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The hut in the form of a cage wooden frame of various configurations is a traditional Russian dwelling for the countryside. The traditions of the hut go back to dugouts and houses with earthen walls, from which purely wooden log cabins without external insulation gradually began to rise.

The Russian village hut was usually not only a house for people to live, but a whole complex of buildings that included everything necessary for the autonomous life of a large Russian family: these are living quarters, storage rooms, rooms for livestock and poultry, rooms for food supplies (haylofts), workshops, which were integrated into one fenced and well protected from the weather and strangers peasant yard. Sometimes part of the premises was integrated under a single roof with the house or was part of the covered courtyard. Only baths, revered as the habitat of evil spirits (and sources of fires) were built separately from the peasant estate.

For a long time in Russia, huts were built exclusively with the help of an ax. Devices such as saws and drills appeared only in the 19th century, which to some extent reduced the durability of Russian wooden huts, since saws and drills, unlike an ax, left the wood structure “open” for moisture and microorganisms to penetrate. The ax "sealed" the tree, crushing its structure. Metal was practically not used in the construction of huts, as it was quite expensive due to its artisanal mining (bog metal) and production.

Since the fifteenth century, the Russian stove has become the central element of the interior of the hut, which could occupy up to one quarter of the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe residential part of the hut. Genetically, the Russian oven goes back to the Byzantine bread oven, which was enclosed in a box and covered with sand to keep warm longer.

The design of the hut, verified over the centuries of Russian life, did not undergo major changes from the Middle Ages until the 20th century. To this day, wooden buildings are preserved, which are 100-200-300 years old. The main damage to wooden housing construction in Russia was caused not by nature, but by the human factor: fires, wars, revolutions, regular property limits and "modern" reconstruction and repair of Russian huts. Therefore, every day there is less and less around the unique wooden buildings that adorn the Russian Land, having their own soul and unique originality.

AN OLD HOUSE

In one street stood an old, old house, built about three hundred years ago, the year of its construction was carved on one of the window cornices, along which curled intricate carvings: tulips and hop shoots; Here, too, a whole poem was carved in ancient letters and with observance of the ancient spelling. Other cornices were adorned with hilarious, grimacing faces. The upper floor of the house formed a large ledge above the lower one; under the very roof there was a gutter ending in a dragon's head. Rainwater was supposed to flow from the dragon's mouth, but it flowed from the belly - the gutter was full of holes.

All the other houses on the street were so brand new, clean, with large windows and straight, even walls; it was clear from everything that they did not want to have anything in common with the old house and even thought: “How long will the lion stick around here to the shame of the whole street? Because of this ledge, we cannot see what is happening on the other side of the house! And the stairs, the stairs! Wide, as if in a palace, and high, as if leading to a bell tower! Iron railings resemble the entrance to a grave crypt, and large copper plaques glisten on the doors! It's just indecent!"

Opposite the old house, on the other side of the street, stood the same brand new, clean houses and thought the same as their brothers; but in one of them a little ruddy-cheeked boy with clear, shining eyes was sitting by the window; he liked the old house, both in the sun and in the moonlight, much more than all the other houses. Looking at the wall of an old house with cracked and crumbling plaster in places, he drew for himself the most bizarre pictures of the past, imagined the whole street built up with the same houses, with wide stairs, ledges and gabled roofs, saw before him soldiers with halberds and gutters in the form of dragons and snakes ... Yes, you could still look at the old house! There lived an old man who wore short trousers to the knees, a caftan with large metal buttons and a wig, about which one could immediately say: this is a real wig! In the mornings, an old servant came to the old man, who cleaned everything in the house and carried out the instructions of the old owner; the rest of the day the old man remained alone in the house. Sometimes he came up to the window to look out into the street and into the neighboring houses; the boy, who was sitting by the window, nodded his head to the old man and received in return the same friendly nod. Taconi met and became friends, although they never spoke to each other - this did not stop them at all!

Once the boy heard his parents say:

The old man's life is not bad at all, but he is so lonely, poor!

The next Sunday, the boy wrapped something in a piece of paper, went out the gate and stopped an old servant who was passing by.

Listen! Take this from me to the old gentleman! I have two tin soldiers, so here's one for him! Let him stay with him, because the old gentleman is so lonely, poor!

The servant, apparently delighted, nodded his head and carried the soldier to the old house. Then the same servant came to the boy to ask if the onsam would like to visit the old master. Parents allowed, and the boy went to visit.

The brass plaques on the banisters of the stairs shone brighter than usual, they had been cleaned out in anticipation of a guest, and the carved trumpeters—there were trumpeters carved on the doors peering out of tulips—seemed to blow with all their might, and their cheeks swelled more than ever. They trumpeted: “Tra-ta-ta-ta! The boy is coming! Tra-ta-ta-ta!” The doors opened and the boy entered the corridor. All the walls were hung with old portraits of knights in armor and ladies in silk dresses; knightly armor rattled, coats rustled ... Then the boy went to the stairs, which first went high up, and then down again, and found himself on a rather dilapidated terrace with large holes and wide cracks in the floor, from which green grass and leaves peeped out. The whole terrace, the whole courtyard and even the whole wall of the house were covered with greenery, so that the terrace looked like a real garden, but in fact it was a terrace! There were ancient flower pots in the form of heads with donkey ears; flowers grew in them as they wanted. In one pot, a carnation climbed over the edge: its green sprouts scattered in all directions, and the carnation seemed to say: “The breeze caresses me, the sun kisses me and promises to give me another flower on Sunday! Another flower on Sunday!

From the terrace the boy was led into a room upholstered in pigskin with gold embossing.

Yes, the gilding will wear off

Pigskin remains! -

the walls spoke.

In the same room were high-backed chairs decorated with carvings.

Get in! Get in! - they invited, and then plaintively creaked. - Oh, what an ache in the bones! And we grabbed rheumatism like an old closet. Rheumatism in the back! Oh!

The boy then entered a room with a large ledge to the street. The old owner was sitting here.

Thank you for the tin soldier, my friend! he said to the boy. - Thank you for coming to me!

“So, so,” or rather, “cuck, cack!” furniture creaked and groaned. There were so many chairs, tables and armchairs that they prevented each other from looking at the boy.

On the wall hung a portrait of a charming young lady with a lively, cheerful face, but with her hair done and dressed in the old fashion: her hair was powdered, and her dress stood in a stake. She did not say either “so” or “khuk”, but she looked kindly at the boy, and he immediately asked the old man:

Where did you get it?

In the junk shop! he answered. - There are many such portraits, but no one cares about them: no one knows who they are written from - all these faces died and were buried a long time ago. So this lady has not been in the world for fifty years, but I knew her in the old days.

Under the picture hung a bouquet of dried flowers behind glass; they must have been about fifty years old too—they were so old! The pendulum of the large old clock swung back and forth, the hand moved, and everything in the room grew older every minute without noticing it.

At home they say that you are terribly lonely! - said the boy.

ABOUT! Memories of familiar faces and images constantly visit me!.. And now you have visited me too! No, I'm fine!

And the old man took a book with pictures from the shelf. There were whole processions, strange carriages that you don’t see now, soldiers like jacks of clubs, city artisans with fluttering banners. The flags of the stubborn ones flaunted scissors supported by two lions, but the shoemakers were not boots, but an eagle with two heads - after all, shoemakers make all paired things. Yes, that's how the pictures were!

The old owner went to another room for jam, apples and nuts. No, in the old house, really, it was lovely as well!

And I just can't stay here! - said the tin soldier standing on the chest. - It's so empty and sad. No, those who are accustomed to family life cannot live here. My strength is gone! The day drags on here without end, and the evening even longer! Here you will not hear either the pleasant conversations that your parents used to have among themselves, or the cheerful fuss of the children, as we have! The old master is so lonely! Do you think anyone kisses him? Does anyone look at him kindly? Does he have a tree? Receives aton gifts? Nothing! Will he get a coffin!.. No, really, I can’t stand such a life!

Well, well, it's full! - said the boy. - I think it's wonderful here; Memories peep in here and bring with them so many familiar faces!

Somehow I didn’t see them, but they don’t know me! - answered the tin soldier. - No, I just can't stay here!

And it is necessary! - said the boy.

At that moment an old man entered the room with a merry smile on his face; And jams, and apples, and nuts! The boy stopped thinking about the tin soldier.

