Perverted amusements of the wealthy in the 18th century. The cruel entertainments of Chinese rich women, as they were

The life of provincial noblewomen, which took place far from large cities, had many points of contact with the life of peasants and retained a number of traditional features, because it was family-oriented and caring for children.

If the day was supposed to be an ordinary weekday and there were no guests in the house, then the morning food was served simple. Breakfast included hot milk, currant leaf tea, “cream porridge,” “coffee, tea, eggs, bread and butter, and honey.” The children ate “an hour or two before the elders’ lunch,” and “one of the nannies was present at the meal.”

After breakfast, the children sat down to their homework, and for the mistress of the estate, all morning and afternoon hours were spent in endless household chores. There were especially many of them when the mistress did not have a husband or assistant in the person of her son and was forced to dominate herself.

Families in which from early morning “the mother was busy with work - housekeeping, estate affairs ... and the father with service”, there were Russia XVIII- beginning of the 19th century plenty. Private correspondence speaks about this. The housewife was seen as an assistant who had to “manage the house autocratically or, better yet, without permission” (G.S. Vinsky). “Everyone knew his job and did it diligently,” if the housewife was diligent. The number of servants under the control of the landowner was sometimes very large. According to foreigners, there were from 400 to 800 servants in a rich landowner’s estate. “Now I myself can’t believe where to keep so many people, but then it was customary,” E. P. Yankova was surprised, remembering her childhood, which came at the turn of the 18th–19th centuries.

The life of a noblewoman on her estate was monotonous and leisurely. Morning chores (in the summer - in the “fruitful garden”, in the field, at other times of the year - around the house) were completed by a relatively early lunch, then followed by an afternoon nap - a daily routine unthinkable for a city woman! In the summer, on hot days, “at about five in the afternoon” (after sleep) they went for a swim, and in the evening, after dinner (which “was even more hearty, since it was not so hot”), they “cooled off” on the porch, “letting the children go to rest.” .
The main thing that diversified this monotony was the “celebrations and amusements” that took place during the frequent visits of guests.

In addition to conversations, games, primarily card games, were a form of joint leisure time for provincial landowners. The mistresses of the estates - like the old countess in The Queen of Spades - loved this activity.

Provincial ladies and their daughters, who eventually moved to the city and became residents of the capital, assessed their life in the estate as “rather vulgar,” but while they lived there, they did not think so. What was unacceptable and reprehensible in the city, in the village seemed possible and decent: rural landowners could “stay in their dressing gowns all day long,” did not have fashionable, intricate hairstyles, “had dinner at 8 o’clock in the evening,” when many townspeople “had time to have lunch,” etc.

If the lifestyle of provincial young ladies and landowners was not too constrained by etiquette norms and assumed freedom of individual whims, then the everyday life of the capital's noblewomen was predetermined by generally accepted norms. Socialite ladies who lived in the 18th - early 19th centuries. in the capital or in a large Russian city, they led a life that was only partly similar to the lifestyle of women living on estates, and certainly not similar to the life of a peasant.

The day of a city woman of the privileged class began somewhat, and sometimes much later, than that of provincial landowners. St. Petersburg (the capital!) demanded greater compliance with etiquette and time rules and daily routine; in Moscow, as V.N. Golovina noted, comparing life there with the capital, “the lifestyle (was) simple and unashamed, without the slightest etiquette” and should, in her opinion, “please everyone”: the life of the city itself began “ at 9 o’clock in the evening,” when all “the houses were open,” and “the morning and afternoon could (were) spent as you wish.”

Most noblewomen in the cities spent their mornings and afternoons “in public,” exchanging news about friends and acquaintances. Therefore, unlike rural landowners, city women started with makeup: “In the morning we blushed slightly so that the face would not be too red...” After the morning toilet and a fairly light breakfast (for example, “of fruit, curdled milk and excellent mocha coffee”) it was time to think about the outfit: even on an ordinary day, a noblewoman in the city could not afford carelessness in clothes, shoes without heels (until the fashion for empire-style simplicity and slippers instead of shoes came), or lack of hairstyle. M. M. Shcherbatov mentioned with mockery that other “young women,” having had their hair done for some long-awaited holiday, “were forced to sit and sleep until the day of departure, so as not to spoil their hair.” And although, according to the Englishwoman Lady Rondeau, Russian men of that time looked at “women only as funny and pretty toys that could entertain,” women themselves often subtly understood the possibilities and limits of their own power over men associated with a well-chosen costume or jewelry.

Aristocrats were specially taught from a young age the ability to “fit” themselves into the situation, to conduct a conversation on equal terms with any person from a member of the imperial family to a commoner (“Her conversation can please both the princess and the merchant’s wife, and each of them will be satisfied with the conversation”). We had to communicate daily and a lot. When assessing female character and “virtues,” it was no coincidence that many memoirists emphasized the ability of the women they described to be pleasant interlocutors. Conversations were the main means of exchanging information for city women and filled up most of the day for many.

Unlike the provincial-rural one, the urban way of life required adherence to etiquette rules (sometimes to the point of stiffness) - and at the same time, by contrast, it allowed for originality, individuality of female characters and behavior, the possibility of a woman’s self-realization not only in the family circle and not only in the role of a wife or mother, but also a maid of honor, a courtier or even a lady of state.

Most of the women who dreamed of looking like “socialites”, “having titles, wealth, nobility, clung to the court, exposing themselves to humiliation”, just to “achieve the condescending gaze” of the powers that be - and they saw in this not only a “reason” for visiting public spectacles and celebrations, but also his life goal. The mothers of young girls, who understood the role that well-chosen lovers from among the aristocrats close to the court could play in the fate of their daughters, did not hesitate to enter into unburdensome intimate relationships themselves, and “throw” their daughters “into the arms” of those who were in favor. In the rural provinces, such a model of behavior for a noblewoman was unthinkable, but in the city, especially the capital, all this became the norm.

But it was not such purely feminine “gatherings” that made the difference in the social life of the capitals. Townswomen of the merchant and bourgeois classes tried to imitate the aristocrats, but the general level of education and spiritual needs was lower among them. Rich merchants considered it a blessing to marry their daughter to a “noble” or to become related to a noble family, but meeting a noblewoman among merchants was common in the 18th and early 19th centuries. the same rarity as a merchant's wife in the noble.

The entire merchant family, unlike the noble family, got up at dawn - “very early, at 4 o’clock, in winter at 6.” After tea and a fairly hearty breakfast (in merchants and, more broadly, urban environments, it became customary to “eat tea” for breakfast and generally drink tea for a long time), the owner of the family and the adult sons who helped him went to bargaining; Among small traders, the wife often worked together with the head of the family in the shop or at the bazaar. Many merchants saw in their wife “an intelligent friend, whose advice is valuable, whose advice must be asked, and whose advice is often followed.” The main daily responsibility of women from merchant and bourgeois families was household chores. If the family had the means to hire servants, then the most difficult types of daily work were performed by visiting or live-in maids. “The Chelyadins, as everywhere else, were livestock; those close to me... had the best attire and contents, others... - only what was needed, and then thriftily.” Wealthy merchants could afford to maintain a whole staff of domestic helpers, and in the mornings the housekeeper and maids, nannies and janitors, girls taken into the house for sewing, mending, mending and cleaning, laundresses and cooks, over whom the housewives “reigned”, received orders from the mistress of the house. , managing each with equal vigilance.”

The bourgeois women and merchant women themselves were, as a rule, burdened with a lot of everyday responsibilities for organizing life at home (and every fifth family in the average Russian city was headed by a widowed mother). Meanwhile, their daughters led an idle lifestyle (“like spoiled young children”). It was characterized by monotony and boredom, especially in provincial cities. Rarely among merchant daughters was well-educated in reading and writing and was interested in literature (“...science was a monster,” N. Vishnyakov sneered, talking about the youth of his parents at the beginning of the 19th century), unless marriage introduced her into the circle of the educated nobility.

