Ideas about hygiene in Russia and in the West. Unwashed Europe or how they treated personal hygiene in ancient times (6 photos)

Probably, many, having read foreign literature, and especially “historical” books by foreign authors about ancient Russia, were horrified by the dirt and stench that allegedly reigned in Russian cities and villages in ancient times. Now this false template has become so rooted in our consciousness that even modern films about ancient Russia are shot with the indispensable use of this lie, and, thanks to cinema, they continue to hang noodles on their ears that our ancestors allegedly lived in dugouts or in a forest in swamps, they didn’t wash for years, they wore rags, they often fell ill from this and died in middle age, rarely living up to 40 years.

When someone, not very conscientious or decent, wants to describe the “real” past of another people, and especially an enemy one (the whole “civilized” world has long and quite seriously considered us an enemy), then, writing a fictional past, they write off, of course, from myself, since they cannot know anything else either from their own experience or from the experience of their ancestors. This is exactly what “enlightened” Europeans have been doing for many centuries, diligently guided through life, and long resigned to their unenviable fate.

But sooner or later a lie always emerges, and we now know for sure who in fact was unwashed, and who was fragrant in cleanliness and beauty. And enough facts from the past have accumulated to evoke appropriate images in an inquisitive reader, and personally feel all the “charms” of supposedly clean and well-groomed Europe, and decide for yourself where - truth, And where - False.

So, one of the earliest references to the Slavs that Western historians give notes how home the peculiarity of the Slavic tribes is that they "pour water", that is wash in running water, while all the other peoples of Europe washed themselves in tubs, basins, buckets and bathtubs. Even Herodotus in the 5th century BC. speaks of the inhabitants of the steppes of the northeast, that they pour water on stones and bathe in huts. Washing under the jet it seems so natural to us that we seriously do not suspect that we are almost the only one, or at least one of the few peoples in the world that does just that.

Foreigners who came to Russia in V-VIII centuries, noted the cleanliness and accuracy of Russian cities. Here the houses were not clung to each other, but stood wide, there were spacious, ventilated yards. People lived in communities, in peace, which means that parts of the streets were common, and therefore no one, as in Paris, could throw out a bucket of slop just outside, while demonstrating that only my house is private property, and don't care about the rest!

I repeat once again that the custom "pour water" previously distinguished in Europe precisely our ancestors - the Slavic-Aryans, and was assigned precisely to them as hallmark, which clearly had some kind of ceremonial, ancient meaning. And this meaning, of course, was transmitted to our ancestors many thousands of years ago through the commandments of the gods, namely, even the god Perun, who flew to our Earth 25,000 years ago, bequeathed: “Wash your hands after your deeds, for whoever does not wash his hands loses the power of God…” Another commandment says: “Purify yourself in the waters of Iriy, that a river flows in the Holy Land, to wash your white body, to sanctify it with the power of God”.

The most interesting thing is that these commandments work flawlessly for a Russian in the soul of a person. So any of us, probably, becomes disgusted and “cats scratch at our souls” when we feel dirty or sweat a lot after hard physical labor, or summer heat, and we want to quickly wash off this dirt and freshen up under the jets pure water. I am sure that our dislike for dirt is genetic, and therefore we strive, even without knowing the commandment about washing hands, always, having come from the street, for example, immediately wash our hands and wash ourselves in order to feel fresh and get rid of fatigue.

What has been going on in allegedly enlightened and pure Europe since the beginning of the Middle Ages, and, oddly enough, until the 18th century?

Destroying the culture of the ancient Etruscans (“these Russians” or “Russians of Etruria”) - the Russian people, who in ancient times inhabited Italy and created a great civilization there, which proclaimed the cult of purity and had baths, the monuments of which have survived to our times, and around which was created MYTH(MYTH - we have distorted or distorted the facts, - my transcript A.N.) about the Roman Empire, which never existed, the Jewish barbarians (and they were undoubtedly them, and no matter what people they were hiding behind for their vile purposes) enslaved Western Europe for many centuries, imposing their lack of culture, dirt and debauchery .

Europe has not washed for centuries!!!

We first find confirmation of this in letters Princess Anna- daughters of Yaroslav the Wise, Kyiv prince 11th century AD It is now believed that by marrying his daughter to the French king Henry I, he strengthened his influence in the "enlightened" Western Europe. In fact, it was prestigious for European kings to create alliances with Russia, since Europe was far behind in all respects, both cultural and economic, compared to the Great Empire of our ancestors.

Princess Anna brought with her to Paris- then a small village in France - several convoys with their personal library, and was horrified to find that her husband, the king of France, can not, Not only read, but also write, about which she was not slow to write to her father, Yaroslav the Wise. And she reproached him for sending her to this wilderness! It - real fact, there is a real letter from Princess Anna, here is a fragment from it: “Father, why do you hate me? And he sent me to this dirty village, where there is nowhere to wash ... " And the Russian-language Bible, which she brought with her to France, still serves as a sacred attribute on which all the presidents of France take the oath, and earlier the kings swore.

When the crusades began crusaders hit both the Arabs and the Byzantines with the fact that they reeked of “like homeless people,” as they would say now. West became for the East a synonym for savagery, filth and barbarity, and he was this barbarity. Returning to Europe, the pilgrims, it was, tried to introduce a peeped custom to wash in the bath, but it was not there! From the thirteenth century baths already officially hit banned, allegedly as a source of debauchery and infection!

As a result, the 14th century was probably one of the most terrible in the history of Europe. It flared up quite naturally plague epidemic. Italy and England lost half of the population, Germany, France, Spain - more than a third. How much the East lost is not known for certain, but it is known that the plague came from India and China through Turkey, the Balkans. She bypassed only Russia and stopped at its borders, just in the place where baths. This is very similar to biological warfare those years.

