In Russia, brides were given from the bath. On the sexual exploitation of female serfs

18.01.2013

The wonderful healing properties of bath procedures have been known for a long time. From a health and hygiene procedure, it has become a special traditional ritual. Each nation has its own bathing customs, but they are united by the general desire of people for the life-giving energy of water, which, like in the form of steam, in a hot and cold state, heals the soul and body.

The wedding bath was accompanied by chants and obligatory ceremonial rituals

The very first baths were created by nature itself. The reservoirs, which were heated by hot thermal springs, were both a bath and a steam room. In countries where there were no such sources, steam was formed by pouring water on stones heated on fire. Almost all peoples of the world know about the beneficial effect of the bath on the human body.

In Russia, the whole life of a person was connected with a bath. In the bath man was born, in the bath he sought healing and purification of the soul and body. According to popular belief, if even a bath did not help the patient, then nothing will help him.

Bath traditions

Baths in Russia were an integral part of people's lives. No important event in a person's life could do without a bath. Therefore, special bathing traditions and rituals have developed. The bath was revered, respected and loved. They went there to get rid of everything that violates the integrity of the body and soul, using the healing power of heat and water. They went to the bath every week, before the holidays, before the wedding and after the wedding, they were born and died in the bath.

Bath traditions prescribe that before the wedding, the bridesmaids must soar her in the bath. And on the second day after the wedding, young people were sent to the bathhouse to take a steam bath in order to ensure a happy life and numerous offspring. The entire wedding bathing procedure was accompanied by chants and other obligatory traditional ritual rituals. Ritual bread, which is used to bless the young, is associated with the bathing spirit. Its name speaks for itself - "bannik". Cutlery is sewn into a tablecloth and deposited with a matchmaker. On the second day, this treat is given to the young, they eat it without the presence of strangers, after visiting the bath.

According to popular beliefs, a bannik invites devils to take a steam bath

Baths were also heated in case of illness. Bath cures almost all diseases, so people treated all ailments and ailments in it and restored vitality.

Each bath has its own spiritual essence, the guardian and owner of the bath. He strictly enforces the rules of conduct in the bath. Those who violate the rules are mercilessly punished, and for those who follow his laws, he becomes a healer and guardian spirit, protects from misfortunes and takes him under his protection. In Russia, he was called bannik, laznik, baennik, bainoshko.

Everyone is trying to win over the bannik, bring him a treat - Rye bread With salt. They ask permission to take bath procedures, and after them they thank. When the bathhouse was built, a gift was presented to the bathing spirit, a black chicken, which was sacrificed and buried under the threshold of the bathhouse.

The bath was the most convenient place for divination

It was believed that who came out of the bath renewed, he pleased the owner of the bath. And who came out sluggish, with a sore head - yes, he did something wrong. About the disease, it is not known where it came from, they say: “I took it out of the bath.” Bannik is shown extremely rarely in the form of a shaggy old man. He loves warmth, so he lives behind the stove, and when he gets angry, he hides under the shelves. He is invisible thanks to the cap of invisibility.

Bannik always gave protection to women in labor. Mother and child were guarded by the bathing spirit, but still, she was never left alone, fearing the substitution of the child.

According to popular beliefs, the bannik invites goblin, brownies, barns to take a steam bath, as a rule, they were called with one word “devils”.

A “bannik” was considered a noble doctor, everyone believed that not only heat and steam helped, but also the ability of the bath spirit. Also, the house bath has always taken part in Christmas divination. The people believed that he could predict fate. And the bath with its spirits was the most convenient place for divination, it also taught witchcraft and love spells.

Girls at Christmas time were guessing in the bathhouse for their betrothed. They took the earth from under nine pillars, threw it on the stove and said: “Bannichek, nine-cornered, tell me who to be married to?”. At midnight at night, they approached the open doors of the bathhouse, wrapped the hem of the dress over their heads and said: “Rich man, slap your behind with your hairy hand,” and waited for a touch. If the banner touched bare hand- there will be a poor groom, if the shaggy - rich, wet - will be a drunkard, but does not touch - do not wait for the groom.

In the baths, unmarried girls could cast a love spell on the groom. They took a twig from a broom, put it on the threshold, so that the betrothed would cross it. After, at the highest place in the steam room, they tied her. According to legend, after the twig dries, the groom will dry over the girl.

The girls also guessed with the help of a mirror. They put one girl in the center of the circle, outlined a magic circle around her and called the devils and looked in the mirror in turn. And they waited for the devils to show the betrothed. Such fortune-telling was extremely dangerous, "evil spirits" often left the outlined circle and destroyed the girls.

On certain days of the year, which were determined by church calendar: on the eve of Easter, on Monday of St. Thomas' week, Dmitrov's Saturday, a bath was prepared for recently deceased relatives and all ancestors. They baked ceremonial bread, brought clean linen and everything that is necessary for the bath, they called the ancestors to take a steam bath and left with a bow. They also heated the bath on the fortieth day after the death of the mistress or owner.

Traditionally in Russia, three varieties were used, in white, as well as a bath in a Russian oven. The oldest bath in black. Its walls were sooty due to the lack of a chimney, hence the name. It was a log hut, very small, with a low ceiling. Hooks for clothes and benches for rest were arranged in the dressing room. In the steam room in the corner there was a wood-burning stove, above which there was a small window and shelves. When the bath was heated, the smoke filled the steam room and went out through the open window. After the firewood burned out, and all the waste was weathered, the window was closed with a wet broom, the ceiling and walls were wiped from excessive soot. They splashed water on the stones and got excellent heat. Now you can take a steam bath, lying on a shelf, whip yourself with a broom, making several visits to the steam room, and go out on Fresh air dipped in snow or water. They also washed in the bathhouse, in a tub or poured water on themselves from a ladle. The black bath was the most common in Russia, as it was built very easily, in a matter of days. The black bath has a stronger effect on the human body than other types of baths, the temperature in it is higher and the heat lasts longer.

It appeared much later. It had a chimney and a more advanced furnace device. The smoke no longer entered the room, but went out through the chimney. The damper in the oven was closed after the coals burned out, and the bathing procedure began. Water, herbal infusions, kvass were splashed on hot stones. And then everything, as in the black bath.

A sauna in the oven was also common. The mouths of the furnaces at that time had very wide vaults. After cooking, the burned-out coals were completely raked out, the walls were wiped from excessive soot and soot, and the steam room was ready. The person was helped to get inside with the help of a wide wooden shovel, they gave him a bowl of water and a broom, and closed the damper. Splashing water on the walls, they got a good heat. Instead of soap, they used diluted ash - lye.

In the baths, the shelves were covered with aromatic herbs doused with boiling water: mint, thyme, sage, blackcurrant leaves, sweet clover, spruce spruce and many others. On the benches lay prepared brooms, there were basins with lye, large tuesas filled with kvass heated on mint, tubs with clean water.

In the bath, kvass was popular as a drink. Our ancestors were very skilled in making this drink. Kvass was prepared on the basis of berries and fruits, with the addition of various herbs and honey. During the stay in the bath, whole jugs of kvass were drunk. Our ancestors were very fond of steam kvass - vigorous and effervescent.

Conclusion!

The bathing procedure is a sacred act, an old bathing tradition and a magical ritual. This is a life-giving complex, where creation takes place from Water, Fire, Wood and Stone vital energy. The forces of these elements, interacting, create a harmonious environment, called Lad. That is why a person's love for Banya is so great!

In Russia, bathhouse is still not just a process of washing and cleansing, but a whole cult with its own traditions and rules.

It would seem that a bath - what could be more ordinary? From time immemorial, the inhabitants of our country regularly visit this place: they bathe, wash, communicate with friends. But not everything is as simple as it might seem at first glance. After all, a bathhouse is not only a separate building for water procedures; magical rituals, made sacrifices to spirits, even executed people. The birth of a person, marriage and funeral rituals are all directly related to the bath.

pagan sanctuary

For pagans, any place where all four natural elements converge - fire, water, earth and air - is special. From ancient times in Russia, baths played the role of family sanctuaries, they were revered as a place where the world of the living (reality) meets the world of the dead (nav). It was believed that the spirits of the deceased ancestors lived here.

It is far from accidental that the fabulous Baba Yaga should first evaporate the good fellow in the bath, and only then ask questions. After all, it is through ritual ablution that a person’s transition from reality to nav is made.

Andrey Dachnik, a researcher of ancient traditions, in his book “Bath. Essays on Ethnography and Medicine”, which was published in 2015 in St. Petersburg, wrote that after the adoption of Christianity in Russia, icons firmly settled in people’s homes, and it was the bathhouse that began to play the role of the focus of pagan forces. Gradually, people began to perceive this stand-alone building as a habitat for devils and performing witchcraft rituals.

Therefore, many ritual prohibitions are associated with the bath, among them:

You can’t wash alone who does this - that sorcerer or witch.
Before entering the bath, you need to cross yourself; you cannot be baptized in the bath itself.
Icons are not brought into the bath.
You can not wash in the bath during the Orthodox holidays, it is better to do it the day before.
Bath utensils (basins, ladles, pokers, etc.) are never brought into the hut.
It is forbidden to build a house on the site of the bath.
You can not wash in the baths at night.

Even the expression "Went to the bath!" means an offer to a person to cleanse his thoughts from all filth, which is done in a pagan sanctuary.
According to the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, one could acquire magical abilities in the bath if one went there at midnight and loudly renounced God, removing the Orthodox cross from oneself.

Who is a bannik?

Pagans have always spiritualized not only their houses, but also other buildings. If a brownie lived in the house, a barn lived in a barn, then a bannik lived in a bathhouse. Sometimes he was also called "grandfather", which is associated with the veneration of the cult of ancestors. So the bannik could be both the spirit of the place and one of the respected ancestors of a particular family.

Since physical and spiritual purification are inseparable in the people's minds, rituals were carried out in the baths aimed at freeing people from various negativity, problems, debts, damage and the evil eye. Before the start of witchcraft, the healer or witch was sure to ask the spirit of this place to help.

Sometimes the bath was heated, but no one washed in it. This was done during pagan holidays to please the bannik. For him, they specially left water in a bowl and a broom.

As a rule, Russian peasants were afraid of the spirits living in the bathhouse. After all, a bannik offended by disrespect could kill a person, according to popular beliefs. And a certain woman-raiser, in general, was able to peel off all the skin from a living person if he remained in the bath alone and fell asleep. This is how people explained the numerous accidents that occurred in this place.

Carbon monoxide poisoning

Now in Russia baths are heated in white. In the XVII - XVIII centuries these rooms were massively equipped with special pipes through which smoke escapes. And more than a thousand years before that, the baths were heated in black. Smoke just poured out of all the cracks of these log buildings with stone hearths, and the walls and ceiling were heavily smoked.

