Peasant family

The spirit of mutual assistance reigned in the peasant family, duties were strictly distributed, traditions, labor skills, and moral principles were passed down from generation to generation.

"In the family and the porridge is thicker"

The authority of the family among the people was unusually high. A man who did not want to start a family in adulthood aroused suspicion among his neighbors. Only two reasons were considered valid - illness or a desire to enter a monastery. Russian proverbs and sayings assessed the meaning of the family in the following way: “Not married is not a person”, “In the family and porridge is thicker”, “A family in a heap is not afraid of a cloud”.

In the distant Middle Ages, peasants lived large patriarchal families out of 15-20 people: elderly parents, married sons with children and grandchildren - three to four generations of relatives. It was crowded for such a family in a small peasant house. Maybe then the saying "In cramped conditions but not offended" was born?

In the 17th century families of no more than 10 people prevailed, consisting, as a rule, of representatives of two generations - parents and children. The head of the family was the eldest man in the house. He was respectfully called "big". Even adult married sons who had their own children reckoned with him. Bolshak disposed of the property of the family and the fate of its members, supervised field work, distributed labor obligations. During dinner, the bolshak sat in a place of honor in the red corner of the hut under icons.

At the heart of the peasant matrimonial union lay primarily economic interest. Such a sacred feeling for many people as love was rarely taken into account. The landowner married the serfs at his own discretion. Yes and folk tradition did not provide for the mutual consent of a young man and a girl to marriage - everything was decided for them by their parents.

They tried to choose a bride not so much beautiful as healthy, skillful, hardworking. After all, after marriage, she had to take over the entire household, raise children, take care of cattle, work in the garden, field. The "unspun" and "netkahi" were much less likely to get married than the skilled needlewoman. Such a seemingly utilitarian approach to creating a family did not mean at all that the union of two people was fragile. The spouses were united by a common concern: about the household, about the children, about the house. Well, as for love - "be patient, fall in love", - they thought in the old days.

In the old days, people got married very early. The Pilot's Book is a set of church rules compiled in the 13th century. and regulating, among other things, family relationships, - set the age of marriage for girls - 13, for boys - 15 years. There were also cases of earlier marriages. Fighting them, "Stoglav" in the middle of the XVI century. obligated priests to marry girls no younger than 12, and boys - 15 years old. There were other restrictions on marriage. It was forbidden, for example, to marry relatives up to the sixth generation, that is, second cousins ​​​​brother and sister. The church refused to marry the bride and groom, who were in nepotism, matchmaking or godfatherhood. It was forbidden for the Orthodox to marry a person of a different faith or not baptized at all.

Church rules allowed marriage no more than three times. Even a second marriage was considered sinful, and the church imposed a punishment on those entering into it - penance, which forbade communion for two years. Moreover, the second marriage was performed without a wedding, as well as the third, accompanied by a five-year penance. How unacceptable subsequent marriages were for the church, Stoglav reflected in the dictum of Gregory the Theologian: "The first marriage is the law, the second is forgiveness, the third is transgression, the fourth is wickedness, because there is life like a swine."

The birth of a new family was necessarily accompanied by a cheerful wedding. Russian wedding is one of the most amazing phenomena of folk culture. Its traditions were followed simple peasants and autocratic kings. The Russian wedding historically combines two ancient rites - the folk one, called "fun", and the Christian one - the wedding. And for a long time, until the 16th century, marriage without a wedding was common among the people.

Autumn and winter were considered the best wedding times in the village, when all agricultural work was completed. The peasants had free time, which required a lot to prepare the wedding celebration.

"Don't choose the bride, check the matchmaker"

The wedding was necessarily preceded by matchmaking. The question of choosing a bride or groom in those days, as already mentioned, was solely decided by the parents. It was not customary to consult with the bride or groom. Theoretically, they could only meet for the first time under the crown. True, in a village where everyone is in sight of each other, this could hardly have happened.

The main role in the matchmaking was played by the matchmaker. "Don't choose the bride, choose the matchmaker," she taught folk wisdom. Most often, this duty was performed by an elderly, experienced woman, a relative or acquaintance of the groom's family. The matchmaker was required to have a special ability to speak beautifully and convincingly, because often she had to praise not very popular "goods". It was not in vain that the people said: "On svashechka's speeches, as on a sleigh - at least sit down and roll."

Usually the matchmaker came to the bride's house and from afar, with allegories and allusions, started a conversation. Her dialogue with the bride's parents could look something like this. Matchmaker: "You have a product, we have a merchant." If the parents wanted to refuse, they answered: "Our product is not for sale", if they wanted to continue the conversation, then they invited the matchmaker to the table, "for bread and salt."

The matchmaker or matchmaker did not always conscientiously fulfill their duties. A funny incident from the history of a city wedding of the 17th century is known. A certain matchmaker agreed with the father of the crooked bride to deceive the groom, of course, not disinterestedly. The matchmaker told the groom that he might see the bride sitting at the open window of her house at such and such an hour. The girl really was sitting by the window, but in such a way that the crooked eye was not visible from the street. The groom, who did not suspect a dirty trick, liked the bride, and he agreed to marry.

In order to avoid such misunderstandings, after successful negotiations, the matchmaker with the bride's parents arranged a bride-to-be. The bridegroom's mother or her confidant, the caretaker, came to the bride's house. She talked to the girl and watched her carefully, wanting to make sure how smart and good-looking she was.

After the show there was a "conspiracy". At this point, the groom himself came to visit the bride's parents with his father or older brother. They were met at the gates of the house as guests of honor, escorted to the hut and seated on a bench in a red corner. Only men participated in the conspiracy. The bride herself did not show herself to the groom: she hid behind the stove or hid on the floor. Both parties agreed on wedding expenses, terms, dowry sizes, gifts from the groom to the bride. Then, as a sign of consent, they "hit hands." From that moment on, the issue of the wedding was considered resolved, and its preparation began.

In peasant families, almost from the day their daughter was born, parents began to collect her dowry in a separate chest: pieces of linen, clothes, shoes, jewelry, bed sheets and much more. Having learned needlework, the girl replenished the chest with her own products - embroidered, knitted, woven.

In the evening, on the eve of the wedding, a bachelorette party was held in the bride's house. Girlfriends helped to pack the dowry, and the bride, saying goodbye to them, sang sad songs:

It has long been customary that the groom, even if he was from the serfs, on the wedding day was called "prince", and the bride - "princess". Before the celebration, according to ancient tradition, they were assigned wedding ranks from relatives and friends: "thousands", "friends", "boyars", "posters", "trainers", etc. Tysyatsky was the main steward at the wedding. He accompanied the groom everywhere and everywhere. Friends called guests, made speeches, sent gifts on behalf of the young. The trainmen accompanied the wedding train. Boyars were a team of honored guests.

"To marry is not to drink water"

On the morning of the wedding day, all participants in the celebration gathered in the homes of the bride and groom. The bed was transported from the bride's house. She was accompanied by a whole horse-drawn train. The bride's friend rode ahead on horseback, followed by a sleigh with a bed in which the bedkeeper sat. Behind, on the second sleigh, rode the bride of the matchmaker. In the groom's house, the bed was placed in a pre-prepared room - a sennik, where the young people were to spend their wedding night. Usually it was a separate "cold" building. Only one condition was necessarily observed: there should not have been earth in the attic, so that, according to superstitious ideas, the sennik would not resemble a grave in any way.

The hour of the wedding was approaching. The bride was dressed in Wedding Dress. In ancient times in Russia, it was sewn from red fabric. In the Russian song "Do not sew me, mother, a red sundress" it is just about a wedding dress. Dressing was accompanied by the cry of the bride, symbolizing farewell to youth and freedom.

Of particular importance in dressing the bride, and indeed in the entire wedding ceremony, was the rite of "scratching the head." By tradition, an unmarried woman in Russia wore one braid - a symbol of girlhood - and a crown. Preparing the bride for the wedding, the matchmaker untwisted her braid and combed her hair with a comb dipped in a weak honey solution. A ribbon woven into a braid was given to one of her close friends. The bride at this time sang with weeping:

After the wedding, the crown was removed from the bride, and her hair was braided into two braids and cleaned under a kiku - a headdress married woman. From now on, her hair was not to be seen by any outsider.
The wedding train accompanied the bride and groom to the church: all the wedding ranks, relatives, friends. The train also carried wedding candles bride and groom, each of which could weigh more than a pound. After the wedding, when leaving the temple, the matchmaker showered the newlyweds with hops, which were considered a symbol of fertility. Now the wedding train was heading for the groom's house. His parents met the newlyweds on the threshold with images and bread and salt and blessed them. Per wedding table while the guests ate, drank and had fun from the heart, the young were supposed to sit decorously and not touch the food. The wedding feast was accompanied by songs, the main ones among which were majestic in honor of the groom and especially lyrical in honor of the bride:

At the height of the wedding feast, the tysyatsky led the newlyweds into the sennik. There they were fed and left alone. In the bedchamber between the young committed ancient rite shoeing. The wife, as a sign of obedience to her husband, had to remove his boots from his feet. In one of them there was a coin: if the young woman took off this particular boot first, then, according to a sign, happiness in family life awaited her. Otherwise, it was believed that she would have to slavishly please her husband all her life. When taking off shoes, the husband, as a sign of his power, lightly hit his wife with a whip received as a gift from his father-in-law.

"Whom I love, I beat"

The rite of undressing clearly demonstrated the nature of the future relationship between the spouses. The medieval woman was completely dependent on her husband. His power over his wife was established not only by the power of authority, but often by direct violence. Beating a wife was considered in the order of things not only among the peasants, but also among the boyars. Domostroy spoke positively about this. In the popular environment, there was a strong idea: if a husband does not beat his wife, then he does not love her. Indicative is a comic, from our point of view, episode from Russian history of the 16th century. A certain German who lived in Moscow married a Russian. Some time later, his wife reproached him for not loving her. The German, tenderly treating his wife, was surprised: what is his fault? "You never hit me," he heard back. Then the husband began to beat his wife, and she stopped complaining.

And yet the position of a woman from the common people was much freer than in the boyar or merchant environment. A peasant woman, doing housework, could freely leave the house for water to a well or river, go to the forest for mushrooms and berries, and harvest in the field. The boyars and merchants led a reclusive lifestyle.

The woman who pulled a significant part of the cart of peasant worries enjoyed considerable respect in the family. Her role especially increased after the death of her husband. Often the widow became the head of the house and acquired additional weight not only in the family, but also in the peasant community.

The birth of children in a family is always a joy. However, the peasants were especially pleased with the birth of a boy. This was explained simply: the community allocated to the family a plot of arable land - the main peasant wealth - for each male child born. The earth did not rely on girls. In addition, having married, the son brought another worker into the house, and the daughter, having married, on the contrary, left, and even took away part of the family's wealth in the form of a dowry. They gave birth to as many children as God would send. Artificial termination of pregnancy was considered a great sin. Only one factor regulated the number peasant family- high mortality: both children and adults. They usually gave birth to children in a bathhouse, which in the old days replaced a hospital. However, working until the last day, a pregnant peasant woman could give birth anywhere - in a field, in a barn, in a hut.

The physical birth of a person was not given much importance. Another thing is the spiritual birth - christening. Usually the baby was baptized on the fortieth day and named after the saint whose memory was celebrated on the day of christening. The baptized person acquired spiritual parents on this day - godfather and mother. They were chosen, as a rule, from relatives. Baptism, like a wedding, was considered a big event. On the day of christening, parents arranged a table for relatives and friends and annually celebrated the day of the angel, or name day, replacing the celebration of the birthday.

Parents were the undisputed authority for their children. Even an adult son unquestioningly obeyed his father. The authority of the parents was supported by both the state and the church. "Domostroy" taught: "Children ... love your father and your mother, and listen to them, and obey them according to God in everything, and honor their old age, and their weakness ...". parental curse, from the point of view of faith and popular ideas about morality, was considered the most terrible thing that could be. At the same time, "Domostroy" demanded that parents take care of their children, ordered them to teach them "the fear of God and courtesy and all manners and, in time ... to teach mother-daughter needlework, and father-son."

The family relations of the peasants were illuminated by centuries-old traditions. Many of them have irrevocably gone into the past, some continue to live, being part of our existence or, as they say today, part of the Russian national mentality.

