Who are the burlaks? Life of wonderful names.

The painting "Barge haulers on the Volga", which glorified Ilya Repin, from the moment of its appearance caused mixed reviews. I. Shubin claims that in the XIX century. the work of barge haulers looked like this: they installed on barges big drum with rope wrapped around it. The painting "Barge haulers on the Volga" was painted in 1870-1873, when steamboats replaced sailing boats, and the need for barge haulers disappeared. Nevertheless, "Barge haulers on the Volga" quite accurately reproduce the hierarchy of hired workers: a strong and experienced barge hauler, called a "bump" always walked in the front strap - he set the rhythm of movement. To keep everyone in step, the “bump” sang songs or simply shouted out words. In the role of a “bump”, Repin portrayed Kanin, a shorn priest who turned into barge haulers.

Was it hard for the barge haulers?

Who are barge haulers, I think everyone knows. At least, many have seen the painting by Ilya Repin "Barge Haulers on the Volga". The first steamboat in the Volga basin appeared on the Kama in June 1816. "In the 40s years XIX in. steamboats also appear on the rivers of Siberia ”(Source). We don’t have such remnants, because they report that we have continuous modernization, steam locomotives and steamships. And this despite the fact that competition from steamers, by that time, barge haulers was also Railway, the pace of construction of which the French bakers are so fond of boasting about. Barge women pulling a barge on the Sura River in the Nizhny Novgorod province. Almost like "barge haulers on the Volga" ... Until now, on the riffles and some rapids, tourists-water workers burlach tow, and not only water workers.

It would seem that the whip must be stretched, and it must be fastened so that the angle avert (Fig. 2) is as close as possible to 90°. Everything would be so if the bicheva was weightless. The distance from Astrakhan to Nizhny Novgorod (2172 km) was covered by loaded barks in 2.5-3 months, trying mainly to move under sail. At the same time, a rope was taken 4-5 times longer and 1.5 times thicker than a tow rope, but its weight did not complicate the work too much. Taking into account the fact that the working day of barge haulers lasted from dawn to dusk (with a short break), it turns out that it was really difficult to work as a barge hauler!

Such is female share, it would be just right for N.A. Nekrasov to grieve over her! It is enough to read the enthusiastic lines of the weak N.G. Chernyshevsky about one of the heroes of his novel, strong not only in spirit, but also in body, who deliberately went to barge haulers. Let's start with the fact that in those years when the hero of the poem as a boy ran along the banks of the Volga, the peasants were enslaved. At this time, what kind of peasant will leave the land? This means that the barge haulers were clearly not from the peasantry. He was also lucky with burlaks. With the advent of steamboats, no one needed their hard work. If the artist had been a year and a half late, there would have been one less masterpiece of Russian painting.

Bourgeoisie as a way of life

Every spring, immediately after the ice drift, through the villages standing on the banks of large rivers, in their lower reaches, wave after wave, artels of barge haulers, going to contract for work, passed. In certain places on the Volga, barge haulers initiated newcomers into the profession. When the ship passed the "Roasted Hillock" near Yuryevets-Povolzhsky, the Burlatsky artel arranged a berth. The next in the artel hierarchy behind the waterway was the pilot, he is also “uncle”, he is also “bulatnik”. The advanced barge hauler, pulling the strap, was called a "bump", he was responsible for the well-coordinated work of draft haulers.

For some vagabonds, their unprofitable profession has become a real way of life. Burlak is a person, as a rule, deprived of a family and serious obligations.

The image of a barge hauler was expressed most strongly in Russian art, which has always been looking for a universal way to depict a person from the people. N. A. Nekrasov wrote about barge haulers and their hard lot in the poem “On the Volga” (1860), which aroused great interest among his contemporaries. As always, Repin portrayed different people, who perceive their share of the barge in different ways: from those who are desperate to those who are ready to fight for their happiness.

Four centuries, from the 16th to the end of the 19th, the rivers of Russia in the summer could not be imagined without barge haulers. The work of a barge hauler was so hard that even singing could not brighten it up. From ancient times there existed in Russia special kind songs - burlatsky. With the advent of the first steamboats, the work of barge haulers became less in demand, and by the beginning of the 20th century barge haulers had completely disappeared. Burlak - hired worker in Russia XVI- the beginning of the 20th century, which, walking along the shore, pulled a river vessel against the current with the help of a towline.

Burlatsky labor completely disappeared with the spread of steamboats. AT Russian Empire"the capital of barge haulers" with early XIX century called the city of Rybinsk. During the summer navigation through Rybinsk, a quarter of all Russian burlachstvo passed.

