External and internal decoration of a Russian hut. Russian hut Exterior of a Russian hut

In the header photo: A traditional wooden village house near White Lake in the Vologda region, well cared for by its owners. 2015 Text, photographs - Andrey Dachnik.

Problems of preserving Russian folk wooden architecture.

Everything is from the tree - this is the religion of thought of our people...
The hut of a commoner is a symbol of concepts and attitudes towards the world, developed even before him by his fathers and ancestors, who subjugated the intangible and distant world by likening them to the things of their meek hearths.
Sergey Yesenin. "The Keys of Mary", 1919.

"What is a country?" I am sure that most people see this or that landscape and houses before their eyes, and only then - people, and everything that they have created besides homes. Speaking about Europe, we imagine half-timbered and stone houses with tiled roofs, remembering the Alps, we think about chalets, Norway we imagine buildings with green grass roofs, and England - cozy houses with slate and thatched roofs.

The calling card of Russia is the chopped Russian hut. Before the Peter the Great era, people did not build houses in Rus', but cut them down. That is why in the chronicles the huts were called “rubleniks”. The term “izba” or “istba”, “stobka” originates from the concept of “heated room”. Initially, the word “istba” was applied both to baths (“The Lay of Igor’s Campaign”) and to houses. Later, only heated log houses began to be called “hut” [ see: Sreznevsky I.I. Materials for the dictionary of the Old Russian language. M., 1958, vol. I, p. 1147].

Just like in Japan or China, where the structure of the home was formed in accordance with ancient philosophical concepts, the Russian izba is a reflection of a thousand-year-old folk religion that arose from a unique fusion of ancient paganism and the “Greek” Christian faith. There is nothing accidental in a Russian hut: its dimensions, proportions, layout, interior decoration, appearance, patterns and decorations have a deep philosophical and symbolic meaning that reveals the Russian person’s perception of the world. The hut was for him a miniature Universe - a microcosm, with its own Upper, Middle and Lower worlds, cardinal points and elements. In folk mythology, the hut was also likened to a horse or cart, which slowly carried its inhabitants to Heaven. Sergei Yesenin, who had an amazingly keen sense of the soul of the Russian people, wrote about the symbolism of the huts: “This is the pure feature of Scythia with the mystery of eternal nomadism. “I am going to you, to your bosoms and pastures,” says our man, throwing his horse’s head back into the sky.” . The house could be represented by the “body” of a horse, its four corners by four “legs”. It is no coincidence that instead of a wooden ridge, a horse skull could be strengthened on the roof.

The appearance of the Russian hut has not changed, apart from small technical details, for many centuries. And how can it change if there is no, and cannot be, change in God, and the hut is a reflection of God’s world: Big in Small. Although experts count more than 50 variants of log huts in Russia, they are all distinguished by their simple and laconic form and proportions, perfected over the centuries, the canons of which were passed down from generation to generation.

Unlike many wooden palaces, manor houses and churches, huts in Rus' survived the destructive waves of the hard times of the 20th century, just as they experienced all previous misfortunes: everything that disappeared was rebuilt anew, according to the prototype of the classical canons, as our fathers and grandfathers taught. However, the current century, a strange century, has brought a new misfortune to Rus': on the one hand, prosperity for city dwellers and access to new Western building materials and technologies, and on the other hand, the exodus of rural youth to cities and dying villages, the names of which are increasingly appearing on the map add a note that smacks of oblivion "unlived."

In the opposite direction, seasonal residents - summer residents, people who for the most part were not familiar with the peasant worldview and traditions - flocked to the still-living villages from cities and towns. Under their influence, the traditional appearance of village houses began to change rapidly: wealthy city residents began to “improve” and “restore” Russian huts according to their urban understanding, giving them a “modern” look, based on the mythical ideals of the “European standard” that never existed. Looking at the huts “improved” by the townspeople, the villagers, already almost completely cut off from their original roots, rushed to adopt from the seasonal guests their simple philosophy of “practicality” and “modernity,” just as their parents once threw out antique carved furniture in the trash heaps so that replace it with newfangled furniture made of plastic and chipboard. The Russian village began to rapidly transform, losing its original unique appearance. Carved decorations, the warmth and aroma of wood from a chopped Russian hut began to give way to faceless and cold polymers in all possible forms: vinyl siding, windows, roofing materials. “Dressing up” their houses with “plastic”, their owners may not even know that the term “plastic” in the West is synonymous with everything low-grade and cheap, while in Europe they are very careful about protecting the authentic historical appearance of traditional houses. in order to appreciate the architectural heritage, you need to know and appreciate the past of your people, your family, to have an idea of ​​\u200b\u200besthetics and beauty.Restoring an ancient house is a troublesome business, it requires from the owner a lot of mental and physical strength, the ability to hold a tool in his hands, and a lot, a lot of time It is much easier to pretend that an inherited or purchased old wooden house is of no value, and to call on the help of scheming foreigners who, without blinking an eye, will imprison the soul of a Russian house in a plastic sarcophagus, turning a work of house-building art into an example of vulgar bad taste.

However, in the vast expanses of Russia there are still enthusiasts who spend their time and money on preserving and restoring traditional Russian wooden huts. These are people of completely different incomes - from rural pensioners to millionaires. But they are all united by the desire to preserve for posterity the basis of the unique image of Russia - traditional Russian wooden architecture. Not everything and not everyone succeeds smoothly in the difficult but interesting work with Russian huts. We will talk about what is “good” and what is “bad” in the repair of Russian wooden houses in this article.

Russian hut: where and how our ancestors built huts, structure and decor, elements of the hut, videos, riddles and proverbs about the hut and reasonable housekeeping.

“Oh, what mansions!” - this is how we often talk now about a spacious new apartment or cottage. We speak without thinking about the meaning of this word. After all, a mansion is an ancient peasant dwelling, consisting of several buildings. What kind of mansions did the peasants have in their Russian huts? How was the Russian traditional hut built?

In this article:

—Where were huts built before?
— attitude towards the Russian hut in Russian folk culture,
- arrangement of a Russian hut,
- decoration and decor of a Russian hut,
- Russian stove and red corner, male and female halves of a Russian house,
- elements of the Russian hut and peasant yard (dictionary),
- proverbs and sayings, signs about the Russian hut.

Russian hut

Since I come from the north and grew up on the White Sea, I will show photographs of northern houses in the article. And as the epigraph to my story about the Russian hut, I chose the words of D. S. Likhachev:

“Russian North! It is difficult for me to express in words my admiration, my admiration for this region. When for the first time, as a boy of thirteen years old, I traveled along the Barents and White Seas, along the Northern Dvina, visited the Pomors, in peasant huts, listened to songs and fairy tales, looked at these extraordinarily beautiful people, behaved simply and with dignity, I was completely stunned. It seemed to me that this is the only way to truly live: measuredly and easily, working and receiving so much satisfaction from this work... In the Russian North there is a most amazing combination of present and past, modernity and history, watercolor lyricism of water, earth, sky, the formidable power of stone , storms, cold, snow and air" (D.S. Likhachev. Russian culture. - M., 2000. - P. 409-410).

Where were huts built before?

The favorite place to build a village and build Russian huts was the bank of a river or lake. The peasants were also guided by practicality - proximity to the river and boat as a means of transportation, but also by aesthetic reasons. From the windows of the hut, standing on a high place, there was a beautiful view of the lake, forests, meadows, fields, as well as of their own yard with barns, and a bathhouse near the river.

Northern villages are visible from afar, they were never located in the lowlands, always on the hills, near the forest, near the water on the high bank of the river, they became the center of a beautiful picture of the unity of man and nature, and fit organically into the surrounding landscape. At the highest place they usually built a church and a bell tower in the center of the village.

