A Russian hut, a hut, a house in a village, a natural landscape depicting wooden houses are the subject of inspiration for many artists. It is easy to depict a Russian hut by drawing simple lines and geometric shapes, so a child can draw it. And if you add more realistic details, shadows and perspective, you can create a real masterpiece. In this lesson we will learn how to draw a Russian hut outside and inside with all its components. So, let's begin!

Hut outside

To begin with, we will learn how to draw a Russian hut outside in stages. For clarity, each new detail in the image will be highlighted in red. You can do all the work with a simple pencil.

Stage 1
We draw the general outlines of the future house. Two oblique lines at the top are the roof, and three lines are the foundations and walls of the house.

To get it symmetrically draw a vertical line through the top of the roof and the middle of the base of the house. Next, build lines to the right and left relative to the center.

Stage 2
Now let's move on to the roof indicated above in red. Let's circle the lines as shown in the picture.

Stage 3
Every home has a foundation on which the rest of the structure stands. Let's draw the base in the form of a rectangle.

Stage 4
To make it clear that the house is made of logs, draw circles located one above the other near the right and left walls.

Stage 5
Traditionally, one or two windows are drawn in the image of a house. And as we look at the house from the front, we see the third window of the attic, sharpened from above in the shape of the roof.

Stage 6
Let's draw the shutters in the form of rectangles and draw the attic windows, as shown in the image below.

Stage 7
Let's draw two main windows. Drawing windows will be described in detail later in this tutorial.

Stage 8
The windows in the Russian hut were decorated decoratively. They painted flowers on shutters, nailed patterns carved from wood. Draw decorative planks over the windows, as shown in the figure. And, of course, what kind of hut is without a pipe - let's draw a pipe.

Stage 9
Let's depict the plank and stone surface of the house.

The house is ready! It looks interesting.

Draw with a pencil

There are techniques for drawing with a pencil, so in this part of the lesson we will separately consider how to draw a Russian hut with a pencil. Use the basics of construction from the first part of the lesson, add details from your imagination, swap them, the main thing here is to depict the house with a pencil.

We draw the general outlines of the house with a thin line.

We outline the lines of the roof, as shown in the picture. You can press harder on the pencil, or overlay one stroke on another.

Better to circle at the end of the drawing, in case you have to erase with an eraser.

Draw windows and logs over the wall line.

We draw the details: shutters, pipe, boards and threads on the cut of the logs.

The surface of the logs is rounded, so a shadow forms at the junction between them. Draw the shadow with light shading.

A glare forms on the protruding part of the logs - this place should remain light. Paint over the twists of the logs so that the shading is a little lighter than the shadow. This will give the volume.

Now we will complete the drawing. In the same way, as shown above, we will depict chiaroscuro on the windows, roof, pipe and other details that will be in your drawing. We will depict the sky and the grass with strokes - the closer to the viewer, the less often the grass will be, and vice versa. You can experiment, the main thing is that the lines are light and confident.

The decoration of the Russian hut

In this part of the lesson, we will learn how to draw a Russian hut inside.

Create perspective. Draw 2 rectangles, one inside the other, and connect the corners as shown in the picture. The size and position of the rectangles depends on what kind of room we want to end up with.

We arrange objects. In the Russian hut we see a stove, a bench, shelves for dishes and other things, a cradle, a spindle and an icon. To correctly arrange objects in perspective, you need to draw lines parallel to the main ones shown above. It is not difficult, the main thing is to draw the lines exactly and imagine how it will look as a result.

Add to finished room chiaroscuro. Imagine where the light comes from and which surface remains light. Let's see in what places the shadow from objects will fall. To show the wooden surface inside the house, we depict the relief of the board due to the shadow.

Red corner

The red corner in the Russian hut is a place with an icon of a table and a bench. Let's see how to draw the red corner of the Russian hut.

Draw the room in perspective, as shown above. Add a table and a bench to the room.

In the corner of the room, closer to the ceiling, draw a rectangle - this will be an icon. Draw an arc from the bottom of the rectangle, draw a circle on top and paint over the background around them. We draw a shelf under the icon. If you wish, you can draw the icon in more detail.

Bake

It remains to consider in detail how to draw a Russian stove in a hut and windows. We draw a stove.

We draw the oven according to the laws of perspective described above.

We draw a stove with small details.

Professional drawing.

Window

In conclusion, let's see how you can draw the window of a Russian hut.

The carving on the windows can be a pattern, or any other image. Can be part of the shutter, or attached separately.

Threads can be in volume, projection, or flat.

For drawing a window, you can take into account the season in order to depict drawings on shutters similar to the weather, patterns on glass from frost, if, for example, it is winter. You can connect a pattern with a finished thread.

The child is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited.

Guests decorate the table, and children decorate the house.

He does not die, who does not leave children.

Be truthful even in relation to the child: keep your promise, otherwise you will teach him to lie.


- L.N. Tolstoy

Children need to be taught to speak, and adults to listen to children.

Let childhood mature in children.

Life must be interfered with more often so that it does not turn sour.

- M. Gorky

Children need to be given not only life, but also the opportunity to live.

Not the father-mother who gave birth, but the one who gave drink, nurtured, and taught good.

Internal arrangement of the Russian hut

Izba was the most important guardian of family traditions for the Russian people, a large family lived here, and children were brought up. The hut was a symbol of comfort and tranquility. The word "hut" comes from the word "heat". The hearth is a heated part of the house, hence the word "istba".

The interior decoration of the traditional Russian hut was simple and convenient: a table, benches, benches, takotsy (stools), chests - everything was done in the hut with our own hands, carefully and with love, and it was not only useful, beautiful, pleasing to the eye, but carried its own protective properties. The good owners in the hut all sparkled with cleanliness. On the walls there are embroidered white towels; the floor, table, benches are scrubbed.

There were no rooms in the house, so the entire space was divided into zones, according to functions and purpose. The division was carried out using a kind of fabric curtain. In this way, the household part was separated from the residential one.

The central place in the house was reserved for the stove. The stove sometimes occupied almost a quarter of the hut, and the more massive it was, the more heat it accumulated. The internal layout of the house depended on its location. That is why the saying arose: "To dance from the stove." The stove was an integral part not only of the Russian hut, but also of the Russian tradition. It served as both a source of heat, and a place for cooking, and a place to sleep; used in the treatment of a wide variety of diseases. In some areas, people washed and steamed in the oven. The stove, at times, personified the whole dwelling, its presence or absence determined the nature of the building (a house without a stove is non-residential). Cooking food in a Russian oven was a sacred act: raw, undeveloped was transformed into boiled, mastered. The stove is the soul of the house. The kind, honest Mother-stove in whose presence they did not dare to say a swear word, under which, according to the beliefs of the ancestors, lived the keeper of the hut - the Brownie. Rubbish was burned in the stove, since it could not be taken out of the hut.

The place of the stove in the Russian house is evident from the respect with which the people treated their hearth. Not every guest was allowed to the stove, and if someone was allowed to sit on their stove, then such a person became especially close, welcome in the house.

The oven was installed diagonally from the red corner. That was the name of the most elegant part of the house. The word "red" itself means: "beautiful", "good", "light". The red corner was located opposite the front door so that everyone who entered could appreciate the beauty. The red corner was well lit since both of its walls had windows. The decoration of the red corner was treated with particular trepidation and tried to keep it clean. It was the most honorable place in the house. Especially important family values, amulets, idols were located here. Everything was placed on a shelf or table, lined with an embroidered towel, in a special order. According to tradition, a person who came to the hut could go there only at the special invitation of the owners.

As a rule, everywhere in Russia there was a table in the red corner. In a number of places it was placed in a wall between the windows - opposite the corner of the oven. The table has always been a place where family members come together.

In the red corner, near the table, two benches meet, and on top there are two shelves of a half-shop. All significant events in family life were noted in the red corner. Here, at the table, both everyday meals and festive feasts were held; the action of many calendar rites took place. In the wedding ceremony, the matchmaking of the bride, her ransom from her bridesmaids and her brother were performed in the red corner; they took her away from the red corner of her father's house; They brought the groom to the house and also led him to the red corner.

Opposite the red corner was the stove or "woman" corner (kut). There, women cooked food, spun, weaved, sewed, embroidered, etc. Here, near the window, opposite the mouth of the oven, in every house there were hand-millstones, so the corner is also called a millstone. There were observers on the walls - shelves for tableware, cupboards. Above, at the level of polavochnikov, there was a stove bar, on which kitchen utensils were placed, and various household utensils were laid. The stove corner, closed by a plank partition, formed a small room called "closet" or "lodge". It was a kind of female space in the hut: here women cooked food, rested after work.

The relatively small space of the hut was organized in such a way that a rather large family of seven to eight people was located in it with the greatest comfort. This was achieved due to the fact that each family member knew his place in the common space. The men worked, rested during the day in the male half of the hut, which included a front corner and a bench near the entrance. During the day, women and children were in the women's quarters near the stove. Sleeping places have also been allocated. Sleeping places were located on benches and even on the floor. Under the very ceiling of the hut, between two adjacent walls and the stove, a wide boardwalk - "polati" was laid on a special beam. Children especially loved to sit on the benches - and it was warm and everything was visible. Children, and sometimes adults, slept on the beds, clothes were folded here, onions, garlic and peas were dried here. A baby cradle was fixed under the ceiling.

All household belongings were kept in chests. They were massive, heavy, and sometimes reached such sizes that it was quite possible for an adult to sleep on them. Chests were made for centuries, therefore, they were strengthened from the corners with forged metal, such furniture lived in families for decades, being inherited.

