What does the hut look like. External and internal decoration of the Russian hut

The most significant buildings in Russia were erected from centuries-old trunks (three centuries or more) up to 18 meters long and more than half a meter in diameter. And there were many such trees in Russia, especially in the European North, which in the old days was called the "Northern Territory". Yes, and the forests here, where the "filthy peoples" lived from time immemorial, were dense. By the way, the word "filthy" is not a curse at all. Simply in Latin, paganus is idolatry. And that means that the pagans were called "filthy peoples". Here, on the banks of the Northern Dvina, Pechora, Onega, those who disagree with the opinion of the authorities, first the princely, then the royal, have long taken refuge. It kept its own, ancient, unofficial. Therefore, unique examples of the art of ancient Russian architects have been preserved here to this day.

All houses in Russia were traditionally built of wood. Later, already in the 16th-17th centuries, stone was used.
Wood has been used as the main building material since ancient times. It was in wooden architecture that Russian architects worked out that reasonable combination of beauty and usefulness, which then passed into stone structures, and the shape and design stone houses were the same as those of wooden buildings.

The properties of wood as a building material largely determined the special form of wooden structures.
On the walls of the huts there were pine and larch tarred at the root, a roof was made of light spruce. And only where these species were rare, they used strong heavy oak or birch for walls.

Yes, and not every tree was cut down, with analysis, with preparation. Ahead of time, they looked out for a suitable pine tree and made cleats (lasas) with an ax - they removed the bark on the trunk in narrow strips from top to bottom, leaving strips of untouched bark between them for sap flow. Then, for another five years, the pine tree was left to stand. During this time, she thickly highlights the resin, impregnates the trunk with it. And so, in the cold autumn, before the day had yet begun to lengthen, and the earth and the trees were still sleeping, they cut down this tarred pine. Later you can’t chop - it will begin to rot. Aspen, and deciduous forest in general, on the contrary, was harvested in the spring, during the sap flow. Then the bark easily comes off the log and, dried in the sun, it becomes strong as a bone.

The main, and often the only tool of the ancient Russian architect was an ax. The ax, crushing the fibers, seals the ends of the logs, as it were. Not without reason, they still say: "cut down the hut." And, well known to us now, they tried not to use nails. After all, around the nail, the tree begins to rot faster. AT last resort used wooden crutches.

basis wooden building in Russia it was a "log house". These are logs fastened (“tied”) together into a quadrangle. Each row of logs was respectfully called a "crown". The first, lower crown was often placed on a stone base - "ryazhe", which was made up of powerful boulders. So it's warmer, and rots less.

According to the type of fastening of logs, the types of log cabins also differed from each other. For outbuildings, a log house "in cut" (rarely laid) was used. The logs here were not stacked tightly, but in pairs on top of each other, and often they were not fastened at all.

When fastening logs "in the paw" their ends, whimsically carved and really resembling paws, did not go beyond the wall outside. The crowns here already fit snugly together, but in the corners it could still blow in winter.

The most reliable, warm, was considered to be the fastening of logs "in the cloud", in which the ends of the logs slightly extended beyond the wall. Such a strange name today

comes from the word "obolon" ("oblon"), meaning the outer layers of a tree (cf. "clothe, envelop, shell"). As early as the beginning of the 20th century. they said: “cut the hut into sapling”, if they wanted to emphasize that inside the hut the logs of the walls are not cramped. However, more often outside the logs remained round, while inside the hut they were hewn to a plane - “scraped into a las” (a smooth strip was called a las). Now the term "oblo" refers more to the ends of the logs protruding out of the wall, which remain round, with a bummer.

The rows of logs themselves (crowns) were connected to each other with the help of internal spikes - dowels or dowels.

Moss was laid between the crowns in the frame, and after the final assembly of the frame, the cracks were caulked with linen tow. Attics were often covered with the same moss to keep warm in winter.

In terms of plan, log cabins were made in the form of a quadrangle (“chetverik”), or in the form of an octagon (“octagon”). Of the several adjacent fours, they were mainly made up of huts, and the eights were used for the construction of the choir. Often, placing quadruples and octals on top of each other, the ancient Russian architect folded rich mansions.

A simple covered rectangular wooden frame without any outbuildings was called a "cage". “Cage with a cage, tell a story,” they used to say in the old days, trying to emphasize the reliability of a log house in comparison with an open canopy - a story. Usually a log house was placed on the "basement" - the lower auxiliary floor, which was used to store supplies and household equipment. And the upper crowns of the log house expanded upward, forming a cornice - a “fall”.

This is interesting word, which comes from the verb "fall down", was often used in Russia. So, for example, the upper cold common bedrooms in the house or mansions, where the whole family went to sleep (fall down) from a heated hut in the summer, were called “polushas”.

The doors in the cage were made as low as possible, and the windows were placed higher. So less heat left the hut.

The roof over the log house was arranged in ancient times without nails - "male". For this, the completion of the two end walls was made from decreasing stumps of logs, which were called “males”. Long longitudinal poles were placed on them in steps - “dolniks”, “lie down” (cf. “lie down, lie down”). Sometimes, however, they were called males, and the ends came down, cut into the walls. One way or another, but the whole roof got its name from them.

Roofing diagram: 1 - gutter; 2 - chill; 3 - stamic; 4 - slightly; 5 - flint; 6 - princely sleg ("knes"); 7 - general slug; 8 - male; 9 - fall; 10 - prichelina; 11 - chicken; 12 - pass; 13 - bull; 14 - oppression.

From top to bottom, thin tree trunks, cut down with one of the branches of the root, were cut into the slegs. Such trunks with roots were called "hens" (apparently for the similarity of the left root with a chicken paw). These upward branches of the roots supported a hollowed-out log - a "stream". It collected water flowing from the roof. And already on top of the hens and lay down the wide boards of the roof, resting with the lower edges in the hollowed out groove of the flow. The upper joint of the boards - the “horse” (“prince”) was especially carefully blocked from rain. Under it, a thick “ridge slug” was laid, and from above the joint of the boards, like a hat, was covered with a log hollowed out from below - a “helmet” or “skull”. However, more often this log was called "cold" - something that covers.

Why didn’t they just cover the roof of wooden huts in Russia! That straw was tied into sheaves (bundles) and laid along the slope of the roof, pressing with poles; then they chipped aspen logs on planks (shingles) and with them, like scales, they covered the hut in several layers. And in ancient times they even covered with turf, turning it upside down and laying a birch bark.

The most expensive coating was considered "tes" (boards). The very word "tes" well reflects the process of its manufacture. An even log without knots was split lengthwise in several places, and wedges were hammered into the cracks. The log split in this way was split lengthwise several more times. The irregularities of the resulting wide boards were hemmed with a special ax with a very wide blade.

The roof was usually covered in two layers - “undercut” and “red tess”. The lower layer of the tess on the roof was also called a rocker, since it was often covered with a “rock” (birch bark, which was chipped from birch trees) for tightness. Sometimes they arranged a roof with a break. Then the lower, flatter part was called the "police" (from the old word "floor" - half).

The entire pediment of the hut was importantly called the “brow” and was richly decorated with magical protective carvings.

The outer ends of the under-roofing slabs were covered from the rain with long boards - "prichelina". And the upper joint of the berths was covered with a patterned hanging board - a “towel”.

The roof is the most important part of a wooden building. “There would be a roof over your head,” people still say. Therefore, over time, it became a symbol of any house and even an economic structure of its “top”.

"Riding" in ancient times was called any completion. These tops, depending on the wealth of the building, could be very diverse. The simplest was the "cage" top - a simple gable roof on a cage. The “cubic top” was intricate, resembling a massive tetrahedral onion. Terems were decorated with such a top. The “barrel” was quite difficult to work with - a gable covering with smooth curvilinear outlines, ending with a sharp ridge. But they also made a “crossed barrel” - two intersecting simple barrels.

The ceiling was not always arranged. When burning furnaces "in black" it is not needed - the smoke will only accumulate under it. Therefore, in a living room it was made only with a “white” firebox (through a pipe in the furnace). At the same time, the ceiling boards were laid on thick beams - “matits”.

The Russian hut was either a “four-wall” (simple cage) or a “five-wall” (a cage partitioned off inside by a wall - “overcut”). During the construction of the hut, utility rooms were attached to the main volume of the cage (“porch”, “canopy”, “yard”, “bridge” between the hut and the yard, etc.). In the Russian lands, not spoiled by heat, they tried to bring the whole complex of buildings together, to press them against each other.