The house was built thoroughly, “to last for centuries”; the place for it was chosen to be quite high, dry, protected from cold winds - on a high hill. They tried to locate villages where there were fertile lands, rich meadows, forests, rivers or lakes. The huts were placed in such a way that they had good access and access, and the windows were turned “towards the summer” - to the sunny side.

In the north, they tried to place houses on the southern slope of the hill, so that its top would reliably cover the house from the violent cold northern winds. The south side will always warm up well, and the house will be warm.

If we consider the location of the hut on the site, then they tried to place it closer to its northern part. The house protected the gardening part of the site from the wind.

In terms of the orientation of the Russian hut according to the sun (north, south, west, east) there was also a special structure of the village. It was very important that the windows of the residential part of the house were located in the direction of the sun. For better illumination of houses in rows, they were placed in a checkerboard pattern relative to each other. All the houses on the streets of the village “looked” in one direction - towards the sun, towards the river. From the window one could see sunrises and sunsets, the movement of ships along the river.

A safe place to build a hut it was considered a place where cattle lay down to rest. After all, cows were considered by our ancestors as a fertile life-giving force, because the cow was often the breadwinner of the family.

They tried not to build houses in swamps or near them; these places were considered “chill”, and the crops there often suffered from frosts. But a river or lake near the house is always good.

When choosing a place to build a house, the men guessed - they used an experiment. Women never participated in it. They took sheep's wool. It was placed in a clay pot. And they left it overnight at the site of the future home. The result was considered positive if the wool became damp by morning. This means the house will be rich.

There were other fortune-telling experiments. For example, in the evening they left chalk on the site of the future house overnight. If the chalk attracted ants, it was considered a good sign. If ants do not live on this land, then it is better not to build a house here. The result was checked in the morning the next day.

They began cutting down the house in early spring (Lent) or in other months of the year on the new moon. If a tree is cut down on the waning Moon, it will quickly rot, which is why there was such a ban. There were also more stringent daily regulations. Timber harvesting began from winter Nikola on December 19th. The best time for harvesting wood was considered to be December - January, after the first frost, when excess moisture leaves the trunk. They did not cut down dry trees or trees with growths for the house, trees that fell to the north when felled. These beliefs applied specifically to trees; other materials were not subject to such standards.

They did not build houses on the sites of houses burned by lightning. It was believed that Elijah the prophet used lightning to strike places of evil spirits. They also did not build houses where there had previously been a bathhouse, where someone had been injured with an ax or a knife, where human bones had been found, where there had previously been a bathhouse or where a road had previously passed, where some misfortune had occurred, for example, a flood.

Attitude to the Russian hut in folk culture

A house in Rus' had many names: hut, hut, tower, holupy, mansion, khoromina and temple. Yes, don’t be surprised – a temple! Mansions (huts) were equated to a temple, because a temple is also a house, the House of God! And in the hut there was always a holy, red corner.

The peasants treated the house as a living being. Even the names of the parts of the house are similar to the names of the parts of the human body and his world! This is a feature of the Russian house - “human”, that is anthropomorphic names of parts of the hut:

• Brow of the hut- this is her face. The pediment of the hut and the outer opening in the stove could be called chel.
• Prichelina- from the word “brow”, that is, decoration on the brow of the hut,
• Platbands- from the word “face”, “on the face” of the hut.
• Ocelye- from the word “eyes”, window. This was the name of a part of a woman’s headdress, and the same name was given to the decoration of a window.
• Forehead- that was the name of the frontal plate. There were also “heads” in the design of the house.
• Heel, foot- that was the name of part of the doors.

There were also zoomorphic names in the structure of the hut and yard: “bulls”, “hens”, “horse”, “crane” - well.

The word "hut" comes from the Old Slavic “istba”. “Istboyu, stokkoyu” was the name for a heated residential log house (and “klet” was an unheated log house for a residential building).

The house and the hut were living models of the world for people. The house was that secret place in which people expressed ideas about themselves, about the world, built their world and their lives according to the laws of harmony. Home is a part of life and a way to connect and shape your life. Home is a sacred space, an image of family and homeland, a model of the world and human life, a person’s connection with the natural world and with God. A house is a space that a person builds with his own hands, and which is with him from the first to the last days of his life on Earth. Building a house is a repetition by man of the work of the Creator, because the human home, according to the ideas of the people, is a small world created according to the rules of the “big world”.

By the appearance of a Russian house one could determine the social status, religion, and nationality of its owners. In one village there were no two completely identical houses, because each hut carried its own individuality and reflected the inner world of the family living in it.

For a child, a home is the first model of the outside big world; it “feeds” and “raises” the child, the child “absorbs” from the house the laws of life in the big adult world. If a child grew up in a bright, cozy, kind home, in a house in which order reigns, then this is how the child will continue to build his life. If there is chaos in the house, then there is chaos in the soul and in a person’s life. From childhood, the child mastered a system of ideas about his home - the house and its structure - the matitsa, the red corner, the female and male parts of the house.

Dom is traditionally used in Russian as a synonym for the word “homeland”. If a person does not have a sense of home, then there is no sense of homeland! Attachment to home and caring for it were considered a virtue. The house and the Russian hut are the embodiment of a native, safe space. The word “house” was also used in the sense of “family” - so they said “There are four houses on the hill” - this meant four families. In a Russian hut, several generations of the family lived and ran a common household under one roof - grandfathers, fathers, sons, grandchildren.

The interior space of a Russian hut has long been associated in folk culture as the space of a woman - she looked after it, restored order and comfort. But the external space - the courtyard and beyond - was the space of a man. My husband’s grandfather still recalls the division of responsibilities that was customary in the family of our great-grandparents: a woman carried water from a well for the house, for cooking. And the man also carried water from the well, but for cows or horses. It was considered a shame if a woman began to perform men's duties or vice versa. Since we lived in large families, there were no problems. If one of the women could not carry water now, then another woman in the family did this work.

The house also strictly observed male and female halves, but this will be discussed later.

In the Russian North, residential and economic premises were combined under the same roof, so that you can run a household without leaving your home. This is how the life ingenuity of the northerners, living in harsh, cold natural conditions, was manifested.

The house was understood in folk culture as the center of the main life values– happiness, prosperity, family prosperity, faith. One of the functions of the hut and house was a protective function. A carved wooden sun under the roof is a wish for happiness and prosperity to the owners of the house. The image of roses (which do not grow in the north) is a wish for a happy life. The lions and lionesses in the painting are pagan amulets that scare away evil with their terrible appearance.

Proverbs about hut

On the roof there is a heavy wooden ridge - a sign of the sun. There was always a household goddess in the house. S. Yesenin wrote interestingly about the horse: “The horse, both in Greek, Egyptian, Roman, and Russian mythology, is a sign of aspiration. But only one Russian man thought of putting him on his roof, likening his hut under him to a chariot” (Nekrasova M.A. Folk art of Russia. - M., 1983)

The house was built very proportionally and harmoniously. Its design is based on the law of the golden ratio, the law of natural harmony in proportions. They built it without measuring instruments or complex calculations - by instinct, as their soul dictated.

A family of 10 or even 15-20 people sometimes lived in a Russian hut. In it they cooked and ate, slept, weaved, spun, repaired utensils, and did all household work.

Myth and truth about the Russian hut. There is an opinion that Russian huts were dirty, there was unsanitary conditions, disease, poverty and darkness. I used to think so too, that’s what we were taught at school. But this is completely untrue! I asked my grandmother shortly before she passed away, when she was already over 90 years old (she grew up near Nyandoma and Kargopol in the Russian North in the Arkhangelsk region), how they lived in their village in her childhood - did they really wash and clean the house once? a year and lived in the dark and in the dirt?

