Culture and everyday life of the 16th century (Grade 7). Life of a Russian peasant woman in the 16th-17th centuries

THE LIFE OF A RUSSIAN PEASANT WOMAN INXVI- XVIICENTURIES

Koronova Lilia Romanovna

student of the faculty of history and jurisprudence of the EI K(P)FU

E-mail: lilia [email protected] yandex . en

Krapotkina Irina Evgenievna

cand. ist. Sciences, Associate Professor EI K(P)FU, Yelabuga

The history of everyday life is one of the most promising areas that have been developed in Russian historiography since the end of the 20th century. The topic is relevant against the backdrop of increased at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. interest in the study of the status of Russian women in modern society, which requires the study and understanding of the economic and socio-political position of women in Russia over a long historical period.

According to the first general census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897, the peasantry was the largest estate and accounted for 77.1% of the population, and peasant women accounted for 38.9% of the total population of the entire Russian Empire.

For the peasant family of the XVI-XVII centuries, it is characteristic that the spirit of mutual assistance reigned in it; responsibilities were strictly assigned. The authority of family life was very high among the people.

The Russian peasant family of the 16th century consisted of an average of 15-20 people. It was a patriarchal family in which three or four generations of relatives lived together. However, already in the 17th century, there were no more than 10 people in families, representatives of only two generations.

A peasant marriage was concluded for economic reasons: the feelings or desires of the young were not taken into account - the landowner could marry the serfs at his own discretion. In addition, it was not accepted among the people that young men and girls themselves entered into marriage.

When choosing a bride, preference was given to healthy and hardworking girls - this was due to the fact that after marriage, women's shoulders fell on the household, raising children, working in the garden and field. Girls who were engaged in needlework were more likely to successfully marry.

In the 16th-17th centuries, marriage was entered into very early - girls from the age of 12, and boys from 15. And there was also a ban on marriages with relatives up to the sixth generation and with non-believers. It was possible to enter into marriage no more than three times, and “Stoglav” also speaks of this: “The first marriage is the law, the second is forgiveness, the third is a crime, the fourth is wickedness, there is life like a pig.”

The creation of a new family was necessarily accompanied by a wedding celebration. The Russian wedding contained two elements: Christian (wedding) and folk (“fun”). It was customary to play weddings in autumn or winter - this was the most successful time, since all agricultural work was completed. Before the wedding, matchmaking always took place, during which the bride's parents decided whether they should marry their daughter to this groom. If they agreed, then a “conspiracy” took place: the groom and his father came to the bride’s parents in the house and the parties agreed on wedding expenses, terms, the size of the bride’s dowry and the groom’s gifts. Having come to a single decision, they began preparing for the wedding.

"Domostroy" taught parents to collect their daughter's dowry from birth, setting aside "from any profit." The dowry included pieces of linen, clothes, shoes, jewelry, dishes - all this was put in a box or chest.

After all the preparations were completed, the wedding was played at the agreed time. Peasant weddings of the 16th-17th centuries were accompanied by many rites: scratching the head with a comb dipped in honey, dressing hair under a kiku, showering the newlyweds with hops, treating them with bread and salt - these rites were aimed at attracting happiness to the young in family life. However, there was a custom that determined the further position of a woman in the family: the groom put a whip in one of the boots, and a coin in the other. The task of the bride was to remove the boots from the groom's feet in turn, if the first was a boot with a coin, then she was considered lucky, and family life was happy, and if the boot with a whip was the first, then the husband defiantly hit his wife with it - thus the husband showed the nature of further relations in family .

The position of a married peasant woman of the 16th-17th centuries was freer than that of women of the upper classes: she could freely leave the house, doing household chores.

Peter Petrey notes that peasant women worked in the field and at home on a par with their husbands. At the same time, the woman had other things to do, such as cooking, washing, needlework, that is, making clothes for all family members, and they also carried firewood and water to the hut. In addition, the foreigner notes that husbands often beat their wives.

However, the woman had great authority in the family. It especially increased after the birth of a boy - this was due to the allotment of land only to men. Peasant women of the 16th-17th centuries were constantly busy with business even during pregnancy, in connection with this, childbirth could take place anywhere - in a field, in a hut or in a barn. In the Russian medieval society, the hospital was replaced by a bathhouse and, if possible, they tried to give birth there. "Domostroy" ordered to teach children respect for parents. The child was taught the appropriate craft from an early age. The mother taught her daughter to housekeeping and needlework from an early age: from the age of 6 she began to master the spinning wheel, from 10 - the sickle, sewing. At the age of 14, girls already knew how to weave, mow hay and bake bread. At the age of 15, peasant girls worked in the field on an equal basis with adults.

In their free time from field and household work, women were engaged in weaving. I. E. Zabelin writes that the linen business in the peasant economy was exclusively in the hands of women. In addition, sewing and spinning were also the occupation of women and girls on long winter evenings. Sewing shirts was a very troublesome business: the preparation of flax fiber took place in the summer, then it was soaked for several weeks, then the stems were crushed, ruffled and combed - as a result, raw materials for spinning were obtained. Having finished spinning, peasant women wove canvases, for this a loom was brought into the house from the barn. In the summer, when the linen was woven, it was whitewashed in the sun, spread out on a meadow. Only after all this was the canvas ready for cutting and sewing. In the XVI-XVII centuries, girls were engaged in needlework, having gathered together by the light of a torch; Evenings were spent in conversation.

Since ancient times, clothing has been designed not only to hide nudity, but also to emphasize the wealth of a person. In addition, it was believed that clothes are designed to ward off evil spirits.

Thanks to the information of foreign guests, it is possible to compile a description of the outfits of Russian peasant women. The clothes of men and women were very similar; was not pleasing to the eye and was sewn at home. The peasants worked in old clothes, after finishing their work, they changed into everyday clothes, and on holidays, they put on smart clothes to the church. Clothes were often inherited, carefully stored in crates and chests, and cleaned after each wear. The main item of clothing in the 16th-17th centuries was a shirt made of woolen fabric, the so-called sackcloth, and linen or hemp, but due to the complexity of the manufacturing technology, linen shirts were less common.

According to Russian medieval mores, a woman was not allowed to emphasize her figure, so the shirt had a loose fit, did not fit to the body and reached the knees. From the 17th century, they began to wear a sundress over a shirt, that is, a sleeveless dress that fitted the chest and expanded downwards or poneva - a blue or black woolen skirt with a decorated bottom.

In the clothes of peasants until the 16th-17th centuries, the belt played the role of a talisman, but by the indicated period this meaning had been lost and it became just a traditional costume detail.

Particular attention in the XVI-XVII centuries was paid to women's headdresses, as there was a clear distinction between girls' and women's. Before marriage, girls were allowed to bare their heads, after marriage - this was considered indecent behavior. Girls wore dressings - decorated strips of fabric that wrapped around their heads with a hoop, “kosniks” - decorations for a braid, and married women wore volosniki (home dress), underbrusniks (soft hats worn with a ubrus or scarf), ubrusy (holiday dress), kokoshniks (worn from marriage to the birth of the first child and on holidays) or kiki, that is, they twisted their hair and hid it under a cap.

Peasant outerwear was made from ram skin, which had a specific smell. Peasant women had bast shoes on their feet, which were made in their own household from bast mixed with pieces of fur or coarse cloth. In winter, felt boots and woolen socks were worn. There were no stockings - they were replaced by pieces of linen that wrapped the legs.

It is typical for the peasants that they always kept their elegant dresses clean and stored in chests, taking them out only on holidays and for going to church. Often items of clothing passed by inheritance.

Women of the peasant class of the 16th-17th centuries could not afford to purchase expensive items of jewelry, so clothes were decorated with embroidery.

The girl in advance began to make clothes that would be her dowry, since this required a very long and painstaking work. For the wedding, most often the bride wore a beautiful, that is, red dress.