I can say about ancient Europe add about their hygiene and cleanliness of the body. May we know that perfume The French invented not to smell good, but to DO NOT stink! Yes, just so that perfumes interrupt not always pleasant smells of a body that has not been washed for years. According to the recognition of one of the royals, or rather the Sun King Louis XIV, a real Frenchman washes only twice in his life - at birth and after death. Only 2 times! Horror! And immediately I remembered the allegedly unenlightened and uncultured Rus in which every man had own bath, and in the cities there were public baths, and at least once a week people took baths and never got sick. Since the bath, in addition to cleanliness of the body, also successfully cleanses ailments. And our ancestors knew this very well and constantly used it.

But as civilized man, the Byzantine missionary Belisarius, visiting the Novgorod land in 850 AD, wrote about Slovenes and Rusyns: “Orthodox Slovenes and Rusyns are wild people, and their life is wild and godless. The naked men and girls lock themselves together in a hotly heated hut and torture their bodies, whipping themselves with wood twigs mercilessly, to the point of exhaustion, and after jumping into the hole or a snowdrift and, chilling, again going to the hut torturing their bodies ... "

Where is this dirty unwashed Europe could know what a Russian bath is? Until the 18th century, until the Slavs-Russians taught "clean" Europeans cook soap they didn't wash. Therefore, they constantly had epidemics of typhus, plague, cholera, smallpox and other "charms". And why did the Europeans buy silk from us? Yes, because lice did not start there. But while this silk reached Paris, a kilogram of silk was already worth as much as a kilogram of gold. Therefore, only very rich people could afford to wear silk.

Patrick Suskind in his work "Perfumer" described how Paris "smelled" of the 18th century, but this passage also fits very well to the 11th century - the time of the queen:

“There was a stench in the cities of that time, almost unimaginable for us, modern people. The streets stank of manure, the yards stank of urine, the stairways stank of rotten wood and rat droppings, the kitchens of bad coal and mutton fat; the unventilated living rooms stank of packed dust, the bedrooms of dirty sheets, damp duvet covers, and the sweet-sweet fumes of chamber pots. Sulfur smelled from the fireplaces, caustic alkalis from the tanneries, slaughtered blood from the slaughterhouses. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; their mouths smelled of rotten teeth, their stomachs smelled of onion juice, and their bodies, when they grew old, began to smell of old cheese, and sour milk and painful tumors. Rivers stank, squares stank, churches stank, stank under bridges and in palaces. Peasants and priests, apprentices and wives of craftsmen stank, all the nobility stank, even the king himself stank - he stank like predatory beast, and the queen is like an old goat, in winter and summer ... human activity, both creative and destructive, every manifestation of nascent or perishing life was accompanied by a stench ... "

Queen of Spain Isabella of Castile proudly admitted that she bathed only twice in her life - at birth and before the wedding! Russian ambassadors reported to Moscow that king of France "stinks like a wild beast"! Even accustomed to the constant stench that surrounded him from birth, King Philip II once fainted when he stood at the window, and the carts passing by loosened the dense, perennial layer of sewage with their wheels. By the way, this king died of... scabies! It also killed Pope Clement VII! And Clement V fell from dysentery. One of the French princesses died eaten by lice! It is not surprising that for self-justification, lice were called "God's pearls" and considered a sign of holiness.

Edited 05/30/2012

Probably, many, having read foreign literature, and especially historical books by foreign authors about ancient Russia, were horrified by the dirt and stench that reigned in those distant times in Russian villages. This template has become so rooted in our consciousness that even modern Russian films about ancient Russia are shot according to this obviously false scenario, and continue to hang noodles on our ears, allegedly that our ancestors lived in dugouts or in a forest in swamps, did not wash for years , walked in rags, from this they often got sick and died in middle age, rarely living up to 40 years.

When someone wants to describe the allegedly “real” past of another people, and especially the enemy, namely, the whole allegedly “civilized” world sees us as such “barbarians”, then, writing a fictional past, they write off, of course, from themselves, since the other they cannot know that, neither from their own experience, nor from the experience of their ancestors.

But sooner or later a lie always emerges, and now we know for certain who was actually unwashed, and who was fragrant in purity and beauty. And enough facts from the past have accumulated to evoke appropriate images from an inquisitive reader and personally feel all the charms of supposedly clean Europe, and decide for himself where the truth is and where the lie is.

So, one of the earliest references to the Slavs that Western historians give notes how MAIN FEATURE it is the Slavic tribes that they "pour water", that is, they wash in running water, while all the other peoples of Europe washed themselves in tubs, basins, and baths. Even Herodotus in the 5th century BC. speaks of the inhabitants of the steppes of the northeast, that they pour water on stones and bathe in huts. Washing under the stream seems so natural to us that we seriously do not suspect that we are almost the only, or at least one of the few peoples in the world who do just that.

Foreigners who came to Russia in the 5th-8th centuries noted the cleanliness and neatness of Russian cities. Here the houses were not clung to each other, but stood wide, there were spacious, ventilated yards. People lived in communities, in peace, which means that parts of the streets were common, and therefore no one, as in Paris, could throw a bucket of slop just onto the street, demonstrating that only my house is private property, and the rest - do not care!

I repeat once again that the custom "pour water" previously distinguished in Europe precisely our ancestors of the Slavic-Aryans, was assigned precisely to them as a distinguishing feature, which clearly had some kind of ritual ancient meaning. And this meaning, of course, was passed on to our ancestors many thousands of years ago through the commandments of the gods, namely, the god Perun, who flew to our Earth 25,000 years ago, bequeathed: “Wash your hands after your works, for whoever does not wash his hands loses the power of God”.

Another commandment says: “Purify yourself in the waters of Iriy, that a river flows in the Holy Land, to wash your white body, to sanctify it with the power of God”. The most interesting thing is that these commandments work flawlessly for a Russian in the soul of a person. So, it probably becomes disgusting for any of us and “cats scratch our souls” when we feel dirty, or sweat a lot after hard physical labor, or summer heat, and we want to quickly wash off this dirt from ourselves and freshen up under streams of clean water. I am sure that our dislike for dirt is genetic, and therefore we strive, even without knowing Perun's commandment about washing hands, always coming from the street, for example, immediately wash our hands and wash ourselves in order to feel fresh and get rid of fatigue.