She was very surprised and said that the house was always not just clean, but very light and cozy, beautiful. Her mother (my great-grandmother) embroidered and knitted the most beautiful valances for the beds of adults and children. Each crib and cradle was decorated with her valances. And each crib has its own pattern! Imagine what kind of work this is! And what beauty is in the frame of each crib! Her dad (my great-grandfather) carved beautiful designs on all household utensils and furniture. She recalled being a child under the care of her grandmother along with her sisters and brothers (my great-great-grandmother). They not only played, but also helped adults. It used to be that in the evening her grandmother would tell the children: “Soon mother and father will come from the field, we need to clean the house.” And oh - yes! Children take brooms and rags, put everything in order so that there is not a speck of dust in the corner, and all things are in their places. When mother and father arrived, the house was always clean. The children understood that the adults had come home from work, were tired and needed help. She also remembered how her mother always whitewashed the stove so that the stove would be beautiful and the house would be cozy. Even on the day of giving birth, her mother (my great-grandmother) whitewashed the stove, and then went to the bathhouse to give birth. The grandmother recalled how she, being the eldest daughter, helped her.

It was not like the outside was clean and the inside was dirty. They cleaned very carefully both outside and inside. My grandmother told me that “what appears on the outside is how you want to appear to people” (outward is the appearance of clothes, a house, a closet, etc. - how they look to guests and how we want to present ourselves to people clothes, appearance of the house, etc.). But “what’s inside is who you really are” (inside is the backside of embroidery or any other work, the backside of clothes that should be clean and without holes or stains, the inside of cabinets and others invisible to other people, but visible moments of our lives). Very instructive. I always remember her words.

Grandmother recalled that only those who did not work had poor and dirty huts. They were considered like holy fools, a little sick, they were pitied as people who were sick at heart. Those who worked - even if he had 10 children - lived in bright, clean, beautiful huts. Decorated your home with love. They ran a large household and never complained about life. There was always order in the house and yard.

Construction of a Russian hut

The Russian house (hut), like the Universe, was divided into three worlds, three tiers: the lower one is the basement, underground; middle – these are living quarters; the upper one under the sky is the attic, the roof.

Hut as a structure was a log house made of logs that were tied together into crowns. In the Russian North, it was customary to build houses without nails, very durable houses. The minimum number of nails was used only for attaching decor - piers, towels, platbands. They built houses “as proportion and beauty dictate.”

Roof– the upper part of the hut – provides protection from the outside world and is the border between the inside of the house and space. No wonder the roofs were so beautifully decorated in houses! And the ornaments on the roof often depicted symbols of the sun - solar symbols. We know such expressions: “father’s roof”, “live under one roof”. There were customs - if a person was sick and could not leave this world for a long time, then so that his soul could more easily pass into another world, they would remove the ridge on the roof. It is interesting that the roof was considered a feminine element of the house - the hut itself and everything in the hut should be “covered” - the roof, buckets, dishes, and barrels.

Upper part of the house (rails, towel) decorated with solar, that is, sun signs. In some cases, the full sun was depicted on the towel, and only half of the solar signs were depicted on the sides. Thus, the sun appeared at the most important points on its path across the sky - at sunrise, zenith and sunset. In folklore there is even an expression “three-bright sun”, reminiscent of these three key points.

Attic was located under the roof and items that were not needed at the moment and removed from the house were stored on it.

The hut was two-story, the living rooms were located on the “second floor”, as it was warmer there. And on the “ground floor,” that is, on the lower tier, there was basement It protected living quarters from the cold. The basement was used for storing food and was divided into 2 parts: the basement and the underground.

Floor they made it double to preserve heat: at the bottom there was a “black floor”, and on top of it there was a “white floor”. Floor boards were laid from the edges to the center of the hut in the direction from the facade to the exit. This was important in some rituals. So, if they entered the house and sat on a bench along the floorboards, it meant that they had come to make a match. They never slept and laid the bed along the floorboards, since they laid the dead person along the floorboards “on the way to the doors.” That’s why we didn’t sleep with our heads towards the exit. They always slept with their heads in the red corner, towards the front wall, on which the icons were located.

The diagonal was important in the design of the Russian hut. “The red corner is the stove.” The red corner always pointed to noon, to the light, to God's side (the red side). It has always been associated with wotok (sunrise) and the south. And the stove pointed to sunset, to darkness. And was associated with the west or north. They always prayed to the icon in the red corner, i.e. to the east, where the altar in the temples is located.

Door and the entrance to the house, the exit to the outside world is one of the most important elements of the house. She greets everyone who enters the house. In ancient times, there were many beliefs and various protective rituals associated with the door and threshold of the house. Probably not without reason, and now many people hang a horseshoe on the door for good luck. And even earlier, a scythe (a gardening tool) was placed under the threshold. This reflected people's ideas about the horse as an animal associated with the sun. And also about metal, created by man with the help of fire and which is a material for protecting life.

Only a closed door preserves life inside the house: “Don’t trust everyone, lock the door tightly.” That is why people stopped at the threshold of the house, especially when entering someone else's house; this stop was often accompanied by a short prayer.

At a wedding in some places, a young wife, entering her husband’s house, was not supposed to touch the threshold. That is why it was often carried in by hand. And in other areas, the sign was exactly the opposite. The bride, entering the groom's house after the wedding, always lingered on the threshold. This was a sign of that. That she is now one of her own in her husband’s family.

The threshold of a doorway is the border between “one’s own” and “someone else’s” space. In popular belief, this was a borderline, and therefore unsafe, place: “They don’t say hello across the threshold,” “They don’t shake hands across the threshold.” You cannot accept gifts through the threshold. Guests are greeted outside the threshold, then let in ahead of them through the threshold.

The height of the door was below human height. When entering, I had to bow my head and take off my hat. But at the same time, the doorway was quite wide.

Window- another entrance to the house. Window is a very ancient word, first mentioned in chronicles in the year 11 and found among all Slavic peoples. In popular beliefs, it was forbidden to spit through the window, throw out garbage, or pour something out of the house, since “the angel of the Lord is standing under it.” “Give (to a beggar) through the window - give to God.” Windows were considered the eyes of the house. A man looks through the window at the sun, and the sun looks at him through the window (the eyes of the hut). That is why signs of the sun were often carved on the frames. The riddles of the Russian people say this: “The red girl is looking out the window” (the sun). Traditionally in Russian culture, windows in a house have always been oriented “toward the summer”—that is, to the east and south. The largest windows of the house always looked out onto the street and the river; they were called “red” or “slanting”.

Windows in a Russian hut could be of three types:

A) The fiberglass window is the most ancient type of window. Its height did not exceed the height of a horizontally placed log. But its width was one and a half times its height. Such a window was closed from the inside with a bolt that “dragged” along special grooves. That’s why the window was called “volokovoye”. Only dim light entered the hut through the fiberglass window. Such windows were more often found on outbuildings. Smoke from the stove was taken out (“dragged out”) from the hut through a fiberglass window. Basements, closets, sheds and barns were also ventilated through them.

B) Box window - consists of a deck made up of four beams firmly connected to each other.

C) A slanted window is an opening in the wall, reinforced with two side beams. These windows are also called “red” windows, regardless of their location. Initially, the central windows in the Russian hut were made like this.