Neither bushes, nor stones, nor swampy places were removed from the path of barge haulers, so the place painted by Repin can be considered an ideal section of the road. 5. The cook and falcon headman (that is, responsible for the cleanliness of the latrine on the ship) was the youngest of the barge haulers - the village guy Larka, who experienced real hazing. Inert usually looked at his feet and moored apart so that he could go at his own pace. Experienced, but sick or weak, were chosen as inert ones. At the mention of barge haulers, most people remember only the painting by Ilya Repin "Barge Haulers on the Volga". Usually barge haulers were hired by artels of 4-6, more often 10-40 people connected with each other mutual responsibility, but sometimes the artel consisted of more than 150 people.

Having found in the galleries a painting by Telemaco Signorini on the same theme, written, by the way, before Repin's masterpiece, I made an article in the heading "Ideas are in the air" (see here). My readers responded to the material with paintings by other artists, and I realized that the theme of barge haulers was "fruitful" in the work of not only Russian painters, but also their foreign colleagues. Therefore, this material arose, in which I also place information about this so-called profession itself. I found a painting by Constantin Meissonier, which was called "Women barge haulers."

When Dostoevsky saw this painting by Ilya Repin “Barge haulers on the Volga”, familiar to us from childhood, he was very glad that the artist did not put any social protest into it. In the Writer's Diary, Fyodor Mikhailovich noted: “... barge haulers, real barge haulers and nothing more. Not a single river in the world knew such a scale of burlachka as the Volga. main reason This is purely physical: almost on the entire navigable part of the river, the speed of the current is not too high. Below we will show a direct relationship between the flow velocity and physical activity per each barge hauler. Specific values ​​​​of the speed of the Volga during the time of Repin can be found in the dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron. In spring, in May, the current speed changed from 2.5 ft/s in the upper reaches to 7.7 ft/s below Saratov.

Many modern schoolchildren, studying works of Russian art, cannot always answer the question of who barge haulers are. Meanwhile, these people once evoked different feelings in their contemporaries: from pity to complete rejection. Let's try to consider this issue in more detail.

What does this profession mean?

Barge haulers in Russia were called hired workers, as a rule, people from the poorest segments of the population, who pulled ships sailing against the current with long ropes. It was hard physical labor, which was seasonal. The period of burlachka lasted from spring to autumn. In order to support each other, these people united in artels. As a rule, barge work did not cause much respect and was considered a forced way of earning.

The pay was quite low, so this work became the lot of the homeless beggars and often the homeless. Often, former convicts and people with a dubious reputation became barge haulers.

Today, the question of what the barge haulers were pulling is relevant. Mostly they had to pull large ships, which were deprived of steamship traction. These ships were used to transport various cargoes.

Bourgeoisie as a way of life

For some vagabonds, their unprofitable profession has become a real way of life. Burlak is a person, as a rule, deprived of a family and serious obligations. A kind of tumbleweed, a person free from many social obligations and deprived of many of the benefits of life.

Most of the artels were located on the Volga. Their capital was the city of Rybinsk.

Thus, answering the question of who barge haulers are and what they did on the Volga, one can answer as follows: this is a certain social class of the Russian Empire of the beginning of the century before last, consisting of people with certain value orientations, often representing people from the social bottom.

Image in Russian art

The image of a barge hauler was expressed most strongly in Russian art, which has always been looking for a universal way to depict a person from the people. Such people, like no other, fit this ideal: strong, powerful, courageous and free, who personified the recalcitrant

N. A. Nekrasov wrote about barge haulers and their hard lot in the poem “On the Volga” (1860), which aroused great interest among his contemporaries.

This theme was reflected in their works by many other writers and poets. But perhaps the most famous work there is still a painting by I. E. Repin called “Barge Haulers on the Volga”. This monumental canvas aroused great interest among fans of the artist's work. As always, Repin portrayed different people who perceive their share of barges in different ways: from those who are desperate to those who are ready to fight for their happiness.

By the way, this painting was bought by one of the Grand Dukes from the Romanov dynasty and often showed it to his guests.

Who are barge haulers: history in Russia

This topic was actively covered in the documentary literature of the century before last. The famous Muscovite and journalist V. Gilyarovsky wrote a lot about barge haulers. Together with them, as a wanderer, Gilyarovsky traveled many roads and knew well both their life and their way of life.

To the question of who barge haulers are, Gilyarovsky briefly answered as follows: they are people, different people, often just caught in a difficult situation. life situation but not without human image and the human soul.

Interest in barge haulers also aroused interest in their folklore. famous singer F. Chaliapin successfully performed one of their songs “Oh, cudgel, let's go!”.