There were three types of organization of the complex of buildings that made up the courtyard. A single large two-story house for several related families under one roof was called a "purse". If the utility rooms were attached to the side and the whole house took on the form of the letter “G”, then it was called the “verb”. If the outbuildings were adjusted from the end of the main frame and the whole complex was pulled into a line, then they said that this was a “beam”.

A “porch” led to the house, which was often arranged on “helps” (“releases”) - the ends of long logs released from the wall. Such a porch was called "hanging".

The porch was usually followed by "canopy" (canopy - shade, shaded place). They were arranged so that the door did not open directly onto the street, and heat did not come out of the hut in winter. The front part of the building, together with the porch and the hallway, was called in ancient times the "sprout".

If the hut was two-story, then the second floor was called the "tale" in the outbuildings and the "room" in the living quarters.
On the second floor, especially in outbuildings, there was often an “import” - an inclined log platform. A horse with a cart loaded with hay could climb along it. If the porch led directly to the second floor, then the porch platform itself (especially if there was an entrance to the first floor under it) was called a “locker”.

There have always been many carvers and carpenters in Russia, and it was not difficult for them to carve the most difficult floral ornament or reproduce a scene from pagan mythology. The roofs were decorated with carved towels, cockerels, skates.

Terem

(from the Greek. shelter, dwelling) the upper residential tier of the ancient Russian choir or chambers, built above the upper room, or a separate high residential building on the basement. The epithet "high" has always been applied to the tower.
The Russian tower is a special, unique phenomenon of centuries-old folk culture.

In folklore and literature, the word terem often meant a rich house. In epics and fairy tales, Russian beauties lived in high towers.

In the terem, there was usually a light-filled room with several windows, where women were engaged in needlework.

In the old days, towering above the house, it was customary to richly decorate. The roof was sometimes covered with real gilding. Hence the name of the golden-domed tower.

Amusements were arranged around the towers - parapets and balconies, fenced with railings or gratings.

Palace Terem of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in Kolomenskoye.

The original wooden palace, Terem, was built in 1667-1672 and amazed with its magnificence. Unfortunately, 100 years after the start of its construction, due to dilapidation, the palace was dismantled, and only thanks to the order of Empress Catherine II, all measurements, sketches were made before it was dismantled, and a wooden layout of the Terem was created, according to which it became possible to restore it today. .

During the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the palace was not only a place of rest, but also the main country residence of the Russian sovereign. Meetings of the Boyar Duma, councils with heads of orders (prototypes of ministries), diplomatic receptions and military reviews were held here. The wood for the construction of a new tower was brought from the Krasnoyarsk Territory, then processed by craftsmen near Vladimir, and then delivered to Moscow.

Izmailovsky Tsar's Terem.
Made in the classical old Russian style and incorporated architectural solutions and all the most beautiful of that era. Now it is a beautiful historical symbol of architecture.

The Izmailovsky Kremlin appeared quite recently (construction was completed in 2007), but immediately became a prominent landmark of the capital.

The architectural ensemble of the Izmailovo Kremlin was created according to the drawings and engravings of the royal residence of the 16th-17th centuries, which was located in Izmailovo.

The secrets of the Russian hut and its mysteries, little wisdom and traditions, the basic rules in the construction of the Russian hut, signs, facts and the history of the "hut on chicken legs" - everything is very brief.

It is a generally accepted fact that the most environmentally friendly and suitable for human habitation houses can only be built from wood. Wood is the most ancient building material, presented to us by the most perfect laboratory on Earth - Nature.

In the premises of a wooden structure, the humidity of the air is always optimal for human life. The unique structure of the wood massif, consisting of capillaries, absorbs excess moisture from the air, and in case of excessive dryness, it releases it into the room.

Log cabins have natural energy, create a special microclimate in the hut, and provide natural ventilation. From wooden walls breathes homeliness and peace, they protect in summer from heat, and in winter from frost. Wood retains heat very well. Even in the bitter cold, the walls of a wooden log house are warm inside.

Everyone who has ever been in a real Russian hut will never forget her bewitching benevolent spirit: subtle notes of wood resin, the aroma of freshly baked bread from a Russian oven, spice medicinal herbs. Due to its properties, wood neutralizes heavy odors by ozonizing the air.

And it is not without reason that interest in wooden construction arises again and grows with incredible speed, gaining more and more popularity.

So, little wisdom, secrets and secrets of the Russian hut!

The name of the Russian house "hut" comes from the old Russian "istba", which means "house, bath" or "source" from "The Tale of Bygone Years ...". The Old Russian name of a wooden dwelling is rooted in the Proto-Slavic "jüstba" and is considered borrowed from the German "stuba". In ancient German, "stuba" meant "a warm room, a bathhouse."

When building a new hut, our ancestors followed the rules developed over the centuries, because the construction of a new house is a significant event in the life of a peasant family and all traditions were observed to the smallest detail. One of the main precepts of the ancestors was the choice of a place for the future hut. A new hut should not be built on the site where there was once a cemetery, road or bathhouse. But at the same time, it was desirable that the place for the new house was already inhabited, where people lived in complete prosperity, bright and in a dry place.

The main tool in the construction of all Russian wooden structures was an ax. From here they say not to build, but to cut down a house. The saw began to be used at the end of the 18th century, and in some places from the middle of the 19th century.

Initially (until the 10th century), the hut was a log building, partially (up to a third) going into the ground. That is, a recess was dug out and over it was completed in 3-4 rows of thick logs. Thus, the hut itself was a semi-dugout.

There was no door originally, it was replaced by a small inlet, about 0.9 meters by 1 meter, covered by a pair of log halves tied together and a canopy.

The main requirement for building material was customary - a log house was cut either from pine, spruce or larch. The trunk of coniferous trees was tall, slender, well axed and at the same time was durable, the walls of pine, spruce or larch kept the heat in the house well in winter and did not heat up in the summer, in the heat, keeping a pleasant coolness. At the same time, the choice of a tree in the forest was regulated by several rules. For example, it was impossible to cut down the sick, old and withered trees who were considered dead and could, according to legend, bring illness to the house. It was forbidden to cut down the trees that grew on the road and along the roads. Such trees were considered "violent" and in a log house such logs, according to legend, can fall out of the walls and crush the owners of the house.

The construction of the house was accompanied by a number of customs. During the laying of the first crown of a log house (mortgage), a coin or a paper bill was placed under each corner, another piece of wool from a sheep or a small skein of woolen yarn was placed in another piece of wool from a sheep or a small skein of woolen yarn, grain was poured into the third, and incense was placed under the fourth. Thus, at the very beginning of the construction of the hut, our ancestors performed such rituals for the future dwelling, which marked its wealth, family warmth, well-fed life and holiness in later life.

In the setting of the hut there is not a single superfluous random object, each thing has its strictly defined purpose and a place illuminated by tradition, which is feature people's dwelling.

The doors in the hut were made as low as possible, and the windows were placed higher. So less heat left the hut.

The Russian hut was either a “four-wall” (simple cage) or a “five-wall” (a cage partitioned off inside by a wall - “overcut”). During the construction of the hut, utility rooms were attached to the main volume of the cage (“porch”, “canopy”, “yard”, “bridge” between the hut and the yard, etc.). In the Russian lands, not spoiled by heat, they tried to bring the whole complex of buildings together, to press them against each other.

There were three types of organization of the complex of buildings that made up the courtyard. A single large two-story house for several related families under one roof was called a "purse". If the utility rooms were attached to the side and the whole house took on the form of the letter “G”, then it was called the “verb”. If the outbuildings were adjusted from the end of the main frame and the whole complex was pulled into a line, then they said that this was a “beam”.

The porch of the hut was usually followed by "canopy" (canopy - shade, shaded place). They were arranged so that the door did not open directly onto the street, and heat did not come out of the hut in winter. The front part of the building, together with the porch and the hallway, was called in ancient times the "sprout".

If the hut was two-story, then the second floor was called the "tale" in the outbuildings and the "room" in the living quarters. The rooms above the second floor, where the girl's room was usually located, were called "terem".

The house was rarely built by each for himself. Usually the whole world was invited to the construction (“obschestvo”). The forest was harvested in winter, while there was no sap flow in the trees, and they began to build in early spring. After the laying of the first crown of the log house, the first treat was arranged for the “helpers” (“salary treat”). Such treats are an echo of ancient ritual feasts, which often took place with sacrifices.

After the "salary treats" they began to arrange a log house. At the beginning of summer, after laying the ceiling mats, a new ritual treat for the helpers followed. Then proceeded to the device of the roof. Having reached the top, laying the skate, they arranged a new, “skate” treat. And after the completion of construction at the very beginning of autumn - a feast.

