Then this picture testified to the hard life of the people under the yoke of autocracy. It's hard to say what it is today.
In the works mentioned, one should have quoted a poem by N.A. Nekrasov "On the Volga". It went without saying that the painting by I.E. Repin was, as it were, an illustration to this poem. And then there was an obvious inconsistency. Nekrasov wrote his poem in 1860, and it tells about the years even earlier, the 1830s. Meanwhile, the painting by I.E. Repin was written forty years later, in 1870. And according to the artist, it was not Nekrasov's poem that inspired him, but real barge haulers, whom he saw not far from St. Petersburg, on Izhora. But neither the teachers, nor, even more so, the students thought about this inconsistency.
There was another inconsistency. As if it goes without saying that "Barge haulers on the Volga" denounced the existing government. And therefore, the artist was automatically recorded almost as a revolutionist. In reality, however, things were quite different.
"Barge haulers on the Volga" I. Repin wrote at the age of 29, finishing his studies at the Academy of Arts. It was kind of like a graduation project. And at the same time - the first large, "real" picture.
Before Ilya Efimovich "fell ill" with the barge theme, he was preparing to present a painting on the biblical story "Job and his friends" at the graduation academic exhibition. This painting has already been completed. In 1869 I.E. Repin received a small gold medal for it, despite the name, a considerable reward.
The council of the Academy of Arts liked biblical stories, but they did not like paintings from “folk life”. So Repin took a risk by presenting an “unformatted” picture as evidence of his skill. Despite the fact that at the Academy of Arts he was loved and appreciated for his talent, they could have been released without a diploma, “ freelance artist". Who knows what would have happened in the voting?
And then the highest patron of the Academy of Arts came to the rescue, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. "Barge haulers" he certainly liked. So much so that he bought this painting. And having bought, sent to world exhibition in Vienna in 1873. Despite the objections of the then Minister of Railways that the picture of Mr. Repin exposes Russia to Europe in an unfavorable light.
“Well, what kind of hard thing pulled you to paint this ridiculous picture? - he reprimanded at a meeting with Ilya Efimovich. “Why, this antediluvian method of transport has already been reduced to zero and soon there will be no mention of it.”
And here the minister was right. Everywhere, including on the Volga, steamships replaced sailing boats, which, mainly, pulled the artels of barge haulers against the current.
Burlatsky labor until the middle of the 19th century was used en masse in the same Austria-Hungary for towing barges along marshy lowland rivers. The convicts were engaged in this very hard work, and they appointed fair criminals to it, which earlier, before the abolition in the empire death penalty would definitely hang.
And in the Hungarian national gallery a painting by a writer of everyday life is exhibited in Budapest village life Lajos Deák-Ébner (1850-1934), dated 1878. The painting depicts two peasant women. Harnessing themselves in a strap and exhausted, they pull a raft to the shore (on which, by the way, a man is standing). Such is female share, it would be just right for N.A. Nekrasov to work hard on her!
As you can see, the picture of I.E. Repina caused not indignation, but delight of members royal family. And subsequent orders, which provided the artist with a comfortable life and the title of academician. For example, the king Alexander III bought the painting "Sadko", and a large front picture"Meeting State Council Repin was also ordered.
Such liberalism was much surprised by the artist's admirers, who saw in "Barge Haulers" mainly a denunciation of power. Barge haulers were generally delighted Russian intelligentsia and somehow imperceptibly became a symbol of the people in general. Suffering, but rebellious and full of strength to fight. It is enough to read the enthusiastic lines of the weak N.G. Chernyshevsky about one of the heroes of his novel, strong not only in spirit, but also in body, who deliberately went to barge haulers.
“A year after the start of these studies, he went on his wandering and then had even more convenience to engage in the development of physical strength: he was a plowman, carpenter, carrier and worker in all kinds of healthy trades; once he even went through the entire Volga, from Dubovka to Rybinsk. To say that he wants to be a barge hauler would have seemed the height of absurdity to the owner of the ship and barge haulers, and they would not have accepted him; but he sat down simply as a passenger, having made friends with the artel, began to help pull the strap and a week later harnessed to it, as a real worker should; soon they noticed how he was pulling, they began to try his strength - he pulled three, even four of the most healthy of his comrades; then he was twenty years old, and his comrades in the strap christened him Nikitushka Lomov, after the memory of the hero, who had already left the stage then. The next summer he rode a steamboat; one of the common people crowding on the deck turned out to be his colleague last year on the strap, and in this way his student companions learned that he should be called Nikitushka Lomov. Indeed, he acquired and, sparing no time, maintained in himself an exorbitant strength. “So it is necessary,” he said, “it gives respect and love ordinary people. It's useful, it might come in handy."
"People", "ordinary people" - the concepts, of course, are very vague. It would be nice to analyze what class of "ordinary people" the barge haulers belonged to. Those described by N.A. Nekrasov, certainly were not peasants. In those years when the hero of the poem as a boy ran along the banks of the Volga, the peasants were enslaved. And if they left their native places, then only with the permission of the landowner and only to earn money. They would not go to barge haulers - the work is too hard, the pay is too low.
Again, barge work was seasonal. Home work- along the "big water", that is, in spring and autumn. At this time, what kind of peasant will leave the land? This means that the barge haulers were clearly not from the peasantry.
For the same reason - the seasonality of work and low pay - barge work could not attract either the townspeople or urban artisans.
It turns out that the lumpen-proletarians took up this hard work. That is, homeless vagrants and a needless erratic. For which the peasants, unlike the urban romantics, did not favor barge haulers. The word "barge hauler" in the village was used almost as a curse: "a brawler, a tramp, a walking person." In Ukrainian, this word also has a negative connotation. famous poem I. Kotlyarevsky "Aeneid", a funny alteration of the ancient Roman epic on contemporary to the poet Ukrainian way, it starts like this:
Eney buv motor lad
I lad hotch kudi Cossack
Udavsya on all evil nimble
The infamous one of all barge haulers.
I.E. Repin knew that he was lucky: “I was always distinguished quickly, and my beneficent fate did not skimp on bestowing glory on my works in art. Often I even felt ashamed of the undeservedness of my happiness.
As you can see, he was lucky with the highest patronage. He was also lucky with burlaks. He wrote famous painting when barge haulers were already "outgoing kind". With the advent of steamboats, no one needed their hard work. If the artist had been a year and a half late, there would have been one less masterpiece of Russian painting.