According to safety standards, such a bath must be ventilated frequently by opening the door. But many people valued warmth too much, neglected the rules. As a result, baths created an atmosphere with a low oxygen content, and carbon monoxide, combined with high temperature and humidity, could easily lead to death. People with diseases of the lungs and cardiovascular system were at risk.

A characteristic sign of carbon monoxide poisoning is ruddy, rosy skin. The peasants believed that this angry bannik had steamed the unfortunate people to death. If we consider that about 50-60 people die in modern Finnish saunas every year, then we can assume how many accidents happened in Russia.

Sometimes the combination of carbon monoxide and heat shock did not lead to death, but caused people to hallucinate. It was then that they saw devils in the baths, hairy wives, and all sorts of other evil spirits. Sometimes hallucinogenic herbs (for example, henbane) were deliberately burned in stoves to enter an altered state of consciousness. This technique was used by healers.

Birth of a child

Russian peasant women traditionally gave birth in a bathhouse, because this place was the gate from Navi to reality. The newborn and his mother needed to be cleansed of the influence of otherworldly forces, and this was done by the midwife, who spoke the water.

After the birth of a child and reading special prayers over him, the baby was taken to the house, and his mother had to live in the bathhouse for some more time: from three days to a week. By this, she paid tribute to the spirits of her ancestors. People believed that they had a good attitude towards the process of childbirth, rejoiced at this event.

The purpose of the rituals performed on a woman in a bath was the birth of a healthy baby who would grow up strong and calm.
And if the newborn died, which happened quite often, or he was found to have injuries, defects in development, then all these misfortunes were explained by the actions of an angry bannik. People said that a woman in labor or a midwife angered the evil spirits with something or were not attentive to the child, so the bannik punished them.

Sometimes peasant women themselves could strangle an unwanted child, blaming everything on the devil. In the bath, some women got rid of pregnancy, artificially inducing premature birth.

Executions and murders

As is known from The Tale of Bygone Years, a monument of ancient Russian literature from the beginning of the 12th century, the legendary Princess Olga (circa 920-969) executed two groups of ambassadors in turn. They were representatives of the Drevlyans tribe, who arrived to woo her for their ruler, whose name was Mal. It was already after the death of her husband - Prince Igor Rurikovich.

The first embassy of the Drevlyans was buried alive, and the second one was burned in a bathhouse. The tradition of using this building for the execution of objectionable people existed in Russia since ancient times. This place was very convenient for murder: it was enough just to heat the stove hotter, and from the outside to fasten the door with something heavy. In the morning there will be corpses that do not even need to be washed.

Even in the 18th century, historians recorded cases of people being executed in baths. The first Irkutsk governor Karl Lvovich von Frauendorf (circa 1710-1767) became famous for such actions. This tsarist official, as the military engineer and ethnographer Ivan Grigoryevich Andreev wrote about him, in 1762 "... causing many cruelties to various honest people and torturing one soldier in his presence in a hot bathhouse."

Since people not only were born and prepared for the wedding in the baths, but also went to another world through this mystical room, Russians strongly associated it with death. Sometimes an old or sick person was hovered in a bathhouse and left there to die, having previously dismantled part of the roof so that it would be easier for the soul to go to heaven. It happened that after the murder of the deceased, they buried it right there, because in winter the other earth was frozen, and it is very difficult to dig a grave in it.

sacrifices

Before the construction of a new bathhouse, it was necessary to make a ritual sacrifice to the spirits. As a rule, for this purpose they killed a black hen or a rooster, which was buried in the ground under the threshold of the future premises.

Sometimes other living creatures acted as a victim: a crow, a cat, a small dog. It happened that they were buried alive in order to get great support from the spirits, who should help the builders and approve the construction of a bath in the other world.

True, some pagans did not stop there. Sometimes, during excavations, human bones are found on the site of old, collapsed baths. It could be both relatives buried here, and random guests, who, according to custom, were supposed to drink, feed, and evaporate in a bathhouse. The murder of such strangers in the baths also played the role of a sacrifice to the spirits.
Police reports from the 19th century preserved numerous complaints from people who managed to escape from such pagans who tried to kill them in a bathhouse.