Demyanov's ear. Artist Andrey Popov

The cat should be the first to enter the new home. In the North of Russia, the cult of the cat is still preserved. In most northern houses, in the thick doors in the hallway, there is a hole for the cat at the bottom.

In the depths of the hut there was a hearth made of stones. There was no smoke outlet; in order to save heat, the smoke was kept in the room, and the excess went out through the inlet. Chicken huts probably contributed to the short life expectancy in the old days (about 30 years for men): the products of burning wood are cancer-causing substances.

The floors in the huts were earthen. Only with the spread of saws and sawmills in Russia in cities and in the houses of landowners did wooden floors begin to appear. Initially, the floors were laid out from boards made of logs split in half, or from massive thick floorboards. However, flooring from boards began to spread massively only in the 18th century, since sawmilling was not developed. It was only through the efforts of Peter I that saws and sawmills began to spread in Russia with the publication of the Peter the Great decree “On accustoming lumberjacks to sawing firewood” in 1748. Until the twentieth century, the floors in the peasant's hut were earthen, that is, the leveled earth was simply trampled down. Sometimes upper layer smeared with clay mixed with manure, which prevented the formation of cracks.

Logs for Russian huts were prepared from November-December, cutting tree trunks in a circle and letting them dry on the vine (upright) over the winter. Trees were cut down and logs were taken out even in the snow before the spring thaw. When cutting the cage of the hut, the logs were laid with the northern, denser side outward, so that the wood cracked less and better tolerated the effects of the atmosphere. Coins, wool and incense were placed in the corners of the house along the building in order for its inhabitants to live healthy in abundance and warmth.

Until the 9th century, there were no windows at all in Russian huts.

Until the 20th century, windows in Russian huts did not open. They ventilated the hut through the door and the chimney (a wooden ventilation pipe on the roof). The shutters protected the huts from bad weather and dashing people. A shuttered window during the day could serve as a "mirror".

In the old days, shutters were single-leaf. There were no double frames in the old days either. In winter, for warmth, the windows were closed from the outside with straw mats or simply covered with heaps of straw.

Numerous patterns of the Russian hut served (and serve) not so much as decoration, but as protection of the house from evil forces. The symbolism of sacred images came from pagan times: solar circles, thunder signs (arrows), fertility signs (a field with dots), horse heads, horseshoes, abysses of heaven (various wavy lines), weaves and knots.

The hut was installed directly on the ground or on poles. Oak logs, large stones or stumps were brought under the corners, on which the log house stood. In summer, the wind blew under the hut, drying the boards of the so-called “black” floor from below. By winter, the house was sprinkled with earth or a mound was made of turf. In the spring, a blockage or embankment was dug up in some places to create ventilation.

The "red" corner in the Russian hut was arranged in the far corner of the hut, on the east side diagonally from the stove. The icons were placed in the deity in the "red" or "holy" corner of the room in such a way that the person entering the house could immediately see them. It was considered important element protection of the house from "evil forces". Icons had to stand, not hang, as they were revered as “alive”.

The emergence of the image of the “Hut on chicken legs” is historically associated with wooden log cabins, which in ancient Russia were placed on stumps with chopped roots to protect the tree from decay. In the dictionary of V. I. Dahl it is said that “kur” is the rafters on peasant huts. In swampy places, the huts were built precisely on such rafters. In Moscow, one of the old wooden churches was called "Nikola on chicken legs", because it stood on stumps due to the swampiness of the area.

A hut on chicken legs - in fact, they are CHICKEN, from the word chicken hut. Huts were called huts that were heated “in black”, that is, they did not have a chimney. A stove without a chimney was used, called a “chicken stove” or “black stove”. The smoke came out through the doors and during the burning hung under the ceiling in a thick layer, which is why the upper parts of the logs in the hut were covered with soot.

In ancient times, there was a funeral rite, which included smoking the legs of a “hut” without windows and doors, in which a corpse was placed.

The hut on chicken legs in folk fantasy was modeled on the image of a Slavic graveyard, a small house of the dead. The house was placed on pillars. In fairy tales, they are presented as chicken legs is also not accidental. The chicken is a sacred animal, an indispensable attribute of many magical rites. In the house of the dead, the Slavs put the ashes of the deceased. The coffin itself, a domina or graveyard-cemetery of such houses was presented as a window, a hole into the world of the dead, a means of passage to the underworld. That's why our fairy tale hero constantly comes to the hut on chicken legs - to get into a different dimension of time and the reality of no longer living people, but wizards. There is no other way to get there.

Chicken legs are just a "translation error".

“Chicken (chicken) legs” the Slavs called stumps, on which the hut was placed, that is, Baba Yaga’s house initially stood only on smoked stumps. From the point of view of supporters of the Slavic (classical) origin of Baba Yaga, an important aspect of this image is that she belongs to two worlds at once - the world of the dead and the world of the living.

Chicken huts existed in Russian villages until the 19th century, they even met at the beginning of the 20th century.

Only in the 18th century and only in St. Petersburg did Tsar Peter I forbid building houses with black-fired heating. In other settlements, they continued to be built until the 19th century.

A wooden hut has long been the most common dwelling of a Russian peasant. Despite the fact that at present there are only huts no older than the 19th century, they have retained all the traditions of construction and arrangement.

By design, the hut is a square or rectangular frame. The walls consist of horizontal log crowns - rows connected at the corners with cuts. The Russian hut is simple and concise, and the picturesque symmetry of the buildings carries real Russian comfort and hospitality.

The components of the peasant hut were: a cage, a canopy, a hut, a basement, a closet and a room. The main building was a dwelling with a stove. Inside there were such inalienable attributes of the master's life as: wide benches attached to the walls, shelves, a cradle, a cupboard, etc. The absence of unnecessary elements and the strict attachment of one thing to a place are the main signs of the interior of the hut.

Particular attention in the hut is concentrated on the stove, which symbolizes the idea of ​​comfort and hearth. Therefore, the craftsmen devoted so much time and effort to the manufacture of furnaces. The underbake consisted of the released ends of thick bars. In front, it propped up the heavy hearth of the stove, and on the side, a bench-bed. The stove conic fenced off the hearth at the stove pillar. All these elements were carefully carved with an axe.

There was often a corner for cooking by the stove. It was separated by a wooden paneled brightly painted partition. The partition was usually painted geometric shapes in the form of the sun or flowers.

Fixed benches were located along the entire perimeter of the room. On the one hand, they tightly adjoined the wall, on the other hand, they were supported by supports made of thick boards, or carved dotted posts-legs. Typically, such columns had a narrowing towards the middle and an applied pattern in the form of an apple. Flat coasters, sawn from a thick board, were usually with a pattern of turned legs.

In the huts there were also portable benches with four legs or supports on the sides (benches). The back of the bench could be thrown from one edge to the other (folding backs). Through or blind backs were often decorated with carvings. In the upper rooms, the benches were covered with a special cloth. There were also benches with one sidewall, on which carving or painting was applied. Such a sidewall served as a spinning wheel, or a support for a pillow.

Chairs in huts began to appear a little later - in the 19th century. They were made in the form of a symmetrical shape, had a wooden square seat, a through square back and slightly elongated legs. The chairs were decorated with a wooden fringe or a patterned back. Often the chairs were painted in two colors - blue and crimson.

The dining table had quite big sizes. The table top was made of high-quality processed boards without knots. The underframe could be of several types: plank sidewalls with a notch at the bottom, connected by a proleg; legs connected by two prongs or a circle; underframe with drawers. The edges of the table edge and the edges of the legs were sometimes covered with carvings.

Tables for cooking (suppliers) were placed next to the stove. Such tables were higher than dining tables, and at the bottom they had drawers or shelves with doors. Often in the huts there were small decorative tables.

An integral attribute of the Russian hut was a chest in which clothes and other household items were stored. The chests had different sizes and small external differences. The lid of the chest could be either straight or convex. The supporting part was made in the form of a support plinth, or in the form of small legs. The chests were upholstered with animal skin with a short pile, and reinforced with metal components. Chests were also decorated with all kinds of drawings and patterns.

The shelves in the hut were fastened tightly. Hanging shelves adjoined the wall along the entire length, and the crow shelves rested only at their ends. Shelves could divide the room into several parts. Leaning at one end on a beam near the stove, at the other end they could go out between the logs of the wall. The hinged flooring (floor) was fixed above the front door.

Over time, cabinets began to appear in the huts. They have had different kinds and sizes. Through threads were applied to them to ventilate the products.