In a traditional Russian dwelling, shops ran round the walls, starting from the entrance, and served for sitting, sleeping, and storing various household items. In old huts, benches were decorated with a "fringe" - a board nailed to the edge of the bench, hanging from it like a frill. Such shops were called "pubescent" or "with a canopy", "with a gazebo. Under the benches were kept various items that, if necessary, were easy to get: axes, tools, shoes, etc. In traditional rituals and in the sphere of traditional norms of behavior, the shop acts as a place that not everyone is allowed to sit in. So, entering the house, especially strangers, it was customary to stand at the threshold until the owners invited them to go in and sit down. The same applies to matchmakers - they went to the table and sat down to the shop by invitation only.

There were many children in the Russian hut, and the cradle - the cradle was just as necessary an attribute of the Russian hut as a table or a stove. Common materials for making cradles were bast, reeds, pine shingles, linden bark. More often the cradle was hung in the back of the hut, next to the flood. A ring was driven into a thick ceiling log, and a "swing" was hung on it, on which the cradle was attached to the ropes. It was possible to swing such a cradle using a special strap with your hand, and if your arms were busy, with your foot. In some regions, the cradle was hung on an ochep - a wooden, rather long rail. Most often, a well-bending and springy birch was used for the ochep. The hanging of the cradle from the ceiling was not accidental: the most warm air, which provided heating for the child. There was a belief that heavenly forces guard a child raised above the floor, so it grows better and accumulates vital energy... Paul was perceived as the border between the world of people and the world where evil spirits live: the souls of the dead, ghosts, brownies. To protect the child from them, amulets were necessarily placed under the cradle. And the sun was cut out on the head of the cradle, the moon and the stars were in the legs, multi-colored rags, wooden painted spoons were attached. The cradle itself was decorated with carvings or paintings. The obligatory attribute was a canopy. For the canopy, the most beautiful fabric, it was decorated with lace and ribbons. If the family was poor, an old sundress was put into business, which, despite the summer, looked elegant.

In the evenings, when it was getting dark, the Russian huts were lit with torches. Luchina was the only source of illumination in the Russian hut for many centuries. Usually, birch was used as a torch, which burned brightly and did not smoke. A bundle of torches was inserted into special forged lights that could be fixed anywhere. Sometimes they used oil lamps - small bowls with upward-curved edges.

The curtains on the windows were plain or patterned. They were woven from natural fabrics and decorated with embroidery. All textile items were decorated with white handmade lace: tablecloths, curtains and a sheet valance.

On a festive day, the hut was transformed: the table was moved to the middle, covered with a tablecloth, festive utensils, which had previously been stored in crates, were put on the shelves.

The main color scheme for the hut was golden-ocher, with the addition of red and white. Furniture, walls, dishes, painted in golden ocher tones, were successfully complemented by white towels, red flowers, as well as beautiful painting.

The ceiling could also be painted in the form of floral ornaments.

By using exclusively natural materials during construction and interior decoration, in the huts it was always cool in summer and warm in winter.

In the setting of the hut there was not a single superfluous random object, each thing had its own strictly defined purpose and place illuminated by tradition, which is a distinctive feature of the character of the Russian dwelling.

In the morning the sun was shining, but only the sparrows screamed a lot - a sure sign of a blizzard. In the twilight, heavy snow fell, and when the wind rose, it was so dusty that it was impossible to see the outstretched hand. It raged all night, and the next day the storm did not lose its strength. The hut was covered with snow to the top of the basement, on the street there are snowdrifts of human height - you can't even go to the neighbors, and you can't get out at the outskirts of the village, but you don't really need to go anywhere, except for firewood in the woodshed. There will be enough supplies in the hut for the whole winter.

In the basement- barrels and tubs with pickled cucumbers, cabbage, mushrooms and lingonberries, bags of flour, grain and bran for poultry and other animals, lard and sausages on hooks, dried fish; in the cellar potatoes and other vegetables are poured into the piles. And there is order in the barnyard: two cows are chewing hay, which is littered with a tier above them to the roof, pigs grunt behind a fence, a bird slumbers on a roost in a chicken coop fenced in in the corner. It's cool here, but no frost. Made of thick logs, thoroughly buried walls do not allow drafts and keep warmth of animals, dung and straw.

And in the hut itself, I don't remember the frost at all - a hotly heated stove cools down for a long time. But the kids are bored: until the blizzard ends, you won't be able to play outside the house, run around. The kids are lying on the beds listen to the fairy tales that the grandfather tells ...

The most ancient Russian huts - until the 13th century - were built without a foundation burying it in the ground by almost a third - it was easier to save heat this way. They dug a hole in which they began to collect log crowns... The plank floors were still far away, and they were left earthen. On a carefully tamped floor a hearth was laid out of stones. In such a semi-dugout, people spent winters together with domestic animals, which were kept closer to the entrance. Yes, and there were no doors, and a small entrance hole - just to squeeze through - was covered from the winds and cold weather with a shield of half-timbers and a cloth canopy.

Centuries passed, and the Russian hut got out of the ground. Now it was placed on a stone foundation. And if on pillars, then the corners rested on massive logs. Those who are richer they made roofs from timber, the poorer villagers covered their huts with shingles. And the doors appeared on forged hinges, and the windows were cut through, and the size of the peasant buildings increased markedly.

Best known to us traditional huts as they were preserved in the villages of Russia from the western to the eastern limits. it a five-wall hut, consisting of two rooms - a vestibule and a living room, or a six-wall, when the living space itself is divided into two by another transverse wall. Such huts were set up in villages until very recently.

The peasant hut of the Russian North was built differently.

In fact, the northern hut is not just a house, but a module for complete life support for a family of several people during the long, harsh winter and cold spring. Sort of spaceship for fun, the ark, traveling not in space, but in time - from warmth to warmth, from harvest to harvest. Human housing, housing for livestock and poultry, storage of supplies - everything is under one roof, everything is protected by powerful walls. Is that a wood shed and a barn-hayloft separately. So they are right there, in the fence, it is not difficult to break a path to them in the snow.

Northern hut was built in two tiers. Lower - economic, there is a barnyard and a storehouse of supplies - basement with a cellar. Upper - housing for people, upper room, from the word above, that is, high, because above. The warmth of the barnyard rises, people have known this since time immemorial. To get into the upper room from the street, the porch was made high. And, climbing on it, I had to overcome a whole flight of stairs. But no matter how the snowdrifts piled up, they would not notice the entrance to the house.
From the porch, the door leads into the entrance hall - a spacious vestibule, it is also a transition to other rooms. Various peasant utensils are kept here, and in the summer, when it gets warm, they sleep in the entryway. Because it's cool. Through the passage you can go down to the barnyard, from here - door to the upper room. You just need to enter the room carefully. To keep warm, the door was made low and the threshold high. Raise your legs higher and do not forget to bend down - you will knock a bump on the lintel for an hour.

A spacious basement is located under the upper room, the entrance to it is from the barnyard. They made basements with a height of six, eight, or even ten rows of logs - crowns. And starting to engage in trade, the owner turned the basement not only into a storehouse, but also into a village trade store - he cut through a counter window for buyers on the street.

They built, however, in different ways. In the museum "Vitoslavlitsy" in Veliky Novgorod there is a hut inside, like an ocean ship: per street door passages and transitions to different compartments begin, and in order to get into the upper room, you need to climb the ladder-ladder to the very roof.

You cannot build such a house alone, therefore, in the northern rural communities, a hut for young people - new family- put the whole world. All the villagers built: they chopped together and they drove the wood, sawed off huge logs, laid crown after crown under the roof, together they rejoiced at what was built. Only when wandering artels of artisan carpenters appeared, did they begin to hire them to build housing.

The northern hut looks huge from the outside, but there is only one living room - an upper room with an area of ​​twenty meters, or even less. Everyone lives there together, old and young. There is a red corner in the hut, where icons and a lamp are hanging. The owner of the house sits here, and guests of honor are invited here.

The main place of the hostess is opposite the stove, called kut. A narrow space behind the stove - zakut. This is where the expression “ huddle in a cubbyhole "- in a cramped corner or tiny room.

"It's light in my room ..."- sung in a song popular not so long ago. Alas, for a long time this was not at all the case. For the sake of keeping warm, small windows in the upper room were chopped off, they were tightened with a bull or fish bubble or with oiled canvas, which barely let light through. Only in wealthy houses could one see mica windows. Plates of this layered mineral were fixed in figured bindings, which made the window look like a stained glass window. By the way, there were even windows made of mica in the carriage of Peter I, which is kept in the collection of the Hermitage. In winter, ice plates were inserted into the windows. They were carved on a frozen river or frozen in a mold right in the yard. It came out lighter. True, it was often necessary to prepare new "ice glasses" instead of melting ones. Glass appeared in the Middle Ages, but the Russian countryside recognized it as a building material only in the 19th century.

Long time in rural, yes, and in urban the stove huts were laid without pipes... Not because they did not know how or did not think of it, but all for the same reasons - as if better to keep warm. No matter how you block the pipe with dampers, the frosty air still penetrates from the outside, chilling the hut, and the stove has to be heated much more often. The smoke from the stove entered the upper room and went out into the street only through small chimney windows under the very ceiling, which were opened for the duration of the firebox. Although the stove was heated with well-dried "smokeless" logs, there was enough smoke in the upper room. That is why the huts were called black or smoked.

Chimneys on the roofs of rural houses appeared only in the 15th-16th centuries, yes, and even then where the winters were not too harsh. Huts with a pipe were called white. But at first, the pipes were not made of stone, but they were knocked out of wood, which often became the cause of a fire. Only at the beginning 18th century Peter I by special decree ordered in the city houses of the new capital - St. Petersburg, stone or wooden, to put stoves with stone pipes.