Cheerful and happy, he returned home. Days followed days; the boy still sent bows to the old house, and from there the same bows in return, and now the boy again went there to visit.

The carved trumpeters blew again: “Tra-ta-ta-ta! The boy has come! Tra-ta-ta-ta!” The knights and ladies in the portraits rattled their armor and rustled silk dresses, the pigskin spoke, and the old armchairs creaked and groaned from rheumatism in the back: “Oh!” In a word, everything was the same as the first time - in the old house the hours and days passed one like another, without any change.

No, I can't stand it! - said the tin soldier. - I already cried tin! It's too sad! Let them send me to war, cut off my arm or leg! Still, there will be a change! My strength is no more!.. Now I know what kind of memories that bring with them familiar faces! They also visited me, and, believe me, you will not be happy with them! Especially if they visit you often. In the end, I was ready to jump off the trunk! .. I saw you and all yours! .. You all stood in front of me, as if alive! .. It was Sunday morning ... All you children were standing in the dining room, so serious, hands folded piously, and sang the morning psalm... Dad and mom were right there. Suddenly the door opened, and your uninvited two-year-old sister Marie entered. And she only has to hear music or singing - it doesn't matter what kind - now she starts to dance. So she began to dance, but she could not get in time - you sang so long ... She raised one leg, then the other and stretched her neck, but things did not go well. None of you even smiled, though it was hard to resist. I still couldn’t resist, laughed to myself, and flew off sostola! A big bump jumped up on my forehead - it still hasn’t gone away yet, and it served me right! .. I remember a lot and more ... Everything that I saw, heard and experienced in your family pops up before my eyes! That's what they are, these memories, and that's what they bring with them! .. Tell me, do you still sing in the morning? Tell me something about little Marie! And my comrade, the tin soldier, how is he? What a lucky man! .. No, no, I just can't stand it! ..

You are a gift! - said the boy. - And should stay here! Don't you understand this?

The old owner came with a box in which there were many different curiosities: some kind of caskets, bottles and decks of old cards - such big ones, painted with gold, you won’t see now! The old man opened for the guest the big drawers of the old bureau, and even the clavichords, on the lid of which a landscape was drawn. The instrument made quiet rattling sounds under the owner's hand, and the old man himself hummed some mournful song at the same time.

She used to sing this song! he said, nodding at the portrait he had bought from the junk dealer, and his eyes gleamed.

I want to go to war! I don't want war! - the tin soldiers suddenly yelled and rushed from the chest.

Where did he go? The old man himself was looking for him, the owner was looking for him, and the boy was looking for him - nowhere, and only.

Well, I'll find it later! - said the old man, but he did not find it. Half the weight was in the cracks, the soldier fell into one of them and lay there, as in an open grave.

In the evening the boy returned home. As time went; winter came; the windows were frozen, and the boy had to breathe on them to thaw at least a small hole through which he could look out into the street. Snow covered all the curlicues and the inscription on the cornices of the old house and blocked the stairs - the house stood as if uninhabited. And so it was: the old man, his master, died.

In the evening, a chariot drove up to the old house, a coffin was placed on it and the old man was taken outside the city, to the family crypt. No one followed the coffin - all the old man's friends had long since died. The boy blew a kiss after the coffin.

A few days later, an auction was scheduled in the old house. The boy saw from the window how old portraits of knights and ladies, flower pots with long ears, old chairs and cupboards were carried away. One went here, the other there; a portrait of a lady bought in a junk shop returned to the same place, and the datak remained there: after all, no one knew this lady, no one needs a former portrait.

In the spring they began to tear down the old house - this miserable barn was already an eyesore to everyone, and from the street it was possible to look into the very rooms with pigskin wallpaper hanging in tatters; the greenery on the terrace grew even more luxuriantly and densely wrapped around the fallen beams. Finally, the place was completely cleared.

That is great! neighbors said.

Instead of the old house, a new one appeared on the street, with large windows and white, even walls. In front of him, that is, in fact, on the very spot where the old house used to stand, a garden was planted, and vines stretched from there to the wall of the neighboring house. The garden was surrounded by a high iron lattice, and an iron gate led into it. It all looked so elegant that passers-by stopped and looked through the bars. The vines were littered with dozens of sparrows, who chirped with each other, but not about the old house - they could not remember it; so many years have passed since then that the boy managed to become a man. From him came a sensible man to the delight of his parents. He had just married and moved with his young wife to this new house with a garden.

Both of them were in the garden; the husband watched as his wife planted some wild flower she liked in a flower bed. Suddenly the young woman cried out:

Ay! What is this?

She pricked - something sharp was sticking out of the soft, loose earth. It was - yes, think! - a tin soldier, the same one that disappeared from the old man, lay in the trash and finally lay in the ground for many, many years.

The young woman wiped the soldier first with a green leaf and then with her thin handkerchief. How wonderfully perfume smelled from him! The tin soldier seemed to wake up from a swoon.

Let me see! said the young man, laughing and shaking his head. - Well, it's certainly not the same one, but it reminds me of a story from my childhood!

And he told his wife about the old house, about its owner, and about the tin soldier, whom he sent to the poor lonely old man. In a word, he told everything as it really was, and the young woman even shed tears, listening to him.

Or maybe this is the same tin soldier! - she said. - I'll hide it as a keepsake. But you must show me the grave of the old man!

I don't even know where she is! he answered. - Yes, and no one knows! All his friends died before him, no one cared about his grave, I was still a very small boy in those days.

How awful to be so alone! - she said.

It's terrible to be alone! - said the tin soldier. - But what happiness to realize that you have not been forgotten!

It turned out that it was a piece of pigskin that was once upholstered in the rooms of the old house. The gilding was all gone from him, and he looked rather like a dirty clod of earth, but he had his own view of things, and he expressed it:

Yes, the gilding will wear off

Pigskin remains!

The Tin Soldier, however, disagreed.

The building of the Old Mansion is located in Arkhangelsk. It was built in 1786. The fate of this house was not easy: it burned down several times, was rebuilt several times, corrected, reconstructed, it was never used for its intended purpose. First, the Bank Office was located here, then the Promennaya Office, the Commercial Bank and, finally, the city customs.

In 1964 the building was transferred to the Museum of Fine Arts. For several years there was an exhibition of ancient Russian art, later - museum funds. Since the early 1980s, the Mansion has been restored. In September 1998, the opening of the museum took place. The first exposition - "Portrait in an Ancient Interior" - provided an opportunity to see the transformation of artistic styles in the interior of the late 18th - early 20th centuries. The formation of the ensemble, which, in addition to portraiture, includes furniture, mirrors, porcelain, made it possible to create a special atmosphere in which works of fine art seem to awaken when they find themselves in an environment close to them. The house has a permanent exhibition "Portrait in an old interior".

Since the Mansion on the Embankment was never owned by a specific family, the authors of the exhibition decided not to reproduce the original interior. But on the other hand, the museum's funds kept items of decoration and everyday life of the 18th - early 20th centuries. Therefore, it was decided to restore the living environment in which museum exhibits would fit organically.

The portrait gallery of the Old Mansion contains works that come from local institutions and old houses. Among them you can see a portrait of I.K. Bazhenin (a person related to Arkhangelsk) and royal portraits: Peter the Great, Elizabeth Petrovna, Pavel Petrovich (second half of the 18th century). The portrait gallery characterized the taste of the owner, was the subject of his pride and vanity.

The owner's study was one of the main rooms of the noble house and was, in a way, its intellectual and economic center. The main place in the cabinet exposition is occupied by portraits of the Arkhangelsk governors of the 18th century: T.I. Tutolmina, P.P. Konovnitsyn and others. The interior of the study was recreated from the late 18th - early 19th centuries.

In the living room of the Old Mansion you can feel the atmosphere of a city house from the first quarter of the 19th century. The living room of the 19th century was a place where people read and empathized aloud, did needlework, “explained”, played music. Of course, it is difficult to imagine a living room without a piano. In addition, the main place in the interior decoration is occupied by marble sculpture and bronze items. The heart of the living room is her portraits, which at the beginning of the 19th century served as an indicator of the standard of living and position in society. Most often, the portraits were anonymous: not only the author is unknown, but also the people depicted on them. A group of such portraits is located above the sofa.