Tendency to fragmentation of large families.- The internal structure of the family in the second half of the XIX century.- The role of the head of the family.- Organization of economic life, division of labor between men and women.- Daily routine in the family.

Understanding the processes and fundamental shifts that took place during the years of Soviet power in the peasant family, in its internal structure and way of life, is impossible without a detailed acquaintance with the family structure of the Russian peasantry in the past. The village of Viryatino represents in this respect big interest, since the traditions of the family-patriarchal way of life were kept in it until the Great October Socialist Revolution and for a long time made themselves felt under Soviet rule. Particularly in the village long time large patriarchal families were preserved.

The reasons for such a long existence of an undivided family in Viryatina were rooted in the peculiarities of the economy of the village, located in the region of the middle black earth zone, where capitalism developed more slowly than, say, in the steppe provinces of southern Russia, and where the inhibitory influence of the remnants of serfdom affected all areas of life. The striped stripes forced the Viryatinsky peasants to keep - even in the period greatest development seasonal crafts - routine forms of agriculture that required a large number of workers; therefore, the peasants saw in an undivided family the best way to keep all cash on the farm labor force.

Undoubtedly, the need to combine agriculture, which was the basis of the economy of the peasant family in Viryatin, had an undoubted impact, with side earnings on the side. Families, large in composition, with a surplus male labor force (surplus - in relation to the available land plot), could use large scale seasonal industries in the interests of strengthening their economy. At the same time, as an ethnographic survey showed, large undivided families remained mainly among the prosperous part of the peasantry. There were hardly any economic grounds for the existence of a large undivided family among those 28 horseless peasants who in the 80s lived in tiny huts with an area of ​​​​12-17 m 2 and most of their allotment land, due to the lack of tax, rented processing or rent. These families also participated in the withdrawal to the mines, but for them it was, perhaps, the only way of existence in those conditions. And they gave the mines not the surplus, but the main labor force. Such families never reached large sizes.

At the same time, the development of seasonal crafts, which contributed to the involvement of the Viryatinsky peasants in the intensive process of commodity-money relations, had a great influence on the internal structure of the family, on the entire family structure. This explains the significant shifts in family life that occurred in the second half of the 19th century. especially since the late 1980s. They can be clearly traced when compared with the family structure of the peasantry in the previous period (60-70s), when many features of the pre-reform, i.e., serf life, were still preserved.

Our information about the peasant family on the eve of the abolition of serfdom is extremely scarce and does not give any clear idea of ​​its composition and size. Based on family traditions, local old-timers testify that families at that time were mostly large - about 25-30 people 1 . Often there were families in which four or five married brothers lived together. However, as far as one can judge from the surviving memories, even then there was a tendency to single out one or two older brothers 2 .

Some light on the size of a peasant family in the pre-reform period is shed by materials relating to the sale of peasant families by the first Viryatinsky landowner F. A. Davydov 3 . Most of the families sold by him consisted of 12-15 people (in 1808-1831). Since the run-down peasant families were usually sold, it can be assumed that the numerical composition of more prosperous families at that time was higher.

The large number of some families is evidenced by the memories of the presence in many yards of summer cold cages for couples (“shacks” under the branches) or, which was typical for wealthy families, about the construction of two on the estate; even three houses while maintaining a common economy. Noteworthy is the extremely slow up to the last quarter of the 19th century. village growth. The population was concentrated in Oreshnik, in the so-called Polyana (village center) and in the Upper Lane. Only since the 80s the village began to grow intensively in all directions.

In the first two decades after the peasant reform, apparently, there were no noticeable changes in the internal structure of the peasant family, despite the emerging changes in the economy of the peasantry.

Great changes in all areas of life and, in particular, in family relations, took place in Viryatin in 1880-1890, with the further development of capitalist relations. Partitions of families became more frequent. Partial allocation, and in some cases full family sections occurred at ever shorter time intervals. Families were significantly reduced: according to the 1881 census, there were an average of 7 people per hut. This does not mean, of course, that large families disappeared, but, obviously, along with undivided families, a large number of small families existed at that time.

As Viryatinsky old people point out, middle-peasant households were still run by two or three married brothers living together.

In the 900s, in connection with the formation of a cadre proletariat in the mining industry and the growth of the labor movement in Russia, the spiritual image of the otkhodnik peasant changed. Communication between otkhodniks and regular workers affected their general cultural level. New needs appeared - to dress like a city, to arrange your life in production more cultured, which, unlike in previous years, required large expenses for yourself. The growth of needs undoubtedly expressed a certain increase in the consciousness of the individual, which manifested itself most clearly among representatives of the younger generation. And this could not but affect the weakening of the patriarchal foundations. In the 900s, internal relations in undivided families became aggravated, and a tendency towards the isolation of young married couples manifested itself with greater force. Hence, the otkhodnik concealed part of his earnings for his personal needs and for the needs of his family, which, according to the testimony of old-timers, was one of the main reasons family conflicts and sections. But in general, family life changed slowly and retained traditional patriarchal forms. This manifested the inertia and limited outlook of the communal peasant, which forced otkhodniks, some of whom had the opportunity to fully provide for their families with mining earnings, still hold on to a piece of land and invest in agriculture the funds obtained by working in the mines. Characteristic is the sharply negative attitude of the middle peasants towards those otkhodniks who broke away from the countryside and moved to workers' settlements. The desire to maintain a connection with the land was partly due to the lack of earnings on the side.

Straining all his strength to support and save his farm from ruin, the peasant clung to the old family foundations. Internal relationships, rights and obligations of family members were strictly regulated. The head of the family was considered a representative of the older generation in the family - a grandfather or, after his death, a grandmother; in the latter case, direct management of the household passed to the eldest son. In the event of the death or old age of both old men, the eldest of the sons became the head of the family. The head of the family was the guardian of all household family life. The functions of the head of the family included the management of field work and the distribution of responsibilities among family members, mainly male members. In particular, he established the order between the sons (and grandsons) of going to the mines. He was in charge of all the property and money of the family. All earnings of family members from waste and various crafts went to the general cash desk of the family and were spent on the needs of the common economy. Only incomes from “women’s” earnings received from the sale of moss, berries, mushrooms collected by women, for whitening canvases, as well as money from the sale of eggs, etc., as well as money from the sale of eggs, etc., did not go to the family’s cash desk. they won’t buy kerosene and won’t give them away for boots” 4 .

Characteristic of the past was a stable gender and age division of labor in the family, undoubtedly associated with the patriarchal way of life.

Household affairs were managed by the mistress, usually the wife of the head of the family or, in the event of her death, the eldest of the daughters-in-law. Women were responsible for all the housework: cooking, cleaning, washing, caring for children, caring for livestock, fetching water 5 . Men also took part in caring for livestock: they cleaned the stables (dung removal, bedding), looked after the horses; women took care of “hut” cattle (for which food came from the hut): cows, calves, pigs, sheep and poultry. It is no coincidence that the sale chicken eggs was one of the sources of women's income.

In the autumn-winter period, women spent all their free time from household chores spinning and weaving for the needs of the family. This work was preceded by hard work in the processing of hemp. Girls were also involved in spinning and weaving; they taught to spin from the age of nine or ten, to weave - from fifteen, sixteen. Women over 40 years old almost stopped weaving, since this work in large numbers was considered beyond their strength.

Women sewed clothes (with the exception of winter outerwear, which they gave to tailors) and knitted stockings, scarves, and mittens from wool. Bast weaving was men's business, they were engaged with early years and boys.

Field work was clearly distinguished between men and women: as noted above, the duties of men included plowing, sowing, mowing, stacking, stacking, transportation; women in the hayfield ted and raked the hay, weeded the crops, then, when harvesting, they knitted sheaves and laid them in sacrums and shocks, and helped to thresh with flails. In the gardens, all the work, except for plowing, was done by women and partly by children. Especially men's work was the transportation of fuel and hay for cattle (hay was kept in stacks in the meadow).

When distributing responsibilities between married women in an undivided family, the need to combine household work as a whole with meeting the needs of personal families(children, husband).

A strict order was established between daughters-in-law and mother-in-law in the performance of basic household chores. Each of the women had her own day, in which she, as a cook, did all the housework. Teenage girls and girls were involved in helping, and, due to the somewhat isolated position of the daughter-in-law (daughter-in-law) in the family, only her own children helped her on the next day. In the same way, the mother-in-law, in all work, both at home and outside, always united with her daughters.

The main household chores fell on married women, but girls also had to work hard, especially spinning. They were not allowed only to the stove, as a result of which they did not acquire skills in cooking. Therefore, the young daughter-in-law in the first year of her marriage only helped her mother-in-law at the stove, and only in the second year she was given, along with other daughters-in-law, another day when she cooked food for the whole family on her own. Separately, the order (once a week) of baking, bread, the so-called "pokhlebno" was established, and in the furnace of the bath, if there was one, the so-called "pobanno". On days free from family affairs, they spun, weaved, sewed, mended, knitted, etc.

Some work was carried out collectively, for example, washing floors, washing clothes. The linen was rough, “own” (from homespun), it was not washed with soap, but “whipped” (just as canvases were whacked during bleaching), which required a significant expenditure of effort; so the women in the family usually did it together. In the event that the daughters-in-law each washed for their own family, the one who had fewer children, erased and on the elderly parents.

In the hut, everyone had their usual place to work. Girls and women spun, sitting on benches near the windows, and when it got dark, they sat in a circle near the fire. In the hut, the old women used to recall, during the processing of hemp, the dust stood in a column 6 . During Lent, when women started to weave, one was installed in the hut, and if the family was large, three or four weaving mills.

The family adhered to a certain daily routine. Get up early, go to bed late. In families where they were engaged in carting, they got up at 2-3 in the morning. Everyone got up at the same time, and it could not have been otherwise given the tightness and crowding in the hut.

While the cook was lighting the stove, the rest of the women were unpacking the beds, taking the benches into the vestibule and laying bedding on them, sweeping the hut, and washing the table. The Viryatians ate three times a day. We all had breakfast together, and then everyone set to work (if they had to leave early, they took food with them). They dined at 12 o'clock, dined already by the fire, usually with what was left of dinner. Food specially for dinner was cooked very rarely. They sat at the table in a certain order: in the front corner - the head of the family, next to him was the eldest of the sons; the men sat on one side of the table, on the benches, the women on the other, on the side benches. In the last quarter of the XIX century. this tradition was broken - mostly married couples began to sit down. A cook sat down on the edge of the table and served. Children, if there were many, were fed separately. They all ate from a common bowl. At the table, order and decorum were observed, but, apparently, already without the strictness and tension that reigned at the common meal of the family during serfdom 7.

The largest place in the nutrition of the peasant family was occupied by Rye bread eight . They baked it for the most part once a week in a Russian hearth oven. Sometimes bread was baked on cabbage leaves. Pancakes and pancakes were made from rye and buckwheat flour. Kvass was made from rye malt.

Until the 1980s, wheat flour was a rarity in Viryatinsky families, since it had to be bought on the market. Later, it became a common product in wealthy families, but the poor still appeared only on major holidays.

The main and almost daily hot dish in all families was cabbage soup. Depending on the wealth of the family, cabbage soup was made meat or “empty” (without meat) and “painted over” with milk, sour cream, flavored with bacon.

In the 900s, probably under the influence of otkhodnik miners, cabbage soup began to be called "borscht", although the composition of this dish did not change and it was still cooked without beets. Soups made from millet were very common: “slivukha” and, later, kulesh. Slivukha was cooked from millet with potatoes, kulesh - from millet with lard. Slivukha was first boiled a little, then the liquid was drained, which was eaten like soup, seasoned with something (butter, lard, etc.); boiled millet with potatoes, when the porridge thickened, was eaten with milk or hemp oil. Millet porridge in the form of slivukha, kulesh or milk porridge has been used since the 80-90s of the 19th century. as often as cabbage soup, that is, almost daily. Buckwheat was cooked from other cereals, but much less frequently, since buckwheat was more expensive and was not grown by everyone.

Kvass played a big role in nutrition, and not only as a drink. In winter, kvass with sauerkraut and horseradish was prepared as the first dish, and it was eaten with boiled peas, especially during fasting. In the summer, tyuryu was made from bread crumbled into kvass and chopped green onions. It was the food of the poor. Richer people cooked okroshka, adding cucumbers, onions and eggs to kvass. AT holidays and at weddings, kvass was served with jelly or with meat and horseradish.