Burlak - hired worker in Russia XVI- the beginning of the 20th century, which, walking along the coast (along the so-called towpath), pulled a river vessel against the current with the help of a towline. In the 18th-19th centuries, the bark was the main type of vessel operated by barge workers. Burlatsky labor was seasonal. Boats were pulled along the "big water": in spring and autumn. To fulfill the order, barge haulers united in artels. The work of a barge hauler was extremely difficult and monotonous. The speed of movement depended on the strength of the tail or head wind. With a fair wind on the ship (bark), the sail was raised, which significantly accelerated the movement. Songs helped barge haulers maintain the pace of movement. One of the well-known burlak songs is “Oh, bludgeon, let’s go”, which was usually sung to coordinate the forces of the artel in one of the most difficult moments: pulling the bark from its place after lifting the anchor.
When Dostoevsky saw this painting by Ilya Repin “Barge haulers on the Volga”, familiar to us from childhood, he was very glad that the artist did not put any social protest into it. In the Writer's Diary, Fyodor Mikhailovich noted: “... barge haulers, real barge haulers and nothing more. None of them shouts from the picture to the viewer: “Look how unhappy I am and to what extent you owe the people!”
Dostoevsky could not even imagine how many platitudes would be said about this picture and what an invaluable document it would now be for those who want to understand the organization of labor of barge haulers.
1. Towpath
A trampled coastal strip along which barge haulers walked. Emperor Paul forbade the construction of fences and buildings here, but limited himself to this. Neither bushes, nor stones, nor swampy places were removed from the path of barge haulers, so the place painted by Repin can be considered an ideal section of the road.
2. Bump - foreman of barge haulers
He became a dexterous, strong and experienced person who knew many songs. In the artel, which Repin captured, Kanin, a pop-cut, was the bump (the sketches were preserved, where the artist indicated the names of some characters). The foreman swooped, that is, fastened his strap, ahead of everyone and set the rhythm of movement. The barge haulers did each step synchronously with the right foot, then pulling up the left. From this, the whole artel swayed on the move. If someone lost his stride, people collided with their shoulders, and the bump gave the command "hay - straw", resuming movement in step. To keep the rhythm on the narrow paths over the cliffs, the foreman required great skill.
Subshishelnye- the closest helpers of the bumps, swooping to the right and left of him. By left hand from Kanin comes Ilka the sailor - the artel headman, who bought provisions and gave the barge haulers their salaries. At the time of Repin, it was small - 30 kopecks a day. So much, for example, it cost to cross all of Moscow in a cab, driving from Znamenka to Lefortovo. Behind the backs of the podshishelnyh roamed those in need of special control.
"Bondage", like a man with a pipe, even at the beginning of the journey they managed to squander the salary for the entire flight. Being indebted to the artel, they worked for food and did not try very hard.
A cook and a falcon headman(that is, responsible for the cleanliness of the latrine on the ship) was the youngest of the haulers - the village guy Larka, who experienced real hazing. Considering his duties to be more than sufficient, Larka sometimes quarreled and defiantly refused to pull the strap.
"Hackers"
In each artel there were also simply negligent ones, like this man with a pouch. On occasion, they were not averse to shifting part of the burden onto the shoulders of others.
7. "Overseer"
Behind them came the most conscientious barge haulers, goading the hacks.
8. Inert or inert
Inert or inert - the so-called barge hauler, closing the movement. He made sure that the line did not cling to the stones and bushes on the shore. Inert usually looked at his feet and moored apart so that he could go at his own pace. Experienced, but sick or weak, were chosen as inert ones.
9-10. Bark and flag
Type of bar. Elton salt, Caspian fish and seal fat, Ural iron and Persian goods (cotton, silk, rice, dried fruits) were transported up the Volga. The artel was recruited according to the weight of the loaded vessel at the rate of approximately 250 pounds per person. The cargo, which is pulled up the river by 11 barge haulers, weighs at least 40 tons.
The order of the stripes on the flag was not treated very carefully, and often raised upside down, as here.
11 and 13. Pilot and water spout
Pilot- the man on the steering wheel, in fact, the captain of the ship. He earns more than the entire artel put together, gives instructions to barge haulers and maneuvers both the rudder and the blocks that regulate the length of the tow line. Now the bark is making a turn, bypassing the stranded.
Waterfall - carpenter who caulks and repairs the ship, monitors the safety of the goods, bears financial responsibility for it during loading and unloading. Under the contract, he does not have the right to leave the bark during the voyage and replaces the owner, leading on his behalf.
15. Carving on bark
Since the 16th century, it was customary to decorate the Volga bark with intricate carvings. It was believed that she helped the ship to rise against the current. The best specialists in clumsy work in the country were engaged in bark work. When steamboats pushed wooden barges out of the river in the 1870s, the craftsmen dispersed in search of work, and in wooden architecture A thirty-year era of magnificent carved architraves has begun in Central Russia. Later, highly skilled carving gave way to more primitive stencil sawing.
Barge Haulers on the Volga. View from the ship.
There were also women's artels:
Barge haulers were not only in Russia
IN Western Europe(for example, in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, as well as in Italy), the movement of river vessels with the help of manpower and draft animals continued until the thirties of the XX century. But in Germany, the use of manpower ceased already in the second half of the 19th century.
Was it hard for the barge haulers?
Not a single river in the world knew such a scale of burlachka as the Volga. main reason This is purely physical: almost on the entire navigable part of the river, the speed of the current is not too high. Below we will show a direct relationship between the flow velocity and physical activity per each barge hauler.
Barge haulers worked most actively on the section from Rybinsk to Astrakhan, 2645 km long.
Repin shows a gang of barge haulers (11 people) walking along a sandbar on a windless sunny day. The course of the "scourge" usually began above the mouth of the Kama. A strong rope 3 inches (~ 7.5 cm) thick and about 100 fathoms (~ 214 m) long was called a whip rope. The length of the scourge was chosen so that it was possible to navigate the vessel in a sufficiently deep place. At the same time, the value of the angle ahor (Fig. 1) should not lead to large losses in the work performed.
I.E. Repin accurately indicated the place of fastening of the scourge (the upper part of the mast) and its sagging. It would seem that the whip must be stretched, and it must be fixed in such a way that the angle avert (Fig. 2) is as close as possible to 90°. Everything would be so if the bicheva was weightless. In fact, the weight of such a rope was at least 2500-3000 N, and by attaching the rope to the top of the mast ~ 30 m high, barge haulers “hung” the bulk of the weight on the mast. It is no coincidence that barge haulers did not like it when Bicheva began to "trumpet", i.e. when you had to walk along a high bank, and the place of fastening of the scourge turned out to be lower than the barge path - the "scourge". However, this rarely happened, because. the dimensions of the vessel, its carrying capacity and the height of the mast were chosen empirically, taking into account the height of the banks and the depth of the Volga channel.