There is a room with a women's boudoir (mid-19th century) in the house, where the hostess of the house rested from secular duties, read, needlework, and carried out obligatory correspondence, as evidenced by an elegant secretary bureau. Also here you can see a dressing table and a table for needlework. The picturesque paintings of this room convey a variety of moods, consonant with the world of a woman. There are romantic paintings by Aivazovsky, Sudkovsky, Bogolyubov, sentimental idyll of a Western artist in the Rococo style, "Family Scene" by artist Charles van den Dele and, of course, portraits depicting children. The pearl of the women's boudoir is the "Portrait of an Unknown Woman", transferred to Arkhangelsk by the Russian Museum in 1929, and it came to the museum from the artist's studio.

The final hall of the Mansion is the dining room. Usually it was a bright, comfortable room. The main place in the interior is occupied by a sliding table "centipede", at which all family members gathered. Indispensable in the dining room was the presence of glazed cabinets, in which various objects made of porcelain, glass, faience were displayed. A special place in the decoration was given to porcelain. At the end of the 19th century, it was not just an object of collection and representation, but was a necessary part of the table setting. On the wall you can see "Portrait of a Woman in a White Dress" by A.I. Vakhrameev, portrait of N.D. Vidyakina by an unknown artist.

The old mansion on the Embankment lives a vibrant, active life. Thematic exhibitions and excursions are regularly organized here, causing genuine interest among local residents and tourists. In the halls of the mansion, you can hear chamber music, balls for children, social events, receptions and presentations are arranged.

If we need to scare readers, the surest way is to use the fear of the unknown.

When people encounter an inexplicable phenomenon, even a fictional one, they automatically have the reaction we need.

Method 1. “Wrong” color

Imagine a hospital room painted blood red. How about a dirty swamp-colored children's room? Tiles in the kitchen - with cheerful scarlet peas, suspiciously resembling drops of blood ... A sweet girl with white pupils - like a boiled fish ...

All this looks “wrong”, and therefore disturbs the subconscious of the reader.

Method 2. Inconsistency with the place or situation

Suppose the main character enters the room - into the most ordinary room, looks around and suddenly discovers ... something. For example, a small piece of meat dried up to the wall or a doorknob screwed not to the door, but to the wall.

A suspicious object simultaneously arouses both curiosity and anxiety, and it is already difficult for the reader to tear himself away from the book - he wants to know what will happen next.

Method 3: Suspicious activities

Actions and sounds that clearly do not correspond to the usual order of things act on our subconscious in a similar way, but only to an even greater extent. If something moves “incorrectly”, a “danger signal” instantly lights up in our brain.

Imagine that the surface of the table you are sitting at suddenly starts to bubble and crack. All this is scary only because it is inexplicable (well, the table, of course, is a pity - after all, it costs money).

Dig into your nightmares: what scared you the most? I once dreamed that all my dog's teeth fell out at once.

Method 4. Sinister item

There are a number of items that, by definition, look suspicious to our subconscious:

• Mirrors (as a portal to another reality)
• Thick curtains (who knows what lies behind them)
• locked doors
• Dirty, disheveled dolls (our subconscious does not like childhood to be associated with decline, death and decay).
• Sink or basin with suspicious liquid
• Broken railing at high altitude

Things related to death and pain

• Attributes of funeral and mourning
• syringes
• Dirty bandages
• Bones
• blood stains
• dead plants
• Artificial flowers (a trifle, but rather symbolic)

Anything related to sinister superstitions

• crows
• Black Cats
• Number 13
• Ugly old men and women, like evil sorcerers

Everything related to abandoned housing

• Ruins
• abandoned houses
• Thick layer of dust
• cracked glass
• boarded up doors

Method 5. Associations and metaphors

You can focus readers' attention on objects that serve as a warning to the hero. It can be, for example, a dead butterfly stuck in a web, or a flashing bright red sign over a locked door - “No way out”.

Method 6. Words-keys

Many words in Russian carry a “gloomy charge”. By themselves, such words will not scare anyone, but in combination with the right images, they can have a very powerful effect. For example:

• Slimy
• Gloomy
• Uterine
• Mogilny
• Moldy
• Creepy, etc.

Make a list of adjectives and adverbs related to threat, anxiety, death, and decay, and you have a “horror vocabulary” that you can adapt to your story.

Method 7. Playing on ancient human instincts

Darkness, night forest, cemeteries, eyes of a predator glowing in the dark, dim lighting, smells of decay, etc. by definition cause fear in a person.

It may sound trite, but it works, because we will not get away from instincts that are many thousands of years old. Everything that frightened our distant ancestors, clinging to the fire in the darkness of the cave, still frightens us.

If you want to show readers a creepy place, describe it from the point of view of a character who already perceives the world in a certain way. He does not notice everything in a row, but only what has a special, sinister meaning for him.

It is one thing if your reader looks at what is happening from the point of view of an outside observer, and quite another if he has got used to the image of the hero and worries about him as if he were himself.

Russian hut: where and how our ancestors built the huts, arrangement and decor, elements of the hut, videos, riddles and proverbs about the hut and reasonable housekeeping.

"Oh, what mansions!" - so often we talk now about a spacious new apartment or cottage. We speak without thinking about the meaning of the word. After all, mansions are an ancient peasant dwelling, consisting of several buildings. What kind of mansions did the peasants have in their Russian huts? How was the Russian traditional hut arranged?

In this article:

- where were the huts built before?
- attitude to the Russian hut in Russian folk culture,
- the device of the Russian hut,
- decoration and decor of the Russian hut,
- Russian stove and red corner, male and female halves of the Russian house,
- elements of a Russian hut and a peasant yard (dictionary),
- proverbs and sayings, signs about the Russian hut.

Russian hut

Since I am from the north and grew up on the White Sea, I will show photos of northern houses in the article. And as an epigraph to my story about the Russian hut, I chose the words of D. S. Likhachev:

Russian North! It is difficult for me to put into words my admiration, my admiration for this region. When for the first time, as a boy of thirteen, I traveled along the Barents and White Seas, along the Northern Dvina, visited the coast-dwellers, in peasant huts, listened to songs and fairy tales, looked at these unusually beautiful people, carrying on simply and with dignity, I was completely stunned. It seemed to me that this is the only way to truly live: measuredly and easily, working and getting so much satisfaction from this work ... In the Russian North, there is an amazing combination of the present and the past, modernity and history, the watercolor lyricism of water, earth, sky, the formidable power of stone , storms, cold, snow and air "(D.S. Likhachev. Russian culture. - M., 2000. - S. 409-410).

Where were huts built before?

A favorite place for the construction of a village and the construction of Russian huts was the bank of a river or lake. At the same time, the peasants were guided by practicality - proximity to the river and the boat as a means of transportation, but also by aesthetic reasons. From the windows of the hut, standing on a high place, there was a beautiful view of the lake, forests, meadows, fields, as well as the courtyard with barns, the bathhouse near the river itself.

The northern villages are visible from afar, they were never located in the lowlands, always on the hills, near the forest, near the water on the high bank of the river, they became the center of a beautiful picture of the unity of man and nature, fit organically into the surrounding landscape. On the highest place they usually built a church and a bell tower in the center of the village.

The house was built thoroughly, "for centuries", a place for it was chosen high enough, dry, protected from cold winds - on a high hill. They tried to locate villages where there were fertile lands, rich meadows, forests, rivers or lakes. The huts were placed in such a way that they were provided with a good entrance and approach, and the windows were turned "for the summer" - on the sunny side.

In the north, they tried to place houses on the southern slope of the hill, so that its top would reliably cover the house from violent cold northern winds. The south side will always warm up well, and the house will be warm.

If we consider the location of the hut on the site, then they tried to place it closer to its northern part. The house closed the garden part of the site from the wind.

In terms of the orientation of the Russian hut according to the sun (north, south, west, east) there was also a special structure of the village. It was very important that the windows of the residential part of the house were located in the direction of the sun. For better illumination of houses in rows, they were placed in a checkerboard pattern relative to each other. All the houses on the streets of the village "looked" in one direction - at the sun, at the river. From the window one could see sunrises and sunsets, the movement of ships along the river.

Prosperous place for the construction of a hut was considered a place where cattle lie down to rest. After all, cows were considered by our ancestors as a fertile life-giving force, because the cow was often the breadwinner of the family.

They tried not to build houses in or near swamps, these places were considered "chilly", and the crops on them often suffered from frosts. But a river or lake near the house is always good.