By the end of the 80s, potatoes began to gradually replace porridge. It was more cooked "in uniform" (i.e., unpeeled) and served with pickles or sauerkraut; sometimes eaten crushed. “The potatoes are mashed and oil (hemp) is poured over. They didn't understand frying. A family of 10-15 people - you won’t get hot, ”the old-timers say.

Salamata and viburnum were common dishes. Having made the dough from rye flour and ground it in a liquid millet kulesh, the salamata was "malted" in the oven. This dish made it possible to save bread; it was eaten with and without milk. The inhabitants of the village, said 88-year-old E. S. Fomina, were called “Viryatinsky Salamats”. However, the prosperous Viryati people ate salamata very rarely: “They ate salamata,” says M.I. Zhdanova, “when the porridge got bored. Fasting will get so tired of everything that they even reached the viburnum. Kalina differed from salamata in that viburnum berries were added to the dough, harvested after frost, when it loses its bitter taste. Kalina was the food of the poorest part of the peasantry. In the families of wealthy peasants, eating it was considered shameful. “It was dishonorable to eat Kalina because we climb into the rich, but the horns are not allowed” 9 .

Being almost identical in the method of preparation, the food of different social strata of the peasantry was different in nutritional value and the variety of products included in it. In a strong, prosperous family, for example, consisting of 25 people and having several horses, cows, pigs, more than two dozen sheep, etc., they consumed a lot of milk, ate meat twice a day (with the exception of fasting) . In the families of the poor, “they ate more unpeeled potatoes, kvass, slivukha, steamed viburnum, cooked porridge on a stump (on a hearth) for dinner,” says one of the old-timers. “Not everyone had enough bread, they didn’t always eat porridge,” adds another.

Ordinary dishes were not particularly difficult to prepare, and therefore the preliminary trial that the daughter-in-law underwent before taking a place at the stove was probably explained not so much by the fear that she would not be able to cook food, but by the desire of the mother-in-law to keep the management of the family's food in her hands. In order to attach a higher importance to this duty, the old women extremely meticulously checked the compliance of the daughters-in-law with all the traditional methods of baking and cooking. Any innovation was met with hostility and rejected. Viryatinsky cooking, despite the fact that, starting from the 900s, many purchased food products appeared in the village, with the help of which it was possible to improve everyday nutrition, remained unchanged and primitive. This is how she survived until the socialist revolution.

2. Domestic relationships in the family

The meaning of the head of the family. - The position of daughters-in-law in an undivided family. - The order of family divisions. - Family ties and mutual assistance in the village

The family-patriarchal structure determined the nature of everyday relationships in the family, created its general moral atmosphere. The order developed over the centuries was based on the unconditional authority of the elder in the family.

Any manifestation of one's own will, which went against the usual traditions, was immediately suppressed. “At home they were afraid of the old people, therefore they did not introduce innovations, they were also afraid of condemning their neighbors,” said I. M. Starodubovo. “In the mines,” he said further, “they ate better than at home, in the family. Here (in the village) they ate potatoes in their uniforms, although there was fat, but they did not fry on it. "New manners" (i.e., habits learned in the mines) were not introduced. For “rude manners” (i.e., for disrespect for elders) they were reproached by the old people: “So you came there and start your own rules” 10 .

Household relationships in families largely depended on the everyday tact of the head of the family, on the nature of the daughters-in-law, on the relationship of young spouses with each other, etc. They lived relatively amicably if the head of the family treated the daughters-in-law equally; but as soon as he singled out one of them, enmity immediately began between them. Quite often, spouses also lived in disagreement, since marriages were most often concluded at the insistence of parents, who had little regard for the desires of young people. It happened that the husband severely beat his wife.

The main source of misunderstandings and quarrels was the earnings of men on the side: family members who went to work in the mines got the opportunity to contribute something to their family, while those who remained at home could not do this. This constantly caused discontent of the old parents and led to misunderstandings between the daughters-in-law. It should be noted, however, that the quarrels of the young were carefully hidden from the old. “We, the daughters-in-law, are silent in front of the old people, but there were quarrels among ourselves,” S. N. Nevorov recalls his life in an undivided, large family of S. N. Nevorov 11 . The old men were not so much respected as feared, since in the event of a separation, they could not give anything. But the nature of family relationships still changed; in the 900s, it became much simpler, freer, without those manifestations of downtroddenness and timidity of the younger generation, which were so characteristic of a peasant family in serf times.

To characterize intra-family relationships, family sections are of great interest, when the traditions of customary law were very strong. Decrees of 1906 and 1913. all cases on family divisions were transferred to the volost courts, which, however, according to the testimony of local old-timers, in contentious cases usually appealed to rural gatherings. In its resolutions, the village assembly proceeded from the reasons for the division and from the assessment of the property of those who were dividing. It should be noted that, despite the abolition in 1886 of the mandatory consent of the eldest family member to the division of property, rural gatherings, in the event of intra-family conflicts, first of all reckoned with the statements and claims of the eldest family member. There were also frequent direct cases of bribery of a part of the gathering 12 .

Preparation for the section was made well in advance. “They didn’t go out on a bare bump,” in the words of G.P. Dyakov. By the joint efforts of the family, new houses were built in advance, which were empty, as a rule, before the division. Usually the family divided when it already had sufficient resources (residential and outbuildings, livestock). During the division, all family property was evaluated and divided according to the number of families into equal shares. If the division took place between brothers after the death of their father, then the shares were usually distributed by lot, which were drawn from each family by children in the presence of "authorized" - one or two neighbors. If the division took place during the life of the father, then the old man himself distributed which of the sons got what and with whom he remained to live.

The situation in the family of daughters-in-law deserves special attention. Their dependence and irresponsibility in the family are aptly characterized by the proverb that used to exist in Viryatyn: "Work - what they will force, eat - what they will put." This situation was aggravated by dependence in the family of married men.

AT property relations the daughter-in-law's position in the family was somewhat isolated. As elsewhere in Russia, there was a separate women's property in Viryatina. First of all, it was the dowry of the bride, which not only provided her with the necessary clothes, but also constituted one of the sources of her income (income from the sale of wool from the sheep given as dowry, from the sale of the offspring went to her personal needs). The daughter-in-law's personal property also included the property and funds she inherited 13 . At her own expense, the daughter-in-law had to satisfy all her needs and the needs of her children, since, according to the existing tradition, from the general family funds administered by the head of the family, for the daughter-in-law, in addition to feeding and supplying her outerwear and shoes, not a penny was spent 14 . She was allocated only a share from the total family stock of wool and hemp. Everything else: wearable clothes, and not only her, but also children, bedding and even such a trifle as soap, she had to purchase herself. In most families, the daughter's dowry, for the most part, was also made for "women's earnings." Of the family funds, only the wedding itself managed. Such an order was natural as long as the peasant economy retained its natural character. With the development of commodity-money relations and with the emergence of new needs, this tradition placed a heavy burden on the shoulders of women, forcing her to seek various third-party earnings. Viryatinsky women could no longer be satisfied with earnings from such small and, apparently, traditional crafts for the village, such as collecting moss in the swamp and selling it to the surrounding villages for caulking log cabins, picking and selling berries, etc. : some families kept it in very wide sizes. This trade was extremely difficult and harmful, among Viryatinsky women there were many patients with rheumatism and tuberculosis.

Noteworthy is the right of inheritance of the widowed daughter-in-law and her position in the family after the death of her husband. In those cases when the widow stayed with the children, the share of the deceased husband passed to his family and the widow continued to usually live in her husband's family. With a general family division, she was singled out on an equal footing with the brothers of her late husband. If the widow had no children by the time of the partition, then her position in the family became extremely difficult. She had to either remarry or return to parental home. When leaving, she could take her personal belongings and the clothes of her late husband. AT best case If her father-in-law treated her well, then at her second marriage he gave her a sheep as a dowry.

Appeals of women in the event of conflicts to the zemstvo chief almost always ended in failure; as a rule, such cases were referred to the village assembly, which invariably decided them in favor of the father-in-law. A typical case is told by E. A. Dyakov. His elder sister lived in her husband's house for twelve years; after the death of her husband, while the boy was alive, she continued to live in the family. When the boy died, her father-in-law kicked her out of the house. She turned to the headman, he said that she was not entitled to a share. I turned to the zemstvo chief, who referred the case to the society for consideration. At the gathering they told her: “Look for a groom for yourself, but you are not entitled to anything, you have no one” 15.

If a widow had no sons, but only unmarried daughters, she was entitled to a share; however, everything depended on the attitude of her father-in-law towards her, and cases of arbitrariness were very frequent 16 . N. D. Dyakova (75 years old) says that she stayed with the girl. Her father-in-law began to persecute her immediately upon receiving the news of the death of her son, who died in the Russo-Japanese War. She turned to the volost foreman, who advised her to leave for an apartment and sue her father-in-law. However, the volost court referred the case to the society for consideration, and that, as it used to be from time immemorial, refused. Only during the second hearing in the volost court was she given a piece of land for one soul, a horse and a sennitsa 17 .

The widows of the family, for the most part horseless and cowless, forced to work as laborers all their lives, were the poorest in the village.

All these features of the family system and patriarchal mores manifested themselves with the greatest force and were more preserved in families that were economically strong. In kulak families, where all life was subordinated to one goal - the increase in family wealth, family mores were sometimes extremely cruel. So, in the family of kulak Kabanov, women were forced to work even on holidays. “We are blind in spinning and weaving,” 18 says Kabanov's wife. In families that were economically weak and in constant need, the traditional order was weakened more quickly. In particular, women's life was less closed in these families; girls and young married women in the intervals between jobs on their farms were hired as day labor to local kulaks or to the landowner for weeding and other work. Women who worked for hire developed greater independence, which also affected their position in the family.

In the 900s, in many families, young married women enjoyed relative freedom. In the absence of their husbands, who lived in the mines in winter, they were not forbidden to go to the "street" (to folk festivals), to participate in festive celebrations. There is evidence that not only the mother-in-law, but also the daughters-in-law went to the bazaar for shopping during these years. Here, at the bazaar, they took orders for the bleaching of canvases, that is, they carried out, to some extent, independent economic operations.

Unfortunately, we do not have any clear information about the breadth of kinship, family ties in Viryatin and the nature of their manifestation. Local old-timers only claim that these ties used to be much wider and stronger. So, for example, even second cousins ​​were invited to the wedding. Much, however, depended on the number of relatives: the narrower their circle was, the stronger the family ties were. But reckoning with cousin kinship, as a rule, was mandatory.

Mutual assistance, mainly labor, was widely practiced among relatives, mainly close ones, especially in exceptional cases. So, after the fire, they helped rebuild the hut; cattle fell - they came to the rescue with their working cattle; there was not enough bread until the new harvest - they loaned bread, etc. However, in cases where long-term and systematic assistance was required, purely business transactions were concluded with a relative, as well as with an outsider.

AT labor assistance the nearest neighbors took part, but in general neighbor ties were weakly expressed in Viryatin; in particular, the neighbors did not take any part in family festivities. Even the funeral, as a rule, was attended only by relatives.

3. Family ritual

Marriage and wedding rituals. - The role of the folk calendar in family life. - Childbirth and maternity rites. - Baptisms. - Baby care.

Character marital relations to a large extent was due to the internal structure of the patriarchal peasant family.

Marriages, as usual in the Russian countryside, were concluded at the age of 17-18 for women and 18-19 for men. Marrying a girl to an older man was considered a disgrace. A large age difference was allowed only in the case of a second marriage of a widowed woman, who usually married a widower with children (“for children”, as they used to say). The bride was taken, as a rule, from her village or from the nearest district.

The current older generation, who married and got married in the 80-90s of the 19th century, claims that marriages were usually concluded at the choice of parents: then the feelings of young people were hardly considered. On this basis, many life tragedies played out. So, one of the elderly collective farmers says that she had a fiancé, whom she loved very much. She went with him to the “street”, and he “approached the porch” ( local custom caring for a girl). The young people agreed that as soon as he returned from the mine, he would send matchmakers for her. In his absence, however, another suitor wooed, who was very pleased with his father as a good worker, and the father decided to give his daughter for him. “I screamed, I didn’t want to get married. My fiancé sent me letters from the mine, but I was illiterate, I could not answer him. She cried for him - the river flowed, but still the father insisted on his 20. There are many similar examples, they are typical for that time. As the old people recall, there were also such cases when young people first got to know each other under the crown 21.