It is not difficult to determine the type of vessel in the picture - this is the famous Volga bark. The length of the most common barn with a carrying capacity of 20,000 pounds was L "25m, width B" 7.5m, draft T "1.8 m, mast height H" 30m, the length of the line (attached to the mast of the crossbar) necessary for the movement of the vessel under sail, also equaled ~ 30 m.
The distance from Astrakhan to Nizhny Novgorod (2172 km) was covered by loaded barks in 2.5-3 months, trying mainly to move under sail. On calm days in the lower reaches of the Volga, with fast flood waters, the ships moved in feed (Fig. 3). In this case, anchors were brought in front of the vessel, and the bark was pulled up to them with the help of a rope pulled by barge haulers walking along the deck. At the same time, a rope was taken 4-5 times longer and 1.5 times thicker than a tow rope, but its weight did not complicate the work too much. During the feed, there are practically no losses in the work performed due to a different geometry of the application of forces. Nevertheless, it is well known that barge haulers preferred the scourging move. Obviously, extra work associated with the delivery of anchors, was very burdensome.
we are trying to give a quantitative assessment of the severity of barge work. Since the ship is moving at a constant speed, the projection of the thrust force on the direction of movement is equal to the resistance force of the water flow:
Fthrust = Fresist.
In Bernoulli's reference book Sputnik Mekhanika (Vade Mecum), first translated and published in Russia in 1864, one can find the following statement: "The resistance to the movement of a ship is proportional to the submerged part of the largest cross-section of the ship, as well as to the square of the speed of the ship." Let us derive the corresponding formula in modern notation. Qualitatively, it is obtained if we recall that, according to Newton's 2nd law, the force is equal to the change in momentum per unit time. Let us write the momentum of the water flow transmitted during the time Dt, incident orthogonally on a plate of area S immersed in water, in the form:
P = mv = rVv = rSchDtchvchv = rSv2Dt.
Here r is the density of water, v is the velocity of the water flow. Hence the resistance force is:
F = (Cx/2)rSv2.
The dimensionless coefficient Cx is determined experimentally for each particular ship and depends on the streamlining. In modern real calculations, using several dimensionless parameters, the friction of water on the entire wetted surface is also taken into account. However, the above formula suffices to estimate.
When the bark moves against the current, it should be remembered that the speed of the water flow that resists movement is equal to the sum of the speed of the river flow v1 and the speed of barge haulers v2.
Specific values of the speed of the Volga during the time of Repin can be found in the dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron. In spring, in May, the current speed changed from 2.5 ft/s in the upper reaches to 7.7 ft/s below Saratov. In summer, these figures decreased to 1.5 ft/s and 3 ft/s, respectively. On stretches, flat sections of the river, convenient for navigation, it is possible to accept a current speed of 2.3 ft / s. From the descriptions of the work of barge haulers, it follows that “without wind, with a scourge” they overcame from 5 to 10 versts a day along the coast. Thus, their speed was 0.3-0.6 ft/s. If we take a larger value, then the calculations using the Bernoulli formula, which we do not give, show that the force of resistance to the movement of the bark on the Volga reaches was approximately 2400 N.
To this figure it is necessary to add the resistance created by the rudder, which must always be kept at a certain angle to the direction of the current, otherwise the bark would stick into the shore. For a flat plate, the dimensionless coefficient Cx = 1.1, the rudder area Srudder = 6 m2, and, assuming arudder = 10°, we find by the formula:
Fresist rudder = (Cx/2)rЧSЧsin arudder Вv2,
so the additional rudder resistance is about 400 N.
The traction force of barge haulers (in accordance with Fig. 1 and 2) is calculated by the formula:
Fthrust = Fresist/(cos agorchsin avert).
It is impossible to establish the exact value of these angles from the picture of I.E. Repin, but approximately, knowing the length of the bicheva, the distance from the barge path to the navigable channel (~ 100 m) and the height of the mast, we can consider the product
cos agorch sin avert \u003d 0.7-0.8.
Consequently, the traction force of barge haulers is equal to 3500-4000 N. With a gang of 10-11 people, the load on each barge hauler is 320-380 N.
Anyone who wants to feel "in the shoes" of a burlak should make a burlak strap - a leather belt 3 arshins long (213.36 cm) and 4 inches wide (17.78 cm) with ends sewn together, throw it over a block, rigidly fixed on a support at chest level, and fasten a load of 40 kg (weight 400 N) at the other end. If you throw the rope over the block, put the strap on your chest and start moving in such a way as to lift the load, you will feel about the same load that the hauler experienced. Taking into account the fact that the working day of barge haulers lasted from dawn to dusk (with a short break), it turns out that it was really difficult to work as a barge hauler! Note that the main contribution to the resistance is made by the flow of the river, so a decrease in the current speed by 25% reduces the load by 44%, and an increase by the same amount leads to an increase in the load by 56%.
Ancient measures of length and weight
1 sazhen \u003d 3 arshins \u003d 12 quarters \u003d 7 feet \u003d 2.1336 m;
1 arshin \u003d 4 quarters \u003d 16 inches \u003d 0.7112 m;
1 verst = 500 fathoms = 1066.8 m;
1 m = 2.38 ft;
1 kg of weight = 2.4419 Russian pounds;
1 pound = 16 kg of weight.
Via
Artel barge haulers
These images of unfortunate ragamuffins earning a living by overwork are familiar to everyone from school textbooks. Barge haulers in the XVI-XIX centuries. were hired workers who, with the help of tow lines, pulled river boats against the current. Barge haulers united in artels of 10-45 people, there were also women's artels. Despite hard work, during the season (in spring or autumn) barge haulers could earn enough to live comfortably for six months later. Because of the need and poor harvests, peasants sometimes went to barge haulers, but mostly vagrants and the homeless were engaged in such work.
There were also women's artels
I. Shubin claims that in the XIX century. the work of barge haulers looked like this: a large drum with a cable wound around it was installed on barges. People got into the boat, took with them the end of the cable with three anchors and sailed upstream. There they threw anchors into the water one by one. Burlaks on a barge pulled a cable from bow to stern, winding it around a drum. In this way they "pulled" the barge upstream: they went back, and the deck under their feet moved forward. Having wound the cable, they again went to the bow of the ship and did the same. It was necessary to pull along the shore only when the ship ran aground. That is, the episode depicted by Repin is an isolated case.
The ship could be pulled upstream with cables
The section of the road shown in the picture can be called the same exception to the rule. The towpath - the coastal strip along which barge haulers moved, was not built up with buildings and fences by order of Emperor Paul, but there were plenty of bushes, stones and swampy places. The deserted and flat coast depicted by Repin is an ideal section of the path, which in fact was not much.
