Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov (1870 -1958) "Peasant Girl"

I love to walk in the field
I love making hay.
How to see a sweetheart
Three hours to talk.

On hay. A photo. Early 20th century	B. M. Kustodiev. Haymaking. 1917. Fragment
A. I. Morozov. Rest in the hayfield. OK. I860	Women in mowing shirts harvesting hay. A photo. Early 20th century
A group of young women and girls with a rake. A photo. 1915. Yaroslavl province.	Drying hay on stakes. A photo. 1920s Leningrad region.

Haymaking began at the very end of June: “June went through the forests with a scythe”, from the day of Samson Senognoy (June 27 / July 10), from Petrov Day (June 29 / July 12) or from summer day Kuzma and Demyan (July 1/14). The main work was in July - "senozornik".
Hay was harvested in water meadows located in river valleys, and in small plots of land reclaimed from the forest. The hayfields could be located both near the village and at some distance from it. The peasants went to distant meadows with the whole family: "Everyone who has grown up, hurry to hay." Only the old men and women remained at home to look after the little ones and care for the livestock. Here is how, for example, the peasants of the villages of Yamny, Vassa, Sosna, Meshchovsky district, Kaluga province, went to haymaking in the late 1890s: , with braids, rakes, pitchforks. There are three or four people on almost every cart, of course, with children. Some carry a barrel of kvass, jugs of milk. They ride dressed down: men in cotton shirts of all colors and the wildest fantasy; young people in jackets, and, moreover, vests... The women imagine from their sundresses with frills and Cossack blouses to the waist such a flower garden that dazzles before the eyes. And scarves! But it is better to keep silent about scarves: their variety and brightness is innumerable. And in addition aprons, that is, aprons. Now sailors are also found here, so meet a pretty peasant woman, and you may well think that this is a city young lady, or, what’s good, a landowner. Teenagers and children also try to dress up in their best. They go and sing songs with all their might” [Russian peasants. T. 3. S. 482).
The girls looked forward to the hay season with great impatience. The bright sun, the proximity of water, fragrant herbs - all this created an atmosphere of joy, happiness, freedom from everyday life, and the absence of the stern eye of the old men and old women - the village guardians of morality - made it possible to behave somewhat more relaxed than usual.
The inhabitants of each village, having arrived at the place, arranged a parking lot - a machine: they put up huts in which they slept, prepared firewood for a fire on which they cooked food. There were many such machines along the banks of the river - up to seven or eight per two square kilometers. Each machine usually belonged to the inhabitants of one village, who worked in the meadow all together. The cut and dried grass was divided by the machine according to the number of men in the family.
They got up early in the morning, even before sunrise, and, without having breakfast, went to mow, so as not to miss the time while the meadow was covered with dew, since wet grass is easier to mow. When the sun rose higher above the horizon and the dew began to "hide", families sat down to have breakfast. On a fast day, they ate meat, bread, milk, eggs, fast days(Wednesday and Friday) - kvass, bread and onions. After breakfast, if the dew was heavy, they continued to mow, and then laid out the grass in even thin rows in the meadow so that it dried out. Then they ate and rested. During this time, the grass withered a little, and they began to turn it with a rake so that it would dry better. In the evening, dried hay was piled into piles. AT common work Everyone in the family knew their business. Guys and young men mowed the grass. Women and girls laid it out in rows, turned it and collected it in shocks. Haystack throwing was the work of boys and girls. The guys served hay on wooden forks, and the girls laid it out in a haystack, kneaded it with their feet so that it lay down more densely. The evening for the older generation ended with beating off the braids with hammers on small anvils. This ringing was carried through all the meadows, meaning that the work was over.
“The man’s senator knocked down the peasant’s arrogance that there was no time to lie on the stove,” says the proverb about the employment of people on the kosovishche from morning to evening. However, for guys and girls, haymaking was a time when they could demonstrate to each other the ability to work well and have fun. Not without reason, on the Northern Dvina, the communication of young people at the time of haymaking was called flaunting.
Fun reigned at lunchtime, when the elders rested in huts, and the youth went for a swim. The joint bathing of boys and girls was not approved by public opinion, so the girls went away from the machine, trying to prevent the guys from tracking them down. The guys still found them, hid their clothes, causing the indignation of the girls. They usually returned together. The girls sang to their boyfriends, for example, this song:

It will rain, the senzo will get wet,
The aunt will scold -
Help me, good
My foetus to sweep.
Frequent rain pours
My dear remembers me:
- Wetting my sweetheart
At the hayfield, the poor.

The main fun came in the evening, after sunset. Young people were drawn to one of the machines, where there were many "slavnits". The accordion played, dances, songs, round dances, walks in pairs began. The joy of the festivities, which lasted almost until the morning, is well conveyed by the song:

Petrovskaya night,
The night is small
And relay, okay,
Small!
And I, young
Didn't get enough sleep
And relay, okay,
Didn't get enough sleep!
Didn't get enough sleep
Didn't walk!
And relay, okay,
Didn't walk!
me with a nice friend
I didn't insist!
And relay, okay,
I didn't insist!
Didn't insist
Didn't talk
And relay, okay,
Didn't talk!

At the end of the festivities, a “collapsible” song of the girls was performed:

Let's go home girls
Dawn is doing it!
Zorka is engaged
Mommy gets pissed off!

Haymaking remained "the most pleasant of rural work”even if he passed near the village and therefore had to return home every evening. Eyewitnesses wrote: “The season, warm nights, swimming after a tiring heat, the fragrant air of the meadows - all together has something charming, gratifying effect on the soul. It is customary for women and girls to work in the meadows to put on not only clean linen, but even dress in a festive way. For the girls, the meadow is a promenade, on which, working together with a rake and accompanying the work with a common song, they draw themselves in front of the suitors ”(Selivanov V.V.S. 53).
Haymaking ended by the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (July 8/21) or by Ilyin's Day (July 20 / August 2): "Ilya the Prophet - mowing time." It was believed that "after Ilya" the hay would not be so good: "Before Ilya's day, there is a pood of honey in hay, after Ilya's day - a pood of manure."

Harvest

You already reap, you reap
My young!
Zhnei young,
Golden sickles!
You already reap, reap
Live don't be lazy!
And squeezing the cornfield,
Drink, have fun.

Following the haymaking came the harvest of "bread" - that was the name of all grain crops. In different regions, bread ripened at different times depending on climatic conditions. In the southern part of Russia, the harvest began already in mid-July - from the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, in the middle lane - from Ilyin's Day or from the day of Sts. Boris and Gleb (July 24 / August 6), and in the north - closer to mid-August. Winter rye ripened first, followed by spring bread, oats, and then buckwheat.

Sorry, I sting oats,
I switched to buckwheat.
If I see a sweetheart -
I am towards him.

Harvesting was considered the work of girls and married women. However, the main reapers were girls. Strong, strong, dexterous, they easily coped with rather difficult work.

P. Vdovichev, Harvest. 1830s	The rye is ripe. Photo by S. A. Lobovikov. 1926-1927
Reaper. Photo by S. A. Lobovikov. 1914-1916	A. G. Venetsianov. At the harvest. Summer. Before 1827

The harvest was supposed to start on the same day. Before that, the women chose from among their midst a zazhelnitsa who would make a symbolic zazhinel of the field. Most often it was a middle-aged woman, a good reaper, with light hand". Early in the morning, secretly from everyone, she ran to the field, reaped three small sheaves, saying, for example, like this:

Shh, polyshko, at the end,
Like a Tatar stallion!
Run and rye, die and tear
And look for the end of the field!
Run out, run out
Give us the will!
We came with sharp sickles
FROM white hands,
With soft spines!

After that, the zazhalnitsa laid the sheaves crosswise on the edge of the field, and next to it left a piece of bread with salt for Mother Earth and the icon of the Savior to protect the crop from evil spirits.
All went out to harvest female half families headed by the mistress. Girls and women wore special harvest clothes - belted white linen shirts, decorated along the hem and on the sleeves with red woven or embroidered pattern. In some villages, the upper part of the shirt was sewn from bright chintz, and the lower part was made from canvas, which was covered with a beautiful apron. Heads were tied with cotton scarves. Harvest clothes were very smart, corresponding to such important day when Mother Earth gives birth to the harvest. At the same time, the clothes were also comfortable for work, loose, it was not hot in them under the summer sun.
The first day of the harvest began with a common prayer of the family in their lane. The reapers worked in the field in a certain order. The hostess of the house walked ahead of everyone, saying: “Bless, God, clamp the cornfield! Give, Lord, ergot and lightness, good health! (Folk traditional culture Pskov region. S. 65). By right hand came from her eldest daughter, behind her in seniority - the rest of the daughters, and behind them the daughters-in-law. The first sheaf was supposed to be squeezed by the eldest daughter in the family, so that she would marry in the fall: "The first sheaf to reap is to make a groom." They believed that the first piece of cut rye stalks and the first sheaf collected from them possessed “spore”, “argument” - a special life-giving force, so necessary for the future hostess and mother.
The reapers went to the field after the sun had dried the dew. Bread covered with dew could not be harvested, so that the grain and straw would not rot before threshing. The girls went to the field together, sang songs that were called reaping. main theme songs was unhappy love:

Sooner, our courtyard is overgrown.
Our courtyard has overgrown and bloomed with grass-ant.
That is not a grass in the field, not an ant, pink flowers.
There, flowers bloomed in the field, bloomed, and withered.
The guy loved the red girl, but left.
Leaving the girl, he laughed at her.
Don't laugh at a girl, boy, you're still single yourself.
Single, unmarried, no wife taken.