The most common type of women's leisure in bourgeois and merchant families was needlework. Most often they embroidered, wove lace, crocheted and knitted. The nature of needlework and its practical significance were determined by the material capabilities of the family: girls from the poor and middle merchant classes prepared their own dowry; For the rich, handicrafts were more of a form of entertainment. They combined work with a conversation, for which they met specifically: in the summer near the house, in the garden (at the dacha), in the winter - in the living room, and for those who did not have it - in the kitchen. The main topics of conversation among merchant daughters and their mothers were not the latest in literature and art (like among noblewomen), but everyday news - the merits of certain suitors, dowries, fashion, events in the city. The older generation, including mothers of families, amused themselves by playing cards and lotto. Singing and playing music were less popular among the bourgeois and merchant families: they were practiced for show in order to emphasize their “nobility,” and sometimes performances were even staged in the houses of the provincial bourgeoisie.

One of the most popular forms of entertainment in the third estate was guesting. The families of “very wealthy” merchants “lived widely and received a lot.” The joint feast of men and women, which appeared during the times of Peter the Great's assemblies, by the end of the century, from the exception (previously, women were present only at wedding feasts) became the norm.

There were more similarities than differences between the everyday life of the middle and small merchants and peasants.

For the majority of peasant women - as numerous studies of Russian peasant life, conducted for almost two centuries, have shown - home and family were the fundamental concepts of their existence, “lada”. Peasants made up the majority of the non-urban population, predominant (87 percent) in Russian Empire XVIII - early XIX centuries. Men and women made up approximately equal shares in peasant families.

The everyday life of rural women - and they were repeatedly described in the historical and ethnographic literature of the 19th-20th centuries. - remained difficult. They were filled with work equal in severity to men's work, since there was no noticeable distinction between men's and women's work in the village. In the spring, in addition to participating in the sowing season and tending to the garden, women usually wove and bleached canvases. In the summer, they “suffered” in the field (mowed, tedded, baled, stacked hay, tied sheaves and threshed them with flails), squeezed oil, tore and ruffled flax and hemp, seized fish, nursed offspring (calves, piglets), not counting everyday work in the barnyard (manure removal, treatment, feeding and milking). Autumn, the time for food procurement, was also the time when peasant women crumpled and carded wool and insulated barnyards. In winter, rural women “worked hard” at home, preparing clothes for the whole family, knitting stockings and socks, nets, sashes, weaving harness holders, embroidering and making lace and other decorations for festive outfits and the outfits themselves.

To this were added daily and especially Saturday cleaning, when the floors and benches in the huts were washed, and the walls, ceilings and floors were scraped with knives: “Leading a house is not the wing of vengeance.”

Peasant women slept three to four hours a day in the summer, exhausted from overload (overwork) and suffering from illness. Vivid descriptions of chicken huts and unsanitary conditions in them can be found in the report of the Moscow district leader of the nobility on the estates of the Sheremetevs. The most common disease was fever, caused by living in chicken huts, where it was hot in the evening and at night and cold in the morning.

The hard work of the farmer forced Russian peasants to live in undivided, multi-generational families that were constantly regenerating and were extremely stable. In such families, there was not one, but several women “in the wings”: mother, sisters, wives of older brothers, sometimes aunts and nieces. The relationship between several “housewives” under one roof was not always cloudless; in everyday squabbles there was a lot of “envy, slander, scolding and enmity”, which is why, as ethnographers and historians of the 19th century believed, “the best families were broken up and cases were given to ruinous divisions” (of common property). In fact, the reasons for family divisions could be not only emotional and psychological factors, but also social ones (the desire to avoid conscription: a wife and children were not left without a breadwinner, and from an undivided family, several healthy men could be “shared” into soldiers, despite their “seven family” ; according to the decree of 1744, if the breadwinner was taken from the family to become a recruit, his wife became “free from the landowner,” but the children remained in a state of serfdom). There were also material benefits (the opportunity to increase property status if living separately).

Family divisions became common already in the 19th century, and at the time we are considering they remained quite rare. On the contrary, multigenerational and fraternal families were very typical. The women in them were expected - no matter what - to be able to get along with each other and run the house together.

Large, and even more significant than in the everyday life of the privileged classes, were grandmothers in multi-generational peasant families, who, by the way, in those days were often barely over thirty. Grandmothers - if they were not old or sick - "equally" participated in household chores, which, due to their labor intensity, representatives of different generations often did together: they cooked, washed floors, boiled (soaked in lye, boiled or steamed in cast iron with ash) clothes . Less labor-intensive responsibilities were strictly distributed between the eldest woman-housewife and her daughters, daughters-in-law, and daughters-in-law. They lived relatively amicably if the bolshak (the head of the family) and the big woman (as a rule, his wife; however, the big woman could also be the widowed mother of the big woman) treated everyone equally. Family Council consisted of adult men, but the big woman took part in it. In addition, she managed everything in the house, went to the market, and allocated food for the everyday and holiday tables. She was helped by the eldest daughter-in-law or all the daughters-in-law in turn.

The most unenviable lot was the lot of younger daughters-in-law or daughters-in-law: “To work is what they force you to do, but to eat what you are given.” The daughters-in-law had to ensure that there was water and firewood in the house at all times; on Saturdays - they carried water and armfuls of firewood for the bath, heated a special stove while in the acrid smoke, and prepared brooms. The younger daughter-in-law or daughter-in-law helped the older women steam - lashed them with a broom, doused the steamed cold water, prepared and served hot herbal or currant infusions (“tea”) after the bath - “earned my bread.”

Starting a fire, warming up a Russian stove, and daily cooking for the whole family required dexterity, skill and physical strength. Peasant families ate from one large vessel - a cast-iron pot or bowl, which was put into the oven with a handle and taken out of it: it was not easy for a young and weak daughter-in-law to cope with such a task.

The older women in the family meticulously checked whether the young women followed traditional methods of baking and cooking. Any innovations were met with hostility or rejected. But even young women did not always humbly endure excessive claims from their husband’s relatives. They defended their rights to a tolerable life: they complained, ran away from home, and resorted to “witchcraft.”

In the autumn-winter period, all the women in the peasant house spun and weaved for the needs of the family. When it got dark, they sat around the fire, continuing to talk and work (“playing twilight”). And if other housework fell mainly on married women, then spinning, sewing, mending and darning clothes were traditionally considered girlish activities. Sometimes mothers did not let their daughters leave the house for gatherings without “work”, forcing them to take knitting, yarn or thread with them for unwinding.

Despite the severity of the daily life of peasant women, there was a place in it not only for everyday life, but also for holidays - calendar, labor, temple, family.
Peasant girls, and young ones too married women often took part in evening festivities, gatherings, round dances and outdoor games, where speed of reaction was valued. “It was considered a great disgrace” if a participant led for a long time in a game where she had to overtake her opponent. Late in the evening or in bad weather, peasant girlfriends (separately - married, separately - “unmarried”) would gather at someone’s house, alternating work with entertainment.

In the village environment, more than in any other environment, customs developed over generations were observed. Russian peasant women of the 18th - early 19th centuries. remained their main guardians. Innovations in lifestyle and ethical standards that affected the privileged segments of the population, especially in cities, had a very weak impact on the everyday life of the representatives of the majority of the population of the Russian Empire.

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Any rich Indian woman usually employed a number of maids, whose duty was to bathe, anoint, massage and generally decorate their mistress. This is still a custom in modern India. Close contact with maidservants or sakhis usually develops into a sapphic relationship, especially in unmarried, single or widowed women.

The KAMA SUTRA describes how women can use their mouths on each other's yoni and how to satisfy sexual desires by using bulbs, roots or fruits of the same shape as the lingam. Unlike male homosexuality, sapphism was not considered sinful and was not a crime under Hindu law. In miniatures from the medieval period, women are often depicted intimately caressing each other. Paintings illustrating the themes of Krishna and milkmaids often depict the gopis in sensual fun with each other.