What was happening in allegedly enlightened and pure Europe at the beginning of the Middle Ages and, oddly enough, right up to the 18th century?

Having destroyed the culture of the ancient Etruscans (these Russians or Russ of Etruria) - the Russian people, who in ancient times inhabited Italy and created a great civilization there, which proclaimed the cult of purity and had a bath, around which the MYTH was created (my decoding A.N. - we distorted or distorted the facts - MYTH) about the Roman Empire, which never existed, and the monuments of which have survived to our times, the Jewish barbarians (and it was undoubtedly them and no matter what people they were hiding behind for their vile purposes) for many centuries enslaved Western Europe its lack of culture, filth and depravity.

Europe has not washed for centuries!!!

We first find confirmation of this in the letters of Princess Anna, the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, Kyiv prince of the 11th century AD. e.

Having given his daughter in marriage to the French king Henry I, he allegedly strengthened his influence in the "enlightened" Western Europe. In fact, it was prestigious for European kings to create alliances with Russia, since Europe was far behind in all respects, both cultural and economic, compared to Great Empire our ancestors. Princess Anna brought with her to Paris, then a small village in France, several convoys of her personal library, and was horrified to find that her husband, the king of France, could not only read, but also write, which she was not slow to write to her father, Yaroslav the Wise. And she reproached him for sending her to this wilderness! It's a real fact, there's a real letter Princess Anna: “Father, why do you hate me? And he sent me to this dirty village, where there is nowhere to wash". And the bible that she brought with her to France, in Russian, still serves as an attribute on which all presidents of France, and earlier kings, take the oath.

European cities were buried in sewage: “The French king Philip II Augustus, accustomed to the smell of his capital, fainted in 1185 when he stood at the palace, and carts passing by him blew up street sewage ...”.

The historian Draper presented in his book "The History of the Relationship between Religion and Science" quite bright picture living conditions in Europe during the Middle Ages. Here are the main features of this picture: "The surface of the continent was then covered for the most part impenetrable forests; monasteries and cities stood here and there.

In the lowlands and along the course of the rivers there were swamps, sometimes stretching for hundreds of miles, and emitting their poisonous miasma, which spread fevers. In Paris and London, the houses were wooden, smeared with clay, thatched or thatched. They had no windows and, before sawmills were invented, few houses had wooden floors... There were no chimneys. In such dwellings there was hardly any protection from the weather. Gutters were not cared for: rotting remains and rubbish were simply thrown out the door.

Neatness was completely unknown: high dignitaries, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, were infested with insects.

The food consisted of coarse plant foods such as peas or even tree bark. In some places, the villagers did not know bread, "Is it surprising after that" - further notes the historian - that during the famine of 1030 human meat was fried and sold, or that in the famine of 1258 15 thousand people died of starvation in London?.

A certain Dionysius Fabricius, rector of the church in Fellin, in his collection on the history of Livonia, published a story related to the monks of the Falkenau monastery near Derpt (now Tartu), the plot of which dates back to the 13th century. The monks of the newly founded Dominican monastery sought financial subsidies from Rome, and the request was supported by a description of their ascetic pastime: “every day, gathered in a specially built room, they kindle the stove as hard as they can bear the heat, after which they undress, whip themselves with rods, and then douse themselves with ice-cold water.” So they struggle with the carnal passions that tempt them. An Italian was sent from Rome to check the truth of what was described. During such a bathing procedure, he almost gave his soul to God and quickly retired to Rome, testifying there the truth of the voluntary martyrdom of the monks, who received the requested subsidy.

When the crusades began, the crusaders struck both the Arabs and the Byzantines with what reeked from them "like homeless people" as they say now. The West appeared to the East as a synonym for savagery, filth and barbarity, and indeed it was this barbarity. The pilgrims who returned to Europe tried to introduce the peeped custom of bathing in a bath, but it was not there! Since the 13th century, baths have already officially come under the ban of the Church as a source of debauchery and infection! So that the gallant knights and troubadours of that era exuded a stench for several meters around them. The ladies were no worse. You can still see in museums back scratchers made of expensive wood and ivory, as well as flea traps ...

As a result, the 15th century was probably one of the most terrible in the history of Europe. Quite naturally, an epidemic of plague broke out. Italy, England lost half of the population, Germany, France, Spain - more than a third. How much the East lost is not known for certain, but it is known that the plague came from India and China through Turkey, the Balkans. She bypassed only Russia and stopped at its borders, just in the place where baths were common. It looks like a biological war of those years.

I can add to the word about ancient Europe about their hygiene and cleanliness of the body. Let it be known to you that the French invented perfumes not to smell, but not to stink! Yes exactly. According to one of the royals, or rather Sun King LouisXIV, a real Frenchman washes only twice in his life - at birth and before death. Only 2 times! Horror! And I immediately remembered supposedly unenlightened and uncultured Russia, in which every peasant had his own bathhouse, and at least once a week people washed in bathhouses and never got sick. Since the bath, in addition to cleanliness of the body, also successfully cleanses ailments. And our ancestors knew this very well and constantly used it.

And how, a civilized person, a Byzantine missionary Belisarius, visiting the Novgorod land in 850 AD, wrote about the Slovenes and Rusyns: “Orthodox Slovenes and Rusyns are wild people, and their life is wild and godless. Naked men and girls locking themselves together in a hotly heated hut and torturing their own bodies, whipping themselves with wood twigs mercilessly, to the point of exhaustion? and after jumping into the hole, or a snowdrift, and, cooling down, again going to the hut to torture your body ”.

How could this dirty, unwashed Europe know what a Russian banya is? Until the 18th century, until the Slavs-Russians taught the "clean" Europeans how to make soap, they did not wash themselves. Therefore, they constantly had epidemics of typhus, plague, cholera, smallpox, and so on. Marie Antoinette she washed her face only twice in her life: once before the wedding, the second time before the execution.