Bargainism as a social class began to disappear from the middle of the century before last, when steamboats appeared, no longer needing people to pull them from the shore.

However, this topic continued to gain popularity, so even the liberal intelligentsia knew who barge haulers were. As a rule, the image of these people among the revolutionary-minded youth was identified with the oppression that the Russian people are experiencing.

Burlatsky labor was officially banned only in the USSR. However, it was also forced to be used during the Great Patriotic War.

Today, this theme is known to our contemporaries, rather, by works of art. Therefore, there are new songs, and new art canvases, which tell about who barge haulers are.

Non-agricultural crafts were a common and forced matter for the Trans-Volga peasants. P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky, who himself grew up in these parts, wrote: “In the forest Trans-Volga, the land is cold, unborn, a peasant only has enough of his bread until butter week, and then in a harvest year. No matter how you fight on the allotment strip, no matter how much suffering you take on it, you cannot feed yourself with labor bread all year round.

The peasants of the Chistopol volost, which included the village of Popovo, also could not feed themselves on rural labor alone. According to the RGIA, in 1811 they collected only 9393 quarters of rye, and the need, according to the most conservative estimates, was 13164 quarters.

If the peasants with allotments could not do without fishing, then the landless Pyotr Yegorov simply had no other choice. What business to choose? The crafts were local and outhouses. Of course, local crafts were preferable both for the authorities and for the peasants themselves. The traditional Trans-Volga craft was felt-shoe and hat making. With the onset of the first winter journey, whole families of peasants left for different provinces to sell hats prepared during the summer. Peter, working for his master in Popov, mastered this skill thoroughly, but he did not have his own workshop. And then the crisis of the Zavolzhsky hat production came. Knyaginin's competitors pressed. The same Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov reflected this process in his novel “In the Forests”: “Now the Volga hat has completely approached. Throw it away completely, the demand is small, there was almost no sales at all ... Most of all, the cap did the most trouble ... It managed to adopt the cap from the Germans who were baptized. The cheap cap has supplanted the more valuable ancient hat.”

And Pyotr Yegorovich had to go to the outhouse. This was also not easy, because the “withdrawal” required a “passport”, for which it was necessary to pay a lot of money to the state, and even a bribe to an official. As early as the 18th century, the acting governor-general of the Nizhny Novgorod and Penza provinces, Prince Vyazemsky, reported to his superiors that “passports are given to peasants to support their work with an excellent payment against the price put into the treasury,” i.e. for a bribe. It was all the more difficult for the Old Believers to achieve the rectification of such a document, from whom any tax was already levied at a double rate. But there was nowhere to go, Peter pulled himself up, straightened his "passport" and, leaving his young wife in the care of his mother-in-law, went to the Volga. In burlaki.

Burlatsky craft, at that time, was the last refuge of the poor. The attitude to this occupation in society was dismissive. Barge haulers were treated like outcasts. Professor of History N. Ya. Aristov in the study “On historical significance bandit songs”, for example, squeamishly calls them the scum of society, which threw them out as lazy people, thieves, drunkards, in general, useless people branded with the nickname “yarygi”. Academician of literature D. I. Yazykov, explaining the word "burlak" in his Encyclopedic Lexicon, wrote that "these workers consist of rude, drunken bastards."

And yet it was not easy to get into barge haulers, homeless poor fellows, like our hero Pyotr Yegorov, were then, as they say, darkness and darkness. According to the estimates of the researcher of barge hauling in Russia F. N. Rodin, in the 30s of the 19th century, at least 600 thousand barge haulers served the Volga with tributaries, and almost half of them came from the Nizhny Novgorod province.

The largest "burlatsky market" on the Volga was in Rybinsk. In Nizhny Novgorod, a row (hiring) of barge haulers took place twice a year. The first time was on Skoba, on Ivanovskaya Square under the Kremlin in early spring, when the path “collapsed”, that is, before the ice drift. The second time - in the summer during the fair at the pontoon bridge. Artels lined up. There was a legal norm for hiring barge haulers: for every thousand pounds of cargo, “eight legs” were supposed, that is, four barge haulers. There were two main routes (barge haul flights): a large one - from Astrakhan to Nizhny. And a small one - from Nizhny to Rybinsk. Nizhny Novgorod residents worked mainly on the small road, its length was 454 versts.

According to the description of the expert on the Volga shipping I.A. Shubin, at the “burlak bazaars” “the people gathered visibly-invisibly, and the streets and squares where the row itself passed were so crowded that it was extremely difficult not only to drive through them, but also to pass. Barge haulers stood in a solid mass, but in artels. Each of them chose a contractor who negotiated with the shipowners.”