Later, in the huts of wealthy peasants, except Russian stoves, in which food was prepared, those brought to Russia by Peter I began to appear Dutch ovens comfortable with their small size and very high heat dissipation. Nevertheless, furnaces without pipes continued to be laid in northern villages until late XIX century.

The stove is the warmest sleeping place - a couch, which traditionally belongs to the oldest and youngest in the family. A wide shelf stretches between the wall and the stove. It is also warm there, so they put on the bed sleeping children. Parents sat on benches, or even on the floor; bedtime has not come yet.

Why were children in Russia being punished, put in a corner?

What did an angle mean in itself in Russia? Each house in the old days was a small church, which had its own Red Corner (Front Corner, Holy Corner, Goddess), with icons.
It was in this Parents put their children in the Red Corner so that they pray to God for their misdeeds and in the hope that the Lord will be able to bring the disobedient child to reason.

Russian hut architecture gradually changed and became more complex. There were more living quarters. In addition to the vestibule and the upper room, appeared in the house Svetlitsa is a really bright room with two or three large windows already with real glasses. Now in the light was passing most of family life, and the room served as a kitchen. The light room was heated from the back wall of the furnace.

Well-to-do peasants shared a vast a residential blockhouse of a hut with two criss-cross walls, thus blocking off four rooms. Even a large Russian stove could not heat the entire room, and here it was necessary to put an additional one in the room farthest from it Dutch oven.

Bad weather rages for a week, and under the roof of the hut it is almost inaudible. Everything goes on as usual. The hostess has the most trouble: milking the cows early in the morning and pouring grain for the birds. Then steam the pig bran. Bring water from a village well - two buckets on a yoke, a pound and a half in total weight, yes, and you have to cook food, feed your family! The kids, of course, help in any way they can, it has been the custom since olden times.

Men have less worries in winter than in spring, summer and autumn. The owner of the house is the breadwinner- works tirelessly all summer from dawn to dawn. He plows, mows, reaps, threshes in the field, chops, saws in the forest, builds houses, catches fish and forest animals. As the owner of the house works, his family will live all winter until the next warm season, because winter for men is a time of rest. Of course, one cannot do without male hands in a rural house: fix what needs to be repaired, chop and bring firewood into the house, clean the barn, make a sleigh, and arrange a dressage for the horses, take the family to the fair. Yes, in the village hut there are many things that require strong man's hands and ingenuity, which neither a woman nor children can do.

Felled skillful hands the northern huts stood for centuries. Generations changed, and the ark houses still remained a safe haven in the harsh natural conditions... Only the mighty logs darkened with time.

In museums of wooden architecture " Vitoslavlitsy " in Veliky Novgorod and " Malye Korely " near Arkhangelsk there are huts whose age has passed for a century and a half. Scientists-ethnographers were looking for them in abandoned villages and ransomed from the owners who had moved to the cities.

Then they carefully disassembled transported to the museum territory and restored in its original form. This is how they appear before numerous excursionists who come to Veliky Novgorod and Arkhangelsk.
***
Cage- a rectangular one-room log house without outbuildings, most often 2 × 3 m in size.
Cage with a stove- hut.
Basement (basement, basement) - the lower floor of the building, located under the crate and used for economic purposes.

The tradition of decorating houses with carvings wooden platbands and other decorative elements did not appear in Russia from scratch. Originally wooden carving, like Old Russian embroidery, was of a cult character. The ancient Slavs applied to their home pagan signs designed to protect housing, to provide fertility and protection from enemies and natural disasters. It is not for nothing that stylized ornaments can still be guessed at signs denoting sun, rain, women raised their hands to the sky, sea waves, depicted animals - horses, swans, ducks, or a bizarre interweaving of plants and outlandish flowers of paradise. Further, the religious meaning of wood carving was lost, but the tradition of giving the various functional elements of the facade of the house an artistic look has remained to this day.

In almost every village, village or city you can find amazing examples of wooden lace decorating a house. Moreover, in various areas there were completely different styles wood carving for house decoration. In some areas, mostly blind carving is used, in others it is sculptural, but mostly houses are decorated with carved carvings, as well as its variety - a carved decorative wooden invoice.

In the old days, in various regions of Russia, and even in different villages, carvers used certain types of carving and ornamental elements. This is clearly seen if we consider the photographs of the carved platbands made in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In one village, certain elements of carving were traditionally used on all houses, in another village, the motives of carved platbands could have been completely different. The farther these settlements were from each other, the more the carved frames on the windows differed in appearance. The study of old house carvings and architraves in particular gives ethnographers a lot of material to study.

In the second half of the 20th century, with the development of transport, printing, television and other means of communication, ornaments and types of carving, previously inherent in one region, began to be used in neighboring villages. A widespread mixing of woodcarving styles began. Examining photographs of modern carved platbands located in one locality one can be surprised at their diversity. Maybe this is not so bad? Modern cities and towns are becoming more vibrant and unique. Carved platbands on the windows of modern cottages often incorporate elements of the best examples of wood decor.

Boris Rudenko. For more details see: http://www.nkj.ru/archive/articles/21349/ (Science and Life, Russian hut: an ark among the forests)

The word "hut" (as well as its synonyms "yzba", "istba", "izba", "source", "source") has been used in Russian chronicles since the most ancient times. The connection of this term with the verbs "drown", "drown" is obvious. Indeed, it always denotes a heated building (as opposed to, for example, a stand).

In addition, all three East Slavic peoples - Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians - retained the term "stove" and again meant a heated building, be it a pantry for winter storage of vegetables (Belarus, Pskov, Northern Ukraine) or a tiny residential hut (Novogorodskaya , Vologda Oblast), but certainly with a stove.

The construction of a house for a peasant was a significant event. At the same time, it was important for him not only to solve a purely practical problem - to provide a roof over his head for himself and his family, but also to organize the living space so that it was filled with the blessings of life, warmth, love and peace. According to the peasants, such a dwelling can be built only following the traditions of their ancestors; deviations from the precepts of the fathers could be minimal.

When building a new home great importance the choice of the place was given: the place should be dry, high, light - and at the same time its ritual value was taken into account: it should be happy. A place inhabited was considered to be happy, that is, it had passed the test of time, a place where people's lives passed in complete prosperity. Unsuccessful for construction was the place where people used to be buried and where the road used to pass or where there was a bathhouse.

Special requirements were also imposed on the building material. The Russians preferred to cut huts from pine, spruce, and larch. These trees with long, even trunks fit well into the frame, tightly adjoining each other, well retained the internal heat, and did not rot for a long time. However, the choice of trees in the forest was regulated by many rules, the violation of which could lead to the transformation of a built house from a house for people into a house against people, bringing misfortune. So, for a felling it was impossible to take "sacred" trees - they can bring death to the house. The ban extended to all old trees. According to legend, they must die in the forest by their own death. It was impossible to use dry trees that were considered dead - from them the household will have "dry". A great misfortune will happen if a "wild" tree falls into the log house, that is, a tree that has grown at a crossroads or on the site of former forest roads. Such a tree can destroy a log house and crush the owners of the house.

The construction of the house was accompanied by many rituals. The beginning of construction was marked by the rite of sacrifice of a chicken and a ram. It was carried out during the laying of the first crown of the hut. Money, wool, grain - symbols of wealth and family warmth, incense - a symbol of the sanctity of the house, was laid under the logs of the first crown, a window pillow, a mat. The end of construction was celebrated with a rich treat for all those who participated in the work.

The Slavs, like other peoples, "unrolled" the building under construction from the body of a creature sacrificed to the Gods. According to the ancients, without such a "sample" the logs could never have formed into an orderly structure. The "construction sacrifice" seemed to convey its shape to the hut, helped to create something intelligently organized out of the primitive chaos ... "Ideally," the construction victim should be a person. But human sacrifice was resorted to only in rare, truly exceptional cases - for example, when laying a fortress for protection from enemies, when it came to the life or death of the entire tribe. In ordinary construction, they were content with animals, most often a horse or a bull. Archaeologists have excavated and studied in detail more than one thousand Slavic dwellings: at the base of some of them, the skulls of these animals were found. Horse skulls are especially often found. So the "skates" on the roofs of Russian huts are by no means "for beauty." In the old days, a tail from a bast was also attached to the back of the ridge, after which the hut was already completely like a horse. The house itself was represented by a "body", the four corners - by four "legs". Scientists write that instead of a wooden "ridge", a real horse's skull was once strengthened. Buried skulls are also found under huts of the 10th century, and under those built five centuries after baptism - in the 14th-15th centuries. For half a millennium, perhaps they began to be put in a shallower hole. As a rule, this hole was located at the holy (red) angle - just under the icons! - either under the threshold, so that evil could not enter the house.

Another favorite sacrificial animal when laying a house was a rooster (chicken). Suffice it to recall the "cockerels" as decoration of roofs, as well as the widespread belief that evil spirits should disappear when the rooster crows. They put the skull of a bull in the base of the hut. And yet, the ancient belief that a house is being built "on someone's head" was ineradicable. For this reason, they tried to leave at least something, even the edge of the roof, unfinished, deceiving fate.

Roofing scheme:
1 - gutter,
2 - stupid,
3 - stamik,
4 - slag,
5 - flint,
6 - princely slega ("knes"),
7 - indiscriminate slag,
8 - male,
9 - fell,
10 - mooring,
11 - chicken
12 - pass,
13 - bull,
14 - oppression.

General view of the hut

What kind of house did our great-great-grandfather, who lived a thousand years ago, build for himself and his family?