When choosing a place to build a house, the men guessed - they used an experiment. Women never participated in it. They took sheep's wool. She was placed in a clay pot. And left for the night at the site of the future home. The result was considered positive if the wool was damp by morning. So the house will be rich.

There were other fortune-telling - experiments. For example, in the evening, chalk was left overnight at the site of the future home. If the chalk attracted ants, it was considered a good sign. If ants do not live on this earth, then it is better not to build a house here. The result was checked in the morning the next day.

They began to chop down the house in early spring (Lent) or in other months of the year on the new moon. If a tree is cut down on a waning moon, then it will quickly rot, which is why there was such a ban. There were also more stringent prescriptions for the days. The forest began to be harvested from the winter Nikola, from December 19th. The best time for harvesting a tree was considered December - January, according to the first frosts, when excess moisture comes out of the trunk. They did not cut dry trees or trees with growths for the house, trees that fell to the north during felling. These beliefs related specifically to trees, other materials were not furnished with such norms.

They did not build houses on the site of houses burned by lightning. It was believed that lightning Elijah - the prophet strikes places of evil spirits. They also did not build houses where there used to be a bathhouse, where someone was injured with an ax or a knife, where human bones were found, where there used to be a bathhouse or where a road used to pass, where some kind of misfortune occurred, for example, a flood.

Attitude to the Russian hut in folk culture

The house in Rus' had many names: a hut, a hut, a tower, kholupy, a mansion, a horomina and a temple. Yes, do not be surprised - the temple! Mansions (huts) were equated with the temple, because the temple is also a house, the House of God! And in the hut there was always a holy, red corner.

The peasants treated the house as a living being. Even the names of the parts of the house are similar to the names of the parts of the human body and its world! This is a feature of the Russian house - "human", that is, anthropomorphic names of parts of the hut:

• Chelo hut is her face. Chelom could be called the pediment of the hut and the outer opening in the furnace.
• Prichelina- from the word "brow", that is, the decoration on the forehead of the hut,
• platbands- from the word "face", "on the face" of the hut.
• Ochelie- from the word "eyes", a window. This was the name of the part of the female headdress, the window decoration was also called.
• Forehead- so the frontal board was called. There were also "fronts" in the design of the house.
• Heel, foot- so the part of the doors was called.

There were also zoomorphic names in the arrangement of the hut and yard: “bulls”, “hens”, “skate”, “crane” - a well.

The word "hut" comes from the Old Slavic "ist'ba". “Istboy, firebox” was a heated residential log house (and a “cage” is an unheated log house of a residential building).

The house and the hut were living models of the world for people. The house was that secret place in which people expressed ideas about themselves, about the world, built their world and their lives according to the laws of harmony. Home is part of life and a way to connect and shape your life. The house is a sacred space, an image of the family and homeland, a model of the world and human life, a person’s connection with the natural world and with God. A house is a space that a person builds with his own hands, and which is with him from the first to the last days of his life on Earth. Building a house is a repetition of the work of the Creator by a person, because a human dwelling, according to the ideas of the people, is a small world created according to the rules of the “big world”.

By the appearance of a Russian house, it was possible to determine the social status, religion, and nationality of its owners. In one village there were no two completely identical houses, because each hut carried an individuality and reflected the inner world of the family living in it.

For a child, the house is the first model of the outer big world, it “feeds” and “nurtures” the child, the child “absorbs” the laws of life in the big adult world from the house. If a child grew up in a light, cozy, kind house, in a house in which order reigns, then this is how the child will continue to build his life. If there is chaos in the house, then chaos is in the soul and in the life of a person. From childhood, the child mastered the system of ideas about his house - the outcrop and its structure - the mother, the red corner, the female and male parts of the house.

The house is traditionally used in Russian as a synonym for the word "motherland". If a person does not have a sense of home, then there is no sense of homeland! Attachment to the house, taking care of it was considered a virtue. The house and the Russian hut are the embodiment of a native, safe space. The word “house” was also used in the sense of “family” - they said “There are four houses on the hill” - this meant that there were four families. In a Russian hut, several generations of the family lived and ran a common household under one roof - grandfathers, fathers, sons, grandchildren.

The inner space of the Russian hut has long been associated in folk culture as the space of a woman - she followed him, put things in order and comfort. But the outer space - the courtyard and beyond - was the space of a man. My husband's grandfather still remembers such a division of duties, which was accepted in the family of our great-grandparents: a woman carried water from a well for the house, for cooking. And the man also carried water from the well, but for cows or horses. It was considered a shame if a woman began to perform men's duties or vice versa. Since they lived in large families, there were no problems. If one of the women could not carry water now, then this work was done by another woman in the family.

The male and female half were also strictly observed in the house, but this will be discussed further.

In the Russian North, residential and utility premises were combined under the same roof, so that you can manage your household without leaving your home. This was how the vital ingenuity of the northerners living in harsh cold natural conditions manifested itself.

The house was understood in folk culture as the center of the main life values.- happiness, prosperity, prosperity of the family, faith. One of the functions of the hut and the house was a protective function. The carved wooden sun under the roof is a wish of happiness and well-being to the owners of the house. The image of roses (which do not grow in the north) is a wish for a happy life. The lions and lionesses in the painting are pagan amulets, scaring away evil with their terrible appearance.

Proverbs about the hut

On the roof there is a heavy ridge made of wood - a sign of the sun. There must have been a house goddess in the house. S. Yesenin wrote interestingly about the horse: “The horse, both in Greek, Egyptian, Roman, and in Russian mythology, is a sign of aspiration. But only one Russian man guessed to put him on his roof, likening his hut under him to a chariot ”(Nekrasova M.A. Folk art of Russia. - M., 1983)

The house was built very proportionately and harmoniously. In its design - the law of the golden section, the law of natural harmony in proportions. They built without a measuring tool and complex calculations - by instinct, as the soul prompted.

A family of 10 or even 15-20 people sometimes lived in a Russian hut. In it they cooked and ate, slept, wove, spun, repaired utensils, and did all household chores.

Myth and truth about the Russian hut. There is an opinion that in Russian huts it was dirty, there was unsanitary conditions, diseases, poverty and darkness. I used to think so too, that's how we were taught in school. But this is absolutely not true! I asked my grandmother shortly before her departure to another world, when she was already over 90 years old (she grew up near Nyandoma and Kargopol in the Russian North in the Arkhangelsk region), how they lived in their village in her childhood - did they really wash and clean the house once a year and lived in darkness and mud?

She was very surprised and said that the house was always not just clean, but very light and comfortable, beautiful. Her mother (my great-grandmother) embroidered and knitted the most beautiful valances for the beds of adults and children. Each bed and cradle was decorated with her valances. And each bed has its own pattern! Imagine what a job it is! And what a beauty in the frame of each bed! Her dad (my great-grandfather) carved beautiful ornaments on all household utensils and furniture. She recalled being a child under the care of her grandmother along with her sisters and brothers (my great-great-grandmother). They not only played, but also helped adults. Sometimes, in the evening, her grandmother would say to the children: “Soon mother and father will come from the field, we need to clean up the house.” And oh yes! Children take brooms, rags, put things in order so that there is not a speck in the corner, not a speck of dust, and all things are in their places. By the time mother and father arrived, the house was always clean. The children understood that the adults had come home from work, were tired and needed help. She also remembered how her mother always whitewashed the stove so that the stove was beautiful and the house was cozy. Even on the day of childbirth, her mother (my great-grandmother) whitewashed the stove, and then went to give birth in the bathhouse. Grandmother recalled how she, being the eldest daughter, helped her.

There was no such thing as clean on the outside and dirty on the inside. Cleaned very carefully both outside and inside. My grandmother told me that “what is outside is how you want to appear to people” (outside is the appearance of clothes, house, closet, etc. - how they look for guests and how we want to present ourselves to people clothes, appearance of the house, etc.). But “what’s inside is what you really are” (inside is the wrong side of embroidery or any other work, the wrong side of clothes that must be clean and without holes or stains, the inside of cabinets and other invisible to other people, but visible us moments of our lives). Very instructive. I always remember her words.

Grandmother recalled that only those who did not work had poor and dirty huts. They were considered as if holy fools, a little sick, they were pitied as people with a sick soul. Who worked - even if he had 10 children - lived in bright, clean, beautiful huts. Decorate your home with love. They ran a large household and never complained about life. There was always order in the house and in the yard.