Why did the Europeans buy silk from us? Yes, because lice did not start there. But while this silk reached Paris, a kilogram of silk was already worth a kilogram of gold. Therefore, only rich people could afford silk.

Patrick Suskind in his work "Perfumer" described how Paris "smelled" of the 18th century, but by the 11th century of the time of Queen Anna Yaroslavna, this passage will also have a very good example:

“There was a stench in the cities of that time, almost unimaginable for us modern people. The streets stank of manure, the yards stank of urine, the stairs stank of rotten wood and rat droppings, the kitchens of bad coal and mutton fat; the unventilated living rooms stank of packed dust, the bedrooms of dirty sheets, damp duvet covers, and the pungent-sweet fumes of chamber-pots. Sulfur smelled from the fireplaces, caustic alkalis from the tanneries, slaughtered blood from the slaughterhouses. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; their mouths smelled of rotten teeth, their bellies smelled of onion juice, and as they grew old, their bodies began to smell of old cheese and sour milk and painful tumors. Rivers stank, squares stank, churches stank, stank under bridges and in palaces. Peasants and priests, apprentices and wives of masters stank, the whole nobility stank, even the king himself stank - he stank like a predatory beast, and the queen - like an old goat, in winter and summer.< ... >Every human activity, both constructive and destructive, every manifestation of nascent or perishing life, was accompanied by a stench.

The Duke of Norfolk refused to bathe, allegedly out of religious beliefs. His body was covered with ulcers. Then the servants waited for his lordship to get drunk dead drunk, and barely washed him.

In the Handbook of Courtesy, published at the end XVIII century (Manuel de civilite, 1782) it is formally forbidden to use water for washing, "for it makes the face more sensitive to cold in winter, and to heat in summer".

Queen of Spain Isabella of Castile proudly admitted that she washed herself only twice in her life - at birth and before the wedding!

Louis XIV(May 14, 1643 - September 1, 1715) washed only twice in his life - and then on the advice of doctors. Washing brought the monarch into such horror that he vowed to ever take water procedures. Russian ambassadors at the court of Louis XIV, nicknamed the Sun King, wrote that their majesty king of France "stinks like a wild beast" !

Even accustomed to the constant stench that surrounded him from birth, the king PhilipII once he fainted when he stood at the window, and carts passing by loosened with their wheels a dense, perennial layer of sewage. By the way, this king died of... scabies! Her father also died ClementV II! BUT Clement V fell from dysentery. One of the French princesses died, eaten by lice! No wonder lice were called "God's pearls" and considered a sign of holiness.

The famous French historian Fernand Braudel in his book The Structures of Everyday life wrote: “The chamber pots continued to be poured into the windows, as they always were - the streets were sewers. The bathroom was a rare luxury. Fleas, lice and bedbugs were infested both in London and in Paris, both in the homes of the rich and in the homes of the poor..

There was not a single toilet in the Louvre, the palace of the French kings. They emptied themselves in the yard, on the stairs, on the balconies. When "needed", guests, courtiers and kings either crouched on a wide window sill at the open window, or they were brought "night vases", the contents of which were then poured out at the back doors of the palace. The same thing happened at Versailles, for example, during the time of Louis XIV, whose life is well known thanks to the memoirs of the Duke de Saint Simon. The court ladies of the Palace of Versailles, right in the middle of a conversation (and sometimes even during a mass in a chapel or a cathedral), got up and naturally, in a corner, relieved a small and not very need.

There is a well-known story that the Versailles guides are so fond of telling, how one day the ambassador of Spain arrived at the king and, going into his bedchamber (it was in the morning), he got into an awkward situation - his eyes watered from the royal amber. The ambassador politely asked to move the conversation to the park and jumped out of the royal bedroom as if scalded. But in the park where he hoped to breathe fresh air, the unlucky ambassador simply lost consciousness from the stench - the bushes in the park served as a permanent latrine for all courtiers, and the servants poured sewage there.

I will say a few more words about the mores of the barbarian and wild West.

The Sun King, like all other kings, allowed the courtiers to use any corner of Versailles as toilets.

To this day, the parks of Versailles stink of urine on a warm day. The walls of the castles were equipped with heavy curtains, blind niches were made in the corridors. But wouldn't it be easier to equip some toilets in the yard or just run to the park described above? No, it didn’t even cross anyone’s mind, because diarrhea was the guardian of the tradition. Ruthless, relentless, capable of taking anyone, anywhere, by surprise. Given the appropriate quality of medieval food and water, diarrhea was a constant phenomenon. The same reason can be traced in the fashion of those years (XII-XV centuries) for men's pantaloons consisting of one vertical ribbons in several layers.

In 1364, a man named Thomas Dubusson was given the task “draw bright red crosses in the garden or corridors of the Louvre to warn people there to crap - so that people consider such things to be sacrilegious in these places”. Getting to the throne room was a very smelly journey in itself. "In the Louvre and around it, - wrote in 1670 a man who wanted to build public toilets,- inside the courtyard and in its environs, in the alleys, behind the doors - practically everywhere you can see thousands of piles and smell a variety of smells of the same thing - a product of the natural administration of those who live here and come here every day ". Periodically, all of its noble residents left the Louvre so that the palace could be washed and ventilated.

And in the book for reading on the history of the Middle Ages by Sergei Skazkin about the culture of Europeans, we read the following: “The inhabitants of the houses threw out all the contents of buckets and pelvises directly into the street, on the mountain to a gaping passerby. Stagnant slops formed stinking puddles, and restless city pigs, of which there were a great many, completed the picture..

Unsanitary conditions, disease and hunger - that's the face medieval Europe. Even the nobility in Europe could not always eat their fill. Out of ten children, it is good if two or three survived, and a third of women died during the first birth. Lighting - at its best wax candles, and usually - oil lamps or a torch. Hungry, disfigured by smallpox, leprosy and, later, syphilis, faces peered out of the windows covered with ox bladders.

gallant knights and beautiful ladies of that era exuded a stink for several meters around them. You can still see in museums back scratchers made of expensive wood and ivory, as well as flea traps. Saucers were also placed on the tables so that people could culturally suppress lice. But in Russia they did not put saucers. But not out of stupidity, but because there was no need for it!