There are references in Buddhist and Hindu tantric literature to the transcendental and generative power inherent in sisterhood. Taoist teachings especially emphasize this point of view. Five clearly distinguishable categories of sapphism are known to modern Hinduism. The usual form of Western lesbianism, very aggressive and satiated with playing gender roles, is the lowest. The Indians view it as degenerate and far removed from the higher, more spiritual forms of sisterhood practiced in the East.

There were significant connections between Egypt and South India. South India was famous for its rich silks, spices, women and temple dancers. There was no law condemning sapphism in ancient Egyptian society. Archaeological excavations show that women were raised in close contact with each other. The paintings on the tombs depict maids caressing their mistresses and show houses in the Indian style. In temple communities, dancers lived together and sisterhood was encouraged.

Jewish law does not condemn Sapphism.

In Islamic society, where polygamy was

quite common, lesbianism has always been popular, both in the harem and outside it. It is curious that Muhammad was believed to have declared lesbianism an illegal practice, especially since the thirteenth-century Arab historian Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi wrote: “A woman who has not repeatedly tasted the delights of another woman’s body does not exist in our region.” Arab fears that women will gain power may explain this contradiction. According to the Arabs, women were property and status symbols to be controlled, not elevated or liberated through the power of mystical sex. The enlightened view of femininity expressed in the Tantras is not part of Arab thought.

Two women have fun with each other on the bed. From an eighteenth century painting, Rajasthan.

A noblewoman with six maids. They are busy bathing, drying, anointing and decorating their owner.

From an eighteenth century miniature, Rajasthan.

In many Pagan cultures around the world, intimate sexual contact between women is considered natural, especially in matriarchal societies. Most tribal groups in Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands and South America include sapphism as an integral part of the socio-religious system. For example, a woman of the Paia group of the African Bantu tribe is allowed to lose her virginity

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An Egyptian girl serves a lady.

From a painting from the period of the Eighteenth Dynasty (1567-1320 BC).

Women musicians and dancers.

From an Egyptian painting from the Eighteenth Dynasty (1567-1320 BC).

only with the help of another woman. This woman is carefully chosen by her and becomes her "sister", living with her for three days every month, during which time they practice sapphism. Women of the Luduku tribe in Congo also pair up in early age. Among the tribes in New Guinea it is common for a girl to perform oral lovemaking on her older girlfriends; in doing so, she believes that she is absorbing some of their feminine wisdom.

In China and Japan, sapphism is also very common. According to Taoism, a woman has an unlimited supply of Yin essence, which is reproduced every month with the completion of her menstrual cycle. Concept

that women nourish each other's life-giving essence is one of the fundamental principles of Taoist teaching.

Sisterhood is completely misunderstood in the West. Recent surveys indicate that a large proportion of Western women have had some form of sapphic experience in their lives. However, in the West it is customary to associate sapphism with depravity and make no distinction between

Forms of lesbianism. The most famous Western female homosexual was the Greek poet Sappho. Most of her writings were destroyed in 1073 AD. e. by order of Pope Gregory VII.

Until 1917, merchants were favorite targets of newspaper feuilletonists and cartoonists. Who hasn’t practiced wit at the address and “your degrees.” What were they like in reality - Russian rich people? How did you spend your wealth, how did you have fun?...

Merchants Club

First of all, the Russian merchant was famous as a lover of good food. In Moscow, a distinctive feature of the Merchant Club was the desire to emphasize in every possible way the superiority of the money aces over the pillar noble aristocracy, which was losing its former importance in the state.

Merchants Club in Moscow

If the nobles who had not yet gone bankrupt preferred French cuisine, the merchants in their club emphasized ancient Russian dishes: “sterlet fish soup; two-yard sturgeon; beluga in brine; “banquet” veal; a white, creamy turkey, fattened with walnuts; “halved” pies made from sterlet and burbot livers; pig with horseradish; pig with porridge" and much more.

Piglets for Tuesday lunches at the Merchants' Club were bought for huge price at Testov's, the same ones he served in his famous tavern. He fattened them himself at his dacha, in special feeders in which the piglet’s legs were blocked with bars, “so that he wouldn’t kick the fat!” - explained Ivan Testov.

Interiors of the Merchant Club

Capons and poultry came from Rostov-Yaroslavsky, and “banquet” veal came from Trinity, where calves were fed with whole milk... In addition to the wines that were being consumed by the sea, especially champagne, the Merchant Club was famous throughout Moscow for its kvass and fruit waters, the secret of which was Only one long-term club housekeeper knew - Nikolai Agafonovich.

Frenchwoman for two hundred thousand

Well, after that you could taste other earthly joys:

“At dinners, Stepan Ryabov’s orchestra played, and choirs sang - sometimes Gypsy, sometimes Hungarian, and more often Russian from Yar. The latter enjoyed special love, and his owner, Anna Zakharovna, was held in high esteem by the traveling merchants because she knew how to please the merchant and knew who to recommend which singer; the latter carried out every order of the mistress, because the contract placed the singer at the complete disposal of the choir owner.”

However, for the most part, smaller merchants were content with the enslaved singers. Financial aces preferred higher-flying women who required huge expenses. The record holder in this regard was Nikolai Ryabushinsky, for whom the Frenchwoman Fagette cost two hundred thousand rubles, spent in two months.

For just one necklace with pearls and diamonds from Faberge, Ryabushinsky paid ten thousand two hundred rubles. It is worth recalling that at that time a payment of fifty kopecks per working day was considered a good price for a worker.

But Nikolai Pavlovich was by no means going to limit himself to just one Frenchwoman. Relatives frightened by the insane scale of spending young rake, achieved the establishment of guardianship over him, which he managed to remove only a few years later. And now he has turned around with all his might.

Ryabushinsky Nikolai Pavlovich (1877-1951)

It is curious that, in addition to his ineradicable passion for women, Ryabushinsky turned out to be, perhaps, one of the first Russian reckless drivers. His luxurious red Daimler with 60 horsepower (which was at that time the last word technology) Muscovites quickly learned to recognize.

Several times he was brought to justice for violating the rules of newfangled automobile driving, and once he had to pay a substantial compensation to a hit pedestrian.

But Nikolai Ryabushinsky hosted the main fun at his own villa “Black Swan” in Petrovsky Park, where, as Muscovites excitedly gossiped, “Athenian nights with naked actresses were held.”

Villa "Black Swan" in Petrovsky Park in Moscow, where Nikolai Ryabushinsky organized evenings for bohemians. Photo from the beginning of the 20th century.

Interiors of the Black Swan Villa before the fire of 1915. On the walls are paintings from the Ryabushinsky collection, which included works by Bruegel and Poussin.

Apparently, in order to make these very nights more fun, Ryabushinsky decorated the villa with a collection of poisoned arrows from New Guinea.

The fact is that, traveling in his youth to exotic countries, Nikolai Pavlovich visited the cannibal Papuans and even allegedly drank wine from the skull of a defeated enemy from the leader of a hospitable tribe. Is it true, gossips claimed that this story was suspiciously reminiscent of a “skull Prince of Kyiv Svyatoslav”, from which the Pechenegs who killed him loved to drink strong drinks.

Be that as it may, the number of ladies wanting to visit the scandalous Black Swan villa did not decrease. Nikolai Ryabushinsky retained his passion for the female sex throughout his life.

N. P. Ryabushinsky. Photo from the 1940s.

Already in old age, when he was over seventy, while working at the Hermitage art gallery in Monte Carlo, he experienced his last infatuation - with a young refugee from Germany, three times his age.

Tigress and scientist pig

The passion for creating mansions built on the principle of being more expensive and fancier could end badly for its owner very sadly - Arseny Morozov, for example, became a Moscow laughing stock, having built a house that is well known to today's Muscovites - the building of a society for friendship with foreign countries, which is opposite the Khudozhestvenny cinema.

The mansion of Arseny Abramovich Morozov, built in 1895-1899 by architect V. A. Mazyrin in the Spanish-Moorish style with Art Nouveau elements. Since 1959 - House of Friendship with the Peoples of Foreign Countries.