The work of barge haulers was unbearably hard
The painting "Barge haulers on the Volga" was painted in 1870-1873, when steamboats replaced sailing boats, and the need for barge haulers disappeared. Also in mid-nineteenth V. the labor of barge haulers began to be replaced by machine traction. That is, at that time the theme of the picture could no longer be called relevant. Therefore, a scandal erupted when Repin's Barge Haulers were sent to the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873. Russian minister way of communication was indignant: “Well, what a difficult thing pulled you to paint this ridiculous picture? Why, this antediluvian method of transport has already been reduced to zero by me and soon there will be no mention of it! However, Repin was patronized by the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich himself, who not only spoke approvingly of the artist's work, but even acquired it for his personal collection.
Artel barge haulers
"Barge haulers" Repin wrote at the age of 29, finishing his studies at the Academy of Arts. At the end of the 1860s. he went to study in Ust-Izhora, where he was struck by the artel of barge haulers he saw on the shore. To learn more about the characters he was interested in, Repin settled for the summer in Samara region. His research cannot be called serious, which he himself admitted: “I must admit frankly that I was not at all interested in the issue of life and the social system of contracts between barge haulers and owners; I questioned them only to give some seriousness to my case. To tell the truth, I even absent-mindedly listened to some story or detail about their relationship to the owners and these blood-sucking boys.
I. Repin. Barge Haulers on the Volga. Fragment: ahead was *bump*, next to it - *podshishelnye*
Nevertheless, "Barge haulers on the Volga" quite accurately reproduce the hierarchy of hired workers.
1. Towpath
A trampled coastal strip along which barge haulers walked. Emperor Paul forbade the construction of fences and buildings here, but limited himself to this. Neither bushes, nor stones, nor swampy places were removed from the path of barge haulers, so the place painted by Repin can be considered an ideal section of the road.
2. Bump - foreman of barge haulers
He became a dexterous, strong and experienced person who knew many songs. In the artel, which Repin captured, Kanin, a pop-cut, was the bump (the sketches were preserved, where the artist indicated the names of some characters). The foreman swooped, that is, fastened his strap, ahead of everyone and set the rhythm of movement. The barge haulers did each step synchronously with the right foot, then pulling up the left. From this, the whole artel swayed on the move. If someone lost his stride, people collided with their shoulders, and the bump gave the command "hay - straw", resuming movement in step. To keep the rhythm on the narrow paths over the cliffs, the foreman required great skill.
3. Podshishelnye - the closest helpers of the bumps
On the left hand of Kanin is Ilka the sailor, the headman of the artel, who bought provisions and gave the barge haulers their salaries. At the time of Repin, it was small - 30 kopecks a day. So much, for example, it cost to cross all of Moscow in a cab, driving from Znamenka to Lefortovo. Behind the backs of the podshishelnyh roamed those in need of special control.
4. "Bondage"
The "enslaved", like this man with a pipe, even at the beginning of the journey managed to squander the salary for the entire flight. Being indebted to the artel, they worked for food and did not try very hard.
5. Cook Stall
The cook and falcon headman (that is, responsible for the cleanliness of the latrine on the ship) was the youngest of the barge haulers - the village guy Larka, who experienced real hazing. Considering his duties to be more than sufficient, Larka sometimes quarreled and defiantly refused to pull the strap.
6. "Hackers"
In each artel there were also simply negligent ones, like this man with a pouch. On occasion, they were not averse to shifting part of the burden onto the shoulders of others.
7. "Overseer"
Behind them came the most conscientious barge haulers, goading the hacks.
8. Inert or inert
Inert or inert - the so-called barge hauler, closing the movement. He made sure that the line did not cling to the stones and bushes on the shore. Inert usually looked at his feet and moored apart so that he could go at his own pace. Experienced, but sick or weak, were chosen as inert ones.
9-10. Bark and flag
Type of bar. Elton salt, Caspian fish and seal fat, Ural iron and Persian goods (cotton, silk, rice, dried fruits) were transported up the Volga. The artel was recruited according to the weight of the loaded vessel at the rate of approximately 250 pounds per person. The cargo, which is pulled up the river by 11 barge haulers, weighs at least 40 tons.
The order of the stripes on the flag was not taken very seriously, and was often raised upside down, as here.
11 and 13. Pilot and water spout
A pilot is a person on the steering wheel, in fact, the captain of the ship. He earns more than the entire artel put together, gives instructions to barge haulers and maneuvers both the rudder and the blocks that regulate the length of the tow line. Now the bark is making a turn, bypassing the stranded.
Water dispenser - a carpenter who caulks and repairs the ship, monitors the safety of the goods, bears financial responsibility for it during loading and unloading. Under the contract, he does not have the right to leave the bark during the voyage and replaces the owner, leading on his behalf.
12 and 14. Line and sail
Becheva - a cable to which barge haulers rush. While the barge was being led along the steep, that is, near the shore, the line was etched for 30 meters. But then the pilot loosened it, the bark moves away from the shore. In a minute, the towline will stretch like a string and barge haulers will first have to restrain the inertia of the ship, and then pull with all their might.
At this moment, the cone will tighten the chorus:
"Here, let's go and take it,
Right-left stepped in.
Oh one more time
One more time, one more time..."
and so on until the artel enters the rhythm and moves forward.
15. Carving on bark
Since the 16th century, it was customary to decorate the Volga bark with intricate carvings. It was believed that she helped the ship to rise against the current. The best specialists in clumsy work in the country were engaged in bark work. When in the 1870s steamboats forced wooden barges out of the river, the craftsmen dispersed in search of work, and the thirty-year era of magnificent carved architraves began in the wooden architecture of Central Russia. Later, highly skilled carving gave way to more primitive stencil sawing.
I. Repin. Barge Haulers on the Volga. Fragment: on the left - *bondage*, on the right - a cook Stall
Despite the existence of real prototypes, in academic circles, "Barge Haulers" was called "the greatest profanity of art", "the sober truth of miserable reality." Journalists wrote that Repin embodied "skinny ideas transferred to the canvas from newspaper articles ... from which realists will draw their inspiration." At the exhibition in Vienna, too, many greeted the picture with bewilderment. One of the first to appreciate the picture was F. Dostoevsky, whose admiring reviews were later picked up by art connoisseurs.
When Dostoevsky saw this painting by Ilya Repin, he was very glad that the artist did not put any social protest into it.