I would like to note that the peasant women did not care about grace, taste or combination of colors. All the clothes were made by hand and therefore they were treated very carefully, new clothes were put on in exceptional cases and, having taken care of their safety, they were put back into the chests where they were stored. Clothing in the XVI-XVII centuries was worn until it became completely unusable. Another feature of Russian peasant clothing in the period under review is that there were no clothes made specifically for children - they were forced to wear adult clothes, and if clothes were sewn on them, then “for growth”.

In other words, the clothes of a Russian peasant woman of the 16th-17th centuries did not differ in a variety of forms and matter, so they tried to decorate them with embroidery and other methods. The main purpose of clothing was protection from the cold and covering nudity - and homespun clothing coped with this.

The peasant table of the 16th-17th centuries did not differ in variety and was based on custom. The basis of the diet was black bread, cabbage soup, porridge and kvass; many dishes were similar to each other.

"Domostroy" advised the hostess to be interested in the tricks of cooking from "good wives". The food of the peasants was closely connected not only with religion (strict observance of fasts), but also with what the peasant farms themselves produced.

In the 16th-17th centuries, each Orthodox Christian attached special importance to the observance of fasts. For this reason, the table of the Russian peasant was divided into lean and modest (meat-eater). During fasting days, the use of meat and dairy products was prohibited, and all this was allowed in the meat-eater. In the Orthodox calendar, there were four main multi-day fasts and many one-day fasts. Thus, the number of fasting days in total took about 200 calendar days. In addition to large fasts, Wednesday and Friday throughout the year, with the exception of Christmas time and continuous weeks, were also fast days. Religious norms and "Domostroy" regulated the use of certain products during the four main posts.

The first was Great Lent, which lasted 40 days, lean bread, fish, porridge with it, porridge from peas, dried and boiled mushrooms, cabbage soup, pancakes, jelly, pies with jam, onions, peas, turnips, mushrooms , cabbage .

The next was Peter's fast, which began a week after Trinity Day and ended on Peter's Day, that is, on July 12. During this fast, Orthodox peasants ate fish, fish soup seasoned with saffron, onions and garlic, pies with millet and peas, mushrooms, cabbage soup.

Next came the Assumption Fast, which lasted from 1 to 14 August. At this time, fish food was served at the table: sauerkraut with fish, fish seasoned with garlic, in gravy with seasonings, fish jellies, fish soup, fish balls, pastries, sour pies with peas or fish.

And the final major post was Christmas, which lasted 6 weeks from November 12 until the Nativity of Christ. Here, the peasants of the 16th-17th centuries ate boiled and stewed fish seasoned with garlic and horseradish, fish jelly, fish soup, loaves. At the end of the Christmas Lent, the peasants tried to serve dishes from the meat of piglets or ducklings on the festive table.

The largest one-day fasts are the day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Christmas Eve. On these days, wholemeal porridge, peas, baked turnips, cabbage soup and pickle were served.

The basis of peasant nutrition was rye bread, and pastries made from wheat flour were put on the table only on major holidays. No meal was complete without bread. In addition, he played an important role in various ceremonies: religious (prosphora for communion, Easter cakes for Easter), wedding (newlyweds were greeted with “bread and salt”), folk (pancakes for Shrovetide, gingerbread for spring).

Bread was baked once a week in a special wooden tub - a kvass, which was rarely washed, because it was constantly in operation. Before putting the dough, the hostess rubbed the walls of the tub with salt, then poured warm water over it. In the peasant economy of the 16th-17th centuries, a piece of dough left over from previous baking was used for sourdough. Next, the flour was poured and thoroughly mixed, left overnight in a warm place. The hostess kneaded the dough that had risen in the morning until it began to lag behind both the hands and the walls of the kneading bowl. After that, the dough was again put in a warm place for the night, and kneaded again in the morning. Now the dough was molded and placed in the oven. Baked bread was stored in special wooden bread bins. A woman who knew how to bake delicious bread was especially respected in the family. In lean years, the peasants were forced to add quinoa, tree bark, ground acorns, nettles and bran to the flour, as a result of which the bread acquired a bitter aftertaste.

In the 16th-17th centuries, peasants baked not only bread from flour, but also pies, pancakes, pancakes, gingerbread, but all this was present exclusively on the festive table. Pancakes can be considered the most popular flour dish: they were cooked for Shrove Tuesday, fed a woman in labor and commemorated the deceased. Next came pies - they were prepared from yeast, unleavened and puff pastry, and they could be baked in oil (spun) and without it in the hearth of the oven (hearth). The filling for pies was eggs, fruits and berries, meat and fish, cottage cheese, vegetables, mushrooms, cereals. Another flour dish of the Russian peasant holiday table was gingerbread of various shapes. When preparing the dough, honey and spices were added to it - hence the name. Kalachi was baked from a mixture of rye and wheat flour.

In the peasant environment of the 16th-17th centuries, cabbage soup and porridge were the most widespread, and any stew was called cabbage soup. Porridges were cooked from cereals in milk or water with the addition of butter. Kashi was an attribute of many folk rituals, for example, it was boiled for christenings, weddings and commemorations. If a woman knew how to cook tasty cabbage soup and bake bread, then this was already a reason to consider her a good housewife. Shchi was prepared from fresh and sour cabbage, often with the addition of turnips and beets. In general, turnips were considered the second bread. Shchi was cooked both in meat broth and simply in water.

In the early days, on the Russian medieval peasant table, one could often find milk soups and cereals from various cereals, flavored with butter or lard, cheeses, cottage cheese, sour cream and meat dishes. There was plenty of meat on Russian soil, but the peasants ate little of it; each type of meat was supplemented with garden crops (turnips, garlic, onions, cucumbers, peppers, radishes). From spring to late autumn, meat dishes were prepared mainly from lamb; in winter - from beef (since a large amount of meat did not spoil in the cold), before Christmas - from salted or smoked pork.

However, not everything on the peasant table was grown by the peasant family itself. Fish soup, cooked from river fish caught on communal lands, was widely used. The fish was also consumed in a salted, boiled, smoked form and was used to make cabbage soup, pies, cutlets, served with buckwheat, millet and other cereals. Poultry dishes (home-raised or hunted) were well seasoned with horseradish and vinegar.

A feature of the dishes of the Russian table is that they were richly seasoned with onions, garlic, pepper, mustard and vinegar, but salt, due to its high cost, the peasants could rarely afford.

The most common drinks among the peasants of the 16th-17th centuries were kvass, fruit drink, and in April - berezovets, that is, birch sap. Beer, honey, vodka were also widely used.

Kvass drinks were available to many, besides, many dishes could be prepared on its basis, for example, okroshka, beetroot, tyuryu. A good housewife knew how to prepare a wide variety of kvass: from barley or rye malt, from honey and berries (cherries, bird cherry, raspberries, cranberries) or fruits (apples, pears). In addition, kvass, as well as cabbage, were excellent means of preventing diseases such as scurvy. Beer was brewed from barley, oats, rye and wheat. The original and best Russian drink, famous among foreigners, was mead; all travelers unanimously recognized his dignity. Honey was brewed from berries (raspberries, currants, cherries, lingonberries, bird cherry), with yeast or hops.

In the 17th century, vodka appeared and became widespread among the peasantry. Usually Russian vodka was made from rye, wheat or barley, but there was an exception - this is women's vodka, which was made with the addition of molasses or honey, due to which it turned out to be sweet. In addition, in the manufacture of vodka, they often insisted on various spices (cinnamon, mustard) and fragrant herbs (mint, St. John's wort, juniper) and made liqueurs on different berries.

Alcoholic drinks were widespread - they were usually consumed on various holidays and occasions, but foreign travelers note that drunkenness was a frequent occurrence among the Russian people in the 16th-17th centuries. "Domostroy" forbade a woman to drink intoxicating drinks, however, Jacques Margeret notes that women and girls were often given to drunkenness.

In the peasant environment, it was believed that food must be earned, so they rarely had breakfast. A peasant family of the 16th-17th centuries rarely managed to dine together: in a bad time, they ate right in the field in order not to waste time.