During work, girls were not supposed to sing - it was the prerogative of only married women. married women turned in songs to God, the field, the sun, field spirits with a request for help:

Yes, take away, God, a thundercloud,
Yes, God save the labor field.

Peasant fields (bands) were located nearby. The reapers could see how the neighbors work, call to each other, cheer up the tired, reproach the lazy. The songs were interspersed with the so-called gurgles, that is, shouts, exclamations of “Oooh!”, “Hey!”, groaning, hooting. The gook was so strong that it could be heard in villages far from the fields. All this polyphonic noise was beautifully called "singing of the stubble."
In order for a certain part of the work to be completed by the evening, the lagging behind were urged on: “Pull up! Pull up! Pull! Pull your goat!” Each girl tried to press more sheaves, get ahead of her friends, and not fall behind. They laughed at the lazy, shouted: “Girl! Kila to you!" - and at night they “put a keel” on the strip for negligent girls: they stuck a stick into the ground with a bunch of straw tied to it or an old bast shoe. The quality and speed of the work determined whether the girl was “hard-working”, whether she would be a good housewife. If the reaper left an uncompressed groove behind her, then they said that she would have “a man will be a nut”; if the sheaves turned out to be large, then the peasant will be large, if even and beautiful, then he will be rich and hardworking. In order for the work to be argued, the girls said: “A strip to the edge, like a white hare, shoo, drive, shoo, drive!” (Morozov I.A., Sleptsova I.S.S. 119), and in order not to get tired, they girded themselves with a flagellum of stems with the words: “As mother rye became a year old, but she was not tired, so my back would not be tired to reap” ( Maykov L. N. S. 204).
The work ended when the sun went down and the stubble was covered with dew. It was not allowed to stay on the field after sunset: according to legend, this could prevent the dead ancestors from “walking through the fields and enjoying the harvest.” Before leaving the uncompressed strip, it was supposed to put two handfuls of stems crosswise to protect it from damage. The sickles, hidden, were usually left in the field, and not carried into the house, so as not to invite rain.
After labor day the girls again gathered in a flock and all together went to rest, singing about unhappy love:

She sang songs, her chest hurt,
The heart was breaking.
Tears rolled down my face -
I parted with my sweetheart.

Hearing loud singing, guys appeared who flirted with the girls, counting on their favor. The jokes of the guys were sometimes quite rude. For example, the guys frightened the girls by unexpectedly attacking them from behind the bushes, or put "gags": they tied up the tops of the grasses that grew on both sides of the path along which the girls were walking. In the dark time, the girls could not notice the traps, they fell, causing the guys to laugh joyfully.
Then they walked together, and the girls “sang” to the guys of the brides:

Our Maryushka was walking in the garden,
We have Vasilievna in green.
Ivan-well done looked at her:
“Here comes my valuable, priceless beauty.
I went through the whole village,
Better-better, I did not find Mary.
You, Maryushka, darling,
Embrace me joyfully
Kiss me on the mouth, please."

They tried to complete the harvest in one day. If someone did not cope on time, the neighbors hurried to help him. It was caused natural desire help a neighbor, as well as the fact that uncompressed strips prevented the removal of sheaves from the fields to the threshing floor and the grazing of livestock, which was released for harvest.
The end of hard suffering work was celebrated very festively. Girls and women sang dozhinal songs in which they glorified the field and God:

And thank God
Before new year,
Thank God,
They shook the field
Suffered!
Thank God
Until the new year!

On the last day of the harvest, many rites were performed. Their essence was to thank the field for the harvest, to ask it to bear fruit for next year and take health from the field for yourself and your loved ones. In some villages, girls and women stood in a circle, took sickles, raised them up and asked: “Freak, Lord! next year, so that the rye is a wall. In others, a sickle was thanked for the work, winding stalks of rye on it: “Thank you, seryapok, that you took care of me, now I will take care of you, feed you with wheat.”
Almost all over Russia, the custom of “curling the beard” was widespread, that is, the ears specially left uncompressed on the field were tied with ribbons or braided, and under them a piece of bread with salt was placed on the ground. The “beard” was tied up by the mistress of the house in the presence of all the reapers of the family. Before the beginning of the ceremony, the girls were allowed to squeeze a few little balls left by Ilya on the beard of the ears. If a girl reaped a pair of ears, this meant that matchmakers would come to her on Pokrov, if it was odd, she would have to wait for matchmakers until the winter meat-eater. After that, the girls went off to have fun with their flock, and the women, holding hands, began to dance around their beards, saying the spell:

We are already weaving, we are weaving a beard
Gavrila on the field
Curling a beard
Vasilyevich has it on a wide,
Vasilievich has yes on a wide one.
On the great fields
On wide stripes
Yes, to the mountains on high,
On the black-arable land,
On the arable land.

After harvesting all the bread in the village, a collective meal was arranged with beer, boiled meat, “squeeze” pies, and scrambled eggs. Girls and guys, after sitting with everyone, went for a walk and had fun until the morning.

Originally posted by nfcausa at Women's labor in the peasant economy in the mid-late XIX century.

Quite common today is the point of view that now women have received equality, because labor has become simple and feasible, and earlier - in the harsh time of our great-great-grandfathers - a woman could not live without a man. A man could live alone, but a woman couldn’t, so she only had to exchange sexual services and provide comfort for food. The Protopopovs, Novoselovs, Nikonovs and other pea jesters like to write about this, and readers of little (and not only) summer and admirers of these jesters passionately dream of returning to a time when a woman could not live without the protection of a man, even if they had to. part with inetik, iPhone, Cozy and warm toilet. Let's try to figure out whether the average great-great-great-grandfather of a modern Nikonov admirer (peasant mid-nineteenth- the beginning of the 20th century, which, as the layman knows, is “in the field”) to feed his family alone and what his great-great-great-grandmother did (which, it seems, was supposed to provide comfort).

First things first, let's try to figure out what the size of a peasant family was and whether a 19th century peasant man could feed himself and his family by allowing a woman to create comfort.

The first thing to say is that the peasant family was not nuclear. The peasant household consisted, as a rule, of one family, connected by ties of kinship or property. The predominant form was the family, limited to two or three generations and second cousins. Most often it was an undivided family, which was created on the basis of a small one (S. I. Shapovalova, Peasant woman of the Central Black Earth region in the 60-90s XIX years century: historical portrait). That is, it did not consist of a man, a woman and their children, but of a larger number of members connected by ties of kinship. AT peasant family unimaginable was familiar to modern man way of life: a man goes to work, where he receives a salary, and a woman stays at home, developing a child, cleaning, buying food and cooking, while the work of one man can bring so much money that it is enough for all family members. To support the peasant economy in normal condition several workers were required - the labor of one man was not enough. How many people were needed for the normal functioning of the economy? To answer this question, let's look at some research:

In 1858, in the Non-Chernozem center, the average family size was 6.8 people, in Pomorye - 7.4, in the Volga region - 8.2, in the Chernozem center - 10.2 (See: History of the Peasantry of Russia from Ancient Times to 1917. T. 3. The peasantry of the period of late feudalism (the middle of the 17th century - 1861), M., 1993, p. economic history Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries SPb., 1913. S. 224 - 227.).

And here is a more detailed evidence of the number of employees:
115 years ago, a study of the peasant economy of the Kotelnich district was carried out. Vyatka province was explored in the period from 1884 to 1893. We started from Malmyzhsky district. In 1900, the "Essay on the peasant economy of the Vyatka province" was compiled. On average, there were 6.4 souls per yard in the county, and 6 souls in the province. The county also had an economically disadvantageous age composition of the population among men and women: 45.4 years for men, 49.7 years for women. There were 1.4 working men per yard; women - 1.6. The size of the family is 6.4 people. On average, in the province, there were about 17 workers (8 men, 9 women) per 100 acres of convenient land, the same figure in the county.(S. Pankova; Peasant economy at the end of the 19th century).

As we can see, none of the yards was supported by the efforts of only one worker - a man. In addition, in the statistics, "workers" include not only men, but also women. K.K. Fedyaevsky drew attention to the fact that in peasant households, a balance was maintained, sometimes even artificially, between men and women, both in cash and in the working staff (Fedyaevsky K.K. Peasant families of the Voronezh district according to the 1897 census).

