrics. According to information from the Oboyansky district of the Kursk province in the 1860s. men in the village wore home-made linen, a shirt with a slanting collar, knee-length and ports. The shirt was belted with a woven or knotted belt. On festive days they wore linen shirts. Wealthy peasants flaunted in shirts made of red cotton. Outerwear in summer was made up of zipuns or retinues. On holidays, homespun robes were worn. And the richer peasants - fine cloth caftans.

The basis of the everyday clothes of Tambov peasant women was the traditional South Russian costume, which at the end of the 19th century was significantly influenced by urban fashion. According to experts, in the village of the studied region, there was a process of reducing the territory of the distribution of poneva, replacing it with a sundress. Girls and married women in the Morshansky district of the Tambov province wore sundresses. In a number of places, the villagers retained a checkered or striped "paneva", on their heads "kokoshniks" and hairs with elevations or even horns. The usual women's shoes "cats" (chobots) gave way to shoes or ankle boots "with a creak".

The festive clothes of peasant women differed from the everyday ones with various decorations: embroideries, ribbons, colored head scarves. Fabrics with an ornament that was original for each locality were made by village women on home looms. They dressed up in festive clothes not only on holidays, at village festivities and gatherings, at church, when receiving guests, but also for some types of work, haymaking.

Ethnographer F. Polikarpov, who studied at the beginning of the twentieth century. life of the peasants of the Nizhnedevitsky district of the Voronezh province, noted: “The dandies appear who put on “gaspod” shirts - chintz shirts, light boots, stop wearing “gamans” on their belts. Even within the same county, ethnographers discovered a variety of rural clothing. “In some places they wear “panevs” - black checkered skirts, in others “yupkas” of red colors, with a wide trim at the hem - from ribbons and a braid. Girls wear mostly sundresses. Of the outerwear in the southeast of the Nizhnedevitsky district, they wear "zipuniks", and in the northeast of the district, "shushpans". Everywhere shoes are bast shoes with "anuch" and "party women". On holidays, heavy and wide boots with horseshoes are worn. Peasant shirts are cut sloppily - wide and long, the belt was tied up with "belly sweat", clinging to it "gaman".

An innovation in rural fashion was the material from which the dress was made. Factory-made fabrics (silk, satin) have practically supplanted homespun cloth. Under the influence of urban fashion, the cut of the peasant dress has changed. Peasant S. T. Semenov on changes in peasant clothing at the beginning of the 20th century. wrote that “self-woven fabrics were replaced by chintz. Zipuns and caftans were replaced by sweaters and jackets. Men put on undershirts, jackets, trousers, not “leafed”, but cloth and paper. Young people walked around in jackets, girdling their trousers with belts with buckles. Traditional women's headdresses are gone. Rural girls went around with their heads uncovered, decorating it with artificial flowers, throwing a scarf over their shoulders. Village women of fashion wore fitted blouses, "polty", fur coats. Got umbrellas and galoshes. The latter became the "squeak" of rural fashion. They were worn more for decoration, because they were worn in a thirty-degree heat, going to church.

Peasant life was not only an indicator of the socio-economic and cultural conditions for the development of the Russian village, but also a manifestation of the everyday psychology of its inhabitants. Traditionally, in the village, much attention was paid to the ostentatious side of family life. In the village, they well remembered that "they are met by clothes." To this end, wealthy owners also wore high boots with countless assemblies (“in an accordion”) on weekdays, and in warm weather they threw blue caftans of fine factory cloth over their shoulders. And what they couldn’t show, they said that “at home they have a samovar on the table and a clock on the wall, and they eat on plates with cupronickel spoons, drinking tea from glass glasses.” The peasant always strived to ensure that everything was no worse for him than for his neighbor. Even with small funds, free cash was invested in the construction of a house, the purchase of good clothes, sometimes furniture, in arranging a holiday “on a grand scale”, so that the village would get the impression that the economy was prosperous. Family wealth had to be demonstrated on a daily basis, as confirmation of economic well-being.

Bibliography:

Anfimov. A. M. Russian village during the First World War. M., 1962.

Arseniev K. K. From a recent trip to the Tambov province // Bulletin of Europe. Book. 2. 1892.

Archive of the Russian Geographical Society. Once. 19. Op. 1. Unit ridge 63. L. 9v.

Archive of the Russian Ethnographic Museum. F. 7. Op. one.

Brzhesky N. Essays on the agrarian life of peasants. The agricultural center of Russia and its impoverishment. SPb., 1908.

The life of the Great Russian peasants - plowmen. Description of materials ethnographer. book office V. Tenisheva. SPb., 1993.