To the architect's question about what style the house should be built in, Morozov answered - in all, there is enough money. The architect complied with the instructions, amusing the townspeople thoroughly.

The poorer merchants, of course, could not afford such a financial scale, so they came up with something cheaper and more primitive. No money for a trip to Egypt or New Guinea- but you can “drunk to death” and leave Moscow to “hunt crocodiles in Africa.” True, such trips usually ended somewhere in Tver, in a station restaurant.

If the millionaire merchant and famous eccentric Mikhail Khludov appears everywhere only accompanied by a tame tigress, it means that smaller merchants buy themselves the learned pig of the clown Tanti and arrange a ceremonial eating of it. True, later, unlike Khludov, they become the laughing stock of all of Moscow because, as it turned out, the cunning circus performer slipped them a simple and completely uneducated pig, and kept the “actress” intact.

Mikhail Alekseevich Khludov - Russian merchant and entrepreneur

Mikhail Khludov preferred to carry his tigress around the wars. He acquired it during the conquest of Central Asia, where the animal received baptism of fire.

Their eastern colleagues also tried to keep up with their Russian colleagues. The owner of the largest Baku oil fields, Armenian Alexander Mantashev, very clearly explained why he made an unusually generous donation for the construction of an Armenian church in Paris - “this is the city where I sinned the most.” In order to sin properly, he went there every year.

Alexander Ivanovich Mantashev is the largest Russian oil magnate and philanthropist. He was one of the richest people of his time.

His sons, Levon and Joseph, already firmly established in Moscow, amazed Muscovites with their dinners and banquets. Suffice it to say that carloads of fresh flowers were specially brought from Nice in winter for these dinners. But main passion brothers had horses. And they spared literally nothing for their pets, building real palaces instead of stables - with hot water, ventilation and showers.

Not wanting to lag behind fashion, Levon began collecting works of famous artists. But he treated them in a unique way - he loved to shoot at canvases with a pocket pistol. Hot man...

From fads to museum creation

Fortunately for art, other wealthy collectors treated their collections with much more care. One can talk endlessly about the merits in the creation of domestic museums, in the development of sciences and art, of the merchant dynasties of the Tretyakovs, Morozovs, Shchukins, the same Ryabushinskys, Mamontovs and many others.

Alexey Alexandrovich Bakhrushin is a Russian merchant, philanthropist, collector of theatrical antiquities, and creator of a private literary and theatrical museum.

Often, the passion for collecting began as an ordinary merchant's whim. The creator of the famous theater museum, Alexey Bakhrushin, for example, began his activities with a bet. Argued with cousin that in just a month he will collect a larger and better collection than the one that his brother collected for several years.

He won the bet, but got carried away so much that over time it became a difficult problem for his wife to get money from him for the household. Bakhrushin considered a ruble not spent on the museum to be lost.

But the merchant's temperament turned collecting into a kind of competition, gambling, forcing its owners to commit, from the point of view of an outsider, completely meaningless acts.

Mikhail Abramovich Morozov is a merchant, entrepreneur, collector of Western European and Russian paintings and sculptures. The eldest son of the famous Moscow merchant Abram Abramovich Morozov.

For example, Mikhail Abramovich Morozov bought 4 paintings by Gauguin for only 500 francs each. And a few years later he was offered 30,000 francs for them. The merchant could not resist such a price and sold the paintings. But the next day, after visiting art gallery, he discovered that paintings were already selling for 50 thousand.

Seeing the amount his former property was now valued at, Morozov decided to make a secondary purchase. Buy for five hundred, sell for thirty thousand and buy again for fifty thousand - there is something in this.

So there was everything in the history of the Russian merchants - crazy sprees, drunken tyranny, and an invaluable contribution to the development of national culture.

History: 18th Century Entertainment

Carnival and masquerade processions
Peter's time was distinguished not only by cruelty and bloody reprisals against thieves and bribe-takers, but also by the diversity and brightness of all kinds of festivities.
On the same Trinity Square where it was frontal place, in September 1721 a carnival procession took place in honor of the end Northern War, which lasted 21 years. The square was full of all kinds of costumes and masks. The sovereign himself acted as the ship's drummer. His wife was dressed as a Dutch peasant woman. They were surrounded by trumpeters, nymphs, shepherdesses, and buffoons. The ancient gods Neptune and Bacchus walked accompanied by satyrs.
Under Peter I, Bacchus was in a place of honor among other ancient gods. The king loved mead and beer and was very angry when anyone refused a glass in his presence. The offender was treated to a huge “Big Eagle Cup” that held about two liters of wine. I had to drink to the bottom. After accepting the cup, the person usually fell off his feet.
Sometimes humorous characters appeared in carnival processions. There were riders sitting backwards in their saddles, old women playing with dolls, dwarfs next to tall men who took them in their arms. These figures symbolized various vices.
Before Peter I, buffoons were persecuted in Rus'. In young St. Petersburg, they took part in festivities at Maslenitsa and on Trinity Day. In addition to the winter ones, festivities were held in the spring for Easter. Tsaritsyn Meadow and Admiralteyskaya Square were allocated for this purpose. It was vast and occupied a huge territory from the Admiralty to the end of the existing Palace Square. Booths, roller coasters, and carousels were built here.
During numerous celebrations, fireworks were displayed, which Peter loved so much. The Peter and Paul Fortress and some houses near it were illuminated in the evening. Mica kerosene lanterns burned on the gates and roofs. On such days, a flag was raised on one of the bastions of the Peter and Paul Fortress and cannon shots thundered. They were also heard from the royal yacht “Lisette”.
The year 1710 was a record year for the number of holidays. In November, two dwarfs drove around St. Petersburg in a three-wheeled carriage and invited guests to the wedding. The wedding procession opened in mid-November. A dwarf with a staff walked ahead. Seventy dwarfs followed him. The wedding feast took place in the house of Governor Menshikov, which at that time was located on the Ambassadorial (later Petrovskaya) embankment. The best man for the dwarf bride was Peter I himself.
The dwarfs danced. The rest of the guests were spectators.

Dancing
They came into fashion under Peter I. In 1721 there was a ball in the house of Golovkin, the sovereign’s educator and associate, who was located not far from Peter’s house on the Posolskaya embankment. The dances were accompanied, as the fashion of the time required, by frequent kisses of the ladies. The Prosecutor General of the Senate, Yaguzhinsky, was especially distinguished.
The assemblies established by Peter I are widely known. At first they took place in the gallery of the Summer Garden. Later, every noble person was obliged to host an assembly during the winter. The dancing at these assemblies was very ceremonial. A man who wanted to dance with a lady had to approach her three times, bowing. At the end of the dance, the man kissed the lady's hand. A lady could dance with one gentleman only once. These prim rules were brought by Peter from abroad. He soon realized that this etiquette was terribly boring and came up with a new rule for assembly dances.
It was borrowed from the ancient German dance “grossvater”. The couples moved slowly and importantly to the sounds of sad and solemn music. Suddenly, cheerful music was heard. The ladies left their gentlemen and invited new ones. The old gentlemen grabbed the new ladies. A terrible crowd arose.
Peter and Catherine himself took part in similar dances. And the sovereign’s laughter sounded louder than anyone else.
Instantly, at the given sign, everything came back to order again, and the couples continued to move decorously in the same rhythm. If some sluggish gentleman found himself without a lady as a result of the dance formation, he was fined. They brought him the “Big Eagle Cup.” At the end of the dance, the offender was usually carried away in his arms.