Based on the foregoing, we can say that the food culture of the peasants of the XVI-XVII centuries was fully dependent on religious fasts and agricultural products. The daily diet of the peasants was extremely unpretentious and consisted of cereals, vegetables (such as turnips, cabbage, cucumbers), meat and fish, that is, their meal was mostly simple, due to the fact that food was consumed that was grown on their plot .

Summing up, I would like to note that a Russian woman of the 16th-17th centuries provided full support and assistance to her husband, she worked on an equal footing with him; in addition, she was engaged in raising children, sewing clothes and cooking. The peasant family was large, and the incomes were small, as a result of which the woman could not afford to buy clothes - everything was produced on the farm itself. The situation was also with the peasant table - they were forced to give most of what they produced to the landowners. Thus, the peasant family was very close-knit, and the position of a woman in the family depended on her own skills.

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

ROSTOV STATE UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMY

Faculty of Law

ESSAY

on the course: “Patriotic history”

topic: “Life of the Russian people XVI-XVII centuries”

Completed by: 1st year student, group No. 611 of full-time education

Tokhtamysheva Natalia Alekseevna

Rostov-on-Don 2002

XVI - XVII centuries.

XVI century.

Literature.

1. Socio-political situation in Russia in XVI - XVII centuries.

In order to understand the origins of the conditions and causes that determine the way of life, way of life and culture of the Russian people, it is necessary to consider the socio-political situation in Russia at that time.

By the middle of the 16th century, Rus', having overcome feudal fragmentation, turned into a single Muscovite state, which became one of the largest states in Europe.

For all the vastness of its territory, the Muscovite state in the middle of the 16th century. It had a relatively small population, no more than 6-7 million people (for comparison: France at the same time had 17-18 million people). Of the Russian cities, only Moscow and Novgorod the Great had several tens of thousands of inhabitants, the proportion of the urban population did not exceed 2% of the total mass of the country's population. The vast majority of Russian people lived in small (several households) villages spread over the vast expanses of the Central Russian Plain.

The formation of a single centralized state accelerated the socio-economic development of the country. New cities arose, crafts and trade developed. There was a specialization of individual regions. Thus, Pomorie supplied fish and caviar, Ustyuzhna supplied metal products, salt was brought from the Kama Salt, grain and livestock products were brought from the Zaoksky lands. In different parts of the country there was a process of folding local markets. The process of forming a single all-Russian market also began, but it dragged on for a long time and, in general terms, took shape only by the end of the 17th century. Its final completion dates back to the second half of the 18th century, when, under Elizaveta Petrovna, the still remaining internal customs duties were abolished.

Thus, in contrast to the West, where the formation of centralized states (in France, England) went in parallel with the formation of a single national market and, as it were, crowned its formation, in Rus' the formation of a single centralized state took place before the formation of a single all-Russian market. And this acceleration was explained by the need for the military and political unification of the Russian lands in order to free them from foreign enslavement and achieve their independence.

Another feature of the formation of the Russian centralized state in comparison with the Western European states was that it arose from the very beginning as a multinational state.

The lag of Rus' in its development, primarily economic, was due to several unfavorable historical conditions for it. Firstly, as a result of the devastating Mongol-Tatar invasion, material values ​​accumulated over the centuries were destroyed, most Russian cities were burned, and most of the country's population perished or was taken captive and sold in slave markets. It took more than a century just to restore the population that existed before the invasion of Batu Khan. Rus' lost its national independence for more than two and a half centuries and fell under the rule of foreign conquerors. Secondly, the lag was due to the fact that the Muscovite state was cut off from the world's trade routes and, above all, sea routes. Neighboring powers, especially in the west (the Livonian Order, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) practically carried out an economic blockade of the Muscovite state, preventing its participation in economic and cultural cooperation with European powers. The absence of economic and cultural exchange, isolation within its narrow internal market fraught with the danger of growing lagging behind European states, which was fraught with the possibility of turning into a semi-colony and losing its national independence.

The Grand Duchy of Vladimir and other Russian principalities on the Central Russian plain were part of the Golden Horde for almost 250 years. And the territory of the Western Russian principalities (the former Kyiv state, Galicia-Volyn Rus, Smolensk, Chernigov, Turov-Pinsk, Polotsk lands), although they were not part of the Golden Horde, were extremely weakened and depopulated.

The vacuum of power and power that arose as a result of the Tatar pogrom was used by the Lithuanian principality that arose at the beginning of the 14th century. It began to expand rapidly, incorporating Western and South Russian lands into its composition. In the middle of the 16th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a vast state stretching from the shores of the Baltic Sea in the north to the Dnieper rapids in the south. However, it was very loose and fragile. In addition to social contradictions, it was torn apart by national contradictions (the vast majority of the population were Slavs), as well as religious ones. The Lithuanians were Catholics (like the Poles), and the Slavs were Orthodox. Although many of the local Slavic feudal lords converted to Catholicism, the bulk of the Slavic peasantry staunchly defended their original Orthodox faith. Realizing the weakness of the Lithuanian statehood, the Lithuanian lords and gentry sought outside support and found it in Poland. Since the 14th century, attempts have been made to unite the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with Poland. However, this unification was completed only with the conclusion of the Union of Lublin in 1569, which resulted in the formation of the united Polish-Lithuanian state of the Commonwealth.

Polish pans and gentry rushed to the territory of Ukraine and Belarus, seizing lands inhabited by local peasants, and often driving out local Ukrainian landowners from their possessions. Large Ukrainian magnates, such as Adam Kisel, Vyshnevetsky and others, and part of the gentry converted to Catholicism, adopted the Polish language, culture, and renounced their people. The movement to the East of Polish colonization was actively supported by the Vatican. In turn, the forcible imposition of Catholicism was supposed to contribute to the spiritual enslavement of the local Ukrainian and Belarusian population. Since the overwhelming mass of it resisted and steadfastly held on to the Orthodox faith in 1596, the Union of Brest was concluded. The meaning of the approval of the Uniate Church was that, while maintaining the usual architecture of temples, icons and worship in the Old Slavonic language (and not in Latin, as in Catholicism), this new church should be subordinated to the Vatican, and not to the Moscow Patriarchate (Orthodox Church). The Vatican placed special hopes on the Uniate Church in promoting Catholicism. At the beginning of the XVII century. Pope Urban VIII wrote in a message to the Uniates: “O my Rusyns! Through you, I hope to reach the East…” However, the Uniate Church spread mainly in the west of Ukraine. The bulk of the Ukrainian population, and above all the peasantry, still adhered to Orthodoxy.

Almost 300 years of separate existence, the influence of other languages ​​and cultures (Tatar in Great Russia), Lithuanian and Polish in Belarus and Ukraine, led to the isolation and formation of three special nationalities: Great Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. But the unity of origin, the common roots of ancient Russian culture, a single Orthodox faith with a common center - the Moscow Metropolis, and then, from 1589 - the Patriarchate, played a decisive role in the desire for the unity of these peoples.

With the formation of the Moscow centralized state, this thrust intensified and the struggle for unification began, which lasted about 200 years. In the 16th century, Novgorod-Seversky, Bryansk, Orsha, Toropets ceded to the Moscow state. A long struggle began for Smolensk, which repeatedly passed from hand to hand.

The struggle for the reunification of the three fraternal peoples in a single state went on with varying success. Taking advantage of the severe economic and political crisis that arose as a result of losing the long Livonian War, the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible and the unprecedented crop failure and famine of 1603, the Commonwealth nominated the impostor False Dmitry, who seized the Russian throne in 1605 with the support of the Polish and Lithuanian pans and the gentry. After his death, the interventionists put forward new impostors. Thus, it was the interventionists who initiated the civil war in Rus' (“Time of Troubles”), which lasted until 1613, when the highest representative body, the Zemsky Sobor, which assumed supreme power in the country, elected Mikhail Romanov to reign. During this civil war, an open attempt was made to re-establish foreign domination in Rus'. At the same time, it was also an attempt to “break through” to the East, to the territory of the Moscow State of Catholicism. No wonder the impostor False Dmitry was so actively supported by the Vatican.

