Domostroy of the 16th century in Rus'. Life and customs of Russian women in the XVI-XVII centuries

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ABSTRACT

IN NATIONAL HISTORY

Topic: Life and life of Russian peopleXVIcentury in "Domostroy"

PLAN

Introduction

Family relationships

House building woman

Weekdays and holidays of Russian people

Labor in the life of a Russian person

Moral foundations

Conclusion

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

By the beginning of the 16th century, the church and religion had a huge influence on the culture and life of the Russian people. Orthodoxy played a positive role in overcoming the harsh morals, ignorance and archaic customs of ancient Russian society. In particular, the norms of Christian morality had an impact on family life, marriage, and the upbringing of children.

Perhaps not a single document of medieval Rus' reflected the nature of life, economy, economic relations of its time, like Domostroy.

It is believed that the first edition of "Domostroy" was compiled in Veliky Novgorod at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century and at the beginning it existed as an edifying collection among the commercial and industrial people, gradually overgrown with new instructions and advice. The second edition, significantly revised, was collected and re-edited by a native of Novgorod, priest Sylvester, an influential adviser and tutor to the young Russian Tsar Ivan IV, the Terrible.

"Domostroy" is an encyclopedia of family life, domestic customs, traditions of Russian management - the whole diverse spectrum of human behavior.

"Domostroy" had the goal of teaching every person "good - a prudent and orderly life" and was designed for the general population, and although there are still many points related to the church in this instruction, they already contain a lot of purely secular advice and recommendations on behavior at home and in society. It was assumed that every citizen of the country should have been guided by the set of rules of conduct outlined. In the first place it puts the task of moral and religious education, which should be borne in mind by parents, taking care of the development of their children. In second place was the task of teaching children what is needed in "household use", and in third place was teaching literacy, book sciences.

Thus, "Domostroy" is not only an essay of a moralizing and family type, but also a kind of code of socio-economic norms of civil life in Russian society.

FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

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 - parents and children. The families of service people were, as a rule, small, since the son, having reached the age of 15, was supposed to "serve the sovereign's service and could receive both his own separate local salary and the granted patrimony." This contributed to early marriages and the emergence of independent small families.

With the introduction of Orthodoxy, marriages began to take shape through the rite of a church wedding. But the traditional wedding ceremony - "fun" was preserved in Rus' for about another six or seven centuries.

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 wedding ceremony was usually performed 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 birth 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 after baptism - "tons" - was performed a year after baptism. On this day, the godfather or godfather (godparents) cut a lock of hair from the child and gave the ruble. After the tonsure, every year they celebrated the name day, that is, the day of the saint in whose honor the person was named (later it became known as the "angel's day"), and not the birthday. The royal name day was considered an official public holiday.

In the Middle Ages, the role of its head was extremely great in the family. 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 also applied to the personal life of children whom the father could marry or marry against their will. The church condemned him only if he drove them to suicide.

The orders of the head of the family were to be carried out implicitly. He could apply any punishment, up to physical.

An important part of "Domostroy" - the encyclopedia of Russian life of the 16th century, is the section "on the secular structure, how to live with wives, children and household members." As the king is the undivided ruler of his subjects, so the husband is the master of his family.

He is responsible before God and the state for the family, for the upbringing of children - faithful servants of the state. Therefore, the first duty of a man - the head of the family - is the upbringing of sons. To educate them obedient and devoted, Domostroy recommends one method - a stick. "Domostroy" directly indicated that the owner should beat his wife and children for well-mannered purposes. For disobedience to parents, the church threatened with excommunication.

In Domostroy, chapter 21, entitled “How to teach children and save them with fear,” contains the following instructions: “Punish your son in his youth, and he will give you rest in your old age, and give beauty to your soul. And do not feel sorry for the baby biy: if you punish him with a rod, he will not die, but he will be healthier, for you, by executing his body, save his soul from death. Loving your son, increase his wounds - and then you will not praise him. Punish your son from youth, and you will rejoice for him in his maturity, and among ill-wishers you will be able to boast of him, and your enemies will envy you. Raise children in prohibitions and you will find peace and blessings in them. So do not give him free will in his youth, but walk along his ribs while he is growing, and then, having matured, he will not be guilty of you and will not become annoyance and illness of the soul, and the ruin of the house, the destruction of property, and the reproach of neighbors, and the mockery of enemies , and fines of the authorities, and evil annoyance.

Thus, it is necessary to educate children in the “fear of God” from early childhood. Therefore, they should be punished: “Not punished children are a sin from God, but reproach and laughter from people, and vanity at home, and sorrow and loss for themselves, and sale and shame from people.” The head of the house should teach his wife and his servants how to put things in order at home: “and the husband sees that his wife and servants are dishonorable, otherwise he would be able to punish his wife with all reasoning and teach But only if the fault is great and the case is tough, and for great terrible disobedience and neglect, otherwise politely beat with a whip by the hands, holding it for fault, but having received it, say, but there would be no anger, but people would not know and would not hear.

WOMAN OF THE ERA OF HOUSE-BUILDING

In Domostroy, a woman appears in everything obedient to her husband.

All foreigners were amazed at the excess of domestic despotism of a husband over his wife.

In general, the woman was considered a being lower than the man and in some respects impure; thus, a woman was not allowed to cut an animal: it was believed that its meat would then not be tasty. Only old women were allowed to bake prosphora. In certain days, a woman was considered unworthy to eat with her. According to the laws of decency, generated by Byzantine asceticism and deep Tatar jealousy, it was considered reprehensible even to have a conversation with a woman.

The intra-estate family life of medieval Rus' was relatively closed for a long time. The Russian woman was constantly a slave from childhood to the grave. In peasant life, she was under the yoke of hard work. However, ordinary women - peasant women, townspeople - did not lead a reclusive lifestyle at all. Among the Cossacks, women enjoyed comparatively greater freedom; the wives of the Cossacks were their assistants and even went on campaigns with them.

The noble and wealthy people of the Muscovite state kept the female gender locked up, as in Muslim harems. The girls were kept in seclusion, hiding from human eyes; before marriage, a man should be completely unknown to them; it was not in the morals for the young man to express his feelings to the girl or personally ask her consent to marriage. The most pious people were of the opinion that parents should be beaten more often than girls, so that they would not lose their virginity.

Domostroy has the following instructions on how to raise daughters: “If you have a daughter, and direct your severity on her, thus you will save her from bodily troubles: you will not shame your face if your daughters walk in obedience, and it is not your fault if, out of stupidity, she violates her childhood, and becomes known to your acquaintances in mockery, and then they will shame you before people. For if you give your daughter blameless - as if you will do a great deed, in any society you will be proud, never suffering because of her.

The more noble was the family to which the girl belonged, the more severity awaited her: the princesses were the most unfortunate of Russian girls; hidden in the towers, not daring to show themselves, without the hope of ever having the right to love and marry.

When giving in marriage, the girl was not asked about her desire; she herself did not know whom she was going for, did not see her fiancé before marriage, when she was transferred to a new slavery. Having become a wife, she did not dare to leave the house without the permission of her husband, even if she went to church, and then she was obliged to ask questions. She was not granted the right to freely meet according to her heart and temper, and if some kind of treatment was allowed with those with whom her husband was pleased to allow it, then even then she was bound by instructions and remarks: what to say, what to keep silent about, what to ask, what not to hear . In domestic life, she was not given the right to farm. A jealous husband assigned to her spies from servants and serfs, and those, wanting to pretend to be in favor of the master, often reinterpreted to him everything in a different direction, every step of their mistress. Whether she went to church or to visit, relentless guards followed her every movement and passed everything on to her husband.

It often happened that a husband, at the behest of a beloved serf or woman, beat his wife out of sheer suspicion. But not all families had such a role for women. In many houses, the hostess had many responsibilities.

She had to work and set an example for the maids, get up before everyone else and wake others, go to bed later than everyone: if a maid wakes up the mistress, this was considered not to praise the mistress.

With such an active wife, the husband did not care about anything in the household; “the wife had to know every business better than those who worked on her orders: to cook food, and put jelly, and wash clothes, and rinse, and dry, and spread tablecloths, and ladle, and with such her ability inspired respect for herself” .

At the same time, it is impossible to imagine the life of a medieval family without the active participation of a woman, especially in catering: “The master, on all household matters, consults with his wife how to feed the servants on which day: in a meat eater - sieve bread, shchida porridge with ham is liquid, and sometimes, replacing it, and steep with lard, and meat for dinner, and for dinner, cabbage soup and milk or porridge, and on fasting days with jam, when peas, and when sushi, when baked turnips, cabbage soup, oatmeal, and even pickle, botwinya

On Sundays and holidays for dinner, pies are thick cereals or vegetables, or herring porridge, pancakes, jelly, and what God will send.