It was through the window that the baby had to be handed over if children born in the family died. It was believed that this could save the child and ensure his long life. In the Russian North there was also a belief that a person’s soul leaves the house through a window. That is why a cup of water was placed on the window so that the soul that had left a person could wash itself and fly away. Also, after the funeral, a towel was hung on the window so that the soul would use it to ascend into the house and then descend back. Sitting by the window, they waited for news. The place by the window in the red corner is a place of honor, for the most honored guests, including matchmakers.

The windows were located high, and therefore the view from the window did not bump into neighboring buildings, and the view from the window was beautiful.

During construction, free space (sedimentary groove) was left between the window beam and the log of the house wall. It was covered with a board, which is well known to all of us and is called platband(“on the face of the house” = platband). The platbands were decorated with ornaments to protect the house: circles as symbols of the sun, birds, horses, lions, fish, weasel (an animal considered the guardian of livestock - they believed that if a predator was depicted, it would not harm domestic animals), floral ornaments, juniper, rowan .

From the outside, the windows were closed with shutters. Sometimes in the north, to make it convenient to close the windows, galleries were built along the main facade (they looked like balconies). The owner walks along the gallery and closes the shutters on the windows for the night.

Four sides of the hut facing the four cardinal directions. The appearance of the hut is directed towards the outside world, and the interior decoration - towards the family, the clan, the person.

Porch of a Russian hut it was often open and spacious. Here those family events took place that the entire street of the village could see: soldiers were seen off, matchmakers were greeted, newlyweds were greeted. On the porch they talked, exchanged news, relaxed, and talked about business. Therefore, the porch occupied a prominent place, was high and rose up on pillars or frames.

The porch is “the calling card of the house and its owners,” reflecting their hospitality, prosperity and cordiality. A house was considered uninhabited if its porch was destroyed. The porch was decorated carefully and beautifully, the ornament used was the same as on the elements of the house. It could be a geometric or floral ornament.

What word do you think the word “porch” came from? From the word “cover”, “roof”. After all, the porch had to have a roof that protected it from snow and rain.
Often in a Russian hut there were two porches and two entrances. The first entrance is the front entrance, where benches were set up for conversation and relaxation. And the second entrance is “dirty”, it served for household needs.

Bake was located near the entrance and occupied approximately a quarter of the hut’s space. The stove is one of the sacred centers of the house. “The oven in the house is the same as the altar in the church: bread is baked in it.” “The stove is our dear mother,” “A house without a stove is an uninhabited house.” The stove had a feminine origin and was located in the female half of the house. It is in the oven that the raw, undeveloped is transformed into cooked, “our own”, mastered. The stove is located in the corner opposite the red corner. They slept on it, it was used not only in cooking, but also in healing, in folk medicine, small children were washed in it in winter, children and old people warmed themselves on it. In the stove, they always kept the damper closed if someone left the house (so that they would return and the journey would be happy), during a thunderstorm (since the stove is another entrance to the house, the connection between the house and the outside world).

Matica- a beam running across a Russian hut on which the ceiling is supported. This is the boundary between the front and back of the house. A guest coming to the house could not go further than the mother without the permission of the owners. Sitting under the mother meant wooing the bride. In order for everything to succeed, it was necessary to hold on to the mother before leaving home.

The entire space of the hut was divided into female and male. Men worked and rested, received guests on weekdays in the men's part of the Russian hut - in the front red corner, to the side of it towards the threshold and sometimes under the curtains. The man's workplace during repairs was next to the door. Women and children worked and rested, staying awake in the women's half of the hut - near the stove. If women received guests, then the guests sat at the threshold of the stove. Guests could only enter the women's area of ​​the hut at the invitation of the hostess. Representatives of the male half never entered the female half unless absolutely necessary, and women never entered the male half. This could be taken as an insult.

Stalls served not only as a place to sit, but also as a place to sleep. A headrest was placed under the head when sleeping on a bench.

The bench at the door was called “konik”, it could be the workplace of the owner of the house, and any person who entered the house, a beggar, could also spend the night there.

Above the benches, above the windows, shelves were made parallel to the benches. Hats, thread, yarn, spinning wheels, knives, awls and other household items were placed on them.

Married adult couples slept in beds, on a bench under the blankets, in their own separate cages - in their own places. Old people slept on the stove or near the stove, children - on the stove.

All utensils and furniture in a Russian northern hut are located along the walls, and the center remains free.

Svetlyceum The room was called a small room, a little room on the second floor of the house, clean, well-groomed, for handicrafts and clean activities. There was a wardrobe, a bed, a sofa, a table. But just like in the hut, all objects were placed along the walls. In the gorenka there were chests in which dowries for daughters were collected. There are as many marriageable daughters as there are chests. Girls lived here - brides of marriageable age.

Dimensions of a Russian hut

In ancient times, the Russian hut did not have internal partitions and was shaped like a square or rectangle. The average size of the hut was from 4 x 4 meters to 5.5 x 6.5 meters. Middle and wealthy peasants had large huts - 8 x 9 meters, 9 x 10 meters.

Decoration of a Russian hut

In the Russian hut there were four corners: stove, woman's kut, red corner, back corner (at the entrance under the curtains). Each corner had its own traditional purpose. And the entire hut, according to the corners, was divided into female and male halves.

Women's half of the hut runs from the furnace mouth (furnace outlet) to the front wall of the house.

One of the corners of the women's half of the house is the woman's kut. It is also called “baking”. This place is near the stove, women's territory. Here they prepared food, pies, utensils and millstones were stored. Sometimes the “women’s territory” of the house was separated by a partition or screen. On the women's side of the hut, behind the stove, there were cabinets for kitchen utensils and food supplies, shelves for tableware, buckets, cast iron, tubs, and stove accessories (bread shovel, poker, grip). The “long shop”, which ran along the women’s half of the hut along the side wall of the house, was also women’s. Here women spun, weaved, sewed, embroidered, and a baby’s cradle hung here.

Men never entered “women’s territory” and did not touch those utensils that are considered female. But a stranger and guest could not even look into the woman’s kut, it was offensive.

On the other side of the stove there was male space, "The male kingdom of the home." There was a threshold men's shop here, where men did housework and rested after a hard day. Underneath there was often a cabinet with tools for men's work. It was considered indecent for a woman to sit on the threshold bench. They rested during the day on a side bench at the back of the hut.

Russian stove

About a fourth, and sometimes a third, of the hut was occupied by a Russian stove. She was a symbol of home. They not only prepared food in it, but also prepared feed for livestock, baked pies and bread, washed themselves, heated the room, slept on it and dried clothes, shoes or food, and dried mushrooms and berries in it. And they could keep chickens in the oven even in winter. Although the stove is very large, it does not “eat up”, but, on the contrary, expands the living space of the hut, turning it into a multi-dimensional, multi-height space.

No wonder there is a saying “dance from the stove”, because everything in a Russian hut begins with the stove. Remember the epic about Ilya Muromets? The epic tells us that Ilya Muromets “lay on the stove for 30 and 3 years,” that is, he could not walk. Not on the floors or on the benches, but on the stove!

“The oven is like our own mother,” people used to say. Many folk healing practices were associated with the stove. And signs. For example, you cannot spit in the oven. And it was impossible to swear when the fire was burning in the stove.

The new oven began to be heated gradually and evenly. The first day began with four logs, and gradually one log was added every day to heat the entire volume of the stove and so that it was without cracks.

At first, Russian houses had adobe stoves, which were heated in black. That is, the stove then did not have an exhaust pipe for the smoke to escape. The smoke was released through the door or through a special hole in the wall. Sometimes they think that only beggars had black huts, but this is not so. Such stoves were also found in rich mansions. The black stove produced more heat and stored it longer than the white one. The smoke-stained walls were not afraid of dampness or rot.

Later, the stoves began to be built white - that is, they began to make a pipe through which the smoke came out.