However, the Russian people found the strength, rising in a single patriotic impulse, to nominate such folk heroes as the Nizhny Novgorod Zemstvo headman Kuzma Minin and the voivode Prince Dmitry Pozharsky from their midst, organize a nationwide militia, defeat and expel foreign invaders from the country. Simultaneously with the interventionists, their servants from the state political elite were thrown out, who organized the boyar government (“seven boyars”), for the sake of protecting their narrow selfish interests, called the Polish prince Vladislav to the Russian throne and were even ready to give the Russian crown to the Polish king Sigismund III. The Orthodox Church and its then head, Patriarch Hermogenes, who set an example of perseverance and self-sacrifice in the name of his convictions, played a major role in preserving independence, national identity and recreating Russian statehood.

2.Culture and life of the Russian people in XVI century.

By the beginning of the 16th century, Christianity played a decisive role in influencing the culture and life of the Russian people. It played a positive role in overcoming the harsh morals, ignorance and wild customs of ancient Russian society. In particular, the norms of Christian morality had a huge impact on family life, marriage, and the upbringing of children. Truth. theology then adhered to a dualistic view of the division of the sexes - into two opposite principles - "good" and "evil". The latter was personified in a woman, determining her position in society and the family.

For a long time, the Russian peoples had a large family, uniting relatives in direct and lateral lines. The distinctive features of a large peasant family were collective farming and consumption, common ownership of property by two or more independent married couples. The urban (posad) population had smaller families and usually consisted of two generations of parents and children. The families of feudal lords were, as a rule, small, so the son of a feudal lord, having reached the age of 15, had to serve the sovereign's service and could receive both his own separate local salary and a granted estate. This contributed to early marriages and the emergence of independent small families.

With the introduction of Christianity, marriages began to be formalized through a church wedding ceremony. But the traditional Christian wedding ceremony ("joy") was preserved in Rus' for about another six or seven centuries. Church rules did not stipulate any obstacles to marriage, except for one: the "possession" of the bride or groom. But in real life, the restrictions were quite strict, primarily in social terms, which were regulated by customs. The law did not formally forbid the feudal lord to marry a peasant woman, but in fact this happened very rarely, since the class of feudal lords was a closed corporation, where marriages were encouraged not just with persons of their own circle, but with equals. A free man could marry a serf, but he had to get permission from the master and pay a certain amount by agreement. Thus, both in ancient times and in the city, marriages, in general, could only take place within one class-estate.

The dissolution of the marriage was very difficult. Already in the early Middle Ages, divorce ("dissolution") was allowed only in exceptional cases. At the same time, the rights of the spouses were unequal. A husband could divorce his wife in the event of her infidelity, and communication with strangers outside the home without the permission of the spouse was equated to treason. In the late Middle Ages (since the 16th century), divorce was allowed on the condition that one of the spouses was tonsured a monk.

The Orthodox Church allowed one person to marry no more than three times. The solemn ceremony of wedding was performed, usually, only at the first marriage. A fourth marriage was strictly forbidden.

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

All sources testify that in the Middle Ages the role of its head was extremely great. He represented the family as a whole in all its outward functions. Only he had the right to vote at the meetings of residents, in the city council, and later - in the meetings of the Konchan and Sloboda organizations. Within the family, the power of the head was practically unlimited. He disposed of the property and destinies of each of its members. This even applied to the personal life of children whom he could marry or marry against his will. The Church condemned him only if he drove them to suicide in the process. The orders of the head of the family were to be carried out implicitly. He could apply any punishment, up to physical. "Domostroy" - an encyclopedia of Russian life of the 16th century - directly indicated that the owner should beat his wife and children for educational purposes. For disobedience to parents, the church threatened with excommunication.

Intra-estate family life was for a long time relatively closed. However, ordinary women - peasant women, townspeople - did not lead a reclusive lifestyle at all. The testimonies of foreigners about the terem seclusion of Russian women refers, as a rule, to the life of the feudal nobility and eminent merchants. They were rarely even allowed to go to church.

There is little information about the daily routine of people in the Middle Ages. The working day in the family began early. Ordinary people had two obligatory meals - lunch and dinner. At noon, production activity was interrupted. After dinner, according to the old Russian habit, there followed a long rest, sleep (which was very striking for foreigners). then work began again until supper. With the end of daylight, everyone went to bed.

With the adoption of Christianity, especially revered days of the church calendar became official holidays: Christmas, Easter, Annunciation, Trinity and others, as well as the seventh day of the week - Sunday. According to church rules, holidays should be devoted to pious deeds and religious rites. working on public holidays was considered a sin. However, the poor also worked on holidays.

The relative isolation of domestic life was diversified by the receptions of guests, as well as festive ceremonies, which were arranged mainly during church holidays. One of the main religious processions was arranged for Epiphany - January 6, Art. Art. On this day, the patriarch consecrated the water of the Moscow River, and the population of the city performed the Jordanian rite (washing with holy water). On holidays, street performances were also arranged. Wandering artists, buffoons, are known in ancient Rus'. In addition to playing the harp, pipes, songs, buffoon performances included acrobatic numbers, competitions with predatory animals. The buffoon troupe usually included an organ grinder, a gaer (acrobat), and a puppeteer.

Holidays, as a rule, were accompanied by public feasts - brothers. However, common ideas about the supposedly unrestrained drunkenness of Russians are clearly exaggerated. Only during the 5-6 largest church holidays, the population was allowed to brew beer, and taverns were a state monopoly. The maintenance of private taverns was strictly persecuted.

Public life also included games and amusements - both military and peaceful, for example, the capture of a snowy city, wrestling and fisticuffs, towns, leapfrog, etc. . Of gambling, dice games became widespread, and from the 16th century - in cards brought from the west. Hunting was a favorite pastime of kings and nobility.

Thus, although the life of a Russian person in the Middle Ages, although it was relatively monotonous, was far from being exhausted by the production and socio-political spheres, it included many aspects of everyday life that historians do not always pay due attention to.

In historical literature at the turn of the 15th - 16th centuries. rationalistic views on historical events are established. Some of them are explained by causal relationships due to the activities of the people themselves. The authors of historical works (for example, The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir, late 15th century) sought to affirm the idea of ​​the exclusivity of the autocratic power of Russian sovereigns as the successors of Kievan Rus and Byzantium. Similar ideas were expressed in chronographs - summary reviews of world history, in which Russia was considered as the last link in the chain of world-historical monarchies.

Expanded not only historical. but also the geographical knowledge of the people of the Middle Ages. In connection with the complication of the administrative management of the growing territory of the Russian state, the first geographical maps ("drawings") began to be drawn up. The development of trade and diplomatic relations of Russia also contributed to this. Russian navigators made a great contribution to the geographical discoveries in the North. By the beginning of the 16th century, they explored the White, Studenoe (Barents) and Kara Seas, discovered many northern lands - the islands of Medvezhiy, Novaya Zemlya, Kolguev, Vygach and others. islands. They were among the first to master the Northern Sea Route around the Scandinavian Peninsula.

Some progress was observed in the field of technical and natural - scientific knowledge. Russian craftsmen learned how to make rather complex mathematical calculations during the construction of buildings, they were familiar with the properties of the main building materials. Blocks and other building mechanisms were used in the construction of buildings. For the extraction of salt solutions, deep drilling and pipe laying were used, through which the liquid was distilled using a piston pump. In military affairs, the casting of copper cannons was mastered, wall-beating and throwing guns became widespread.

In the 17th century, the role of the church in influencing the culture and life of the Russian people intensified. At the same time, state power penetrated more and more into the affairs of the church.

The reform of the church was supposed to serve the purpose of the penetration of state power into church affairs. The tsar wanted to get the sanction of the church for state reforms and at the same time take measures to subjugate the church and limit its privileges and lands necessary to provide for the energetically created noble army.

The all-Russian church reform was carried out at the Stoglav Cathedral, named after the collection of its resolutions, which consisted of one hundred chapters ("Stoglav").