Based on the materials of the Voronezh province, it was revealed that 57% of peasant farms had in their composition the quantitative equality of full-fledged male and female hands. To denote equality, we introduced a new concept - "labor balance". It characterizes the presence in the families of correspondence to each employee of the worker.
Yards where there was a deviation from the labor balance in the direction of the predominance of male or female labor accounted for 37.3%. It rarely exceeded one working hand. Often, such a disproportion was a temporary phenomenon, and in the future many found "their half", while the balance in the labor composition of the economy was restored. Only in 5.7% of households a significant excess in the number of workers of the same sex was recorded.
The normal functioning of the peasant economy was impossible not only without a worker, but also without a worker. A study of the indicators of the well-being of households with the absence of full-fledged female workers helped to reveal the presence of debts and arrears in them. Some farms showed signs of ruin and decline (budget deficit, lack of sufficient material and technical equipment, high rates of debt, etc.)(Lukhina G. V. WOMAN'S LABOR IN THE PEASANT ECONOMY OF THE CENTRAL BLACK EARTH REGION (60s of the XIX - BEGINNING of the XX centuries).

So, it turns out that the well-being of the yards, left without female laborers, collapsed. That is, the percentage of work performed by women was quite large, and a woman in a peasant economy was a rather important work unit.

What kind of work did the women do?
The duties of the wife in the house “in which the husband does not intervene” consisted of sheathing and washing the children, heating, cleaning the hut, processing flax, and making clothes for the whole family. In addition, the care of the garden and vegetable garden, which were in every household, as well as caring for livestock, lay on the shoulders of the woman.

To imagine the amount of work of peasant women in the yard, you need to understand what was the size of this yard
The peasant yard with its inhabitants was the main production unit in the village. They are usually called a piece of land where residential and outbuildings, a vegetable garden, a garden were located, which were owned by a peasant family and provided for its housing and household needs.
Here is a description of one of these yards

Description of Peter's Court (See: The history of the peasantry of Russia from ancient times to 1917. T. 3. The peasantry of the period of late feudalism (mid-17th century - 1861). M., 1993. S. 366; Struve Petr. Serfdom (Research on the economic history of Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries, St. Petersburg, 1913).

This peasant lives well and does not suffer any long-term need, the house has a fair amount and every necessary structure that he has and is in order, he always gets a lot of his own bread a year and sells and lends to others. The per capita does not stand behind him, and the master's corrects everything as it should.
Scott has:
Horses...... 12
Cows............4
Calves............3
Sheep..............22
Pigs............6
Goats............3
In addition, he also leads geese and Russian chickens: he also has a small breeder of bees.

If men had to go after the horses, then women took care of all the other animals: 4 cows, 3 calves, 6 pigs, 3 goats, 22 sheep, geese and Russian chickens. There were 3 workers and four workers in this yard.

Workers are usually given by 2, and if necessary, the husband. 4, female 3.
The land under it is draft in such and such a field 6 acres, in such a field 5 and a half acres, and in such a field 5 acres.(See: The history of the peasantry of Russia from ancient times to 1917. T. 3. The peasantry of the period of late feudalism (mid-17th century - 1861). M., 1993. S. 366; Struve Petr. Serfdom. Research on economic history of Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries, St. Petersburg, 1913, pp. 224 - 227).

Weaving was not so simple either: in ethnographic studies, the weaving of linen by women in winter evenings shown as a monotonous work interspersed with songs. But no attention is paid to the huge physical exercise during this process. The time allotted per day for weaving reached 8.8 hours for 3 months, while the peasant woman was not exempted from other work and worries. All this testifies to the hard labor of peasant women.

Weaving, spinning, and "working in the yard" were important productive labor, not "creating coziness." Women, without any participation of men, processed flax, were engaged in the manufacture of threads, linen and clothing. Almost until the beginning of the 20th century, the clothes of the peasants were homespun. Livestock care and poultry, which was also primarily done by women, was also extremely important for the functioning of the economy.

However, the scope of female labor in a peasant family was not limited to work in the yard, the production of fabrics and clothing, cooking, picking berries and mushrooms. Often a woman performed many men's work. First of all, this concerned peasant women in small families, where at the end of the post-reform period there was an outflow of men to work in other provinces. Thus, ordinary women's duties were combined with field work. It was especially difficult for peasant women in the former landowner villages during the period of a temporarily obligated state, when their economy had to be combined with working off corvée on the master's plowing. Women, along with men, often sabotaged the service of corvée after the abolition of serfdom.(Shapovalova S.P. Peasant woman of the Central Chernozem region in the 60-90s of the XIX century: Historical portrait).

In most of the provinces, both women and men were driven to corvée for three days. Only in the Podolsk province did women work for the most part on corvée for one day, and men for three.
(See: Fedorov V.A. The fall of serfdom in Russia: Documents and materials. Issue 1: Socio-economic background and preparation of the peasant reform. M., 1966. P. 38-44.). Here I would like to give an example of how work was carried out in the corvée and what kind of work women were employed there:

“At the Kursk landowner Brieskorn, the three-day corvee was a complete fiction, since all the work was carried out according to the lessons, which, having not been worked out at the appointed time, had to be completed on their days, on Sundays and holidays. In addition, on holidays, the peasants were engaged in hauling firewood, etc. with work. In the barns, where mostly women worked, work continued until late at night; the master's bread was reaped sometimes even at night. Some places of work were 15-25 miles away from the dwellings of the peasants, and the passage time was not counted. The amount of work was further increased by the fact that the fallen taxes were not withdrawn, but laid out on the rest. As a result, the peasants did not always have time to cultivate their fields55 and harvest grain and hay, and it was forbidden to rent land. Construction work on the Bryskorn estate consisted of the construction of a church and a factory. On them and in the manufacture of bricks, the majority of workers were women; worked on lessons from morning to night; women with babies and pregnant women were driven out to work. The latter did not get rid of the beating, despite their position, so that there were cases of miscarriages; mothers were beaten for breastfeeding their children during work. The peasants, carrying heavy trees, tore their horses, and many of them fell. Children from 8 to 15 years old were busy hauling bricks and sand, and this work was sometimes done at night and at night. holidays. In winter, the corvée peasants of Mrs. Brieskorn were taxed with another quitrent of 6 r. from a woman, and 20 r. with tax." Semevsky V.I. The Peasant Question in Russia in the Second Half of the 18th and First Half of the 19th Centuries // Peasant Building. SPb., 1905. S.192-195.

A lot about women's labor "in the field" is written in the thesis of G. V. Laukhina WOMEN'S LABOR IN THE PEASANT ECONOMY
CENTRAL BLACK EARTH REGION (60s of XIX - BEGINNING of XX centuries). I will quote from there a long quote without any comments of my own.
The labor of women was used in the performance of various agricultural works. Main women's work in the field was carried out by peasant women workers, and semi-workers were used as an auxiliary force.
Used as an auxiliary force in the period of plowing and sowing, women's labor came to the fore in the period of harvest. It was women's hands that carried out the main operations for the collection of bread.
During the period of suffering, without women's labor, peasant farms would not be able to carry out a large amount of harvesting work in a short time. Peasant women harvested with sickles, made ties, knitted sheaves, put sheaves in sacrums to dry.
If for some reason, during the harvest period, women's hands were not in demand in their yard, they were used as hired hands in other households.
Women's labor was actively involved in the processing of grain. Peasant women participated in the threshing and winnowing of bread both manually and using machines. The use of technology facilitated women's work, but the provision with it in the period under review was still low.
The market price of female laborers increased during the period under review. There were also seasonal fluctuations in prices for them. The ratio of market prices for female labor on different stages agricultural cycle corresponded to the role of peasant women in the performance of various works. If during the sowing period a woman helped a man, then during haymaking, and especially harvesting, it was simply impossible to do without her participation. Accordingly, the wages of day laborers during the harvest period were as high as possible in comparison with earnings at other stages.
Labor rates in the provinces of the Chernozem Center generally corresponded to the average statistics for Russia. In 1891, the wages of day laborers in the districts of the Tambov province during the sowing campaign ranged from 7 to 25 kopecks, during haymaking - from 10 to 45 kopecks, and during the harvesting period - from 10 to 30 kopecks.

The same work speaks of the rights of peasant women. Most of complaints of peasant women, which accounted for 68.5% and 70.4% of all "women's" cases in the Kolybelsky and Kryuchkovsky courts, respectively, touched on property issues. An analysis of the records of decisions of volost courts led to the conclusion that in the 60s of the XIX - early XX centuries. rural women had fairly broad property rights. They were recognized the right to own and dispose of personal property and quarter lands. As the sources show, the owners of the quarter lands had in their full possession of significant land plots, which had a significant impact on her position in the family. The right to land gave women a sense of the stability of their property and personal independence.
A single woman (a widow, a soldier) could independently run a family household, dispose of sums of money and other property, concluding transactions at her own discretion. She had the right to demand for herself and her children a share in the separation of her husband from the family or in the division of the household after the death of her father-in-law.
The rights of peasant women gradually expanded. Among the peasant women, there was a category of those who independently rented land, hired workers, ran a household and made a profit, although only male community members had the right to cultivate communal land and only they had the right to participate in secular gatherings, where the most important issues were resolved.