The stove was always located in one of the corners of the house, which was called the stove, door, small corner. Diagonally from the stove there was always a red, holy, front, large corner of a Russian house.

Red corner in a Russian hut

The Red Corner is the central main place in the hut, in a Russian house. It is also called “saint”, “God’s”, “front”, “senior”, “big”. It is illuminated by the sun better than all other corners in the house, everything in the house is oriented towards it.

The goddess in the red corner is like the altar of an Orthodox church and was interpreted as the presence of God in the house. The table in the red corner is the church altar. Here, in the red corner, they prayed to the icon. Here at the table all meals and main events in the life of the family took place: birth, wedding, funeral, farewell to the army.

Here there were not only images, but also the Bible, prayer books, candles, branches of consecrated willow were brought here on Palm Sunday or birch branches on Trinity.

The red corner was especially worshiped. Here, during the wake, they placed an extra device for another soul who had passed into the world.

It was in the Red Corner that the chipped birds of happiness, traditional for the Russian North, were hung.

Seats at the table in the red corner were firmly established by tradition, not only during holidays, but also during regular meals. The meal united the clan and family.

• Place in the red corner, in the center of the table, under the icons, was the most honorable. Here sat the owner, the most respected guests, and the priest. If a guest went and sat in the red corner without the owner’s invitation, this was considered a gross violation of etiquette.
• The next most important side of the table is the one to the right of the owner and the places closest to him on the right and left. This is a "men's shop". Here the men of the family were seated according to seniority along the right wall of the house towards its exit. The older the man, the closer he sits to the owner of the house.
• And on the “lower” end of the table on the “women’s bench”, Women and children sat down along the front of the house.
• Mistress of the house was placed opposite the husband from the side of the stove on the side bench. This made it more convenient to serve food and host dinners.
• During the wedding newlyweds They also sat under the icons in the red corner.
• For guests It had its own guest shop. It is located by the window. It is still a custom in some areas to seat guests by the window.

This arrangement of family members at the table shows the model of social relations within the Russian family.

Table- he was given great importance in the red corner of the house and in the hut in general. The table in the hut was in a permanent place. If the house was sold, then it was necessarily sold along with the table!

Very important: The table is the hand of God. “The table is the same as the throne in the altar, and therefore you need to sit at the table and behave as in church” (Olonets province). It was not allowed to place foreign objects on the dining table, because this is the place of God himself. It was forbidden to knock on the table: “Don’t hit the table, the table is God’s palm!” There should always be bread on the table - a symbol of wealth and well-being in the house. They used to say: “Bread on the table is the throne!” Bread is a symbol of prosperity, abundance, and material well-being. That's why it always had to be on the table - God's palm.

A small lyrical digression from the author. Dear readers of this article! You probably think that all this is outdated? Well, what does bread have to do with it on the table? And you can bake yeast-free bread at home with your own hands - it’s quite easy! And then you will understand that this is a completely different bread! Not like store bought bread. Moreover, the loaf is shaped like a circle, a symbol of movement, growth, development. When for the first time I baked not pies or cupcakes, but bread, and my whole house smelled of bread, I realized what a real home is - a house where it smells... of bread! Where do you want to return? Don't have time for this? I thought so too. Until one of the mothers whose children I work with, and she has ten of them!!!, taught me how to bake bread. And then I thought: “If a mother of ten children finds time to bake bread for her family, then I definitely have time for this!” Therefore, I understand why bread is the head of everything! You have to feel it with your own hands and your soul! And then the loaf on your table will become a symbol of your home and will bring you a lot of joy!

The table must be installed along the floorboards, i.e. the narrow side of the table was directed towards the western wall of the hut. This is very important because... the direction “longitudinal - transverse” was given a special meaning in Russian culture. The longitudinal one had a “positive” charge, and the transverse one had a “negative” charge. Therefore, they tried to lay all the objects in the house in the longitudinal direction. This is also why they sat along the floorboards during rituals (matchmaking, as an example) - so that everything would go well.

Tablecloth on the table in the Russian tradition it also had a very deep meaning and forms a single whole with the table. The expression “table and tablecloth” symbolized hospitality and hospitality. Sometimes the tablecloth was called “bread-salter” or “self-assembled”. Wedding tablecloths were kept as a special heirloom. The table was not always covered with a tablecloth, but only on special occasions. But in Karelia, for example, the tablecloth had to always be on the table. For a wedding feast, they took a special tablecloth and laid it inside out (from damage). A tablecloth could be spread on the ground during a funeral service, because a tablecloth is a “road”, a connection between the cosmic world and the human world; it is not for nothing that the expression “a tablecloth is a road” has come down to us.

The family gathered at the dinner table, crossed themselves before eating and said a prayer. They ate sedately, and it was forbidden to get up while eating. The head of the family - a man - began the meal. He cut food into pieces, cut bread. The woman served everyone at the table and served food. The meal was long, leisurely, long.

On holidays, the red corner was decorated with woven and embroidered towels, flowers, and tree branches. Embroidered and woven towels with patterns were hung on the shrine. On Palm Sunday, the red corner was decorated with willow branches, on Trinity - with birch branches, and with heather (juniper) - on Maundy Thursday.

It's interesting to think about our modern houses:

Question 1. The division into “male” and “female” territory in the house is not accidental. And in our modern apartments there is a “women’s secret corner” - personal space as a “female kingdom”, do men interfere with it? Do we need him? How and where can you create it?

Question 2. And what is in the red corner of our apartment or dacha - what is the main spiritual center of the house? Let's take a closer look at our home. And if we need to fix something, we’ll do it and create a red corner in our home, let’s create it to truly unite the family. Sometimes you can find advice on the Internet to put a computer in the red corner as the “energy center of the apartment” and organize your workplace in it. I'm always surprised by such recommendations. Here, in the red - the main corner - be what is important in life, what unites the family, what carries true spiritual values, what is the meaning and idea of ​​​​the life of the family and clan, but not a TV or an office center! Let's think together about what it could be.

Types of Russian huts

Nowadays, many families are interested in Russian history and traditions and are building houses as our ancestors did. It is sometimes believed that there should be only one type of house based on the arrangement of its elements, and only this type of house is “correct” and “historic”. In fact, the location of the main elements of the hut (red corner, stove) depends on the region.

Based on the location of the stove and the red corner, there are 4 types of Russian huts. Each type is characteristic of a specific area and climatic conditions. That is, it is impossible to say directly: the stove has always been strictly here, and the red corner is strictly here. Let's look at them in more detail in the pictures.

The first type is the Northern Central Russian hut. The stove is located next to the entrance to the right or left of it in one of the rear corners of the hut. The mouth of the stove is turned towards the front wall of the hut (the mouth is the outlet of a Russian stove). Diagonally from the stove there is a red corner.

The second type is the Western Russian hut. The stove was also located next to the entrance to the right or left of it. But its mouth was turned towards the long side wall. That is, the mouth of the stove was located near the entrance door to the house. The red corner was also located diagonally from the stove, but food was prepared in a different place in the hut - closer to the door (see picture). A sleeping area was made on the side of the stove.

The third type is the eastern South Russian hut. The fourth type is the Western South Russian hut. In the south, the house was placed towards the street not with its facade, but with its long side. Therefore, the location of the furnace here was completely different. The stove was placed in the corner farthest from the entrance. Diagonally from the stove (between the door and the long front wall of the hut) there was a red corner. In eastern South Russian huts, the mouth of the stove was turned towards the front door. In western South Russian huts, the mouth of the stove was turned towards the long wall of the house, facing the street.