The whole family gathered for dinner, which was now served on the veranda: it was hot, and it was still a long way from the relative coolness of the evening. A young peasant woman served at the table for the first time today. And the elderly housekeeper in a whisper, so that the master would not hear, continuously scolded her:
-Evdokia, how much I taught you, but everything is like peas against the wall! Forks are placed on the left and knives on the right. Is it hard to remember! If the master had seen, oh, he would have been angry!
-Yes, how do they eat something will be the left hand? - Evdokia, a young healthy girl of eighteen or nineteen years old, was surprised.
-What's your business! The gentlemen have a different idea. Quiet! They're coming!
Evdokia straightened her white apron and the kerchief in her hair. The gentlemen appeared, and both peasant women bowed. The first to sit at the table was the gentleman, a strong young man of twenty-six or twenty-eight. His fragile wife settled down next to him, obviously. Five years younger, and two girls five and three years old.
The owner looked at the housekeeper in bewilderment and knitted his eyebrows angrily. She groaned and pushed the girl in the side:
- Evdokia! What did I teach you?
She, involuntarily admiring the handsome thoroughbred man, so different from the sloppily dressed and dirty village men and boys, whom she had previously seen only from afar, immediately came to her senses, rushed to the master and carefully poured a glass of vodka from a misted decanter. He lazily crossed himself and, while his wife and children whispered a prayer, he famously drank, grunted and ate a salted mushroom. Evdokia hurriedly poured more. The master looked angrily at her and sternly warned:
-So that this does not happen again, otherwise I will send it back to the fields!
The gentlemen began to eat, Evdokia clumsily served. Arriving in a good mood after the third shot and fried hazel grouse, the master was no longer angry and even pinched the girl on her full ass.
-Nicola! - his wife told him reproachfully and added a few phrases in French.
The husband just waved his hand.
-BUT! What, a piece fell off of it?
Evdokia blushed slightly, giggled, and smiled foolishly. She was extraordinarily flattered by the master's attention, and even a slightly painful touch seemed extremely pleasant.
- Oh, look, sir, someone is coming! she exclaimed, pointing to the road, where far in the dust one could see a carriage heading towards the estate.
-Who else the devil has brought! - the landowner frowned displeasedly, but his orders to the servants were businesslike and specific.
Twenty minutes later the carriage stood in the yard. The groom immediately took the horses to water, talking about something with the driver. A beautiful young woman got out of the carriage.
- Marie! How glad I am to see you! - the lady recognized her, hurrying to meet her.
They kissed, and the kitchen man carried the suitcases into the house.
-Natalie! How many years have we not seen each other! Marriage has clearly benefited you, you have become so prettier! - the guest chatted incessantly.
Finally, the hostess introduced her cousin Maria Ivanovna to her husband. She examined the man with undisguised curiosity and said that she had spent several years abroad and had only recently returned. She came from St. Petersburg by train, and from the county town in a hired carriage, which had already been sent back.
- And where is your Stepan Stepanych? - asked Nikolai. - I remember, he was at our wedding, and then you were treated on the waters and only now gave us the pleasure to see you. I hope you will not remain a charming stranger and will have the honor to stay with us more than once.
And he gallantly kissed the guest's hand.
“Ah, Stiva is so ill, he stayed in St. Petersburg,” the guest casually dropped. - Nicola, your offer is very flattering for me. I certainly look forward to seeing you all in St. Petersburg. I will not hide, I am amazed at your wealth. Probably, dear Nikolai Petrovich, it is not a secret for you that many relatives were not enthusiastic about this game. There were persistent rumors about unprofitability and the impending collapse of your estate. You will forgive my kindred frankness ... but now I see that rumors cannot be trusted. I have never lived in a village, but on the way from the city it immediately caught my eye that as soon as your lands began, everything around changed. The fields are rich and well-groomed, the pastures are full of cattle. The cows are clean and plump, not skinny like the others. Bravo, you are the real boss! But what can I say - even a table like yours is not for everyone in St. Petersburg. Or is it some kind of family holiday?
“An ordinary dinner,” Nikolai laughed smugly. - On a holiday, we have only ten times more on the table, I hope you deign to visit somehow.
- You're not entirely wrong, Marie, it really was a lot different before, - the hostess entered into the conversation. - But two years ago heart attack Pyotr Ilyich died, and Nikolai Petrovich took everything seriously into his own hands. I didn’t see anyone being whipped, but people seemed to have been replaced. Almost all the former servants were removed from the house, new ones were recruited, another manager was hired, now the estate is unrecognizable. I don’t understand anything about the economy, but I saw how the blacksmith, according to the drawings of Nicola, made all sorts of mechanisms. Now both haymaking and grain harvesting are much faster. Peasants manage to manage their farms and receive small bonuses for quality work on our lands. Harvests, as far as I know, almost doubled, and we immediately began to live much better. Nikolai Petrovich will already run for leader of the county nobility, many support him.
The conversation was still long, it began to get dark, mosquitoes squealed. Marie asked her cousin for some maid to serve.
“Mine got sick on the road,” she explained. - I stayed in the city hospital, I had to pay for the treatment.
Natalie looked at her husband, and he nodded in the affirmative.
- Evdokia! - he commanded the girl, who had already cleared the table and wiped it with a rag. - While Madame Marie is staying with us, you will serve her as a maid. All clear?
“Yes, master,” Evdokia sat down awkwardly, which was supposed to depict a curtsy, and both women burst out laughing. - And who will serve at the table?
- Not your concern. Escort the lady to the bedroom, prepare the bed, be inseparable from her. Will be dissatisfied - I will punish. All this time, the housekeeper is not a decree for you, only me and the lady. Pelageya, did you hear? And you, Evdokia, go and work.
Marie went with her cousin to put the children to bed, and when they were left alone, she started a frank conversation:
How lucky you are, Natalie! You are married to a real man. Firstly, a wonderful owner, and secondly, I can imagine how good he is in bed. Is it true? Does he have peasant children?
Marie, shame on you! - Natalie immediately blushed to the roots of her hair. - My husband doesn't hang around those dirty girls. In general, I do not like such topics. Let's talk about something else. You have no idea how nice it is to live like a human now. During the life of papa, Nicola could not really turn around; there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped. And now we are able to receive guests, and we travel a lot ourselves. Soon we will buy a house in the city, we will winter there.
- I'm glad you're doing so well. Only my women's advice to you - more attention to this, as you say, "topic". I see that you, Natalie, are of little interest in this side of life, but for a man, especially such a thoroughbred, this is extremely important. In Europe, they look at all this easier than we do. Someday I'll tell you what adventures I had while my old man played cards all night long. You will not read this even in Boccaccio's Decameron.
The hostess was embarrassed again, blushed even more and turned away.
- Please, Marie, spare me such talk. I'm embarrassed to even listen to this. I wonder how you could read such a book. Nikolai Petrovich has it, he gave me something to read, but I mastered only a quarter. Couldn't go further. Another time he slipped me John Cleland's Fanny. So it is written there that the Decameron, in comparison with it, is fairy tales for children. Of course, I couldn't read any further.
They wished each other Good night, and Evdokia, who was waiting at the door, escorted the guest into the room allotted for her, where a candle was already burning, the bed was prepared for sleep, the feather bed and pillows were neatly fluffed up.
"Thank you, dear," Marie said casually. - I'm terribly tired, undress me.
Evdokia ran up to her mistress and took off her dress.
"Go on, go on," Marie demanded. - Why are you embarrassed, we are both women. And I like to sleep naked while it's warm. Doctors recommend.
Evdokia obeyed, and soon Marie was standing in front of her in what her mother had given birth to. The girl was surprised that the mistress had neatly shaved all the hair on her body: both under her arms and on her pubis. She could not be called either thin or plump; all proportions were observed impeccably. Evdokia sighed: she will never be such a beauty.
Marie sat down in front of the mirror and, while the girl was combing her hair, found out that she was literate, and ordered to ask the master for a book called "Fanny". Evdokia returned a few minutes later with a book under her arm.
“The master was even delighted,” she said. - They said that they still have such, read on health.
Marie lay under the covers, and Evdokia began to read. She turned out pretty well and smartly. She soon stuttered.
-Mistress, do they write something like that in books? Does that happen?
-Read, read! Marie urged her on. - It's so interesting! And everything happens in life.
Evdokia continued reading, blushing with each page. However, it was noticeable that what she read deeply interested and excited her. The voice trembled and broke.
“That’s enough,” Marie stopped her after an hour and a half. - It's late, we'll finish tomorrow. In the meantime, take the healing cream in my suitcase and lubricate my body.
She pulled back the covers and lay on her stomach. Evdokia opened the jar and carefully rubbed the lady's neck, arms, back and legs. Embarrassed, she stopped, reaching the buttocks.
-Isn't there a body? Marie encouraged her. - Work!
Her buttocks were soft and warm, and for some reason the girl was pleased to lubricate them. She even deliberately made it a little slower.
After waiting a few minutes for the cream to absorb, Marie lay on her back, spreading her arms and legs freely. Evdokia imperceptibly crossed herself at the sight of such shame and again set to work. Lubricating her breasts, she blushed, and after passing through her stomach and reaching its bottom, she again stopped.
- Well, you're so small! the lady got angry. - You have everything exactly the same, what you were afraid of. smear!
Evdokia timidly touched the shuddering folds and quickly and gently rubbed the cream with her palm. The hair there began to grow a little and tingled pleasantly on the hand. It was very wet below. And Evdokia guessed that it was from a book: the same thing happened to her herself. Again she suddenly liked to feel soft, wet, quivering flesh with her palm, and her movements became quite slow and gentle.
"Thank you, dear," Marie thanked her. - It seems your name is Dunya? Cover me with a blanket and ask them to heat the bathhouse tomorrow, steam me out of the way.
* * *
- The lady was ordered to drown, - Evdokia got excited, but the kitchen peasant Antip only waved her off.
- I have a lot of work here, what else is a bathhouse. Top it yourself.
- I'm with the lady, I'll go to her book to finish reading.
The conversation took place in the kitchen, where two stout, elderly cooks were celebrating. They were helped by a girl who was temporarily taken from the village instead of Evdokia: the master so distributed the work among the household servants, which he reduced by half against the previous one, so that no one was idle.
“Of course, it was easier under the old master Pyotr Ilyich,” the women sighed. - They said, and something fell to themselves, and no severity. But again, try yours and get it! He always has a rolling ball, the housekeeper steals, the manager steals, the men are drunk. Try it with his son and pamper him! He just looks from under his eyebrows - his soul is already sinking into his heels, and he doesn’t need to scream, let alone flog someone with a whip. They told yesterday...
They stopped their work and began to discuss village gossip, but then the clatter of hooves was heard in the yard.
-The gentleman from the fields arrived! The news quickly spread around the house.
A groom jumped out into the yard like lightning, grabbing the stallion by the bridle. The barin dismounted. A girl with two ladles was already hurrying towards him. There was water in one, and he washed his face with pleasure. Then he remembered something and shouted to the housekeeper:
-Pelageya!
It instantly seemed to have grown out of the ground. The master took a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her.
-Go to the blacksmith, let him make a washbasin according to this drawing. I'm tired of the ladle.
He took from the girl a second ladle full of cold kvass from the cellar and drained it all with pleasure. He went into the kitchen, where the cooks were already busily bustling about, made a remark to them that they were cutting off too thick a peel from potatoes, and drew attention to the still ongoing argument between Evdokia and the kitchen peasant.
- Antipka! the master barked menacingly, and he ran up in fright. - I heard that you refuse to heat the bath?
- No, sir, I’ll drown, of course, she, a foolish girl, doesn’t understand, I say, they say, you need to be in time here and there ...
-Enough! Nicholas stopped him. - If I hear this again, I will immediately go to the fields to work. Go.
Evdokia smiled triumphantly and went off to finish reading the book to her mistress. After dinner they both went to the bathhouse. We closed ourselves on a hook and undressed in the dressing room. In addition to it, there were two more rooms: one for washing, where there were two barrels of cold water and a vat of boiling water, the other was a steam room. The women immediately went there. Evdokia skillfully, in small portions, threw hot water, previously mixed with kvass, on the hot stones, and the room was filled with fragrant burning steam, deliciously smelling of bread.
“Lie down on the shelves, mistress,” Evdokia asked.
She took two birch brooms from the tub and began skillfully whipping the naked white body, stopping from time to time to give steam. The lady's pampered body quickly turned red, but she stoically endured, but in the end she could not stand it and jumped out of the steam room. Evdokia quickly followed her and doused her with a tub of ice water, which Antip had only recently brought from the well.
“Now go into the steam room for another minute, and then lie down in the waiting room, move away,” Evdokia advised, after which she returned to the steam room herself and, holding a cross in her mouth, began frantically whipping herself.
Marie took a long time to come to her senses. She had not been in a Russian bath for a long time and almost forgot what it was. And now every cell of the body seemed to breathe more freely. Soon a flushed Evdokia appeared and lay down on another bench. Steam rose from her young, curvaceous body.
“You are a craftswoman,” Marie praised her. - I haven't felt this good in a long time.
After two more visits to the steam room, they drank cold beer and went to wash. Evdokia carefully lathered the mistress, who was lying on the bench, no longer embarrassed to touch the most hidden places. From the beer, which immediately hit the head after the steam room, it was very good in the soul, and the girl became more and more pleasant with her duties. After washing the mistress, Evdokia quickly washed herself under the gaze of Marie, who was sitting next to her.
“You don’t know how to handle your body badly,” said the mistress. - I will teach you.
Evdokia obediently lay back on the bench and felt the soft touch of hands spreading her thighs. Her head roared even stronger, and she could not and did not want to resist. Her whole being shuddered at the gentle touch. The girl closed her eyes, went limp and listened to new sensations for herself. Skillful fingers gently played with her flesh, and she felt how everything below her swelled and became wet, and her hips spread wider and wider by themselves.
Evdokia gasped in fright when her fingers suddenly changed to tongue, but this turned out to be even more pleasant. Her hand reached out to the mistress by itself and ended up between her thighs. From the sweet sigh, Evdokia realized that they had been waiting for her there for a long time. Emboldened, she penetrated at once with three fingers unusually deep and, moving them there, caused a languid groan from the mistress.