In the works of the Stoglavy Cathedral, issues of the internal church order were brought to the fore, primarily related to the life and life of the lower clergy, with the administration of church services to them. The flagrant vices of the clergy, the careless performance of church rites, moreover, devoid of any uniformity - all this aroused among the people a negative attitude towards the ministers of the church, gave rise to freethinking.

In order to stop these phenomena dangerous for the church, it was recommended to strengthen control over the lower clergy. For this purpose, a special institution of archpriests was created (an archpriest is the main among the priests of this church), appointed "by the royal decree and with the blessing of the saint, as well as priestly elders and tenth priests." All of them were obliged to tirelessly supervise that ordinary priests and deacons regularly conduct divine services, in churches "stand with fear and trembling", read there the Gospels, Cholomoust, the lives of the saints.

The Council unified the rites of the Church. He officially legalized, under pain of anathema, the two-fingered addition when making the sign of the cross and "a special hallelujah." By the way, the Old Believers later referred to these decisions and justified their adherence to antiquity.

The sale of church positions, bribery, false denunciations, extortion became so widespread in church circles that the Stoglavy Cathedral was forced to adopt a number of decrees that somewhat limited the arbitrariness of both the higher hierarchs in relation to the ordinary clergy and the latter in relation to the laity. From now on, the duty from churches was to be collected not by foremen who abused their position, but by zemstvo elders and tenth priests appointed in rural areas.

The listed measures and partial concessions, however, could not somehow defuse the tense situation in the country and in the church itself. The reform envisaged by the Stoglavy Council did not set as its task a deep transformation of the church structure, but only sought to strengthen it by eliminating the most egregious abuses.

With its resolutions, the Stoglavy Cathedral tried to impose the stamp of churchness on the entire people's life. Under fear of tsarist and ecclesiastical punishment, it was forbidden to read the so-called "renounced" and heretical books, that is, books that at that time constituted almost all secular literature. The Church was instructed to intervene in the daily life of people - to turn away from barbering, from chess, from playing musical instruments, etc., to persecute buffoons, these carriers of folk culture alien to the church.

The time of Grozny is a time of great changes in the field of culture. One of the greatest achievements of the 16th century was printing. The first printing house appeared in Moscow in 1553, and soon ecclesiastical books were printed here. Among the earliest printed books are the Lenten Triodion, published around 1553, and two Gospels printed in the 50s. 16th century.

In 1563, Ivan Fedorov, an outstanding figure in the field of book printing in Russia, was entrusted with the organization of the "sovereign's Printing House". Together with his assistant Peter Mstislavets, on March 1, 1564, he published the book "Apostle", and the following year "The Clockworker". With the name of Ivan Fedorov, we also associate the appearance in 1574 in Lvov of the first edition of the Russian Primer.

Under the influence of the church, such a peculiar work as "Domostroy" was also created, which has already been noted above, the final edition of which belonged to Archpriest Sylvester. "Domostroy" is a code of morals and rules of life intended for the wealthy sections of the urban population. It is permeated with sermons of humility and unquestioning obedience to the authorities, and in the family - obedience to the householder.

For the increased needs of the Russian state, literate people were needed. At the Stoglavy Cathedral, convened in 1551, the issue of taking measures to spread education among the population was raised. The clergy were offered to open schools for teaching children to read and write. Children were taught, as a rule, at monasteries. In addition, home schooling was common among wealthy people.

A tense struggle with numerous external and internal enemies contributed to the emergence in Russia of an extensive historical literature, the central theme of which was the question of the growth and development of the Russian state. The most significant monument of historical thought of the period under consideration was the annals.

One of the major historical works of this time is the Facial (i.e. illustrated) chronicle: it consisted of 20 thousand pages and chalk 10 thousand beautifully executed miniatures, giving a visual representation of the various aspects of Russian life. This set was compiled in the 50-60s of the 16th century with the participation of Tsar Ivan, Alexei Alexei Adashev and Ivan Viskovaty.

Particularly significant in the late 15th and 16th centuries were advances in architecture. In 1553-54, the Church of John the Baptist was built in the village of Dyakovo (not far from the village of Kolomenskoye), exceptional in originality of decoration and architectural design. An unsurpassed masterpiece of Russian architecture is the Church of the Intercession on the Moat (St. Basil's), erected in 1561. This cathedral was built to commemorate the conquest of Kazan.

3. Culture, life and social thought in the XVII century.

The culture and life of the Russian people in the 17th century experienced a qualitative transformation, expressed in three main trends: "secularization", the penetration of Western influence, and an ideological split.

The first two tendencies were to a noticeable extent interconnected, the third was rather their consequence. At the same time, both "secularization" and "Europeanization" were accompanied by a movement of social development towards a split.

Indeed, the 17th century is an endless chain of unrest and riots. And the roots of the unrest were not so much in the economic and political planes, but, apparently, in the socio-psychological sphere. Throughout the century, there was a breakdown of public consciousness, habitual life and everyday life, the country was pushed to change the type of civilization. The unrest was a reflection of the spiritual discomfort of entire sections of the population.

In the 17th century, Russia established constant communication with Western Europe, established very close trade and diplomatic relations with it, and used European achievements in science, technology, and culture.

Until a certain time, this was just communication, there was no question of some kind of imitation. Russia developed quite independently, the assimilation of Western European experience proceeded naturally, without extremes, within the framework of calm attention to other people's achievements.

Rus' has never suffered from the disease of national isolation. Until the middle of the 15th century, there was an intensive exchange between Russians and Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs. The Eastern and Southern Slavs had a single literature, writing, literary (Church Slavonic) language, which, by the way, was also used by the Moldovans and the Vlachs. Western European influence penetrated into Rus' through a kind of filter of Byzantine culture. In the second half of the 15th century, as a result of Ottoman aggression, Byzantium fell, the southern Slavs lost their state independence and full religious freedom. The conditions for Russia's cultural exchange with the outside world have changed significantly.

Economic stabilization in Russia, the development of commodity-money relations, the intensive formation of the all-Russian market throughout the 17th century - all this objectively required an appeal to the technical achievements of the West. The government of Mikhail Fedorovich did not make a problem of borrowing European technological and economic experience.

The events of the Time of Troubles and the role of foreigners in them were too fresh in people's memory. The search for economic and political solutions based on real opportunities was characteristic of the government of Alexei Mikhailovich . The results of this search were quite successful in military affairs, diplomacy, the construction of state roads, etc.

The position of Muscovite Rus after the Time of Troubles was in many respects better than the situation in Europe. The 17th century for Europe is the time of the bloody Thirty Years' War, which brought ruin, famine and extinction to the peoples (the result of the war, for example, in Germany was a reduction in the population from 10 to 4 million people).

From Holland, the German principalities, and other countries, there was a stream of immigrants to Russia. Emigrants were attracted by a huge land fund. The life of the Russian population during the reign of the first Romanovs became measured and relatively orderly, and the wealth of forests, meadows and lakes made it quite satisfying. Moscow of that time - golden-domed, with Byzantine splendor, brisk trade and fun holidays - struck the imagination of Europeans. Many settlers voluntarily converted to Orthodoxy and took Russian names.

Part of the emigrants did not want to break with habits and customs. The German settlement on the Yauza River near Moscow became a corner of Western Europe in the heart of Muscovy "Many foreign novelties - from theatrical performances to culinary dishes - aroused interest among the Moscow nobility. Some influential nobles from the royal environment - Naryshkin, Matveev - became supporters of the spread of European customs, they arranged their houses in an overseas style, wore Western dress, shaved beards.At the same time, Naryshkin, A.S. Matveev, as well as prominent figures of the 80s of the 17th century Vasily Golitsyn, Golovin were patriotic people and they were alien to blind worship of everything Western and complete rejection of Russian life, so inherent in such ardent Westerners of the beginning of the century as False Dmitry I, Prince I. A. Khvorostinin, who declared: "The people in Moscow are stupid," and also G. Kotoshikhin, the clerk of the Ambassadorial order, who refused to fulfill his demands and fled in 1664 to Lithuania, and then to Sweden, where he wrote his essay on Russia by order of the Swedish government.