It was to such a bazaar that Pyotr Yegorov's son, the founder of the later famous merchant family of the Bugrovs, appeared in Nizhny for many years in a row. According to the recollections of those who knew him, he was well-tailored, had a remarkable physical strength and sociable nature. Therefore, he quickly entered the barge haul environment, earned the respect of both fellow barge haulers and shipowners. This was written by the famous everyday writer and head of the Nizhny Novgorod specific office V.I. Dal: “Petrukha the balalaika was remembered by the old merchants and their clerks as a lively, but sober and meek barge hauler, who appeared on the pier even before the arrival of the larks, as soon as the ice on the Volga began to turn blue ... In addition to a spoon and a strap in a bag behind his shoulders, he had a balalaika, the shipmen friendly welcomed a squat, thick-set naked man.

What did the burlak look like? Each strap has a wide belt worn over the shoulder. At the end of the strap there is a rope-tail with a bump for a strong overlap over the whip, the main rope attached to the ship's mast. The external sign of a barge hauler is a special felt hat "hairpins", behind the ribbon of which, like a knight's feather, a wooden spoon stuck out.

How were responsibilities distributed within the burlatskaya artel (troop)? The head was a pilot who knew the fairway of the river by heart. Barge haulers called him "uncle." He was followed by a "water dispenser", which protected the ship and cargo from sinking, and the artel hostel for grubs was also trusted to him. Among the rank and file, the main one was the “bump”, the strongest, walking in front, who knew the coastal path (sakma or scooper) well. "Shishka" skillfully chose paths between stones and bushes, bypassing the bays, making his way through ravines, and reliably led the gang, cheering them up and singing burlatsky songs. At the tail of the artel there were one or two inert ones, whose duties included "scrapping" the scourge (throw it off if it clung to bushes and trees). The youngest in the artel was a cook, usually a boy of 11-12 years old from poor family, hired for one grub. According to I.A. Shubin, “the entire burlatskaya mass was quite sharply divided into two categories. The first consisted of professional barge haulers, almost all from the native Volga, largely from Nizhny Novgorod. The second is everyone else. We can safely assume that Pyotr Yegorovich, with his physical strength, sociability and innate ingenuity, quickly became part of the bourgeois elite.

What were the terms of the agreement between barge haulers and merchants? As a rule, they were bonded. Here are some points of the "Terms of the artel of barge haulers with the merchant I.M. Vologdin, concluded on September 18, 1817, to escort a barge with salt from Nizhny Novgorod to Rybinsk”: “Following the path, do not stand idly anywhere and, moreover, do not get drunk. Try to save salt in every possible way, do not trample underfoot, do not take or sell salt for your own food. If somewhere along the way the barge begins to sink and the salt perishes, in this case we, the workers, are obliged to save the barge from the flood with our common forces and preserve the integrity of the salt. If it turns out that the ship is sunk and the salt perished by the power of God, then nothing should be exacted from the workers for it and the money received by them as a deposit should not be demanded. If it turns out that the ship is sunk and the salt has died from the negligence of our pilot, water or cook, in this case we all undertake to be generally responsible and pay for that lost salt at the price of free sale. So the barge work was distinguished not only by its exhausting severity, but also by its enormous financial responsibility.

As for physical hardships, only people with very good health withstood them. Many stretched the veins in their legs. From the constant pressure of the strap on the chest, many developed consumption. On barge haulers literally "burned" clothes and shoes. For three months of moving along the large "sakma" from Astrakhan to Nizhny, a barge hauler wore out up to 20 pairs of bast shoes, a strap, canvas ports, and a shirt. According to the memoirs of the former barge hauler D.E. Frolov, literally the entire river bank was strewn with worn barefoot sandals. Barge haulers moved slowly, no more than five miles a day, and even then, if the weather allowed. I.A. Shubin described the barge movement as follows: “They stepped forward with only one right foot and then pulled their left to it. The heaviness of the strap did not allow walking equally with both feet. Everyone remembers the textbook lines of N.A. Nekrasov about the song-groan of barge haulers. Barge haulers, indeed, sang and moaned. Not from fun, but so as not to groan from the effort. The song helped them follow the rhythm of the movement, invigorated them.

By the way, barge haulers cheered themselves up not only with lingering songs, but also with very “salty” jokes. On the Nizhny Novgorod section of the journey, for example, there were such refrains:

Here is Slopinets and Tatinets -

All scammers are the breadwinner!

Near here is the village of Rabotki -

Buy the master of vodka!

And behind him is the village of Bezvodno,

Girls live shamefully!