In the end, Marie lay down on the same bench, putting one leg under the girl's knee, and putting the other on her chest. Now they lay, as it were, crosswise, a bit reminiscent of a lady of cards, pressed tightly together, so that their wet crevices closed and, from violent movements, slid over each other, as if soapy ...
* * *
The master gave further orders to the servants and went in to his wife.
-My soul, why didn't you want to keep your cousin company?
-Nicola, I recently was in the bath. I was terribly tired after dinner, I want to sleep. I hope you don't mind?
Nicholas shrugged and left. Well, his plan worked: the sleeping pill worked. He chuckled and walked confidently towards the bathroom. On one side of it was an extension for his own tools, so that access to any of the courtyards was forbidden here. Nicholas opened the door with a key and entered. Everything lay on the shelves in perfect order, and there was a small table with a stool against the wall. It was his pride: he designed and assembled everything himself, only he ordered lenses and other glasses in the city, where the master perfectly polished them according to his drawings. In the dressing room and in the washing room, tubes were inserted into the walls, disguised as knots and completely invisible from the inside. Complex optical system gave an excellent image on two small screens, which displayed in full detail what was happening in both rooms. Only in the steam room, the ingenious landowner did not install anything, knowing that the optics would still fog up there.
He built this device after the death of his father, when he improved his household, became rich and was able to receive guests. He watched their wives and maids with great interest if they used his bath. As a boy, he studied painting a little, and now he often sketched excellent sketches of naked women directly from the screen. Of course, not all of them were worthy of such perpetuation, but about a dozen and a half finished sheets lay in a folder on the table. Now he studied with pleasure the refined body of his cousin and the coarser, but magnificent and no less attractive Evdokia. I tried to make sketches, but I could not concentrate: too exciting things were happening on the screen.
-Well well! he said quietly to himself. - What lovely women are doing! This is getting very interesting.
He got out of his hiding place, locked it again, went to the door to the bathhouse and easily threw back the hook with a knife inserted into the slot. On tiptoe, he walked along the dressing room and abruptly opened the next door.
"Ah, you bastard, how dare you treat your mistress like that!"
Evdokia jumped up from the bench and squatted down with her back to the master, covering her behind with a broom. Her shoulders shook with sobs. Marie remained lying with her legs apart, showing her cousin nakedness, where there was not a single hair. The woman was still in a love frenzy and, ignoring the man, began to quickly caress her flesh with her fingers until, after a few moments, she moaned in bliss, rolling around the bench. After lying down for a while, she came to her senses and calmly sat down, not even covering herself with her palm and not closing her legs.
“Didn’t they teach you, cousin, that it’s indecent to break into naked ladies?” she asked with a sly smile. - Or are you completely wild in the village?
“You forgot to hook up, and I thought you were done,” Nikolai lied calmly. - I think Stepan Stepanych will be very interested to know that his wife became a lesbian, wandering around abroad. Besides, I see, it didn't really bother you. I didn’t even contemplate my Natalie in such a frank pose, she is very bashful.
“Your conclusions are too hasty, cousin,” said Marie. - Lesbian! This is just a piquant addition, nothing more; in Europe it is now fashionable, you yourself gave me Cleland's book, so I decided to try it and I do not regret it at all.
She stood up, turned her back on Nikolai, spread her legs wide and leaned over.
- Is it a good toy? Watch as much as you want, I don't care. We both know you won't tell Steve anything.
He lovingly slapped her buttocks, tickled her thighs with pleasure, and turned to the still sobbing Evdokia.
- You see, you slut, what you brought the mistress to! Drunk? She is already talking. Today I will send you to barnyard, but before that I will order you to be whipped in the yard just like that, naked.
- Barin, have mercy!
Evdokia threw away the broom, turned to Nikolai, knelt down, and then began to kiss his feet. He smiled and did not take his eyes off her magnificent ass: it was a living body, not an image in glass.
He did not get angry at all and did not listen to her incoherent mumbling.
-Good! he finally answered. “Perhaps I will forgive you if you are obedient. Undress me!
Evdokia jumped up and instantly carried out the order. For the first time in her life, she saw a menacingly standing male weapon and even closed her eyes in fear. However, the master ordered to wash this thing thoroughly with soap, and she had to obey. He even grunted with pleasure when the girl cautiously touched the penis, after which she skillfully and gently washed it.
- Oh, cousin! Marie said admiringly. - For the first time in my life I see a device of this size, and I have seen a lot of them. What a fool Natalie that does not enjoy such good! I immediately realized that you have it as cold as ice, and for such a man there is nothing more unpleasant, so you are looking for adventure, driving poor women into a corner. However, I am ready to stand doggystyle in this corner as long as I like, if such a tool will please me! My Stiva is of little use, you have to take care of yourself.
She stepped closer and grabbed her cock with both hands.
Dunya, don't be afraid, look what a miracle of nature! Like the book you read to me. I told you that everything happens in life. Repeat after me, and the master will not be angry.
She knelt down, opened her mouth wide and took the head with her lips. After a little sucking on her like a lollipop, she released her from captivity. Evdokia followed her example. At first she was afraid, but then it turned out to be unexpectedly pleasant to hold hard male flesh in her mouth. The girl began to get a taste, accelerating the movement of her lips, and the master groaned with satisfaction. Evdokia took a breath and let go of the male weapon. But then Marie took up the matter again, who began to lick the penis with her tongue from the base to the head. Evdokia joined her, their lips and tongues colliding often. Nikolai, breathing heavily, hugged both women by the shoulders and pressed them tightly to him.
"That's enough for now," he suddenly asked. - Dunka, lie down on the floor.
The girl obeyed, but tears welled up in her eyes. The master squeezed her large breasts, spread his legs and carefully examined the swollen girl's hiding place. Tickling it with his fingers, he settled on top, leaning on his hands.
Evdokia closed her eyes in fear when she saw that a huge weapon was approaching her. Here it touched her body, on which goosebumps ran. The girl herself did not know why: on the one hand, all this was very pleasant, but at the same time she was afraid of pain. Nikolai twitched, but found that he was being held back by some kind of obstacle.
- Hey, you're still a girl! he wondered. - Okay, don't cry, you'll stay with her. I should have warned you right away.
He did not break into the locked gate. His cock, like a canoe, floated on a real lake without diving into it. The girl's tears quickly dried up, and all the moisture stood out on the opposite side of the body. And the member-boat kept swimming back and forth on the surface, accelerating and accelerating its run.
Marie, as if spellbound, watched this, but she quickly got bored with the role of a passive observer. She squatted down over Evdokia, forcing Nikolai to sit down, spreading her legs and turning her aristocratic ass towards the girl. She embraced her cousin with one arm (his hands were busy: they were holding Evdokia by the legs) and began kissing him greedily on the lips. With her other hand, she grabbed the girl's breasts and began to tickle herself from below with a hardened nipple.
Evdokia, as if in a dope, took hold of her elastic buttocks, wrinkled them, pulled them closer to her, raised her head and joined her lips between her seductress's thighs, penetrating her very bowels with her tongue. lower lips Mari trembled, she again moaned in bliss, swaying over the girl. Nikolay, who saw all this, suddenly began to wheeze. Evdokia felt something hit her chin. In surprise, she lowered her head and saw how a fountain of muddy liquid was pouring from a master's gun right at her, spreading an unfamiliar smell, which made her dizzy, and the girl smeared everything on her chest. She saw that the member quickly lost all its strength and immediately hung like a rag.
Nikolai and Marie got up and sent Evdokia to the dressing room for beer. Returning with a ladle, she saw that the master was sitting on a bench, and the lady was on his knees and laughingly played with his soft flesh.
Together they drank beer, emptying the ladle to the bottom. The master kindly ordered Evdokia to sit down on the other knee. She happily settled down there, feeling a pleasant touch on the buttocks of a hairy leg. The master immediately grabbed the girl by the lush ass and crushed it with pleasure.
- Lady, why didn't I experience the same thing as you? - asked the girl. - I saw that you were already twice in a special way good. I don't, I'm just really happy.
- Poor child, you are still so innocent! Marie laughed. - You just didn’t have time, it’s the master and I who are experienced. Okay, I'll try to give you the same pleasure.
She hugged the girl and kissed her hard on the lips. Both became uncomfortable on the man's knees, and they lay down on the floor, caressing each other with their fingers. Mari settled on her back, putting Evdokia on top of herself. Their bodies closed, their breasts intertwined. Marie clutched at the lush buttocks and, penetrating deeper, got to the girl's lower lips and the wet valley between them, greedily feeling and smoothing it all.
At the sight of such a spectacle, Nikolai quickly managed to become a combat-ready and strong man again. He approached the women from behind, knelt down and touched the girl's hiding place with his impressive head, causing a passionate sigh from Evdokia. Marie grabbed this tool and began to drive it back and forth along the crevice, but then she ferried it a little higher, where a dark hole opened between the girl's dense buttocks. The woman's fingers widened the narrow hole a little in a businesslike way, placed the head there and held it so that it would not slip out.
Nikolai rested and forcefully pushed his gun into it. Evdokia squealed in pain when such a huge object was completely immersed in a very small hole. However, the pain immediately passed, and the girl felt a pleasant bliss when the member of the master began to work inside her, and the lady continued her refined caresses. And then, finally, a wave of pleasure, joy and happiness ran throughout the body, and Evdokia screamed, because she experienced this for the first time in her life.
The master raised himself on his hands and released the girl from under him. Exhausted, she sat on the floor and watched with great interest as Nikolai fell on top of his cousin and plunged a huge cock into her. The gentlemen embraced tightly and twitched wildly until the male volcano inside the woman began to gurgle again. Nikolai's wheezing merged with Marie's blissful moan, and Evdokia, envious of them, regretted that the master had left her as a girl.
However, it was still not too late, and she boldly approached the gentleman who got up from his cousin, embraced passionately and pressed his lips on his lips ...
Vasilkov, April 1996

"Serfdom is the best and brightest, it is the wisdom of the people and patriotism."

So, it seems, Nikita Mikhalkov was broadcasting?

When you read this, you don’t just want to swear, but there is a desire to shoot this scum.

Oh you brute!

Our people rotted for four centuries in the shame of slavery, washed themselves with their own blood - and you, Pharisee, decided to mock the people's grief, their shame and humiliation! You took it into your head to assure us that it was all very good! You, creature, spill like a nightingale, proving how wonderful and excellent it was - that ninety percent of the people could be sold and bought like cattle!

And, by all appearances, you are not opposed to this “grace” returning again. You probably would not mind getting two or three thousand serfs like your great-grandfathers the landowners, and bringing them up “paternally” with the help of lashes, sticks or your own fist. Well, as for their wives and daughters, who are more beautiful, you would enroll in your personal serf harem, as was customary among the noble landowner class.

By the way, if the landowners flogged and beat the peasant in the teeth exclusively in a fatherly way, then it would be interesting to know - did they corrupt their serf concubines and raped them also “in a fatherly way”?

And having said all this to the scoundrel, we would invite him to read the material that fell into our hands. This is an article about the debauchery of the landlords, about their concubines and harems, about their extravagance, wastefulness and wastefulness, about their cruelty, about brutal and sadistic reprisals against their serf slaves, about the constant humiliation in which “baptized property” lived.

When you read this, your eyes darken and your fists clench in anger. And from hatred for this corrupt scoundrel, who is now hypocritical and sings hymns to serfdom. And most importantly - from the desire that this system be destroyed, in which the Mikhalkovs have the opportunity to lie and be hypocritical, catering to the rich, denigrate socialism and glorify serfdom. And so that all such bourgeois lackeys answer for their meanness!

Fatima Bikmetova

Noble pastimes: hunting, serf harems, serf theater

The entire structure of the serf economy, the entire system of economic and domestic relations between the masters and the peasants and household servants were subordinated to the goal of providing the landowner and his family with the means for a comfortable and convenient life. Even concern for the morality of their slaves was dictated by the nobility by the desire to protect themselves from any surprises that could disrupt the usual routine. Russian soul owners could sincerely regret that the serfs could not be completely deprived human feelings and turn into soulless and mute working machines.

At the same time, the nobles themselves did not in the least constrain themselves with moral restrictions. A. V. Nikitenko, a former serf who managed to achieve freedom and make a brilliant state career, very accurately noticed this characteristic feature landlord image life, saying that the Russian "noble" gentlemen, owning hundreds of obedient slaves, were themselves in slavery to their bad inclinations. Confirming this observation, another contemporary wrote: “What was left for an uneducated, financially secure, exalted by law above all other estates, before whom everything bowed, whom every movement was prevented and every desire was fulfilled - the master? Theater, club, cards, music, kennel, revelry and tyranny of every kind should be natural and, indeed, were his only entertainment.

The Russian nobility presented the world with absolutely fantastic examples of eccentricities, some of which could be considered both amusing and very original. But each of them bears the stamp of popular slavery, each of these aristocratic whims was possible only thanks to the state system built on slavery, and therefore it seems obvious that the memory of these tyranny can cause nothing but shame for the fact that all this happened in Russia, and besides the surprise that this happened over the course of two centuries. But there were before and today there are many people who consider it possible, on the contrary, to nostalgically admire these “magic eccentricities of serf Russia” - in the words of Baron Nikolai Wrangel, the author of a pre-revolutionary book about Russian estates.