When concluding marriages, first of all, the state of the economy was taken into account, as well as the personal qualities of the bride and groom as workers. Often, the bride and groom were judged by their parents: "The apple does not fall far from the tree." In the 900s, marriages began to be more often concluded according to the mutual inclination of young people, and this, perhaps, was affected by a new appearance in the appearance of male youth, who managed to achieve some independence. Extremely characteristic in this respect is the testimony of G. II. Dyakova, a former seasonal miner: “I got married - I didn’t ask my father. He married himself (1908), came from the mines, said to his father: “Well, go, drink it as usual.” The father was delighted. Before that, a year ahead, my father wanted to marry me, but I set myself up on my own. Our brothers and sisters came together by their own accord, not under the yoke of their father.”22 The same is confirmed by the testimonies of other peasants.

It is characteristic that in those same years family morals were much stricter in the kulak milieu. Families lived more closed. Girls were reluctantly allowed on the “street” on holidays, as they were afraid of the emergence of unfavorable relations between young people for the family. Hence the characteristic phenomenon - the twinning of kulak families. Local kulaks - Kabanovs, Sleptsovs, Zhdanovs, Makarovs, Starodubovs - were in close family kinship, which undoubtedly strengthened the social and economic positions of the kulak elite of the village.

The wedding ceremony in Viryatin in the last quarter of the 19th century, as can be judged from the memoirs of the old people, still retained many of the characteristic features of the traditional South Great Russian ceremony, but had already changed and collapsed significantly; the meaning of individual moments was forgotten, many parts fell out.

Having thought of marrying their son and choosing a bride for him, the parents usually sent one of their closest relatives (most often the eldest son with his wife or a daughter with a son-in-law) to the bride's parents to find out if they agree to give their daughter. In case of consent, the bride’s parents said: “Let them come to woo, agree what the bride needs to buy for the settlement” (that is, when the bride is sitting during the wedding).

A few days later, the so-called "small binge" was arranged in the bride's house. The groom's parents came with one of their closest relatives, brought wine (vodka) and snacks. From the side of the bride, only her closest relatives were also present: the bride herself did not go out to the guests. They agreed on the amount of money that the groom gives (part of it was spent by the bride on clothes for the groom), and on the number of outfits he made for the bride: a sundress, a shirt, boots, a silk scarf “for the posad” and, as a rule, a fur coat were relied on.

It should be noted that the size of the dowry of the bride was not specifically stipulated, which was so typical, for example, for the Northern Great Russian wedding ceremony 23. They also agreed on the number of guests from both sides and on the day of the wedding itself. While drinking, they sang songs and danced. In the old days, as the old people say, the festivities sometimes lasted for several days.

The pre-wedding period was rarely long. Immediately after the “small binge”, the parents of the bride and groom went to the market in Sosnovka and there they jointly made the purchases necessary for the wedding (mainly material was bought for “planting” clothes). Then the groom's relatives treated the bride's relatives who took part in the purchases in the Sosnovka tavern.

In the house of the bride, then until the wedding, bridesmaids gathered almost daily, helping to prepare the dowry. Back in the 900s, the custom of the so-called “cutting” was kept in Viryatin, in which the groom treated the women who had gathered at the bride’s for cutting and sewing wedding dresses.

However, in these years, according to the apt expression of E. A. Dyakov, this custom was already “only glory” (that is, it was preserved as a relic), since the dowry was sewn not only by wealthy peasants, but even in ordinary middle peasant families by seamstresses.

After the wooing, the groom, as a rule, did not see the bride until the “big binge”. The "big binge" took place in the house a couple of weeks before the wedding. The relatives of the bride and groom were invited to it (if there were many relatives, they were limited to cousins). By this day, wine was bought in buckets, a plentiful treat was prepared, usually a table for three or four, depending on the number of guests, which was often ruinous for low-income families. The bride's parents, her godparents and older relatives were seated at the front table. The bride and groom were seated at the second table, the closest girlfriends and comrades immediately sat down. Other relatives and children were seated at the third and fourth tables.

"Dinner" began with a prayer "with the persuasion that everything would be fine and the young people would get along with each other." The groom's relatives treated the bride: the groom's father served vodka at the front table, the groom's mother served refreshments at the same table. Then the bride's relatives treated the groom. The party with singing and dancing continued throughout the day.

On the eve of the wedding, two or three closest girlfriends gathered in the bride's house and stayed overnight with her. They helped to pack the chest. On the same evening, the so-called “wonderful shirt” was usually sewn (small shirt, pants, belt and stockings, exactly reproducing men's clothes), which appeared during the sale of the bride’s “bed”. Then the broom was removed with paper ribbons. The meaning of this rite is now completely forgotten 24 . During the transportation of the bed, this broom, according to some old people, was attached to the horse's bow; according to the story of others, one of the groom’s relatives (“druzhko”), tied with a towel over his shoulder, sat down with a broom in his hands on the young chest and waved the broom all the way.

On the same evening, the bridesmaid braided the bride's braid, weaving a ribbon into it, which the bride gave to her closest friend on the wedding day. The current older generation does not remember that any reckoning was performed at the same time. Apparently, only faint traces remained of the bachelorette party in Viryatyn in the 80s and 90s. However, the very term "devishnik" is known to old people.

The groom also had a party that evening: young people came to him - relatives and bridesmaids. The bridegroom treated them; walked with an accordion, with songs and dances. Actually, the wedding lasted in Viryatin for at least three days, and in the old days, up to five or six days.

On the day of the wedding, early in the morning, the bride went with her friend to the bathhouse. If she was an orphan, then after the bath she went to the graveyard and there (according to the old women) she “shouted to her mother,” that is, she lamented at her mother’s grave.

Down the aisle, the bride cleaned herself, the bridesmaid only untwisted her braid, the bride gave her a ribbon, both burst into tears at the same time. According to the recollections of the old women and according to the legends that they heard from their grandmothers and thus related to approximately the 40-50s of the 19th century, the bride howled and lamented while unplaiting the braid, and sometimes specialists in accounts were also invited 25. After the bride was removed, the parents and godfathers with her mother, they blessed her with an icon and seated her at the table with her friend.

In the groom's house at that time, preparations were underway for his departure for the bride. The groom dressed himself. His father gave him a two-kopeck piece, and he “forgot it” (put it in his boot) for a living. Before leaving, the parents blessed the groom with the icon of the Savior. The groom left the house, accompanied by a boyfriend and a matchmaker, to whom she now passed the main role in the wedding ceremony and in the procession of trainees 26 . The first person they met was given two glasses of vodka.

Upon the groom's arrival at the bride's house, a scene (already understood as a joke) was played out of buying a place near the bride. Redeemed friend, sold the bride younger brother. Druzhko, with a whip in hand, stood at the table, poured wine into a glass and put in money (twenty kopecks). The boy, having bargained with a friend, drank wine, grabbed money and jumped out from behind the table, trying to hit him with his whip. After that, the groom took a place next to the bride. Before the wedding, the bride and groom were not supposed to eat. He took them out from the table to go to church, either - the priest, if he was invited to the house, or as a friend. The bride and groom had handkerchiefs tied on the middle fingers of their right hands; the priest, through the surplice, took up these handkerchiefs and led the bride and groom from the table. The same (if there was no priest) was done by friends.

They usually got married, as was customary from time immemorial, on St. Michael's Day (November 8 was patronal feast in Viryatin) and on the "Red Hill" (the first Sunday after Easter) 27 . These days, up to two or three dozen married couples were recruited in the church; crowned in the first place those who paid for the crowns; poor couples often sat in church waiting for their turn until late in the evening.

After the wedding, right there in the church, the matchmaker, on the one hand, and the girlfriend, on the other, braided the bride's hair in two braids and put on a kichka; there was a sign - if one braid turned out to be shorter than the other, then the young one would soon be widowed. Since the late 90s of the XIX century. hair began to be braided into a forelock and put on a silk cap with lace (skolka). When leaving the church, a scarf was pulled over the bride's head (that is, pulled low over her forehead).

The wedding train was heading to the bride's house, where the newlyweds were met at the gate by their parents with bread and salt. At the entrance to the hut, the young people were put at the front table and congratulated "on a legal marriage", and then they were seated at the second table "for a treat." Friends, the matchmaker and the groom's relatives sat down at the front table (the parents of the young man were not present). Treats were arranged on three or four tables; were served traditional for Viryatin festive dishes: cabbage soup, dry meat, fish, jelly, pancakes, pancakes, etc. and, of course, vodka. There was no special ceremonial food at the Viryatinsky wedding. Songs were sung at the table, drunken and dispersing guests started dancing.

When leaving for the house of the young bride, the side sold the bed to the boyfriend and the matchmaker, while the bridesmaids pulled out the “wonderful shirt”. For every inaccuracy in the manufacture of these things, the friend and the matchmaker reduced the price for the "bed". The money received from the "sale" of the bed, the girlfriends took for themselves, they usually then "gilded" the young. Druzhko and the matchmaker took away the young bed and took it to the young man's house. Behind them, the wedding train moved with songs and dances, in front of them, usually one of the groom's relatives carried a chicken. She was given to the bride as a dowry "for life."

Upon arrival at the young man's house, they were met at the gate by their parents with bread and salt. As in the bride's house, the newlyweds were placed at the front table and congratulated. Then he took the young people to the second table for the so-called "constant conversation". Until the mid-1980s, Viryatitsa held old custom taking the young away under the "torpishche" (a cavity made of scrap for filling grain when transported on a cart), that is, they were planted separately behind a curtain 28 . From here, by the end of the wedding feast, they were taken out for “gilding”. This custom was as follows. The old people from the first table moved to the table of the young, the young stood at the edge of the table. The groom's parents were the first to "gold"; the young one gave a glass of vodka to his father, the young one to his mother-in-law; they drank, and the young bowed their heads low before them; parents put money in a glass. Then the godfather and mother approached, followed by the young parents, her godparents, and so, couple after couple, all the guests approached. All this was accompanied by jokes: “Wine is not good”, “Bitter”, etc. The gilding lasted at least two hours. After gilding, they sat down for dinner, after which the friend and the matchmaker took the young people to bed - a custom that was outdated in Viryatino already in the first decade of the 20th century. There, the young woman took off her husband's shoes and took the allotted money out of his boot.

The next morning, the friend and the matchmaker raised the young. Pancakes were baked in the house that day, which were treated to the young. The guests were back again. Young people and travelers went to invite the bride's parents, in whose house a revelry was again arranged. Then they went to the house of the young, where by the evening the young were again “gilded”.

The third day of the wedding was celebrated in the same way. On this day in the evening, the young one was “opened”. Until the mid-80s, the bride sat behind a curtain for all three days, she was taken out to the guests with a "posad" silk scarf thrown over her head. Later, the young woman in the house no longer wore a scarf, so before opening a scarf, they threw a scarf over her. The young bowed their heads; at this time the pots were broken; the mother-in-law took off the young handkerchief, put it on herself and started dancing to the sounds of the harmonica playing at that moment. After opening, the young woman could already dance and have fun with the guests. According to the recollections of the old people, on the same day, a test of the skill and dexterity of the young, which had already taken on a comic character, was played out: they brought a crusher and forced the young to crush hemp; at the same time, she beat the guests on the heads with mochenkas; they gave her a broom, which, as mentioned, was made for the wedding day, and forced revenge by throwing money at her feet, etc.

Elements of magic were preserved in the rite of the Viryatinsky wedding very little. These included throwing a large scarf over the bride's head, offering to the first comer, when the groom left the house, two glasses of vodka; meeting young parents with bread and salt, putting money into the groom's boots. To this day, there is one of the very ancient customs in Viryatin - the offering of a chicken: when the young people move to the husband's house, they carry a chicken in front of the wedding train, with which they dance, throwing it from one to another.