This, first of all, depended on where he lived, what tribe he belonged to. Indeed, even now, having visited the villages in the north and south of European Russia, one cannot fail to notice the difference in the type of dwellings: in the north it is a wooden chopped hut, in the south it is a hut-mazanka.

Not a single product of folk culture was invented overnight in the form in which ethnographic science found it: folk thought worked for centuries, creating harmony and beauty. Of course, this also applies to the home. Historians write that the difference between the two main types traditional home can be traced during excavations of settlements in which people lived even before our era.

Tradition was largely determined by climatic conditions and the availability of suitable building materials. In the north, at all times, moist soil prevailed and there was a lot of timber, in the south, in the forest-steppe zone, the soil was drier, but there was not always enough forest, so they had to turn to other building materials. Therefore, in the south, until very late (up to the 14th-15th centuries), a semi-dugout 0.5-1 m deep, dug into the ground, was a massive folk dwelling. And in the rainy north, on the contrary, a ground house with a floor, often even slightly raised above the ground, appeared very early on.

Scientists write that the ancient Slavic semi-dugout "got out" from under the earth into the light of God for many centuries, gradually turning into a ground hut of the Slavic south.

In the north, with its damp climate and an abundance of first-class forest, the semi-underground dwelling turned into an above-ground (hut) much faster. Despite the fact that the traditions of housing construction among the northern Slavic tribes (Krivichi and Ilmen Slovenes) cannot be traced as far back in time as those of their southern neighbors, scientists with good reason believe that log huts were erected here in the II millennium BC era, that is, long before these places entered the sphere of influence of the early Slavs. And at the end of the 1st millennium AD, a stable type of log house had already developed here, while semi-dugouts prevailed for a long time in the south. Well, each dwelling was best suited for its territory.

For example, this is how the "average" residential hut of the 9th-11th centuries from the city of Ladoga (now Staraya Ladoga on the Volkhov River) looked like. Usually it was a square in plan (that is, when viewed from above) building with a side of 4-5 m. Sometimes a log house was erected directly on the site of the future house, sometimes it was first assembled on the side - in the forest, and then, after dismantling, transported to the construction site and folded already "clean". Scientists were told about this by notches - "numbers", in order applied to the logs, starting from the bottom.

The builders took care not to confuse them during transportation: the log house required a careful fitting of the crowns.

In order for the logs to adhere more tightly to each other, a longitudinal depression was made in one of them, into which the convex side of the other entered. The ancient craftsmen made a recess in the lower log and made sure that the logs turned out to be upward on the side that looked to the north of the living tree. On this side, the annual layers are denser and finer. And the grooves between the logs were caulked with marsh moss, which, by the way, has the ability to kill bacteria, and often coated with clay. But the custom to sheathe a log house with planks is historically relatively new for Russia. For the first time, he was captured on miniatures of a 16th century manuscript.

The floor in the hut was sometimes made earthen, but more often - wooden, raised above the ground on beams-logs, cut into lower crown... In this case, a hole was arranged in the floor into a shallow underground cellar.

Well-to-do people usually built their houses in two dwellings, often with a superstructure at the top, which gave the house a three-tiered appearance from the outside.

A kind of entrance hall was often attached to the hut - a canopy about 2 m wide. Sometimes, however, the canopy was significantly expanded and a stable for cattle was arranged in them. We used the canopy in another way. In the vast, neat entrance halls they kept property, made something in bad weather, and in the summer they could, for example, put guests there to sleep. Archaeologists call such a dwelling "two-chambered", meaning that it has two rooms.

According to written sources, since the 10th century, unheated annexes to the huts - cages - have spread. They communicated again through the passage. The crate served as a summer bedroom, a year-round storage room, and in winter - a kind of "refrigerator".

The ordinary roof of Russian houses was made of wood, planks, shingles or shingles. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was customary to cover the roof with birch bark from dampness; this gave her a variegation; and sometimes earth and sod were placed on the roof to protect it from fire. The roofs were pitched on two sides with gables on the other two sides. Sometimes all the departments of the house, that is, the basement, the middle tier and the attic, were located under one slope, but more often the attic, while others had their own special roofs. Wealthy persons had intricate roofs, for example, barrels in the form of barrels, and Japanese in the form of a cloak. On the outskirts, the roof was bordered with slotted ridges, scars, policemen, or handrails with chiseled balusters. Sometimes, along the entire outskirts, teremki were made - depressions with semicircular or heart-shaped lines. Such recesses were mainly made in towers or attics and were sometimes so small and frequent that they formed the border of the roof, and sometimes so large that on each side there were only a couple or three of them, and windows were inserted in the middle of them.

If the semi-dugouts, filled with soil along the roof, were, as a rule, devoid of windows, then in the Ladoga huts there are already windows. True, they are still very far from modern ones, with bindings, vents and clear glass. Window glass appeared in Russia in the X-XI centuries, but even later it was very expensive and was used mostly in princely palaces and churches. In simple huts, so-called drag (from "drag" in the sense of pushing and sliding) were arranged for smoke passage.

Two adjacent logs were cut to the middle, and a rectangular frame with a wooden shutter that went horizontally was inserted into the hole. It was possible to look out of such a window - but that was all. They were called so - "enlighteners" ... If necessary, they pulled the skin on them; in general, these openings in the huts of the poor were small to keep warm, and when they were closed, it was almost dark in the hut in the middle of the day. In wealthy houses, windows were made large and small; the former were called red, the latter were oblong and narrow in shape.

Not a small controversy among scientists was caused by an additional crown of logs, encircling Ladoga huts at some distance from the main one. Let's not forget that from ancient houses to our times, it is well preserved if one or two lower crowns and the disordered fragments of a collapsed roof and floorboards: figure it out, archaeologist, where is that. Therefore, at times a variety of assumptions are made about the constructive purpose of the found parts. What purpose this additional outer crown served - a unified point of view has not yet been worked out. Some researchers believe that he bordered the embankment (a low insulating embankment along outer walls hut), preventing it from spreading. Other scholars think that the ancient huts were not encircled by embankments - the wall was like a two-layer one, a kind of gallery surrounded the residential blockhouse, which served both as a heat insulator and a utility pantry. Judging by the archaeological data, a toilet was often located at the very rear, dead-end end of the gallery. Understandably, the desire of our ancestors, who lived in a harsh climate with frosty winters, to use the warmth of the hut to heat the lavatory and at the same time to prevent a bad smell in the home. The toilet in Russia was called "back". This word first occurs in documents from the beginning of the 16th century.

Like the semi-dugouts of the southern Slavs, the ancient huts of the northern Slavic tribes remained in use for many centuries. Already at that ancient time, folk talent developed a type of dwelling that very successfully met local conditions, and life, almost until recently, did not give people a reason to move away from the familiar, convenient and traditionally sanctified samples.

The inner space of the hut

In the peasant houses, as a rule, there were one or two, less often three dwellings, connected by a passage. The most typical house for Russia was a house consisting of a warm, stove-heated room and a vestibule. They were used for household needs and as a kind of vestibule between the cold of the street and the warmth of the hut.

In the houses of wealthy peasants, in addition to the room itself heated by a Russian stove, there was another, summer, ceremonial room - an upper room, which was also used in large families in Everyday life... In this case, the room was heated with a Dutch oven.

The interior of the hut was distinguished by its simplicity and appropriate placement of the items included in it. The main space of the hut was occupied by an oven, which in most of the territory of Russia was located at the entrance, to the right or left of the doors.

Only in the southern, central black earth zone of European Russia was the furnace located in the corner farthest from the entrance. The table was always in the corner, diagonally from the stove. Above him was a shrine with icons. Stationary benches ran along the walls, shelves cut into the walls above them. In the rear part of the hut, from the stove to the side wall, a wooden flooring was arranged under the ceiling. In the southern Russian regions, behind the side wall of the stove, there could be a wooden flooring for sleeping - a floor, a bridge. All this motionless furnishings of the hut were built together with the house and was called a mansion outfit.

The stove played a major role in the interior space of the Russian dwelling throughout all stages of its existence. No wonder the room where the Russian stove stood was called "a hut, a furnace". The Russian stove belongs to the type of ovens in which the fire is made inside the stove, and not on an open area on top. The smoke comes out through the mouth - the hole in which the fuel is put, or through a specially designed chimney. Russian stove in peasant hut had the shape of a cube: its usual length is 1.8-2 m, width 1.6-1.8 m, height 1.7 m. The upper part of the oven is flat, comfortable for lying. The furnace is relatively large in size: 1.2-1.4 m high, up to 1.5 m wide, with a vaulted ceiling and a flat bottom - a hearth. Estuary, usually rectangular or semicircular top, was closed by a flap cut out in the shape of the mouth with an iron shield with a handle. In front of the mouth there was a small platform - a pole, on which household utensils were placed in order to slide them into the oven with a grab. Russian stoves always stood on a guardhouse, which was a frame of three or four crowns of round logs or blocks, a log roll was made on top of it, which was smeared with a thick layer of clay, this served as the bottom of the stove. Russian stoves had one or four stove columns. The stoves differed in the design of the chimney. The oldest type of Russian oven was a stove without a chimney, called a poultry or black oven. The smoke came out through the mouth and during the heating it hung from the ceiling in a thick layer, which made the upper crowns of the logs in the hut covered with black resinous soot. To settle the soot, polavochniki served - shelves located along the perimeter of the hut above the windows, they separated the sooty top from the clean bottom. To get smoke out of the room, they opened a door and a small hole in the ceiling or in the back wall of the hut - a chimney. After the firebox, this hole was closed with a wooden shield in the southern lips. the hole was plugged with rags.