One way or another, but these "eccentricities" are unlikely to ever be forgotten, regardless of whether they are recognized as "magical" or ashamed of them. And how can one forget the examples of barbaric luxury, when the "highest" Prince Potemkin gave the ladies saucers filled with diamonds for dessert, and Demidov fed almost half of the city every day in his Moscow house. Count Razumovsky drove thousands of serfs into the spring thaw, only for them to build a colossal embankment across the river and give the count the opportunity to drive to the other side to listen to the nightingales ... The son of a merchant and a successful farmer who received the nobility under Catherine, Pyotr Sobakin, collected in the manor yard on Trinity Day, up to ten thousand serfs from the surrounding villages and villages - and each of them had to take turns kissing the master’s pen, for which the peasants were treated to vodka and beer from dimensionless vats, and the women and girls were presented with money and scarves. To the sounds of the orchestra, the choir of singers (both the orchestra and the choir, of course, "their own", that is, from Sobakin's own serfs) sang many years to the owner, and "their own" artillery team fired 101 deafening volleys from cannons. The famous rich man, music lover, theater-goer and organizer of sumptuous feasts, Aleksey Alexandrovich Pleshcheev, did not lag behind his noble competitors in terms of the ingenuity of lordly ideas. His guests will remember for a long time the celebration in honor of the birthday of the wife of Alexei Alexandrovich, nee Countess Chernysheva. The guests who gathered for a walk were amazed to see how, in one night, on a previously treeless place, as if by magic, a branchy green grove grew! But surprise gave way to shock and then delight, when the hero of the occasion stepped forward, and the whole grove bowed before her in an instant! It turned out that these were freshly cut branches, which were held in front of them by hundreds of serfs. In the place that opened up, there was an altar decorated with flowers and arranged according to the Greek model, next to which stood the ancient "goddess", who greeted the birthday girl with solemn verses. After that, both the goddess and the altar disappeared and instead of them a luxuriously decorated table appeared, laden with all kinds of drinks and snacks.

You can talk about this holiday for a long time. In addition to delicious dishes, the feasters were entertained with music, theatrical performances, and magnificent fireworks. But among other things, there was a funny detail - a camera obscura stood in a conspicuous place, and a brightly dressed fellow invited everyone to look into it. The gaze of those who agreed was presented with a small miracle - in the inner space of the cell there was a beautifully executed portrait of the birthday girl. But the most amazing thing was that living cupids bounced and circled around him!

In reality, the trick was arranged both intricately and simply at the same time: a circle was drawn on a distant meadow opposite the camera, and peasant children dressed up as cupids danced around it all day in the hot sun, and the portrait was placed in the cell itself so that it occupied space circle. But the craving for original inventions led some landowners much further. So, in the estate of a wealthy count, the park was decorated with beautiful statues of ancient gods and goddesses. One day, visitors, arriving at an odd hour, were surprised to see that all the pedestals were empty. When asked where the statues had gone, the count's butler calmly replied that they were working in the fields - they say, there was not enough labor and labor hands ... Shocked at first by this answer, the guests realized that, it turns out, serf men served as "statues" in the count's park and women stripped naked and painted white to match the color of marble. The count himself liked to walk along the alleys, and if any of the “statues” happened to tremble at the same time, he would be immediately repaid for this in the stable, under the whips of the coachmen.

Shooting cannons, organizing impromptu military parades from their own serfs, herding them in thousands on the field in front of the estate and forcing them to march in front of the guests, in the manner of regular troops, dress up the peasant women as nymphs and naiads - there were many notions and entertainments of this kind. But they all retreated before the main passion local nobility- hunting.

For wealthy landowners, a trip to the "field away" was reminiscent of a military campaign both in terms of the number of participants with dogs and horses, and in the strict routine within the detachment, and in the deafening sounds of trumpets and horns that resounded over the surrounding fields, as well as in the devastation that the hunters left after myself. The village priest, who saw the hunting train of the landowner Arapov, could not find another comparison than to say that his trips to the field - “these were the trips of Donskoy to Mamaia; he himself, as Grand Duke, with a huge army, and specific ones twining around it, - small fry, some with one pack, some with two ... Next, the psari go two in a row in varnished coats and caps, with daggers in their belts and whips, each with a pack in their hands ... For the gentlemen themselves followed the kennels in the most diverse and fantastic costumes: there were Hungarian women, and Poles, and Cossacks, and outfits of peoples who had never existed ... Further, simple carts, wagons and wagons harnessed to one, two, three horses with a kitchen, boxes , tents ... All the riders, in all likelihood, were more than a hundred.

With special comfort and care, the beloved master's pack was placed. In general, the passionate love of the nobles for their hunting dogs occupies a special place in the life of the serf era. General Lev Izmailov had about 700 dogs in the kennel in only one estate, near the village of Khitrovshchina. And they lived in immeasurably better conditions than the general's yard servants. Each dog had a separate room, excellent food and care, while serfs crowded in stinking cramped quarters, ate stale food and walked for years in clothes tattered from time to time, because the master did not order new ones to be issued.

Izmailov once at dinner asked the old valet who served him: “Who is better: a dog or a man?” The valet, to his misfortune, replied that it was impossible to even compare a person with a dumb, unreasonable creature, for which the master, in anger, immediately pierced his hand with a fork, and, turning to the yard boy standing nearby, repeated his question. The boy whispered in fear that a dog is better than a man. The general relented and rewarded him with a silver ruble. This household servant was called Lev Khoroshevsky, and he was the illegitimate son of Izmailov himself, which both the landowner and everyone on the estate knew very well.

True, once Izmailov nevertheless somewhat changed his conviction in the superiority of dogs over people, equating them to each other. This happened when he bartered four greyhounds from his neighbor, the landowner Shebyakin, giving for them the same number of yard servants - a coachman, a groom, a valet and a cook.

The departure of a big master to hunt was a restless time for the surrounding residents, both peasants and small landowners, from those who for some reason did not join the lord's retinue. Dashing hunters, enjoying their impunity behind the back of an all-powerful patron, did not stand on ceremony with other people's property. Riders trampled fields, destroyed crops, dogs attacked poultry and livestock. Anyone who happened to be nearby could not consider himself safe. A contemporary who saw such a hunt recalled: “When the kennel and the kennel are put in their places, then don’t pass through the field occupied by them and don’t drive anyone - they’ll lock you up with whips ... It was no longer a company of noble people, noble hunters, but a rampaging gang of swindlers and robbers” .

For the successful persecution of the beast, the master could generously reward. But for mistakes and blunders, immediate punishment followed. For a lost hare or a fox, they flogged here, in the field, and a rare hunt did without harsh punishments - “for the most part, all the servants wiped their eyes with their fists and sighed.”

Animal persecution was not always the main goal of the landowner, who traveled at the head of his household and hangers-on to the “departing field”. Often the hunt ended with the robbery of passers-by on the roads, the ruin of peasant households or the pogrom of the estates of objectionable neighbors, violence against their households, including their wives. P. Melnikov-Pechersky in his essay "Old Years" gives the story of a courtyard about his service with one prince:

“Twenty versts from the Fence, there, behind the Undolsky forest, there is a village of Krutikhino. It was in those days of the retired corporal Solonitsyn: due to injury and wounds, that corporal was dismissed from the service and lived in his Krutikhin with his young wife, and he took her out of Lithuania, or from Poland ... Solonichikha liked Prince Alexei Yuryich ... We left once in the summer on a red beast in the Undol forest, a dozen foxes were hunted down, a halt near Krutikhin was made. They laid out an etched beast from torikov in front of Prince Alexei Yuryich, we stand ...

And Prince Alexei Yuryich sits, does not look at the red beast, looks at the village of Krutikhino, yes, it seems, with his eyes and wants to eat him. What are these foxes, he says, what is this red beast? That's how someone would hunt down the Krutikhinsky fox for me, I wouldn't even know what I gave to that person.

I yelled yes in Krutikhino. And there the lady in the garden in the raspberry patty, amuses herself with berries. I grabbed the beauty across the stomach, threw it over the saddle and back. He galloped up to Prince Alexei Yuryich at the feet of a fox and laid it down.

"Have fun, they say, your excellency, and we are not averse to service." We look, a corporal jumps; I almost didn’t jump on the prince himself ... I really can’t tell you how it was, but only the corporal was gone, and the Lithuanian woman began to live in Zaborye in an outbuilding ... ".

In the era of serfdom, there were many cases when a noble wife or daughter, forcibly taken away from her husband, was a concubine of a large landowner. E. Vodovozova accurately explains the reason for the very possibility of such a state of affairs in her notes. According to her, in Russia, the main and almost the only value was wealth - "everything was possible for the rich."

But it is obvious that if the wives of minor nobles were subjected to brutal violence by a more influential neighbor, then peasant girls and women were completely defenseless against the arbitrariness of the landowners. A.P. Zablotsky-Desyatovsky, who, on behalf of the Minister of State Property, collected detailed information about the situation of serfs, noted in his report: “In general, reprehensible ties between landlords and their peasant women are not at all uncommon. Examples will show you in every province, in almost every county... The essence of all these cases is the same: debauchery combined with greater or lesser violence. The details are extremely varied. Another landowner makes you satisfy his bestial impulses simply by the power of power and, seeing no limit, goes berserk, raping young children ... another comes to the village temporarily to have fun with friends and first waters the peasant women and then makes them satisfy both their own bestial passions and their friends.

The principle that justified the master's violence against serf women was: "You must go if you are a slave!" Compulsion to debauchery was so widespread in the estates of the landlords that some researchers were inclined to single out a separate duty from other peasant duties - a kind of "corvée for women".

One memoirist told about his acquaintance, the landowner, that on his estate he was “a real rooster, and the entire female half, from young to old, was his chickens. He used to go late in the evening through the village, stop in front of some hut, look out the window and lightly tap on the glass with his finger - and that very minute the most beautiful of the family comes out to him ... ".

On other estates, violence was systematically ordered. After finishing work in the field, the master’s servant, from among the trusted ones, goes to the court of one or another peasant, depending on the established “queue”, and takes the girl - daughter or daughter-in-law, to the master for the night. Moreover, on the way he enters a neighboring hut and announces to the owner there: “Tomorrow, go winnow wheat, and send Arina (wife) to the master” ...

V. I. Semevsky wrote that often the entire female population of some estate was forcibly corrupted to satisfy the master's lust. Some landlords, who did not live on their estates, but spent their lives abroad or in the capital, specially came to their possessions only for a short time for vile purposes. On the day of arrival, the manager had to provide the landowner with a complete list of all the peasant girls who had grown up during the absence of the master, and he took each of them for himself for several days: "... when the list was exhausted, he left for other villages and came again the next year."