Here is the village of Great Enemy.

In every house there is a tavern!

But Kstovo is something of Christ

Cheerful village...

Here is Kunavino village,

It brought me into three arcs ...

But the village of Kozino,

A lot of girls are brought!

City Cherna Balakhna

It is worth opening the floors ...

In Gorodets, on the mountain

Three girls in the yard!

What was the income of barge haulers? He made a reservation during the ranks, and at that time he was, indeed, not bad. On average, 35 silver rubles for a small Putin. According to the conditions, the ranks of barge haulers immediately received a deposit of half the contract. Although most this deposit was often immediately taken away from them by village elders and landowner stewards in payment of dues and other duties. On the remaining pennies barge haulers "grubbed" on the way. Many barge haulers were drawn into drunkenness for Putin, which was indulged by contractors. The booze began already at the time of hiring, the deal was “sprinkled with mogarych”. First, at the expense of the owners, each of whom bought his artel of wine according to the norm: one quarter of vodka for 20 barge haulers. The host's treat whetted the appetite, and the burlak gang went to the tavern to "wet the straps." By evening, the whole gang was drunk.

But this was only the beginning of Burlatsky drunkenness. Enterprising tavern-keepers built their establishments near all river rifts, where barge haulers accumulated to reload luggage onto small ships in order to navigate their ships through the shoals. So at the Veal ford (Velyachiy Brod-Velyachiy roll) - a roll on the river. Volga, located in 9 Ver. below the city of Nizhny Novgorod. More recently, T. Brod was perhaps the shallowest rift on the river. Volga, in the stretch from Nizhny Novgorod to Astrakhan. In navigation (very shallow) 1885 and 1890 deep no more than 1 arsh. 8 tops AT recent times thanks to significant hydraulic structures, T. Brod became much more convenient for navigation), up to 150 heavy ships usually accumulated near Nizhny Novgorod. To speed up the work, the owners generously treated barge haulers. And the host's gifts often grew here into a general booze at the expense of the barbers. As a result, most barge haulers returned from Putin penniless. And the resulting miserable calculation was also drunk away with grief. When asked how much he earned, the barge hauler usually answered: “Somehow, as always, he earned a lot of lice.”

It is no coincidence that we have dwelled in such detail on the ups and downs of the burlak life in order to show what trials our hero went through. The people then said that it was better to feed on Christ's alms than to go to barge haulers. But young Pyotr Yegorov did not perish in the abyss of barges. Of course, he took risks by embarking on this difficult trade. But this risk was, it seems, not desperate, but quite conscious. He was not only physically strong and hardworking, but also, which is a rarity in the barge trade, absolutely sober, like all Old Believers. It was sobriety, together with prudence and a lively disposition, that provided Peter with a leading position in any gang and helped to achieve profitable contracts.

This was facilitated by the guardianship practice of the specific department, which recommended its local officials "to let go to barge haulers in groups of 10 people with the appointment of one of the sober responsible." Of course, the appanage authorities pursued their own fiscal goals in order to guarantee the timely payment of dues by appanage peasants. But such an order suited Pyotr Yegorov as well, because it was he, as a sober person, who usually became this “responsible” and head of the burlak artel, receiving an increased payment. So already here, in the burlak penal servitude, the thrifty son Peter Egorov could lay the foundation for his “initial accumulation”. The old faith gave him strength in the fight against burlatsky hardships.

By book by A. V. Sedov " Kerzhaki. The history of three generations of merchants Bugrovs.

The topic has flown, I restore from the cache

Burlak - hired worker in Russia XVI- late XIX centuries, which, walking along the shore, pulled a river vessel against the current with the help of a string. In the 18th-19th centuries, the main type of vessel operated by burlak labor was bark - Bark - Wikipedia.

Burlatsky labor was seasonal. The boats were pulled along big water': spring and autumn. To fulfill the order, barge haulers united in artels. The work of a barge hauler was extremely difficult and monotonous. Songs helped barge haulers maintain the pace of movement. One of the well-known burlak songs is “Oh, bludgeon, let’s go”, which was usually sung to coordinate the forces of the artel in one of the most difficult moments: pulling the bark from its place after lifting the anchor.

Library of A. Sosnin: The emergence and decline of the ship industry

By the end of the XVII - early XVIII centuries process of social division of labor, development commodity-money relations and the emergence of a single all-Russian market significant changes to the organization of navigation on inland waterways // library.riverships.ru
... Bargaining was a peculiar phenomenon in the economy of feudal Russia. The work of barge haulers was seasonal, which at best continued during navigation, and most often was limited to one voyage, or, as they said then, a fishing season, and, therefore, could not serve as a permanent object of labor application and a source of livelihood. Part of the barge haulers even in the winter found some work in the ship industry (building and repairing ships, preparing ship equipment, equipment, etc.) or other occupation, but the majority of them went home, to the village, with which they could not break connection.