The ability to work with fabric, embroider, sew was a natural occupation in the everyday life of every family: “to sew a shirt or embroider an ubrus and weave it, or sew on a hoop with gold and silk (for which) measure yarn and silk, gold and silver fabric, and taffeta, and pebbles".

One of the important responsibilities of a husband is to "educate" his wife, who must run the entire household and raise her daughters. The will and personality of a woman are completely subordinate to a man.

The behavior of a woman at a party and at home is strictly regulated, up to what she can talk about. The system of punishments is also regulated by Domostroy.

A negligent wife, the husband must first "teach every reasoning." If verbal "punishment" does not give results, then the husband "worthy" his wife "to crawl with fear alone", "looking through fault".

WEEKDAYS AND HOLIDAYS OF RUSSIAN PEOPLEXVICENTURIES

Little information has been preserved about the daily routine of the people of 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, a dream (which surprised the foreigners very much). Then work again until dinner. With the end of daylight, everyone went to sleep.

The Russians coordinated their domestic way of life with the liturgical order and in this respect made it look like a monastic one. Rising from sleep, the Russian immediately looked for an image with his eyes in order to cross himself and look at it; to make the sign of the cross was considered more decent, looking at the image; on the road, when the Russian spent the night in the field, he, getting up from sleep, was baptized, turning to the east. Immediately, if necessary, after leaving the bed, linen was put on and washing began; wealthy people washed themselves with soap and rose water. After ablutions and washings, they dressed and proceeded to pray.

In the room intended for prayer - the cross or, if it was not in the house, then in the one where there were more images, the whole family and servants gathered; lamps and candles were lit; smoked incense. The owner, as a householder, read the morning prayers aloud in front of everyone.

The nobles, who had their own home churches and house clergymen, the family gathered in the church, where the priest served prayers, matins and hours, and the deacon, who looked after the church or chapel, sang, and after the morning service the priest sprinkled holy water.

After finishing the prayers, everyone went to their homework.

Where the husband allowed his wife to manage the house, the hostess gave advice to the owner on what to do on the coming day, ordered food and assigned lessons to the maids for the whole day. But not all wives had such an active life; for the most part, the wives of noble and wealthy people, at the behest of their husbands, did not interfere at all in the household; everything was managed by the butler and the housekeeper from the serfs. Such mistresses, after the morning prayer, went to their chambers and sat down to sew and embroider with gold and silk with their servants; even food for dinner was ordered by the owner himself to the housekeeper.

After all household orders, the owner proceeded to his usual activities: the merchant went to the shop, the artisan took up his craft, the orderly people filled orders and orderly huts, and the boyars in Moscow flocked to the tsar and did business.

Getting to the beginning of the daytime occupation, whether it was writing or menial work, the Russian considered it proper to wash his hands, make three signs of the cross with bows to the ground in front of the image, and if there was a chance or opportunity, accept the blessing of the priest.

Mass was served at ten o'clock.

At noon it was time for lunch. Single shopkeepers, lads from the common people, serfs, visitors in cities and towns dined in taverns; homely people sat at the table at home or with friends at a party. Kings and noble people, living in special chambers in their courtyards, dined separately from other family members: wives and children ate separately. Ignorant nobles, children of boyars, townspeople and peasants - sedentary owners ate together with their wives and other family members. Sometimes family members, who with their families made up one family with the owner, dined from him and separately; during dinner parties, females never dined where the host sat with guests.

The table was covered with a tablecloth, but this was not always observed: very often people of the nobility dined without a tablecloth and put salt, vinegar, pepper on the bare table and put slices of bread. Two household officials were in charge of the order of dinner in a wealthy house: the key keeper and the butler. The key keeper was in the kitchen during the holiday of food, the butler was at the table and at the set with dishes, which always stood opposite the table in the dining room. Several servants carried food from the kitchen; the keykeeper and the butler, taking them, cut them into pieces, tasted them, and then they gave them to the servants to set before the master and those sitting at the table

After the usual dinner, they went to rest. It was a widespread custom consecrated with popular respect. The tsars, and the boyars, and the merchants slept after dinner; street mob rested on the streets. Not sleeping, or at least not resting after dinner, was considered heresy in a sense, like any deviation from the customs of the ancestors.

Rising from their afternoon nap, the Russians resumed their usual activities. The kings went to vespers, and from six o'clock in the evening they indulged in amusements and conversations.

Sometimes the boyars gathered in the palace, depending on the importance of the matter, and in the evening. evening at home was a time of entertainment; in winter, relatives and friends gathered in each other's houses, and in summer in tents that were spread out in front of the houses.

The Russians always had dinner, and after dinner the pious host sent an evening prayer. Lampadas were lit again, candles were lit in front of the images; households and servants gathered for prayer. After such prayers, it was already considered unlawful to eat and drink: everyone soon went to bed.

With the adoption of Christianity, especially revered days of the church calendar became official holidays: Christmas, Easter, the Annunciation 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 home 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. On this day, the metropolitan blessed the water of the Moskva River, and the city's population performed the rite of the Jordan - "washing with holy water."

On holidays, other street performances were also arranged. Wandering artists, buffoons are known even in Kievan Rus. In addition to playing the harp, pipes, singing songs, performances of buffoons included acrobatic numbers, competitions with predatory animals. The buffoon troupe usually included an organ grinder, an acrobat, and a puppeteer.

Holidays, as a rule, were accompanied by public feasts - "brothers". However, 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.

Public life also included the holding of games and amusements - both military and peaceful, for example, the capture of a snowy town, wrestling and fistfight, towns, leapfrog, blind man's buffoons, grandmothers. Of gambling, dice games became widespread, and from the 16th century - in cards brought from the West. The favorite pastime of the kings and boyars was hunting.

Thus, human life 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.

LABOR IN THE LIFE OF A RUSSIAN PERSON

A Russian man of the Middle Ages is constantly occupied with thoughts about his household: “To every person, rich and poor, great and small, judge himself and sweep away, according to trade and prey and according to his estate, but an orderly person, sweeping himself according to the state salary and according to income, and such is the yard for oneself to keep and all acquisitions and all stock, for this reason people keep and all household items; therefore you eat and drink and get along with good people.”

Labor as a virtue and a moral deed: any needlework or craft, according to Domostroy, should be performed in preparation, cleansed of all filth and washing hands cleanly, first of all - bow to the holy images in the ground - with that, and start every business.

According to "Domostroy", each person should live according to his wealth.

All household supplies should be purchased at a time when they are cheaper and stored carefully. The owner and the mistress should walk around the pantries and cellars and see what the reserves are and how they are stored. The husband should prepare and take care of everything for the house, while the wife, the mistress, should save what she has prepared. All supplies are recommended to be given out on a bill and write down how much is given out, so as not to forget.

Domostroy recommends that you always have at home people capable of various kinds of crafts: tailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths, carpenters, so that you do not have to buy anything with money, but have everything ready in the house. Along the way, the rules are indicated on how to prepare certain supplies: beer, kvass, prepare cabbage, store meat and various vegetables, etc.

"Domostroy" is a kind of worldly everyday life, indicating to a worldly person how and when he needs to observe fasts, holidays, etc.

"Domostroy" gives practical advice on housekeeping: how to "arrange a good and clean" hut, how to hang icons and how to keep them clean, how to cook food.

The attitude of Russian people to work as a virtue, as a moral act, is reflected in Domostroy. A real ideal of the working life of a Russian person is being created - a peasant, a merchant, a boyar, and even a prince (at that time, class division was carried out not on the basis of culture, but more on the size of property and the number of servants). Everyone in the house - both the owners and the workers - must work tirelessly. The hostess, even if she has guests, "would always sit over the needlework herself." The owner must always engage in “righteous work” (this is repeatedly emphasized), be fair, thrifty and take care of his household and employees. The hostess-wife should be "kind, hardworking and silent." servants are good, so that they “know the trade, who is worthy of whom and what trade he is trained in.” parents are obliged to teach the work of their children, "needlework - the mother of daughters and craftsmanship - the father of sons."

Thus, "Domostroy" was not only a set of rules for the behavior of a wealthy person of the 16th century, but also the first "encyclopedia of the household."

MORAL STANDARDS

To achieve a righteous life, a person must follow certain rules.

The following characteristics and covenants are given in “Domostroy”: “A prudent father who feeds on trade - in a city or across the sea - or plows in a village, such from any profit he saves for his daughter"(Ch. 20)," love your father and mother honor your own and their old age, and lay all your infirmities and sufferings on yourself with all your heart "(ch. 22)," you should pray for your sins and the remission of sins, for the health of the king and queen, and their children, and his brothers, and for the Christ-loving the army, about help against enemies, about the release of captives, and about priests, icons and monks, and about spiritual fathers, and about the sick, about prisoners in prison, and for all Christians ”(ch. 12).