Games
Back in the 16th century, games such as grain (dice), checkers, chess and cards were known in Rus'. The game of grain was especially popular at that time. The bones had white and black sides. Winning was determined by which side they landed on when thrown. Mention of cards was found in 1649 in the code of laws of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Along with theft, playing cards for money was considered a serious crime. For this they could beat him with a whip, put him in prison, or cut off his ear. But at the beginning of the 18th century, in many houses they played cards openly, without fear of punishment.
Peter I was not fond of cards, preferring chess to them. The Germans taught him this game in his youth. The sovereign most often spent his leisure time with a mug of beer and a pipe at the chessboard. He didn't have many worthy opponents. Only Admiral Franz Lefort managed to beat Peter. He was not angry for this, but on the contrary, he praised him.
In 1710, the tsar banned the playing of cards and dice on ships, and eight years later he issued a decree banning card play during hostilities. However, this did not apply to the civilian population. What kind of card games were there in Peter's time?
They played ombre, mariage and the game of kings, brought from Poland. It was most common in the family circle. The loser paid with all sorts of fines, which were imposed by the winning “king”.
Because of this game, the wife of Pushkin’s famous great-grandfather, the Arab Ibrahim Hannibal, suffered. In 1731, Captain Hannibal lived with his wife Evdokia in the city of Pernov. At Easter, Evdokia visited, where she was invited to play cards. Among the guests was an experienced womanizer, a certain Shishkov. Having won and found himself in the role of “king,” he imposed a fine on Evdokia in the form of a kiss. Their love story began with this kiss. Ibrahim Petrovich soon found out about her. Pushkin's ardent and jealous great-grandfather punished his unfaithful wife in his own way - he sent her to a monastery.
Billiards appeared in St. Petersburg in the 1720s. The French brought it here. The first billiard table was installed in Peter's Winter Palace, which was located approximately on the site where the Hermitage Theater is now.
Peter was fond of playing billiards. With his enormous height and steady hand, he easily learned to accurately place the balls in the pockets. Soon many courtiers also knew how to play billiards. Billiards were ordered from France by nobles, and then by innkeepers. Most likely, there was billiards in the “Auster”, which was often visited by the Tsar, near the Ioanovsky Bridge, leading to the Peter and Paul Fortress. In F. Tumansky’s book “Description of St. Petersburg” (1793) you can read: “Austeria was called Solemn, because the sovereign sent all the celebrations and fireworks to the square in front of it. On holidays, Sovereign Peter the Great, leaving the mass of the Trinity Cathedral, went with noble persons and ministers to this Austeria for a glass of vodka before dinner.”

Jesters
U little Peter there were two dwarf jesters given to him by his older brother Fyodor Alekseevich. One was called Mosquito, the other was Cricket. The latter soon died, and Komar, whom the sovereign loved very much, lived until the death of Peter I. In the Winter Palace on Palace Embankment, Peter was surrounded by two more jesters: the legendary Balakirev and Acosta.
The jesters at court played a certain role in ridiculing ancient customs and prejudices. Sometimes they could inform Peter about his subordinates, and they more than once complained to the king about his jesters. Peter, as a rule, answered with a grin: “What can you do? After all, they are fools!” Balakirev was with Peter for no more than two years, but he left behind a memory. His name is known as the author of witty answers and anecdotes.
In books about these anecdotes, legends are interspersed with reality. We will cite one of the cases that may have taken place in life.
Once, when Peter asked what people in St. Petersburg were saying about St. Petersburg itself, Balakirev answered:
- People say: on one side there is sea, on the other there is mountain, on the third there is moss, and on the fourth “oh”!
- Get down! - Peter shouted and began to beat the jester with a club, condemning him. - Here’s the sea, here’s your grief, here’s the moss, and here’s your “oh”!
During the reign of the “Queen of the Terrible Eye” Anna Ioannovna, the attitude towards jesters was even more cruel. Suffice it to recall the story of the ice house built on the Neva at the end of 1739 for the clownish wedding of M.A. Golitsin and A.I. Buzheninova, where they were ordered to spend their first wedding night.
Anna Ioannovna surrounded herself with joker women. And dwarfs and freaks. The empress herself came up with costumes for her jesters. They were sewn from multi-colored scraps. The suit could be made of velvet, and the pants and sleeves could be made of matting. The jesters wore caps with rattles on their heads. Balls and masquerades in the third Winter Palace, which was built by F. Rastrelli in the 1730s approximately on the spot where the current Winter Palace stands, followed one after another. Everyone had to wear masks to masquerade balls. At dinner the order was given: “Masks off!” and then everyone present revealed their faces. The Empress herself usually did not wear either a costume or a mask. Balami, like everything else, was managed by her favorite Biron.
The balls ended with a sumptuous dinner. Anna Ioannovna did not like wine, and therefore at dinner they ate more than they drank. Jesters were not allowed at balls and masquerades. Sometimes the empress took them with her for walks and hunting. Despite her plumpness, she was a good horsewoman and shot accurately with a gun. A pen for various animals was built on the square in front of the Winter Palace. Anna Ioannovna could grab a gun in the middle of the day and shoot right out of the palace windows at a bird flying past.

The whims of Elizaveta Petrovna
While still a princess, Elizabeth had a huge staff of servants: four valets, nine ladies-in-waiting, four governesses, a chamberlain, and a host of footmen. Having become empress, she expanded her staff several times more. There were musicians and songwriters with her who delighted her ears.
The servants also included several women, who at night, when the empress was awake, and this happened often, scratched her heels. At the same time, they were allowed to conduct a quiet, low conversation. Sometimes the carders managed to whisper two or three words into Elizabeth’s ear, providing their protégés with a generously paid service.
Elizabeth inherited from her father a love of wandering places. Her travels were reminiscent disaster. When she moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow, a real commotion began in both capitals. Persons managing the Senate and Synod, the treasury, and the court chancellery had to follow her. Elizaveta Petrovna loved driving fast. Her carriage or cart, equipped with a special firebox, was harnessed to twelve horses. They rushed to the quarry.
The splendor of balls and masquerades under Elizaveta Petrovna surpassed everything that had happened before. The Empress had an excellent figure. She was especially beautiful in a man's suit. Therefore, in the first four months of her reign, she changed the uniforms of all regiments. In general, the Empress loved dressing up. Her wardrobe consisted of a fabulous number of very different outfits, which the daughter of Peter I ordered from abroad. One day the Empress ordered that all the ladies attend a ball in the Winter Palace (this temporary Winter Palace was located on the corner of Nevsky and Moika) appeared in men's suits, and all the men in women's suits. Elizabeth also went hunting with dogs in a man's suit. For the sake of hunting, the empress, who loved to sleep, got up at 5 o’clock in the morning.
Of course, in this essay we could not talk about all the amusements of old Petersburg, in particular those that took place under Catherine II. More on this a little later. It is important to note that the city both during the reign of Anna Ioannovna and during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna changed and grew.
Under Anna Ioannovna, the Alekseevsky and Ioannovsky ravelins of the Peter and Paul Fortress appeared, named after the grandfather and father of this cruel ruler. Under her, the Commission on St. Petersburg Buildings was organized, which managed the construction of new buildings.
Under Elizaveta Petrovna, Petersburg finally received the status of the second capital, and the Anichkov Palace, the Stroganov Palace (Nevsky, 17), the ensemble of the Smolny Monastery, the Winter Palace (the fifth in a row), which still flaunts on Palace Square, were built.

Sex in the Age of Enlightenment Part 1.

The Renaissance (XIV-XVII centuries) was replaced by the Age of Enlightenment ( end of XVII centuries - the entire 18th century), during which people enjoyed sex more than ever after the long suppression of sexuality by the church and secular authorities. Despite all the educational movements, throughout Europe this period was characterized by extreme depravity, the cult of women and pleasure.

Sex, society, religion

Many contemporaries consider the 18th century to be a period of sexual liberation, when intimate desires were the natural needs of both men and women. According to historian Isabel Hull, "sexual energy was the engine of society and the mark of a mature and independent person." Cultural and social changes during the Enlightenment reflected in the intimate sphere sexual depravity brought about by wealth, exoticism, luxurious costumes and other luxury goods. This mainly applied to representatives of the upper classes, who lived a carefree life, but people of the middle and lower classes did not lag behind them, although they were limited in funds. Of course, both of them took their cue from royal power, which was absolute and unshakable. Whatever reigned at court, it immediately found a response in all classes of society. If kings and queens led a riotous lifestyle, the aristocracy and common people immediately became like them. Imitation of court morals led to the fact that people did not live, but played with life. In public, each person posed, and all behavior, from birth to death, became a single official act. An aristocratic lady performs her intimate toilette in the presence of friends and visitors, not because she has no time, and therefore this time she is forced to ignore modesty, but because she has attentive spectators and can assume the most delicate poses. A flirtatious prostitute lifts her skirts high on the street and puts her garter in order, not out of fear of losing it, but in the confidence that she will stand in the spotlight for a minute.