Peasants usually slept on built-in and mobile beds. Such beds were tightly attached to the walls on both sides and had one back, and were placed in the corner. For children, cradles, cradles, decorated with turning details, carvings or paintings were hung.

Thus, interior elements in a Russian hut were arranged horizontally and were made of wood. as the main colors golden-ocher was used, with the addition of red and white flowers. Furniture, walls, dishes, painted in golden-ocher tones, were successfully complemented by white towels, red flowers and clothes, as well as beautiful paintings.

Basic building elements. The main types of current peasant households and huts. Their constructive and artistic details. Peasant huts according to written monuments and their comparison with existing types. Interior view of the hut.

The walls of a log building can be cut down in two ways: from logs arranged vertically, or from logs arranged horizontally. In the first case, the length of the wall without the danger of its collapse can be arbitrary, in the second case, the length of the wall cannot exceed 4-5 fathoms, unless it is supported by some buttresses. However, the advantage of the first method, practiced by the peoples of Western and Northern Europe (in Sweden and Norway), is significantly weakened by the fact that when the tree dries out, gaps form between the logs, in which the caulk does not hold well, while in the second method, practiced by the Slavs, the logs shrinkage fall one on top of the other (the wall gives a draft), which allows the wall to be tightly caulked. The Slavs did not know the splicing of logs, that is, connecting them to each other using a cut with a lock, which appeared relatively late in our country, therefore the log cabins of Slavic dwellings could not exceed the natural length and width average length logs; the latter, for the reasons mentioned above, were hardly longer than three or four sazhens.

Thus, an essential part of Slavic housing, its initial form, from which its further development proceeded, was a log house, square in plan and arbitrary in height, from horizontal rows ("crowns") of logs, connected in the corners by cuts with a remainder ("into the oblo") or without a remainder ("in the paw", "in hat").

Such a frame was called a cage, and the latter, depending on its purpose or position in relation to other cages, was called: “hut” or “firebox”, if it was intended for housing, and there was a stove in it; "upper room", if it was above the lower stand, which in this case was called "basement" or "cut". several cages, standing nearby and connected into one whole, were called, depending on their number, “twins”, “triplets”, etc., or “horomina”; also called the collection of two stands, placed one on top of the other. Khoromina, of course, appeared later, and initially the Slavs were content with one cage - a firebox, probably very little different from the modern peasant hut, which, although it is now arranged differently in different areas in detail, is essentially the same everywhere.

Let us consider some types of housing that now exist and differ most from each other in terms of their degree of development, and we note that the Finnish tribes over time adopted from the Slavs a lot of customs and methods of arranging dwellings and settled on them, why we can in some cases find of them, what among the Russians has already disappeared completely or has largely changed its former form.

Let's start with the most primitive type, namely, with the hut of the Baltic peasant. As can be seen from Figure 2, his housing consists of two log cabins: a large one - a warm one (the hut itself) and a smaller one - a cold cage, interconnected by an entrance hall without a ceiling, and the entrance hall is usually arranged not as deep as the hut and cage, as a result of which in front of them it turns out something like a porch covered with an overhang of a thatched roof common over the whole building. The hearth is made of stones and does not have a chimney (chicken hut), which is why it is placed as close as possible to the door so that the smoke exits through it into the canopy in the shortest way; from the passage, the smoke rises to the attic and exits through holes in the roof arranged under its ridge. Near the stove and along the entire rear wall of the hut, bunk beds are made for sleeping. The crate is used to place in it that household belongings that can be affected by smoke, for example, chests with a dress, and also for sleeping in it in the summer. Both the hut and the cage are illuminated by small “portage”, that is, sliding windows, and the entrance hall is left dark. The whole building is made “underground” (“on the seam”), that is, it is placed directly on the ground without a foundation, which is why the floors are usually made of rammed earth or clay.

The building faces the street with its narrow side (* put "exact"), thus, two windows of the hut overlook it, and the entrance door in the canopy opens onto the courtyard.

The Lithuanian hut (Fig. 3) differs from the considered one mainly in that it is “five-walled”, that is, the main frame is divided by a chopped wall into two almost equal parts, and the cage is separated from the entrance hall by a partition.

Most of Little Russia is treeless; therefore, the walls of her huts in most cases are not chopped, but huts. We will not dwell on the arrangement of the hut, we will only note that in comparison with the housing of the Baltic and Lithuanians, it is the next stage of development in details, while remaining the same as the previous one in terms of the placement of the main parts; this quite definitely speaks of the commonality of the original way of life and that the ancestors of the Little Russians built their dwellings from wood, which they had to replace with brushwood and clay after they were forced out into the treeless steppe. This is also confirmed by the fact that the huts of more wooded provinces, such as Volyn, are very similar in type to the dwellings already considered. Indeed, the hut of the Volyn province consists of a five-walled frame, most of which is reserved for warm housing (Fig. 4), and the smaller one, divided in turn by a wall, forms a canopy and a closet; the latter is adjoined by a cage made of pillars, the gaps between which are taken up with boards, and covered with an independent roof. The stove, although equipped with a chimney, remains by old memory at the door; a conic (bunks) adjoins the stove, passing at the other two walls into benches for sitting. In the red corner, under the icons, there is a table dug into the earthen floor with its legs. Outside the hut, near its warm part, a mound is arranged, something like an earthen bench, which also serves to keep heat in the hut, which is why from those sides where there are no windows, the mound sometimes rises almost to the very roof. For the same purpose, that is, to keep warm, all housing breaks into the ground somewhat, so that in the canopy one has to go down several steps.

The Little Russian hut is not placed near the street itself, but somewhat retreated, behind the garden, windows and door it is oriented to the south and an embankment is made under it to drain rainwater; outbuildings and premises for livestock are never adjacent to housing, but are placed in no particular order, as it is more convenient in each individual case, throughout the yard, surrounded by wattle.

The old huts in the region of the Don Cossacks have a more developed character; the main log cabin is made low here and is divided by a longitudinal main wall into two equal parts, which, in turn, are divided by partitions into a vestibule (A), a pantry (B), a clean room (C), a bedroom (D) and a kitchen (E). The last three rooms are heated by one stove, in addition to which the kitchen has a hearth for cooking (Fig. 5). In order to avoid flooding during the flood of rivers, along the banks of which houses are usually placed, the latter are arranged on high basements, which necessitates the construction of stairs (“steps”) leading to porches that merge with galleries covering housing from three sides. These galleries are supported either by poles or brackets made of finished logs (Fig. 6). In older huts, galleries were made with canopies on carved columns, thanks to this, being a homogeneous form with those “fear” (gallery) that often surround Little Russian and Carpathian churches. Window openings are bordered on the outside with platbands and are provided with shutters to protect against the burning rays of the southern sun; the walls on the outside are leveled, like in Little Russian huts, with a thick layer of clay and whitewashed with lime. Roofs are either thatched or plank.

Almost the same device has the most primitive Great Russian hut, found mainly in areas poor in forest; it consists of two log cabins connected by a vestibule (Fig. 7). The front frame, overlooking the street, serves as a living space, and the back, overlooking the courtyard, the so-called cage, or side wall, serves as a pantry and a summer bedroom. Both log cabins have ceilings, while the vestibule is covered only by a roof that is common to the entire building. The front door leads from the courtyard into the hallway, from which one already gets into the hut and into the cage. Such huts are usually underground, surrounded by mounds for warmth, and until very recently most of them were made smoky ( * "black", "ore" ("ore" - to get dirty, dirty), so the stove turned with a hole (“hail”) not to the windows, but to the door, like the chukhons of the Ostsee region.

The next type of hut in terms of development is the one in which the entire building is placed on the basement; this is done to facilitate access to the hut during the winter, when there is a thick layer of snow on the street and piles of manure are collected in the yard. In addition, the basement is not useless as an extra room for storing various less valuable property, for storing food and, finally, for small livestock. In the presence of a basement, there was a need for an external staircase to the front door of the entrance hall; the staircase almost always runs along the courtyard wall towards the street and, together with both of its platforms, is covered by a common roof that reaches the street. Such stairs are called porches, and their appearance in Russian architecture must be attributed to ancient times, since the word "porch", and moreover, in this sense, is found in the annalistic legend about the murder of the Varangians Theodore and John (the first Christian martyrs in Russia) in Kyiv . Initially, the porches were made open from the sides, as is found in churches (Fig. 8), and then they were sometimes taken away with boards, and then it was necessary to abandon the installation of windows in the wall along which the porch runs. As a result, it became necessary to turn the stove with a hail towards the street windows, since otherwise it would be dark for the cooks to work. If the hut was arranged as a smokehouse, then with such a turn of the stove, the smoke hardly escaped from it into the vestibule, and therefore there were huts in which the stove was pushed forward by the hail into the vestibule and thus cut through the wall of the hut. However, in most cases, stoves in such huts have pipes, and this makes it possible to fence off a special room in the hut with a bulkhead - a cooker, which is exclusively a woman's possession (Fig. 9).