In addition to caring for livestock, weaving, spinning, and agricultural work, women were engaged in handicrafts (hereinafter, I again quote the work of G. V. Laukhina). The largest in the Black Earth region and in Russia in terms of the number of peasant women participating in it and the volume of output was the lace craft in the Yelets district. It can be viewed as a manifestation of the involvement of the female population of the Central Black Earth Region in commodity-money relations.

In addition to handicrafts, peasant women in the post-reform period, they were engaged in waste fisheries. However, the limitation of their ability to do something like this was due to the lack of a number of rights: the right to free movement of women was restricted. According to the Code of Laws, when leaving the volost, a peasant woman had to obtain permission from her husband or senior family member. With the liberalization of the political course in the second half of the 19th century, with the expansion of the labor market and other social transformations, this decree seemed outdated for some pre-revolutionary jurists. Lawyer late XIX in. G. F. Shershenevich noted that the decision on the impossibility of obtaining a passport without the permission of her husband was “extremely shy, especially in the lower class, depriving a woman of the opportunity to earn money on her own.” I. A. Pokrovsky considered the husband’s refusal to issue a passport to his wife as one of the ways to put pressure on her. In the post-reform period, the number of women employed in
walking. Peasant women of the Olonets province went mainly to St. Petersburg and Petrozavodsk, where they found work as nannies, nurses, cooks, laundresses, dressmakers, workers, and also "kaporok", doing gardening in the suburbs of the capital.(Litvin Yulia Valerievna THE RIGHTS OF A PEASANT WOMAN TO FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE XIX - EARLY XX CENTURIES (ON THE MATERIALS OF THE OLONETSK PROVINCE).

Specific gravity otkhodnik-women by 1861, the peasants of the Tver and Yaroslavl provinces was 14.2 and 11.4. The proportion of male otkhodniks (landlord peasants) for comparison is 23.5 and 21.1 (See: The history of the peasantry of Russia from ancient times to 1917. Vol. 3. The peasantry of the period of late feudalism (mid-17th century - 1861) M., 1993. S. 328 - 329.)

Pregnancy and motherhood did not free peasant women from their domestic and agricultural affairs. The need for female workers in peasant farms was so great that through a short time after giving birth, the peasant woman was forced to return to hard agricultural work. And another quote:

The labor of a village woman in areas living agriculture, huge; it is no less in the provinces with a developed seasonal industry, where, after the care of men, women perform all rural work and all services. Not to mention the hard time, even in autumn, in winter, the hostess is all at work: late at night and early in the morning she spins and weaves, carries water on her, often from afar, along a hard road; cooks twice a day, cleans the cattle; kneads kvass with two pounds of rye dough, languishes in the cold washing thick linen. In the center of Russia, she carries three-pound bags of cucumbers; in the black earth provinces, she stands waist-deep in ice water, washing sheep sheared in the cold; and all this is performed by a pregnant woman, with all the hardships of the female body.
(E. D. Shchepkina Labor and health of a peasant woman Proceedings of the First All-Russian Women's Congress (December 10-16, 1908, St. Petersburg).

Of course, the lack of ability to look after children, as well as hard work during pregnancy, were the causes of incredibly high infant mortality. E. D. Shchepkina writes about two peasant women:

55 years
35 years married
24 pregnancies
2 live children
14 died
8 miscarriages

51 years old
29 years married
22 pregnancies
2 live children
15 died
3 stillborns
2 miscarriages

Engelhardt in his famous "Letters from the Village" writes
“Children eat worse than calves from an owner who has good cattle. The mortality of children is much greater than the mortality of calves, and if the mortality of calves for a farmer who has good livestock was as high as the mortality of children for a peasant, then it would be impossible to manage. And we want to compete with the Americans when our children are not white bread even in the pacifier? If mothers ate better, if our wheat, which the Germans eat, stayed at home, then the children would grow better, and there would be no such mortality, all these typhus, scarlet fever, diphtheria would not rage. Selling our wheat to a German, we are selling our blood, that is, peasant children” (Letters from the village. 12 letters. 1872-1887. St. Petersburg, 1999. P. 351-352, 353, 355).

Since an adult woman devoted almost all her time to work, either very old family members or children looked after the babies: Replacing the nannies, they had to amuse the little ones, rock them in the cradle, feed them porridge, give them milk and give them a nipple. Small children, one-year-olds, were already left under the supervision of an older sister, even if she was five years old. It happened that such a “alyonushka” would play with her girlfriends, and the child was left without supervision. Therefore, cases of death of young children were not rare in the villages, when “a pig ate a child, crushed straw, a dog mutilated”(Bezgin V. Peasant everyday life (traditions of the late XIX - early XX centuries).

Often there were no suitable children or old people to look after at all:
The synod of the Oryol diocese reported: “Children of the poor, often abandoned without supervision, are dying in early childhood for this reason. This is especially noticeable in the families of small-land peasants. Here the father and mother, busy all day long getting a piece of bread, spend the whole day outside the house, and the children are left to their own devices. Now it is not uncommon that there is not a single old person in the house under whose supervision children could be left. As a rule, small children stay together with the same small sisters and brothers, therefore, without proper supervision, they are hungry, cold and dirty all day. Bezgin V. Peasant everyday life (traditions of the late XIX - early XX centuries).

And finally, one more great quote about motherhood, childhood and women's work:

Already on the 3rd - 4th day, the need makes the woman in labor get up and get to work. Going to the field, the mother either takes the newborn with her, or leaves him at home in the care of a nanny. Personally, for a mother, of course, it is more convenient to leave the child at home, since in such cases the mother does not need to carry the child with her to work, sometimes several miles away, and then, at work itself, the mother does not constantly tear herself away from her with the crying of the child who is right there. And meanwhile, in the time of trouble, work is hot, every hour, every minute is important, and therefore, understandably, the vast majority of mothers leave their newborns and infants at home. “Never has a baby been deprived of its mother’s breast so much,” says such an expert folk life, like Archpriest Gilyarovsky, “and never extracts such low-quality milk from the same breast as in July and August, for the mother in the best farms on the third day in the morning must go to field work, where she cannot take the baby with her, and returns to him only late in the evening. And if the field work is further than 10 miles from home, then the mother should leave the child for 3-4 days every week. In some farms, the puerperal goes on another (!) day after the birth. “What will she bring,” the venerable author further exclaims, “to the baby in her breasts, when she herself is exhausted by labors and efforts beyond measure, thirst and callousness of food, which does not restore her strength, sweat and feverish movements of milk, which has become a product for her completely alien, bored with a baby who languishes from a lack of milk just as she from its excess. How ardently and truthfully the sad and difficult situation of mother and child in a difficult time is described!
What, however, feeds the child, and in what conditions is he staying at home? Perhaps the child is best conditions than if he were taken by his mother into the field and there subjected to open sky all the hardships of changing weather.
Since the entire population of the village, capable of work, goes into a bad time, i.e. in July and August, in the field, then all the children remain in the care of children, teenagers of 8-10 years old, who act as nannies. Therefore, one can imagine what happens to small children with such supervision of children.
The mother, leaving early in the morning for work, swaddles the child, even suppose wrapping it in a clean diaper. It is clear that soon after the departure of the mother and assigned to look after the child 8-10 summer girl, who, due to her age and an understandable complete misunderstanding of the importance of her task, wants to run around and play on fresh air, such a nanny leaves the child and the child sometimes lies in soaked and soiled diapers and swaddling clothes for a whole day. Even if the mother leaves enough changes of linen for the nurse, it is not in the interests of the latter to change this soiled linen as needed, since she herself will have to wash this linen. And therefore, one can imagine the terrible situation in which swaddled children are wrapped in diapers soaked in urine and feces, and this, moreover, in the hot summer season. The statement of the same observer Prot. Gilyarovsky, that from such a urinal compress and from the heat “the skin under the neck, under the armpits and in the groins sores, ulcers are obtained, often filled with worms”, etc. It is also easy to complete this whole picture with that mass of mosquitoes and flies, which are especially readily attracted by the smelly atmosphere around the child from the decay of urine and feces. “Flies and mosquitoes hovering around the child in swarms,” says Gilyarovsky, “keep him in an unceasing fever of wounding.” In addition, in the cradle of the child and, as we will see below, even in his horn, worms are bred, which, according to Gilyarovsky, are “one of the most dangerous creatures” for the child.(Mortality in Russia and the fight against it. Report in the joint meeting of the Society of Russian Doctors, the Society of Pediatric Doctors in St. Petersburg and the Statistical Department of the Highly Approved Russian Society for the Protection of Public Health, March 22, 1901, in the hall of the Museum of N.I. Pirogov, D.A. Sokolov and V.I. Grebenshchikov).

So, let's see what results we have come to:
1) peasant women of the mid-19th - early 20th centuries were engaged not only in creating comfort, cleaning, washing and cooking. In general, they did very little in the above listed activities compared to other, productive activities, such as: processing materials, making fabrics and clothing, agricultural work. different nature(including hired labor), caring for livestock and poultry, handicraft and waste industries;
2) a female worker did almost no childcare - even babies; baby care - work for either a very elderly family member who is not suitable for any more work, or for a child 5-9 years old;
3) a man working in the field alone could not feed his family in any way;
4) the work performed by women in the peasant economy was very significant; the presence of a full-fledged female worker on the farm was about as critical as the presence of a male worker, since farms where there were no full-fledged female workers fell into decay.