The peasantry was the main base from where barge haulers went to all waterways. But in general, the composition of the burlachistvo was rather motley. Despite the heterogeneity of the burlak masses, it was clearly divided into professionals and casual people. The first ones, who burbled all their lives, knew the river perfectly, were always hired as “indigenous” and were the most reliable element of the burlak environment.

Out of extreme need, the poor peasants, the urban and township squalor, or “extra hands” who could not find a use for their labor in the countryside went to random barge haulers. A significant part of random barge haulers were (before the abolition of serfdom in 1861) landlord peasants, rented out for arrears or in the form of punishment, as well as runaway people without a passport, who could be hired for pennies or simply “for grub”. An irresistible lure was the deposit that could be obtained by hiring as barge haulers, just at the time of the year when the peasant was in the most acute need.

The hiring of barge haulers was usually carried out in winter between the holidays of Maslenitsa and Easter (from late February to early April). Traditionally certain items barge haulers gathered at the “burlak” bazaars. The Big Bazaar on the Volga was held annually in Puchezh. Kostroma, Kineshma, Yuryevets, Gorodets, Balakhna, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saratov, and on the Kama - Perm, Chistopol, Laishev.

Burlatsky bazaars were very picturesque picture.

Early in the morning on the market day, barge haulers gathered in artels on the trading square and chose a contractor from among themselves, who negotiated with the shipbuilders in full view of the entire artel. Artel usually set a ceiling price, which the contractor could, as a last resort, agree to. Sometimes unscrupulous contractors, for a good bribe, informed the shipbuilders in advance of the maximum price for hiring an artel, but if the barge haulers somehow found out about this, they severely cracked down on the contractor.

The hiring of barge haulers was formalized by an agreement, which stipulated the obligations of the parties and, in particular, in detail the duties of barge haulers. So, in the agreement concluded on April 24, 1847 in the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Rybinsk shipping massacre by the artel of ship workers with the Balakhna merchant Nesterov, the first ones assumed the following obligations: upon arrival at the bark, “remove it as it should be afloat, float down the Volga River to the Baronsky colony to the barns shown, from which, after we have made the bridges, load with wheat, as the owner pleases, according to the load and really removed, cock this bark up, along the Volga River to Nizh. Novgorod with haste, without waking up the morning and evening dawns, in the work to determine us for every thousand pounds of cargo, three and a half people, except for the pilot, while on the route we do our best to ensure that the ship is not subjected to the slightest delay. It is equal for all of us to be with the owner and his messenger and pilot in all obedience and obedience ... If we meet shallow water, then reload the luggage into the gaps, for which we have to walk up and down 30 miles without pay. If misfortune follows with the ship and there is no way to save it, then we are obliged to immediately bring it to the shore, drain the water from it, unload the luggage on the shore, dry it soaked and load it back into one or another ship and proceed as before. At the same time, we must be extremely careful on the ship from fire and for this we do not smoke tobacco on ships at all, defend ourselves from the attack of thieves and prevent robbery, protect the ship and the owner day and night. Upon arrival in the mountains. Place the lower ship, dry out the supplies, remove where ordered, then, after receiving passports and making a settlement, be free. If, however, in the calculation we find ourselves with an excessive excess of money, then we are obliged to pay it in full unquestioningly. Rows to each Putin for 16 rubles in silver. Each deposit is 10 rubles. 29 k. silver”.

The burgomasters and clerks usually dressed up for the landlord peasants. Often a shipbuilder, wanting to hire an artel of barge haulers at a cheaper price, came to the village headman or foreman. They called the short-earned peasants and forced them to go to the barge haulers. The deposit in these cases was usually taken away by the headman “for arrears”, and barge haulers after the end of the fishing season often received practically not a penny: all the remaining money turned out to be spent “on grub”. Hired barge haulers came to the places of construction or wintering of ships two weeks before the ice drift, prepared the ships for sailing, brought them to places safe from ice drift and loaded them. Vessels usually set off on a voyage immediately after the ice drift.

A group of barge haulers pulling a tow line was called a “sada”. The most experienced and healthy barge hauler, who was called “bump” or “uncle”, stood at its head and walked with the first strap, choosing the path and setting the rhythm in common work that required precise coordination. Behind the "bump" they put the most lazy or bondage barge haulers, who, having already squandered their earnings, served for nothing but food and were not interested in work. They were followed by conscientious workers, who, if necessary, urged on the lazy. Behind everyone walked the “stagnant”, following the tow line to the “scrap”, that is, taking it off if it touched something.