For the rest, the internal routine of housing remains almost the same: benches go around the hut, but the conic has moved from the stove to the opposite wall; in the "red" corner (right, farthest from the door) under the images - a table; near the stove, at the door to the cooker's room, there is a cupboard, and two other cupboards are arranged: the first is on the other side of the oven hail, and the second is near the cooker's window, but with a door to the hut. The cookhouse has its own tables and benches. In order to sleep warmer, beds are arranged - a boardwalk, which is a continuation of the upper surface of the stove and occupies half the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe hut (not counting the cook). They climb onto the floor along two steps fitted to the wall of the furnace.

Sometimes the crate of such huts turns into a clean room - into a "side room", and closets arranged in the hallway and illuminated by small windows serve as warehouses for various goods. In the side wall they make horses, benches and put a table in the red corner.

The type of hut that developed in this way fully satisfied the very unpretentious personal needs of the Russian peasant and his family, but for household needs one hut is not enough: rooms are needed for carts, sledges, agricultural implements and, finally, for livestock, that is, various sheds, barns, barns ( * in the north they are called "rigachs"), mules ( * warm, moss-covered livestock quarters), barn, etc. All these independent buildings are molded partly to the hut, partly to each other and form the "yard" of the Great Russian peasant (Fig. 7 and 10). Part of the yard is covered, and in the old days the whole yard was paved with logs, as it turned out during excavations in Staraya Ladoga ( * not only yards were paved with logs, but even the streets of villages, like city streets).

Sometimes only a part of the building is placed on the basement: the front hut or the side wall, or both of them together, and the vestibule is made much lower, several steps, as, for example, is arranged in one of the huts in the village of Murashkina ( * Knyagininsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province) (Fig. 11).

At further development the side wall is made warm, a stove is placed in it, and then it gets the name "back hut"; at the same time, the canopy and the back hut are sometimes made in area somewhat smaller than the front hut (Fig. 12), and sometimes both the back and front huts are made equal in terms of the area they occupy and, moreover, five-walled, that is, divided by an internal capital (chopped) wall into two parts (Fig. 17 a).

Finally, with a very large family and with a certain prosperity, there is a need for a separate room for hired workers, so a separate hut is cut for them, on the other side of the gate, but under one roof with the main hut, which allows you to arrange a “room” above the gate, then there is a cold room with small windows and a floor raised above the floor of the main hut (Fig. 13); the upper room is connected directly with the cook and, like her, is given to the women in full possession.

All the considered types of huts are one-story, but there are often two-story "double-fat" huts ( * probably earlier they were called "two-core", i.e. huts in two dwellings.), especially in the northern provinces, where there is still a lot of forest. Such huts, according to their plan, repeat, in essence, the methods of one-story huts, since their basement is replaced by the first floor; but the purpose of individual rooms is modified. So, the basement of the front hut, becoming higher than in one-story ones, ceases to be a pantry and, along with the top, serves as a living space; the lower tier of the rear hut turns into a stable and a barn, and its upper tier serves as a barn and partly a hayloft, and for the entry of carts and sleighs into it a special “carriage” is arranged, that is, a log inclined platform (Fig. 14).

In the attic of the front hut, sometimes a living room is made, called a room, in front of which a balcony usually stretches. However, these balconies seem to be a comparatively recent phenomenon, as are small balconies on pillars like the one shown in figure 14. The latter, obviously, are nothing more than transformed porches.

Consider another similar example of a northern hut located in the village of Vorobyevsky ( Kladnikovsky district of the Vologda province. * This hut was built over a hundred years ago). This hut is two-story (Fig. 15). The middle of the first floor is occupied by a passage ("podsene"), to the left of which there is a "basement" ( * the basement sometimes serves as housing, and sometimes small livestock is placed in it) and "stuffed cabbage", that is, a pantry for provisions; to the right of the passage there is a "moshannik", that is, a warm pantry for cereals and flour, and a "stay", that is, a stall for small livestock. On the second floor above the undershaw there is a canopy, above the basement and above the stuffed cabbage - a hut, the stove of which is placed in the far corner, and not at the door, although the hut is a smokehouse; near the stove there is a staircase leading to the stuffed cabbage. On the other side of the vestibule there are: a side wall ( * upper room), the window of which overlooks the street, and a semi-dark pantry. All these rooms are located in one six-walled log house, one of its long walls turned to the street so that the porch also opens onto the latter (Fig. 16). Two more log cabins are adjacent to the opposite wall, located under the same roof as the first. In the lower floor of the middle log house there is a “large kennel” - a room for horses, above which there is a “large sennik”; in the latter there is hay, carts, sledges, household implements, and harness is stored. A wagon covered with an independent shed roof leads to the sennik. Finally, on the lower floor of the rear log house, there are two “flocks” and an extensive cowshed, above which there are “butts” or “sides” that serve as a warehouse for oats, and a “small sennik”, which, due to its relative cleanliness, is a place for sleeping in summer time and also a place where household work is done.

Sometimes in two-story huts only one outer porch is made, and for internal communication a staircase is arranged in the hallway (Fig. 17 and 18).

These are the main types of huts in the northern and central provinces; as for the huts of the southern provinces, they are essentially the same, although they differ in that they are placed towards the street not with a short side, but with a long one, so that the entire porch faces the street, and also in that the stove is often placed not at doors, and opposite corner, despite the fact that the huts in most cases are chicken.

Of course, in those provinces where there is little forest, the huts are cramped, low, and very often do not have basements (Fig. 19); in richer provinces, peasant households are sometimes no less complex than in the north (Fig. 20).

Indeed, in the last example, a number of various outbuildings adjoin the hut, of which the barns are the most interesting, as they still retain their old type, as clearly indicated by their simple and logical design, which is used everywhere with only slight variations, that is, they are made usually either with a covered gallery, or with a deep ledge of the lower part of the log house, which serve as protection from rain at the entrance to the barn. In places damp or flooded with spring water, barns are placed on high basements or on poles (Fig. 21,22 and 23). Let us now consider some details of the design of the huts. As noted above, the walls are cut from horizontal rows of logs connected at the corners with cuts; the grooves along the logs are now always selected in their lower part, however, 60 years ago, felling was also encountered with reverse grooves, which, according to Academician L.V. Dahl, was considered a sign of the antiquity of the building, but, in our opinion, such a cutting of walls, very illogical ( * Rainwater with this method of felling penetrates into the grooves much more easily and, therefore, the decay of the logs should occur much earlier than with the now usual method of grooving.), could be used only due to some misunderstanding, or for such buildings, the durability of which for some reason was not expected.

The internal walls dividing the log house into separate rooms are made either plank (partitions), sometimes not reaching the ceiling, or log (chopped), and in two-story huts, even the latter sometimes do not fall directly one above the other, but are shifted to the side, depending on the need , so upper walls obtained by weight. So, for example, the right walls of the undershade and canopy in the hut of the village of Vorobyevsky (see Figures 15 and 16) do not represent one continuation of the other.

In simple one-story huts, the walls of the vestibule are usually not cut into the walls of the log cabins of the hut itself and the cage, but are climbed with horizontal logs, the ends of which enter the grooves of the vertical posts attached to the log cabins. In more complex types, as, for example, in the hut of the village of Vorobyevsky (Fig. 15 and 16), it is sometimes used very original way, dating back to the time when our carpenters did not yet know how to splice logs and make them in this way of arbitrary length. It consists of the following: one of the walls connecting the two main log cabins, in this example, the left wall of the podsennik and sennik, is a continuation of the wall of the rear log cabin and the ends of its logs touch the ends of the logs of the front hut; six inches from the free-standing end of this wall, a short transverse wall was cut into it, something like a buttress, facing the inside of the building, ensuring the stability of the first. The right wall of the sennik and podsennik is completely unconnected with the walls of the front and rear log cabins, which is why the transverse short walls are cut at both ends; thus, this wall would be completely free-standing if it were not connected to the log cabins by the ceiling beams of the first floor.