In the Writer's Diary, Fyodor Mikhailovich noted:
“... barge haulers, real barge haulers and nothing more. Not one of them shouts from the picture to the viewer: “Look how unhappy I am and to what extent you owe the people!” And this alone can be put in greatest merit artist. Glorious, familiar figures: the two advanced barge haulers almost laugh, at least they don't cry at all, and certainly don't think about their social position. The soldier is cunning and false, he wants to fill his pipe. The boy is serious, screaming, even quarreling - an amazing figure, almost the best in the picture and equal in design to the rearmost barge hauler, a downcast peasant, weaving especially, whose face is not even visible ...
After all, it is impossible not to love them, these defenseless ones, it is impossible to leave without loving them. It is impossible not to think that he owes, really owes to the people... After all, this burlatskaya "party" will be dreamed of later, in fifteen years it will be remembered! And if they weren’t so natural, innocent and simple, they wouldn’t make such an impression and wouldn’t make such a picture.
Dostoevsky could not even imagine how many platitudes would be said about this picture and what an invaluable document it would now be for those who want to understand the organization of labor of barge haulers.
By the way, did you know that today Repin is called one of the most mysterious figures in the history of painting?
His work was accompanied by one whole strange circumstance - many who were lucky enough to become his sitters soon went to another world. And although in each of the cases there were some objective reasons for death, the coincidences are alarming ...
“Beware of the painter’s brush - his portrait may turn out to be more alive than the original,” wrote Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim back in the 15th century. The work of the great Russian artist Ilya Repin was proof of this. Pirogov, Pisemsky, Mussorgsky, the French pianist Mercy d "Argento and other sitters became the "victims" of the artist. As soon as the master began to paint a portrait of Fyodor Tyutchev, the poet died. Even the healthy men who posed for Repin for the painting "Barge haulers on the Volga", according to rumors, prematurely gave their souls to God.
Today this picture is known as "Ivan the Terrible kills his son." It was with this picture that Repina happened creepy story. When it was exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery, the canvas made a strange impression on visitors: some fell into a stupor in front of the picture, others sobbed, and others had hysterical fits. Even the most balanced people felt uncomfortable in front of the picture: there was too much blood on the canvas, it looked very realistic.
On January 16, 1913, the young icon painter Abram Balashov cut the painting with a knife, for which he was sent to the "yellow" house, where he died. The painting has been restored. But the tragedy didn't end there. The artist Myasoedov, who posed for Repin for the image of the tsar, almost killed his son in a fit of anger, and the writer Vsevolod Garshin, the sitter for Tsarevich Ivan, went crazy and committed suicide.
"Ceremonial meeting of the State Council"
I.E. Repin. "The ceremonial meeting of the State Council" (1903)
In 1903 Ilya Repin completed monumental painting"Ceremonial meeting of the State Council". And in 1905, the First Russian Revolution happened, during which many government officials depicted in the picture laid down their heads. So, the former Governor-General of Moscow, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and Minister V.K. Plehve were killed by terrorists.
Portrait of Prime Minister Stolypin
I.E. Repin. "Portrait of Prime Minister Stolypin"
The writer Korney Chukovsky recalled: “When Repin painted my portrait, I jokingly told him that if I were a little more superstitious, I would never have dared to pose for him, because an ominous power lurks in his portraits: almost everyone whom he writes, in the next few days he dies. Wrote Mussorgsky - Mussorgsky died immediately. Wrote Pisemsky - Pisemsky died. And Pirogov? And Mercy d'Argento? And as soon as he wanted to paint a portrait of Tyutchev for Tretyakov, Tyutchev fell ill in the same month and soon died.
The humorist O. L. d "Or, who was present at this conversation, said in an imploring voice:
- In that case, Ilya Efimovich, do me a favor, please write to Stolypin!
Everyone laughed. Stolypin was prime minister at that time, and we hated him. Several months have passed. Repin told me:
- And this Or of yours turned out to be a prophet. I am going to write Stolypin by order of the Saratov Duma.
Repin did not immediately give his consent to the proposal to paint a portrait of the Prime Minister, he was looking for a variety of pretexts to refuse. But the Saratov Duma fulfilled all the requirements set by the artist, and it was simply inconvenient to refuse.
The artist decided to depict Stolypin not as a courtier in a uniform with orders and all the regalia, but in an ordinary suit. The portrait is evidence that Repin was interested in a person, and not a state person. Officiality and solemnity of the portrait gives only a dark red background.
After the first session, Repin told his friends: “Strange: the curtains in his office are red, like blood, like fire. I am writing it against this bloody fiery background. But he does not understand that this is the background of the revolution ... ”As soon as Repin finished the portrait, Stolypin left for Kyiv, where he was killed. “Thanks to Ilya Efimovich!”, the Satyricons joked evilly.
In 1918, the portrait entered the Radishevsky Museum of Saratov and has been there ever since.
"Portrait of the pianist Countess Louise Mercy d * Argento"
I.E. Repin. "Portrait of the pianist Countess Louise Mercy d * Argento" (1890)
Another "victim" of Repin was Countess Louise Mercy d "Argento, whose portrait Repin painted in 1890. True, one should not forget that at that time the Frenchwoman, who first introduced the Western public to the music of the young Russian school, was seriously ill and even I couldn't pose while sitting.
Portrait of Mussorgsky
I.E. Repin. "Portrait of Mussorgsky
The portrait of the great composer Modest Mussorgsky was painted by Repin in just four days - from March 2 to March 4, 1881. The composer died on March 6, 1881. True, it is hardly appropriate to talk about mysticism here. The artist arrived at the Nikolaevsky military hospital immediately after he learned about the fatal illness of a friend in the winter of 1881. He immediately hurried to him to write lifetime portrait. Here, fans of mysticism clearly confuse cause with effect.
These are mystical and not very stories associated with the paintings of Ilya Repin.
Well, then let's find out what kind of famous folk "Repin's painting - Sailed!"
The expression “Repin’s painting “Sailed” has become a real idiom that characterizes a stalemate. The picture, which has become part of folklore, really exists. But Ilya Repin has nothing to do with her.
The painting, which popular rumor ascribes to Repin, was created by the artist Lev Grigorievich Solovyov (1839-1919). The painting is called “Monks. We didn't go there." The picture was painted in the 1870s, and until 1938 it entered the Sumy Art Museum.
“Monks. We didn't go there." L. Solovyov.
In the 1930s, the painting hung at a museum exhibition next to paintings by Ilya Repin, and visitors decided that this painting also belongs to the great master. And then they also assigned a sort of “folk” name - “Sailed”.
The plot of Solovyov's painting is based on the bathing scene. Someone else is undressing on the shore, someone is already in the water. Several women in the painting, beautiful in their nakedness, enter the water. Central figures paintings - dumbfounded by unexpected meeting monks whose boat was brought to the bathers by a treacherous current.