Despite the different types of huts, they adhere to the general principle of the structure of Russian housing. Therefore, even if he found himself far from home, the traveler could always find his way around the hut.

Elements of a Russian hut and a peasant estate: a dictionary

In a peasant estate the farm was large - each estate had from 1 to 3 barns for storing grain and valuables. There was also a bathhouse - the building farthest from the residential building. Every thing has its place. This proverbial principle has always been observed everywhere. Everything in the house was thought out and arranged intelligently so as not to waste extra energy and time on unnecessary actions or movements. Everything is at hand, everything is convenient. Modern home ergonomics comes from our history.

The entrance to the Russian estate was from the street through a strong gate. There was a roof over the gate. And at the gate on the side of the street there is a bench under the roof. Not only village residents, but also any passerby could sit on the bench. It was at the gate that it was customary to meet and see off guests. And under the roof of the gate one could welcome them cordially or talk goodbye.

Barn– a separate small building for storing grain, flour, and supplies.

Bath– a separate building (the furthest building from a residential building) for washing.

Crown- logs of one horizontal row in the log house of a Russian hut.

Anemone- a carved sun attached instead of a towel to the gable of the hut. Wishing a rich harvest, happiness, and prosperity to the family living in the house.

Barn floor– a platform for threshing compressed bread.

Cage- a structure in wooden construction, formed by crowns of logs placed on top of each other. The mansions consist of several cages, united by passages and vestibules.

Chicken-elements of the roof of a Russian house built without nails. They said: “Chickens and a horse on the roof - it will be quieter in the hut.” This refers specifically to the elements of the roof - the ridge and the chicken. A water tank was placed on the chicken - a log hollowed out in the form of a gutter to drain water from the roof. The image of “chickens” is not accidental. The chicken and the rooster were associated in the popular mind with the sun, since this bird notifies about the sunrise. The crow of a rooster, according to popular belief, drives away evil spirits.

Glacier– the great-grandfather of the modern refrigerator – a room with ice for storing food

Matica- a massive wooden beam on which the ceiling is laid.

Platband– decoration of a window (window opening)

Barn– a building for drying sheaves before threshing. The sheaves were laid out on the flooring and dried.

Stupid– horse – connects the two wings of the house, two roof slopes together. The horse symbolizes the sun moving across the sky. This is a mandatory element of the roof structure, built without nails, and is a talisman for the house. Okhlupen is also called “shelo” from the word “helmet”, which is associated with the protection of the house and means the helmet of an ancient warrior. Perhaps this part of the hut was called “okhlupny”, because when put in place it makes a “pop” sound. Ohlupni were used to do without nails during construction.

Ochelye – this was the name of the most beautifully decorated part of the Russian women's headdress on the forehead (“on the brow”And also called part of the decoration of the window - the upper part of the “decoration of the forehead, brow” of the house. Ochelie - the upper part of the platband on the window.

Povet– a hayloft, you could drive here directly on a cart or sleigh. This room is located directly above the barnyard. Boats, fishing gear, hunting equipment, shoes, and clothes were also stored here. Here they dried and repaired nets, crushed flax and did other work.

Podklet– the lower room under the living quarters. The basement was used for storing food and household needs.

Polati- wooden flooring under the ceiling of a Russian hut. They settled between the wall and the Russian stove. It was possible to sleep on the floors, as the stove kept the heat for a long time. If the stove was not heated for heating, then vegetables were stored on the floors at that time.

Policemen– figured shelves for utensils above the benches in the hut.

Towel- a short vertical board at the junction of two piers, decorated with the symbol of the sun. Usually the towel repeated the pattern of the hairstyles.

Prichelina- boards on the wooden roof of a house, nailed to the ends above the pediment (edge ​​of the hut), protecting them from rotting. The piers were decorated with carvings. The pattern consists of a geometric ornament. But there is also an ornament with grapes - a symbol of life and procreation.

Svetlitsa- one of the rooms in the mansion (see “mansions”) on the women’s side, in the upper part of the building, intended for needlework and other household activities.

Seni- a cold entrance room in the hut; usually the entryway was not heated. As well as the entrance room between the individual cages in the mansions. This is always a utility room for storage. Household utensils were stored here, there was a bench with buckets and milk pans, work clothes, rockers, sickles, scythes, and rakes. They did dirty housework in the entryway. The doors of all rooms opened into the canopy. Canopy - protection from the cold. The front door opened, the cold was let into the hallway, but remained in them, not reaching the living quarters.

Apron– sometimes “aprons” decorated with fine carvings were made on houses on the side of the main facade. This is a board overhang that protects the house from precipitation.

Stable- premises for livestock.

Mansions- a large residential wooden house, which consists of separate buildings, united by vestibules and passages. galleries. All parts of the choir were different in height - the result was a very beautiful multi-tiered structure.

Russian hut utensils

Dishes for cooking, it was stored in the stove and near the stove. These are cauldrons, cast iron pots for porridges, soups, clay patches for baking fish, cast iron frying pans. Beautiful porcelain dishes were stored so that everyone could see them. She was a symbol of wealth in the family. Festive dishes were stored in the upper room, and plates were displayed in the cupboard. Everyday dishes were kept in wall cabinets. Dinnerware consisted of a large bowl made of clay or wood, wooden spoons, birch bark or copper salt shakers, and cups of kvass.

Painted baskets were used to store bread in Russian huts. boxes, brightly colored, sunny, joyful. The painting of the box distinguished it from other things as a significant, important thing.

They drank tea from samovar.

Sieve it was used for sifting flour, and as a symbol of wealth and fertility, it was likened to the vault of heaven (the riddle “A sieve is covered with a sieve”, the answer is heaven and earth).

Salt is not only food, but also a talisman. That’s why they served bread and salt to guests as a greeting, a symbol of hospitality.

The most common was earthenware pot. Porridge and cabbage soup were prepared in pots. The cabbage soup cooked well in the pot and became much tastier and richer. Even now, if we compare the taste of soup and porridge from a Russian oven and from the stove, we will immediately feel the difference in taste! Tastes better out of the oven!

For household needs, barrels, tubs, and baskets were used in the house. They fried food in frying pans, just like now. The dough was kneaded in wooden troughs and vats. Water was carried in buckets and jugs.

Good owners immediately after eating all the dishes were washed clean, dried and placed overturned on the shelves.

Domostroy said this: “so that everything is always clean and ready for the table or for delivery.”

To put the dishes in the oven and take them out of the oven you needed grips. If you have the opportunity to try to put a full pot filled with food into the oven or take it out of the oven, you will understand how physically difficult work this is and how strong women used to be even without fitness classes :). For them, every movement was exercise and exercise. I’m serious 🙂 - I tried it and appreciated how difficult it is to get a large pot of food for a large family using a grab handle!

Used for raking coals poker.

In the 19th century, metal pots replaced clay pots. They're called cast iron (from the word “cast iron”).

Clay and metal were used for frying and baking. frying pans, patches, frying pans, bowls.

Furniture in our understanding, this word was almost absent in the Russian hut. Furniture appeared much later, not so long ago. No wardrobes or chests of drawers. Clothes and shoes and other things were not stored in the hut.

The most valuable things in a peasant house - ceremonial utensils, festive clothes, dowries for daughters, money - were kept in chests. Chests always had locks. The design of the chest could tell about the prosperity of its owner.

Russian hut decor

A house painting master could paint a house (they used to say “bloom”). They painted strange patterns on a light background. These are symbols of the sun - circles and semicircles, and crosses, and amazing plants and animals. The hut was also decorated with wood carvings. Women weaved and embroidered, knitted and decorated their homes with their handicrafts.