The device of the Russian hut

The Russian house (hut), like the Universe, was divided into three worlds, three tiers: the lower one is the basement, the underground; the middle one is living quarters; the upper one under the sky is an attic, a roof.

Hut as a design It was a frame made of logs, which were tied together into crowns. In the Russian North, it was customary to build houses without nails, very durable houses. The minimum number of nails was used only for attaching decor - prichelin, towels, platbands. They built houses "as measure and beauty will say."

Roof- the upper part of the hut - gives protection from the outside world and is the border of the inside of the house with space. No wonder the roof was so beautifully decorated in the houses! And in the ornament on the roof, symbols of the sun were often depicted - solar symbols. We know such expressions: "father's shelter", "to live under one roof". There were customs - if a person was sick and could not leave this world for a long time, then in order for his soul to more easily pass into another world, then they removed the skate on the roof. It is interesting that the roof was considered a female element of the house - the hut itself and everything in the hut should be “covered” - the roof, and buckets, and dishes, and barrels.

The upper part of the house (prichelina, towel) were decorated with solar, that is, solar signs. In some cases, the full sun was depicted on the towel, and only half of the solar signs were depicted on the berths. Thus, the sun was shown at the most important points of its path across the sky - at sunrise, at zenith and at sunset. There is even an expression in folklore, "the three-light sun," reminiscent of these three key points.

Attic was located under the roof and on it were stored items that were not needed at the moment, removed from the house.

The hut was two-story, living rooms were located on the "second floor", as it was warmer there. And on the "ground floor", that is, on the lower tier, there was basement He protected the living quarters from the cold. The basement was used for food storage and was divided into 2 parts: a basement and an underground.

Floor they made it double to keep warm: at the bottom there is a “black floor”, and on top of it is a “white floor”. The floor boards were laid from the edges to the center of the hut in the direction from the facade to the exit. It mattered in some ceremonies. So, if they entered the house and sat on a bench along the floorboards, then this meant that they had come to woo. They never slept and did not lay the bed along the floorboards, As the dead person was laid along the floorboards "on the way to the doors." That is why we did not sleep with our heads towards the exit. They always slept with their heads in the red corner, towards the front wall, on which the icons were located.

Important in the arrangement of the Russian hut was the diagonal "red corner - oven." The red corner always pointed to noon, to the light, to God's side (red side). It has always been associated with Votok (sunrise) and the south. And the stove pointed to the sunset, to darkness. And associated with the west or north. They always prayed for the icon in the red corner, i.e. to the east, where the altar in the temples is located.

Door and the entrance to the house, the exit to the outside world is one of the most important elements of the house. She greets everyone who enters the house. In ancient times, there were many beliefs and various protective rituals associated with the door and threshold of the house. Probably not without reason, and now many people hang a horseshoe on the door for good luck. And even earlier, a scythe (garden tool) was laid under the threshold. This reflected people's ideas about the horse as an animal associated with the sun. And also about the metal created by man with the help of fire and which is a material for protecting life.

Only a closed door saves life inside the house: "Do not trust everyone, lock the door tighter." That is why people stopped in front of the threshold of the house, especially when entering someone else's house, this stop was often accompanied by a short prayer.

At a wedding in some localities, a young wife, entering her husband's house, was not supposed to touch the threshold. That is why it was often brought in by hand. And in other areas, the sign was exactly the opposite. The bride, entering the groom's house after the wedding, always lingered on the threshold. It was a sign of that. That she is now her own kind of husband.

The threshold of the doorway is the border of "one's own" and "alien" space. In popular beliefs, it was a borderline, and therefore unsafe place: “They don’t greet people across the threshold”, “They don’t shake hands across the threshold.” You can't even accept gifts across the threshold. Guests are met outside the threshold, then let in ahead of them through the threshold.

The height of the door was below human height. At the entrance I had to bow my head and take off my hat. But at the same time, the doorway was wide enough.

Window- another entrance to the house. Window is a very ancient word, it was first mentioned in the annals in the year 11 and is found among all Slavic peoples. In folk beliefs, it was forbidden to spit through the window, throw out garbage, pour something out of the house, since under it "there is an angel of the Lord." “Give (to the beggar) through the window - give to God.” Windows were considered the eyes of the house. A person looks through the window at the sun, and the sun looks at him through the window (the eyes of the hut). That is why signs of the sun were often carved on the architraves. The riddles of the Russian people say this: “The red girl looks out the window” (the sun). The windows in the house traditionally in Russian culture have always tried to be oriented “for the summer” - that is, to the east and south. The largest windows of the house always faced the street and the river, they were called "red" or "skewed".

Windows in a Russian hut could be of three types:

A) Volokovoe window - the most ancient type of windows. Its height did not exceed the height of a horizontally laid log. But in width it was one and a half times the height. Such a window was closed from the inside with a latch, “dragging” along special grooves. Therefore, the window was called "portage". Only dim light penetrated the hut through the porthole window. Such windows were more common in outbuildings. Through the portage window, the smoke from the stove was taken out (“dragged out”) from the hut. They also ventilated basements, closets, winds and cowsheds.

B) A box window - consists of a deck made up of four bars firmly connected to each other.

C) An oblique window is an opening in the wall, reinforced with two side beams. These windows are also called "red" regardless of their location. Initially, the central windows in the Russian hut were made like this.

It was through the window that the baby had to be passed if the children born in the family died. It was believed that this way you can save the child and ensure him a long life. In the Russian North, there was also such a belief that the soul of a person leaves the house through the window. That is why a cup of water was placed on the window so that the soul that left the person could wash and fly away. Also, after the commemoration, a towel was hung on the window so that the soul would rise into the house through it, and then descend back. Sitting at the window, waiting for news. A place by the window in the red corner is a place of honor, for the most honored guests, including matchmakers.

The windows were located high, and therefore the view from the window did not bump into neighboring buildings, and the view from the window was beautiful.

During construction, between the window beam and the log, the walls of the house left free space (sedimentary groove). It was covered with a board, which is well known to all of us and is called platband("on the face of the house" = casing). The platbands were decorated with ornaments to protect the house: circles as symbols of the sun, birds, horses, lions, fish, weasel (an animal that was considered the guardian of livestock - it was believed that if a predator was depicted, it would not harm pets), floral ornament, juniper, mountain ash .

Outside, the windows were closed with shutters. Sometimes in the north, to make it convenient to close the windows, galleries were built along the main facade (they looked like balconies). The owner walks along the gallery and closes the shutters on the windows at night.

Four sides of the hut facing the four directions of the world. The appearance of the hut is turned to the outside world, and the interior decoration - to the family, to the clan, to the person.

Russian hut porch was more open and spacious. Here were those family events that the whole street of the village could see: they saw off the soldiers, met the matchmakers, met the newlyweds. On the porch they talked, exchanged news, rested, talked about business. Therefore, the porch occupied a prominent place, was high and rose up on pillars or log cabins.

The porch is “the visiting card of the house and its owners”, reflecting their hospitality, prosperity and cordiality. A house was considered uninhabited if its porch was destroyed. They decorated the porch carefully and beautifully, the ornament was the same as on the elements of the house. It could be a geometric or floral ornament.

What do you think, from what word the word "porch" was formed? From the word "cover", "roof". After all, the porch was necessarily with a roof that protected from snow and rain.
Often in a Russian hut there were two porches and two entrances. The first entrance is the main one, where benches were set up for conversation and relaxation. And the second entrance is “dirty”, it served for household needs.

Bake located near the entrance and occupied about a quarter of the space of the hut. The stove is one of the sacred centers of the house. “The oven in the house is the same as the altar in the church: bread is baked in it.” “Our mother bake us”, “A house without a stove is an uninhabited house”. The stove had a feminine origin and was located in the female half of the house. It is in the oven that the raw, undeveloped turns into boiled, “own”, mastered. The furnace is located in the corner opposite the red corner. They slept on it, it was used not only in cooking, but also in healing, in folk medicine, small children were washed in it in winter, children and the elderly warmed themselves on it. In the stove, they always kept the damper closed if someone left the house (so that they would return and the road was happy), during a thunderstorm (because the stove is another entrance to the house, the connection of the house with the outside world).