The young monk froze with oars in his hands, not knowing how to react. The elderly shepherd smiles - “They say they have sailed!” The artist miraculously managed to convey emotions and amazement on the faces of the participants in this meeting.
Lev Solovyov - artist from Voronezh - a wide range fans of painting little sign. According to the information that came about him, he was a modest, industrious, philosophical man. He liked to paint everyday scenes from the life of ordinary people and landscapes.
Very few works of this artist have survived to our time: several sketches in the Russian Museum, two paintings in the gallery of Ostrogozhsk and conversation piece"Shoemakers" in the Tretyakov Gallery.
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In a strangled whisper, secretly yells
The main admirer of the Uspenskys, a connoisseur of Korolenok:
"Poor people!" - as if somewhere saw the people!
Oh, how many wonderful discoveries the spirit of enlightenment prepares for us! Especially if you want to enlighten yourself, and not under the dictation of ideologically seasoned teachers.
I don't know if today's Russian schoolchildren write essays based on I.E. Repin's painting "Barge haulers on the Volga", as Soviet schoolchildren wrote in their time. Then this picture testified to the hard life of the people under the yoke of autocracy. It's hard to say what it is today.
In the works mentioned, one should have quoted N.A. Nekrasov's poem "On the Volga". Of course, it turned out that the picture of I.E. Repin was, as it were, an illustration of this poem. And here an obvious inconsistency became clear. Nekrasov wrote his poem in 1860, and it tells about even earlier years, the 1830s. Meanwhile, the painting by I.E. Repin was painted forty years later, in 1870. And according to the artist, it was not Nekrasov's poem that inspired him, but real barge haulers, whom he saw not far from St. Petersburg, on Izhora. But neither the teachers, nor - even more so - the students thought about this inconsistency.
There was another inconsistency that the Soviet teachers probably did not know about. And if they knew, then the students were not told about it. It would be self-evident that "Barge haulers on the Volga" denounced the existing government. And therefore, the artist was automatically recorded almost in the revolutionaries. In reality, however, things were quite different.
"Barge haulers on the Volga" I. Repin wrote at the age of 29, finishing his studies at the Academy of Arts. It was his graduation work. Kind of like a graduation project. And, at the same time, the first large, "real" picture.
Before Ilya Efimovich "fell ill" with the barge subject, he was preparing to present two paintings on biblical stories. One of these paintings, "Job and his friends", has already been completed and, as they say, tested. In 1869, I.E. Repin received a Small Gold Medal for it, despite the name, the award is not small.
The Council of the Academy of Arts liked Biblical stories, but pictures from "folk life" did not. So Repin took a lot of risks by presenting an "unformatted" picture as evidence of his skill. Despite the fact that at the Academy of Arts he was loved and appreciated for his talent, they could have been released without a diploma, as a "free artist". Who knows what would have happened in the voting?
And then the highest patron of the Academy of Arts, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, came to the rescue. "Barge haulers" he certainly liked. So much so that he bought this painting. And having bought it, he sent it to the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873. Despite the objections of the then Minister of Railways that the picture of Mr. Repin exposes Russia to Europe in an unfavorable light. "Well, what kind of hard thing pulled you to paint this ridiculous picture?" - He reprimanded at a meeting Ilya Efimovich. - "Why, this antediluvian method of transport has already been reduced to zero and soon there will be no mention of it"
And here the minister was right. Everywhere, including on the Volga, steamships replaced sailing boats, which, mainly, pulled the artels of barge haulers against the current.
The minister did not know that until the middle of the 19th century, burlatsky labor was used en masse in the same Austria-Hungary for towing barges along swampy flat rivers. The convicts were engaged in this very hard work, and they appointed hefty criminals to it, who would have been hanged before the abolition of the death penalty in the empire.
And in the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest, a painting by a writer of village life is exhibited Lajos Deák-Ébner (1850-1934) dated 1878. The painting depicts two peasant women. Harnessing themselves in a strap and exhausted, they pull a raft to the shore (on which, by the way, a man is standing). Such is the female fate, it would be just right for N.A. Nekrasov to grieve over her!
As you can see, the picture of I.E. Repin caused not indignation, but delight of the members of the royal family. And subsequent orders, which provided the artist with a comfortable life and the title of academician. For example, Tsar Alexander III bought the painting "Sadko", and the large front painting "Meeting of the State Council" was also ordered from Repin. Such liberalism was much surprised by the artist's admirers, who saw in "Barge Haulers" mainly a denunciation of the authorities.
Barge haulers generally aroused the delight of the Russian intelligentsia and somehow imperceptibly became a symbol of the people in general. Suffering, but rebellious and full of strength to fight. It is enough to read the enthusiastic lines of the weak N.G. Chernyshevsky about one of the heroes of his novel, strong not only in spirit, but also in body, who deliberately went to barge haulers.
A year after the beginning of these studies, he set off on his wanderings and then had even more convenience to engage in the development of physical strength: he was a plowman, carpenter, carrier and worker in all kinds of healthy trades; once he even went through the entire Volga, from Dubovka to Rybinsk. To say that he wants to be a barge hauler would have seemed the height of absurdity to the owner of the ship and barge haulers, and they would not have accepted him; but he sat down simply as a passenger, having made friends with the artel, began to help pull the strap and a week later harnessed to it, as a real worker should; they soon noticed how he was pulling, they began to try his strength - he pulled three, even four of the most healthy of his comrades; then he was twenty years old, and his comrades in the strap christened him Nikitushka Lomov, after the memory of the hero, who had already left the stage then. The next summer he rode a steamboat; one of the common people crowding on the deck turned out to be his colleague last year on the strap, and in this way his student companions learned that he should be called Nikitushka Lomov. Indeed, he acquired and, sparing no time, maintained in himself an exorbitant strength. “So it is necessary,” he said, “it gives the respect and love of ordinary people. It's useful, it might come in handy."
"People", "ordinary people" - the concepts, of course, are very vague. It would be nice to analyze what class of "ordinary people" the barge haulers belonged to. Those described by N.A. Nekrasov were certainly not peasants. Let's start with the fact that in those years when the hero of the poem as a boy ran along the banks of the Volga, the peasants were enslaved. And if they left their native places, then only with the permission of the landowner and only to earn money. They would not go to barge haulers - the work is too hard, the pay is too low.
Again, barge work was seasonal. The main work is on the "big water", that is, in spring and autumn. At this time, what kind of peasant will leave the land? This means that the barge haulers were clearly not from the peasantry.
For the same reason - the seasonality of work and low pay - barge work could not attract either the townspeople or urban artisans.