All this was not something exceptional, out of the ordinary, but, on the contrary, had the character of an ordinary phenomenon, not at all condemned in the noble environment. A. I. Koshelev wrote about his neighbor: “A young landowner S. settled in the village of Smykovo, a passionate hunter for the female sex and especially for fresh girls. He otherwise did not allow the wedding, as by a personal actual test of the virtues of the bride. The parents of one girl did not agree to this condition. He ordered that both the girl and her parents be brought to him; chained the latter to the wall and raped their daughter in their presence. There was a lot of talk about this in the county, but the marshal of the nobility did not get out of his Olympian calmness, and the matter got away with it safely.

The state power and the landlords acted and felt like conquerors in a conquered country, given to them "to be flooded and plundered." Any attempt by peasants to complain about unbearable harassment by owners under the laws Russian Empire were subject to punishment as a rebellion, and the "rebels" were dealt with in accordance with legal prescriptions.

Moreover, the view of serfs as slaves without rights turned out to be so deeply rooted in the minds of the ruling class and the government that any violence against them, including sexual violence, was not legally considered a crime in most cases. For example, the peasants of the landowner Kosheleva repeatedly complained about the manager of the estate, who not only burdened them with work beyond measure, but also separated them from their wives, "having with them prodigal intercourse." There was no answer from the state bodies, and the people driven to despair on their own “nailed” the manager. And here the authorities reacted instantly! Despite the fact that after the investigation, the accusations against the manager of violence against peasant women were confirmed, he did not suffer any punishment and remained in his former position with complete freedom to act as before. But the peasants who attacked him, defending the honor of their wives, were flogged and imprisoned in a penitentiary.

The managers appointed by the landlords to their estates turned out to be no less cruel and depraved than the legitimate owners. Having absolutely no formal obligations to the peasants and not feeling the need to take care of future relations, these gentlemen, also often from among the nobles, only poor or completely unemployed, received unlimited power over the serfs. To characterize their behavior in the estates, one can cite an excerpt from a letter from a noblewoman to her brother, on whose estate such a manager ruled, however, in this case - from the Germans.

“My most precious and revered with all my heart and soul! .. Many of our landowners are very hefty debauchees: in addition to legal wives, they have serf concubines, arrange dirty brawls, often flog their peasants, but do not rage at them to such an extent, do not their wives and children are corrupted to such filth... All your peasants are completely ruined, exhausted, completely tortured and crippled by none other than your steward, the German Karl, nicknamed among us "Karla", who is a fierce beast, a tormentor... He corrupted this unclean animal all the girls of your villages and demands every pretty bride for the first night. If the girl herself or her mother or fiancé does not like this, and they dare to beg him not to touch her, then they are all, according to routine, punished with a whip, and the girl-bride is put on her neck for a week or even two to interfere I sleep a slingshot. The slingshot closes, and Karl hides the key in his pocket. But for a peasant, a young husband who has shown resistance to Karla corrupting a girl who has just been married to him, they wrap a dog chain around his neck and strengthen it at the gate of the house, that same house in which we, my half-blooded and half-brother, were born with you ... ".

However, the author of this letter, although she speaks impartially about the lifestyle of Russian landowners, is still inclined to somewhat elevate them in front of the “unclean animal Karla”. A study of the life of the serf era shows that this intention is hardly fair. In the cynical depravity that the Russian nobles showed towards the forced people, it was difficult to compete with them, and any foreigner could only imitate the "natural" masters.

So, after spending several years in revelry and all sorts of pleasures, one guard officer K. suddenly discovered that out of all his once considerable fortune, he had only one village inhabited by several dozen peasant "souls". This unpleasant discovery affected the officer and his way of life so much that former friends could not recognize the former reveler and drinking buddy. He began to avoid noisy gatherings, sitting for long hours at the table in the office, sorting through some papers. Once he disappeared from St. Petersburg, and only later it turned out that he went to his estate and spent a lot of time there.

Everyone decided that the glorious guardsman decided to turn into a provincial landowner and engage in agriculture. However, it soon became known that K. sold the entire male population of the estate - some for delivery to neighbors, others for recruits. Only the women remained in the village, and it was completely incomprehensible to K.'s friends how he was going to manage the household with such strength. They did not let him pass with questions and finally forced him to tell them his plan. The guardsman said to his friends: “As you know, I sold the peasants from my village, only women and pretty girls remained there. I’m only 25 years old, I’m very strong, I’m going there, like in a harem, and I’ll take care of settling my land ...

In ten years or so I will be the real father of several hundred of my serfs, and in fifteen I will sell them. No horse breeding will give such an accurate and true profit.”

If we treat this story as an anecdote, albeit based on real events, then in any case, the Russian soul owners had many opportunities to earn money on the corruption of their serf slaves, and they successfully used them. Some released the "girls" for rent in the cities, knowing full well that they would be engaged in prostitution there, and even deliberately sending them by force to brothels. Others acted not so rudely and sometimes with greater benefit for themselves. The Frenchman Charles Masson says in his notes: “One St. Petersburg widow, Mrs. Pozdnyakova, had an estate not far from the capital with a rather large number of souls. Every year, on her orders, the most beautiful and slender girls who had reached ten or twelve years old were delivered from there. They were brought up in her house under the supervision of a special governess and trained in useful and pleasant arts. They were taught at the same time to dance, and music, and sewing, and embroidering, and combing, etc., so that her house, always filled with a dozen young girls, seemed to be a boarding school for well-bred maidens. At the age of fifteen, she sold them: the most dexterous fell as maids to the ladies, the most beautiful - to secular debauchees as mistresses. And since she took up to 500 rubles apiece, this gave her a certain annual income.

Baron N. E. Wrangel recalled his neighbor on the estate, Count Vizanur, who led a completely exotic lifestyle. His father was a Hindu or an Afghan and ended up in Russia as part of the embassy of his country during the reign of Catherine II. Here this ambassador died, and his son, for some reason, stayed in St. Petersburg and was surrounded by the favorable attention of the government. He was sent to study in the cadet corps, and at the end he was endowed with estates and elevated to the dignity of a count of the Russian Empire.

On Russian soil, the newly-born count was not going to abandon the customs of his homeland, especially since no one thought to force him to do so. He did not build a large manor house on his estate, but instead built several small cozy houses, all in different styles, mostly oriental - Turkish, Indian, Chinese. In them, he settled peasant girls, forcibly taken from families, dressed up in accordance with the style of the house in which they lived - respectively, Chinese, Indian and Turkish women. Having arranged his harem in this way, the count enjoyed life, “traveling” - that is, visiting one or the other concubines in turn. Wrangel recalled that he was a middle-aged, ugly, but amiable and excellently educated person. When visiting his Russian slaves, he also dressed, as a rule, in an outfit corresponding to the style of the house - either a Chinese mandarin or a Turkish pasha.

But serf harems were planted on their estates not only by people from Asian countries- they had something to learn in this sense from the Russian landowners, who approached the matter without unnecessary exoticism, practically. A harem of serf “girls” in a noble estate of the 18th-19th centuries is the same inalienable sign of a “noble” life as a dog hunt or a club.

In the original author's version of the story "Dubrovsky", which was not allowed by the imperial censorship and is still little known, Pushkin wrote about the habits of his Kirill Petrovich Troekurov: "A rare girl from the courtyard avoided the voluptuous attempts of a fifty-year old man. In addition, sixteen maids lived in one of the outbuildings of his house ... The windows to the outbuilding were barred, the doors were locked with locks, from which the keys were kept by Kirill Petrovich. Young hermits went to the garden at the appointed hours and walked under the supervision of two old women. From time to time, Kirilla Petrovich gave some of them in marriage, and new ones took their place ... ”(Semevsky V.I. Peasant question in the 18th and first half of the 19th century. T. 2. St. Petersburg, 1888, p. 258 .)

Big and small Troekurovs inhabited noble estates, reveled, raped and hurried to satisfy any of their whims, not thinking in the least about those whose fates they broke. One of these innumerable types is the Ryazan landowner Prince Gagarin, about whom the leader of the nobility himself spoke in his report that the prince’s lifestyle consists “only in dog hunting, with which he, with his friends, travels through the fields and through the forests day and night and puts all his happiness and well-being in it. At the same time, the serfs of Gagarin were the poorest in the entire district, since the prince forced them to work on the master's arable land all days of the week, including holidays and even Holy Easter, but not transferring them to a month. But corporal punishments rained down on the peasants' backs from a cornucopia, and the prince himself handed out blows with a whip, a whip, a rapnik or a fist - whatever.

Gagarin also started his harem: “There are two gypsies and seven girls in his house; the latter he corrupted without their consent, and lives with them; the first were obliged to teach the girls to dance and songs. When visiting guests, they form a choir and amuse those present. Prince Gagarin treats the girls just as cruelly as he treats others, often punishing them with a rapnik. Out of jealousy, so that they would not see anyone, he locks them in a special room; I once beat a girl for looking out the window. It is noteworthy that the nobles of the county, Gagarin's landlord neighbors, spoke highly positively about him. As one stated, the prince not only “has not been noticed in acts contrary to noble honor”, ​​but, moreover, leads a life and manages the estate “in accordance with other noble nobles”! The last statement, in essence, was absolutely correct.

Unlike the whims of the exotic Count Vizanur, the harem of an ordinary landowner was devoid of any theatricality or costume, since it was intended, as a rule, to satisfy the very specific needs of the master. Against the general background, Gagarin is still too “artistic” - he teaches his unwitting concubines singing and music with the help of hired gypsies. The life of another owner, Pyotr Alekseevich Koshkarov, is completely different.

He was an elderly, fairly wealthy landowner, about seventy years old. Y. Neverov recalled: “The life of a female servant in his house had a purely harem structure ... If in any family the daughter was distinguished by a beautiful appearance, then she was taken to the master's harem.”

About 15 young girls made up the female "oprichnina" of Koshkarov. They served him at the table, accompanied him to bed, and were on duty at night at the head of the bed. This duty was of a peculiar nature: after dinner, one of the girls loudly announced to the whole house that "the master wants to rest." This was a signal for all the household to go to their rooms, and the living room turned into Koshkarov's bedroom. A wooden bed for the master and mattresses for his "odalisques" were brought there, placing them around the master's bed. The master himself at that time was doing the evening prayer. The girl, whose turn it was then, undressed the old man and put him to bed. However, what happened next was completely innocent, but was explained solely by the advanced age of the owner - the attendant sat on a chair next to the master's headboard and had to tell tales until the master fell asleep, but she herself was not allowed to sleep all night long. in any case! In the morning she got up from her place, opened the doors of the living room, locked for the night, and proclaimed, also to the whole house: “The master ordered the shutters to be opened!” After that, she retired to sleep, and the new attendant, who took her place, lifted the master from the bed and dressed him.