London Victorian era drowned in filth and stench, as 24 tons of horse manure and a million and a half cubic feet of human feces flowed daily into the Thames through sewers, before a closed sewer system was built. And this at a time when Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were chasing Professor Moriarty around London.

In the Netherlands, which was considered the most advanced power in the technical sense, and where the Russian Tsar Peter came to study, “in 1660 people still sat down at the table without washing their hands, no matter what they were doing”. Historian Paul Zumthor, author of " Everyday life Holland in the time of Rembrandt", notes: "the chamber pot could sit under the bed for ages before the maid took it away and poured the contents into the canal". “Public baths were practically unknown Zyumtor continues. — Back in 1735, there was only one such establishment in Amsterdam. Sailors and fishermen, reeking of fish, spread an unbearable stench. The private toilet was purely decorative.".

“Water baths insulate the body, but weaken the body and enlarge the pores, so they can cause illness and even death.” , - was stated in one medical treatise of the fifteenth century. In the XV-XVI centuries. rich townspeople bathed once every six months, in the 17th-18th centuries. they stopped taking baths altogether. Sometimes water procedures were used only for medicinal purposes. They carefully prepared for the procedure and put an enema the day before.

Most of the aristocrats were saved from dirt with the help of a perfumed cloth, with which they wiped the body. Armpits and groin were recommended to moisten with rose water. Men wore bags of aromatic herbs between their shirt and vest. Ladies used exclusively aromatic powder.

It is not difficult to guess that the church of that time stood as a wall to protect the dirt and prevent taking care of one's body. The Church in the Middle Ages assumed that “If a person is baptized, that is, sprinkled with holy water, then he is already clean for life. That means you don't have to wash.. And if a person does not wash, then fleas and lice are born, which carry all diseases: typhus, cholera, plague. Therefore, Europe was dying out, in addition to wars, and even from diseases. And wars and diseases, as we see, were provoked by the same church and its instrument of subjugation of the masses - religion!

Before the victory of Christianity, more than a thousand baths operated in Rome alone. The first thing the Christians did when they came to power was to close all the bathhouses. The people of that time were suspicious of washing the body: nudity is a sin, and it’s cold - you can catch a cold.

In Russia, since ancient times, great attention was paid to the observance of cleanliness and tidiness. Residents Ancient Russia was known for hygienic care of the skin of the face, hands, body, hair. Russian women knew perfectly well that curdled milk, sour cream, cream and honey, fats and oils soften and restore the skin of the face, neck, hands, make it supple and velvety; wash your hair well with eggs, and rinse them with infusion of herbs. So they found and took the necessary funds from the surrounding nature: they collected herbs, flowers, fruits, berries, roots, the healing and cosmetic properties of which they knew.

Our ancestors knew the properties of herbal remedies perfectly, so they were mainly used for cosmetic purposes. The medicinal properties of wild herbs were also well known. They collected flowers, grass, berries, fruits, plant roots and skillfully used them to make cosmetics.

For blush and lipstick, they used raspberry juice, cherries, rubbed their cheeks with beets. Black soot was used to blacken the eyes and eyebrows, sometimes brown paint was used. To give the skin whiteness, wheat flour or chalk was taken. Plants were also used to dye hair: for example, onion husks were used to dye hair in Brown color, saffron with chamomile - in light yellow. Scarlet paint was obtained from barberry, raspberry - from young leaves of an apple tree, green - from onion feathers, nettle leaves, yellow - from saffron leaves, sorrel and alder bark, etc.

Household cosmetics for Russian women was based on the use of animal products (milk, curdled milk, sour cream, honey, egg yolk, animal fats) and various plants (cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, beets, etc.), burdock oil was used for hair care.

In ancient Russia, great attention was paid to hygiene and skin care. Therefore, cosmetic "rituals" were most often carried out in the bath. Russian baths with a peculiar biting massage with oak or birch brooms were especially common. To cure skin and mental illnesses, ancient healers recommended pouring herbal infusions on hot stones. To soften and nourish the skin, it is good to apply honey on it.

In the baths, skin care was carried out, it was cleaned with special scrapers, massaged with fragrant balms. Among the servants of the baths there were even hair pluckers, and they did this procedure without pain.

In Russia, a weekly bath was common. In the arsenal of preventing hardening of a reasonable hygiene system, the Russian bath has been in the first place for centuries.

Being clean in body and healthy in soul, our ancestors were also famous for their longevity, which not everyone even strives for in our times, realizing that the environment is poisoned, GMO food, medicines are poison, and in general it is harmful to live a lot because of life are dying...

Also, I want to give some examples from the recent past. From our present, so to speak ...

On the Internet, there were recollections of eyewitnesses about what they saw washing hands abroad, which is considered the norm for them: “Recently, I had to watch the family of a Russian emigrant who married a Canadian. Their son, who doesn't even speak Russian, washes his hands under an open tap like a mom, while dad plugs the sink with a cork and splashes in his own dirty foam. Washing under the stream seems so natural to Russians that we seriously do not suspect that we were almost the only (at least one of the few) people in the world who did just that..

Soviet people in the 60s, when the first bourgeois films appeared on the screens, were shocked when they saw how beautiful French actress got up from the bath and put on a bathrobe without washing off the foam. Horror!

But, Russians experienced real animal horror en masse when they began to travel abroad in the 90s, go to visit and watch how the owners plugged the sink with a cork after dinner, put dirty dishes, poured liquid soap, and then from this sink, teeming with slops and sewage, they simply pulled out the plates and, without rinsing under running water, put them on the dryer! Some had a gag reflex, because it immediately seemed that everything they had previously eaten lay on the same dirty plate. When they told their acquaintances in Russia about this, people simply refused to believe it, they believed that this was some special case of the uncleanliness of an individual European family.