It turns out that the lumpen-proletarians took up this hard work. That is, homeless vagrants and erratic hell. For which the peasants, unlike the urban romantics, did not favor barge haulers. The word "barge hauler" in the village was used almost as a curse: "a brawler, a tramp, a walking person." In Ukrainian, this word also has a negative connotation. The famous poem by I. Kotlyarevsky "Aeneid", a reworking of the ancient Roman epic into a modern Ukrainian way for the poet, begins just like this:
Eney buv motor lad
I lad hotch kudi Cossack
Udavsya on all evil nimble
The infamous one of all barge haulers.
I.E. Repin knew that he was lucky: " I have always been distinguished quickly, and my beneficent fate did not skimp on bestowing glory on my works in art. Often I even felt ashamed of the undeservedness of my happiness.". As you can see, he was lucky with the highest patronage. He was also lucky with barge haulers. He painted the famous picture when barge haulers were already "outgoing nature." With the advent of steamboats, no one needed their hard work. a masterpiece of Russian painting would be less.
P.S. Is it possible to "by eye" determine the year of publication of the poster about "the fulfillment of the people's dream"? Can. In the headline of the Pravda newspaper, which lies on the table, there is one order. Such a party newspaper could only be between 1945, when it was awarded the Order of Lenin, and 1962, when, in connection with the anniversary, it received a second Order of Lenin. The poster was published in 1950. Its author is Alexander Ivanovich Lavrov.
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Non-agricultural crafts were a common and forced matter for the Trans-Volga peasants. P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky, who himself grew up in these parts, wrote: “In the forest Trans-Volga, the land is cold, unborn, a peasant only has enough of his bread until butter week, and then in harvest year. No matter how you fight on the allotment strip, no matter how much suffering you take on it, you cannot feed yourself with labor bread all year round.
The peasants of the Chistopol volost, which included the village of Popovo, also could not feed themselves on rural labor alone. According to the RGIA, in 1811 they collected only 9393 quarters of rye, and the need, according to the most conservative estimates, was 13164 quarters.
If the peasants with allotments could not do without fishing, then the landless Pyotr Yegorov simply had no other choice. What business to choose? The crafts were local and outhouses. Of course, local crafts were preferable both for the authorities and for the peasants themselves. The traditional Trans-Volga craft was felt-shoe and hat making. With the onset of the first winter journey, whole families of peasants left for different provinces to sell hats prepared during the summer. Peter, working for his master in Popov, mastered this skill thoroughly, but he did not have his own workshop. And then the crisis of the Zavolzhsky hat production came. Knyaginin's competitors pressed. The same Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov reflected this process in his novel “In the Forests”: “Now the Volga hat has completely approached. Throw it away completely, the demand is small, there was almost no sales at all ... Most of all, the cap did the most trouble ... They managed to adopt the cap from the Germans who were baptized. The cheap cap has supplanted the more valuable ancient hat.”
And Pyotr Yegorovich had to go to the outhouse. This was also not easy, because the “withdrawal” required a “passport”, for which it was necessary to pay a lot of money to the state, and even a bribe to an official. Acting Governor-General of Nizhny Novgorod and Penza province As early as the 18th century, Prince Vyazemsky reported to his superiors that “passports are given to peasants to support their work with an excellent payment against the price put into the treasury,” i.e. for a bribe. It was all the more difficult for the Old Believers to achieve the rectification of such a document, from whom, without that, any tax was levied at a double rate. But there was nowhere to go, Peter pulled himself up, straightened his "passport" and, leaving his young wife in the care of his mother-in-law, went to the Volga. In burlaki.
Burlatsky craft, at that time, was the last refuge of the poor. The attitude to this occupation in society was dismissive. Barge haulers were treated like outcasts. Professor of History N. Ya. Aristov in the study “On historical significance bandit songs”, for example, squeamishly calls them the scum of society, which threw them out as lazy people, thieves, drunkards, in general, useless people branded with the nickname “yarygi”. Academician of literature D. I. Yazykov, explaining the word "burlak" in his "Encyclopedic Lexicon", wrote that "these workers consist of rude, drunken bastards."
And yet it was not easy to get into barge haulers, homeless poor fellows, like our hero Pyotr Yegorov, were then, as they say, darkness and darkness. According to the calculations of the researcher of bartering in Russia F. N. Rodin, in the 30s years XIX century, the Volga with its tributaries was served by at least 600 thousand barge haulers, and almost half of them came from the Nizhny Novgorod province.
The largest "burlatsky market" on the Volga was in Rybinsk. In Nizhny Novgorod, a series (hiring) of barge haulers took place twice a year. The first time was on Skoba, on Ivanovskaya Square under the Kremlin in early spring, when the path “collapsed”, that is, before the ice drift. The second time - in the summer during the fair at the pontoon bridge. Artels lined up. There was a legal norm for hiring barge haulers: for every thousand pounds of cargo, “eight legs” were supposed, that is, four barge haulers. There were two main routes (barge haul flights): a large one - from Astrakhan to Nizhny. And a small one - from Nizhny to Rybinsk. Nizhny Novgorod residents worked mainly on the small road, its length was 454 versts.
According to the description of the expert on the Volga shipping I.A. Shubin, at the “burlak bazaars” “the people gathered visibly-invisibly, and the streets and squares where the row itself passed were so crowded that it was extremely difficult not only to drive through them, but also to pass. Barge haulers stood in a solid mass, but in artels. Each of them chose a contractor who negotiated with the shipowners.”
It was to such a bazaar that Pyotr Egorov, the son, the founder of the later famous merchant family Bugrovykh. According to the recollections of those who knew him, he was well-tailored, possessed remarkable physical strength and a sociable character. Therefore, he quickly entered the barge haul environment, earned the respect of both fellow barge haulers and shipowners. This was written by the famous everyday writer and head of the Nizhny Novgorod specific office V.I. Dal: “Petrukha the balalaika was remembered by old merchants and their clerks as a lively, but sober and meek barge hauler, who appeared at the pier even before the arrival of the larks, as soon as the ice on the Volga began to turn blue ... In addition to a spoon and a strap in a bag behind his shoulders, he had a balalaika, the shipmen friendly welcomed a squat, thick-set naked man.
What did the burlak look like? Each strap has a wide belt worn over the shoulder. At the end of the strap there is a rope-tail with a bump for a strong overlap over the whip, the main rope attached to the ship's mast. The external sign of a barge hauler is a special felt hat "hairpins", behind the ribbon of which, like a knight's feather, a wooden spoon stuck out.