For all that, the life of the old tyrant is still not devoid of a certain amount of perverted eroticism. Neverov writes: “Once a week, Koshkarov went to the bathhouse, and all the inhabitants of his harem had to accompany him there, and often those of them who had not yet had time, due to their recent stay in this environment, to learn all her views, and in the bathhouse they tried hide out of shame - they returned beaten from there.

The beatings were given to Kokarov's "oprichniki" and just like that, especially in the morning, between waking up and before tea drinking with an invariable pipe of tobacco, when the elderly gentleman was most often out of sorts. Neverov emphasizes that in Koshkarov's house it was most often the girls from the closest servants who were punished, and the punishments of the courtyard men were much less: “Poor girls were especially punished. If there were no executions with rods, then many received slaps in the face, and all morning there was a big scolding, sometimes without any reason.

Thus the depraved landowner spent the days of his powerless old age. But one can imagine what orgies his young years were filled with - and gentlemen like him, who undividedly controlled the fate and bodies of serf slaves.

From childhood, the future master, observing the lifestyle of his parents, relatives and neighbors, grew up in an atmosphere of such perverted relationships that their depravity was no longer fully realized by their participants. An anonymous author of notes from the life of a landowner recalled: “After dinner, all the gentlemen lie down to sleep. All the time while they sleep, the girls stand by the beds and brush off the flies with green branches, standing and not moving from their place ... Boys-children: one girl brushed away the flies with a branch, another told fairy tales, the third stroked her heels. It's amazing how this was spread - both fairy tales and heels - and passed on from century to century!

When the barchuks grew up, only storytellers were assigned to them. The girl sits on the edge of the bed and pulls: I-va-n tsa-re-vich ... And the barchuk lies and does tricks with her ... Finally, the young master began to sniffle. The girl stopped talking and stood up quietly. Barchuk will jump up, but bam in the face! .. “Do you think I fell asleep?” - The girl, in tears, will drag out again: I-va-n tsa-re-vich ... ".

Another author, A. Panaeva, left only a brief sketch of just a few types of "ordinary" nobles and their everyday life, but this is quite enough to imagine the environment in which the little barchuk grew up and which shaped the child's personality in such a way as to turn into old age him into another cat.

In the noble estate mentioned already in the previous chapter, for the division of property after the deceased landowner, relatives and distant relatives. The boy's uncle arrived. it an old man, which has significant social weight and influence. He is a bachelor, but maintains a large harem; built a two-story stone house in his estate, where he placed the serf girls. With some of them, he did not hesitate to come to the section, they accompany him day and night. Yes, it does not occur to anyone around to be embarrassed by this circumstance, it seems to everyone natural, normal. True, in a few years the government will still be forced to take custody of the estate of this respected person, as the official definition says: “for ugly acts of a flagrantly immoral nature” ...

But younger brother libertine, he is the boy's father. Panaeva says about him that he is "good-natured", and this is probably true. His wife, the boy's mother, a respectable woman, good hostess. She brought with her several yard "girls" for services. But not a day passed that she, in front of her son, did not beat and pinch them for any oversight. This lady wanted to see her child as a hussar officer and, in order to accustom him to the necessary bearing, every morning for a quarter of an hour she put him in a specially arranged wooden form, forcing him to stand at attention without movement. Then the boy “out of boredom entertained himself by spitting in the face and biting the hands of the yard girl, who was obliged to hold his hands,” writes Panaeva, who observed these scenes.

In order to develop team skills in the boy, the mother drove the peasant children to the lawn, and the barchuk mercilessly beat those who marched badly in front of him with a long rod. How common the described picture was, confirms the many testimonies of eyewitnesses and even unwitting participants. The serf F. Bobkov recalled the entertainment of the gentlemen when they came to the estate: “I remember how the lady, sitting on the windowsill, smoked a pipe and laughed, looking at the game of her son, who made horses out of us and drove us with a whip ...”.

This rather “innocent” at first glance aristocratic fun actually carried the importance of instilling in a noble child certain social skills, stereotypes of behavior in relation to surrounding slaves.

The moral savagery of the Russian landowners reached an extreme degree. In the manor house among the courtyard people, no different from the servants, lived the illegitimate children of the owner or his guests and relatives, who left such a “memory” after their visit. The nobles did not find anything strange in the fact that their own, although illegitimate, nephews and nieces, cousins ​​​​are in the position of slaves, perform the most menial work, are subjected to cruel punishments, and on occasion they were sold to the side.

General Izmailov arranged colossal drinking parties for the nobles of the entire district, to which peasant girls and women belonging to him were brought for entertainment. The general's servants traveled around the villages and forcibly took women directly from their homes. Once, having started such a “game” in his village of Zhmurovo, it seemed to Izmailov that there weren’t enough “girls” brought in, and he sent carts for replenishment to the neighboring village. But the local peasants unexpectedly resisted - they did not give up their women and, moreover, in the dark they beat Izmailovsky "oprichnik" - Gusk.

The enraged general, not postponing revenge until the morning, at night, at the head of his household and accustomers, flew into a rebellious village. Having scattered the peasant huts over the logs and setting a fire, the landowner went to a distant mowing, where he spent the night most of the population of the village. There, unsuspecting people were tied up and crossed.

Meeting guests at his estate, the general, in his own way understanding the duties of a hospitable host, would certainly provide everyone with a yard girl for “whimsical connections” at night, as the investigation materials delicately say. The most significant visitors to the general's house, on the orders of the landowner, were given over to molestation by very young girls of twelve or thirteen years.

In the main residence of Izmailov, the village of Khitrovshchina, there were two outbuildings next to the manor house. One of them housed the patrimonial office and the prisoner's office, the other housed the landowner's harem. The rooms in this building had access to the street only through the premises occupied by the landowner himself. There were iron bars on the windows.

The number of Izmailov's concubines was constant and, according to his whim, was always thirty, although the composition itself was constantly updated. Girls of 10-12 years old were often recruited into the harem and for some time grew up in front of the master. Subsequently, the fate of all of them was more or less the same - Lyubov Kamenskaya became a concubine at the age of 13, Akulina Gorokhova at 14, Avdotya Chernyshova at the 16th year.

One of the general's recluses, Afrosinya Khomyakova, taken into the master's house at the age of thirteen, told how two lackeys in broad daylight took her from the rooms where she served Izmailov's daughters, and dragged her almost dragged to the general, holding her mouth and beating her along the way not to resist. From that time on, the girl was Izmailov's concubine for several years. But when she dared to ask permission to see her relatives, she was punished with fifty lashes for such “impudence”.

The content of the inhabitants of the general's harem was extremely strict. For a walk, they were given the opportunity only for a short time and under vigilant supervision to go out into the garden adjacent to the wing, never leaving its territory. If it happened to accompany their master on trips, then the girls were transported in tightly closed vans. They did not even have the right to see their parents, and it was strictly forbidden for all peasants and courtyards to pass near the harem building. Those who not only dared to pass under the windows of the slaves, but simply bow to them from afar, were severely punished.

The life of the general's estate is not just strict and morally corrupt - it is defiantly, militantly depraved. The landowner takes advantage of the physical availability of bonded women, but first of all, he tries to corrupt them internally, trample and destroy spiritual barriers, and does this with demonic persistence. Taking in his harem two peasant women - sisters, Izmailov forces them together, in front of each other, "to endure their shame." And he punishes his concubines not for actual misdeeds, not even for resisting his harassment, but for attempts to resist spiritual violence. He personally beats Avdotya Konoplyova for "unwillingness to go to the master's table when the master spoke obscene speeches here." Olga Shelupenkova was also pulled by the hair because she did not want to listen to the lord's "indecent speeches." And Marya Khomyakova was whipped with whips only because she “blushed from the shameful words of the master” ...

Izmailov subjected his concubines to more serious punishments. They were cruelly flogged with a whip, they put a slingshot around their neck, they were exiled to hard work, and so on. Nymphodora Khoroshevskaya, or, as Izmailov called her, Nymph, he corrupted when she was less than 14 years old. Moreover, being angry for something, he subjected the girl to a whole series of cruel punishments: “... first they flogged her with a whip, then with a rapnik, and in the course of two days they flogged her seven times. After these punishments, for three months she was still in the locked harem of the estate and all this time she was the master's concubine ... ”Finally, she was shaved half of her head and exiled to a potash factory, where she spent seven years in hard labor.

But the investigators found out the completely shocking circumstance that Nymphodora was born at a time when her mother herself was a concubine and was kept locked up in the general's harem. Thus, this unfortunate girl also turns out to be Izmailov's illegitimate daughter! And her brother, also the illegitimate son of a general, Lev Khoroshevsky, served in the "Cossack women" in the master's household.

How many children Izmailov actually had has not been established. Some of them, immediately after birth, were lost among the faceless domestics. In other cases, a woman pregnant by a landowner was given in marriage to some peasant.

One of the most common entertainments of the noble society from the second half XVIII century becomes theater. Having started as a fun, very soon the passion for theatrical performances takes on the character of a real passion. However, as in the entire life of the nobility of the era of serfdom, here the concept of property, the definition of “one’s own” is of decisive importance.

The home theater was set up so that it served the entertainment, first of all, of the owner himself. Someone was looking for honor, another wanted to impress the guests with generous food and rich decorations, a large troupe, and some owners satisfied the unfulfilled desire for literary glory. Others simply fooled for fun for themselves and everyone else.

Here is a description of one such theatergoer:

“Field Marshal Count Kamensky personally sold tickets for the performances of his theater, without entrusting this responsible business to anyone and keeping strict records of income to the cashier, as well as the names of those to whom the tickets were presented.”

“In the theater hall, whips hung on the wall of the personal box of the eccentric Count Kamensky. During the performance, Kamensky wrote down the mistakes made by the performers, and during the intermission went backstage, taking one of the whips with him. The perpetrators were dealt with right there, immediately, and the cries of the flogged artists were heard by the audience, who were very amused by this additional entertainment.

Prince N. G. Shakhovskoy is even more inventive in the measures of physical influence on his artists. They are flogged with rods, flogged with whips, their necks are locked in a slingshot or they are put on a chair fastened in the wall with an iron chain, and a collar is put on their neck, forcing them to sit like this for several days almost without movement, without food and sleep. The gentleman does not like the game of the main character, and without hesitation, right in a dressing gown and a nightcap, he jumps out from behind the scenes and hits the woman backhand in the face with a hysterical triumphant cry: “I said that I would catch you on this! After the performance, go to the stable for a well-deserved reward ”And the actress, grimacing for a moment, immediately assumes her former proud look, necessary for the role, and continues the game ...