Matica- a beam running across the Russian hut, on which the ceiling rests. This is the boundary between the front and back of the house. A guest coming into the house, without the permission of the hosts, could not go further than the mother. Sitting under the mother meant wooing the bride. In order to succeed, it was necessary to hold on to the mother before leaving the house.

The entire space of the hut was divided into female and male. Men worked and rested, received guests on weekdays in the male part of the Russian hut - in the front red corner, away from it to the threshold and sometimes under the curtains. The man's workplace during the repair was next to the door. Women and children worked and rested, stayed awake in the female half of the hut - near the stove. If women received guests, then the guests sat at the threshold of the stove. Guests could enter the female territory of the hut only at the invitation of the hostess. Representatives of the male half, without a special emergency, never went to the female half, and women to the male half. This could be taken as an insult.

Stalls served not only as a place to sit, but also as a place to sleep. A headrest was placed under the head when sleeping on the bench.

The shop at the door was called “konik”, it could be the workplace of the owner of the house, and also any person who entered the house, a beggar, could spend the night on it.

Shelves were made above the benches above the windows parallel to the benches. Hats, thread, yarn, spinning wheels, knives, awls and other household items were placed on them.

Married adult couples slept in the boots, on the bench under the curtains, in their separate cages - in their places. The old people slept on the stove or by the stove, the children on the stove.

All utensils and furniture in the Russian northern hut are located along the walls, and the center remains free.

Svetlitsy the room was called - a light room, a burner on the second floor of the house, clean, well-groomed, for needlework and clean classes. There was a wardrobe, a bed, a sofa, a table. But just like in the hut, all items were placed along the walls. There were chests in the gorenka, in which they collected dowry for daughters. How many marriageable daughters - so many chests. Here lived girls - marriageable brides.

The dimensions of the Russian hut

In ancient times, the Russian hut did not have internal partitions and was square or rectangular in shape. The average dimensions of the hut were from 4 x 4 meters to 5.5 x 6.5 meters. The middle peasants and wealthy peasants had large huts - 8 x 9 meters, 9 x 10 meters.

The decoration of the Russian hut

In the Russian hut, four corners were distinguished: oven, woman's kut, red corner, back corner (at the entrance under the floor). Each corner had its own traditional purpose. And the whole hut, in accordance with the angles, was divided into the female and male halves.

The female half of the hut runs from the mouth of the furnace (furnace outlet) to the front wall of the house.

One of the corners of the female half of the house is a woman's kut. It is also called "bake". This place is near the stove, women's territory. Here they cooked food, pies, stored utensils, millstones. Sometimes the "women's territory" of the house was separated by a partition or screen. In the female half of the hut, behind the stove, there were cabinets for kitchen utensils and edible supplies, shelves for tableware, buckets, cast iron, tubs, oven appliances (bread shovel, poker, tong). The “long bench” that ran along the female half of the hut along the side wall of the house was also female. Here women spun, weaved, sewed, embroidered, and a baby cradle hung here.

Men have never entered the "women's territory" and touched the utensils that are considered women's. And a stranger and a guest could not even look into a woman's kut, it was insulting.

On the other side of the oven male space, "male kingdom at home". There was a threshold men's shop here, where men did housework and rested after a hard day's work. Under it, there was often a locker with tools for men's work. It was considered indecent for a woman to sit on a threshold bench. On a side bench at the back of the hut, they rested during the day.

Russian oven

Approximately a fourth, and sometimes a third of the hut was occupied by a Russian stove. She was a symbol of the hearth. They not only cooked food in it, but also prepared fodder for livestock, baked pies and bread, washed themselves, heated the room, slept on it and dried clothes, shoes or food, dried mushrooms and berries in it. And even in winter they could keep chickens in the oven. Although the stove is very large, it does not “eat up”, but, on the contrary, expands the living space of the hut, turning it into a multidimensional, uneven height.

No wonder there is a saying “to dance from the stove”, because everything in a Russian hut begins with the stove. Remember the epic about Ilya Muromets? Bylina tells us that Ilya Muromets "lay on the stove for 30 years and 3 years," that is, he could not walk. Not on the floors and not on the benches, but on the stove!

“Bake us like a mother,” people used to say. Many folk healing practices were associated with the stove. And omens. For example, you can not spit in the oven. And it was impossible to swear when the fire burned in the furnace.

The new furnace began to warm up gradually and evenly. The first day began with four logs, and gradually one log was added every day to ignite the entire volume of the furnace and so that it was without cracks.

At first, in Russian houses there were adobe stoves that were heated in black. That is, the furnace then did not have an exhaust pipe for smoke to escape. Smoke was released through the door or through a special hole in the wall. It is sometimes thought that only the poor had black huts, but this is not so. Such stoves were also in rich mansions. The black oven gave more heat and kept it longer than the white one. Smoked walls were not afraid of dampness or rot.

Later, stoves were built white - that is, they began to make a pipe through which smoke escaped.

The stove was always located in one of the corners of the house, which was called the stove, door, small corner. Diagonally from the stove there was always a red, holy, front, large corner of a Russian house.

Red corner in a Russian hut

Red corner - the central main place in the hut, in a Russian house. It is also called "holy", "divine", "front", "senior", "big". It is illuminated by the sun better than all other corners in the house, everything in the house is oriented towards it.

The goddess in the red corner is like the altar of an Orthodox church and was interpreted as the presence of God in the house. The table in the red corner is the church altar. Here, in the red corner, they prayed for the image. Here, at the table, all the meals and the main events in the life of the family were held: birth, wedding, funeral, seeing off to the army.

There were not only icons here, but also the Bible, prayer books, candles, consecrated willow twigs were brought here on Palm Sunday or birch twigs on Trinity.

The red corner was especially worshiped. Here, during the commemoration, they put an extra device for another soul who had gone into the world.

It was in the Red Corner that the chipped birds of happiness, traditional for the Russian North, were hung.

Seats at the table in the red corner were rigidly fixed by tradition, And not only during the holidays, but also during regular meals. The meal brought family and family together.

• Place in the red corner, in the center of the table, under the icons, was the most honorable. The host, the most respected guests, the priest were sitting here. If a guest, without the invitation of the host, passed and sat in a red corner, this was considered a gross violation of etiquette.
• The next most important side of the table is right from the owner and the places closest to him on the right and left. This is a men's shop. Here, according to seniority, the men of the family were seated along the right wall of the house towards its exit. The older the man, the closer he sits to the owner of the house.
• And on "lower" end of the table on the "women's bench", women and children sat down along the pediment of the house.
• mistress of the house was placed opposite her husband from the side of the stove on a side bench. So it was more convenient to serve food and arrange lunch.
• During the wedding newlyweds also sat under the icons in the red corner.
• For guests had its own guest shop. It is located by the window. Until now, there is such a custom in some areas to seat guests by the window.

This arrangement of family members at the table shows a model of social relations within the Russian family.

Table- he was given great importance in the red corner of the house and in general in the hut. The table in the hut stood in a permanent place. If the house was sold, then it must be sold along with the table!

Very important: The table is the hand of God. “The table is the same as the throne in the altar, and therefore you need to sit at the table and behave as in the church” (Olonets province). It was not allowed to place foreign objects on the dining table, because this is the place of God himself. It was impossible to knock on the table: "Do not hit the table, the table is God's palm!" There should always be bread on the table - a symbol of prosperity and well-being in the house. They said this: “Bread on the table - and the table is the throne!”. Bread is a symbol of prosperity, abundance, material well-being. Therefore, he always had to be on the table - God's palm.

A small lyrical digression from the author. Dear readers of this article! Perhaps you think that all this is outdated? Well, what's with the bread on the table? And you bake yeast-free bread at home with your own hands - it's quite easy! And then you will understand that this is a completely different bread! Not like store bought bread. Yes, and a loaf in shape - a circle, a symbol of movement, growth, development. When for the first time I baked not pies, not cupcakes, but bread, and the smell of bread smelled of my whole house, I realized what a real house is - a house where it smells of .. bread! Where would you like to return? Don't have time for this? I thought so too. Until one of the mothers, whose children I work with and she has ten!!!, taught me how to bake bread. And then I thought: “If the mother of ten children finds time to bake bread for her family, then I definitely have time for this!” Therefore, I understand why bread is the head of everything! You have to feel it with your hands and your soul! And then the loaf on your table will become a symbol of your home and bring you a lot of joy!