How were responsibilities distributed within the burlatskaya artel (troop)? The head was a pilot who knew the fairway of the river from memory. Barge haulers called him "uncle." He was followed by a "water dispenser", which protected the ship and cargo from sinking, and the artel hostel for grubs was also trusted to him. Among the rank and file, the main one was the “bump”, the strongest, walking in front, who knew the coastal path (sakma or scooper) well. "Shishka" skillfully chose paths between stones and bushes, bypassing the bays, making his way through ravines, and reliably led the gang, cheering them up and singing burlatsky songs. At the tail of the artel there were one or two inert ones, whose duties included "scrapping" the scourge (throw it off if it clung to bushes and trees). The youngest in the artel was a cook, usually a boy of 11-12 years old from poor family, hired for one grub. According to I.A. Shubin, “the entire burlatskaya mass was quite sharply divided into two categories. The first consisted of professional barge haulers, almost all from the native Volga, largely from Nizhny Novgorod. The second is everyone else. We can safely assume that Pyotr Yegorovich, with his physical strength, sociability and innate ingenuity, quickly became part of the bourgeois elite.
What were the terms of the agreement between barge haulers and merchants? As a rule, they were bonded. Here are some points of the “Terms of the artel of barge haulers with the merchant I.M. Vologdin, concluded on September 18, 1817, to escort a barge with salt from Nizhny Novgorod to Rybinsk”: “Following the path, do not stand idly anywhere and do not get drunk. Salt should be preserved in every possible way, not trampled underfoot, not taken or sold for food. If somewhere along the way the barge begins to sink and the salt perishes, in this case we, the workers, are obliged to save the barge from the flood with our common forces and preserve the integrity of the salt. If it turns out that the ship is sunk and the salt perished by the power of God, then nothing should be exacted from the workers for it and the money received by them as a deposit should not be demanded. If, however, it is discovered that the ship is sunk and the salt has perished from the negligence of our pilot, waterspout or cook, in this case we all undertake to be generally responsible for that dead salt pay money at the existing price for free sale. So the barge work was distinguished not only by its exhausting severity, but also by its enormous financial responsibility.
As for physical hardships, only people with very good health withstood them. Many stretched the veins in their legs. From the constant pressure of the strap on the chest, many developed consumption. On barge haulers literally "burned" clothes and shoes. For three months of moving along the large "sakma" from Astrakhan to Nizhny, a barge hauler wore out up to 20 pairs of bast shoes, a strap, canvas ports, and a shirt. According to the memoirs of the former barge hauler D.E. Frolov, literally the entire river bank was strewn with worn barefoot sandals. Barge haulers moved slowly, no more than five miles a day, and even then, if the weather allowed. I.A. Shubin described the barge movement as follows: “They stepped forward only one right foot and then pull up to her left. The heaviness of the strap did not allow walking equally with both feet. Everyone remembers the textbook lines of N.A. Nekrasov about the song-groan of barge haulers. Barge haulers, indeed, sang and moaned. Not from fun, but so as not to groan from the effort. The song helped them follow the rhythm of the movement, invigorated them.
By the way, barge haulers cheered themselves up not only with lingering songs, but also with very “salty” jokes. On the Nizhny Novgorod section of the journey, for example, there were such refrains:
Here is Slopinets and Tatinets -
All scammers are the breadwinner!
Near here is the village of Rabotki -
Buy the master of vodka!
And behind him is the village of Bezvodno,
Girls live shamefully!
Here is the village of Great Enemy.
In every house there is a tavern!
But Kstovo is something of Christ
Cheerful village...
Here is Kunavino village,
It brought me into three arcs ...
But the village of Kozino,
A lot of girls are brought!
City Cherna Balakhna
It is worth opening the floors ...
In Gorodets, on the mountain
Three girls in the yard!
What was the income of barge haulers? He made a reservation during the ranks, and at that time he was, indeed, not bad. On average, 35 silver rubles for a small Putin. According to the conditions, the ranks of barge haulers immediately received a deposit of half the contract. Although most this deposit was often immediately taken away from them by village elders and landowner stewards in payment of dues and other duties. On the remaining pennies barge haulers "grubbed" on the way. Many barge haulers were drawn into drunkenness for Putin, which was indulged by contractors. The booze began already at the time of hiring, the deal was “sprayed with mogarych”. First, at the expense of the owners, each of whom bought his artel of wine according to the norm: one quarter of vodka for 20 barge haulers. The host's treat whetted the appetite, and the burlak gang went to the tavern to "wet the straps." By evening, the whole gang was drunk.
But this was only the beginning of Burlatsky drunkenness. Enterprising tavern-keepers built their establishments near all river rifts, where barge haulers accumulated to reload luggage onto small ships in order to navigate their ships through the shoals. So at the Veal ford (Velyachiy Brod-Velyachiy roll) - a roll on the river. Volga, located in 9 Ver. below the city of Nizhny Novgorod. Until recently, T. Brod was perhaps the shallowest rift on the river. Volga, in the stretch from Nizhny Novgorod to Astrakhan. In navigation (very shallow) 1885 and 1890 deep no more than 1 arsh. 8 tops IN Lately thanks to significant hydraulic structures, T. Brod became much more convenient for navigation) under Nizhny Novgorod usually accumulated up to 150 heavily loaded ships. To speed up the work, the owners generously treated barge haulers. And the host's gifts often grew here into a general booze at the expense of the barbers. As a result, most barge haulers returned from Putin penniless. And the resulting miserable calculation was also drunk away with grief. When asked how much he earned, the barge hauler usually answered: “Somehow, as always, he earned a lot of lice.”
It is no coincidence that we have dwelled in such detail on the ups and downs of the burlak life in order to show what trials our hero went through. The people then said that it was better to feed on Christ's alms than to go to barge haulers. But young Pyotr Yegorov did not perish in the abyss of barges. Of course, he took risks by embarking on this difficult trade. But this risk was, it seems, not desperate, but quite conscious. He was not only physically strong and hardworking, but also, which is a rarity in the barge trade, absolutely sober, like all Old Believers. It was sobriety, together with prudence and a lively disposition, that provided Peter with a leading position in any gang and helped to achieve profitable contracts.
This was facilitated by the guardianship practice of the specific department, which recommended its local officials "to let go to barge haulers in groups of 10 people with the appointment of one of the sober responsible." Of course, the appanage authorities pursued their own fiscal goals in order to guarantee the timely payment of dues by appanage peasants. But such an order suited Pyotr Yegorov as well, because it was he, as a sober person, who usually became this “responsible” and head of the burlak artel, receiving an increased payment. So already here, in the burlak penal servitude, the thrifty son Peter Egorov could lay the foundation for his “initial accumulation”. The old faith gave him strength in the fight against burlatsky hardships.
By book by A. V. Sedov " Kerzhaki. The history of three generations of merchants Bugrovs.