The floors of the living quarters on the ground floor are either stuffed (from earth or clay), or from planks along the logs (“pave over the luggage”); in the upper living rooms, the floors are laid along the beams (“on the mothers”), and only in the large huts of the latter do two; usually one mat is laid, the ends of which are always cut into the walls in such a way that its ends are not visible from the outside of the walls. The direction of the mother is always parallel to the entrance door to the hut; in the middle, and sometimes in two places, the mats are supported by uprights. The floorboards are drawn in a quarter (“in a drawing with a notch”) or simply hemmed. The floors of such premises as a large sennik are not made of boards, but of thin logs ("round logs"), simply hewn to each other. The ceilings of the upper rooms are made in the same way, and, in the living rooms, round timber is sometimes cut into a groove, caulked, and a lubricant is always made on top of them, consisting of a lower layer of clay and an upper, thicker layer of sand.

To maintain the plank flooring, a horizontal beam, called a “voronets”, is cut into the rack; it is located in the direction perpendicular to the matrix. If there is a plank partition in the hut that separates, for example, a cook, then its boards are also nailed to the crow.

Windows are arranged in two types: "portage" and "red".

The first ones have a very small clearance and are closed not with bindings, but with sliding shields moving either horizontally or vertically; such windows have survived to this day even in some churches, such as those of John the Theologian in the village of Ishne near Rostov Yaroslavl (see Chapter 8).

"Red" windows are called those, the gap of which is closed not by a shield, but by a binding; initially, the bindings of such windows rose upwards, like the shields of portage windows, and only (* such red windows can still often be found in the huts of the Ryazan and Arkhangelsk provinces (Fig. 24), probably, hinged bindings have become widespread relatively recently. window panes, as you know, became not uncommon in Russia only after Peter, and before him their place was replaced by a bullish bubble, or in best case, mica, the high price of which, of course, excluded the possibility of its use in peasant huts.

As for the artistic processing of windows, namely, plank architraves, decorated with cuts and external shutters (Fig. 9, 16, 25 and 26), they could be widely used again only in the post-Petrine era, when the board began to be quickly replaced by boards, which were obtained by sawing logs and, therefore, much cheaper than tes; until that time, the window frame (“deck”) was usually not covered with a casing, and cuttings were made directly on it, as, for example, is the case in a very old barn in the village of Shungi, Olonets province (Fig. 27), with the upper and lower knitting of the frame sometimes they were not independent parts, but hewn from the crowns of the walls. Of course, decks of this type could be arranged only in utility buildings, while in residential buildings both their horizontal and vertical parts were made of separate beams, which made it possible to leave a gap above the deck, which excluded the possibility of breaking or warping of the deck when the wall settled. The gap from the outside was closed with a bar or a wide cut-decorated cleft, which was the crowning part of the outer window treatment. The doors were decorated the same way.

As for the gate, even during their construction they avoided decorative parts that were not determined by the logic of the design, and the whole beauty of the gate, this one of the few casa parts of the hut, consisted in their general shape, and in a few cuts, as can be seen in the examples given ( Fig. 28, 29, 30, 31 and 32).

The most interesting and retained its ancient technique is the arrangement of roofs, especially in the north, where straw has not yet replaced the plank, as is observed in the provinces that have lost their forests. The base of the roof is rafter legs(“bulls”) (Fig. 33-11), the lower ends of which are cut into the “podkuretniki”, that is, into the upper crowns of the log house, and the upper ends into the “prince's bed” (33-6). This foundation is sheathed with “trays” (“slegs” or “leaks”), that is, thin poles to which “hens” are attached - bars made from tree rhizomes; the latter are given the appearance of various figures, decorated with cuts (33-10). At the bent ends of the hens, a rain gutter is laid - a “water source” (33-19), which is a log hollowed out in the form of a trough, the ends of which have sockets and are very often decorated with cuts.

The roof is made of two layers of tesa, between which a tree bark, usually birch (“rock”), is laid to eliminate leaks, which is why the lower layer of tesa is called a rocker. The lower ends of the clefts abut against the water pipes, and the upper ends are clamped along the ridge with a “cool” (33-1), that is, with a thick hollowed-out log ending on the facade with a root, processed in the form of a horse, deer head, bird, etc. On the upper edge of the okhlupnya, either a lattice or a row of “stamiks” is sometimes placed (33-12); the first, as L. V. Dal quite rightly noted, does not fit well with the pediment figure of the okhlupnya and is a phenomenon, apparently, rather later; the latter probably have ancient origin, which is partly indicated by the fact that the schismatics were very fond of decorating their prayer rooms with them ( * During the persecution of schismatics, their secret worshipers were very often recognized by the police precisely by their stamas, which is why they were often avoided at that time, and now stamas are almost completely out of use.).

Since the okhlupen alone cannot keep the roof boards from being torn off by a strong wind, it is necessary to arrange “oppressions” (33-4), that is, thick logs, the ends of which are caught on both pediments by carved boards called “fire flints” (33-2) . Sometimes, instead of one oppression, several thinner logs or poles are placed on each roof slope; in the latter case, the legs should have ends bent in the form of hooks, behind which the poles are laid (right side of Figure 33).

If the legs do not have bent ends, then boards are nailed to them, very often richly decorated with cuts. These boards are called "prichelinas" or "wing liners" (33-3 and 34) and protect the ends of the slabs from decay. L.V. Dal believes that the prichelins originate from thatched roofs, where they protect the straw from slipping onto the pediment, and therefore are laid behind the hooks (Fig. 35). The junction of two berths, which falls at the end of the prince's bed, is closed with a board, which is usually also richly decorated with carvings and is called an anemone (Fig. 14).

In order to increase the overhang of the roof over the pediment, the ends of the logs of the upper crowns gradually hang one over the other; these protruding ends are called “falls” (Fig. 33-8) and are sometimes sewn up together with the fall slab (33-7) by “small fenders” - carved boards that protect the ends of the fells and the slope from decay (Fig. 36). If the end of the general bed is very thick and cannot be closed with one small liner, then a special board is attached next to the latter, which is given the appearance of some figure, mostly a horse or bird (Fig. 36).

The pediments themselves are almost always made not of plank, but of chopped logs, which here are called “males”.

In chicken huts, wooden pipes are still being installed ( * "smokers", "chimneys") that remove smoke from under the roof of the vestibule. These pipes are made of boards and sometimes have a very picturesque appearance, as they are decorated with cuts and sticks (Fig. 37).

The methods of porch composition are very diverse, but still they can be divided into three main types: porches without stairs or with two or three steps, porches with stairs and porches with stairs and lockers, that is, with covered lower platforms preceding the flight of stairs .

The first are usually arranged in such a way that their side free from the railing is directly opposite the door, and are covered with a shed roof (Fig. 38) or a gable roof, usually supported by two columns.

Flights of stairs that do not have lower platforms are usually left without roofs (Fig. 39,40 and 41), although, of course, there are exceptions (Fig. 42 and 43).

Ladders with lower platforms (“lockers”) always have roofs that are single-pitched, often with a break above the first step of the march (Fig. 44, 45, 45a and 8). The upper platform (upper locker) is covered with one, two or three slopes (Fig. 44), and it is supported either by bars (“falls”) that are released from the wall (Fig. 40), or racks - one or two (Fig. 46) . Particularly picturesque are the porches on single pillars, as can be seen in the examples given (Fig. 44 and 45).

As a special type of porches, very elegant and leading, apparently, their origin from the porches of the church or the mansion, you need to point out the porches with two marches converging to one top platform. It is obvious that two marches are not caused here by utilitarian considerations, but exclusively by aesthetic ones, and this is probably why such porches are relatively rare.

As for the artistic processing of the porches, we will not dwell on it, since it is clearly visible in Figures 38-46; we only note that, just as on other parts of the huts, boards with rich cuts, that is, purely decorative parts, could appear on the porches only in the post-Petrine era, and before that they were satisfied with exclusively constructive parts, giving them certain artistic forms.

Furnaces in many places are still being made not of brick, but of adobe ("broken"), as they were in the old days, probably everywhere, since brick and tiles ("samples"), due to their high price, were inaccessible to peasants , and, in addition, tiles were used only for stoves intended exclusively for heating; stoves in huts are always arranged in such a way that they serve mainly for cooking food, although at the same time they are the only sources of heat, since there are no separate stoves for heating living quarters in the hut.

We examined the main types of modern huts; the very few huts of the end of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century that have survived to our time or were sketched in the second half of the last century by Academician L.V. Dalem and other researchers of Russian architecture.