The table was necessarily installed along the floorboards, i.e. the narrow side of the table was directed towards the western wall of the hut. This is very important, because the direction "longitudinal - transverse" in Russian culture was given a special meaning. The longitudinal one had a “positive” charge, and the transverse one had a “negative” one. Therefore, they tried to lay all the objects in the house in the longitudinal direction. This is also why it was along the floorboards that they sat down during rituals (matchmaking, as an example) - so that everything would go well.

Tablecloth on the table in the Russian tradition, it also had a very deep meaning and is integral with the table. The expression "table and tablecloth" symbolized hospitality, hospitality. Sometimes the tablecloth was called "holy-solker" or "samobranka". Wedding tablecloths were kept as a special relic. The tablecloth was not always covered, but on special occasions. But in Karelia, for example, the tablecloth had to be always on the table. At the wedding feast, they took a special tablecloth and laid it inside out (from spoilage). The tablecloth could be spread on the ground during the commemoration, because the tablecloth is a “road”, the connection between the cosmic world and the human world, it is not for nothing that the expression “tablecloth is a road” has come down to us.

At the dinner table, the family gathered, were baptized before eating and read a prayer. They ate decorously, it was impossible to get up while eating. The head of the family, the man, started the meal. He cut food into pieces, cut bread. The woman served everyone at the table, served food. The meal was long, slow, long.

On holidays, the red corner was decorated with woven and embroidered towels, flowers, and tree branches. Embroidered and woven towels with patterns were hung on the shrine. On Palm Sunday, the red corner was decorated with willow branches, on Trinity - with birch branches, and with heather (juniper) - on Maundy Thursday.

It is interesting to think about our modern houses:

Question 1. The division into "male" and "female" territory in the house is not accidental. And in our modern apartments there is a “women's secret corner” - personal space as a “women's kingdom”, do men interfere in it? Do we need it? How and where can you create it?

Question 2. And what is in the red corner of an apartment or cottage - what is the main spiritual center of the house? Let's take a look at our home. And if something needs to be corrected, then we will do it and create a red corner in our house, we will create it to really unite the family. Sometimes there are tips on the Internet to put a computer in the red corner as in the "energy center of the apartment", to organize your workplace in it. I am always surprised by such recommendations. Here, in the red - the main corner - to be what is important in life, what unites the family, what carries true spiritual values, what is the meaning and idea of ​​the life of the family and family, but not a TV or an office center! Let's think together what it could be.

Types of Russian huts

Now many families are interested in Russian history and traditions and build houses as our ancestors did. Sometimes it is believed that there should be only one type of house according to the arrangement of its elements, and only this type of house is "correct" and "historical". In fact, the location of the main elements of the hut (red corner, stove) depends on the region.

According to the location of the stove and the red corner, 4 types of Russian hut are distinguished. Each type is characteristic of a particular area and climatic conditions. That is, it is impossible to say directly: the oven has always been strictly here, and the red corner is strictly here. Let's take a closer look at the pictures.

The first type is the North Central Russian hut. The stove is located next to the entrance to the right or left of it in one of the back corners of the hut. The mouth of the stove is turned to the front wall of the hut (The mouth is the outlet of the Russian stove). Diagonal from the stove is a red corner.

The second type is the Western Russian hut. The furnace was also located next to the entrance to the right or left of it. But it was turned by its mouth to a long side wall. That is, the mouth of the furnace was near the front door to the house. The red corner was also located diagonally from the stove, but the food was cooked in a different place in the hut - closer to the door (see picture). At the side of the stove they made flooring for sleeping.

The third type is the eastern South Russian hut. The fourth type is the western South Russian hut. In the south, the house was placed to the street not with a facade, but with a side long side. Therefore, here the location of the furnace was completely different. The stove was placed in the farthest corner from the entrance. Diagonally from the stove (between the door and the front long wall of the hut) there was a red corner. In the eastern South Russian huts, the mouth of the stove was turned towards the front door. In the western southern Russian huts, the mouth of the stove was turned towards the long wall of the house, which overlooked the street.

Despite the different types of huts, they follow the general principle of the structure of the Russian dwelling. Therefore, even being far from home, the traveler could always orient himself in the hut.

Elements of a Russian hut and a peasant estate: a dictionary

In a peasant estate the economy was large - in each estate there were from 1 to 3 barns for storing grain and valuables. And there was also a bath - the most remote building from the residential building. Every thing has its place. This principle from the proverb was observed always and everywhere. Everything in the house was thought out and arranged reasonably so as not to waste extra time and energy on unnecessary actions or movements. Everything is at hand, everything is convenient. Modern home ergonomics comes from our history.

The entrance to the Russian estate was from the side of the street through a strong gate. There was a roof over the gate. And at the gate on the side of the street under the roof there is a shop. Not only the villagers, but also any passer-by could sit on the bench. It was at the gate that it was customary to meet and see off guests. And under the roof of the gate one could meet them cordially or say goodbye.

Barn- a separate small building for storing grain, flour, supplies.

Bath- a separate building (the building farthest from the residential building) for washing.

Crown- logs of one horizontal row in the log house of a Russian hut.

anemone- a carved sun, attached instead of a towel on the pediment of the hut. Wishing a rich harvest, happiness, well-being to the family living in the house.

barn- platform for threshing compressed bread.

crate- a structure in wooden construction, formed by crowns of logs laid on top of each other. Mansions consist of several stands, united by passages and passages.

Chicken-elements of the roof of a Russian house built without nails. They said this: "Chickens and a horse on the roof - it will be quieter in the hut." It is precisely the elements of the roof that are meant - the ridge and chickens. A water drain was laid on the chickens - a log hollowed out in the form of a gutter to drain water from the roof. The image of the "hens" is not accidental. The chicken and the rooster were associated in the popular mind with the sun, since this bird announces the sunrise. The cry of a rooster, according to popular belief, drove away evil spirits.

Glacier- the great-grandfather of the modern refrigerator - an ice room for food storage

Matica- a massive wooden beam on which the ceiling is laid.

platband- decoration of the window (window opening)

Barn- a building for drying sheaves before threshing. Sheaves were laid out on the floor and dried.

ohlupen- horse - connects the two wings of the house, two roof slopes together. The horse symbolizes the sun moving across the sky. This is an indispensable element of the roof construction, built without nails and a talisman of the house. Okhlupen is also called "shelom" from the word "helmet", which is associated with the protection of the house and means the helmet of an ancient warrior. Perhaps this part of the hut was called “cool”, because when laid in place, it makes a “clap” sound. Ohlupni used to do without nails during construction.

Ochelie - this was the name of the most beautifully decorated part of the Russian women's headdress on the forehead (“on the forehead was also called the part of the window decoration - the upper part of the “forehead, forehead decoration” of the house. Ochelie - the upper part of the casing on the window.

Povet- hayloft, it was possible to drive here directly on a cart or on a sleigh. This room is located directly above the barnyard. Boats, fishing gear, hunting equipment, shoes, and clothes were also stored here. Here they dried and repaired nets, crushed flax and did other work.

basement- the lower room under the living quarters. The basement was used for food storage and household needs.

Polaty- wooden flooring under the ceiling of a Russian hut. They settled between the wall and the Russian stove. It was possible to sleep on the floors, as the stove kept heat for a long time. If the heating stove was not heated, then vegetables were stored on the floors at that time.

Police- curly shelves for utensils above the benches in the hut.

Towel- a short vertical board at the junction of two berths, decorated with the symbol of the sun. Usually the towel repeated the pattern of the quilts.

Prichelina- boards on the wooden roof of the house, nailed to the ends above the gable (hut hut), protecting them from decay. The prichelins were decorated with carvings. The pattern consists of a geometric ornament. But there is also an ornament with grapes - a symbol of life and procreation.

Svetlitsa- one of the rooms in the choir (see "mansions") in the female half, in the upper part of the building, intended for needlework and other household activities.

canopy- the entrance cold room in the hut, usually the canopy was not heated. As well as the entrance room between the individual cells in the mansions. This is always a utility room for storage. Household utensils were stored here, there was a shop with buckets and pails, work clothes, rocker arms, sickles, scythes, rakes. They did their dirty housework in the hallway. The doors of all the rooms opened into the canopy. Canopy - protection from the cold. The front door opened, the cold let in into the vestibule, but remained in them, not reaching the living quarters.