The move of haulers with a towline was so difficult that ordinary walking, even with a small and slow step, was impossible, so they first put their right foot forward, rested it on the ground and slowly pulled their left foot towards it, or took a very small step with their left foot. The step was even and necessarily simultaneous, so the “seda” all the time gently swayed slightly to the sides.

Almost all burlaks' work, including the tow line, was accompanied by the singing of songs that not only set the required rhythm, but also to some extent set the burlaks to perform hard work. These songs were the work of barge haulers themselves, primitive in form and content, they reflected the conditions of hard work and bleak existence.

Hard labor with virtually no rest, unsanitary conditions, lack of medical care did their job, and barge haulers, after several years of work, turned into exhausted disabled people, who first of all died during the then frequent epidemics.

Hundreds of thousands of people were engaged in heavy barge work. According to F. N. Rodin, in the last quarter XVIII in. in the Volga basin and on the Vyshnevolotsk system, at least 340 thousand shipworkers were employed. In the early 30s of the XIX century. 412 thousand people bubbling on the Volga and Oka, 50 thousand people on the Kama. And during the heyday of the ship industry, in 1854, on rivers and canals, only European Russia 704.8 thousand haulers worked. Their social composition was extremely heterogeneous. Among the barge haulers in 1854 there were (in thousands of people):

Peasants (state, landlord, appanage) - 580.8
Freed and free cultivators - 4.4
Soldiers (retired, arable, indefinitely released) and Cossacks - 14.1
Philistines, merchants, odnodvortsev - 85.9
Nobles - 2.8

Upon arrival at the agreed destination, barge haulers received a payment for their work. In order not to pay for downtime, they did not delay with the calculation and generally tried to send barge haulers home as quickly as possible, considering it undesirable to accumulate a large mass of these restless people.

When calculating big misunderstandings arose in the payment for simple days. According to the situation that existed at that time, downtime not due to the fault of the ship's working days were paid only starting from the fourth day of downtime at 15 kopecks. for a day. For the first three days, barge haulers, as well as grooms, received nothing. In order not to pay simple money, shipowners often resorted to tricks: having stood in one place for three days, they forced the shipworkers to move the ship forward by 400-600 m, and thus received another preferential three days. Numerous complaints and indignations of ship workers forced the Senate to issue a decree on August 27, 1817, which established that the day would not be considered simple if the day's passage downstream exceeded 16 versts, and upstream - 6 versts. In addition, the limit on preferential three days, when the shipowner could not pay the workers simple money, applied to the entire navigation, and not to a one-time stop. However, it should be noted that this decree did not eliminate the arbitrariness of the owners. With the deduction of the deposit and the cost of food, the haulers received little, and sometimes nothing at all, in the final payment.

In some places (for example, on the canals of the Mariinsky system), burlachism survived until the 1900s.

Barge haulers on the Volga - who are all these people?! What does Ilya Repin's painting "Barge haulers on the Volga" tell about and why every detail is important.

Burlak - a hired worker in Russia of the 16th - early 20th centuries, who, walking along the coast (along the so-called towpath), pulled a river boat against the current with the help of a towline. In the 18th-19th centuries, the bark was the main type of vessel, driven by burlak labor. Burlatsky labor was seasonal. Boats were pulled along the "big water": in spring and autumn. To fulfill the order, barge haulers united in artels. The work of a barge hauler was extremely difficult and monotonous. The speed of movement depended on the strength of the tail or head wind. With a fair wind on the ship (bark), the sail was raised, which significantly accelerated the movement. Songs helped barge haulers maintain the pace of movement. One of the well-known burlak songs is “Oh, bludgeon, let’s go”, which was usually sung to coordinate the forces of the artel in one of the most difficult moments: pulling the bark from its place after lifting the anchor.

When Dostoevsky saw this painting by Ilya Repin “Barge haulers on the Volga”, familiar to us from childhood, he was very glad that the artist did not put any social protest into it. In the Writer's Diary, Fyodor Mikhailovich noted: “... barge haulers, real barge haulers and nothing more. None of them shouts from the picture to the viewer: “Look how unhappy I am and to what extent you owe the people!”

Dostoevsky could not even imagine how many platitudes would be said about this picture and what an invaluable document it would now be for those who want to understand the organization of labor of barge haulers.