Guess what tool was used to make carvings in a Russian hut? With an axe! And the painting of the houses was done by “painters” - that’s what the artists were called. They painted the facades of houses - pediments, platbands, porches, porches. When white stoves appeared, they began to paint the huts, partitions, and cabinets.

The decor of the roof pediment of a northern Russian house is actually an image of space. Signs of the sun on the racks and on the towel - an image of the path of the sun - sunrise, sun at its zenith, sunset.

Very interesting ornament decorating the piers. Below the solar sign on the piers you can see several trapezoidal protrusions - the legs of waterfowl. For the northerners, the sun rose from the water and also set in the water, because there were many lakes and rivers around, which is why waterfowl were depicted - the underwater and underground world. The ornament on the sides represented the seven-layered sky (remember the old expression - “to be in seventh heaven”?).

In the first row of the ornament there are circles, sometimes connected with trapezoids. These are symbols of heavenly water - rain and snow. Another series of images from triangles is a layer of earth with seeds that will wake up and produce a harvest. It turns out that the sun rises and moves across a seven-layer sky, one of which contains moisture reserves, and the other contains plant seeds. At first the sun does not shine at full strength, then it is at its zenith and finally sets down so that the next morning it begins its path across the sky again. One row of the ornament does not repeat the other.

The same symbolic ornament can be found on the platbands of a Russian house and on the decor of windows in central Russia. But window decoration also has its own characteristics. On the lower board of the casing there is an uneven relief of a hut (a plowed field). At the lower ends of the side boards of the casing there are heart-shaped images with a hole in the middle - a symbol of a seed immersed in the ground. That is, we see in the ornament a projection of the world with the most important attributes for the farmer - the earth sown with seeds and the sun.

Proverbs and sayings about the Russian hut and housekeeping

• Houses and walls help.
• Every house is held by its owner. The house is being painted by the owner.
• What it’s like at home is the same for yourself.
• Make a stable, and then some cattle!
• Not according to the house is the lord, but the house according to the lord.
• It is not the owner who paints the house, but the owner who paints the house.
• At home, not away: once you’ve been there, you won’t leave.
• A good wife will save the house, but a thin one will shake it with her sleeve.
• The mistress of the house is like pancakes in honey.
• Woe to him who lives in a disorderly house.
• If the hut is crooked, the mistress is bad.
• As is the builder, so is the monastery.
• Our hostess is busy with work – and the dogs wash the dishes.
• To lead a house is not to weave bast shoes.
• In the house the owner is more than the bishop
• Getting a pet at home means walking around without opening your mouth.
• The house is small, but it doesn’t allow you to lie down.
• Whatever is born in the field, everything in the house will be useful.
• He is not an owner who does not know his farm.
• Prosperity is not determined by the place, but by the owner.
• If you don't manage a house, you can't manage a city.
• The village is rich, and so is the city.
• A good head feeds a hundred hands.

Dear friends! In this hut I wanted to show not just the history of the Russian home, but also to learn from our ancestors how to run a household - reasonable and beautiful, pleasing to the soul and eye, to live in harmony with both nature and your conscience. In addition, many points in relation to the house as the home of our ancestors are very important and relevant now for us living in the 21st century.

The materials for this article were collected and studied by me for a very long time, checked in ethnographic sources. I also used materials from the stories of my grandmother, who shared with me the memories of her early years of life in a northern village. And only now, during my vacation and my life - being in the countryside in nature, I finally completed this article. And I understood why it took me so long to write it: in the bustle of the capital, in an ordinary panel house in the center of Moscow, with the roar of cars, it was too difficult for me to write about the harmonious world of the Russian home. But here, in nature, I completed this article very quickly and easily, with all my heart.

If you would like to learn more about the Russian home, below you will find a bibliography on this topic for adults and children.

I hope that this article will help you talk interestingly about the Russian house during your summer travels to the village and to museums of Russian life, and will also tell you how to look at illustrations to Russian fairy tales with your children.

Literature about the Russian hut

For adults

1. Bayburin A.K. Dwelling in the rituals and beliefs of the Eastern Slavs. – L.: Science, 1983 (Institute of Ethnography named after N.N. Miklouho-Maclay)
2. Buzin V.S. Ethnography of Russians. – St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg University Publishing House, 2007
3. Permilovskaya A.B. Peasant house in the culture of the Russian North. – Arkhangelsk, 2005.
4. Russians. Series "Peoples and Cultures". – M.: Nauka, 2005. (Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology named after N. N. Miklukho-Maclay RAS)
5. Sobolev A.A. Wisdom of the ancestors. Russian yard, house, garden. – Arkhangelsk, 2005.
6. Sukhanova M. A. House as a model of the world // Human House. Materials of the interuniversity conference – St. Petersburg, 1998.

For children

1. Alexandrova L. Wooden architecture of Rus'. – M.: White City, 2004.
2. Zaruchevskaya E. B. About peasant mansions. Book for children. – M., 2014.

Russian hut: video

Video 1. Children's educational video tour: Children's Museum of Village Life

Video 2. Film about a northern Russian hut (Museum of Kirov)

Video 3. How to build a Russian hut: a documentary for adults

Get a NEW FREE AUDIO COURSE WITH GAME APPLICATION

"Speech development from 0 to 7 years: what is important to know and what to do. Cheat sheet for parents"

Goals:

• formation of spiritual culture of the individual;
• nurturing love for one’s native land and respect for architectural monuments;
• expanding students' knowledge in the field of decorative and applied arts.

• instilling in schoolchildren love, interest in Russian folk art, respect for the traditions of their people, and a sense of national pride in Russian art.
• teaching students to see the beauty and originality of village huts, to understand the connection between the shape of the hut and its purpose; accurate execution of sketches of architectural details of monuments of folk wooden architecture.
• development of students' creative abilities.

1. Organizational moment.

Hello guys. We are starting our art lesson.

Today we will take a trip to Russian antiquity.

Our work with you will be interesting and fruitful if you are in a good mood.

What's your mood?

Everyone has mood elements on their desk. Please show me what mood you are in now (bad, indifferent or good).

Most of you are in a good mood. I hope that by the end of the lesson it will remain the same.

2. Main part.

The lesson begins with a conversation about open-air monuments of folk wooden architecture “Kargopolye. Artistic treasures." The relationship between folk art and fine art is traced.

A person's life has always been deeply connected with his native land. People built their own world, in which there was an inextricable unity with nature and a sense of kinship with the outside world. Each generation leaves its descendants buildings that carry the spirit of their era through the centuries. Buildings outlive their creators for tens and hundreds of years and therefore become a connection between generations. Buildings can tell us about the social structure of society, activities, life, habits, aesthetic views of people, their worldview.

Let's take a closer look at the peasant hut.

Wooden world of the hut

Wood served as the main material. The peasant made almost all the objects he needed in everyday life from wood. The huts were also made of wood. Hence the word “village”.

In the old days, village huts were not placed in order, but, as they said, “in a happy place,” so that the owner would be comfortable and not disturb the neighbor. Over time, they began to build them with a facade, that is, facing the road, and it turned out to be a “face.”

The huts in the villages had never been painted or sheathed with anything before. People knew how to appreciate the amazing beauty and warmth of wood, its calm strength.

On a cloudy day, the logs of the huts look like silver, on a fine day they turn blue, sometimes they are dark brown, and in the sun they are like warm, glowing honey.

Construction skills were not born immediately, not suddenly.

IZBA - this word sounded in ancient times as “heater”, “istba”, that is, a dwelling that was heated from the inside and served as a reliable shelter from the cold.

The peasant built his house-hut firmly, thoroughly, so that living in it would be comfortable and so that everyone who looked at it would rejoice.