Special wedding songs associated with individual moments of the rite were almost completely forgotten in Viryatin already in the 80-90s of the XIX century. At the wedding, ordinary songs and ditties were sung. Apparently, the oaths also disappeared very early. To some extent, this is explained by the general weak song tradition Viryatina (in other places the South Great Russian rite is richly saturated wedding poetry). Replacement wedding songs communion always took place along with the destruction of the rite.

When comparing weddings played in different years 29, in the wedding ceremony, a number of changes can be traced. The rite was shortened and simplified. The celebrations were shortened. So, if in the 80s the actual wedding was celebrated from four to six days, then in the 900s, as a rule, no more than three. The preparatory period, which in the old days was long, was also significantly reduced: in the 80s, for example, they walked for several days at courtship.

In some cases, they began to lower individual moments traditional rite: instead of small and large binges were limited to one small; some had a big drinking bout along with the wedding to cut costs. The initiative in this regard was shown by young people, first of all, those who visited the mines. G. P. Dyakov, reporting the details of his wedding (1908), says: “We had a little drunkard. I didn’t allow a big drinking bout, I didn’t need it. Those who were richer, wanted to go for a walk, arranged a big drinking bout, but I considered it superfluous” 30 . This evidence is extremely characteristic: it was after the revolution of 1905-1907. customs began to be eliminated that ran counter to the new concepts and ideas of the newlyweds; for example, the custom of laying down and waking up the young by a friend and matchmaker, which was widespread as far back as the early 900s, was completely outdated 31 .

The roles of the characters in the wedding ceremony have also changed; in particular, the role of the groom became much more active. Until the beginning of the 900s, it was unthinkable that the groom himself would go to woo with his parents; later it became almost commonplace. From this point of view, the story of the marriage of Yegor Alekseevich Dyakov is extremely characteristic. Returning from the mine in the spring of 1911, E. A. could not find a suitable bride in his village, since best girls got married in the autumn wedding season. One of his relatives recommended to him a girl from the neighboring village of Gryaznoye. Accompanied by his older sister, Yegor Alekseevich himself went to meet the bride. He liked her very much both by her appearance and by her “conversation” (that is, by her development). E. A. Dyakov accepted Active participation and in the whole further wedding ritual: he went with his parents to the “small binge”, there he sat next to the bride, talking animatedly with her about the upcoming wedding, and then visited the bride more than once. All this is already new, which to a large extent ran counter to the usual, generally accepted and indicates the overcoming by the Viryatinsky youth of a number of not only ritual, but also deeper everyday traditions, reveals some independence of young people in matters of marriage.

It should be noted, however, that traditional attitude to marriage as an economic act remained the same and continued to influence the choice of the bride.

The family peasant way of life was greatly influenced by religious ideology, which supported patriarchal foundations. The alternation of work, the nature of pastime at leisure, forms of nutrition were determined by dates church calendar, combined, as elsewhere in the Russian peasant environment, with elements of ancient agrarian rituals. About the folk calendar, which had in the life of the peasants great importance, is also discussed in the next chapter. Here we will focus only on the nature of the holidays in the family.

Three days before the holiday (especially the “annual” 32) a big cleaning began: they washed the ceilings, walls, floors, whitewashed the stoves; on the eve of the holiday, all family members must wash in the bath; festive food was prepared, some of the products for which were previously purchased at the bazaar. Viryatin is characterized by the absence of special ritual food; the exception was pancake cookies for Shrovetide and on the days of commemoration of the dead, baking “forty” (March 9, on the day of 40 martyrs), cooking Easter cake with cottage cheese baked in it, dyeing eggs for Easter and Trinity. In any church and family holiday they prepared the same dishes: cabbage soup with meat, the so-called dry, that is, boiled meat (beef, lamb, less often chicken), fish, jelly, pancakes, pancakes. On holidays preceded by a long fast (Christmas, Easter), the family broke their fast early in the morning, immediately upon arrival from church. “Rozhdestvensky was supposed to have breakfast early,” says K. G. Dyakova. Festive table usually began with vodka, which was brought to everyone by the head of the family. After holiday dinner the elderly went to rest, in the summer they sat on the mound, young couples went to visit their father-in-law and mother-in-law, young people went to the “street” ( folk festival), which gathered on especially solemn holidays both in the afternoon and in the evening (until 11-12 at night). In the evenings on the eve of the holidays, on Sundays and on the holidays themselves, they did not work.

The annual holiday celebrated at least two days, Christmas time - almost two weeks, and at least one week - Easter. Thus, in family life, holidays occupied a significant place.

Posts were of great importance for the economy and everyday life of the family. Not only large fasts (great fast, Philippovsky, Petrovka, Assumption), but also weekly fasts - on Wednesdays and Fridays (there were more than two hundred fasting days in a year) were strictly observed. Fasting determined the diet of the family and to a large extent influenced its general character, sharply reducing the already meager level. During Lent they ate millet porridge with kvass, potatoes with salt, sipped peas with kvass. The observance of fasts also extended to children: as the old-timers testify, “not only during large fasts, but also on Wednesday and Friday, small children used to not be given a spoonful of milk” 33 . Particularly difficult were the Petrovsky and Assumption posts, which fell during hot field work; no wonder after October revolution First of all, it was these posts that began to be violated.

Religious ideology has left its mark on other aspects of family life, especially those related to key moments in human life - birth and death.

A whole complex of customs is associated with the birth of a child. Many children were born in Viryatinsky families, abortions were considered a "sin". The peasants were more happy about the birth of a boy, who was supposed to have his allotment in the event of redistribution of communal lands. However, later parental feelings they took their own, and there was no special distinction made in relation to boys and girls.

Childbirth took place in a bathhouse, on a shelf, on straw spread out and covered with bedding, and if it happened in a hut, then on the floor, on some old rag. The very removal of the woman in labor from the house was caused not only by the closeness and crowding in the room, but also by the old idea that it was necessary to protect the woman in labor and especially the baby from someone else's gaze, from the "evil eye". Only much later (in the 900s) did women begin to give birth in a hut in more hygienic conditions, on a bed covered with sackcloth. They gave birth with a midwife (grandmother). The grandmother played the role of not only a midwife: in relation to her, the woman in labor and those around her see through older ideas. This is indicated by the observance of some very ancient customs. So, before transferring a woman in labor in house (three or four days after the birth) “hands were washed away” - the woman in labor poured water on the grandmother’s hands and washed her own in the same water, after which she presented the grandmother with a cloth 34 . The grandmother also played an honorable role in the christening or homeland rite, usually arranged on the day after the birth.

Baptized the child in the church; the grandmother carried the child to the church, and from the church the godfather-godparent. Upon arrival from the church, a dinner was arranged, festive dishes were prepared: pancakes, jelly, meat and, of course, vodka, with which lunch began. Be sure to bring refreshments and relatives. At the table, in a place of honor (in the front corner), a godfather and a godfather were seated, next to the godfather - the father of the woman in labor, next to him the father-in-law, next to the godfather - the mother of the woman in labor and meanly to her - the grandmother (according to some reports, the grandmother, along with her mother-in-law, served on the table) . The spree lasted two or three hours. By the end of dinner, the baby was brought in, and the grandmother put two plates on the table: on one they put money for the grandmother, on the other - for the newborn. This was called "putting on the tooth."

After giving birth, a woman usually got up on the third day and took over the household. “After giving birth, you didn’t have to lie down for a long time, on the third day you already got up, stood by the stove, and raised the cast iron, and fed the piglets,” says T. E. Kabanova 35 .

There was a child in a “shake”, the bottom and sides of which were made of popular print. The unsteady was hung by ropes to the hook of the ceiling, hung with a canopy. Straw was placed at the bottom of the bulge (and not a mattress, in order to change it more often) and covered with sackcloth. A pillow was placed under the child's head. In the 900s, the bast bulge began to gradually go out of use, since 1910 they were no longer sold at the bazaar. Boardwalks began to come into use, with a bottom woven from ropes. The sides of such a bulge were made with a recess, so that it would be more convenient for the mother to feed the child. In more prosperous families, "fly" crabs were used; they were made from four turned wooden sticks, fastened in the form of a frame, with a bottom stretched from linen. Such a fluctuation was brought to Viryatino from Sosnovka, where it appeared in 1870-1880. Its spread was facilitated by the frequent cases of marriages between the inhabitants of both villages, especially the wealthy elite of Viryatin.

They breastfed the child up to one or one and a half years, and then taught to the common table. In the beginning, they were fed with thin millet porridge in milk, and “as soon as the tooth goes, they eat borscht, and porridge, and potatoes together with everyone” 36 . They used “bread” and “porridge” nipples: bread chewed with sugar wrapped in a cloth or millet porridge.

Due to unhygienic living conditions, the mortality of children was very high. Any infectious disease (scarlet fever, measles, diphtheria, dysentery) grew into an epidemic. Especially many children died in early infancy. This was largely due to the fact that babies, as a rule, were treated by local healers and grandmothers. The cause of any disease was considered the "evil eye": the child was carried to the grandmother, and she sprayed him three times from the coal. If a child screamed a lot, he was treated for a “scream”: at dawn they carried him under a chicken coop and uttered a conspiracy three times: “Dawn-lightning, red maiden, how do you calm down, how do you shut up, so calm down, shut up the servant of God” (name), etc. d.

The very conditions of raising a child were difficult. In the miserable summer time, the child, along with the unsteady, was taken into the field or left at home, under the supervision of an old grandmother, or an older girl, and sometimes all alone. “You used to come from the field,” says T. E. Kabanova, “and he will cry, all wet, flies will stick around the entire nipple” 37 . In families where there were many children, supervision over them was usually assigned to one of the women of the family, who was distinguished by a calm and fair character, who did not distinguish between her own and someone else's child. The children were afraid of her and obeyed.

Children were brought up in strictness, they demanded unconditional obedience from them: "Once you said - and that's it." Parents showed great concern for the children, but there was no particular spiritual closeness between them and the children, as well as between brothers and sisters. E. A. Dyakov, recalling his youthful years, tells how his mother took care of him, but emphasizes that he did not share his experiences with her or with his brothers: it was not accepted. There was great intimacy between mother and daughters; it persisted even after their marriage. In addition to natural feelings, the position of a woman was affected here. Entering into new family, she always remained in it to some extent a stranger and in all the difficulties of life she turned for advice and help to her parents, especially her mother.

From early childhood, children were introduced to hard peasant labor. A girl was taught to spin from an early age, a boy from the age of seven or eight began to help his father, leaving with him in the field (there he ran for water, for firewood); at the age of eight or nine he was already given as a shepherd, and from the age of thirteen the boy began to help his father in all works. Actually, the guys did not know childhood.

They didn't care much about the education of the children. “The boys studied, but they were not forced to study: if you like, study, if you like, don't,” recalls U. I. Kalmykova 38 . But if from the beginning of the 900s it was still considered necessary for a boy to go through at least two classes of a rural or parochial school, then girls were not paid attention in this regard. "The girl on military service not to walk, but to spin and weave, and so on, ”such was the philistine opinion of the village.

Of the family rituals, rituals associated with the burial of the dead were also extremely persistent in Viryatin. The funeral was church, but many archaic features were preserved in them. The deceased was washed by the old women (both a man and a woman). Old people were obligatorily buried "in their own", young people, as it became usual from the end of the 19th century, in clothes made from purchased material; old women were buried in ponevs - a custom that continued even in the first years of Soviet power. Clothing "for death" was prepared by everyone during his lifetime. If a girl or a guy died, paper flowers were placed on their head and chest.

The deceased was placed in the front corner on the benches, with his head to the icons. The benches were covered with sackcloth and canvas over it. They covered the old man of the deceased with "own" canvas, the young one - with calico. All night long, old people or nuns read the psalter over the deceased. The deceased lay in the house for more than a day. If they were buried with mass, they were taken to church in the morning, and if without mass, in the evening right at the cemetery. Two hours before the removal of the deceased, they put it in a coffin. Canvas was spread inside the coffin. Relatives made a coffin and dug a grave. A priest was always present at the take-out.

After a brief requiem, the coffin was carried out on towels. Outside the gate, the coffin was placed on a bench, and the priest served a short litia. Relatives and neighbors, those who did not go to the cemetery, said goodbye to the deceased. Only the closest relatives usually went to the cemetery. Women "shouted" (wailed) for the deceased. The coffin was carried open in their arms; if it was difficult, they put him on a cart. On the way to the church (or to the cemetery), the procession stopped several times, and the priest served the lithium. At the grave the priest served a memorial service. Relatives said goodbye to the deceased, the coffin was hammered and lowered into the grave, each throwing a handful of earth. A cross was necessarily placed on the grave, after which a memorial service was served again.