Equally emotional is another gentleman - the Penza "theater" Gladkov-Buyanov. With his creative activity had the opportunity to meet Prince Peter Vyazemsky, who left a few lines about this unforgettable impression in his diary. Gladkov, according to him, takes out unsuccessful persecution on the hunt on the actors and beats them with mortal combat. “While some hero in the face of the serf Grishka was roaring at one of his subjects, Gladkov, not at all embarrassed, spewed thunders at this hero. "Fool, brute," curses rushed from the audience at the address of the actors. And after that, the temperamental landowner could not stand it, ran up to the stage and arranged manual reprisals there.

Another gentleman enters backstage during the intermission and makes a remark in a delicate, paternal tone: "You, Sasha, did not quite deftly stand your role: the countess must behave with great dignity." And 15-20 minutes of intermission Sasha got expensive, the memoirist writes, “the coachman flogged her with his full dignity. Then the same Sasha had to either play in vaudeville or dance in ballet.

Rods, slaps, kicks, slingshots and iron collars - these are the usual measures of punishment and at the same time means for educating talents in noble landowner theaters. The life of serf artists there was not much different from the situation of animated dolls.

An eyewitness to the life of the feudal lords and their serf "dolls" wrote in bitter surprise:

“No matter how hard you try, you just can’t imagine that people, and even girls, after the whips, and even the whips of the coachmen, forgetting both pain and shame, could instantly either turn into important countesses, or jump, laugh heartily , to be kind, to fly in ballet, but meanwhile they had to do and did, because they found out by experience that if they do not immediately turn around from under the rods, have fun, laugh, jump, then again the coachmen ... They know from bitter experience that for the slightest sign of coercion they will be whipped again and whipped terribly. It is impossible to imagine such a situation clearly, but nevertheless, all this was ... Just as organ grinders make dogs dance with sticks and whips, so the landowners made people laugh and dance with rods and whips ... ".

The circle of humiliations and torments of serf artists was far from being exhausted by physical punishments.

De Passenance describes the life of a Russian landowner-theater in this way: “His cooks, his lackeys, grooms became musicians if necessary ... his maids and maids became actresses. They are at the same time his concubines, nurses and nannies of children born by them from the master ... ".

Serf actresses are almost always the unwitting mistresses of their master. In fact, this is another harem, only public, the object of obvious pride of the owner. The good-natured host "treats" his friends with actresses. In a house where a home theater is set up, the performance often ends with a feast, and the feast ends with an orgy. Prince Shalikov precedes his enthusiastic description of one estate, "Buda", in Little Russia, with the following exclamation: "Those who are bored with life and do not know how to enjoy the benefits of fortune, go to "Buda"!" The owner of the estate, it seems, was really not used to being stingy and understood a lot about entertainment: musical concerts, theatrical performances, fireworks, gypsy dances, dancers in the light of sparklers - all this abundance of entertainment was completely disinterestedly offered to welcome guests. In addition, an ingenious labyrinth was arranged in the estate, leading into the depths of the garden, where the “island of love”, accessible only to selected visitors, was hidden, inhabited by “nymphs” and “naiads”, and charming “cupids” pointed the way to it. All these were actresses who, shortly before, had entertained the landowner's guests with a performance and dances, and now forced by the will of the master to lavish their caresses on his friends. "Cupids" were their children.

“Praskovya Ivanovna Kovalevskaya was taken from a kind and honest family who lived in the house of old,” Count N. P. Sheremetev narrates in such a solemn tone in his “Testamental letter to his son” about the history of his passion for the serf actress Parasha. The story of this love has not ceased to be touched for the past two centuries, but meanwhile there is little attractive in it, if you look at it without excessive sentimentality.

Count Nikolai Sheremetev, owner of 140,000 serfs and vast estates, is as rich as a crowned monarch.

One of the count's favorite amusements is his theater, or rather, three home theaters, inherited from his father, Count Pyotr Borisovich Sheremetev, who is also not alien to the love of beauty. The most favorite of them is in the village of Kuskovo. Despite the glory of the best home theater and the visits of crowned guests, actors and musicians, life there is not too sweet. The dancers, or “dancing women,” as they were usually referred to in the lists of the troupe, had the hardest time of all. They were valued less than others, the cramped room in which they lived was even heated rarely and poorly, usually by special order and in case of illness of one of them.

In the best position were the "comedians" - actually the prima of the count's troupe. They were fed with delicious dishes, dressed in a "master's" dress, special teachers taught them French, good manners, gave the necessary knowledge from the field of literature, art, history. But at the same time, they were all the concubines of the bored Count Nikolai Petrovich, who behaved with them exactly like a sultan in his harem. Sheremetev had playful fun - leaving a silk handkerchief in the room of another chosen one - this was a sign that this time it was she who would receive the gentleman's favor. And sure enough, by nightfall His Excellency would appear for his handkerchief, and so he remained until the morning.

Against this background, not only ambiguous, but simply ridiculous, the following enthusiastic review of one art historian about the unexpectedly flared passion of the count for P. Kovaleva sounds: “The count fell in love with Parasha, finding in her that “only one”, in search of which he wasted himself so much ”... And indeed, Nikolai Petrovich did not take care of himself in the ways of serving his own pleasures. He did not take care of the honor of his slave actresses, destroying their destinies and not even thinking about it. And if Parasha Kovaleva could consider herself rewarded for the humiliation of an unexpected marriage with a master, then the rest of the girls, just like her, forcibly taken "from kind and honest families", were waiting for oblivion or impoverished old age in the back rooms. When the master was bored with their beauty, he sent them to the backyards of his magnificent house to eat leftovers or gave them in marriage "with a body" to the first peasant who came across, who hated the freeloader born under his roof and grimly beat the unfortunate wife, guilty only of the fact that she lived all her youth “dishonestly”, playing in the master's kiyatra, serving the master's pleasures, and did not learn how to milk a cow, spin and weave.

Speaking about the traditions in Russia associated with the bath and beliefs in this regard, there were many obligatory actions in the ordinary life of a Russian person, which must necessarily be associated with a bath. After all, the process of washing is necessarily mythologically associated with the purification of the body and soul in all areas. human life. Therefore, brides were given away from the baths in Russia.

Belief about the bride from the bath

There was a myth among the northern tribes of Ancient Russia that a bannik stole a girl from the family while bathing and raised her until she was 18 years old. The bathing spirit did not let the girl go, set her a condition that she would leave if her fiancé took her out of the bathhouse. One guy went into the bathhouse on a dare at night and the girl, who until then had been invisible, grabbed him and begged him to marry. He said he would ask his parents and left. The guy forgot about what had happened and went to bed, but the spirit of the girl woke him up and forced him to ask permission. The parents, being afraid of the bathhouse spirit, ordered their son to marry the girl from the bathhouse. As soon as the guy agreed, the girl took on a bodily appearance and became a wife.

The tradition of giving the bride away from the bath

So the belief was transformed into a tradition that is still accepted in the villages. On the night before the wedding, the girl goes to the bathhouse, generously heated by her friends. The bathhouse was washed clean and decorated with branches, and during the firebox, the crackling of stones in the stove and their hissing when lowered into the water could tell fortunes about the character of the future husband and his relatives.

A special woman was invited, a vytnitsa, who cried because of the mythical death of a free girl and her transfer to another house to her husband. And the bride herself had to cry bitterly. It was believed that the more the bride washed herself with tears while soaring in the bath, the happier she would be. married life. The girlfriends helped to undo the braid and took out the “will”, a ribbon that symbolized the free life of the bride. She gave the symbolic ribbon to her younger sister or one of her friends.

In turn, the bride generously gave water and treated her friends in a hot bathhouse with kvass and pies, so that they would forget from pleasure and not even think of envying her future married life.

Another one interesting tradition which has taken root in modern Russia in a slightly different form, also from the bathhouse. The bride was hovered with a broom. He was collected with others and called to pull out some kind of broom for a girl passing by. If the bride pulls out a broom, she will marry this year, but if a stranger, then she still looks like a girl.

Today in megacities it is not customary to get married after a bath, but it is quite possible to arrange a bachelorette party in a steam bath and sauna.

Whether to celebrate a wedding in a bath

Everyone was able to get used to offsite weddings. In our time, many young people cement their marriage union everywhere, this can take place in the city hall, in an old castle, and even on the deck of a ship. Is it possible to have a wedding in a bathhouse?

Only the real fans can afford to have a wedding in a bathhouse. However, on the second day, the wedding can be held in a steam room, this would be a more reasonable solution. And that's why.

Firstly, the wedding day is a rather regulated procedure, it is the registry office, a restaurant and other events, on the second day you can simply call it a youth holiday. Due to the fact that all the formalities will be observed on the first day and there will not be much departure from the rituals. Therefore, the first day is considered the main holiday, and the second is a holiday for young people. The second day can be allowed to hold a wedding event more freely, even with a visit to the steam room.

The wedding celebration can be continued in the steam rooms and there you can also undergo spa treatments. This will give you the opportunity to relax well and put yourself in order after the first day spent at a plentiful table.

In the event that you doubt whether it is convenient to visit a bath on such a holiday or do not know how other relatives and guests will react to this, you should know that in Russia all significant holidays are traditionally closely connected with various bath rituals. Therefore, the young were always washed in the bath, but only on the second day. But they always tried to sweep the road to the bathhouse with brooms.

It should be noted that according to the ritual, which was strictly observed at that time, the wife and husband went to the bathhouse separately, and returned from it in the same way.

After the bath, the husband went to his mother-in-law and thanked her for raising such a good daughter, and the young wife went to the water source and left a piece of the wedding loaf and a small amount of coins near it.

It should be noted that this tradition has been preserved at present only in the villages. In the cities, little was heard about such rituals, only faint echoes remained that the second day could be celebrated in a bathhouse.
In the event that you decide to spend the second wedding day in this way, then you should make sure that the bath complex is at your disposal for the whole day, when you continue to celebrate the wedding in the bath. Everyone knows that almost all weddings are celebrated on Saturdays, and only sometimes on Fridays.

It should be borne in mind that on weekends a large number of people rest in the baths, more than on ordinary days. Therefore, you should take care in advance about what to choose and agree with her leadership, so that no one interferes. Therefore, you can rent a bath not only completely, but also part of it, based on the number of guests, but often use VIP baths and have a great second day in such excellent conditions and enjoy it.