Another type of Russian stove - semi-white or semi-chicken - is a transitional form from a black stove to a white stove with a pipe. Semi-white stoves do not have a brick chimney, but a branch pipe is arranged above the pole, and a small round hole is made above it in the ceiling, which opens into a wooden chimney. During the furnace, an iron round pipe is inserted between the branch pipe and the hole in the ceiling, somewhat wider than the samovar pipe. After heating the furnace, the pipe is removed and the hole is closed.

The white Russian stove assumes a chimney for smoke outlet. A branch pipe is laid above the brick six, collecting the smoke that comes out of the mouth of the furnace. From the branch pipe, the smoke enters the burnt brick hog horizontally laid out in the attic, and from there into the vertical chimney.

In the old days, stoves were often made of clay, in the thickness of which stones were often added, which allowed the stove to heat up more and keep it warm longer. In the northern Russian provinces, cobblestones were driven into the clay in layers, alternating layers of clay and stones.

The location of the stove in the hut was strictly regulated. In most of European Russia and Siberia, the stove was located near the entrance, to the right or left of the doors. The mouth of the furnace, depending on the terrain, could be turned to the front facade wall of the house or to the side one. In the southern Russian provinces, the stove was usually located in the far right or left corner of the hut with the mouth turned towards the side wall or the front door. There are many ideas, beliefs, rituals, and magic tricks associated with the stove. In the traditional mind, the stove was an integral part of the home; if the house did not have a stove, it was considered uninhabited. By folk beliefs, under the stove or behind it lives a brownie, patron of the hearth, kind and helpful in some situations, wayward and even dangerous in others. In the system of behavior, where such an opposition as "ours" and "strangers" is essential, the attitude of the hosts towards a guest or a stranger changed if he happened to sit on their stove; both the person who dined with the host's family at the same table and the one who sat on the stove was already perceived as "one of our own". Turning to the stove took place during all the rituals, the main idea of ​​which was the transition to a new state, quality, status.

The stove was the second most important "center of holiness" in the house - after the red, God's corner - and maybe even the first.

The part of the hut from the mouth to the opposite wall, the space in which all the female work related to cooking was done, was called the stove corner. Here, near the window, opposite the mouth of the furnace, in every house there were hand-millstones, so the corner is also called a millstone. In the stove corner there was a ship's bench or counter with shelves inside, which was used as a kitchen table. There were observers on the walls - shelves for tableware, cupboards. Above, at the level of polavochniki, there was a stove bar, on which kitchen utensils were placed and various household utensils were laid.

The stove corner was considered a dirty place, unlike the rest of the clean space of the hut. Therefore, the peasants always tried to separate it from the rest of the room with a curtain made of variegated chintz, colored homespun or a wooden bulkhead. The stove corner, closed by a plank partition, formed a small room called the closet or the lodge.
It was an exclusively female space in the hut: here women cooked food, rested after work. During the holidays, when many guests came to the house, a second table was set up near the stove for women, where they feasted separately from the men sitting at the table in the red corner. Men even of their own family could not enter the female half without special need. The appearance of a stranger there was generally considered unacceptable.

The traditional immovable furnishings of the dwelling were kept for the longest time near the stove in the women's corner.

The red corner, like the stove, was an important landmark in the interior space of the hut.

In most of European Russia, in the Urals, in Siberia, the red corner was the space between the side and front walls in the depths of the hut, bounded by an angle that is located diagonally from the stove.

In the southern Russian regions of European Russia, the red corner is the space enclosed between a wall with a door in the vestibule and a side wall. The stove was in the back of the hut, diagonally from the red corner. V traditional dwelling almost throughout the entire territory of Russia, with the exception of the southern Russian provinces, the red corner is well lit, since both of its walls had windows. The main decoration of the red corner is a shrine with icons and an icon lamp, therefore it is also called a "saint". As a rule, everywhere in Russia, in addition to the goddess, there is a table in the red corner, only in a number of places in the Pskov and Velikie Luki lips. it is placed in the partition between the windows - opposite the corner of the stove. In the red corner, next to the table, two benches meet, and above, above the goddess, there are two shelves of a half-shop; hence the West-South Russian name for the corner "day" (the place where the elements of the dwelling decoration meet, join).

All significant events in family life were noted in the red corner. Here, at the table, both everyday meals and festive feasts were held, many calendar rituals took place. In the wedding ceremony, the matchmaking of the bride, her ransom from her bridesmaids and her brother were performed in the red corner; from the red corner of her father’s house they took her to a church wedding, brought her to the groom’s house and also led her to the red corner. During harvest, the first and last were set in the red corner. Preservation of the first and last ears of the harvest, endowed, according to folk legends, magic power, promised prosperity to the family, home, and the entire household. In the red corner, daily prayers were performed, with which any important business began. It is the most honorable place in the house. According to traditional etiquette, a person who came to the hut could go there only at the special invitation of the owners. They tried to keep the red corner clean and elegantly decorated. The very name "red" means "beautiful", "good", "light". He was removed with embroidered towels, popular prints, postcards. The most beautiful household utensils were placed on the shelves near the red corner, the most securities, items. Everywhere among Russians, the custom was widespread when laying a house to put money under the lower crown in all corners, and a larger coin was placed under the red corner.

Some authors associate the religious understanding of the red corner exclusively with Christianity. In their opinion, the only sacred center of the house in pagan times was the oven. They even interpret God's corner and stove as Christian and pagan centers. These scholars see in their mutual disposition a kind of illustration of the Russian dual faith, they simply replaced the more ancient ones in God's corner - pagan ones, and at first they undoubtedly coexisted with them there.

As for the stove ... let's think seriously, could the "kind" and "honest" Empress the Stove, in whose presence they did not dare say a swear word, under which, according to the concepts of the ancients, the soul of the hut - Brownie - lived - could she personify " darkness "? No way. It is much more likely that the stove was placed in the northern corner as an insurmountable obstacle to the forces of death and evil seeking to break into housing.

The relatively small space of the hut, about 20-25 square meters, was organized in such a way that a rather large family of seven to eight people was accommodated in it with more or less convenience. This was achieved due to the fact that each family member knew his place in the common space. Men usually worked, rested during the day in the male half of the hut, which included a front corner with icons and a bench near the entrance. During the day, women and children were in the women's quarters near the stove. Sleeping places have also been allocated. Old people slept on the floor near the door, on the stove or on the stove, on the golbets; children and single youth - under the shelves or on the shelves. In the warm season, adult married couples spent the night in cages, hallways, in cold weather - on a bench under the beds or on a platform near the stove.

Each family member knew his place at the table. The owner of the house sat under the icons during the family meal. His eldest son was located at right hand from the father, the second son is on the left, the third is next to the older brother. Children under marriageable age were seated on a bench running from the front corner along the facade. The women ate while sitting on side benches or stools. It was not supposed to break the once established order in the house unless absolutely necessary. The person who violated them could be severely punished.

On weekdays, the hut looked rather modest. There was nothing superfluous in it: the table stood without a tablecloth, the walls were without decorations. Everyday utensils were arranged in the stove corner and on the shelves.

On a festive day, the hut was transformed: the table was moved to the middle, covered with a tablecloth, festive utensils, which had previously been stored in crates, were put on the shelves.

The interior of the room differed from the interior of the hut by the presence of a Dutch woman instead of a Russian stove, or by the absence of a stove at all. The rest of the mansion attire, with the exception of the beds and the sleeping platform, repeated the motionless attire of the hut. The peculiarity of the room was that it was always ready to receive guests.

Benches were made under the windows of the hut, which did not belong to furniture, but formed part of the extension of the building and were fixed to the walls motionlessly: the board was cut into the wall of the hut with one end, and props were made on the other: legs, grandmothers, and pillars. In old huts, benches were decorated with a "edge" - a board nailed to the edge of the bench, hanging from it like a frill. Such shops were called "pubescent" or "with a canopy", "with a gazebo". In a traditional Russian dwelling, shops ran round the walls, starting from the entrance, and served for sitting, sleeping, and storing various household items. Each shop in the hut had its own name, associated either with the landmarks of the internal space, or with the ideas that developed in traditional culture about the confinement of the activities of a man or woman to a certain place in the house (men's, women's shops). Various items were stored under the benches, which, if necessary, were easy to get - axes, tools, shoes, etc. In traditional rituals and in the sphere of traditional norms of behavior, the shop acts as a place where not everyone is allowed to sit. So when entering a house, especially for strangers, it was customary to stand at the threshold until the owners invited them to go and sit down. The same applies to matchmakers: they went to the table and sat on the bench only by invitation. In the funeral rituals, the deceased was placed on a bench, but not on any one, but on the one located along the floorboards.

Long shop - a shop that differed from others in its length. Depending on the local tradition of distributing objects in the space of the house, the long shop could have a different place in the hut. In the Northern Russian and Central Russian provinces, in the Volga region, it stretched from the bunk to the red corner, along the side wall of the house. In the South Great Russian provinces, it went from the red corner along the wall of the facade. From the point of view of the spatial division of the house, a long shop, like a stove corner, was traditionally considered a women's place, where at the appropriate time they were engaged in certain women's work, such as spinning, knitting, embroidery, and sewing. The dead were placed on a long bench, always located along the floorboards. Therefore, in some provinces of Russia matchmakers never sat on this bench. Otherwise, their business could go wrong.

Short Shop - A shop that runs along the front wall of the house that faces the street. During the family meal, men were sitting on it.

The shop, located near the stove, was called kutnaya. Buckets of water, pots, cast iron were placed on it, freshly baked bread was laid.
The threshold shop ran along the wall where the door is located. It was used by women instead of a kitchen table and differed from other benches in the house by the absence of a border around the edge.
A ship bench is a bench that runs from the stove along the wall or door partition to the front wall of the house. The surface level of this bench is higher than that of other benches in the house. The front bench has swing or sliding doors or is closed with a curtain. Inside there are shelves for dishes, buckets, iron pots, pots.