It is obvious that the evolution of the basic forms in this area of ​​our construction is proceeding very slowly, and even the rapidly growing network of railroads affects our village, so to speak, superficially, without shaking the way of life that has been established for centuries, which depends mainly on economic conditions. Kerosene and factory-made materials are now known to us in the most remote corners, but along with them, the torch and homespun canvas continue to exist, as objects that require only time, but not money. If in our country folk costumes only in the recent past began to be replaced relatively quickly by ugly imitations of urban fashions, while costumes, especially women's costumes, change their forms before anything else under the influence of external causes, then it is natural that the methods of arranging a village hut should be modified in our country. even more slowly, and the changes that took place should have affected only the details, both constructive and artistic, but not the main forms, the roots of which are nourished by the juices produced in the depths of the people's body, and not at its outer covers.

We will try to find confirmation of what has been said in the results of the excavations and in the monuments of writing, finding in them forms that are homogeneous or similar to the current ones. Excavations at the estate of M.M. Petrovsky in Kyiv and in the village of Belgorodka (Kiev district). According to the archaeologist V.V. Khvoyka, these buildings, which were semi-dugouts, were made in a quadrangular recess, about one and a half meters deep, brought to the mainland clay, which served as the floor of residential premises and premises for other purposes. These dwellings were not large (with an area of ​​6.75 x 4.5 m) and, judging by the remains, were built of pine material; their walls, somewhat rising above the surface of the earth, were cut down from thick logs, but the lower logs, which formed the basis of the walls and always fit into grooves specially dug for this purpose, were especially durable. The inner walls, which usually did not reach the ceiling and divided the main frame into two equal parts, were made of horizontal or vertical rows of logs, sometimes hewn on both sides, or from boards. Both the outer and inner walls were plastered on both sides with a thick layer of clay, which was lined with pottery tiles inside rich dwellings; the latter had a different shape and were decorated with a layer of glaze in yellow, brown, black or green. One of the short walls of the main log house was often adjoined by an extension, which was a kind of covered vestibule, and their floor was higher than the floor of the dwelling itself, to which 3-4 earthen steps led from the floor of the vestibule, but at the same time it was below ground level by 5-6 steps. In one of interior spaces these dwellings had a stove made of logs or boards coated on both sides with a thick layer of clay; the outside of the stove was carefully smoothed and often painted with patterns in two or three colors. Near the stove, in the clay of the floor, a cauldron-shaped pit was arranged for kitchen waste, the walls of which were carefully smoothed. Unfortunately, it remains unknown how the ceilings, roofs, windows and doors were arranged; information about such structural parts could not be obtained by excavations, since most of the described dwellings died from fire, which, of course, first of all destroyed roofs, windows and doors.

We find information about residential buildings of a later time from foreigners in the descriptions of their travels to Muscovy.

Adam Olearius attached almost exclusively images of cities to the description of his journey to the Muscovite state. True, some folk scenes, such as, for example, wandering buffoons and amusements of women, apparently do not take place in the city, but all the artist’s attention was drawn to them mainly on the images of figures, and the landscape and images of buildings were painted, probably later, from memory, and therefore it is hardly possible to trust these images especially. But on the map of the Volga, Olearius has a drawing of a hut of meadow cheremis, which in its essential parts differs little from the current huts of the most primitive device (Fig. 47). Indeed, two of its log cabins are made of horizontal crowns, chopped with the rest; between the log cabins you can see the gate leading to the covered courtyard (in the canopy). The front frame represents the residential part of the building - the hut itself, since through open door it shows people sitting on the floor; the rear frame, probably depicting a crate, is under a common roof with a hut and a vestibule; windows in the walls of the back frame are not visible, while in the front there is a small recumbent window without binding - probably a portage. The roof is made of boards, and the boards are laid in a close. This hut does not have pipes, but the other two huts located at the back have pipes, and on one of the roofs even oppressions are depicted, which were mentioned above. Unusual, in comparison with the current huts, is the arrangement of a plank pediment in Olearius's drawing and the placement of the front door not from the hallway, but from the street. The latter, however, was done, very likely, with the sole purpose of showing that the front frame is a residential part of the building, which could not be guessed if windows were shown instead of doors through which people are visible.

In contrast to Olearius, Meyerberg (* Meyerberg's album. Views and everyday paintings of Russia in the 17th century) gives in his travel album a lot of images of villages and villages, which, with their outskirts with gates, churches, wells and the general type of residential and utility buildings, are completely similar to modern villages and villages. Unfortunately, in trying to capture the general character of this or that village, the author of these drawings, obviously, did not pursue the details, and could not do this, due to the relatively small scale of these drawings. Nevertheless, among the huts depicted by him, one can find huts of the same type as the hut described above near Olearius, for example, in the village of Rakhina (Fig. 48), as well as five-walled huts (Fig. 49), and all the huts are depicted by him chopped covered with two slopes, with chopped gables. Of particular interest is one hut in the village of Vyshnyago Volochka and a hut near Torzhok, on the opposite bank of the Tverda River (Fig. 50 and 51); both of them have porches leading to the second floor or to the living quarters above the basements, and one porch is arranged on poles, and the other is made hanging and its staircase is covered with a roof, that is, each of them fits in its design to one of the types of porches that were encountered us when reviewing modern huts.

Let us now turn to the consideration of Russian sources, of which the plan of the Tikhvin Monastery mentioned above is of particular interest for our purpose. The huts depicted on it can be divided into four groups. The first of them is formed by huts, consisting of one frame, covered with two slopes, with three windows arranged in the form of a triangle and raised high above the ground (Fig. 52).

The second group includes huts, consisting of two log cabins - front and rear, covered with independent gable roofs, since the front frame is slightly higher than the rear (Fig. 53). Both log cabins have windows located both on the front (short) side and on the side ones, the former forming, as in the previous case, the figure of a triangle. In this type of hut, the front frame, apparently, is the residential part of the building, and the rear one is the service, that is, the cage. This is confirmed by the fact that in some huts of this type, their back parts are drawn not as logs, but as planks (taken into poles), and they show the gates that are not in the middle of the wall, but are significantly moved closer to the front frame. It is obvious that these gates lead to a covered courtyard or vestibule, to the left of which there is a cage. These huts face the street with the pediment of the front frame and, thus, not only in their general layout, but also in their position relative to the street, they are very similar to modern two-frame huts, since they differ from them only in that their log cabins are not of the same height (Fig. 54) .

The third group is divided into two subgroups; the first includes huts, consisting of two independent log cabins, connected on the facade with gates, and at the back with a fence forming an open courtyard (Fig. 55), and each of the log cabins is designed in exactly the same way as the log cabins of the first group. The second subgroup differs from the first one in that behind the gate connecting the two log cabins there is not an open courtyard, as in the previous case, but an indoor one (canopy), and its height is much lower than the height of the log cabins, which are the same in height (Fig. 56). Both in the first and in the second subgroup, the huts are turned with their gables to the street, and on their front walls there are the same windows arranged in a triangle, as in the huts of the previous groups.

Finally, the fourth group includes such huts, which, like the previous ones, consist of two log cabins, but the canopy connecting these log cabins is adjacent not to the long, but to the short sides of the latter, so that only one log cabin faces it its fronton side, in which again three windows are visible (Fig. 57). The front of those shown in Fig. 57 izb is especially interesting in the sense that the lower part of its passage is depicted as made of logs, and the upper part, in which a large, apparently red window is visible, is depicted as made of boards taken into a jamb. This circumstance clearly indicates that the middle part of the hut is precisely the entrance hall, which was always made cold and, therefore, could be boarded. In most cases, the vestibules of such huts are depicted as lower than the log cabins, but in one case (Fig. 58), namely, near the hut standing in the fence of the Tikhvin Convent, both log cabins and the canopy are of the same height. This hut, obviously, is two-tiered, since it has an entrance leading to the gates of the upper vestibule, and under the platform of the entrance, the gates of the lower vestibule are visible. To the left of this hut, another is depicted, which has a porch leading to a special cut-away, the perspective of which is greatly distorted by the planner. The porch consists of a march and an upper locker (the porch itself), the pillars of which are outlined very vaguely, with a few strokes.

Much more detailed is the porch at the hut, standing outside the fence of the same monastery, across the river (Fig. 59). This hut consists of two buildings: the left - low (single-tier) and the right - high (two-tier); The buildings are connected to each other by gates, behind which there is an open courtyard. The porch leads to the second tier of the right building and consists of a staircase and an upper locker supported by two pillars and covered with a shed roof; along the left wall of the right building one more shed roof, belonging to a gallery that probably overlooks the porch locker. This drawing, like most of the other images of buildings located on the plan of the Tikhvin Monastery, has to be corrected and supplemented, but nevertheless it gives a complete picture of the general character of the building.