Apron- sometimes "aprons" decorated with fine carvings were made on the houses from the side of the main facade. This is a wooden overhang that protects the house from rain.

barn- a place for livestock.

Mansions- a large residential wooden house, which consists of separate buildings, united by vestibules and passages. galleries. All parts of the choir were different in height - it turned out to be a very beautiful multi-tiered structure.

Utensils of a Russian hut

Dishes for cooking was stored in the stove and by the stove. These are boilers, pots for porridges, soups, clay patches for baking fish, cast-iron pans. Beautiful porcelain dishes were kept so that everyone could see them. She was a symbol of wealth in the family. Festive dishes were kept in the upper room, and plates were displayed in the cupboard. Everyday utensils were kept in hanging cabinets. Dinner utensils consisted of a large clay or wood bowl, wooden spoons, a birch bark or copper salt shaker, and cups of kvass.

To store bread in a Russian hut, painted box, brightly colored, sunny, joyful. The painting of the box distinguished it from other things as a significant, important thing.

Drinking tea from samovar.

Sieve it was also used for sifting flour, and as a symbol of wealth and fertility, it was likened to the vault of heaven (the riddle “The sieve is covered with a sieve”, the answer is heaven and earth).

Salt- this is not only food, but also a talisman. Therefore, they served bread and salt to the guests as a greeting, a symbol of hospitality.

The most common was earthenware pot. Porridge and cabbage soup were prepared in pots. Shchi in a pot was well rebuked and became much tastier and richer. And even now, if we compare the taste of soup and porridge from the Russian oven and from the stove, we will immediately feel the difference in taste! Out of the oven - delicious!

Barrels, tubs, baskets were used for household needs in the house. They fried food in pans, as they do now. The dough was kneaded in wooden troughs and vats. Water was carried in buckets and jugs.

For good hosts, immediately after a meal, all the dishes were washed clean, dried and put upside down on the shelves.

Domostroy said this: "so that everything is always clean and ready for the table or for delivery."

To put the dishes in the oven and get them out of the oven, they needed grips. If you have the opportunity to try to put a full pot filled with food into the oven or take it out of the oven, you will understand how physically difficult this work is and how strong women used to be even without fitness :). For them, every movement was exercise and physical education. I'm serious 🙂 - I tried and appreciated how difficult it is to get a large pot of food for a large family with a tong!

Used for raking coal poker.

In the 19th century, clay pots were replaced by metal ones. They're called cast iron (from the word "cast iron").

Clay and metal pots were used for frying and baking. frying pans, patches, braziers, bowls.

furniture in our understanding of this word, there was almost no Russian hut. Furniture appeared much later, not so long ago. No wardrobes or chests of drawers. Clothes and shoes and other things were not stored in the hut.

The most valuable things in a peasant house - ceremonial utensils, festive clothes, dowries for daughters, money - were kept in chests. Chests were always with locks. The design of the chest could tell about the prosperity of its owner.

Russian hut decor

To paint a house (they used to say “bloom”) a master in painting could. Outlandish patterns were painted on a light background. These are the symbols of the sun - circles and semicircles, and crosses, and amazing plants and animals. The hut was also decorated with wood carvings. Women weaved and embroidered, knitted and decorated their home with their needlework.

Guess what tool was used to carve in a Russian hut? With an ax! And the painting of houses was done by "painters" - that was the name of the artists. They painted the facades of houses - pediments, architraves, porches, chapels. When white stoves appeared, they began to paint guardianships and partitions, lockers in the huts.

The decoration of the pediment of the roof of the northern Russian house is actually an image of the cosmos. Signs of the sun on the berths and on the towel - the image of the path of the sun - sunrise, sun at its zenith, sunset.

Very interesting an ornament that adorns the berths. Below the solar sign on the chapels, you can see several trapezoidal ledges - the paws of waterfowl. For the northerners, the sun rose from the water, and also set into the water, because there were many lakes and rivers around, and therefore waterfowl were depicted - the underwater-underground world. The ornament on the porches personified the seven-layer sky (remember the old expression - “to be in the seventh heaven with happiness”?).

In the first row of the prichelin ornament there are circles, sometimes connected with trapeziums. These are symbols of heavenly water - rain and snow. Another row of images from triangles is a layer of earth with seeds that will wake up and give a harvest. It turns out that the sun rises and moves across the seven-layer sky, one of the layers of which contains moisture reserves, and the other contains plant seeds. The sun at first does not shine at full strength, then it is at its zenith and at the end rolls down to start its journey through the sky again the next morning. One row of ornament does not repeat the other.

The same symbolic ornament can be found on the architraves of a Russian house and on the decoration of windows in central Russia. But the decor of the windows has its own characteristics. On the lower board of the casing there is an uneven relief of the hut (a plowed field). On the lower ends of the side boards of the casing there are heart-shaped images with a hole in the middle - a symbol of a seed immersed in the ground. That is, we see in the ornament a projection of the world with the most important attributes for the farmer - the earth sown with seeds and the sun.

Proverbs and sayings about the Russian hut and housekeeping

• Houses and walls help.
• Every house is kept by the owner. The house is being painted by the owner.
• What is it like at home - like this yourself.
• Make a barn, and there the cattle!
• Not according to the house of the master, but the house according to the master.
• It is not the owner's house that paints, but the owner the house.
• At home - not away: after sitting, you will not leave.
• A good wife will save the house, and a thin one will shake it with her sleeve.
• The mistress of the house is like pancakes in honey.
• Woe to him who lives in disorder in the house.
• If the hut is crooked, the hostess is bad.
• What is the builder - such is the abode.
• Our hostess has everything at work - and the dogs wash the dishes.
• Leading the house - do not weave bast shoes.
• In the house, the owner is more archiere
• Start a pet at home - do not open your mouth to walk.
• The house is small, but does not order to lie.
• Whatever is born in the field, everything in the house will come in handy.
• Not the owner, who does not know his economy.
• Prosperity is not maintained by the place, but by the owner.
• If you don’t manage the house, you can’t manage the city either.
• The village is rich, and the city is rich.
• A good head feeds a hundred hands.

Dear friends! I wanted to show in this hut not just the history of the Russian house, but also to learn from our ancestors, together with you, housekeeping - reasonable and beautiful, pleasing to the soul and eye, living in harmony with nature and with your conscience. In addition, many points in relation to the house as the home of our ancestors are very important and relevant now for us, living in the 21st century.

The materials for this article were collected and studied by me for a very long time, checked in ethnographic sources. I also used materials from the stories of my grandmother, who shared with me her memories of the early years of her life in the northern village. And only now, during my vacation and my life - being in the countryside in nature, I finally completed this article. And I understood why I could not write it for so long: in the bustle of the capital in an ordinary panel house in the center of Moscow, under the roar of cars, it was too difficult for me to write about the harmonious world of the Russian house. And here, in nature, I completed this article very quickly and easily, from the bottom of my heart.

If you want to learn more about the Russian house, then below you will find a bibliography on this topic for adults and children.

I hope that this article will help you to tell about the Russian house in an interesting way during your summer trips to the village and to museums of Russian life, and also tell you how to look at illustrations for Russian fairy tales with your children.

Literature about the Russian hut

For adults

1. Baiburin A.K. Dwelling in the rituals and ideas of the Eastern Slavs. - L .: Nauka, 1983 (Institute of Ethnography named after N.N. Miklukho - Maclay)
2. Buzin V.S. Russian ethnography. - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg University Publishing House, 2007
3. Permilovskaya A.B. Peasant house in the culture of the Russian North. - Arkhangelsk, 2005.
4. Russians. Series "Peoples and Cultures". - M.: Nauka, 2005. (Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology named after N. N. Miklukho - Maclay RAS)
5. Sobolev A.A. The wisdom of the ancestors Russian yard, house, garden. - Arkhangelsk, 2005.
6. Sukhanova M.A. The house as a model of the world // House of man. Materials of the interuniversity conference - St. Petersburg, 1998.

For children

1. Alexandrova L. Wooden architecture of Rus'. – M.: Bely Gorod, 2004.
2. Zaruchevskaya E. B. About peasant mansions. Book for children. - M., 2014.

Russian hut: video

Video 1. Children's educational video tour: children's museum of rural life

Video 2. Film about the northern Russian hut (Museum of Kirov)

Video 3. How a Russian hut is built: a documentary for adults

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