In chapter 25, “Instruction to the husband, and wife, and workers, and children, how to live as it should be,” Domostroy reflects the moral rules that Russian people of the Middle Ages must follow: “Yes, to you, master, and wife, and children and household members - do not steal, do not fornicate, do not lie, do not slander, do not envy, do not offend, do not slander, do not encroach on someone else's, do not condemn, do not gossip, do not ridicule, do not remember evil, do not be angry with anyone, be obedient to elders and submissive, to the middle - friendly, to the younger and wretched - friendly and gracious, to instill every business without red tape and especially not to offend the worker in paying, to endure every offense with gratitude for God's sake: both reproach and reproach, if rightly reproached and reproached, to accept with love and avoid such recklessness, and in return not to take revenge. If you are not guilty of anything, you will receive a reward from God for this.

Chapter 28 “On the unrighteous life” of “Domostroy” contains the following instructions: “And whoever does not live according to God, not in a Christian way, commits all kinds of injustice and violence, and inflicts great offense, and does not pay debts, but an ignoble person in will hurt everyone, and who, in a neighborly way, is not kind either in the village to his peasants, or in an order while sitting in power, imposes heavy tributes and various illegal taxes, or plowed someone else's field, or planted a forest, or caught all the fish in someone else's cage, or board or by unrighteousness and violence will capture and rob the outweight and all kinds of hunting grounds, or steal, or destroy, or falsely accuse someone of something, or deceive someone, or betray someone for nothing, or stun the innocent into slavery by cunning or violence, or dishonestly judges, or unjustly makes a search, or falsely testifies, or a horse, and any animal, and any property, and villages or gardens, or yards and all lands by force takes away, or cheaply buys into captivity, and in all indecent deeds: in fornication, in anger, in vindictiveness - the master or mistress himself creates them, or their children, or their people, or their peasants - they will definitely all together be in hell, and damned on earth, because in all those unworthy deeds the master is not such a god forgiven and cursed by the people, and those offended by him cry out to God.

The moral way of life, being a component of daily worries, economic and social, is as necessary as worries about "daily bread".

Worthy relationships between spouses in the family, a confident future for children, a prosperous position for the elderly, a respectful attitude towards authority, veneration of clergy, zeal for fellow tribesmen and co-religionists is an indispensable condition for “salvation”, success in life.

CONCLUSION

Thus, the real features of the Russian way of life and the language of the 16th century, the closed self-regulating Russian economy, focused on reasonable prosperity and self-restraint (non-possessiveness), living according to Orthodox moral standards, were reflected in Domostroy, the meaning of which lies in the fact that he paints life for us wealthy man of the 16th century. - a city dweller, a merchant or an orderly person.

"Domostroy" gives a classic medieval three-membered pyramidal structure: the lower a creature is on the hierarchical ladder, the less its responsibility, but also its freedom. The higher - the greater the power, but also the responsibility before God. In the Domostroy model, the tsar is responsible for his country at once, and the owner of the house, the head of the family, is responsible for all household members and their sins; which is why there is a need for total vertical control over their actions. The superior at the same time has the right to punish the inferior for violating the order or disloyalty to his authority.

In "Domostroy" the idea of practical spirituality is carried out, which is the peculiarity of the development of spirituality in Ancient Rus'. Spirituality is not reasoning about the soul, but practical deeds to put into practice an ideal that had a spiritual and moral character, and, above all, the ideal of righteous labor.

In "Domostroy" a portrait of a Russian man of that time is given. This is a breadwinner and breadwinner, an exemplary family man (there were no divorces in principle). Whatever his social status, in the first place for him is the family. He is the protector of his wife, children and his property. And, finally, this is a man of honor, with a deep sense of his own dignity, alien to lies and pretense. True, the recommendations of "Domostroy" allowed the use of force in relation to the wife, children, servants; and the status of the latter was unenviable, disenfranchised. The main thing in the family was a man - the owner, husband, father.

So, "Domostroy" is an attempt to create a grandiose religious and moral code, which was supposed to establish and implement precisely the ideals of world, family, social morality.

The uniqueness of "Domostroy" in Russian culture, first of all, is that after it no comparable attempt was made to normalize the entire circle of life, especially family life.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Domostroy // Literary Monuments of Ancient Rus': Middle of the 16th century. – M.: Artist. Lit., 1985

2. Zabylin M. Russian people, their customs, rituals, legends, superstitions. poetry. - M.: Nauka, 1996

3. Ivanitsky V. Russian woman in the era of "Domostroy" // Social sciences and modernity, 1995, No. 3. - P. 161-172

4. Kostomarov N.I. Home life and customs of the Great Russian people: Utensils, clothing, food and drink, health and disease, customs, rituals, receiving guests. - M.: Enlightenment, 1998

5. Lichman B.V. Russian history. – M.: Progress, 2005

6. Orlov A.S. Ancient Russian literature of the 11th-16th centuries. - M.: Enlightenment, 1992

7. Pushkareva N.L. Private life of a Russian woman: bride, wife, mistress (X - early XIX century). - M.: Enlightenment, 1997

8. Tereshchenko A. Life of the Russian people. – M.: Nauka, 1997

The boyar courtship of the 16th-17th centuries was partially borrowed from the palace etiquette of Byzantium, but in many respects it preserved folk customs. Russia of this period was a feudal state. The serf peasantry was brutally oppressed, but the big feudal lords (and in particular the boyars) enriched themselves unheard of. Politically and economically, the boyars of Russia have never been monolithic - this was hampered by constant tribal feud, a clash of personal interests.

At any cost, the boyars tried to achieve the greatest influence on the tsar and his relatives, there was a struggle to seize the most profitable positions, and palace coups were repeatedly attempted. In this struggle, all means were good, as long as they led to the goal - slander, denunciations, forged letters, trickery, arson, murder. All this had a huge impact on the life of the boyars. The bright outer side of boyar life turned out to be features in the rules of etiquette - circumvention.

The main thing in the guise of a boyar is his extreme external restraint. The boyar tried to speak less, and if he allowed himself lengthy speeches, he delivered them in such a way as not to betray a real thought and not reveal his interests. This was taught to the boyar children, and the servants of the boyar behaved in the same way. If the servant was sent on business, then he was ordered not to look around, not to talk with strangers (although he was not forbidden to eavesdrop), and in a conversation on business to say only what he was sent with. Closure in behavior was considered a virtue. The basis of the beauty of the boyar (middle and old age) was considered corpulence. The thicker the boyar was, the more magnificent and longer his mustache and beard were, the more honor he received. People with such an appearance were specially invited to the royal court, especially to the receptions of foreign ambassadors. The corpulence testified that this man did not work, that he was rich and noble. In order to further emphasize their thickness, the boyars girded themselves not around the waist, but under the stomach.

A feature in the plastic style of behavior was the desire for immobility. The general character of the movements was distinguished by slowness, smoothness and breadth. The boyar was rarely in a hurry. He maintained dignity and majesty. The costume helped this plastic style.

“On shirts and trousers,” writes Olearius, “they put on narrow robes like our camisoles, only long to the knees and with long sleeves, which are folded in front of the hand; behind their neck they have a collar a quarter of an cubit long and wide .. "Protruding above the rest of the clothes, it rises at the back of the head. They call this robe a caftan. Over the caftan, some wear a long robe that reaches to the calves or goes below them and is called a feryaz ...

Above all these they have long robes that go down to their feet, such they put on,
when they go outside. These outer coats have wide collars on the back of the shoulders,
from the front from top to bottom and from the sides there are slits with ribbons embroidered with gold, and sometimes with pearls, while long tassels hang on the ribbons. Their sleeves are almost the same length as the caftan, but very narrow, they are folded into many folds on their hands, so that they can hardly stick their hands in: sometimes, while walking, they let the sleeves hang down below their hands. They all put on hats on their heads ... made of black fox or sable fur an elbow length ... (on their feet) short, pointed boots in front ... "1 so that the body does not fall forward, the boyar had to tilt the upper back back, which raised the chest.The neck should be kept vertically, since the high boyar hat (“Gorlovka") prevented it from tilting. The boyar stood firmly and confidently on the ground - for this he widely spaced legs The most typical hand positions were:

1) arms hanging freely along the body; 2) one hung freely, the other rested against the side; 3) both hands rested on the sides. In the sitting position, the legs were most often spread apart, the torso was kept straight, the hands rested on the knees or rested on them. Sitting at the table, the boyars held their forearms on the edge of the table. and the brushes are on the table.

The boyar’s toilet (three top dresses, long, embroidered with gold and decorated with precious stones, pearls and furs) was heavy, it was very fettering the body and interfered with movements (there is evidence that Tsar Fyodor’s full dress weighed 80 (?!) kilograms, weighed the same patriarch's weekend costume). Naturally, in such a suit, one could only move smoothly, calmly, take small steps. While walking, the boyar did not speak, and if he needed to say something, he stopped.