The international journalist Vsevolod Ovchinnikov has a book "Sakura and Oak", in which he described the custom described above that he witnessed during his stay in England and struck him: “the owner of the house where the journalist was staying, after the feast, dipped the glasses in the sink with soapy water and put them on the dryer without rinsing”. Ovchinnikov writes that at that moment he explained the action of the owner to himself as intoxication, however, later he happened to be convinced that this method of washing is typical for England.

Among other things, he was personally in England and made sure that hot water for the British is really a luxury. Since the centralized water supply provides only cold water, then hot water is heated through small 3-5 l electric boilers. These boilers were in our kitchen and in the shower. With our - Slavic washing of dishes, when running water, hot water runs out quickly, and often the boiler could not cope with our needs, then we had to use detergents to then wash the dishes with cold water. This was in 1998-9, but even now nothing has changed there.

A few words about longevity. No matter how hard Western historians (From-TORA) try to humiliate us and attribute to our ancestors an early death from all sorts of diseases and undeveloped medicine - all this is just NONUS, on which they are trying to hide the real past of the Slavic-Aryans, and impose achievements modern medicine, which allegedly greatly extended the life of the Russians, who, even before the Jewish coup of 1917, were dying en masse before reaching old age, not to mention deep old age.

The truth is that the age of one circle of life, namely 144 years, was considered a natural and normal minimum life span for our ancestors. Some lived more than one circle of life, but could have two or three. Many of us in the family of great-great-grandfathers and great-great-grandmothers lived longer than 80-90 years, and this was considered normal. And in the family books there are entries about 98, 160, 168, 196 years of life.

If anyone is interested in the recipe for longevity, it is simple and I personally came to it myself for a long time thinking about why our old people - pensioners die early. And the other day I found confirmation of my guess from other people, while the recipe for longevity exactly matches my guesses.

I don’t know how to make secrets, I don’t like it and I won’t - it’s not Russian!

By the way, I give a recipe for identifying persons of Jewish nationality in your environment, this is especially evident in childhood, in children's games. So, a Russian person does not make secrets - he is open-hearted, he shares what he knows or has with a completely pure heart and thoughts, does not elevate the possession of some thing or knowledge into a cult. And on the contrary, Jewish children are brought up in a spirit of superiority over the rest, they are not allowed to open their souls to others. Therefore, often from such children you can hear something like this: "I won't tell - it's a secret!". And at the same time, they begin to tease the curiosity of other children, provoking them to financial incentives for revealing the secret. Take a closer look at the children, their games - it all manifests itself at the genetic level !!!

So, it is as simple as it is difficult for many of us - it's work!

No pills or healthy lifestyle life, although it is inextricably linked with work, since those who work lead a healthy lifestyle - they simply have no time to have fun and spend time idly. Therefore, instead of stadiums and gyms, it is better to work for the good of your kind (family), put your soul into the products of your work and longevity will be much more real for you than the imposed senseless burning of life, which leads only to one thing - to early old age through the wear and tear of your body and, as a consequence, to early death. I hope this is already an obvious fact for every reasonable person!

After all, as our ancestors said - "While we work, we live"! On the contrary, it is not work that kills the elderly, from which we want to limit them, taking away their household and household duties for ourselves, while wanting to spare them and give them more time for rest, but inactivity.

Most likely, this is precisely why the state pension system was introduced in order to quickly bring people into a state of unclaimedness, professional worthlessness, and thereby deliberately provoke death not through the natural aging of the body, but from inaction, from uselessness to this society and his family.

The fact that the descendants of the great Slavic-Aryans are still alive, despite the fact that they were most subjected to wars and genocide in the past, is not due to some special Slavic fertility, but due to cleanliness and health. We have always been bypassed or little affected by all the epidemics of plague, cholera, smallpox. And our task is to preserve and increase the heritage given by our ancestors!

We need to be proud that we are Russians, and thanks to the neatness of our Russian mothers, we grew up in cleanliness!

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For a long time, it was good form to quote Lermontov's famous lines about "unwashed Russia" and mention some abstract "lousy hordes of Russians." Recently, the pendulum has swung the other way. What do coriander, Russian kalach, gunpowder, chlorine curtains and Leonardo da Vinci's portrait Lady with an Ermine have in common? The first thing that comes to mind: "The questioner has schizophrenia." In fact, all these objects and concepts are most directly related to hygiene. Rather, with its history.

For a long time, it was good form to quote Lermontov's famous lines about "unwashed Russia" and mention some abstract "lousy hordes of Russians." Recently, the pendulum has swung the other way. In vain and in essence they commemorate Europe, which is mired in sewage. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle.

Crooked mirrors

The fact is that, having met face to face after a long break due to the Tatar-Mongol invasion, Russians and Europeans found in each other more differences than similarities. First of all it concerned cleanliness.

Here is a typical average European opinion about our ancestors of the 17th century: “Russians are terribly unclean. They smelled through and through of the meanest and most fetid vegetables - onions and garlic, which they eat in incredible quantities. It is not customary to brush teeth here, it is believed that by doing so, the natural gloss is torn off from them. Meanwhile, many noble men and ladies have disgustingly black and rotten teeth. They also have in their homes myriad black cockroaches, which are not taken out, but, on the contrary, are revered as a good omen - to wealth.

But how in the same XVII century Moscow ambassador Pyotr Potemkin spoke about the Europeans: “In Paris, in the royal palace, there is a great stench and an intense stench, while His Majesty Louis XIV himself stinks like a wild beast. More than anything else, to our great annoyance, lice became, which they call here "God's pearls" and do not find any impurity in them. In general, there is a kind of "war of the worlds".