But, perhaps, the compiler of the Tikhvin plan fantasized, like the icon painters who depicted buildings on icons that were very far from nature, and drew on his drawing what he wanted to depict, and not what actually existed? This is contradicted by the nature of the images of the plan, which has a clearly portrait, so to speak, similarity, which can be judged by comparing the drawings of the plan with what still exists in the Tikhvin Monastery, for example, with the cathedral of the Bolshoi (male) monastery, with its bell tower and with the cathedral of the Small (women's) monastery. Finally, maybe the author of the plan drew from life only such important stone buildings as those just listed, and less important ones, that is, wooden ones, drew from memory? Unfortunately, none of the wooden buildings depicted on the plan has survived to this day, and therefore it is impossible to answer the question posed by direct comparison. But we have full right compare the drawings of the plan under consideration with similar buildings preserved in other places, and this comparison will fully convince us that the draftsman of the Tikhvin plan meticulously copied nature. Indeed, one has only to compare the roadside chapels depicted by him over large crosses (Fig. 60) with photographs of the same chapels built in the 18th century (Fig. 61 and 62) in order to pay a fair tribute to the astonishment of the loving attention and conscientiousness with which the author of the plan reacted to the task assigned to him.

No less punctual in the depiction of nature is the author of the icon of St. Alexander Svirsky ( * this icon is in the Museum Alexander III in Petrograd.).

Indeed, the chimneys he painted on the roofs residential buildings of the monastery have exactly the same character as those of the “smokers” that are used in the north and to the present, and which we met above (Fig. 63).

Comparing all the above images of rural buildings with the existing now, or with the peasant huts that existed in the recent past, we are convinced of the correctness of our a priori assumption that not only the basic methods of rural construction, but also most of its details have remained the same as they were in 17th century and earlier. In fact, in the examined drawings of foreigners and our draftsmen (“signners,” as they were called in the old days), we saw huts with cages separated from them by a passage, with hanging porches or with porches on poles, with vozm and chopped pediments. We saw that in relation to the streets the huts were located in the same way as now, and the huts themselves were made either small, then five-walled, then single-tiered, then, finally, two-tiered. We observed the same thing with respect to details; so, for example, the warm parts of the huts are depicted as chopped, and the cold cages are planked; then, among the small, obviously portage windows, we saw large red windows, and, finally, over the roofs of the chicken huts we found exactly the same smokehouses as in the huts that now exist in the north.

Thus, by supplementing what exists now with images of the distant past, we have the opportunity to recreate an almost complete picture of those, in essence, simple methods of construction that have been worked out for a long time and have continued to satisfy the peasants up to the present time, when, finally, little by little, new methods that are worth due to the rising level of culture.

It is somewhat more difficult to imagine the interior view of a peasant hut of the past, because even in the huts of the north, where the original customs are held much stronger than in the central provinces, now everywhere where the richer people live, there are samovars, lamps, bottles, etc., whose presence instantly dispels the illusion of antiquity (Fig. 64). However, along with these products of the city market, you can still find items of the former furnishings and utensils: in places there are still old-style shops (Fig. 65), tables, cupboards (Fig. 64) and shelves for icons (goddesses), decorated with cuts and paintings. . If we supplement this with samples of peasant utensils stored in our museums - various looms, spinning wheels, rollers, svetets, cups, corets, ladles, etc. ( * For samples of old peasant utensils, see Count A.A. Bobrinsky "Folk Russian wooden crafts» ), then you can get quite close to what the interior of peasant huts was like in the old days, which, apparently, was far from being as miserable as people usually think, forming an idea of ​​​​the current huts of the now poorer central provinces.

The Russian hut symbolizes Russia in a small way. Its architecture represents the persistence of traditions that have come down to us thanks to the loyalty of the peasants to the precepts of the past. For several centuries, the style, layout and decor of the Russian hut have been developed. The interior of all houses is practically the same, it contains several elements: several living rooms, a vestibule, a closet and a room, as well as a terrace.

Hut in Russia: history

The hut is a wooden structure, which, up to a third of its part, goes underground, resembling a semi-dugout. Those houses where there was no chimney were called chicken houses. The smoke from the furnace went outside through the front doors, so during the furnace it hung above the ceiling. To prevent soot from falling on people, special shelves were built along the entire perimeter of the walls. A little later, they began to make holes in the wall, and then in the ceiling, which was closed with a bolt. D Russian hut decor kurnoy was unremarkable. There were no floors as such, they were earthen, the house also had no windows, there were only small windows for lighting. At night, they used a torch to illuminate the room. A few centuries later, white huts began to appear, in which there were stoves with pipes. It is this house that is considered a classic Russian hut. It was divided into several zones: the stove corner, separated from the others by a curtain, on the right at the entrance there was a female corner, and near the hearth - a male corner. On the eastern side of the horizon in the house was the so-called red corner, where an iconostasis was placed in a certain order on a special shelf under embroidered towels.

Interior decoration

The ceiling in the house was made of poles, which were previously split in half. Bars were laid out on a powerful beam, the cracks were covered with clay. Earth was poured on top of the ceiling. A cradle was hung from a beam on a special ring. Such inside assumed the lining of the inner walls with linden boards. Near the walls were placed benches where they slept, and chests where things were stored. Shelves were nailed to the walls. There was no special luxury inside the hut. Every thing that could be seen there was needed in the household, there was nothing superfluous. Items needed for cooking were placed in the women's corner, there was also a spinning wheel.

Decor elements of a Russian hut

Everything in the huts was sparkling clean. Embroidered towels hung on the walls. Furniture was scarce; beds and wardrobes only appeared in the nineteenth century. The main element was dinner table, which was located in the red corner. Each family member always sat in his place, the owner sat under the icons. The table was not covered with a tablecloth, no decorations were hung on the walls. On holidays, the hut was transformed, the table was moved to the middle of the room, covered with a tablecloth, festive dishes were put on the shelves. Another element of decor was a large chest, which was in every hut. It contained clothes. It was made of wood, upholstered with strips of iron and had a large lock. Also, the decor of the Russian hut suggested the presence of shops where they slept, and for infants, which was passed down from generation to generation.

Threshold and canopy

The first thing they encountered when they entered the hut was the entrance hall, which was a room between the street and the heated room. They were very cold and were used for economic purposes. Here hung a yoke and other necessary items. Stored in this place and food. A high threshold was built in front of the entrance to the warm room, where the guest had to bow to the owners of the house. Over time, the bow was supplemented by the sign of the cross in front of the icons.

Russian oven

When they got into the main room, the first thing they paid attention to was the stove. So, it assumes the presence of such a main element as a Russian stove, without which the room was considered non-residential. Food was also cooked on it, garbage was burned in it. It was massive and kept warm for a long time, it had several smoke dampers. There were many shelves and niches for storing dishes and other household items. For cooking, cast-iron pots were used, which were placed in the oven with the help of horns, as well as frying pans, clay pots and jugs. Here was a samovar. Since the stove was in the center of the room, it heated the house evenly. On it was placed a couch, which could accommodate up to six people. Sometimes the building was of such a size that they could wash in it.

red corner

An integral part of the interior decor of the hut was considered to be located in the eastern part of the house. It was considered a sacred place; embroidered towels, icons, sacred books, candles, holy water, an Easter egg, and so on were placed here. Under the icons there was a table where they ate, there was always bread on it. The icons symbolized the altar of an Orthodox church, and the table symbolized the church altar. The most honored guests were received here. Of the icons in each hut, the faces of the Virgin, the Savior and St. Nicholas the Pleasant were obligatory. The headboards of the beds were turned towards the red corner. In this place, many rituals were performed that are associated with birth, wedding or funeral.

Benches and chests

The chest was also an important decorative element. It was inherited from mother to daughter and was placed near the stove. All the decoration of the house was very harmonious. There were several types of shops here: long, short, kutnye, court and the so-called beggars. They were placed on various items for household purposes, and an uninvited guest or a beggar who entered the house without an invitation could sit on a "beggar" bench. The benches symbolized the road in many old rituals.

Thus, before us is a cozy Russian hut, unity of design and decor which is a beautiful creation created by a peasant. There was nothing superfluous in the house, all interior items were used in the daily life of the owners. On holidays, the hut was transformed, it was decorated with handmade items: embroidered towels, woven tablecloths and many others. This must be remembered if you need to bring a drawing on this topic to school. In the 5th grade at the fine arts, "decor of a Russian hut" is one of the tasks provided for by the program.

People equipped their huts, comparing them with the world order. Here, every corner and detail is filled with a special meaning, they show the relationship of a person with the outside world.