Such statesmen as the head of the Ambassadorial Department A.L. Ordin-Nashchokini, the closest adviser to Tsar Alexei F.M. Rtishchev, they believed that many things should be redone in the Western manner, but by no means all.

Ordyn-Nashchokin, saying, "It's not a shame for a good person to get used to by strangers," stood for the preservation of Russian original culture: "A ground dress ... is not for us, but ours is not for them."

In Russia, the 17th century, compared with the previous one, was also marked by an increase in literacy among various segments of the population: among the landlords, there were about 65% literate, merchants - 96%, townspeople - about 40%, peasants - 15%. Literacy was greatly facilitated by the transfer of printing from expensive parchment to cheaper paper. The Council Code was published in an unprecedented circulation of 2000 copies for Europe at that time. Primers, alphabets, grammars and other educational literature were printed. Handwritten traditions have also been preserved. Since 1621, the Posolsky Prikaz compiled the Chimes, the first newspaper in the form of handwritten summaries of events in the world. Handwritten literature continued to predominate in Siberia and the North.

Literature of the 17th century is largely freed from religious content. We no longer meet in it various kinds of "walking" to holy places, holy teachings, even compositions like "Domostroy". In the event that individual authors began their work as religious writers, then nevertheless, most of their work was represented by secular literature. So written out for translating the Bible from Greek into Russian (in passing, we note that such a need was caused by the fact that the ancient Russian hierarchs, who raised a dispute over the spelling of the name Jesus, because of how many times to pronounce "hallelujah" did not have at their disposal even the correct text of the Bible and for centuries managed perfectly well without it) from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the monks E. Slavinetsky and S. Satanovsky not only coped with their main task, but also went much further. By order of the Moscow Tsar, they translated "The Book of Doctor's Anatomy", "Citizenship and Teaching Morals of Children", "On the Royal City" - a collection of all sorts of things, compiled from Greek and Latin writers in all branches of the then range of knowledge from theology and philosophy to mineralogy and medicine .

Hundreds of other essays were written. Books containing various scientific and practical information began to be published. There was an accumulation of natural scientific knowledge, manuals on mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, geography, medicine, and agriculture were issued. Interest in history increased: the events of the beginning of the century, the approval of a new dynasty at the head of the state, required reflection. Numerous historical stories appeared, where the material presented served to draw lessons for the future.

The most famous historical works of that period are "Tale" by Avramy Palitsyn, "Vremennik" by clerk I. Timofeev, "Words" by Prince. I.A. Khvorostinina, "The Tale" book. THEM. Katyrev-Rostovsky. The official version of the events of the Time of Troubles is contained in the "New Chronicler" of 1630, written by order of Patriarch Filaret. In 1667, the first printed historical work "Synopsis" (that is, a review) was published, which outlined the history of Rus' from ancient times. The "Book of Powers" - a systematized history of the Muscovite state, "The Tsar's Book" - an eleven-volume illustrated history of the world, "ABC Book" - a kind of encyclopedic dictionary, were published.

Many new trends have penetrated literature, fictional characters and plots have appeared, satirical writings on everyday topics have begun to spread: "The Tale of Shemyakin's Court", "The Tale of Yersh Eroshovich", "The Tale of Grief-Misfortune" and others. The heroes of these stories are trying to free themselves from religious dogmas, and at the same time, the worldly wisdom of "Domostroy" remains insurmountable.

Folk accusatory and at the same time autobiographical is the work of Archpriest Avvakum. "The Life of Archpriest Avvakum written by himself" with captivating frankness tells about the ordeals of a long-suffering man who devoted his whole life to the struggle for the ideals of the Orthodox faith. The leader of the split for his time was an exceptionally talented writer. The language of his writings is surprisingly simple and at the same time expressive and dynamic. "Archpriest Avvakum," L. Tolstoy wrote later, "burst into Russian literature like a storm."

In 1661, the monk Samuil Petrovsky-Sitnianovich arrived in Moscow from Polotsk. He became a teacher of the royal children, the author of odes to the glory of the royal family, original plays in Russian "The Comedy Parable of the Prodigal Son", "Tsar Novohudonosor". So Russia found its first poet and playwright Semeon Polotsky .

Literature.

1.Taratonenkov G.Ya. History of Russia from ancient times to the second half of the 19th century. M.1998

2. A course of lectures on the history of the fatherland. Ed. prof. B.V. Lichman, Ekaterinburg: Ural.state.tech. un-t.1995

Strengthening the central government, giving it autocratic features required the appropriate design of the capital of the Russian state. From all over the country, the best craftsmen moved to Moscow. Special bodies appeared that dealt with the issues of the architectural appearance of the capital - the City Order, the Order of Stone Affairs. Moscow becomes the center of Russian architecture. New architectural styles and trends are emerging here. Even the most remote cities are guided by the tastes of Moscow.

The appearance of the Moscow Kremlin has changed. Almost all boyar estates were withdrawn from its territory, artisans and merchants were evicted. The Kremlin became the administrative and spiritual center of the Russian state. Trade and diplomatic missions of foreign states appeared here, as well as official state institutions - the Printing and Ambassadorial Courts, buildings of orders.

The artistic merits of Russian architecture in the 16th century are especially bright. appeared in church buildings. An outstanding monument of tent architecture was the Church of the Ascension in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow, erected in 1532 in honor of the birth of the long-awaited heir to Vasily III - the future Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

Rice. 1. Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye ()

The pinnacle of Russian architecture is considered to be erected in 1555-1560. on Red (then Torgovaya) Square, in the immediate vicinity of the Kremlin, the Pokrovsky Cathedral (it is also called St. Basil's Cathedral, after the famous Moscow holy fool, buried in one of the aisles). Amazing in its beauty, the cathedral was dedicated to the capture of Kazan by Russian troops, it was built by Russian masters Barma and Postnik. The idea of ​​the temple is simple: just as Moscow united the Russian lands around itself, so the huge central tent unites the colorful variety of eight separate domes into a single whole.

Rice. 2. Intercession Cathedral (St. Basil's Cathedral) ()

Urban construction was widely developed, fortresses and monasteries were built. Particularly impressive were the fortifications of Smolensk, erected under the leadership of Fyodor Kon. The length of the fortress walls along the perimeter was 6.5 km. Throughout their length, 38 towers were evenly placed. Masons and craftsmen from all over Russia were gathered for the construction of the fortress.

After the conquest of the Kazan Khanate, by royal decree, 200 Pskov masters were sent to Kazan, headed by the famous architects Barma and Shiryai. They created a number of outstanding architectural structures in the city.

Russian painting, as in previous centuries, developed mainly within the framework of icon painting and church painting. The main place where new ideas and techniques of painting were born was the Moscow Kremlin.

The largest representative of the Moscow school of painting of the late XV century. - early 16th century there was a former prince who became a monk, Dionysius. He painted part of the icons and frescoes for the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. On the icons of Dionysius, the saints were depicted framed by genre scenes illustrating individual episodes of their lives. During the reign of Ivan IV, subjects reflecting real historical events were increasingly included in religious painting. In the middle of the XVI century. in Moscow, a huge, 4 m in size, icon-picture "Militant Church", dedicated to the capture of Kazan, was painted.

With the formation of a single state, the need for literate people increased. At the Stoglavy Cathedral in 1551, it was decided to open schools in Moscow and other cities at churches and monasteries, “so that priests and deacons and all Orthodox Christians in every city give them their children for the teaching of reading and writing and the teaching of book writing.” Special “masters” of non-clerical rank also began to teach literacy, who taught literacy for two years for “porridge and a hryvnia of money”.

The largest event of Russian culture in the middle of the XVI century. was the emergence typography. It began at the initiative of Tsar Ivan the Terrible and with the support of the church. In 1564, Ivan Fedorov and his assistant Pyotr Mstislavets printed the first Russian dated book at the Printing House in Moscow. It was called "Apostle". In 1565, The Book of Hours was published - the first Russian book for teaching literacy.