The men's shop was called Konik. It was short and wide. In most parts of Russia, it was in the form of a box with a hinged flat lid or a box with sliding doors. The konik got its name, probably, thanks to the horse head carved from wood, which adorned its side. Konik was located in a residential part of a peasant house, near the door. It was considered a "men's" shop, as it was workplace men. Here they were engaged in small craft: weaved sandals, baskets, repaired harnesses, knitted fishing nets, etc. Under the bunk there were also the tools necessary for this work.

A seat on a bench was considered more prestigious than on a bench; the guest could judge the attitude of the owners towards him, depending on where he was seated - on a bench or on a bench.

Furniture and decoration

A necessary element of home decoration was a table serving for daily and festive meals. The table was one of the most ancient types of movable furniture, although the earliest tables were adobe and fixed. Such a table with adobe benches near it were found in the Pronsk dwellings of the 11th-13th centuries (Ryazan province) and in the Kiev dugout of the 12th century. The four legs of the table from the dugout in Kiev are racks dug into the ground. In a traditional Russian dwelling, a movable table always had a permanent place; it stood in the most honorable place - in the red corner, in which the icons were located. In North Russian houses, the table was always located along the floorboards, that is, with the narrower side to the front wall of the hut. In some places, for example, in the Upper Volga region, the table was set only for the duration of the meal, after eating it was placed sideways on the shelf under the icons. This was done so that there was more space in the hut.

In the forest zone of Russia, carpentry tables had a peculiar shape: a massive underframe, that is, the frame connecting the table legs, was taken by boards, the legs were made short and thick, the large tabletop was always removable and protruded behind the underframe in order to make it more comfortable to sit. In the underframe, a cabinet with double doors was made for dining utensils and bread needed for the day.

In traditional culture, in ritual practice, in the sphere of norms of behavior, etc., great importance was attached to the table. This is evidenced by its clear spatial fixation in the red corner. Any promotion of it from there can only be associated with a ritual or crisis situation. The exclusive role of the table was expressed in almost all rituals, one of the elements of which was the meal. It manifested itself with particular brightness in the wedding ceremony, in which almost every stage ended with a feast. The table was interpreted in the popular mind as "God's palm" giving daily bread, therefore, knocking on the table at which they eat was considered a sin. At normal, non-table time, only bread, usually wrapped in a tablecloth, and a salt shaker could be on the table.

In the sphere of traditional norms of behavior, the table has always been a place where people unite: the person who was invited to dine at the master's table was perceived as "one of our own."
The table was covered with a tablecloth. In a peasant hut, tablecloths were made from homespun fabric, both simple plain weave, and made using the technique of abusive and multi-thread weaving. Tablecloths used every day were sewn from two motley panels, usually with a checkered pattern (the most varied colors) or just a rough canvas. Such a tablecloth was used to cover the table during dinner, and after a meal, either they removed or covered the bread left on the table with it. Festive tablecloths were distinguished by the best quality of the fabric, such additional details as lace stitching between two panels, tassels, lace or fringe around the perimeter, as well as a pattern on the fabric.

In Russian life, the following types of benches were distinguished: saddle, portable and attached. Bench - a bench with a reclining back ("overhang") served for sitting and sleeping. If it was necessary to arrange a sleeping place, the backrest along the top, along the circular grooves made in the upper parts of the side limiters of the bench, was thrown to the other side of the bench, and the latter was moved to the bench, so that a kind of bed was formed, bounded in front by a "overhang". The backrest of the saddle bench was often decorated with through carvings, which significantly reduced its weight. Benches of this type were used mainly in urban and monastic life.

Portable bench - a bench with four legs or two blank boards, as needed, was attached to the table, used for sitting. If there was not enough space for sleeping, the bench could be moved and placed along the bench to increase the space for an extra bed. Portable benches were one of the oldest forms furniture from the Russians.
Side bench - a bench with two legs, located only at one end of the seat, the other end of such a bench was placed on the bench. Often this type of bench was made from a single piece of wood in such a way that the legs were two roots of the tree, chopped off at a certain length.

In the old days, a bench or a bench attached to the wall served as a bed, to which another bench was attached. On these lavas, a bed was laid, which consisted of three parts: a down jacket or feather beds, a headboard and pillows. A headboard or headrest is a headrest on which a pillow was placed. It is a wooden sloping plane on small blocks, in the back there could be a solid or lattice back, in the corners - carved or chiseled posts. There were two headboards - the lower one was called paper and was placed under the upper one, and a pillow was placed on the upper one. The bed was covered with a sheet of linen or silk fabric, and the top was covered with a blanket that went under the pillow. The beds were made more smartly on holidays or at weddings, more simply on ordinary days. In general, however, the beds were the property of only wealthy people, and even for those they stood more for show in their decoration, and the owners themselves more willingly slept on simple animal skins. For people of an average condition, felt was the usual bed, and the poor villagers slept on the stoves, putting their own clothes under their heads, or on bare benches.

The dishes were placed in the suppliers: these were pillars with numerous shelves between them. On the lower shelves, wider, they stored massive dishes, on the upper shelves, narrower, they put small dishes.

For storage of separately used dishes, a dishware served: a wooden shelf or an open shelf cabinet. The vessel could have the shape of a closed frame or be open at the top; often its side walls were decorated with carvings or had curly shapes (for example, oval). Above one or two pan shelves with outside a rail could be nailed to keep the dishes stable and to place the plates on the edge. As a rule, the dish was located above the ship's shop, close to the hostess's hand. It has long been a necessary detail in the immovable decoration of the hut.

The main decoration of the houses was made up of icons. The icons were placed on a shelf or open cabinet called a goddess. It was made of wood, often decorated with carvings and paintings. The Lady of God was quite often two-tier: new icons were placed in the lower tier, old, faded ones in the upper tier. It was always located in the red corner of the hut. In addition to the icons, objects consecrated in the church were kept on the shrine: holy water, pussy willow, Easter egg sometimes the gospel. Important documents were put there: bills, IOUs, payment notebooks, memorials. There was also a wing for sweeping icons. A curtain was often hung on the goddess, covering the icons, or the goddess. This kind of shelf or cabinet was common in all Russian huts, since, in the opinion of the peasants, the icons should have stood, and not hung in the corner of the hut.

Bozhnik was a narrow, long cloth of homespun canvas, decorated along one side and at the ends with embroidery, woven ornament, ribbons, lace. The god was hung out so as to cover the icons from above and from the sides, but did not cover the faces.

The decoration of the red corner in the form of a bird, measuring 10-25 cm, was called a dove. It is suspended from the ceiling in front of the images on a string or rope. Golubkov was made of wood (pine, birch), sometimes painted in red, blue, white, green. The tail and wings of such doves were made of splinters in the form of fans. Birds were also common, the body of which was made of straw, and the head, wings and tail were made of paper. The appearance of the image of a dove as a decoration of the red corner is associated with the Christian tradition, where the dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit.

The red corner was also decorated with a knuckle, a rectangular piece of fabric sewn from two pieces of white thin canvas or chintz. The size of the cuff can be different, usually 70 cm long, 150 cm wide. White knuckles were decorated along the lower edge with embroidery, woven patterns, ribbons, and lace. The nakutnik was attached to the corner under the images. At the same time, a deity or icons were girded with a deity on top.

The Old Believers considered it necessary to close the faces of the icons from prying eyes, so they were hung with the message of the good news. It consists of two stitched panels of white canvas, decorated with geometric or stylized floral embroidery in several rows with red cotton threads, red cotton stripes between the rows of embroidery, flounces along the bottom edge or lace. The canvas field, free from embroidery stripes, was filled with asterisks made with red threads. The message was hung in front of the icons, fixed on the wall or shrine with the help of fabric hinges. She was pulled apart only during prayer.

For the festive decoration of the hut, a towel was used - a panel of white fabric of home or less often factory production, trimmed with embroidery, woven colored patterns, ribbons, stripes of colored chintz, lace, sequins, braid, braid, fringe. It was usually decorated at the ends. The towel was rarely decorated. The nature and quantity of decorations, their arrangement, color, material - all this was determined by local tradition, as well as the purpose of the towel. They were hung on the walls, icons for major holidays such as Easter, Nativity of Christ, Pentecost (the day of the Holy Trinity), for the patronal holidays of the village, i.e. holidays in honor of the patron saint of the village, to the cherished days - holidays celebrating important events in the village. In addition, towels were hung out during weddings, at a christening dinner, on the day of a meal on the occasion of a son's return from military service or the arrival of a long-awaited family. Towels were hung on the walls making up the red corner of the hut and in the red corner. They were worn on wooden nails- "hooks", "matches" driven into the walls. According to custom, towels were a necessary part of a girl's dowry. It was customary to show them to her husband's relatives on the second day of the wedding feast. The young woman hung towels in the hut on top of her mother-in-law's towels so that everyone could admire her work. The number of towels, the quality of the linen, the skill of embroidery - all this made it possible to appreciate the diligence, accuracy, and taste of the young woman. The towel generally played a large role in the ritual life of the Russian countryside. It was an important attribute of wedding, native, funeral and memorial rituals. Very often it acted as an object of veneration, an object of special importance, without which the ritual of any ceremony would not be complete.