Upon returning home, a wake was arranged. First, the priest was treated, and after he left, all those gathered were seated at the table. There were guests for two or three tables. Those who were closer in kinship were seated at the first table. The commemoration began with wine, and then came the usual cabbage soup, dry meat, pancakes, pancakes, milk noodles (cool), in conclusion, milk millet porridge was served (in the post - porridge with hemp oil). At the end of the meal, they prayed and, singing “ eternal memory”and“ with the saints rest in peace ”, they went home.

On the ninth, twentieth and fortieth day, the deceased was commemorated. First, they read the psalter, after which they had dinner. They commemorated all night until morning. On the fortieth day we went to the cemetery. They also celebrated the six months and the anniversary of death. That was where the memo ended.

The dead were also commemorated on "remembrance" (ie, on specially established by the church) days 39 . They commemorated the dead in Viryatin as follows: the day before, that is, on Friday evening, each family sent one of its members (an old woman or a girl) with a memorial note and a specially baked cake to the church for a common memorial service. The next morning, a “commemoration” was celebrated: pancakes were baked, and one of the women or a girl carried them to church. Having defended the memorial service, those present in the church went to the cemetery, and there everyone spread a towel and laid pancakes on the grave of their relative. The priest with the clergy went around the whole churchyard. Pancakes (and a small monetary reward) were given to the church clergy, some of the pancakes were crumbled on the graves, the rest of the relatives immediately changed among themselves in the cemetery. At home, each member of the family necessarily ate a piece of pancakes brought from the cemetery, thus joining in the commemoration of the dead. Some details of this public commemoration of the dead ("parents") point to a number of survival moments of the ancient ancestor cult. In this regard, the funeral customs of the Sabbath before Shrovetide are especially interesting. On the morning of that day, each housewife put the first pancake she baked on a towel or on a dish under the icons - “for parents”. When they started eating pancakes, they commemorated "parents" - all relatives. This interweaving of Christian ideas about death, about afterlife, with even more ancient ones testifies to the extraordinary vitality ritual traditions regarding the dead.

The presented material makes it possible to reveal the profound processes that took place in the family life of the peasants of the village of Viryatina before the Great October Revolution. Despite the fact that the stagnant life of a peasant family, fastened by traditions and religious beliefs, evolved extremely slowly, already at the beginning of the 20th century. in Viryatin, families began to appear that differed significantly in their cultural level from those around them. These were by no means kulak families, which, although they differed in terms of the level of material life from the general peasant mass, but in terms of cultural appearance and forms of life not only did not stand out from the general environment, but, moreover, were the most conservative and backward. The formation of new features of family life was in direct connection with the progressive influence of the city and industrial centers, and therefore the most advanced in Viryatino were the families of otkhodnik peasants.

The families of the Nagornov brothers were especially distinguished in the village, according to the general recall of the Viryatins, who had a great cultural impact on their fellow villagers. By profession, they were cabinetmakers (their fathers and grandfathers were also engaged in this craft), every year leaving for large cities: Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, etc. from the Nagornov family. then the first representatives of the Viryatinsky intelligentsia came out.

One of the brothers, Vasily Kuzmich Nagornov, was a well-read man, subscribed to the works of L. N. Tolstoy, N. A. Nekrasov, received a newspaper. He constantly communicated with fellow villagers, he had guests with whom he talked on political topics. This feature was completely new for Viryatin, where even a simple visit was not accepted.

The Nagornov family lived on earnings from the craft; the allotment of land available on the farm for one soul was rented out. The horse was kept only for the transportation of firewood and feed for livestock. This family did not spin, and. the younger generation dressed in urban fashion.

The whole home life of the Nagornovs was put on an urban scale. This found expression in the interior of the house, in food, clothing. The upper room in this house had a completely urban look: the table was always covered with a tablecloth, near the table there was an easy chair, on which the owner of the house liked to sit, reading; besides motionless benches, there were chairs, in the corner stood wardrobe, curtains hung on the windows; the walls were decorated not with clumsy popular prints, as was customary in the rich families of the village, but with oil paintings and in glazed frames.

In comparison with those around them, the food of the family also had a different character. The urban tastes of the hosts were manifested in tea drinking, the use of meat not only boiled (as is customary in Viryatin to this day), but also fried and stewed. The pies baked in this house were a novelty for the village: they were stuffed (with rice, eggs, raisins, etc.), which the Viryati people did not do. Special food was prepared for small children, and even during Lent, when the whole family strictly fasted, milk dishes were prepared for children. This was already reflected in some departure from the observance of religious traditions, which, however, did not prevent the women of this family from adhering to many superstitions and prejudices. The family of the second brother, Andrei Kuzmich Nagornov, was of the same cultural level.

Individual families of miners-otkhodniks also belonged to the number of families that were significantly distinguished by some features of their way of life. Such was, for example, the family of Daniil Makarovich Zhdanov. He began to go to the mines from the age of fourteen. He was a great lover of reading and, returning from the mines, he always brought books to the village. He also had political literature, including some of the works of V. I. Lenin (unfortunately, it was not possible to establish the names of these works). All his free time, much to the indignation of his wife, Zhdanov devoted to reading. He was an atheist, and his son, born in 1918, was given the name Leo - in honor of Leo Tolstoy. However, Zhdanov's personal views had little effect on the family's domestic life.

A radical break in family foundations, the development of new forms of domestic life, the rise in the general cultural level of Viryatia families occurred only after the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution.

Notes:

1 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1953, p. 245, p. 6; TO - 1954, p. 275, p. 128.

2 Extremely indicative in this regard is the pedigree of the wealthy Makarov-Ionkin family, restored by M. I. Zhdanova (nee Makarova) according to the memoirs of her grandmother, Anna Stepanovna, born in 1819, who entered the Makarov family in 1837 and in its full complement ( five married brothers, with elderly parents) who lived in it until 1868-1869 (see Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 275, pp. 125-127); such is the genealogy of G.P. Dyakov.

3 GATO, f. 67, units ridge 29, l. 123, 124; units ridge 155, l. 187-189.

4 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 275, p. 12.

5 Even when heating the bath, when water was required in large quantities, women carried the water.

6 “I grew up - Serb, gray, Serb!” - U. I. Kalmykova recalls her childhood. (Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 275, p. 232.)

7 As the old people remember, the grandfather (the head of the family) held a twig in his hands and hit everyone who was guilty for loud laughter, talking, etc.

8 The section on food was written by M. N. Shmeleva.

9 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1953, p. 281, p. 14

10 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1952, p. 245/1, pp. 109 and 113.

11 Ibid., 1954, p. 275, pp. 171, 231.

12 For material on this, see the folder “Case on the request of peasants about family divisions” for 1913 (for Morshansky district), stored in the GATO.

13 The most typical and frequent was the receipt of inheritance by orphans-children. According to customary law, a widow who remarried lost her right to the property of her late husband (hut, yard buildings, cattle), which was sold, and the proceeds were distributed among orphaned children until they came of age. To do this, the rural society chose at the meeting a guardian from relatives "more independent", and if there was none, then someone else's experienced person. The money received by inheritance was the personal property of the girl, and upon marriage she spent it at her own discretion. (Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO-1954, p. 275, pp. 18-19.)

14 The same order was generally followed in kulak families. Hence, the relationship between the daughters-in-law and the husband's parents often took on a particularly acute character in the kulak environment.

15 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 254, p. 24.

16 According to the women, one of the frequent occasions to the unfriendliness of the father-in-law, there was a refusal of the daughter-in-law to cohabit with him.

17 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 254, p. 46.

18 Ibid., TO - 1953, p. 245/3, p. 36.

19 So, the sister of E.A. Dyakova married into a family where her husband's father was not his own. The stepfather had his own children and the position of the stepson was difficult; he lived almost in the position of a laborer. Then the parents of E.A. advised their daughter and son-in-law to go to them and live with them until they rebuild and acquire their own household. The joint life of the family proceeded on the following conditions. We ate together but kept separate bills. They lived at the rate of one pood of grain per month per person. Cattle were simply considered: straw was taken from the son-in-law of the field and given to the family, as they ate milk from a cow that belonged to their parents. The son-in-law of the earth had two souls. He did not have a horse, his family cleaned his land. This was estimated at about 35-40 rubles, but since the son-in-law and his wife participated in field work, their work was also considered. In winter, the son-in-law went to the mines, the money sent was accumulated to build a house. The cost of shoes, clothing, paying taxes came from the earnings of a young couple.

20 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1954. p. 275, pp. 233, 235.

21 E. S. Fomina says: “Now they themselves (the bride and groom agree), but they asked me to marry. I screamed. He doesn't know me and I don't know him. He was four years younger than me. His parents decided to marry him, because they were elderly and were afraid that they would die, and his brothers would not marry him ”(Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 275, p. 199). S. S. Kalmykov testifies to the same. In Viryatin, people still talk about how brides were replaced at weddings. Such a case also happened to the peasant Dyakov, who only discovered in the church that he had been replaced by a bride. But Dyakov did not dare to refuse her, fearing the wrath of his parents. So he lived all his life with his "unsweet" wife and beat her with a mortal combat. (Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 254.)

22 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 275, p. 108.

23 See "Materials on the wedding and family and tribal system of the peoples of the USSR." JI., 1926, pp. 36, 37. The presence of masonry on the part of the groom, while the bride's dowry was not specifically stipulated, is also characteristic of the Voronezh wedding ceremony, in all other respects close to Tambov. (See the Archive of the Institute of Economics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, f. RE, TO - 1952, p. 236/1. Materials collected in the village of Staraya Chigla, Annensky district, Voronezh region).

24 Some old people claim that the broom was made in order to "sweep the bride out of the house, so that the ode would not look back, get along well in the new house and not return home to her father." On the third day of the wedding, the young woman had to sweep the floor in her husband's house with this broom.

25 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 282, p. 55. This is an extremely curious and valuable evidence of the existence of female captives in the southern Russian regions.

26 The godfather and mother of the groom were usually the friend and matchmaker; if both or one of them were not alive, then, at the direction of the groom's father, the appropriate person was chosen, who later supervised the wedding ceremony.

27 According to family traditions, under serfdom, weddings were played only on Michaelmas Day, that is, once a year. (Communication by E. A. Diakov).

28 E. S. Fomina, who was getting married in 1888, tells about it this way: “The young (on arrival at the father-in-law’s house) were seated forward at the front table: they brought a glass in a friendly manner. Then they decided to place the bride and groom under the pile (the table was set up and curtained). We gnawed and talked seed behind a torpische. All three days we sat under a torpshtse. Everyone was walking around. From here we were led out to the front table to gild.” The custom of being led under the tortice was characteristic of the wedding ceremony of the serf era. (See the entry by M. N. Shmeleva from M. I. Zhdanova, who knew about this from the words of her grandmother, who was getting married in 1837; Archive of the Institute of Economics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 282, p. 55 .)

29 We are based on descriptions of weddings in 1888, 1904 and 1911. (Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 275, pp. 199-202, 235-239 and 24-36.)

30 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 275, p. 110.

31 The custom of taking the young under the crowd, having lost its original meaning, disappeared even earlier. The customs with a masher, sweeping the young sex, and others, which were already considered superfluous by young people, also disappeared.

32 The annual holidays in Viryatin included Christmas, New Year, baptism, Shrovetide, the Annunciation, Palm Sunday, easter, ascension, trinity.

33 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 275, p. 97.

34 It is interesting to note that this custom continued even in Soviet time up to collectivization.

35 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1953, p. 246/3, pp. 30 and 46. I heard that in some families, small in composition, where the mother-in-law was the main household, the woman in labor was not taken for heavy household work for up to forty days. (Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO - 1954, p. 275, p. 38).

36 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE TO - 1953, p. 246/3, p. 46.

37 Archive of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, f. RE, TO-1953, l. 246/3, page 47.

38 Ibid., 1954, p. 275, p. 231.

39 These were: Dmitrov Saturday, the last Saturday before Shrovetide; Saturday in the second week of Great Lent; Tuesday in St. Thomas's week ("Raditsa") I'm Saturday before Trinity Day.