In the first half of the XVI century. a circle of people close to Metropolitan Macarius created the famous "Father Menaion". "The Fourth" in Rus' was called books intended for reading, in contrast to church books used in worship. "Menaias" are collections where all the works are distributed according to the months and days in which they are recommended to be read. In the XVI century. Sylvester wrote the famous Domostroy, which contained instructions on housekeeping, raising children, and observing religious norms and rituals in the family. One of the main ideas of "Domostroy" was the idea of ​​subordinating the entire life of the state to the royal power, and in the family - to its head.

The problem of strengthening state power, its authority both within the country and abroad, occupies in the 16th century. Russian society. This led to the emergence of a new literary genre - journalism. One of the most interesting publicists of the XVI century. was Ivan Semyonovich Peresvetov. In his petitions addressed to Ivan the Terrible, he proposed reform projects that were supposed to strengthen the autocratic power of the tsar, relying on the nobility. Questions about the nature of royal power and its relationship with subjects were the main ones in the correspondence between Ivan the Terrible and Prince Andrei Kurbsky. Kurbsky outlined his views in The History of the Grand Duke of Moscow and messages to Ivan the Terrible.

In the mid 60s. 16th century An unknown author wrote "The Legend of the Kingdom of Kazan" ("Kazan History").

folk life in the 16th century basically kept the same features. Russian people sincerely professed Christianity and always celebrated Orthodox religious holidays. The most revered holiday was Easter. This holiday was dedicated to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and was celebrated in the spring. It began with a procession. The symbols of the Easter holiday were painted eggs, Easter cakes, cottage cheese Easter. However, in addition to church holidays, pagan traditions were preserved among the people. Such were the festivities. Christmastide was the 12 days between Christmas and Epiphany. And if the church called for these “holy days” to be spent in prayers and chants, then according to pagan traditions they were accompanied by peculiar rituals and games (the ancient Romans had the January “calends”, hence the Russian “carols”). The Orthodox Church fought against these pagan customs. Thus, the Stoglavy Cathedral in 1551 strictly forbade "Hellenic demonic possession, games and splashing, celebrating calendars and dressing up."

In the peasant agricultural calendar, almost every day of the year and almost every hour during the day was noticed, the appearance of every cloud, rain, snow, and their properties were explained. The use of the agricultural calendar made it possible to carry out agricultural work based on the natural conditions of each specific area.

References on the topic "Russia in the XVI century":

1. History of the state and peoples of Russia. XVI-XVIII centuries - M., Bustard.2003

2. Gumilyov L. N. From Rus' to Russia: Essays on ethnic history. - M., 1991

3. Passing through Muscovy: Russia XVI-XVII centuries. through the eyes of diplomats. - M., 1991

4. Tikhomirov M. N. Russia in the XVI century. - M., 1962

Homework

1. What style dominated the architecture of the 16th century?

2. What subjects began to be included in religious painting?

3. What influenced the spread of literacy in Russia?

4. What genres developed in the literature of the 16th century?

5. What folk holidays and traditions were celebrated and observed in the 16th century?

Questions

1. How do you understand the statement of the Russian artist I. E. Grabar that St. Basil’s Cathedral is “rather lonely in Russian art than typical of it”?

2. What cities and villages would you advise a foreign traveler to visit in order to get better acquainted with the Russian culture of the 16th century, what monuments should he pay attention to and why? As in the history of architecture of the XVI century. reflected the political history of the country, the history of the victories of Russian weapons?

3. What is the main feature of the "Church Militant" icon? How can you explain it?

5. What is the importance for the development of the country's culture had the beginning of printing? How did the Russian state treat books and bookish wisdom? What books are being published and why?

6. What holidays were celebrated in Russia? What innovations in the life, everyday life, clothing of Russians take place in the 16th century? What is it connected with?

The appearance of the vestibule as a protective vestibule in front of the entrance to the hut, as well as the fact that now the firebox of the hut was turned inside the hut , made it warmer The appearance of canopies even at the end of the 16th century became typical for peasant households in far from all regions of Russia

Drawing a conclusion about the dwellings of the peasants, we can say that the 16th century is the time of the spread of buildings for livestock. They were placed separately, each under its own roof. In the northern regions, already at that time, one can notice a tendency towards two-story buildings of such buildings (shed, mshanik, and on them a hay barn, that is, a hay barn), which later led to the formation of huge two-story household yards (below - barns and pens for cattle, above - povit, a barn where hay, inventory is stored, a crate is also placed here).

The basis of nutrition was cereals - rye, wheat, oats, millet. Bread and pies were baked from rye (daily) and wheat (on holidays) flour. Kissels were prepared from oats. Many vegetables were eaten - cabbage, carrots, beets, radishes, cucumbers, turnips

Meat dishes were cooked in small quantities on holidays. A more frequent product on the table was fish. Prosperous peasants had garden trees that gave them apples, plums, cherries, and pears. In the northern regions of the country, peasants gathered cranberries, lingonberries, blueberries; in the central regions - strawberries. Mushrooms and hazelnuts were also used as food.

The Orthodox Church allowed one person to marry no more than three times. (The fourth marriage was strictly forbidden) The solemn wedding ceremony was performed, usually, only at the first marriage. Weddings, as a rule, took place in autumn and winter - when there was no agricultural work. Divorce was very difficult. A husband could divorce his wife in case of her infidelity, and communication with strangers outside the home without the permission of the spouse was equated to treason

The working day in the family began early. Ordinary people had two obligatory meals - lunch and dinner. At noon, production activity was interrupted. After dinner, according to the old Russian habit, there followed a long rest, sleep (which was very striking for foreigners). then work began again until supper. With the end of daylight, everyone went to bed.

After the Christmas holiday, an amazing time begins - Christmas time, the girls were going to tell fortunes. And on the street there was a cheerful mess - the children went caroling. Christmas time After baptism, the fun subsided, but not for long. Before the Great Lent - a great holiday: Wide Maslenitsa! Seeing off winter has been celebrated since pagan times. In Elikim Shirokaya The main dish on the table is golden pancakes: a symbol of the sun. Maslenitsa

It is characterized by an increase in the literacy of the population of 15% of the peasants; Primers, alphabets, grammars and other educational literature were printed. Handwritten traditions have also been preserved. “White stoves” appear instead of “smoky ones” (peasants still have “smoky stoves” until the 19th century) In the 17th century, Western European experience was assimilated From the 17th century, marriages had to be blessed by the church without fail. The appearance of metal utensils (samovar) Literature of the 17th century is largely freed from religious content. There are no longer various kinds of "journeys" to holy places, holy teachings, even compositions like "Domostroya

In the difficult conditions of the Middle Ages, the culture of the XVI-XVII centuries. achieved great success in various fields. There has been an increase in literacy among various segments of the population. Primers, alphabets, grammars and other educational literature were printed. Books containing various scientific and practical information began to be published. There was an accumulation of natural science knowledge, manuals on mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, geography, medicine, and agriculture were issued. Increased interest in history. New genres appear in Russian literature: satirical tales, biographies, poems, foreign literature is translated. In architecture, there is a departure from strict church rules, the traditions of ancient Russian architecture are being revived: zakomary, arcade belt, stone carving. The main type of painting continued to be icon painting. For the first time in Russian painting, the portrait genre appears.