Boyar behavior required that other representatives of their class be treated kindly, but always in accordance with tribal pride - You should not offend another person with a dismissive attitude towards him, but it is better to offend him than to belittle yourself. Depending on the situation, the etiquette of the XVI-XVII centuries made it possible to greet and respond to greetings in four ways:

1) head tilt; 2) a bow to the waist ("small custom");
3) a bow to the ground ("big custom"), when first they took off their hat with their left hand, then they touched their left shoulder with their right hand, and after that, bending down, they touched the floor with their right hand; 4) falling to your knees and touching the floor with your forehead ("beat with your forehead"). The fourth method was rarely used, only by the poorest of the boyars and only when meeting with the king, and the first three were used very often in everyday life. 1 A, Olearius. Description of the journey to Muscovy and through Muscovy and Persia and back, St. Petersburg., 1906, pp. 174-176. oo Bows were not only a greeting, they served as a form of gratitude. With gratitude, the number of bows was not limited and depended on the degree of gratitude of the one to whom the service was rendered. For example, it can be pointed out that Prince Trubetskoy thanked the "great custom" thirty times for the mercy of the tsar, who sent him on the Polish campaign of 1654. The servants also used different forms of bowing, and the choice depended on the situation. The peasants greeted their boyar, only falling to their knees, that is, they beat them with a "brow". The behavior of the peasant when meeting with the boyar was supposed to express humility, and the appearance of the boyar - power. In boyar families, the complete and continuous power of the head of the family, the father, was carefully emphasized (but sometimes it was a fiction). The father in the boyar family was the sovereign master over his wife, children and servants. What the boyar could afford was not allowed to anyone in the family. Any of his whims was fulfilled, his wife was his obedient, unquestioning slave (this is how hawthorns were brought up), servant children. If there was a boyar family, then the boyar went in front, followed by his wife, then the children and, finally, the servants. But sometimes the boyar allowed his wife to walk beside him. For others, this was a manifestation of the boyar's benevolence and mercy to his wife. It was considered indecent to walk, traveled the most insignificant distances. If you had to go some distance, then the boyar was supported by two servants under the arms, and the third behind was to lead his horse. The boyar himself never worked, but pretended to be trying to feed his cattle with his own hands; it was considered an honorable occupation.

When the boyar left the courtyard, he was supposed to be accompanied by servants, and the more there were, the more honorable was the departure; they did not adhere to any established order in such a trip: the servants surrounded their master. The degree of dignity of the boyar did not depend on the place that he occupied in the sovereign's service, but on his "breed" - the nobility of the family. The boyars in the State Duma were seated by breed: whoever was more noble was closer to the tsar, and whoever was worse was further away. This etiquette was carried out when placed at a feast: the more noble sat closer to the host.

At the feast it was supposed to eat and drink as much as possible - this showed respect for the host. They ate with their hands, but used a spoon and a knife. It was supposed to drink "full throat". Sipping wine, beer, mash and mead was considered indecent. There were entertainments at the feasts - the host's servants sang and danced. Especially loved the dances of the girls. Sometimes young boyars (of the unmarried) also danced. Buffoons enjoyed great success.

If the host wanted to show the highest honor to the guests, he would take them out in front of
dinner to his wife for the "kissing ceremony". The wife became
a low platform, next to it they put a "endova" (a tub of green wine) and served a cup. Only with very friendly relations with the guests, the owner sometimes opened the doors of the tower to show his treasure - the mistress of the house. It was a solemn custom in which a woman - the wife of the owner or the wife of his son, or a married daughter - was honored with special worship. Entering the dining room, the hostess bowed to the guests in the "small custom", i.e. in the waist, stood on a low platform, wine was placed next to her; guests bowed to her "great custom." Then the host bowed to the guests in a "great custom" with a request that the guests deign to kiss his wife. The guests asked the host to kiss his wife in advance. He yielded to this request and was the first to kiss his wife, and after him all the guests, one after another, bowed to the hostess to the ground, approached and kissed her, and moving away, again bowed to her "great custom". The hostess responded to each with a "small custom." After that, the hostess brought the guests a cup of double or triple green wine, and the host bowed to each "great custom", asking "to taste the wine." But the guests asked that the hosts drink first; then the owner ordered his wife to drink in advance, then he drank himself, and then with the hostess carried the guests around, each of whom again bowed to the hostess with a “great custom”, drank wine and, having given the dishes, again bowed to her to the ground. After the treat, the hostess, having bowed, went to her place for a conversation with her guests, the wives of the men who were feasting with the boyar. At lunchtime, when round pies were served, the wives of the owner's sons or his married daughters came out to the guests. In this case, the ceremony of treating wine took place in exactly the same way. At the request of the husband, the guests left the table to the door, bowed to the women, kissed them, drank wine, bowed again and sat down in their places, and they retired to the women's quarters. Maiden daughters never went out to such a ceremony and never showed themselves to men. Foreigners testify that the kissing ceremony was performed extremely rarely, and they kissed only on both cheeks, but in no case on the lips.

Women carefully dressed up for such an exit and often changed dresses even during the ceremony. They went out accompanied by married women or widows from serving boyar ladies. The exit of married daughters and wives of sons happened before the end of the feast. Serving wine to each guest, the woman herself sipped the cup. This rite confirms the division of the house into male and female halves and at the same time shows that the personality of a woman - the mistress of the house, acquired for a friendly society the high meaning of a housekeeper. The rite of bowing to the ground expressed the highest degree of respect for a woman, for bowing to the ground was an honorable form of honoring in pre-Petrine Rus'.

The feast ended with the offering of gifts: the guests presented the host, and the host presented the guests. The guests left all at once.
Only at weddings did women (including girls) feast with men. There was much more entertainment at these feasts. Not only yard girls sang and danced, but hawthorns as well. At a wedding feast and on similar solemn occasions, the boyar led his wife by the hand in the following way: he extended his left hand, palm up, she laid her right hand on this hand; the boyar covered the boyar's hand with his thumb and, almost stretching his hand forward to the left, led his wife. His whole appearance showed that he was the ruler of his wife, family and the whole house. Foreigners argued that the religiosity of the Russian boyars was apparent; however, the boyars attached great importance to the fulfillment of church rituals and traditions, carefully observed fasts and celebrated special church dates and holidays. The boyar and members of his family diligently showed their Christian virtues in various external manifestations, but respecting personal dignity. So, despite the assertion of religion that everyone is equal before God, the local boyar even in the church stood in a special place, in front of other worshipers, he was the first to be offered a cross with a blessing and consecrated prosphora (white, special-shaped bread). The boyar did not have any humility in his deeds and actions, however, in his behavior he sought to recall his closeness to religion; so, for example, they liked to walk with a high and heavy cane, reminiscent of a monastic or metropolitan staff - this testified to the degree and religiosity. Going to a palace or temple with a staff was a custom and was considered piety and decency. However, etiquette did not allow the boyar to enter the rooms with a staff, he was left in the hallway. The staff was a permanent accessory of the clergy of high ranks, they almost never parted with it.

Outwardly, the religiosity of the boyars was expressed in the strict observance of a number of rules. So, for example, after an evening church service or home prayer, it was no longer supposed to drink, eat, or speak - this is a sin. Before going to bed, it was necessary to give God three more prostrations. Almost always, there were rosaries in the hands, so as not to forget to say a prayer before starting any business. Even household chores had to begin with waist and earthly bows, accompanied by the sign of the cross. Each deed had to be done in silence, and if there was a conversation, then only about the deed that was being performed; at this time it was unacceptable to have fun with extraneous conversation, and even more so to sing. Before eating, an obligatory ceremony was performed - the monastic custom of offering bread in honor of the Virgin. This was accepted not only in the boyar house, but also in the royal life. All Domostroy's teachings boiled down to one goal - to make home life an almost continuous prayer, a rejection of all worldly pleasures and entertainment, since fun is sinful.

However, the rules of the church and Domostroy were often violated by the boyars, although outwardly they tried to emphasize the deanery of domestic life. The boyars hunted, feasted, arranged other entertainments; boyars received guests, gave feasts, etc.

The beauty of female plasticity was expressed in restraint, smoothness, softness and even some timidity of movements. For women and girls, the rules of etiquette were special. So, for example, if men bowed quite often in the "great custom", then this bow was unacceptable for the noblewoman and the hawthorn. It was performed only in case of pregnancy, when the noblewoman could not, if necessary, "bash her forehead." In this case, the movements of the "great custom" were modest, restrained and slow. The women never bared their heads. In general, to be bare-haired in society for a woman is the height of shamelessness. A young lady always wore a kokoshnik, and a married woman wore a kiku. The head of a simple woman was also always covered: for a young woman - with a handkerchief or a tattoo, for an elderly one - with a warrior.