Russian families in the foreseeable historical period were:

1. simple, small, consisting of two generations of relatives in a straight line (parents and children);
2. complex, uniting 3 or 4 generations, sometimes lateral relatives and in-laws (such families were also called big or undivided);
3. 3) warehousing, contractual, uniting not necessarily relatives, but also non-native strangers - for economic reasons.

In Russian families, despite the presence of different generations of relatives, they never entered into marriages within the family; there were no marriages even between second cousins. Only relatives in the sixth generation could marry. In addition to the ban on marriage with close relatives, marriages with non-Christians were also prohibited; in addition, unequal marriages (of people from different social strata) and multiple marriages were condemned by society.

Peasant family life was built mainly on the observance of old customs and traditions; formal legal marriage and family law played a less significant role in the life of peasants. So, even in ancient Russian documents, the legal rights of a woman to property acquired with her husband, the right to divorce, etc. were attested. families".

Marriage for peasants was not only a guarantee of well-being, independence and weight in society (community), it was also a moral duty. Such views on the family were also supported by the church. Family and marriage relations were in the field of view of the entire rural society and depended on public opinion. Only married people were eligible for rural gatherings, had the opportunity to receive land for allotment, to start an independent household, for the normal existence of which both male and female hands are needed. From here - high level Marriage in the Russian village of the 18th - early 20th centuries.

Although with the frequent departure of individual family members to the city and the emerging weakening of family ties, large families began to lose their economic significance, at that time the old birth rates were still in effect. On average, a peasant family in Russia had three or more children.

Many of the old features of marital relations persisted until the 1930s. This primarily applies to the nature of premarital communication of young people, their behavior and conditions of marriage. In the countryside, communication between young people was of a narrowly territorial nature; at the conclusion of marriage, the role of residence and joint work was predominant. Communication between young people and courtship in the premarital period took place in the winter at gatherings and parties, and in the summer - at festivities.

Parents played a decisive role in the marriage of children. It was believed that the choice of marriage couples was solely their business. Young people were rarely given the freedom to choose; True, parents could enter into marriage contracts, taking into account the mutual inclination of the children. The parental decision was undeniable, they obeyed him unquestioningly.

Before the matchmaking, they usually found out the financial situation of the bride's family, the reputation of the family, and were interested in the qualities of the girl. Public opinion in the marriages of young people also played a role, they listened to it, especially to the assessment of the bride and groom - "are they suitable for each other." When entering into marriage, economic considerations were decisive: the desire to enter a prosperous family, to get extra working hands, to bring a worker or worker into the house. In the bride and groom, diligence and endurance were most often valued, and the good reputation of their families was also important.

Early marriages were also explained by economic considerations. Singles did not receive a land allotment, and therefore did not have rights either in the family or in society. unmarried women did not have independence. Economic and moral necessity forced the peasants to start a family at the first opportunity, and hence early marriages, and the age inequality of the spouses (it happened that the bride was older than the groom).

Since 1874, with the introduction of universal military service in Russia, the age of marriage for men rose to 24-25 years (after serving in the army), for women it averaged 18-22 years. Later it remained unchanged, there were only differences in individual regions.

The peasants attached great importance to pre-wedding customs - matchmaking, collusion about the conditions of marriage (“drunkenness”, “initiations”), final consent to marriage (“handshaking”), the bride’s dowry, and the groom’s contribution to wedding expenses (“laying”). These customs had the status of legal principles in the registration of marriage, which could be dissolved after them only in exceptional circumstances. The bridegroom in such cases compensated for the broken word with a sum of money, and the church, in addition to this, took a fine in its favor.

The girl had to marry with a dowry. The dowry was prepared in the family, mostly by the bride herself, and usually consisted of clothes and household utensils; however, cattle, land, money could also be given. It was the property of a married woman, inherited by her children or her paternal family in the event of her death.

There were special traditions associated with marriage. In addition to the already mentioned bans on marrying close relatives, non-Christians and members of another social circle, there was also a ban on marriages with godfathers and their offspring, godparents and godchildren, since they were considered relatives in the spiritual (religious) sense. There was also a custom of seniority in marriage (older children married before the younger ones, sons were preferred to see family before daughters), but it was not strictly observed: very often economic considerations made it possible to circumvent this rule.

Entering into an intimate relationship before marriage was considered shameful. The birth of children out of wedlock in the Russian countryside invariably met with condemnation from society and led to material deprivation of the family, since such children were considered illegitimate and their fathers did not support them. The out-of-wedlock birth rate in the conditions of general condemnation, and sometimes even ridicule, remained steadily low. The financial situation of illegitimate children was difficult. Although the boys, growing up, could get land, but when the families were divided, while they were not yet adults, they were deprived of their share.

Divorce in the peasant mind was a sin, and the church stood in the same position. Adultery, the infidelity of one of the spouses were not too reprehensible acts in the system of moral coordinates of the Russian peasant to be considered as a basis for dissolving a marriage and creating a new family. From the husband, the peasant world in this case did not expect a divorce from unfaithful wife and her punishment. At the same time, the infidelity of the spouse was condemned by public opinion less strictly than the betrayal of the wife. In extremely rare cases, divorce was considered acceptable: in cases of flight from the village, condemnation to hard labor, etc. However, divorce in rural families was almost impossible - marriage required permission from the highest spiritual authority, that is, the Synod. Remarriages of divorced people were also infrequent. Usually remarriages occurred among widows.

Functions rural family how families of a productive nature contributed to the preservation of the age and sex division of labor and the various duties of its members, regardless of whether the family was small or remained undivided. Men performed field work, caring for livestock, collecting firewood, fodder for livestock, construction; women were engaged in housekeeping, raising children, easier field work.

With such a strict division of duties, the woman's role has always remained significant as the main manager of household chores, the organizer of the family way of life, comfort, leisure and educator of children. A special position in the family was occupied by the “big woman” - the wife of the older man in terms of age and position in the family. She subdued all female composition family, taking advantage of her position as the person closest to her head, and often was the first adviser to her "master".

Village children always had their responsibilities in the family. They helped in household(house cleaning, work in the garden); boys were early accustomed to men's work - to graze cattle, handle horses, work in the field; girls were taught to sew, knit, take care of younger children. But the children were introduced not only to work, but also to their spiritual experience, educating each child's character, making sure that everyone eventually becomes a creator, the creator of his own family. Rather, the older generation of relatives (grandparents), rather than parents, passed family traditions and experience (especially labor skills) to grandchildren. They relied in this on the law, custom, example of their ancestors, thereby instilling respect for elders, diligence, the ability to behave decently in society, and gave moral education in a religious form. The means and methods of education depended on the age of the child. For the elders, it was obligatory to include the family and the community in the working life, for the younger ones, participation in games and festive amusements, especially the folk calendar. Education was more complete when several generations were present in the family, and here the role of not only the elders, but also children of all ages was important, because they were self-educating. The role of the spiritual parents of children - godparents is also great.

Intergenerational ties with relatives were never interrupted. In the village they were everyday and versatile. Assistance in various works was facilitated by the territorial proximity of relatives. In addition, in the process of spending leisure time together (family events and holidays), family members could receive moral support, advice, and the exchange of life experience.

Children helped estranged parents in all household chores, and parents and other older relatives, in turn, raised the children. Brotherly-sister relations were also strong in the Russian countryside, the basis of which was considered mutual assistance and moral support. In cases of death of parents, the older children took care and raised the younger ones: "We rose for the brother," they said in such cases.

The employment of people at work and in household chores has always been high, but it varies depending on the season. In agricultural areas, men were more busy with work in spring, late summer and autumn, in areas with livestock farming - in winter, when manure was removed to the fields and fodder was delivered. For women in work and household chores, the whole year passed. Rest came only on Sundays and holidays, as well as at family celebrations (weddings, baptisms, name days). However, Sundays and holidays, which wedged into the working rhythm, accounted for 110 days a year. Thus, in the village there was a fairly even distribution of rest and work.

The way of life and the whole life of the inhabitants of the city differed in many respects from the system of a peasant family. In the second half of the XIX century. - the beginning of the twentieth century. in the working environment, a small family of two or three generations was most common - only one of the married sons, usually the youngest, remained with his parents.

The size of the working family was different in the provinces of Russia. In large cities during this period, half of the families of workers were two-generation families with 1-2 children. In small towns and factory villages, families had more children (up to 3-5 children). This family composition was low level life; In addition, infant mortality was high.

The working family differed from the peasant family in terms of economic basis. Women among the workers often worked in factories and factories on an equal footing with men, and since the earnings of a working family consisted of the "shares" of husband and wife, which often differed little, this, in turn, created the basis for more equal relationships than in a peasant family. Forced marriage was not typical for working women - a common occurrence in the peasant environment until the 20s of the 20th century.

The workload of a woman in a working-class family at the beginning of the 20th century, if she worked in production, was enormous. Laws on the protection of labor of a pregnant woman and a nursing mother were absent until 1912. Women worked until the very birth, sometimes they gave birth at the machines, which led to high mortality of children, postpartum complications, and severe female diseases. If in peasant families small children were always looked after by one of their own - old people or older children, then in families of workers children were often left either unattended or in the hands of seven to nine-year-old nannies. (Ten-year-old female workers in Russian factories were frequent.) Girls in working-class families often faced a much harsher school of life than their peers in the countryside.

The cultural and everyday way of life of the working family was not the same in different regions of Russia, since the composition of the working class was heterogeneous, but the assimilation of urban forms of life was characteristic of all strata. In the field of spiritual life, this was manifested in relation to marriage. The working youth had more freedom in choosing a marriage partner than the peasant youth. The marriageable age in the working environment is higher: from 20 to 24 years for women, at 25-26 years for men. However, collusion as a preliminary formalization of marriage, the dowry of the bride and the groom's contribution to wedding expenses were also common among the working environment.

The main form of marriage was church - a wedding in the church. Per church wedding parties followed. If a worker took a bride from his village, then the wedding was celebrated according to folk custom. Civil uniform marriage was rare, mainly when one of the spouses was not divorced from his first wife. But the attitude of workers, especially women, towards civil marriage was extremely negative.

Relationships between generations were formed differently than in the countryside. Became more independent younger generation, weakened the power of the elder. But the most characteristic phenomenon of this period was the family sections. The residence of parents with married sons now often became short-lived and was due to a lack of funds for a complete partition. Joint residence of the families of the brothers happened very rarely. The separated small families became independent, and their ties with relatives increasingly began to manifest themselves in the form of household mutual assistance and elementary family relations.

The family life of workers was complicated by such reasons as difficult working conditions, lack of necessary living conditions, the prevalence of social vices (drunkenness, prostitution, illegal abortions, cases of throwing children). Especially terrible was drunkenness, because of which many families were destroyed.

Introduction

Reconstruction of the Middle Ages helped to realize that nature for the peasants was the habitat and life support, it determined the way of life, occupations, under its influence the culture and traditions of the Russian people were formed. Russian folklore, fairy tales, riddles, proverbs, sayings, songs were born in the peasant environment, which reflected various aspects of peasant life: work, leisure, family, traditions.

The way of life of the peasants

Work, work ethic. Collectivism and mutual assistance, mutual responsibility, leveling principle. Rhythms of peasant life. The abundance of holidays in traditional folk culture. Combination of weekdays and holidays. Life of weekdays, life of holidays. Patriarchy of peasant life. Types of creativity in peasant life, positions of self-realization and self-service. social ideal. Folk piety, axiology of the peasant world. Ranking of life according to demographic and property characteristics. With the adoption of Christianity, especially revered days of the church calendar became official holidays: Christmas, Easter, Annunciation, Trinity and others, as well as the seventh day of the week - Sunday. According to church rules, holidays should be devoted to pious deeds and religious rites. Working on public holidays was considered a sin. However, the poor also worked on holidays.

Peasant community; community and family; life in the world

In the 17th century, a peasant family usually consisted of no more than 10 people.

They were parents and children. The oldest man was considered the head of the family.

Church orders forbade girls to marry under the age of 12, boys under 15, blood relatives.

Marriage could, was concluded no more than three times. But at the same time, even a second marriage was considered a great sin, for which church punishments were imposed.