dwelling

The life of the Russian peasant and city dweller has changed very slowly and little over the course of centuries. The Russian traditional house, which had developed in antiquity, remained the same one-room building with small windows plugged with a bull's bladder or cloth soaked in hemp oil. Inside the house, a significant part was occupied by a stove, heated on black: smoke accumulated under the roof (there were no ceilings) and exited through the door and special windows made in the upper part of the wall. These features were common to both rural and urban houses. The rural house of a nobleman or son of a boyar differed from the peasant one only in a slightly larger size. Judging by some of the remains of old houses in Trubchevsk, the city house was sometimes built of stone. The walls were made very thick - up to two meters. The lower semi-underground part of the house - the basement - had vaulted ceilings. There were iron rings in the ceiling for hanging food. The upper part of the house was sometimes decorated with stucco door and window casings. Artistically executed lattices were inserted into the windows. These were rare houses of very wealthy people.
As before, the main furniture in the house was a table and fixed benches. Wooden and earthenware utensils were stored on the shelves. Glassware was used in the richest houses. Large and small chests contained various goods: clothes, tablecloths, towels. Separately, the dowry for the daughter's wedding was formed. The most valuable part of the furnishings were the icons hanging in the "red" (beautiful) corner.
The door from the house led to the vestibule - an unheated room, usually made not of logs, but of boards or twigs. Various tools of labor, part of household supplies were stored in the hallway.
In general, a residential building was either a hut (mainly in the north and east of the Bryansk region), or a hut - in the south and southwest. The roof of the hut is double-pitched, the hut is four-pitched. Huts were placed with a narrow (end) part on the street, huts - wide. The hut was often made of poles, between which logs or poles were placed. The entire building was covered with clay. A common feature for the hut and the hut was that in the Bryansk region they were usually set up without a basement, characteristic of the Russian North. The house on the basement is better than the ground one, it is adapted for protection from deep snow and spring floods. The door from the hallway led to the courtyard. Compared to the XIV-XV centuries, the number of outbuildings for peasants and townspeople increased. This indicates an increase in the well-being of the population. There were barns, sheds, cages, bathhouses in the yards. Merchants arranged warehouses for goods at the house. The craftsman, if he worked outside the home, had a special room for work. There was a garden attached to the house.
The world of things that surrounded the family life of a person in the 16th-17th centuries consisted mainly of wooden objects. In the forest region, wood was the most accessible and easily processed material. In addition to wood, clay was often used. Iron products were comparatively rare. They made the working parts of tools, tools, weapons. Metal products were highly valued.

Settlements

Having gone beyond the boundaries of his yard, a person found himself on the street of a village, village or city. Until the 16th century in Russia, in the course of the development of territories, more and more new villages appeared in one or two courtyards. Now the number of households in rural settlements has begun to grow. By the end of the 16th century, villages of 10-20 households were becoming habitual. There were villages with several dozen households, such as Suponevo, which belonged to the Svinsky Monastery and stretched along a large trade road. The estates of the peasants were located in one line in cases where the village was built up along the road or along the river bank. In other cases, there was no noticeable order in the layout of the settlements. It was only in the 17th century that the street planning of villages began to appear. A notable building in the village was a church, usually wooden. Near the church were the courtyards of the clergy.
Cities had more of the same type of construction. In the XVI-XVII centuries, the system of urban development continued to exist, which had developed in antiquity. There was a fortress in the center of the city. Roads radiated from the fortress. Streets sprang up along these roads. These streets were formed not by houses, as in modern cities, but by estates, enclosed by more or less high fences. A sign of urban development was that the estates adjoined each other. They did not form a straight line, and one estate protruded forward, closer to the road, the other retreated from it. Because of this, the street in some places became narrower, then wider. Streets, as well as settlements, were often separated from each other by vegetable gardens, streams, meadows. They were somewhat isolated from each other, especially since the settlements were usually inhabited by people of the same kind of service. Such are the Streltsy, Pushkar, Zatinnye, Cossack, Soldier, Yamsky settlements in Bryansk, Karachev, Sevsk. At night, the streets were not lit and were not paved.
In the cities of southwestern Russia, the central fortresses were wooden. The walls of the Bryansk fortress were made of oak and covered with boards. The fortress had 9 towers, two of which had gates to enter the fortress. In the second half of the 17th century, an extension of several towers with gates was made to the old fortress. The territory of the fortress has doubled. Among the gray wooden buildings and greenery, churches stood out for their height, especially those made of stone. There were many churches in Bryansk, Sevsk, Starodub. Most of them were built of wood, apparently in the traditional tent style for the 16th-17th centuries - with high pyramidal tops, reminiscent of a tent to a Russian person. The Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery near Sevsk preserved such stone tents in its architectural appearance. Although it was built at the very beginning of the 18th century, its buildings show features of the architecture of the previous era. In the middle of Starodub today stands the Nativity Cathedral, built in the 17th century. It consists, as it were, of three large and wide towers clinging to each other. This is how temples were built in Ukraine. The building is decorated with convex, as if protruding from the walls, details - patterned architraves on the windows, shoulder blades - flat ledges at the corners of the cathedral. Each tower is crowned with a dome. Over time, there were more and more decorations on churches - the era of the dominance of a bizarre, elegant baroque style was approaching. Features of this style are noticeable in the architecture of the stone gate church of the Svensky Monastery. The appearance of the churches of the Bryansk region combined the features of Russian and Ukrainian art.
In the center of the city on the square there was a market, where city dwellers came every day. It was the busiest place in the city. The shops in the market stood in rows - one line of shops, as it were, looked at the same opposite line. In a row, as a rule, they traded a certain set of goods. So, in Bryansk on the market there were rows of fish, meat, mosquito (haberdashery). Near the market there was a guest yard where visiting merchants stayed.

The shape of the population. Everyday life

The clothes of ordinary inhabitants of the region have changed little since ancient times. Residents of villages and cities wore shirts made of homespun cloth. Women's shirts were decorated with embroidery. In winter, they wore clothes made of sheep's skin - sheepskin. Shoes were mostly leather, in some cases they wore bast shoes.
Ordinary life, both in the city and in the village, began early. Even before dawn, the women got up to send the cattle to the common rural or urban herd. There was no breakfast in our modern view, we ate the remnants of yesterday's food. Then work began in the field or workshop. At lunch the family got together again. The men sat down to dine, the women waited on them. Then the whole house went to sleep. Slept for two hours. Then work resumed again until the evening. After dinner, the family rested and went to bed.
Holidays brought variety to the usual routine. The family went to a solemn service in the church, went out to watch the youth play in the city or in a meadow near the city. Many games were ancient, pagan in nature. Guests were taken to the feast, which took place from day to evening.

Spiritual life

The spiritual needs of the population were satisfied by reading religious books and worship. Every church, every monastery had at least a small collection of liturgical books. Handwritten and printed books appeared together with the Old Believer settlers in the southwestern districts of Russia. Some of them came from the printing house of Ivan Fedorov.
Songwriting was of great importance in the life of the population. Some of the songs that have survived to this day reflected historical events, features of life in the Russian borderlands, in particular in the lands of Sevsk. Some songs reflected the impressions of the people from the Time of Troubles. They ridiculed people who, out of interests of profit and profit, easily ran from one contender for power to another. Songwriting was akin to proverbs and sayings. From an environment clearly hostile to False Dmitry I and his supporters, sayings came out in which, in the form of fables, the impostor was called a piglet and cancer: "Sevchane met cancer with bells", "Look, brother, the voivode is crawling and dragging a bristle in his teeth", " The Sevchans perched a piglet, saying: “Don’t kill yourself, don’t kill yourself - the chicken can hold on to two legs.” The same desire to humiliate, ridicule the participants in the anti-government movement is also noticeable in such sayings: Yelets is the father of all thieves, and Karachev is a sacrifice (option: they are in addition), and Livny is marvelous to all thieves, and Dmitrovtsy (option: Komarinians) are not betrayers of old thieves. , probably already after the civil war, but according to fresh memories, when it was possible to laugh at the inhabitants of those areas who tried to support unsuccessful applicants for the Moscow throne. ia in the family. Strengthening the family, the complication of wedding ceremonies gave birth to new and new songs. Weddings lasted for several days, and each of them corresponded to certain customs. With songs and rituals, agricultural work took place, especially sowing and harvesting.
The life of the inhabitants of the southwestern districts of Russia was distinguished by the preservation of many ancient features. This is explained by the fact that large areas of this region were isolated by dense forests from large trade roads and cities, from central and local authorities.