The typical posture of a noblewoman is a stately posture, her eyes are lowered, especially when talking with a man; to look him in the eyes is indecent. The woman's hands were also lowered. Helping in a conversation with a gesture is strictly forbidden. It was allowed to hold one hand near the chest, but the second had to be below. Folding your arms under your chest is indecent, only a simple, hard-working woman could do this. The gait of the girl and the young noblewoman was distinguished by ease and grace. The gracefulness of a swan was considered ideal; when they praised the appearance of the girl and her plasticity, they compared her with a swan. Women walked with small steps, and it seemed that the foot was put on the toe; such an impression was created by very high heels - up to 12 cm. Naturally, one had to walk very carefully and slowly in such heels. The main occupation of women was various needlework - embroidery and lace weaving. We listened to stories and fairy tales of mothers and nannies and prayed a lot. When receiving guests in the tower, they entertained themselves with a conversation, but it was considered indecent if the hostess at the same time was not busy with some business, such as embroidery. A treat at such a reception was a must.

Terem seclusion was a vivid manifestation of the attitude towards women in Rus' in the 16th-17th centuries. But there is evidence that in an earlier period the position of a woman was freer. However, the degree of this freedom is unknown, although one can guess that women still rarely took part in public life. In the 16th-17th centuries, a woman in a boyar family was completely separated from the world. The only thing she could do was pray. The church took over the care of the woman's personality.

Only in rare cases, and even then in an earlier period of history, did a woman appear on an equal footing with men. This happened when, after the death of her husband, the widow received patrimonial rights. There is a description of how Novgorod noblewoman Martha Boretskaya feasted in the company of men, Novgorod boyars. Inviting the Monk Zosima to her, she not only wished to receive his blessing for herself and her daughters, but seated him at the table with them. There were other men at the same feast. True, the manners of the Novgorod boyars were freer than those of the Moscow boyars.

This position of the "mother widow" is typical for Rus'
XIV-XV centuries, when patrimonial ownership of land was strengthened. A mother widow in her patrimony completely replaced her late husband and performed men's duties for him. By necessity, these women were public figures, they were in a male society, sat in a duma - a council with the boyars, received ambassadors, i.e. completely replaced the men.

In the 15th century, Sophia Paleolog hosted the "Venetian" envoy and kindly talked with him. But Sophia was a foreigner, and this can explain a certain freedom of her behavior, but it is known that our princesses adhered to the same customs: so. at the beginning of the 16th century, ambassadors were sent to the Ryazan princess, who were supposed to personally convey to her the message of the Grand Duke. But this freedom gradually disappeared, and by the middle of the 16th century, the seclusion of a woman became mandatory. With the development of autocracy and autocracy, men did not allow a woman to open the doors of the tower. Gradually, her seclusion becomes a necessity. Domostroy did not even imagine that wives, not to mention daughters, could enter a male society. By the middle of the 16th century, the position of a woman had become quite deplorable. According to the rules of Domostroy, a woman is honest only when she is at home, when she does not see anyone. She was very rarely allowed to go to the temple, even more rarely - to friendly conversations.

Starting from the second half of the 16th century and into the 17th century, noble people, even in family life, did not show their wives and daughters, not only to strangers, but even to their closest male relatives.

That is why the reforms undertaken by Tsar Peter I in public life seemed so incredible to the Russian boyars. The demand to wear a short European dress, to shave beards and trim mustaches, to take their wives and daughters in open dresses to assemblies, where women sat next to men, danced dances that were incredibly shameless (from the point of view of Domostroy) caused great resistance from the boyars.

With all the difficulties in carrying out these reforms, the Russian noble society in the XVII
century, nevertheless, takes on new forms of secular life, begins to imitate Western
Europe in fashion, manners and home life.

However, many of the establishments of the Domostroy of the 16th century stubbornly held on in the merchant and petty-bourgeois environment in the 18th and even the 19th centuries.

From the book by I.E. Koch "Fundamentals of stage movement." The absence of serious works on the history of the life of past eras makes this part of the book especially necessary and interesting.

“Over the shirt and trousers,” writes Olearius, “they put on narrow robes like our camisoles, only long to the knees and with long sleeves, which are folded in front of the wrist; behind their neck they have a collar a quarter of a cubit long and wide ... protruding above the rest of the clothes, it rises at the back of the head. This garment they call a caftan. On top of the caftan, some also wear a long robe that reaches to the calves or descends below them and is called a feryaz ...

Above all these they have long robes that go down to their feet, such they put on,
when they go outside. These outer coats have wide collars on the back of the shoulders,
from the front from top to bottom and from the sides there are slits with ribbons embroidered with gold, and sometimes with pearls, while long tassels hang on the ribbons. Their sleeves are almost the same length as the caftan, but very narrow, they are folded into many folds on their hands, so that they can hardly stick their hands in: sometimes, while walking, they let the sleeves hang down below their hands. They all put on hats on their heads ... made of black fox or sable fur, an elbow long ... (on their feet) short, pointed boots in front ... ”1 The portly boyar held himself very straight, his stomach was pushed forward - this is a typical posture. In order for the body not to fall forward, the boyar had to tilt the upper back backward, which raised the chest. The neck had to be held vertically, since the high boyar hat ("Gorlovka") prevented it from tilting. The boyar stood firmly and confidently on the ground - for this he spread his legs wide. The most typical hand positions were:

Boyar behavior required that other representatives of their estate be treated kindly, but always in accordance with tribal pride - You should not offend another person with a dismissive attitude towards him, but it is better to offend him than to humiliate yourself. Depending on the situation, the etiquette of the XVI-XVII centuries made it possible to greet and respond to greetings in four ways:

1) head tilt; 2) a bow to the waist (“small custom”);
3) a bow to the ground (“great custom”), when first they took off their hat with their left hand, then they touched their left shoulder with their right hand, and after that, bending down, they touched the floor with their right hand; 4) falling to your knees and touching the floor with your forehead (“beat with your forehead”). The fourth method was rarely used, only by the poorest of the boyars and only when meeting with the king, and the first three were used very often in everyday life. 1 A, Olearius. Description of the journey to Muscovy and through Muscovy and Persia and back, St. Petersburg., 1906, pp. 174-176. oo Bows were not only a greeting, they served as a form of gratitude. With gratitude, the number of bows was not limited and depended on the degree of gratitude of the one to whom the service was rendered. For example, it can be pointed out that Prince Trubetskoy thanked the “great custom” thirty times for the mercy of the tsar, who sent him on the Polish campaign of 1654. The servants also used different forms of bowing, and the choice depended on the situation. The peasants greeted their boyar, only falling to their knees, that is, they beat them with a “brow”. The behavior of the peasant when meeting with the boyar was supposed to express humility, and the appearance of the boyar - power. In boyar families, the complete and uninterrupted power of the head of the family, the father, was carefully emphasized (but sometimes it was a fiction). The father in the boyar family was the sovereign master over his wife, children and servants. What the boyar could afford was not allowed to anyone in the family. Any of his whims was fulfilled, his wife was his obedient, unquestioning slave (this is how hawthorns were brought up), servant children. If there was a boyar family, then the boyar went in front, followed by his wife, then the children and, finally, the servants. But sometimes the boyar allowed his wife to walk beside him. For others, this was a manifestation of the boyar's benevolence and mercy to his wife. It was considered indecent to walk, traveled the most insignificant distances. If you had to go some distance, then the boyar was supported by two servants under the arms, and the third behind was to lead his horse. The boyar himself never worked, but pretended to be trying to feed his cattle with his own hands; it was considered an honorable occupation.

When the boyar left the courtyard, he was supposed to be accompanied by servants, and the more there were, the more honorable was the departure; they did not adhere to any established order in such a trip: the servants surrounded their master. The degree of dignity of the boyar did not depend on the place he occupied in the sovereign's service, but on his "breed" - the nobility of the family. The boyars in the State Duma were seated by breed: whoever was more noble was closer to the tsar, and whoever was worse was further away. This etiquette was carried out when placed at a feast: the more noble sat closer to the host.

At the feast, it was supposed to eat and drink as much as possible - this showed respect for the host. They ate with their hands, but used a spoon and a knife. It was supposed to drink "full throat". Sipping wine, beer, mash and mead was considered indecent. There were entertainments at the feasts - the host's servants sang and danced. Especially loved the dances of the girls. Sometimes young boyars (of the unmarried) also danced. Buffoons enjoyed great success.