Since the 17th century, marriages had to be without fail be blessed by the church. Weddings are celebrated, as a rule, in autumn and winter - when there was no agricultural work.

A newborn child was to be baptized in the church on the eighth day after baptism in the name of the saint of that day. The rite of baptism was considered by the church to be the main, vital rite. The unbaptized had no rights, not even the right to burial. A child who died unbaptized was forbidden by the church to be buried in a cemetery. The next rite - "tons" - was held a year after baptism. On this day, the godfather or godfather (godparents) cut off a lock of hair from the child and gave the ruble. After the haircuts, they celebrated the name day, that is, the day of the saint in whose honor the person was named (later it became known as the "angel's day"), and the birthday. The royal name day was considered an official public holiday.

Peasant yard

The peasant yard usually included: a hut covered with shingles or straw, heated “in a black way”; crate for storage of property; barn for cattle, barn. In winter, the peasants kept in their hut (pigs, calves, lambs). Poultry (chickens, geese, ducks). Because of the furnace of the hut "in black", the inner walls of the houses were heavily smoked. For lighting, a torch was used, which was inserted into the furnace crevices.

The peasant hut was rather meager, and consisted of simple tables and benches, but also for lodging, fixed along the wall (they served not only for sitting, but also for lodging). In winter, the peasants slept on the stove.

Homespun canvas, sheep skins (sheepskin) and hunted animals (usually wolves and bears) served as the material for clothing. Footwear - basically served as bast shoes. Prosperous peasants wore pistons (pistons) - shoes made from one or two pieces of leather and gathered around the ankle on a strap, and sometimes boots.

Memory is the most important
what can a person leave behind

The story of a peasant family

Remembering and analyzing the life of my ancestors, and my own, I became convinced that not a single generation in Russia has lived without some upheavals: wars, revolutions, counter-revolutions, repressions, droughts, famines, and so on.

I thought for a long time whether it was necessary to write these memoirs - no one needs it. But I decided to describe the history of one peasant family using the example of my maternal ancestors just for myself, since I have no heirs.

Brief history of my homeland

My homeland is the village of Berezhok, Ivanovo region, Gavrilo-Posad district. “The village is located 24 versts from Yuryev and 75 versts from Vladimir, on the banks of an unnamed river” - this is how it is written in royal letters of the 16th century. And in them the village of Berezhok is listed as the sovereign's palace estate.

In 1587, the tsar and Grand Duke Fyodor Ivanovich granted “his palace village Berezhok to the wife of his deceased brother, Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich, the eldress queen Alexandra, who monastically labored in the Suzdal Pokrovsky Convent.”

In 1613, in her spiritual will, she granted Berezhok to the Intercession Monastery, where the village remained until the withdrawal of the monastery lands, until 1764. In the future, the village was owned by the local clergy, large landowners and timber merchants.

In many houses there were looms, on them, in the light of a torch, women were engaged in weaving. Then, for a meager fee, they handed over the canvas to the manufacturers. The peasants grew flax on their plots, pulled it, processed it, spun it and wove it. I still have a roll of linen woven by my grandmother, which is over a hundred years old.

According to my mother's stories, I know that before the revolution and during the New Economic Policy, the village was a trading village. During the fairs, merchants (merchants) came not only from neighboring villages and villages, but also from such cities as Yuryev-Polsky, Suzdal, Ivanovo, Shuya and others. You could buy anything at the fair if you had money. And what kind of fish did our ancestors eat! Beluga, stellate sturgeon, salmon, sturgeon, herring and others. And they ate red and black caviar with spoons. For some reason they loved the red one more. There were a lot of fish in those days, so even peasants could afford caviar.

There were three churches in the village before the revolution of 1917. I remember only one and then half destroyed. It was dismantled in the 50s of the last century and this place was cleared. Now, they say, there is a monument to the soldiers who died in the Great Patriotic War. It was a hipped-roof church, exactly like in Savrasov's painting "The Rooks Have Arrived". When I look at this picture, I remember early childhood and I clearly hear the cry of the rooks who lived on the willows near the church, and our house was just opposite. Maybe because early childhood passed under the cries of rooks, jackdaws, barking dogs. And this noise never annoys me. Irritated and annoying only loud music, especially modern.

Under Soviet rule, the village experienced both ups and downs, but it always remained a large agricultural enterprise, since the land is very fertile - black earth (Vladimir opolye). I don’t know what it has become now, it hasn’t been for more than fifty years.

The surname of my maternal ancestors was very beautiful - Dianova. There were several families in the village of the Dianovs - maybe distant relatives, or maybe namesakes, as happens in almost every village or village.

Great-grandfather and great-grandmother

Great-grandfather's name was Peter, he was a military man. In what rank I don’t know, but I served in Vladimir, the barracks were located on Yamskaya Street. My great-grandmother, I don’t remember her name, was left a widow at the age of 38. In desperation, she went to Jerusalem as a pilgrim, returned only three years later, and her relatives thought that she had died. On the way, pilgrims were hired for various jobs in order to have food, so the poet walked for so long. Great-grandmother said that when they walked through the territory of Turkey, the Turks (children) threw stones at them. She brought holy water from the Jordan. I remember that this water was in a beautiful blue glass bottle. If someone was sick, my mother moistened a cloth or simply sprinkled it on the patient from her mouth. Whether it helped or not, I don't know. She constantly diluted this water with consecrated baptismal water.

grandfather and grandmother

Mikhail Petrovich Dianov in the village had the nickname Yamskaya, because he was born in Vladimir on Yamskaya Street in the 60s of the 19th century. Fate decreed that he died in Vladimir.

When Mikhail grew up, the orphan Varyukha (Varvara Sergeevna) was married to him. Who her parents are and why they died early, I do not know. No one taught her to read. But on the other hand, God rewarded in full with diligence and good character. They had many children with their grandfather, but only four survived - two sons and two daughters. Children at that time often died from various infectious diseases, especially those who were born in the summer. Heat, flies, unsanitary conditions in dwellings contributed to the spread of diseases. Grandma knew a lot medicinal herbs and willingly shared them with fellow villagers.

Grandfather and grandmother lived together for about 50 years and never quarreled even over trifles. Grandfather was a cultural master, subscribed to various newspapers and magazines. I read a lot, was interested in the novelties of gardening and horticulture. He had an exemplary garden, which grew apple trees of various varieties, pears, berries, and even hazelnuts. No one in the village had such a garden. Apples and mountain ash were dried, frozen, soaked and frozen. In winter, fellow villagers liked to come to them for gatherings. Women spun, knitted, sang, joked. The men had their own conversations, mostly about crops, politics and wars. Grandfather brought soaked and frozen apples and mountain ash, treated everyone.

The family was very fond of and knew how to sing. On holidays, fellow villagers even came to their house to listen to the singing. One son, Efim, had an exceptional ear and was a regent in the church choir. Another son, Andrei, danced very well - he danced like that on holidays. That after the boots had to be repaired. No one was too fond of wine either on holidays, or even more so on weekdays.

The economy was strong, because two sons and their families lived with their parents. Andrei had nine children, Yefim had two daughters. The youngest daughter Anna (my mother) lived with her parents. 18 people sat at the table for dinner. I can’t imagine how my grandmother managed the housework. All children and grandchildren had their own duties, but only the grandmother cooked food for everyone. Back then, there was no gas, no pressure cookers, no multicookers for cooking – only a Russian stove!

During dinner, there was an order: until the head of the family gives a signal - he knocks on the table with a spoon, it was impossible to carry meat from a common dish. The father never laid a hand on any of the children. But one day Anna, after a rehearsal in amateur performances, came to dinner and accidentally sang at the table. Her father slapped her and kicked her out of the table. Order is order, and she broke it.

The farm had two horses, two cows, chickens, sheep, pigs and other livestock. After the revolution of 1917, the villagers did not feel any special changes. My mother and her older nephews (they were almost the same age) joined the Komsomol and the Blue Blouse youth movement (blue blouses). They had a single uniform - they all sewed the same blue blouses. Various events were organized for young people: sports sections, circles, amateur performances. Performances were staged mainly classical (by A. Ostrovsky), with concerts and performances they went to other villages, to Yuryev-Polsky, Gavrilov Posad. For trips, my grandfather always gave horses. When my mother talked about her youth, I even envied her - how interesting they lived.

Everything bad began in the early 1930s, when churches began to be destroyed and collective farms were organized. Grandfather spoke condemningly against the pogromists of churches and did not go to the collective farm. My mother was expelled from the Komsomol for not being able to persuade my father to join the collective farm. Horses in all harness and cows were taken away. Then both sons separated, Yefim bought a house in the village, and Andrei and his family enlisted somewhere in the North, where he died mysteriously. The family returned to Berezhok, and then left for Ivanovo. Grandfather and grandmother and their youngest daughter Anna, who was not yet married, bought a poor little house.

Soon grandfather was arrested and put in prison, Vladimirsky Central. He was then about 70 years old. My grandmother and my mother had their house confiscated. My mother, and she was only 24 years old, had to buy this house at auction. Most of the villagers understood that the local authorities had treated the grandfather's family unfairly and had borrowed money right during the bidding process. Very good potatoes were born that year, and my mother began to bake potato pies and take them to the market in Ivanovo. It was 18 kilometers to the railway station in Gavrilov Posad, which had to be covered on foot with a basket of pies. After each trip, she paid off someone and crossed them off the list. Thus, she bought her own house from the state.

Prophetic dream

Grandfather is in prison, I had to visit him. They gathered food, baked pies, and Anna went on foot to Vladimir, which is 75 miles. She reached Suzdal when it was already getting dark. On the outskirts of the city, she knocked on one of the houses and asked for a lodging for the night. The hostess, a very friendly woman, gave tea to drink and put her to sleep on the beds. She fell asleep instantly ... And suddenly she had a dream: a huge black newly plowed field. And in the distance is the chapel... At that time, the hostess woke her up: "Get up, young woman, it's time for you to go." Anna told her a dream, the hostess was alarmed: "It's a bad dream."

She reached Vladimir, found a prison, explained to whom she had come. The duty officer went into the room, came out and said that Mikhail Petrovich Dianov had died. Allegedly, he was told that he was not guilty and that he would be released tomorrow. And he broke his heart with joy. The mother wept and asked to be shown his grave. The watchman took her to the cemetery and suddenly she saw a chapel exactly the same as she had seen in a dream. It is quite obvious that some kind of supernatural force exists. They searched for the grave for a long time, but they did not find it. She gave the watchman the package for the prisoners and went home. Now I think that he died, most likely due to the fact that a confession to something was beaten out of a 70-year-old man.

Many years have passed, and I began to wonder what offense my ancestors were punished for. Mother spoke for the fact that grandfather spoke out against the pogromists of churches. My cousin she said that very good potatoes were born on the collective farm, the seeds were elite). In late autumn, when the potatoes were already harvested from the field, and frosts began, the grandfather went with a bucket and began to collect tubers for seeds that no one would collect. One of the neighbors was a member of the board of the collective farm, he saw and proved. I think that grandfather was imprisoned for everything together - for the church, and for a dozen (no more) frozen potatoes. So, a dozen potatoes cost our family their own house and the life of their grandfather.

I turned to the Vladimir prison with a question, for what, in fact, my grandfather was convicted. It turns out that the archives were lost during the evacuation during the Great Patriotic War. It's a pity. Our family did not have a photograph of my grandfather, and I thought that at least in a prison photograph I would see what my grandfather was like.

In conclusion, a few words about my mother - Puzanova (Dianova) Anna Mikhailovna. She was youngest child, was born when her parents were already over forty years old. Left-handed, but very handmade. At the age of 8, she taught herself to knit, and then to spin, sew and embroider. With a cross, very small, she could embroider any pattern without any canvas. In her youth, she sewed clothes for herself and was the most fashionable in the village. She also had artistic talent - she sang well, danced and always played the main roles in plays on stage. Once they came to Berezhok to look for talents from the theater. Volkova of the city of Yaroslavl, and only she was invited to work in the theater. But the mother did not let me in, I motivate by the fact that the artists are distinguished by too free behavior. She did not dare to disobey.

They say that nature rests on children. This is about me. I can’t do anything: I can’t sing, I can’t dance, and I can’t speak normally either.

L. Puzanova