I love to walk in the field
I love making hay.
How to see a sweetheart
Three hours to talk.

On hay. A photo. Early 20th century	B. M. Kustodiev. Haymaking. 1917. Fragment
A. I. Morozov. Rest in the hayfield. OK. I860	Women in mowing shirts harvesting hay. A photo. Early 20th century
A group of young women and girls with a rake. A photo. 1915. Yaroslavl province.	Drying hay on stakes. A photo. 1920s Leningrad region.

Haymaking began at the very end of June: "June went through the forests with a scythe", from the day of Samson Senognoy (June 27 / July 10), from Peter's Day (June 29 / July 12) or from the summer day of Kuzma and Demyan (July 1/14 ). The main work was in July - "senozornik".
Hay was harvested in water meadows located in river valleys, and in small plots of land reclaimed from the forest. The hayfields could be located both near the village and at some distance from it. The peasants went to distant meadows with the whole family: "Everyone who has grown up, hurry to hay." Only the old men and women remained at home to look after the little ones and care for the livestock. Here is how, for example, the peasants of the villages of Yamny, Vassa, Sosna, Meshchovsky district, Kaluga province, went to haymaking in the late 1890s: , with braids, rakes, pitchforks. There are three or four people on almost every cart, of course, with children. Some carry a barrel of kvass, jugs of milk. They ride dressed down: men in cotton shirts of all colors and the wildest fantasy; young people in jackets, and, moreover, vests... The women imagine from their sundresses with frills and Cossack blouses to the waist such a flower garden that dazzles before the eyes. And scarves! But it is better to keep silent about scarves: their variety and brightness is innumerable. And in addition aprons, that is, aprons. Now sailors are also found here, so meet a pretty peasant woman, and you may well think that this is a city young lady, or, what’s good, a landowner. Teenagers and children also try to dress up in their best. They go and sing songs with all their might” [Russian peasants. T. 3. S. 482).
The girls looked forward to the hay season with great impatience. The bright sun, the proximity of water, fragrant herbs - all this created an atmosphere of joy, happiness, freedom from everyday life, and the absence of the stern eye of the old men and old women - the village guardians of morality - made it possible to behave somewhat more relaxed than usual.
The inhabitants of each village, having arrived at the place, arranged a parking lot - a machine: they put up huts in which they slept, prepared firewood for a fire on which they cooked food. There were many such machines along the banks of the river - up to seven or eight per two square kilometers. Each machine usually belonged to the inhabitants of one village, who worked in the meadow all together. The cut and dried grass was divided by the machine according to the number of men in the family.
They got up early in the morning, even before sunrise, and, without having breakfast, went to mow, so as not to miss the time while the meadow was covered with dew, since wet grass is easier to mow. When the sun rose higher above the horizon and the dew began to "hide", families sat down to have breakfast. On a fast day they ate meat, bread, milk, eggs, on fast days (Wednesday and Friday) - kvass, bread and onions. After breakfast, if the dew was heavy, they continued to mow, and then laid out the grass in even thin rows in the meadow so that it dried out. Then they ate and rested. During this time, the grass withered a little, and they began to turn it with a rake so that it would dry better. In the evening, dried hay was piled into piles. In the common work of the family, everyone knew his job. Guys and young men mowed the grass. Women and girls laid it out in rows, turned it and collected it in shocks. Haystack throwing was the work of boys and girls. The guys served hay on wooden forks, and the girls laid it out in a haystack, kneaded it with their feet so that it lay down more densely. The evening for the older generation ended with beating off the braids with hammers on small anvils. This ringing was carried through all the meadows, meaning that the work was over.
“The man’s senator knocked down the peasant’s arrogance that there was no time to lie on the stove,” says the proverb about the employment of people on the kosovishche from morning to evening. However, for guys and girls, haymaking was a time when they could demonstrate to each other the ability to work well and have fun. Not without reason, on the Northern Dvina, the communication of young people at the time of haymaking was called flaunting.
Fun reigned at lunchtime, when the elders rested in huts, and the youth went for a swim. The joint bathing of boys and girls was not approved by public opinion, so the girls went away from the machine, trying to prevent the guys from tracking them down. The guys still found them, hid their clothes, causing the indignation of the girls. They usually returned together. The girls sang to their boyfriends, for example, this song:

It will rain, the senzo will get wet,
The aunt will scold -
Help me, good
My foetus to sweep.
Frequent rain pours
My dear remembers me:
- Wetting my sweetheart
At the hayfield, the poor.

The main fun came in the evening, after sunset. Young people were drawn to one of the machines, where there were many "slavnits". The accordion played, dances, songs, round dances, walks in pairs began. The joy of the festivities, which lasted almost until the morning, is well conveyed by the song:

Petrovskaya night,
The night is small
And relay, okay,
Small!
And I, young
Didn't get enough sleep
And relay, okay,
Didn't get enough sleep!
Didn't get enough sleep
Didn't walk!
And relay, okay,
Didn't walk!
me with a nice friend
I didn't insist!
And relay, okay,
I didn't insist!
Didn't insist
Didn't talk
And relay, okay,
Didn't talk!

At the end of the festivities, a “collapsible” song of the girls was performed:

Let's go home girls
Dawn is doing it!
Zorka is engaged
Mommy gets pissed off!

Haymaking remained "the most pleasant of rural work" even if it took place near the village and therefore every evening it was necessary to return home. Eyewitnesses wrote: “The season, warm nights, swimming after a tiring heat, the fragrant air of the meadows - all together has something charming, gratifying effect on the soul. It is customary for women and girls to work in the meadows to put on not only clean linen, but even dress in a festive way. For the girls, the meadow is a promenade, on which, working together with a rake and accompanying the work with a common song, they draw themselves in front of the suitors ”(Selivanov V.V.S. 53).
Haymaking ended by the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (July 8/21) or by Ilyin's Day (July 20 / August 2): "Ilya the Prophet - mowing time." It was believed that "after Ilya" the hay would not be so good: "Before Ilya's day, there is a pood of honey in hay, after Ilya's day - a pood of manure."

Harvest

You already reap, you reap
My young!
Zhnei young,
Golden sickles!
You already reap, reap
Live don't be lazy!
And squeezing the cornfield,
Drink, have fun.

Following the haymaking came the harvest of "bread" - that was the name of all grain crops. In different regions, bread ripened at different times depending on climatic conditions. In the southern part of Russia, the harvest began already in mid-July - from the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, in the middle lane - from Ilyin's Day or from the day of Sts. Boris and Gleb (July 24 / August 6), and in the north - closer to mid-August. Winter rye ripened first, followed by spring bread, oats, and then buckwheat.

Sorry, I sting oats,
I switched to buckwheat.
If I see a sweetheart -
I am towards him.

Harvesting was considered the work of girls and married women. However, the main reapers were girls. Strong, strong, dexterous, they easily coped with rather difficult work.

P. Vdovichev, Harvest. 1830s	The rye is ripe. Photo by S. A. Lobovikov. 1926-1927
Reaper. Photo by S. A. Lobovikov. 1914-1916	A. G. Venetsianov. At the harvest. Summer. Before 1827

The harvest was supposed to start on the same day. Before that, the women chose from among their midst a zazhelnitsa who would make a symbolic zazhinel of the field. Most often it was a middle-aged woman, a good reaper, with a "light hand." Early in the morning, secretly from everyone, she ran to the field, reaped three small sheaves, saying, for example, like this:

Shh, polyshko, at the end,
Like a Tatar stallion!
Run and rye, die and tear
And look for the end of the field!
Run out, run out
Give us the will!
We came with sharp sickles
With white hands
With soft spines!

After that, the zazhalnitsa laid the sheaves crosswise on the edge of the field, and next to it left a piece of bread with salt for Mother Earth and the icon of the Savior to protect the crop from evil spirits.
The entire female half of the family, headed by the hostess, went out to harvest. Girls and women wore special harvest clothes - belted white linen shirts, decorated along the hem and on the sleeves with a red woven or embroidered pattern. In some villages, the upper part of the shirt was sewn from bright chintz, and the lower part was made from canvas, which was covered with a beautiful apron. Heads were tied with cotton scarves. Harvest clothes were very smart, corresponding to such an important day when Mother Earth will give birth to a harvest. At the same time, the clothes were also comfortable for work, loose, it was not hot in them under the summer sun.
The first day of the harvest began with a common prayer of the family in their lane. The reapers worked in the field in a certain order. The hostess of the house walked ahead of everyone, saying: “Bless, God, clamp the cornfield! Give, Lord, ergot and lightness, good health! (Folk traditional culture of the Pskov region. P. 65). On her right hand was the eldest daughter, after her in seniority - the other daughters, and after them the daughters-in-law. The first sheaf was supposed to be squeezed by the eldest daughter in the family, so that she would marry in the fall: "The first sheaf to reap is to make a groom." They believed that the first piece of cut rye stalks and the first sheaf collected from them possessed “spore”, “argument” - a special life-giving force, so necessary for the future hostess and mother.
The reapers went to the field after the sun had dried the dew. Bread covered with dew could not be harvested, so that the grain and straw would not rot before threshing. The girls went to the field together, sang songs that were called reaping. The main theme of the songs was unhappy love:

Sooner, our courtyard is overgrown.
Our courtyard has overgrown and bloomed with grass-ant.
That is not a grass in the field, not an ant, pink flowers.
There, flowers bloomed in the field, bloomed, and withered.
The guy loved the red girl, but left.
Leaving the girl, he laughed at her.
Don't laugh at a girl, boy, you're still single yourself.
Single, unmarried, no wife taken.