Considering all of the above, it is not surprising that free love, prostitution and pornography flourished in the 18th century. Lord Molmsbury says the following about Berlin in 1772:

“Berlin is a city where there is not a single honest man and not a single chaste woman. Both sexes of all classes are distinguished by extreme moral laxity, combined with poverty, caused partly by the oppression emanating from the present sovereign, and partly by the love of luxury, which they learned from his grandfather. Men try to lead a depraved lifestyle with only meager means, and women are real harpies, devoid of a sense of delicacy and true love, giving themselves to anyone who is willing to pay.”

The moral behavior of the higher clergy, especially in France, was no different from that of the court nobility, although the fact itself is not surprising: well-paid church places were nothing more than sinecures with which kings rewarded their supporters. The main essence of these places is the income they provide, and the spiritual title associated with them is only a means to disguise this income.

The reasons for the debauchery that reigned in a number of monasteries, especially women’s monasteries, are also not so difficult to unravel. In all Catholic countries, it was in the 18th century that a significant number of convents appeared, which were, without exaggeration, real houses of debauchery. The harsh rules of the order in these monasteries were often only a mask, so that one could have fun in them in every possible way. The nuns could indulge in gallant adventures almost unhindered, and the authorities willingly turned a blind eye if the symbolic barriers set up by them were openly ignored. The nuns of the monastery in Murano, immortalized by Giacomo Casanova, had friends and lovers, and had keys that allowed them to secretly leave the monastery every evening and enter Venice not only to theaters or other shows, but also to visit the petites maisons (little houses) of their lovers. In the everyday life of these nuns, love and gallant adventures are even the main occupation: the experienced ones seduce the newly tonsured, and the most helpful of them introduce the latter to friends and acquaintances.
Apparently, such institutions had only a name in common with monasteries, since they were in fact official temples of immorality. And this completely coincides with the changed goals that women’s monasteries began to increasingly serve in the 16th century. They gradually turned from shelters for the poor into boarding houses, where the upper class sent their unmarried daughters and second sons for maintenance. It was precisely these monasteries, in which the daughters of the nobility lived, that were usually famous for the freedom of morals that reigned or was tolerated in them.

As for the rest of the clergy, we can only talk about individual cases, the number of which, however, is relatively large. Celibacy every now and then prompted him to take advantage of convenient chances, of which the Catholic priest had more than enough.

Cult of woman

The general culture of any historical period is always most clearly reflected in the views on sexual relations and in the laws governing these relations. The Age of Enlightenment was reflected in the intimate sphere as gallantry, as the proclamation of a woman as a ruler in all areas and as her unconditional cult. The 18th century is the classic “age of women.” Although men continued to rule the world, women began to play a prominent role in society. This century, as they say, is “rich” in autocratic empresses, female philosophers and royal favorites, whose power surpassed the first ministers of the state. For example, the reign of King Louis XV was called the “reign of the three skirts,” which meant the king’s all-powerful favorites (the most effective was the Marquise de Pompadour).

The essence of gallantry is that a woman has ascended to the throne as an instrument of pleasure. She is worshiped as a tasty morsel of pleasure; everything in communication with her must guarantee sensuality. She must constantly be, so to speak, in a state of voluptuous self-forgetfulness - in the salon, in the theater, in society, even on the street, as well as in a secluded boudoir, in an intimate conversation with a friend or admirer. She must satisfy the desires of each and everyone who comes into contact with her. To achieve the ultimate goal, men are ready to fulfill her every desire or whim. Everyone considers it an honor to give up their own rights and benefits in favor of her.

In the light of such a cult, a prostitute in the eyes of everyone is no longer a public wench, but an experienced priestess of love. An unfaithful wife or an unfaithful mistress becomes all the more piquant in the eyes of a husband or friend after each new betrayal. The pleasure a woman receives from a man's caresses is enhanced by the thought that countless other women before her have succumbed to his desires.

The highest triumph of women's dominance during the Enlightenment was the disappearance of masculine traits from a man's character. Gradually he became more and more effeminate, such were his manners and costume, his needs and all his behavior. In the records of the German historian Johann von Archenholz, this type, fashionable in the second half of the 18th century, is described as follows:

A man is now more like a woman than ever before. He wears long curled hair, sprinkled with powder and perfumed, and tries to make it even longer and thicker with a wig. Buckles on shoes and knees are replaced for convenience with silk bows. The sword is worn - also for convenience - as rarely as possible. Gloves are put on your hands, your teeth are not only cleaned, but also whitened, your face is rosy. A man walks and even rides in a stroller as little as possible, eats light food, loves comfortable chairs and a resting bed. Not wanting to lag behind a woman in anything, he uses fine linen and lace, hangs himself with watches, puts rings on his fingers, and fills his pockets with trinkets.”

About love

Love was considered only as an opportunity to experience that pleasure, which was especially valued by the era. And they didn’t think of hiding this at all; on the contrary, everyone openly admitted it. At this time, a love affair becomes a contract that does not imply permanent obligations: it can be broken at any time. Condescending to the gentleman courting her, the woman did not give herself entirely, but only for a few moments of pleasure, or she sold herself for a position in the world.

This universally widespread superficial view of the feeling of love inevitably led to the deliberate abolition of its highest logic - procreation. The man no longer wanted to produce, the woman no longer wanted to be a mother, everyone just wanted to enjoy. Children - the highest sanction of sexual life - were proclaimed a misfortune. Childlessness, which back in the 17th century was considered a punishment from heaven, was now perceived by many, on the contrary, as a mercy from above. In any case, having many children seemed a disgrace in the 18th century.
The question of how to be able to become a richly rewarded victim of temptation with dexterity and grace has been the most pressing problem for female wit for a century and a half; The art of seducing a woman is the favorite topic of men's conversations. So, for example, prudent and prudent mothers - at least as their era proclaimed - took care of the intimate future of their sons in a very piquant way. They hired chambermaids and maids and, through skillful maneuvers, arranged it so that “the mutual seduction of young people became the simplest and most natural thing.” In this way, they made their sons more courageous in their dealings with women, awakened in them a taste for love pleasures and at the same time saved them from the dangers that threaten young people from going out with prostitutes.

The sexual education of girls naturally revolved around other planes, although it had the same ultimate goal in mind. The sex education of girls in the middle and lower classes worked most diligently. Since in these circles the most ambitious thought of every mother was the “career” of her daughter, the stereotypical advice was: “Let her not give herself to the first person she meets, but aim as high as possible.”

The forms of communication between men and women were particularly specific. To treat a woman with respect, to look at her simply as a person, meant in this era to insult her beauty. Disrespect, on the contrary, was an expression of reverence for her beauty. Therefore, a man committed only obscenities in his behavior with a woman - in words or actions - and, moreover, with every woman. Witty obscenity served in the woman's eyes best recommendation. Anyone who acted contrary to this code was considered a pedant or - what was even worse for him - an unbearably boring person. Likewise, the woman who immediately understood the obscene meaning of the witticisms presented to her and could give a quick and graceful answer was considered delightful and intelligent. This is exactly how the entire secular society behaved, and every commoner with envy turned her gaze precisely to these heights, because she had the same ideal.

Increased sensuality found its most artistic embodiment in female coquettishness and mutual flirtation. The essence of coquetry is demonstration and posture, the ability to cleverly emphasize especially valued advantages. For this reason, no other era was more conducive to the development of coquetry than the Age of Enlightenment. In no other era has a woman used this tool with such variety and such virtuosity. All her behavior is saturated to a greater or lesser extent with coquetry.