If the host wanted to show the highest honor to the guests, he would take them out in front of
dinner to his wife to perform the "kissing ceremony". The wife became
a low platform, next to it they put a “endova” (a tub of green wine) and served a cup. Only with very friendly relations with the guests, the owner sometimes opened the doors of the tower to show his treasure - the mistress of the house. It was a solemn custom in which a woman - the wife of the owner or the wife of his son, or a married daughter - was honored with special worship. Entering the dining room, the hostess bowed to the guests with the “small custom”, i.e. in the waist, stood on a low platform, wine was placed next to her; guests bowed to her "great custom". Then the host bowed to the guests in a “great custom” with a request that the guests deign to kiss his wife. The guests asked the host to kiss his wife in advance. He yielded to this request and was the first to kiss his wife, and after him all the guests, one after another, bowed to the hostess to the ground, approached and kissed her, and, moving away, again bowed to her "great custom". The hostess responded to each with a "small custom." After that, the hostess brought the guests a glass of double or triple green wine, and the host bowed to each "great custom", asking "to taste the wine." But the guests asked that the hosts drink first; then the owner ordered his wife to drink in advance, then he drank himself, and then with the hostess carried around the guests, each of whom again bowed to the hostess with a “great custom”, drank wine and, having handed over the dishes, again bowed to her to the ground. After the treat, the hostess, having bowed, went to her place for a conversation with her guests, the wives of the men who were feasting with the boyar. At lunchtime, when round pies were served, the wives of the owner's sons or his married daughters came out to the guests. In this case, the ceremony of treating wine took place in exactly the same way. At the request of the husband, the guests left the table to the door, bowed to the women, kissed them, drank wine, bowed again and sat down in their places, and they retired to the women's quarters. Maiden daughters never went out to such a ceremony and never showed themselves to men. Foreigners testify that the kissing ceremony was performed extremely rarely, and they kissed only on both cheeks, but in no case on the lips.

The beauty of female plasticity was expressed in restraint, smoothness, softness and even some timidity of movements. For women and girls, the rules of etiquette were special. So, for example, if men quite often bowed to the “great custom”, then this bow for the noblewoman and the hawthorn was unacceptable. It was carried out only in case of pregnancy, when the noblewoman could not, if necessary, “beat with her forehead”. In this case, the movements of the "great custom" were modest, restrained and slow. The women never bared their heads. In general, to be bare-haired in society for a woman is the height of shamelessness. A young lady always wore a kokoshnik, and a married woman wore a kiku. The head of a simple woman was also always covered: for a young woman - with a handkerchief or a tattoo, for an elderly one - with a warrior.

The typical pose of the noblewoman is a stately posture, her eyes are lowered, especially when talking with a man; to look him in the eyes is indecent. The woman's hands were also lowered. Helping in a conversation with a gesture is strictly forbidden. It was allowed to hold one hand near the chest, but the second had to be below. Folding your arms under your chest is indecent, only a simple, hard-working woman could do this. The gait of the girl and the young noblewoman was distinguished by ease and grace. The gracefulness of a swan was considered ideal; when they praised the appearance of the girl and her plasticity, they compared her with a swan. Women walked with small steps, and it seemed that the foot was put on the toe; such an impression was created by very high heels - up to 12 cm. Naturally, one had to walk very carefully and slowly in such heels. The main occupation of women was various needlework - embroidery and lace weaving. We listened to stories and fairy tales of mothers and nannies and prayed a lot. When receiving guests in the tower, they entertained themselves with a conversation, but it was considered indecent if the hostess at the same time was not busy with some business, such as embroidery. A treat at such a reception was a must.

Terem seclusion was a vivid manifestation of the attitude towards women in Rus' in the 16th-17th centuries. But there is evidence that in an earlier period the position of a woman was freer. However, the degree of this freedom is unknown, although one can guess that women still rarely took part in public life. In the 16th-17th centuries, a woman in a boyar family was completely separated from the world. The only thing available to her was prayer. The church took over the care of the woman's personality.

Boyars

The boyar yards were surrounded by a palisade, and 3-4-storey log towers, "bullets" towered over them; the boyars lived in "svetlitsy" with mica windows, and around there were services, barns, barns, stables, serviced by dozens of yard serfs. The innermost part of the boyar estate was the female "terem": according to the eastern custom, the boyars kept their women locked up in the women's half of the house.

The boyars also dressed in the oriental style: they wore brocade robes with long sleeves, caps, caftans and fur coats; this clothing differed from the Tatar only in that it was fastened on the other side. Herberstein wrote that the boyars indulged in drunkenness all the days; feasts lasted for several days and the number of dishes was in the tens; even the church reproached the boyars for their indefatigable desire "to saturate the body without ceasing and fatten it up." Obesity was revered as a sign of nobility, and in order to stick out the stomach, it was girdled as low as possible; another sign of nobility was a bushy beard of exorbitant length - and the boyars competed with each other in terms of what they considered corpulent.

The boyars were the descendants of the Vikings, who once conquered the country of the Slavs and turned some of them into slave slaves. From the distant times of Kievan Rus, the boyars had "patrimonial estates" - villages inhabited by slaves; the boyars had their own squads of "combat serfs" and "children of the boyars", and, participating in campaigns, the boyars brought new captive slaves to the estates. Free peasants also lived in the estates: the boyars attracted unsettled singles to their lands, gave them loans for acquiring, but then gradually increased the duties and turned the debtors into bondage. Workers could leave the owner only by paying the "old" and waiting for the next St. George's Day (November 26) - but the size of the "old" was such that few managed to leave.

The boyars were full masters in their patrimony, which was for them "fatherland" and "fatherland"; they could execute their people, they could pardon; princely governors could not enter the boyar villages, and the boyar was obliged to the prince only by paying "tribute" - a tax that had previously been paid to the khan. According to an old custom, a boyar with his retinue could be employed in the service of any prince, even in Lithuania - and at the same time retain his patrimony. The boyars served as "thousanders" and "centuries", governors in cities or volosts in rural volosts and received "feed" for this - part of the taxes collected from the villagers. The governor was a judge and governor; he judged and maintained order with the help of his "tiuns" and "closers", but he was not trusted to collect taxes; they were collected by "scribes and tributaries" sent by the Grand Duke.

The governorship was usually given for a year or two, and then the boyar returned to his estate and lived there as an almost independent ruler. The boyars considered themselves masters of the Russian land; ordinary people, seeing a boyar, had to "beat with their foreheads" - bow their heads to the ground, and meeting each other, the boyars hugged and kissed, as the rulers of sovereign states now hug and kiss. Among the Moscow boyars there were many princes who submitted to the "sovereign of all Rus'" and transferred to the service in Moscow, and many Tatar "princes" who received estates in Kasimov and Zvenigorod; about a sixth of the boyar surnames came from Tatars and a fourth from Lithuania. The princes who came to serve in Moscow "incited" the old boyars, and strife began between them because of the "places" where to sit at feasts, and who should obey whom in the service.

The disputants recalled which of the relatives and in what positions served the Grand Duke, kept a "parochial account" and sometimes got into a fight, beat each other with their fists and dragged their beards - however, it happened worse in the West, where the barons fought duels or fought private wars. The Grand Duke knew how to bring order to his boyars, and Herberstein wrote that the Muscovite sovereign with his power "exceeds all the monarchs of the world." This, of course, was an exaggeration: since the time of Kievan Rus, the princes did not make decisions without consulting with their warrior boyars, the "Boyar Duma", and although Vasily sometimes decided the affairs of "thirds at the bedside", the tradition remained a tradition.

In addition, under Vasily III, there were still two specific principalities; they were owned by Vasily's brothers, Andrei and Yuri. Vasily III finally subjugated Pskov and Ryazan and deprived the local boyars of power - just as his father deprived the boyars' estates in Novgorod. In Pskov, Novgorod and Lithuania, the traditions of Kievan Rus were still preserved, the boyars ruled there, and a veche gathered there, where the boyars voluntarily appointed a prince - "whatever they want." In order to resist the Tatars, the "Sovereign of All Rus'" sought to unite the country and stop the strife: after all, it was the strife of princes and boyars that destroyed Rus' during the time of Batu.

The boyars, on the other hand, wanted to retain their power and looked in hope to Lithuania, dear to their hearts, with its vechas and councils, to which only "noble lords" were allowed. In those days, "fatherland" did not mean huge Russia, but a small boyar estate, and the Novgorod boyars tried to transfer their fatherland - Novgorod - to King Casimir. Ivan III executed a hundred Novgorod boyars, and took away the estates from the rest and freed their slaves - the common people rejoiced at the prince's deeds, and the boyars called Ivan III "Terrible". Following the precepts of his father, Vasily III deprived the boyars of Ryazan and Pskov from their estates - but the Moscow boyars still retained their strength, and the main struggle was ahead.

Peasants

No matter how great the boyar patrimonies were, the main part of the population of Rus' was not boyar serfs, but free "black-haired" peasants who lived on the lands of the Grand Duke. As in the old days, the peasants lived in communal "worlds" - small villages with a few houses, and some of these "worlds" still plowed on undercuts - cut down and burned areas of the forest. In the undercut, all work was carried out together, they cut wood together and plowed together - the stumps were not uprooted at the same time, and this aroused the surprise of foreigners who were accustomed to the flat fields of Europe.

In the 16th century, most of the forests had already been cut down and the peasants had to plow on the old undercuts, "wastelands". Now plowmen could work alone; where land was in short supply, the fields were divided into family allotments, but were redistributed from time to time. It was the usual system of agriculture that existed in all countries in the era of the resettlement of farmers and the development of forests. However, in Western Europe, this era of initial colonization occurred in the 1st millennium BC, and it came to Rus' much later, so the community with redistribution was long forgotten in the West, private property triumphed there - and collectivism and communal life were preserved in Rus'.