During work, girls were not supposed to sing - it was the prerogative of only married women. Married women turned in songs to God, the field, the sun, field spirits with a request for help:

Yes, take away, God, a thundercloud,
Yes, God save the labor field.

Peasant fields (bands) were located nearby. The reapers could see how the neighbors work, call to each other, cheer up the tired, reproach the lazy. The songs were interspersed with the so-called gurgles, that is, shouts, exclamations of “Oooh!”, “Hey!”, groaning, hooting. The gook was so strong that it could be heard in villages far from the fields. All this polyphonic noise was beautifully called "singing of the stubble."
In order for a certain part of the work to be completed by the evening, the lagging behind were urged on: “Pull up! Pull up! Pull! Pull your goat!” Each girl tried to press more sheaves, get ahead of her friends, and not fall behind. They laughed at the lazy, shouted: “Girl! Kila to you!" - and at night they “put a keel” on the strip for negligent girls: they stuck a stick into the ground with a bunch of straw tied to it or an old bast shoe. The quality and speed of the work determined whether the girl was “hard-working”, whether she would be a good housewife. If the reaper left an uncompressed groove behind her, then they said that she would have “a man will be a nut”; if the sheaves turned out to be large, then the peasant will be large, if even and beautiful, then he will be rich and hardworking. In order for the work to be argued, the girls said: “A strip to the edge, like a white hare, shoo, drive, shoo, drive!” (Morozov I.A., Sleptsova I.S.S. 119), and in order not to get tired, they girded themselves with a flagellum of stems with the words: “As mother rye became a year old, but she was not tired, so my back would not be tired to reap” ( Maykov L. N. S. 204).
The work ended when the sun went down and the stubble was covered with dew. It was not allowed to stay on the field after sunset: according to legend, this could prevent the dead ancestors from “walking through the fields and enjoying the harvest.” Before leaving the uncompressed strip, it was supposed to put two handfuls of stems crosswise to protect it from damage. The sickles, hidden, were usually left in the field, and not carried into the house, so as not to invite rain.
After a hard day, the girls again gathered in a flock and all together went to rest, singing about unhappy love:

She sang songs, her chest hurt,
The heart was breaking.
Tears rolled down my face -
I parted with my sweetheart.

Hearing loud singing, guys appeared who flirted with the girls, counting on their favor. The jokes of the guys were sometimes quite rude. For example, the guys frightened the girls by unexpectedly attacking them from behind the bushes, or put "gags": they tied up the tops of the grasses that grew on both sides of the path along which the girls were walking. In the dark time, the girls could not notice the traps, they fell, causing the guys to laugh joyfully.
Then they walked together, and the girls “sang” to the guys of the brides:

Our Maryushka was walking in the garden,
We have Vasilievna in green.
Ivan-well done looked at her:
“Here comes my valuable, priceless beauty.
I went through the whole village,
Better-better, I did not find Mary.
You, Maryushka, darling,
Embrace me joyfully
Kiss me on the mouth, please."

They tried to complete the harvest in one day. If someone did not cope on time, the neighbors hurried to help him. This was caused by a natural desire to help a neighbor, and also by the fact that uncompressed strips interfered with the removal of sheaves from the fields to the threshing floor and the grazing of livestock, which was released for harvest.
The end of hard suffering work was celebrated very festively. Girls and women sang dozhinal songs in which they glorified the field and God:

And thank God
Until the new year
Thank God,
They shook the field
Suffered!
Thank God
Until the new year!

On the last day of the harvest, many rites were performed. Their essence was to thank the field for the harvest, ask it to bear fruit for the next year and take health from the field for yourself and your loved ones. In some villages, girls and women stood in a circle, took sickles, raised them up and asked: “Freak, Lord! next year, so that the rye is a wall. In others, a sickle was thanked for the work, winding stalks of rye on it: “Thank you, seryapok, that you took care of me, now I will take care of you, feed you with wheat.”
Almost all over Russia, the custom of “curling the beard” was widespread, that is, the ears specially left uncompressed on the field were tied with ribbons or braided, and under them a piece of bread with salt was placed on the ground. The “beard” was tied up by the mistress of the house in the presence of all the reapers of the family. Before the beginning of the ceremony, the girls were allowed to squeeze a few little balls left by Ilya on the beard of the ears. If a girl reaped a pair of ears, this meant that matchmakers would come to her on Pokrov, if it was odd, she would have to wait for matchmakers until the winter meat-eater. After that, the girls went off to have fun with their flock, and the women, holding hands, began to dance around their beards, saying the spell:

We are already weaving, we are weaving a beard
Gavrila on the field
Curling a beard
Vasilyevich has it on a wide,
Vasilievich has yes on a wide one.
On the great fields
On wide stripes
Yes, to the mountains on high,
On the black-arable land,
On the arable land.

After harvesting all the bread in the village, a collective meal was arranged with beer, boiled meat, “squeeze” pies, and scrambled eggs. Girls and guys, after sitting with everyone, went for a walk and had fun until the morning.

http://www.booksite.ru/fulltext/girls/rus/san/2.htm

Types of peasant labor

Before proceeding to an acquaintance with child labor, let us briefly recall peasant labor in general.

The basis of all peasant life, as you know, from ancient times was agriculture, which largely determined the way of social and family life, views on the environment, relationships between people and the upbringing of children. Agriculture developed in various and complex climatic zones, required enormous labor, observations, and accumulated rich traditions.

The main and reliable crop was rye, which almost always produced a crop; barley, wheat, millet, peas, flax, hemp, etc. were also grown. The main working animal is the horse. The farmstead contained cows, goats, sheep, chickens, geese. Agricultural implements - scythe, sickle, harrow. All these were attributes of an agrarian culture that had been preserved for many centuries.

The success of agriculture largely depended on nature, in particular, the weather meant a lot to the farmer, so it was carefully monitored, and the results of the observations made it possible to decide on agricultural work. So, if it was cold on the Meeting (February 15), wait for late spring, which means get ready to sow bread at certain times, etc.; if a hen on the day of Evdokia (March 14) drinks water from a puddle, then a sheep on Yegory (May 6) will eat enough grass, i.e. it will be a good spring. Other natural features also spoke of a lot: the period of flowering of the bird cherry, the blooming of the leaves of the oak; a lot of snow in winter - a lot of bread, if the snow melted "along" - spring crops were sown early. A snowstorm, a blizzard on the day of Evdokia foreshadowed - the cattle would have to be kept in a barn in the spring longer, which was difficult for the peasant economy, which was not rich in fodder. So, observing the signs on certain days, the peasants made a long-term forecast, which allowed them to properly prepare for the upcoming seasonal agricultural work.

The specificity of the natural and climatic conditions of Russia was also reflected in the names of the Russian folk calendar, which arose in antiquity.

There were other variants of names: zharnik, stardnik - July, izyuk June, etc. At the same time, there were signs for each month and day: if in December the snow rolls close to the fences, it will be a bad summer; cold May - a grain-growing year; in November it will inflate with snow - bread will arrive, etc.

Agriculture in peasant farms was closely connected with cattle breeding, which also required tireless attention and a lot of work both in summer and in winter.

Let us note a characteristic feature of peasant labor: despite the repetition from season to season, from year to year of the same work, there was no routine in it. It may seem that the monotony of affairs does not require anything but mechanical skills, but no: weather conditions, the condition of seeds for sowing, the state of health of cattle, the burrows of each animal, and much more required quickness of mind, quick wit, observation and everyday adaptation of the peasant to these features. Even small children learned to do work in different ways, taking into account different circumstances; Thus, the nanny girl, trying to calm the child, resorted to various measures: she spoke sternly with one, caressed the other, entertained someone. Also, in dealing with animals, a different approach was required: a shepherd boy could besiege one cow with a menacing cry, and caress another, i.e. work constantly demanded the manifestation of creativity.

Children's labor

From early childhood, the child was immersed in the working atmosphere of the family, became a participant in various activities, and was gradually drawn into the system of work duties and relationships.

As soon as the child grew up, began to stand firmly on his feet and understand the speech of others, he easily and naturally joined in the work. He was not forced by his parents, they were not forced to work, but they were interested in business, allowed him to do something himself, to help his elders, because it is known that a child is by nature an active being. Children's thirst for imitation, activity, the example of others were the most effective incentives to work. Already at the age of four or five, the girl helped her sister wind up the threads, feed the chickens, the boy gave the bast to his father, weaving bast shoes, etc. The boy began to drive cattle to a watering hole, learned to ride. A six-seven-year-old child was trusted to drive the cattle into the yard, bring firewood to the hut. The boys were near the carpenter's father, the girls were near the mother at the spinning wheel and carried out their feasible, uncomplicated assignments. Girls very early began to nurse their younger brothers and sisters and joined the housework - they looked after the bird, washed the dishes and floors, carried water.