As for flirting, in the 18th century all communication between a man and a woman was thoroughly saturated with it. The essence of flirting is the same at all times. It is expressed in mutual, more or less intimate caresses, in the piquant discovery of hidden physical charms and in loving conversations. A characteristic feature of the era was that they flirted completely publicly - love also became a spectacle!
Best incarnation flirting in the era - a lady's morning toilet, the so-called lever, when she could be in a negligee. A woman in a negligee is a concept that was completely unknown to previous eras or known only in a very primitive form. This phenomenon only applies to XVIII century, during which it was proclaimed the official hour of receptions and visits.

And in fact, it was difficult to find another more convenient and more favorable reason for flirting. The negligee represents a situation in which a woman can influence a man’s feelings in the most piquant way, and this situation did not last then a short time, and due to the complexity of the toilet, many, many hours. What a rich opportunity, indeed, for a woman to stage before the eyes of her friends and suitors a charming exhibition of her individual charms. Now, as if by chance, your arm is exposed right up to your armpits, now you have to lift your skirts to put your garters, stockings and shoes in order, now you can show off your lush shoulders in their dazzling beauty, now you can show off your breasts in a new piquant way. There is no end to the delicious dishes of this feast; the limit here is only the greater or lesser dexterity of the woman. However, this is only one side of the matter.

However, the lady received her suitors, sometimes several at a time, not only at the toilet, but sometimes even in the bath and bed. This was the most refined degree of public flirting, since the woman thus received the opportunity to go especially far in her compliance and flaunt her charms especially generously, and the man in particular easily succumbed to the temptation to go on the offensive. When a lady took a friend in the bath, the latter, for the sake of decency, was covered with a sheet, which allowed only the lady's head, neck and chest to be seen. However, it is so easy to throw back the sheet!

Sex before marriage

The attitude towards old age is also changing now. Nobody wanted to grow old, and everyone wanted to stop time. After all, maturity brings fruit, and people now wanted to have color without fruit, pleasure without any consequences. People love youth more and recognize only its beauty. A woman never gets older than twenty, and a man never gets older than thirty. This tendency had as its extreme pole the acceleration of puberty. In the most early years the child ceases to be a child. A boy becomes a man at the age of 15, a girl becomes a woman at the age of 12.
This cult of early puberty is an inevitable consequence of the increased importance of pleasure. A man and a woman want to have something “that can only be enjoyed once and can only be enjoyed by one.” Therefore, nothing seduces him more than “a tasty morsel that has not yet been touched by anyone.” How younger man, so, of course, he has a greater chance of being such a piece. Virginity is in the foreground here. It seems that back then nothing was valued as highly as she was.

Closely connected with this praise of a woman’s physical virginity is the mania for seducing innocent girls, which in the 18th century first appeared in history as a mass phenomenon. In England this mania took its most monstrous form and reigned longest, but other countries were not far behind in this regard.

Accelerating the period of puberty led, naturally, to very early sexual relations and, of course, to no less frequent premarital sexual intercourse. It is important to note that these premarital relationships were widespread, since individual cases of this category occur, of course, in all eras. The beginning of regular sexual relations was precisely the above-mentioned age when a boy became a “man” and a girl a “lady”.

Another evidence of early puberty during the Enlightenment is the frequent occurrence of extremely early marriages. However, this phenomenon is observed only in the aristocracy.

Although in the middle and lower classes marriages did not take place so early, still in these circles women matured at a very young age. Gallant literature proves this most clearly. Every girl from the lower class saw in her husband a liberator from parental bondage. In her opinion, this liberator could not come too soon for her, and if he hesitates, she is inconsolable. By the word “hesitates” she means that she has to “wear the burden of virginity” until she is sixteen - or seventeen years old - according to the concepts of the era, there is no heavier burden.

In the 18th century, cases of premarital sexual intercourse in the upper strata of the population were much less common. Not because the sexual morality of these classes was stricter, but because here parents tried to get rid of their children as if they were an unpleasant burden. In France, children of the aristocracy were given to a village nurse soon after birth, and then to various educational institutions. This last role was played by monasteries in Catholic countries. Here the boy remains until the age when he can enter the cadet or page corps, where his secular education is completed, and the girl remains until she marries the husband assigned to her by her parents.
And yet it must be said that, despite such favorable conditions for protecting girlish chastity, the number of girls who had sexual intercourse before marriage was quite significant in these classes. If a girl was taken from the monastery on the eve of not a wedding, but an agreement, then, due to the special atmosphere of the century, these few weeks or months between leaving the monastery and the wedding were enough for the seducer to anticipate the rights of her husband.

So far we have talked mainly about premarital sexual relations among girls. There is no need to talk about men. In a society where a good half of women can be assumed to have had intimate relationships before marriage, in an era when early puberty is a common characteristic, premarital sexual relations among men are becoming the rule. The difference is in this case except that not a single class and not a single stratum were an exception to this rule, but only certain individuals, and that the sons of the propertied and ruling classes walked ahead here.

Marriage and betrayal

Attitude towards marriage

As we have already found out, in the ruling and propertied classes, young people getting married often did not even see each other before the wedding and, of course, did not know what character each person had. In the 18th century, such marriages became common in these circles when young people met for the first time in their lives a few days before the wedding, or even only on the eve of the wedding. All this suggests that the marriage was nothing more than a convention and was a simple trade transaction. The upper classes combined two names or two fortunes to increase family and financial power. The middle classes connected two incomes. Finally, the common people got married in most cases because “it’s cheaper to live together.” But, of course, there were exceptions.
If in the ruling classes marriage was clearly conditional in nature and children were married “at a meeting,” then the middle and lower classes did not know such cynicism: in this environment, the commercial nature of marriage was carefully hidden under an ideological veil. The man here is obliged to look after the bride for quite a long time, is obliged to talk only about love, is obliged to earn the respect of the girl to whom he is wooing, and to demonstrate all his personal merits. And she must do the same. However, mutual love and mutual respect for some reason appear only when the commercial side of the matter is settled. For this seemingly ideal form of mutual courtship is, ultimately, nothing more than a way to verify the correctness of a commercial transaction.
The commercial nature of such a marriage is clearly evidenced by marriage advertisements, the appearance of which dates back precisely to this time. They were first found in England in 1695 and were approximately as follows: “A gentleman, 30 years of age, who declares himself to be of considerable wealth, desires to marry a young lady of about £3,000 in English, and is willing to enter into a contract to that effect.”

It is necessary to mention here another striking, specifically English feature, namely the ease of marriage. There was no need for papers or any other certificates. A simple announcement of the desire to get married, made to a priest vested with the rights of an administrative person, was enough for the marriage to take place no matter where - in a hotel or in a church. The ease of marriage and the difficulty of legal divorce led to a terrible increase in cases of bigamy (bigamy). What is now no more than an individual case was then a common occurrence in England among the lower classes.

Since in the lower classes marriage was often nothing more than a successful means for a man to seduce a girl, hundreds lived not only in bigamy, but even in triple marriage. If, therefore, bigamy was the most convenient form of unabashed satisfaction of sexual needs, then it was, in addition, a source of enrichment. And one must think that in most cases it was used precisely as a means to take the fortune of a girl or woman into their own hands.

Adultery

In monogamy, the main problem of marriage is always mutual fidelity. Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to note that during the Enlightenment, adultery (betrayal) flourished in the ruling classes, like premarital sexual intercourse. It became a truly mass phenomenon and was committed by women as often as by men. Obviously, this was due to the fact that adultery did not threaten the main goal of marriage (enrichment of fortune), so it was looked at as a trifle.

Since variety is the highest law of pleasure, first of all they diversified the object of love itself. “How boring it is to sleep with the same woman every night!” - says the man, and the woman philosophizes in the same way. If the wife did not cheat, then “not because she wanted to remain faithful, but because there was no opportunity to commit infidelity.” Loving your husband or wife is considered a violation of good manners. Such love is allowed only in the first months of marriage, because then both parties are no longer able to give each other anything new.