Many works were carried out by community members collectively - this custom was called "help". All together they built houses, took out manure to the fields, mowed; if the breadwinner in the family fell ill, then the whole community helped to plow his field. Women together ruffled flax, spun, chopped cabbage; after such work, young people arranged parties, "cabbages" and "gatherings" with songs and dances until late at night - then straw was brought into the house and they settled down to sleep in pairs; if a girl didn’t like the guy she got, then she hid from him on the stove - this was called “dae garbuza”. Children who were born after such a "cabbage" were called "kapustniki", and since the father of the child was unknown, they were said to have been found in cabbage.

Sons were married at 16-18 years old, and daughters at 12-13, and the whole community celebrated the wedding: the groom's village played out a "raid" on the bride's village in order to "steal" her; the groom was called "prince", he was accompanied by a "team" led by "boyars" and "thousands", the standard-bearer - "cornet" carried the banner. The bride's community pretended to be on the defensive; guys with clubs came out to meet the groom and negotiations began; in the end, the groom "redeemed" the bride from the guys and the brothers; the bride's parents, according to the custom adopted from the Tatars, received a bride price - however, this ransom was not as large as that of the Muslims. The bride, covered with a veil, was seated in a wagon - no one saw her face, and that is why the girl was called "not a bride", "unknown". The groom walked around the wagon three times and, lightly hitting the bride with a whip, said: "Leave your father's, take mine!" - Probably, this custom was what Herberstein had in mind when he wrote that Russian women consider beatings a symbol of love.

The wedding ended with a three-day feast in which the whole village participated; in the last century, such a feast took 20-30 buckets of vodka - but in the 16th century, peasants drank not vodka, but honey and beer. Tatar customs responded in Rus' by prohibiting peasants from drinking alcohol on all days, except for weddings and major holidays - then, at Christmas, Easter, Trinity, the whole village gathered for a feast-fraternization, "brotherhood"; tables were set up near the village chapel, icons were taken out and, having prayed, they proceeded to the feast. At brotherhoods, they reconciled those who quarreled and created a communal court; elected the headman and the tenth. The volostels and their people were forbidden to come to the brotherhood without an invitation, ask for refreshments and interfere in the affairs of the community: "If someone calls a tiun or a closer to drink to a feast or to a brotherhood, then they, having drunk, do not spend the night here, spend the night in another village and they don’t take nozzles from feasts and brothers.”

Bratchina judged by petty offenses; serious matters were decided by the volost - "but without the headman and without the best people, the volost and his tiun do not judge the courts," say the letters. Taxes were collected by the tributary together with the headman, referring to the "census book", where all households were rewritten with the amount of arable land, sown bread and mowed hay, and also indicated how much "tribute" and "feed" should be paid. The tributary did not dare to take more than he was supposed to, but if since the time of the census some owner had died, then until the new census, the "world" had to pay for it. Taxes amounted to about a quarter of the harvest, and the peasants lived quite prosperously, the average family had 2-3 cows, 3-4 horses and 12-15 acres of arable land - 4-5 times more than at the end of the 19th century!

However, it was necessary to work hard, if in former times the harvest on the undercut reached 10-10, then in the field it was three times less; the fields had to be fertilized with manure and crops alternated: this is how the three-field system appeared, when winter rye was sown one year, spring crops another year, and the land was left fallow in the third year. Before sowing, the field was plowed three times with a special plow with a moldboard, which not only scratched the ground, as before, but turned the layers over - but even with all these innovations, the land quickly "plowed", and after 20-30 years it was necessary to look for new fields - if they were still in the area.

The short northern summer did not give the peasant time to rest, and during the harvest they worked from sunrise to sunset. The peasants did not know what luxury was; The huts were small, in one room, clothes - homespun shirts, but they wore boots on their feet, and not bast shoes, as later. A literate peasant was a rarity, the entertainment was rude: the buffoons who walked around the villages staged fights with tamed bears, showed "prodigal" performances and "swearing". Russian "foul language" consisted mainly of Tatar words, which, because of the hatred they had for the Tatars in Rus', acquired an abusive meaning: the head - "head", the old woman - "hag", the old man - "babai", the big man - "blockhead". "; the Turkic expression "bel mes" ("I don't understand") has turned into "stupid".

Holy fools

Akin to buffoons were holy fools, fellow Eastern dervishes. “They go completely naked even in the most severe frosts in winter,” a visiting foreigner testifies, “they are tied in rags in the middle of their bodies, and many still have chains around their necks ... They are considered prophets and very holy men, and therefore they are allowed to speak freely, everything, whatever they want, even about God himself... That is why the people love the blessed very much, for they... indicate the shortcomings of the noble, about which no one else even dares to speak..."

Entertainment

Fisticuffs were a favorite entertainment: on Shrovetide, one village went out to another to fight with their fists, and they fought to the point of blood, and there were also those who were killed. The court also often came down to a duel with fists - although Ivan III issued the Sudebnik with written laws. In the family, the husband did justice and reprisals: “If a wife, or a son or daughter does not listen to words and orders,” says Domostroy, “they are not afraid, do not do what the husband, father or mother commands, then whip them with a whip, looking because of fault, but to beat them alone, not to punish in public. For any fault, do not beat them in the ear, in the face, under the heart with a fist, kick, do not beat with a staff, do not hit with anything iron and wooden. , can cause great harm: blindness, deafness, injury to an arm or leg. Must be whipped: it is reasonable, and painful, and scary, and healthy. When guilt is great, when disobedience or neglect was significant, then take off your shirt and beat politely with a whip, holding hands, yes, beating, so that there is no anger, to say a kind word.

Education

Things with education were bad for all estates: half of the boyars could not "put a hand to the letter." "And above all, in the Russian kingdom, there were many schools, literacy and writing, and there was a lot of singing ..." - the priests complained at the church council. Monasteries remained centers of literacy: there were kept books that had survived from the time of the invasion, collections of "Greek wisdom"; one of these collections, "Shestodnev" by John the Bulgarian, contained excerpts from Aristotle, Plato and Democritus. From Byzantium came to Rus' and the beginnings of mathematical knowledge; the multiplication table was called the "account of the Greek merchants", and the numbers were written in the Greek manner, using letters. Just as in Greece, the most popular reading was the lives of the saints; Rus' continued to feed on Greek culture, and the monks went to study in Greece, where famous monasteries were located on Mount Athos.

The priest Nil Sorsky, known for his preaching of non-acquisitiveness, also studied on Athos: he said that monks should not accumulate wealth, but live from "the labors of their hands." The Russian bishops did not like these sermons, and one of them, Joseph Volotsky, entered into an argument with the hermit, arguing that "the wealth of the church is God's wealth." Non-possessors were also supported by Maxim the Greek, a learned monk from Athos, invited to Rus' to correct liturgical books: from repeated rewriting, omissions and errors appeared in them.

Maxim the Greek studied in Florence, was familiar with Savonarola and the Italian humanists. He brought the spirit of free-thinking to the distant northern country and was not afraid to say directly to Vasily III that in his desire for autocracy, the Grand Duke did not want to know either Greek or Roman law: he denied supremacy over the Russian Church, both to the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Pope of Rome. The learned Greek was captured and put on trial; he was accused of incorrectly correcting books, "smoothing out" holy words; Maxim was exiled to a monastery and there, sitting in confinement, he wrote "many books of spiritual benefit" - including "Greek and Russian Grammar".

The Russian Church kept a wary eye on learned foreigners, fearing that they would bring "heresy". Such a case already happened at the end of the 15th century, when the Jewish merchant Skhariya arrived in Novgorod; he brought many books and "seduced" many Novgorodians into the Jewish faith. Among the heretical books was the "Treatise on the Sphere" by the Spanish Jew John de Scrabosco - it was translated into Russian, and it is possible that from this book in Rus' they learned about the sphericity of the Earth. Another heretical book, "Six-winged" by Immanuel ben Jacob, was used by the Novgorod archbishop Gennady to compile tables determining the date of Easter.

However, having borrowed their knowledge from the Novgorod Jews, Gennady subjected the "heretics" to a cruel execution: they were put on birch bark helmets with the inscription "This is Satan's army", they put them on horses face back and drove around the city to the hooting of passers-by; then the helmets were set on fire and many "heretics" died from burns. "Six-wing" was forbidden by the church - just like astrological almanacs with predictions, brought to Rus' by the German Nikolai from Lübeck; all this referred to "evil heresies": "rafli, six-winged, ostolomy, almanac, astrologer, Aristotelian gates and other demonic kobes."