On the wedding day, the towel was used by the bride as a veil. Thrown over her head, it was supposed to protect her from the evil eye, damage at the most crucial moment of her life. The towel was used in the ceremony of "joining the young" before the crown: the hands of the bride and groom were tied with it "for ever and ever, for long years." A towel was presented to the midwife who took delivery, the godfather and godfather who baptized the baby. The towel was present in the "baba's porridge" ritual that took place after the birth of the child. However, the towel played a special role in the funeral and memorial rituals. According to the beliefs of Russian peasants, a towel hung on the window on the day of a man's death kept his soul for forty days. The slightest movement of the fabric was seen as a sign of her presence in the house. In the forties, the towel was shaken outside the village, thereby sending the soul from "our world" to the "other world".

All these actions with a towel were widespread in the Russian countryside. They were based on the ancient mythological ideas of the Slavs. The towel acted in them as a talisman, a sign of belonging to a certain family and clan collective, was interpreted as an object that embodied the souls of the ancestors of "parents" who carefully watched the life of the living.

This symbolism of the towel excluded its use for wiping hands, face, floor. For this purpose, they used a handkerchief, a wiping machine, a scraper, etc.

Many small wooden objects have disappeared without a trace over a thousand years, rotted, crumbled into dust. But not all. Something has been found by archaeologists, something may suggest a study cultural heritage kindred and neighboring peoples. A certain light is shed also by the later specimens recorded by ethnographers ... In a word, one can talk endlessly about the interior decoration of the Russian hut.

Utensil

It was difficult to imagine a peasant house without numerous utensils that had accumulated for decades, if not centuries, and literally filled the space. In the Russian countryside, utensils were called "everything movable in the house, dwelling," according to V. I. Dahl. In fact, utensils are the entire set of items that a person needs in his everyday life. Utensils are utensils for preparing, preparing and storing food, serving it on the table; various containers for storing household items, clothes; items for personal hygiene and home hygiene; items for kindling fire, storing and consuming tobacco, and for cosmetic accessories.

In the Russian countryside, mainly wooden pottery was used. Metal, glass, porcelain were less common. Wooden utensils according to the manufacturing technique could be hollowed out, bolted, cooper's, carpentry, turning. Utensils made of birch bark, woven from twigs, straw, pine roots were also in great use. Some of the necessary wooden items in the household were made by the efforts of the male half of the family. Most of the items were purchased at fairs, marketplaces, especially cooper and lathe utensils, the manufacture of which required special knowledge and tools.

Pottery was mainly used for cooking food in an oven and serving it on the table, sometimes for pickling and pickling vegetables.

Metal utensils traditional type was mainly copper, pewter or silver. Her presence in the house was a vivid testimony to the prosperity of the family, its frugality, and respect for family traditions. Such utensils were sold only at the most critical moments in family life.

The utensils that filled the house were made, purchased, and stored by Russian peasants, naturally proceeding from their purely practical use. However, in separate, from the point of view of the peasant, important moments in life, almost every of its objects turned from a utilitarian thing into a symbolic one. At one of the moments of the wedding ceremony, the dowry chest turned from a container for storing clothes into a symbol of the prosperity of the family, the diligence of the bride. The spoon, turned upward with the notch of the scoop, meant that it would be used at the memorial meal. An extra spoon on the table foreshadowed the arrival of guests, etc. Some utensils had a very high semiotic status, others a lower one.

Bodnya, a household item, was a wooden container for storing clothes and small household items. In the Russian countryside, two types of bodnies were known. The first type was a long hollowed-out wooden deck, the side walls of which were made of solid planks. A hole with a lid on leather hinges was at the top of the deck. Bodnya of the second type is a dugout or cooper's tub with a lid, 60-100 cm high, with a bottom diameter of 54-80 cm. Bodnya were usually locked and kept in cages. From the second half of the XIX century. began to be replaced by chests.

To store bulky household supplies in the stands, barrels, tubs, baskets of various sizes and volumes were used. In the old days, barrels were the most common container for both liquids and loose bodies, for example: grain, flour, flax, fish, dried meat, hemp and various small goods.

Tubs were used for storing pickles, ferments, urinating, kvass, water for future use, for storing flour and cereals. As a rule, the tubs were made by cooperage, i.e. were made of wooden planks - rivets tied with hoops. they were made in the form of a truncated cone or cylinder. they could have three legs, which were a continuation of the rivets. The necessary accessory for the tub was a circle and a lid. The products placed in the tub were pressed in a circle, the oppression was placed on top. This was done so that pickles and soaks were always in the brine, and did not float to the surface. The lid kept the food from dust. The mug and lid had small handles.

A basket was called an open cylindrical container made of bast, the bottom is flat, made of wooden planks or bark. It was done with or without a spoon handle. The dimensions of the basket were determined by the purpose and were named accordingly: "filling", "bridge", "buttock", "mycelium", etc. If the basket was intended for storing bulk products, then it was closed with a flat lid that was put on top.

For many centuries, the main kitchen vessel in Russia was a pot - a cooking utensil in the form of an earthenware vessel with a wide open top, having a low rim, and a round body gradually tapering towards the bottom. The pots could be different sizes: from a small pot for 200-300 g of porridge to a huge pot that can hold up to 2-3 buckets of water. The shape of the pot did not change during its entire existence and was well adapted for cooking in a Russian oven. They were rarely ornamented; narrow concentric circles or a chain of shallow dimples, triangles squeezed out around the rim or on the shoulders of the vessel served as their decoration. In a peasant house there were about a dozen or more pots of various sizes. They treasured the pots, tried to handle them carefully. If it cracked, it was braided with birch bark and used to store food.

The pot is a household item, utilitarian, in the ritual life of the Russian people it acquired additional ritual functions. Scientists believe that it is one of the most ritualized household items. In the beliefs of the people, the pot was interpreted as a living anthropomorphic creature that has a throat, a handle, a nose, and a shard. It is customary to divide pots into pots that carry in themselves feminine, and pots with masculine essence embedded in them. so, in the southern provinces of European Russia, the hostess, buying a pot, tried to determine its gender and gender: whether it is a pot or a potty. It was believed that cooked food in a pot would be tastier than in a pot.

It is also interesting to note that in the popular consciousness a parallel is clearly drawn between the fate of the pot and the fate of a person. The pot has found itself a fairly widespread use in funeral rituals. So, in most of the territory of European Russia, the custom was widespread to break pots when taking out the dead from the house. This custom was perceived as a statement of the departure of a person from life, home, village. In the Olonets lips. this idea was expressed in a slightly different way. After the funeral, a pot filled with hot coals in the house of the deceased was placed upside down on the grave, while the coals crumbled and went out. In addition, the deceased was washed with water taken from a new pot two hours after death. After being consumed, it was carried away from home and buried in the ground or thrown into the water. It was believed that the last is concentrated in a pot of water. vitality a person who is drained while washing the deceased. If such a pot is left in the house, then the deceased will return from the other world and frighten the people living in the hut.

The pot was also used as an attribute of some ceremonial activities at weddings. So, according to custom, "wedding men", led by a friend and matchmakers, in the morning came to beat the pots to the room where the wedding night of the young people took place, while they had not yet left. Beating pots was perceived as a demonstration of a turning point in the fate of a girl and a guy who became a woman and a man.

In the beliefs of the Russian people, the pot often acts as a talisman. In Vyatka province, for example, to protect chickens from hawks and crows, an old pot was hung upside down on the fence. This was done necessarily on Maundy Thursday before sunrise, when the witchcraft was especially strong. The pot in this case, as it were, absorbed them into itself, received additional magical power.

To serve food on the table, such table utensils as a dish were used. It was usually round or oval in shape, shallow, on a low base, with wide edges. In peasant life, wooden dishes were mainly common. Dishes for the holidays were decorated with paintings. They depicted plant shoots, small geometric figures, fantastic animals and birds, fish and skates. The dish was used both in everyday and festive use. On weekdays, the platter served fish, meat, porridge, cabbage, cucumbers and other "thick" dishes, eaten after a stew or cabbage soup. On holidays, in addition to meat and fish, pancakes, pies, buns, cheesecakes, gingerbread cookies, nuts, sweets and other sweets were served on the platter. In addition, there was a custom to offer guests a glass of wine, mead, brew, vodka or beer on a platter. The horses of the festive meal were indicated by the removal of an empty dish, covered with another or with a cloth.

The dishes were used during folk ritual actions, fortune-telling, and magic procedures. In maternity rituals, a dish with water was used during the rite of magical cleansing of a woman in labor and a midwife, which was performed on the third day after childbirth. The woman in labor "silvered the grandmother", that is. she threw silver coins into the water poured by the midwife, and the midwife washed her face, chest and hands. In the wedding ceremony, the dish was used for the general display of ritual objects and the presentation of gifts. The dish was also used in some rituals of the annual cycle. For example, in the Kursk province. on the day of Basil of Caesarea, January 1 (January 14), according to custom, a fried pig was laid on the dish - a symbol of the wealth of the house expected in the new year. The head of the family raised the dish with the pig to the icons three times, and all the rest prayed to St. Vasily about the numerous offspring of livestock. The dish was also an attribute of Christmas-time fortune-telling of the girls, who were called "under the dish". In the Russian village, there was a ban on its use on some days of the folk calendar. It was impossible to serve a dish with food on the table on the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist on August 29 (September 11), since, according to Christian legend, on this day the severed head of Solomey was presented to her mother Herodias on a platter. At the end of the 18th and 19th centuries. a dish was also called a bowl, plate, bowl, saucer.