Eurogol and Euroinventions

For some time in Europe they followed the cleanliness of the body no worse than in Russia. The Germanic and Celtic tribes knew the baths very well, moreover, they even managed to get acquainted with the Roman hygiene standards, which were advanced for that time. However, under the blows of the northern barbarians, not only the walls of Rome fell, but also the centuries-old trees of European forests. By the 14th century wood had become scarce. It was barely enough for the construction and at least some heating of dwellings. Bathing in hot water has become an unaffordable luxury. Very opportunely, the sophistication of the Catholic scholastics also appeared, who assured that it was generally indecent for a Christian to bathe: the water that spilled on him during baptism is enough, the rest is from the evil one. Poverty backed up by ideology is a terrible force. And now Pope Clement V dies of dysentery, Clement VII is eaten alive by scabies, the Duke of Norfolk is covered with purulent ulcers ...

Nevertheless, Europeans should not be blamed for being dirty and unclean. In any case, brushing teeth and nails was taught there from childhood. As for the rest, everything is more complicated.

Yes, with clean water and fuel were problems. But the human mind is resourceful. Just look at Leonardo's painting Lady with an Ermine. It's not just a cute pet. This is a kind of toilet item. Like soap, only from insects. The fact is that in small animals the body temperature is higher than in humans, - times; more fur and hair - two; skin is softer - three. So they were used as flea traps, as well as mobile collections for lice. From bugs, the dominance of which infuriated even Europeans who had come to terms with lice, they used a special grass-bedbug. We call it cilantro, or coriander, without thinking at all about the name. But the Greek word "koriannon" is derived from "korios", that is, "bug". By the way, coriander was supplied to the courts of nobles by Carthusian monks. And in the monasteries of this order, bedbugs have never been found.

Chlorine curtains from the same opera. AT mid-nineteenth century London was squeezed in its arms by the "great stench" - the Thames was dammed with sewage. Every day, 24 tons of horse manure and 1.5 million cubic meters of human feces were dumped there. For two weeks the House of Commons sat behind curtains soaked in bleach. Only after that they decided to take care of normal sewage. No, attempts to have civilized, stinking latrines in Europe have been made much earlier. But they ended in failure. Literally. So, in the castle of Erfurt in 1183, a congress of European chivalry was held. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa himself presided. This congress could turn out to be fatal for the emperor - under the color of chivalry, the wooden floor caved in, and the noble gentlemen collapsed into a huge pit where sewage was diverted. About a hundred people died. Barbarossa managed to cling to the window opening.

Russia smells

In Russia, toilets were not arranged in houses. For the administration of natural needs, they came up with wooden houses known to all of us, which were called “back” or “latrine”. That is, located in the depths of the courtyard, which still needs to be reached. In the era firearms toilets were very handy. The first grades of gunpowder were simple in composition - charcoal, sulfur, saltpeter. For the latter, they climbed into cesspools. As it turned out, human feces during prolonged fermentation, saltpeter is isolated. Considering that the power of the Horde was overthrown with the help of Moscow cannons, we have to admit that the Russians “smoked the sky” not in vain.

Unlike Europeans, who washed their hands and face in the same water, we used running water. Russians never sit down at the table with dirty hands. True, if you suddenly wanted to eat on the street, but there was nowhere to wash your hands? The Russians found an original way out by setting up the production of kalachi - a fluffy roll with a thin handle. They took it with unwashed hands. And after eating the rest, the pen was thrown to the dogs or sacrificed to the poor. By the way, this is where the expression “to reach the handle” came from, that is, to go down.

Cleanliness and care for one's body were not always welcomed. Often this was considered demonic and soulless occupation. This pattern was clearly seen in the Middle Ages. According to some opinions of that time, after washing, evil spirits could get into the pores of the body. And there is nothing strange in this, since people could wash in dirty water. At the same time, the whole family washed in the same water, and after the servants and slaves. However, gradually the attitude towards cleanliness changed. Therefore, it will be interesting to follow some facts from history in relation to cleanliness and washing.

Purity in the Middle Ages

If we talk about bathing traditions, they go back far into past centuries. For example, in Russia the bath was held in high esteem. Those who did not like the bath were considered strange. For example, Dmitry the Pretender was not a supporter of the bath, so he was considered non-Russian. But if you look deep into history, you can see that for the Slavs, the bath was not just a means of hygiene, they found a certain sacred meaning. Without fail, people had to visit the bathhouse twice a week, as it was believed that in it they could wash away their sins.

In Europe, by comparison, the bath was viewed with suspicion. Then they believed that washing a person at baptism was enough.

The reasons that people were afraid of water lie in the current belief that the plague is spread through water. In fact, this could be so, because they did not take hot baths, but warm ones, using water several times. Of course, in such an environment, diseases could develop.

Isabella of Castile in the 15th century proudly said that she washed herself only twice in her life - at baptism and before the wedding.

Another interesting case, recorded in history, occurred with Louis XIV. Throughout his life, he bathed only twice, and then for medical purposes. And yet he was in pain every time. Based on this and other similar cases, it becomes clear that cleanliness and hygiene faded into the background.

When in the 13th century they began to use Underwear, there was no talk of mandatory bathing at all. Underwear was easier and cheaper to wash than outerwear made from expensive fabrics. Thus, the body did not come into contact with the upper dress. To escape from ticks and fleas, the nobility wore silk underwear.

Attitude to hygiene in ancient Rome and Paris

If you look into history ancient rome, here the attitude to cleanliness and washing was so exalted that they made a cult out of it. Every day, the Roman baths were visited for taking bath procedures. In these rooms, not only washed, but also went in for sports, artists were invited there. It was truly a cultural event.

There were toilets in these rooms. They were located around the perimeter of the room, so people could communicate normally with each other. In the IV century AD. Rome had 144 public toilets.

If you look in Paris, here the picture was quite the opposite. As contemporaries said, there was a terrible stench here. Toilets were not built here, so the faeces from the pot could be poured directly out of the window. It was from here that the fashion of hats went with broad stripes so as not to stain your expensive clothes. After a while, a law was introduced that required a warning before pouring the pot with the exclamation "Caution, water."