1. Towpath- a trampled coastal strip, along which barge haulers walked. Emperor Paul forbade the construction of fences and buildings here, but limited himself to this. Neither bushes, nor stones, nor swampy places were removed from the path of barge haulers, so the place painted by Repin can be considered an ideal section of the road.

2. Bump - foreman of barge haulers. He became a dexterous, strong and experienced person who knew many songs. In the artel, which Repin captured, Kanin, a pop-cut, was the bump (the sketches were preserved, where the artist indicated the names of some characters). The foreman swooped, that is, fastened his strap, ahead of everyone and set the rhythm of movement. The barge haulers did each step synchronously with the right foot, then pulling up the left. From this, the whole artel swayed on the move. If someone lost his stride, people collided with their shoulders, and the bump gave the command “hay - straw”, resuming movement in step. To keep the rhythm on the narrow paths over the cliffs, the foreman required great skill.

3. Podshishelnye- the nearest assistants of the bump, swooping to the right and left of him. By left hand from Kanin comes Ilka the sailor - the artel headman, who bought food and gave the barge haulers their salaries. At the time of Repin, it was small - 30 kopecks a day. So much, for example, it cost to cross all of Moscow in a cab, driving from Znamenka to Lefortovo. Behind the backs of the podshishelnyh roamed those in need of special control.

4. Bonded, like a man with a pipe, even at the beginning of the journey they managed to squander the salary for the entire flight. Being indebted to the artel, they worked for food and did not try very hard.

5. Cook. The cook and falcon headman (that is, responsible for the cleanliness of the latrine on the ship) was the youngest of the barge haulers - the village guy Larka, who experienced real hazing. Considering his duties more than sufficient, Larka sometimes quarreled and defiantly refused to pull the strap.

6. Scammers. In each artel there were also simply negligent ones, like this man with a pouch. On occasion, they were not averse to shifting part of the burden onto the shoulders of others.

7. Watcher. Behind them came the most conscientious barge haulers, goading the hacks.

8. Inert or inert- the so-called barge hauler, closing the movement. He made sure that the line did not cling to the stones and bushes on the shore. Inert usually looked at his feet and moored apart so that he could go at his own pace. Experienced, but sick or weak, were chosen as inert ones.

9. Barring- type of bar. Elton salt, Caspian fish and seal fat, Ural iron and Persian goods (cotton, silk, rice, dried fruits) were transported up the Volga. The artel was recruited according to the weight of the loaded vessel at the rate of approximately 250 pounds per person. The load, which is pulled up the river by 11 barge haulers, weighs at least 40 tons.

10. Flag- to the order of the bands on national flag they were not treated very carefully and often raised flags and pennants upside down, as here.

11. Pilot- a man on the steering wheel, in fact, the captain of the ship. He earns more than the entire artel put together, gives instructions to barge haulers and maneuvers both the rudder and the blocks that regulate the length of the tow line. Now the bark is making a turn, bypassing the stranded.

13. Waterpipe- a carpenter who caulks and repairs the ship, monitors the safety of the goods, bears financial responsibility for it during loading and unloading. Under the contract, he does not have the right to leave the bark during the voyage and replaces the owner, leading on his behalf.

12. Becheva- a cable to which barge haulers rush. While the barge was being led along the steep, that is, near the shore, the line was etched for 30 meters. But then the pilot loosened it, the bark moves away from the shore. In a minute, the towline will stretch like a string and barge haulers will first have to restrain the inertia of the ship, and then pull with all their might. At this moment, the bump will drag out the chant: “Here, let's go and take it, / They stepped in with the right-left. / Oh, one more time, / One more time, one more time...” and so on, until the artel gets into rhythm and moves forward.

14. Sail rose with a fair wind, then the ship went much easier and faster. Now the sail is removed, and the wind is contrary, so it is harder for barge haulers to walk and they cannot take a wide step.

15. Carving on bark. Since the 16th century, it was customary to decorate the Volga bark with intricate carvings. It was believed that she helped the ship to rise against the current. The best specialists in clumsy work in the country were engaged in bark work. When steamboats pushed wooden barges out of the river in the 1870s, the craftsmen dispersed in search of work, and in wooden architecture Central Russia the thirty-year era of magnificent carved architraves. Later, highly skilled carving gave way to more primitive stencil sawing.

There were also women's artels:

Barge haulers were not only in Russia:

AT Western Europe(for example, in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, as well as in Italy), the movement of river vessels with the help of manpower and draft animals continued until the thirties of the 20th century. But in Germany, the use of manpower ceased already in the second half of the 19th century.

Not a single river in the world knew such a scale of burlachka as the Volga. The main reason for this is purely physical: in almost the entire navigable part of the river, the speed of the current is not too high.