A peasant boy at the age of seven or eight was already helping his father on arable land, handling a horse. In winter, he helped his father in the preparation of firewood, learned to use a saw and an ax. He went hunting with his father, learned to set snares, shoot from a bow, and could fish.

At nine or ten years old, a teenager himself could handle a horse, knew how to harness it.

But not immediately the children were taken to the real thing, the folk experience of education prompted adults that this should be done gradually, including them in the game. A small shovel and rake were in the hands of the child when he worked with the adults; the father often left a small piece of land for his son, where the boy learned to plow. The girl learned to cook with her mother, making her own cakes and breads from dough. In a small bucket she began to carry water. They made a small spinning wheel for the girl and she sat behind it next to her older sisters. She learned to sew clothes for a doll that older children could make. So, gradually mastering labor skills, children with age were drawn into work, skillfully handling tools, inventory, and cattle.

From the game gradually moved to the real work.

At ten or thirteen years old, a teenager could already plow, and by the age of fourteen he could mow, harvest with a sickle, work with an ax and a flail, i.e. became a real worker. In winter, he could weave bast shoes and baskets.

The guy at the age of fourteen - sixteen was trained in such difficult types of work as mowing, was engaged in plowing, threshing, arranging firewood in the forest, he knew many subtleties of the peasant business. At the age of eighteen, he could do sowing (this is the most difficult work), and from that time he was considered a full-fledged master.

Adolescents helped their family with their earnings, hiring for the summer as a shepherd or leaving to graze horses at "night" together with a group of peers. The family received the necessary additional earnings, and for the teenager himself it was a kind of school, where he learned to comply with his obligations and to perform his work in a disciplined manner.

In addition to homework, which she joined very early, the girl began to work with a sickle in the field from the age of nine or ten, from that time she was really engaged in knitting sheaves, weeding beds, pulling flax and hemp. At ten or twelve she already milked a cow, could knead the dough, cooked, washed, looked after the children, carried water, sewed, knitted and did many other household chores.

At the age of fourteen, the girl harvested bread, mowed the grass, and began to work on a par with adults. And let's not forget - by this time she should have prepared a dowry for herself.

Competition, rivalry is especially characteristic of adolescence. “The teenager had to be upset, because he wants to learn how to plow before his peers, so that all the girls, big and small, can see it. I want to chop more firewood than my neighbor, so that no one calls him small or lazy, I want to catch berries to treat the younger ones."

At the age of fourteen-sixteen, young men and women, having undergone extensive labor training, became independent, confidently set to work, and behaved more sedately.

The demands of adults on the behavior of young people also changed with age, while the guy was more free from parental care, he could leave in the evenings without asking, go to parties. It’s another matter for girls, their parents tried to keep an eye on them, they couldn’t attend festivities without the permission of adults, they were supposed to behave modestly in the house with guests, eat little, be silent more, looking down, and not laugh out loud.

Not all labor occupations are described here, in which the child was included from an early age. But the ones described above testify to how much they meant to the growing child.

"The whole life of a peasant was permeated with concern for the harvest, cattle, weather, which shaped the worldview of children, taught them to be responsible for the fate of the harvest, the well-being of the family. In a poor and rich family, work was the basis of existence."

Labor is not only the development of skills and abilities, it is also the development of worldview, moral hardening, aesthetic experiences and, of course, physical development and health.

Getting involved in labor, a person learned the laws of natural phenomena, saw their interconnection and interdependence (for example, that rye can be sown only at a certain time when nature favors this, that it will ripen in a few weeks and that it can also be harvested taking into account natural conditions, etc. .P.). Subtle observations of the surrounding world, carried out in the process of performing various tasks and necessary for their success, contributed to the development of mental operations, the ability to draw conclusions from observations, awakened insight and inquisitiveness.

Involving at first voluntarily, and later, out of necessity, in various affairs, a child, a teenager perceived his work as a natural and necessary occupation, from which it would be impossible to escape throughout his life: after all, everyone around him is working, it was not necessary to say that without labor it is unthinkable existence itself. Awareness of the role of labor as a vital necessity formed a corresponding attitude towards it. Peasant work is difficult, associated with many inconveniences: getting up early, working in rain or snow, in mud and abyss - requires great physical exertion. All these difficulties were perceived by both the Little Child and the young men as inevitable, and they accepted them resignedly, although they probably dreamed of an easier life. Perhaps the fabulous Ivanushka and Emelya were the embodiment of this dream?

Patience, the ability to endure life's hardships, enjoy labor successes, experience quivering feelings at the sight of rising greenery in the fields - this is also a consequence of labor activity. Work from infancy brought up the mind and soul of a person.

Labor activity strengthened and hardened the growing organism, developed physical strength and endurance, which in turn manifested itself in labor.

The development of a serious, respectful attitude of children to work was facilitated by rituals associated with the main peasant work. Let's take a look at two of these.

The rite began agricultural work. The beginning of spring field work was given special importance, since the fate of the harvest and the well-being of the family largely depended on it. Therefore, there was a special ritual for starting work with various magical actions, the observance of which was supposed to guarantee the success of plowing and sowing, which means it was the key to a good harvest. In each village, this ritual was performed in its own way, but there were also common features. "Correct behavior at the" start "was to ensure success in the future, to prevent, according to the peasants, possible troubles and natural disasters," to help protect themselves from them by the whole world.

Before the beginning - the beginning of plowing, a meeting took place, at which a person was elected, the beginning of which, it was believed, would be "easy". We needed such a peasant who had a "light hand", a kind, good man, always a man: "God Himself has decreed that a peasant sows." Here they decided when to start sowing for everyone else: before lunch or tomorrow. Then they took out the bread and the icon, harnessed the horse to the plow and went to the field. The chosen peasant made three prostrations before the icon, then, bowing on all four sides, he made furrows through all the plots with a plow.

With community money, they ordered a religious procession in the church during sowing; on this day they usually did not work.

When the winter crops "went to growth", they could also serve a prayer service on the field. And then, right there on the field, they arranged a feast, where all the peasants were present.

Also, the day dedicated to the first cattle pasture, which took place on May 6, on the day of St. George the Victorious, whom researchers consider to have replaced the pagan Yarila, was arranged in a special way. The peasants believed that Egory himself, invisible to people, rides on his horse and grazes cattle, protecting them from animals, over which he also rules (it is known that grazing was always associated with the danger of an attack by an animal, which was full in the forests surrounding the village) . "Our Father, George, save and keep our cattle in dark forests, in liquid places from wild animals, from creeping snakes and from evil people. Amen."

Before this day, the children went from house to house with the song "Father Yegory" and collected bribes. Families performed a number of ritual actions aimed, as it was believed, at the preservation of livestock; for example, the owners pray, then go around their cattle with bread and salt, with the icon of St. George, saying: "Holy Egoriy, father, we hand over our cattle to you and ask you: save it from the fierce beast!" Then they put a lock and a key under the gate - so that the beast's mouth is as tightly locked as a lock is locked with a key. Driving the cattle out of the yard, they said: "Egory the brave, take my animal for the whole full summer and save it!"

The pasture of cattle began simultaneously in the whole community before dinner. From each yard, the children drove cows, sheep and pigs with willows, followed by the owner and mistress. When the herd gathered, the shepherd went around him three times, holding a carpet of bread on his head, and a whip on his shoulder. A healthy, flourishing young woman followed the shepherd, followed by the headman, also with a rug on her head. Then everyone prayed.

The shepherd gathered the whole herd more tightly and threw a stick over it: "Well, thank God, he threw all the diseases of our cattle through the whole herd." Well, after that, the boys played burners, running around the herd, which should have contributed to good milk yields. It was impossible to work that day.

On the day of St. Nicholas the Pleasant (May 22), the first pasture of horses was held at night. Village teenagers and a shepherd burned bonfires at night, baked potatoes in the ashes, games were started until dawn.

These days were followed by others, furnished with certain ritual actions: "Zazhin" - the beginning of the harvest; the beginning of haymaking, etc.

Let us ask ourselves: how did these rituals contribute to the labor education of children, since the ritual did not require the participation of children in labor? When they were performed, the children were once again imbued with the main concerns of the peasants - about a good harvest and the safety of livestock. Involving themselves in rituals related to agricultural affairs, adolescents mastered those ritual actions that, according to the peasants, contributed to good results of labor, called for the help of magical powers to ensure the well-being of the family along with everyday work. The seriousness with which the adults treated the described rituals aroused in the children an understanding of the great importance of the undertaking and developed in them the same serious attitude to work.

Participation of children in public works

Help. There were such village works that rallied, taught mutual assistance and support, brought to life such human qualities as mercy, generosity, responsiveness, conscientiousness.