Russia and hygiene

Compared to this attitude to cleanliness in Europe, Russian customs were strange. After all, it was in our country that baths were widespread. As evidenced historical facts, Louis XIV sent spies to find out what they do in Russian baths. And this is not surprising, because it did not fit in his head that you can wash regularly. But, despite this attitude to cleanliness, there was an unpleasant smell on the streets, because the sewerage system in the 18th century was only in ten percent of Russian cities.

From everything, the conclusion follows that in the Middle Ages in Europe, cleanliness and hygiene were not particularly friendly. As for Russia, she was able to get rid of the plague only thanks to the Russian baths.

Until 1743, women and men bathed in the baths at the same time. In the same year, a decree was issued prohibiting this. But not everywhere it was respected!

Those foreigners who lived in Russia for a long time brought the custom of the bath to Europe. They appreciated all its advantages. Gradually in European countries attitude towards cleanliness and hygiene has reached a new level.

If we recall the years already close to us, then in the USSR they were engaged in hygiene at the state level. Television led active propaganda even among children. It is worth at least remembering the well-known cartoon "Moidodyr".

according to the descriptions of scientists, in Europe until the 19th century, slop was poured out of windows, and washed
2 times a month.
For the Slavs
the word "bath" was sacred. Articles are brought to your attention
educational and entertaining. They do not have an abundance of dates and concepts.
However, fun facts useful for the development of worldview from different angles.
So,
let's continue our journey through the history of the ancient Slavs, emphasizing the cool
interesting moments. According to Byzantine historians, the ancient Slavs
believed that great warriors did not need armor, that in battle real skill
does not require armor. In moments of particular danger, the Slavs undressed to the waist and walked
into battle for the fear of enemies. They didn't take much care of their appearance. In combat
not many people had clean clothes on campaigns. But at home, in Russia, it is of great importance
had baths. Cleanliness was given top priority. Foreigners were surprised how the Slavs
whipping themselves with brooms, what heat they can endure! Nothing like this in
medieval Europe did not exist. In ancient times, the bath was heated "in a black way". Pipes at
there was no bathhouse. All the smoke from the stove settled on the walls. The soot was thick
in half a hand. It was necessary to sit carefully - such soot was washed off with difficulty.
The Slavs believed that lives here evil spirit"Bannik", which can man
kill. Perhaps the acrid smoke weakened him evil spell. People are afraid of spirits
stopped, but the "black" bathhouse has been preserved in some regions of Russia and in the XXI
century. It happened that wars were fought between the tribes of the Slavs. The reasons were different:
either young brides will be stolen, or the land will not be divided. It is a known fact that the losers
40 wagons of birch and oak brooms were to be brought to the winners! That is
brooms were an element of state taxation. Bath brooms were
in Ancient Russia a kind of convertible currency! Here is the place in
the outlook of the Slavs was occupied by purity. In the next article, we'll talk about
features of military training from childhood.
On the
Since ancient times, much attention has been paid to the observance of cleanliness and
neatness. The inhabitants of Ancient Russia were known for hygienic facial skin care,
hands, body, hair. Russian women knew perfectly well that curdled milk, sour cream,
cream and honey, fats and oils soften and restore the skin of the face, neck, hands,
make it elastic and velvety; wash your hair well with eggs, and infusion
rinse them with herbs. So they found the necessary funds and took them from
surrounding nature: they collected herbs, flowers, fruits, berries, roots, medicinal and
whose cosmetic properties were known to them
Properties
pagans knew herbal remedies perfectly, therefore, in cosmetic
they were mainly used for purposes. There were also well-known medicinal
properties of wild herbs. They collected flowers, grass, berries, fruits, roots
plants and skillfully used them for the preparation of cosmetics.
For example,
for blush and lipstick, they used raspberry juice, cherries, rubbed their cheeks with beets. On the
blackening of the eyes and eyebrows was black soot, sometimes brown was used
dye. To give the skin whiteness, wheat flour or chalk was taken. For coloring
plants also used hair: for example, onion husks dyed hair in
brown color, saffron with chamomile - in light yellow. Scarlet paint was obtained from
barberry, raspberry - from young leaves of an apple tree, green - from onion feathers,
nettle leaves, yellow - from saffron leaves, sorrel and alder bark, etc.
The pagans knew the "character" of each color and its effect on a person, with the help of
who could be made to fall in love with oneself, or vice versa, to drive away, etc.
AT
In ancient Russia, each color, when applying makeup, was given its own, magical
meaning - people believed that with the help of one color you can bewitch, with the help of
the other, on the contrary, to drive away.
Especially
carefully Russian women cared about how the face looks. To give
skin of the face of a healthy, attractive appearance, as well as for smoothing wrinkles,
spared no milk, no sour cream, no egg yolks. Mothers shared with their
daughters beauty secrets, such as parsley tea and cucumber juice
whiten the skin, and cornflower infusion is good for oily, porous skin. nettle and
burdock roots served remedy to fight dandruff and hair loss
hair.
For
refreshment of the body, massages were made with ointments prepared with herbs, applied
the so-called "jelly" - an infusion of mint.
household
cosmetics for Russian women was based on the use of animal products
origin (milk, curdled milk, sour cream, honey, egg yolk, animal
fats) and various plants (cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, beets, etc.), for
hair care used burdock oil.
AT
Ancient Russia paid great attention to hygiene and skin care. That's why
cosmetic "rituals" were most often carried out in the bath. Particularly common
there were Russian baths with a kind of biting massage with brooms. To heal from
skin and mental illnesses, ancient healers recommended pouring on hot stones
infusions of herbs or beer, giving the smell of freshly baked rye bread. For
softening and nourishing the skin is good to apply honey on it.
AT
baths, skin care was carried out, it was cleaned with special scrapers, massaged
fragrant balms. Among the attendants of the baths there were even hair pluckers, and
did this procedure without pain.
AT
Weekly washing in the bath was widespread in Russia, but if there was no bath,
washed and steamed and Russian ovens. In the arsenal of prevention of hardening reasonable
Hygiene systems The Russian bath from time immemorial has been in the first place.