The church did not advise looking at the sky: when Herberstein asked about the latitude of Moscow, he was answered, not without fear, that according to "incorrect rumor" it would be 58 degrees. The German ambassador took an astrolabe and started measuring - he got 50 degrees (actually - 56 degrees). Herberstein offered European maps to Russian diplomats and asked them for a map of Russia, but achieved nothing: there were no geographical maps in Rus' yet. True, scribes and tributaries measured the fields and made "drawings" for accounting purposes; at the same time, the treatise of the Arab mathematician al-Ghazali, translated into Russian, was often used as a guide, probably on the orders of some Baskak.

While in Moscow, Herberstein asked the boyar Lyatsky to draw up a map of Russia, but twenty years passed before Lyatsky was able to fulfill this request. It was an unusual map: according to the Arab tradition, the south was at the top, and the north was at the bottom; not far from Tver, a mysterious lake was depicted on the map, from which the Volga, Dnieper and Daugava flowed. At the time of the compilation of the map, Lyatskaya lived in Lithuania; he served the Polish king Sigismund, and the map was not created out of good intentions: it lay on the king's table when he was preparing a new campaign against Rus'. Lithuania and Rus' were primordially hostile to each other, but Lithuania in itself was not a dangerous adversary. The greatest evil for Rus' was that Lithuania was in a dynastic union with Poland, and the Polish king was at the same time the Grand Duke of Lithuania - not only Lithuania, but also Poland was the enemy of Rus'.

N. Kostomarov

Holidays were a time of deviation from the usual order of daily life and were accompanied by various customs rooted in domestic life. Pious people generally considered it proper to mark the festive season with deeds of piety and Christian good deeds. Going to church for the established service was the first necessity; in addition, the owners invited the clergy to their house and served prayers in the house, and considered it a duty to feed the poor and give alms. Thus, the kings established meals for the poor in their own mansions and, having fed them, handed out money from their own hands, went to almshouses, visited prisons and gave alms to prisoners. Such charitable trips took place especially before major holidays: before Easter and Christmas, also at Shrove Tuesday; but they were also performed on other master's and Mother of God holidays. This custom was observed everywhere by noble gentlemen and generally wealthy people. Feed the greedy, water the greedy, clothe the naked, visit the sick, come to dungeons and wash their feet - in the words of the time, was the most charitable pastime of holidays and Sundays. There were examples that for such charitable deeds the kings were promoted to the ranks, as for service. Holidays were considered the most appropriate time for feasts […]. Russian legislation helped the church, which forbade the sending of everyday labors during the holidays; it was forbidden to judge and sit in orders on major holidays and Sundays, except, however, important, necessary public affairs; merchants had to stop their activities on the eve of Sunday and public holidays three hours before evening; and even on weekdays, on the occasion of temple holidays and religious processions, it was forbidden to work and trade until the end of worship; but these rules were poorly implemented, and despite the strict obedience to church forms in life, despite the fact that the Russians even considered time only as holidays, to the amazement of foreigners, they traded and worked both on Sundays and on master's holidays. On the other hand, the common people found that it was impossible to honor the holiday with anything like drunkenness; the greater the holiday, the lower the revelry was, the more income went into the treasury in taverns and mug yards - even during the service, drunkards were already crowding around drinking houses: “Whoever is happy about the holiday is drunk to the light,” the people said and say Great Russian. […]

Everything that today is expressed in evenings, theaters, picnics, etc., was expressed in ancient times in feasts. Feasts were an ordinary) form of social rapprochement of people. Whether the church was celebrating its triumph, whether the family was rejoicing, or seeing off its member from the earthly world, or whether Russia shared royal joy and the glory of victory - the feast was an expression of cheerfulness. The kings enjoyed the feast; The peasants also enjoyed the feast. The desire to maintain a good opinion among people prompted every decent host to make a feast and call good friends to him. […]

A distinctive feature of the Russian feast was an extraordinary variety of foods and an abundance of drinks. The host was proud of the fact that he had a lot of everything at the feast - the guest was a thick refectory! He tried to get the guests drunk, if possible, to the point of taking them home without a memory; and whoever is not nice, he upset the owner. “He doesn’t drink, doesn’t eat,” they said about such people, “he doesn’t want to borrow us!” It was necessary to drink with a full throat, and not sip, as chickens do. Who drank with pleasure, he showed that he loves the owner. Women who at the same time feasted with the hostess also had to yield to the hostess's treats to the point that they were taken home unconscious. The next day the hostess sent to inquire about the health of the guest. - “Thank you for the treat,” the guest answered in this case, “I had so much fun yesterday that I don’t know how I got home!” But on the other hand, it was considered shameful to become drunk soon. The feast was, in a way, a war between the host and the guests. The host wanted to get his guest drunk at all costs; the guests did not give in and only out of politeness had to admit defeat after a stubborn defense. Some, not wanting to drink, pretended to be drunk towards the end of the meal to please the host, so that they would no longer be forced, so as not to really get drunk. Sometimes it happened at wild feasts that they were forced to drink by force, even by beatings. […]

The Russian people have long been famous for their love of drinking parties. Vladimir also said a significant expression: “Russia should drink joy: we cannot exist without it!” The Russians gave drunkenness some sort of heroic meaning. In ancient songs, the valor of a hero was measured by the ability to outdrink others and drink an incredible amount of wine. Joy, love, benevolence found expression in wine. If the higher one wanted to show his favor to the lower one, he watered him, and he did not dare to refuse: there were cases when a noble person, for fun, watered a simple one, and he, not daring to refuse, drank to the point that he fell unconscious and even died . Noble boyars did not consider it reprehensible to get drunk to the point of loss of consciousness - and with the danger of losing one's life. The tsarist ambassadors who traveled abroad amazed foreigners with their immoderation. One Russian ambassador to Sweden, in 1608, immortalized himself in the eyes of strangers by drinking strong wine and dying from it. How greedy for wine the Russian people were in general can be proved by the following historical event: during a riot in Moscow, when Pleshcheev, Chistov and Trakhaniotov were killed, a fire broke out. Very soon he reached the main tavern ... the people rushed there in a crowd; everyone was in a hurry to scoop up wine with hats and boots; everyone wanted to drink free wine; forgot the rebellion; forgot to put out the fire; the people lay drunk and dead, and thus the rebellion ceased, and most of the capital turned into ashes. Until the time when Boris, with the introduction of taverns, made drunkenness an article of state income, the desire to drink among the Russian people had not yet reached such an amazing volume as later. The common people seldom drank: they were allowed to brew beer, mash and mead and take a walk only on holidays; but when wine began to be sold from the treasury, when the epithet of kings was attached to the word "tavern", drunkenness became a universal quality. Miserable drunkards multiplied, who drank to the bone. An eyewitness tells how a drunkard entered the tavern and drank his caftan, went out in a shirt and, having met a friend, returned again, drank the linen and left the tsar's tavern completely naked, but cheerful, uncool, singing songs and releasing a strong word to the Germans, who decided to make him a remark. These cases were frequent in Moscow, and in the cities, and in the villages - everywhere one could see people lying unconscious in the mud or in the snow. Thieves and swindlers robbed them, and often after that they froze over in the winter. In Moscow, at Maslenitsa and at Christmas time, dozens of frozen drunkards were brought to the zemstvo order every morning. y…u

It happened that people of decent origin, that is, nobles and boyar children, got drunk to the point that they lowered their estates and drank themselves naked. From such and such fellows a special class of drunkards was formed, called the tavern yarygs. These daredevils did not have a stake or a yard. They lived in general contempt and roamed the world begging for alms; they almost always crowded around the taverns and in the taverns, humbly begging from those who came for a cup of wine, for Christ's sake. Ready for any atrocity, they were on occasion a gang of thieves and robbers. In folk songs and stories, they are presented as tempters of young inexperienced people. […]

The clergy not only did not differ in sobriety, but even outdid other classes in their disposition to wine. At weddings, the clergy got so drunk that they had to be supported.

In order to put limits on the frenzied drunkenness in taverns, the government, instead of them, started mug yards, where wine was sold in proportions of no less than mugs, but this did not help. Drunkards gathered in a crowd in the mug yards and drank there for whole days. Other drink hunters bought not only mugs, but buckets, and sold them secretly in their taverns.

Most of all, the shelter of the most notorious villains were secret taverns or ropaty. Even in the 15th and 16th centuries, this name meant dens of drunkenness, debauchery and all kinds of excesses. Owners and keepers of such establishments received wine in state-owned establishments or secretly smoked at home and sold it secretly. Along with wine, there were games, corrupt women and tobacco in the taverns. No matter how severely the maintenance of the tavern was pursued, it was so profitable that many decided to take it, saying: the profits received from this are so great that they also reward for the whip, which could always be expected, as soon as the authorities found out about the existence of the tavern. .

Essay on domestic life and customs of the Great Russian people in the 15th and 17th centuries. St. Petersburg, I860. pp. 149-150, 129-133, 136-138.

Miniature: L. Solomatkin. Dance

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