This kind of work includes helping neighbors, fellow villagers who find themselves in a difficult situation: fire victims, orphans, widows, lonely old people, families of recruits, assistance during funerals, etc. For example, a peasant who suffered from a fire turned to the world with a request to help build a hut, and the society necessarily responded to the request: together they harvested logs in the forest, took them out and put up a house. The sick owner, who failed to prepare the seeds in time, could collect them for sowing on a basket from the yard and cultivate the land, sow the seeds.

This form of mutual assistance was called help. Usually help was in field work, when plowing the land, reaping for those who do not have a horse or do not have enough hands. The owner, as a rule, turned for help either to the community or to his close friends, neighbors and relatives. Rarely did anyone refuse to participate in the help, because every peasant understood that he himself could be in distress.

The peasants gathered for help not only when the owners appealed, but they themselves took the initiative if they saw the plight of the owners. Participation in helping was considered a moral obligation for everyone, an ordinary occurrence, and if someone refused to come to the rescue, then no one punished him, but society condemned him, and they rarely decided to act against public opinion.

They also attracted the help of young people because songs, jokes, and pranks were played already during work. And at the end of the work they could sing all night, ride the owner's horse, etc. The owner had his own ethics: he did not indicate to whom and how to work, he did not make comments, but was kind and affable, but the negligent were not invited the next time.

Here are some types of help:

Bribes - the erection of a log house, prepared by the owner, on the foundation, when the finished log house was dismantled, put in a prepared place, caulked.

Baking - folding an adobe stove, which was usually done by single guys and girls. These are youth aids, on which work was combined with a party. It was necessary to bring clay, then crush and tamp it down with boards, trample it underfoot. As a rule, this help was collected during the construction of a new hut.

Supryadki is spinning from wool, flax, hemp by women and girls. Usually they were arranged in families where there were few women or too many children. At first, yarn was prepared from raw materials; raw materials for this were sent in advance to women - acquaintances and relatives, they spun threads, sometimes each worked separately in her own hut, and often at common gatherings. Then an evening of supryadok was appointed, at which the spinners appeared with ready-made yarn and threads in their best outfits, and the hostess arranged a treat with songs and dances.

Couplings were also arranged as alternate help, in turn with many girls, when they gathered in one or another hut.

Toloka flax is mainly girlish and female help, although young guys could also participate in them. They gathered alternately in different huts, starting from the outer courtyard of the village, and were necessary because it was necessary to quickly process the collected flax. Girls and young women came with their crushers at night, worked until dawn by the light of a lantern or a tallow candle. Each worker had to process 100 sheaves during her work. All night they worked with songs, and during the day the owner treated them to dinner.

There were still many reasons for helping: when plowing, completing the harvest, haylofts - help in harvesting hay, woodsheds - when cutting down forests, cabbage - when salting cabbage, etc.

The child realized the need for mutual assistance very early, watching the life of his family, listening to the conversations of adults about the upcoming assistance and gradually getting involved in them. For him, as well as for adult peasants, help was a given, a necessity, so the obligation to participate in them was beyond doubt. So, from early childhood, kindness to people, readiness for mutual assistance and the desire to make life easier for their neighbors, relatives and those who simply need help were awakened in the soul of a person.

During the general work, quick wit, dexterity, virtuosity in individual cases were manifested. The opinion about the girl was also formed in appearance, she made a lot of her clothes herself, and this showed what kind of worker she was.

Joint work caused a great emotional upsurge among its participants, the young people not only worked here, but also rallied, got closer, got to know each other better, and songs and jokes evoked a joyful mood. All this colored hard work in major tones, and therefore participation in the help was not perceived as a heavy duty. Help was just characterized by the interweaving of labor and holiday elements.

Labor holidays. In mid-August, the period of grain harvesting ended. Harvest is a time of very hard work, when it was important to harvest in a short time with a minimum of losses, when it was impossible to delay the work deadlines - they were dictated by nature. It was at this time that the whole family was in the field: they were reaping, knitting sheaves, setting shocks, etc., work went on from dawn to dusk.

In the final days of work, help was carried out - "dozhinki", which organically merged with the holiday on the occasion of the end of the entire harvest. They could help a sick woman or orphans, the eldest of which is only 13-14 years old, i.е. for those who could not cope with the cleaning themselves. There was also help, to which relatives and close people were specially invited, and sometimes guys.

The joy at the successful completion of hard work was so great that it required a special holiday.

At the end of the work, the reapers rolled around the field so that their back would not hurt for the future reaping, with the words "nivka, nivka, give me back my snare." And there was certainly a ritual of curling the "beard", which has been preserved since ancient pagan times and aimed at restoring strength to the earth for the next year's harvest.

On the eve of the rite, they went around the house and, knocking on the window with a stick, invited: "Tomorrow to the beard!" Helpers came to the field early in the morning with their sickles and worked with songs and jokes until they had all the bread. And in some places the last sheaf was reaped silently; if someone speaks, that "groom will be blind." The last ears were left uncompressed, they were tied - this is the beard. They decorated it with ribbons, tied it with grass and bent it to the ground, lightly sprinkled it with it, put bread and salt under the beard, bowed low and said:

Here's a beard for you, Ilya, give us rye and oats!

After the “beard” was curled, with the last compressed sheaf - the “birthday man”, dressed up in a sundress, they left the field with songs. Many special songs were reserved for this occasion. The sheaf was solemnly brought into the owner's hut and placed under the icons, and then fed to cattle and poultry. In the owner's house, a treat was prepared for the arrival of the helpers and a feast began. After the treat, the girls with songs and dances walked around the village and called the owner; the guys were also here, sometimes on the owner's horses they rode along the street with songs and jokes.

Haymaking turned into a holiday - a difficult but fun time, lasting about a month at the height of summer, in July. Women dried the grass cut by mowers - turned it over, tousled it, raked it into a pile - dug, etc. They mowed the grass, dried it and put it in stacks, and then shared the finished hay heart to heart.

And everywhere it was necessary to know the rules of work, to feel when the hay is ready for laying in stacks; the rain added a lot of trouble. But under favorable weather conditions, hay harvesting is a pleasant agricultural job.

Warm nights, the fragrance of herbs in the meadows, bathing after the heat - all this created a festive mood.

All the participants, especially the girls, put on their best dresses, dressed up, and sang a lot while working. The meadow then turned into a place of festivities, where they danced, played the harmonicas, joked, where the girls showed off in front of the suitors. Often peasant families went to distant meadows, taking babies with them. They rested in huts, cooked food on fires. For dinner, several families united, after working in the meadow, the elders rested, and the young ones went for berries. They moved to huts outside the village even when the meadows were nearby; at this time, the youth remained in the meadows all the time for haymaking. Therefore, this time was looked forward to and, despite hard work, they considered it a holiday.

Autumn cabbages began the time of autumn evenings of youth. After the end of the cabbage harvest, the laborious work of salting it was ahead, for this the girls "kapustnitsy" were invited to it, and the guys came without an invitation to help the girls, and mainly to entertain the workers. It was necessary to chop, chop cabbage in one day, put it in tubs and lower it into the cellar. Sometimes up to 5,000 heads of cabbage were processed, then a lot of poochs were required - up to 200 girls. And they often gathered for cabbages and in a small composition, if there was not much cabbage. But the custom remained unchanged: work was combined with a holiday.

After they managed the work, the hostess invited everyone to the hut and put out refreshments for the youth. Here the fun began until the morning: songs, games, dances; they usually sang game songs, and they also performed laudatory ones, those that were sung at wedding parties in honor of unmarried relatives.

So, help, playing an important role in the economic life of the village, also meant a lot in fixing certain ethical norms, in preserving customs and shaping public opinion. Through help, economic skills and abilities were passed from generation to generation, the youth perceived the knowledge acquired by the elders in their practice. Here the reputation of the bride and groom was created, their advantages and disadvantages were revealed, and in the process of communication during the help, friendly affections were fixed.

Assessing the overall significance of child labor in the development of the individual, we note its enormous role in the development of physical and spiritual strength and in preparation for vigorous labor activity. The main feature of the labor of peasant children is seen in its attachment to all types of work of an adult peasant. That is how, entering into labor relations and duties, children gradually, step by step, were included in the main spheres of life, lived through its main stages even in childhood. They did not prepare for the future work, but lived it, were engaged in affairs significant for the family and society, at the same time mastering practical skills and abilities, giving out a certain product of work. Labor was not so much a means of education as the meaning of human life from an early age. Associated with the main areas of life, child labor ensured the multifaceted development of the individual and was the key to a person's success in independent adult life.

Literature

Konstantinov N.A., Medynsky E.N., Shabaev M.F., History of Pedagogy-M., Enlightenment, 1982

Kharlamov and. F. Pedagogy: Proc. allowance for university students and ped. in-comrade. - 2nd ed., revised. and additional - M .: Higher. school, 1990.

Kharlamov I.V. Pedagogy. Minsk., 1998.

Likhachev B.T. Lectures on pedagogy. M., 1995.

Bordovskaya N.V., Rean A.A. Pedagogy. Textbook for high schools. "Peter", 2000.

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