A bowl was used for drinking and eating. A wooden bowl is a hemispherical vessel on a small pallet, sometimes with handles or rings instead of handles, without a lid. Often an inscription was made along the edge of the bowl. Either along the crown or over the entire surface, the bowl was decorated with painting, including plant and zoomorphic ornaments (bowls with Severodvinsk painting are widely known). Bowls of various sizes were made depending on their use. Bowls big size, weighing up to 800 g or more, were used along with braces, bros and ladles during holidays and eves for drinking beer and mash, when many guests gathered. In monasteries, large bowls were used to serve kvass on the table. Small bowls, hollowed out of clay, were used in peasant life during dinner - for serving cabbage soup, stew, fish soup, etc. on the table. During lunch, food was served on the table in a common bowl, separate dishes were used only during the holidays. They began to eat at a sign from the owner; they did not talk during the meal. The guests who entered the house were treated to the same things that they ate themselves, and from the same dishes.

The chalice was used in various rituals, especially in the rites of the life cycle. It was also used in calendar rituals. Signs and beliefs were associated with the cup: at the end of the festive dinner it was customary to drink the cup to the bottom to the health of the owner and hostess, who did not do this was considered an enemy. Draining the bowl, they wished the owner: "Good luck, victory, health, and so that no more blood remains in his enemies than in this bowl." The bowl is also mentioned in conspiracies.

A mug was used to drink various drinks. A mug is a cylindrical dish of various sizes with a handle. Clay and wood-carved mugs were decorated with painting, and wooden ones - with carvings, the surface of some mugs was covered with birch bark weaving. They were used in everyday and festive use, they were also the subject of ritual actions.

A glass was used to drink intoxicated drinks. It is a small circular vessel with a leg and a flat bottom, sometimes there could be a handle and a lid. Charkas were usually painted or decorated with carvings. This vessel was used as an individual dish for drinking mash, beer, hop honey, and later - wine and vodka on holidays, since drinking was allowed only on holidays and such drinks were a festive treat for guests. Drinking was taken for the health of others, not for oneself. Bringing the guest a glass of wine, the host expected a return glass from him.

Charku was most often used in a wedding ceremony. A cup with wine was offered to the newlyweds by the priest after the wedding. They took turns taking three sips of the glass. After finishing the wine, the husband threw the glass under his feet and trampled it at the same time as his wife, saying: "Let those who will sow discord and dislike between us be trampled under our feet." It was believed that who of the spouses would step on her first would dominate the family. The owner brought the first glass of vodka at the wedding feast to the sorcerer, who was invited to the wedding as an honored guest in order to save the young from spoilage. The sorcerer himself asked for the second glass, and only after that he began to protect the newlyweds from evil forces.

Before the forks appeared, the only tool for eating was spoons. They were mostly made of wood. The spoons were decorated with paintings or carvings. Various signs associated with spoons were observed. It was impossible to put the spoon so that it rests with the handle on the table, and with the other end on the plate, since on the spoon, like over a bridge, unclean forces can penetrate into the bowl. It was not allowed to knock on the table with spoons, because from this "the evil one rejoices" and "the evil ones" (creatures who personify poverty and misfortune) cling to dinner. it was considered a sin to remove the spoons from the table in the spell, on the eve of the fasting times set by the church, so the spoons remained on the table until morning. You cannot put an extra spoon, otherwise there will be an extra mouth or evil spirits will sit down at the table. As a gift, it was necessary to bring a spoon for housewarming, along with a loaf of bread, salt and money. The spoon was widely used in ritual activities.

The traditional utensils for the Russian feast were valleys, ladles, brothers, brackets. Endows were not considered valuable items that needed to be displayed in the best place in the house, as, for example, was done with a brother or ladles.

A poker, a grab, a frying pan, a bread shovel, a pomelo are objects associated with the hearth and the stove.

The poker is a short, thick iron rod with a curved end that was used to stir the coals in the oven and to sweep away the heat. With the help of a grab, pots and cast iron were moved in the oven, they could also be removed or installed in the oven. It is a metal bow mounted on a long wooden handle. Before planting the loaves in the oven under the oven, they were cleared of coal and ash, sweeping it with a broom. A pomelo is a long wooden handle, to the end of which pine, juniper branches, straw, a washcloth or a rag were tied. With the help of a bread shovel, they planted bread and pies in the oven, and also took them out. All these utensils participated in various ritual actions.

Thus, the Russian hut, with its special, well-organized space, immovable attire, movable furniture, decorations and utensils, was a single whole, constituting the whole world for the peasant.

One of the symbols of Russia, which, without exaggeration, the whole world admires, is a wooden hut. Indeed, some of them are striking in their incredible beauty and uniqueness. About the most unusual wooden houses- in the review of "My Planet".

Where: Sverdlovsk region, village Kunara

In the small village of Kunara, located 20 km from Nevyansk, there is a fabulous tower, recognized in 1999 at the homemade wooden architecture competition as the best in our country. The building, reminiscent of a large gingerbread house from a fairy tale, was created by hand by one and only person - the blacksmith Sergei Kirillov. He created this beauty for 13 years - from 1954 to 1967. All decorations on the facade of the Gingerbread House are made of wood and metal. And children holding posters with the inscriptions: "Let there always be sunshine ...", "Fly, pigeons, fly ...", "Let there always be mother ...", and rockets ready to soar up, and riders on horseback, and the sun, and heroes, and symbols of the USSR ... And also many different curlicues and unusual colors. Anyone can enter the courtyard and admire the man-made miracle: the widow of Kirillov does not lock the gate.

Where: Smolensk region, the village of Flenovo, the historical and architectural complex "Teremok"

This historical and architectural complex includes four buildings that used to belong to the famous philanthropist Maria Tenisheva. The Main Estate, created in 1902 according to the project of Sergei Malyutin, deserves special attention. This carved fabulous little house is a real masterpiece of Russian small architecture. There is an incredibly beautiful window on the main facade of the house. In the center, above the carved frames, the Firebird with a coquettish tuft sat down to rest, graceful skates rearing up on either side of it. The carved sun warms the wonder animals with its rays, and the ornate fabulous patterns of flowers, waves and other curls amaze with their fantastic airiness. The log building of the tower is supported by green scaly mountain snakes, and under the arch of the roof it has settled down for two months. On the other side of the window is the Swan Princess, "floating" on wooden waves under a carved sky with the Moon, moon and stars. Everything in Flenovo was decorated in this style. It is a pity that this beauty has survived only in photographs.

Where: Irkutsk, st. Friedrich Engels, 21

Today's House of Europe is the former estate of the Shastins merchants. This house is one of the hallmarks of Irkutsk. It was built in the middle of the 19th century, but only in 1907 it was decorated with carvings and was called Lacy. Fishnet wooden decorations, graceful patterns of the façade and windows, amazingly beautiful turrets, intricate outlines of the roof, figured wooden posts, relief carvings of shutters and platbands make this mansion completely inimitable. All decor elements were cut by hand, without patterns and templates.

Where: Karelia, Medvezhyegorsk district, about. Kizhi, Museum-reserve of wooden architecture "Kizhi"

This two-storey house, similar to a richly decorated tower, was built in the village of Oshevnevo in the second half of the 19th century. Later he was transported to about. Kizhi from the Bolshoy Klimetsky Island. Both residential and utility rooms are located under one large wooden hut: this type of building was formed in the North in the old days due to the harsh winters and the peculiarities of the life of local peasants.
The interiors of the house were recreated in the middle of the 20th century. They represent the traditional decoration of the home of a wealthy peasant of the North at the end of the 19th century. Massive wooden benches stretched along the walls of the hut, above them were crowned shelves, in the corner there was a large bed. And, of course, a must-have oven. Authentic things of that time are also kept here: earthenware and wooden dishes, birch bark and copper items, children's toys (horse, sled, weaving machine). In the upper room you can see a sofa, a sideboard, chairs and a table made by local craftsmen, a bed, a mirror: common objects of everyday life.
From the outside, the house looks very elegant: galleries surround it on three sides, carved platbands on the windows ... The decoration of the three balconies is completely different: a chiseled baluster serves as a fence for the western and southern balconies, while the northern one is completely laced with flat gorges. The decor of the facades is distinguished by a combination of sawing and volumetric carving. And the combination of oval protrusions and rectangular teeth is a method of "cutting" patterns typical for the regions of Zaonezhie.

Where: Moscow, Pogodinskaya st., 12a

There are very few old wooden houses left in Moscow. But in Khamovniki, among the stone buildings, there is a historical building built in the traditions of Russian wooden architecture in 1856. Pogodinskaya hut - wooden blockhouse famous Russian historian Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin.

This high blockhouse, built of solid logs, was built by the architect N.V. Nikitin and presented to Pogodin by businessman V.A. Kokorev. The gable roof of the old house is decorated with a carved wood pattern - saw-cut carvings. The shutters of the windows, "towels", "valances" and other details of the hut were also removed with wooden lace. And the bright blue color of the building, coupled with snow-white decorations, make it look like a house from some old Russian fairy tale. Only the present at the Pogodinskaya hut is not fabulous at all - now there are offices in the house.

Where: Irkutsk, st. December Events, 112

The city estate of V.P.Sukachev was created in 1882. Surprisingly, over the past years, the historical integrity of this building, its amazing beauty and even most of the adjacent park area have remained practically unchanged. Log house with a hipped roof it is decorated with saw-cut carvings: figures of dragons, fantastic stylized images of flowers, intricate interlacing of the fence on the porch, quilts, belts of cornices - everything speaks of the rich imagination of Siberian craftsmen and is somewhat reminiscent of oriental ornaments. Actually, oriental motives in the design of the estate are quite understandable: at that time, cultural and economic ties with China and Mongolia were developing, which influenced the artistic taste of Siberian craftsmen.
Nowadays, the estate has not only retained its magnificent appearance and amazing atmosphere, but also lives a fairly rich life. It often hosts concerts, musical and literary evenings, balls, master classes for young guests in modeling, drawing, and making patchwork dolls.