The first piece of advice given to a young woman by her friend is: “Honey, you must take yourself a lover!” Sometimes even the husband himself gives his wife this excellent advice. There is only one difference in this regard between a husband and a benevolent friend. If the latter appeared with her advice already in the first weeks of marriage, then the husband gave it only after he “finished” his wife, as he “finished” in turn with all the women who were his temporary mistresses, and when he again had an the desire to look into someone else's garden. “Attend society, take lovers, live like all women of our era live!”
And just as a husband has nothing against his wife’s lover, so she has nothing against her husband’s mistresses. No one interferes in anyone else's life, and everyone lives in friendship. The husband is the friend of his wife's lover and the confidant of her former loves; the wife is the friend of her husband's mistresses and the comforter of those whom he resigned. The husband is not jealous, the wife is freed from marital debt. Social morality requires only one thing from him and from her, mainly, of course, from her - compliance with external decorum. The latter does not at all consist in feigning fidelity in front of everyone, but only in not giving the world any clear evidence to the contrary. Everyone has the right to know everything, but no one should be a witness.

However, the most ingenious consequence that flowed from this everyday philosophy was that “legalized” infidelity to the husband required fidelity to the lover. And in fact, if fidelity could be found then, it was only outside of marriage. But in relation to the lover, fidelity should never have extended so far that he was advanced, so to speak, to the rank of husband.

In England, it was completely normal for a husband to keep a mistress right in his house next to his legal wife. Most husbands kept mistresses in one form or another. Many even placed them in their home and forced them to sit at the same table with their wife, which almost never led to misunderstandings. Often they even went out for walks with their wives, and the only difference between them was that usually the metresses (mistresses) were more beautiful and better dressed and less prim.

The mutual indulgence of the spouses in the upper strata of the population very often turned into a cynical agreement regarding mutual infidelity. And no less often, one becomes an ally of the other in this regard. The husband gives his wife the opportunity to move freely in the circle of his friends and, in addition, introduces into his home those whom his wife likes. And the wife does the same towards her husband. She enters into friendship with those ladies whom her husband would like to have as mistresses, and deliberately creates situations that would allow him to achieve his goal as quickly as possible.

Stricter morals prevailed in the lower classes, and adultery was much less common. In any case, adultery was not a widespread phenomenon here and usually led to tragic consequences.

Favorites and Favorites

Since in the 18th century intimate relationships were built exclusively on sensual pleasure, the metress imperceptibly turned into the main figure standing in the center of everyone's attention. It was not a woman in general who was elevated to the throne by the era, but a woman as a mistress.

The age of gallantry rested on variety and variety. The Metress Institute made it possible to solve both of these problems. You can change your mistresses, if you like, every month and even more often, which you cannot do with your wife, just as you can have a whole dozen mistresses or you can be the mistress of many men. Since the institution of the metress so successfully solved the problem of gallantry, society sanctioned it: no shameful stain fell on the metress. This is as logical as the fact that the ruling classes saw this institution as their exclusive privilege. Since in this era everything was centered around the absolute sovereign, he had a special right to maintain mistresses. A sovereign without a mistress was a wild concept in the eyes of society.

The elevation of the sovereign's mistress to the rank of supreme deity was expressed by the honors that were necessarily given to her. This is how the metresse en titre or official favorite appeared, who appeared as an equal next to the legitimate empresses in society. Once her beauty and love deserved royal attention, then she herself became “God’s grace.” There was a guard of honor in front of her palace, and she often had honorary ladies-in-waiting at her service. Even sovereigns and empresses of other countries exchanged pleasantries with the official favorite. Neither Catherine II, nor Frederick II, nor Maria Theresa considered it beneath their dignity to send kind letters to the idol of Louis XV, Madame Pompadour.

Since submission to the will of a woman in this era found its highest expression in submission to the will of the mistress, becoming a favorite was then the most profitable and therefore highly desirable profession for a woman. Many parents directly raised their daughters for this calling. The highest ideal achievable for a woman was, naturally, to become the sovereign's mistress.
However, even here it is necessary to take into account deeper underlying motives. It would be a mistake to consider this struggle for the position of royal concubine to be a simple personal matter. Since the metress was powerful, well-known political groups always stood behind each of these ladies. The faction that sought to seize power wanted to have their favorite in place. In other words: behind the harem quarrels, the political divisions of the era are often hidden.

In an era when most women are corrupt, men are naturally no less corrupt. And therefore, in the 18th century, next to the institution of metresses, another characteristic and extremely common phenomenon occurs - a husband who, for material reasons, agrees to such a role as a wife.

Many households were built on the corruption of the wife and mother, but more often it served as an auxiliary means that allowed the family to spend more than it could. The lover dressed his mistress, presented her with jewelry that gave her the opportunity to shine in society, and under the guise of a loan, the return of which neither party thought of, he, in addition, paid in cash for the love services rendered to him. This is all the less surprising since in that era the usual figure was a professional adventurer, gambler and swindler in all possible types, who traded his wife, and when she became too old for this, then the beauty of his daughter.

From all this an inevitable consequence followed in the end. The legitimation of the metresse as a social institution also legitimized the cuckold. The title of cuckold became a kind of typical profession for the era.

It is also necessary to dwell on one more typical male figure of the era - a man in the role of a mistress. A woman, especially in her mature years, when her beauty alone could no longer seduce a man, also bought love. For many men, exploiting this source of livelihood was the most profitable profession they could think of. Women paid their lovers no worse than men paid their mistresses. Women with political influence were also paid with positions and sinecures. In Berlin, the functions of a male mistress were especially often performed by officers. The paltry salaries received by Prussian officers forced them to strive for such a position.

A lover in a woman's retinue marks the moment of her supreme dominance in the 18th century.

Personalities

Louis XIV, also known as the “Sun King” (1638-1715) - King of France and Navarre, was a clear erotomaniac who saw only gender in a woman and who therefore liked every woman. He had many favorites, the most famous of them: Louise-Françoise de La Vallière, Duchess de Fontanges and Marquise de Maintenon, who even became his secret wife. Apparently, the passion for debauchery was passed on to him with his genes, since his mother, Queen Anne of Austria, until her old age was very accessible to the courtship of courtiers devoted to her. Moreover, according to one version, father Louis XIV is by no means Louis XIII, who was distinguished by homosexual inclinations, but precisely one of the courtiers, Count Rivière

The Marquise de Pompadour (1721-1764) was the official mistress of the French King Louis XV. The pompadour played a prominent role not only in France, which was entirely in her hands, but also in Europe. She directed the external and domestic policy France, delving into all the details of state life, patronizing science and art. The depraved king, fascinated by her at first, soon lost interest in her, finding that she had little passion and calling her an ice statue. At first she tried to entertain him with music, art, theater, where, performing on stage herself, she always appeared for him in a new, attractive form, but soon she resorted to more effective means - introducing young beauties to the court. Especially for this, Pompadour created the Deer Park mansion, in which Louis XV met with numerous favorites. Basically, it contained girls 15-17 years old, who, after annoying the king and getting married, received a decent dowry.

Catherine II the Great (1729-1796) – Empress of All Russia. She combined high intelligence, education, statesmanship and a commitment to “free love.” Catherine is known for her connections with numerous lovers, the number of which reaches 23. The most famous of them were Sergei Saltykov, Grigory Orlov, Vasilchikov, Grigory Potemkin, Semyon Zorich, Alexander Lanskoy, Platon Zubov. Catherine lived with her favorites for several years, but then parted for a variety of reasons (due to the death of the favorite, his betrayal or unworthy behavior), but none of them was disgraced. All of them were generously awarded ranks, titles, money and serfs. All her life, Catherine was looking for a man who would be worthy of her, who would share her hobbies, views, etc. But she, apparently, never managed to find such a person. However, there is an assumption that she secretly married Potemkin, with whom she maintained friendly relations until his death.

When writing this article, material from the book was used