In the construction of the hut, the order found by the work of many generations was observed.

The lesson examines characteristic details and fragments of buildings of northern wooden architecture (rails and towels in the decoration of the roof, a horse, shutters and frames of red windows).

Work on drawing architectural details is combined with vocabulary work.

Massive logs, most often pine, were cut down in advance. And when the wood became dry, they began to build a hut.

In Rus' the log was laid down with the remainder. This method of fastening was called “in the area” or “with the remainder” (so that the corners do not freeze in winter).

Each row of logs fastened together constitutes crown.

The main tool is an axe.

The gable roof is the cap of the building. The higher it is, the easier snow and rain roll off it.

Windows - eyes, eyes, light.

Frontal board- closes the junction of the logs with the boards of the triangle under the roof.

The edges of the roof protrude, and their ends are covered with patterned boards - pricheliny.

The joint of the piers, so that water does not get into the gap, is closed on top by a small one hanging down towel.

The piers, towel, and frontal board were necessarily decorated with carvings - wooden lace.

At the ends of the curtains and towels you can see a carved round rosette - a symbolic image of the sun.

People depicted magical signs-amulets in the most important places (guarded). Jewelry - amulets (birds, horses). A horse is a faithful assistant to a peasant. The horse-amulet ends with a long hollowed-out log that covers the junction of both roof slopes - roof ridge.

Window- eyes on the face of the house, connection with the outside world.

There was one cut on the front wall red window- a large window, which was cut through several crowns and secured with vertical bars - in shoals“mowing” or “red” (beautiful).

The windows were framed platbands- the most decorated part of the hut.

At night the windows were covered with wooden ones. shutters by cold.

The fiberglass windows were cut in two adjacent logs and 30-40 cm in height. They were closed with planks.

During the discussion of the complex plan, the text describing the facade of the Russian northern hut, attention is drawn to the significance of individual architectural details in the overall appearance of the peasant house - this is the framing of the pediment, windows, and roof ridge. The fragments, varied in size and shape, in silhouette and in the degree of detail elaboration, are organically integrated into the overall composition of the house, playing the role of unique accents placed by the skillful hand of the master.

3. Independent work.

Students are asked to complete a general outline of the house, then draw architectural details.

The main parts of the hut are represented by simple geometric figures.

Drawing sequence:

• façade wall;
• roof;
• windows, doors and other parts of the house.

The main dimensions of the hut must be marked with strokes, the boundary of the earth's surface with the rectangle and the height of the hut must be marked with a line. Determine the number of window openings.

Further, in the process of independent work, students complete the drawing in color. Complete the prepared sketch with watercolors or gouache paints. First, the general outline of the house is done in color, then the architectural details (to match the color of the wood - brown, gray).

Children who can quickly complete the task can be asked to supplement the drawing (with trees, a fence, grass and other details).

While working independently, you can quietly turn on Russian folk music.

4. Lesson summary.

At the end of the lesson, an exhibition of drawings is organized, a collective discussion of the completed works takes place, the most successful ones are noted, the quality of the drawings, the drawing of architectural details, and beautiful color combinations. Students should admire their works and make sure that they were able to convey the beauty of the Russian northern hut.

Students are asked questions:

• What new did you learn in the lesson?
• What did you like most?
• What would you like to repeat?

It is necessary to ask whether their mood changed at the end of the work, to thank them for their work.

The interior decoration of a Russian hut is an integral part of the history and culture of Russia. It was she, the old hut, who became the main part of folklore and even the heroine of many fairy tales and legends. Just remember the hut on chicken legs - the fabulous home of Baba Yaga, a terrible witch who scares small children. She is often fooled by the main fairy-tale characters.

So, Ivan Tsarevich turns to her for help in order to save his beloved from the terrible fate, and, not without cunning, receives the gifts of the old witch. Grandma-Yozhka is a negative character who helps Koshchei the Immortal, the Serpent Gorynych and the Cat Bayun in committing atrocities. But at the same time, this “heroine” is quite cheerful, funny and satirical.

About the origins

The word “izba” in Rus' had many interpretations depending on where people lived, which is why it was called differently. There are synonyms such as: yzba, istba, izba, istoka and istoka. These words are often used in Russian chronicles, which, again, speaks of the inseparability and connection of housing with human life. This phrase has a direct connection with Russian verbs such as “to drown” or “to heat.” This building had primarily a functional purpose, since it was designed to provide warmth in cold weather and shelter from natural conditions.

What was the hut like in general?

It is difficult to imagine the interior decoration of a Russian hut without the stove, since it was the center of the room and its favorite part. It is known that many East Slavic peoples, Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians, retained the term “istanka”. Well, as mentioned earlier, it designated a heated building. These were pantries for storing supplies of vegetables, and living quarters of different sizes.

To know how to draw the decoration of a Russian hut, you need to understand what it meant to a person. A significant event was the construction of a house for a peasant. It was not enough to solve a practical problem and provide a roof over your head. First of all, the house was a full-fledged living space for the whole family. The decoration of the hut should, as far as possible, be filled with all the necessary blessings of life, provide the residents with warmth, give them love and a sense of peace. Such housing can only be built according to the long-standing behests of their ancestors, and the peasants have always followed traditions very carefully.

About traditions

When building a house, special importance was given to the choice of location so that the building would subsequently be light, dry and high. Ritual value was no less important.

A happy place is one that has passed the strict test of time and was inhabited earlier: it became prosperous for the previous owners who lived here. Territories near burials, bathhouses that were built there earlier, as well as near the road were considered unsuccessful. It was believed that the devil himself walked along this path and could look into the home.

About the building material

The materials for the construction of the hut were chosen very carefully. The Russians used pine or larch logs for the construction. These trees have long and even trunks, lie evenly and fit tightly together. They retain internal heat well and do not rot for a long time. Selecting logs in the forest was a rather difficult task; for centuries, a set of rules, an algorithm for selecting a log, was passed down from fathers to children. Otherwise, if you choose the wrong, unsuitable material, the house will bring troubles and misfortunes.

Even for the interior decoration of a peasant's hut it was forbidden to cut down sacred trees. They could bring serious illnesses into the house. There was a belief that said that such special breeds should live only in the forest and die a natural death. If you break the ban, they will bring death and grief to the house.

Dry wood was also unsuitable for construction. The location where the trees grew was also important. A tree that grew at the crossroads of forest roads is “violent” and can bring great misfortune to a house - it can destroy a log house and thereby kill the owners of the house.

Rituals

The Slavs did not complete the process of building a house without rituals. At the beginning of construction, a sacrifice was made. In this case, the victim was considered to be a chicken or a ram. This process was carried out when laying the first crown of the hut. Money, wool and grain were placed under the logs as symbols of wealth, prosperity, love, and family warmth. Incense was also placed there as a sign of the holiness of the house, as well as a kind of amulet against evil spirits. At the end of the work (construction), all participants in the process sat down at the table and were treated to delicious dishes.

The sacrifices were carried out for a reason. The sacrifice was supposed to create a fortress for the house and protect it from misfortunes. Sometimes a person was brought as a gift to the gods, but this was in rare cases, in order to protect the entire tribe from enemies. Most often, large livestock were subjected to suffering: a bull or a horse. During archaeological excavations, their skeletons, as well as horse skulls, were found on old houses.

For the ceremony, a special hole was made, and the remains had to be placed there. It was located under the red corner, where icons and other amulets were located. There were other favorite animals for construction sacrifice. The rooster or chicken became such a favorite for the Slavs. This is evidenced by the tradition of placing weathercocks in the shape of cockerels, as well as an image or figurine of this animal on the roof of the house.

One can cite as an example the immortal classic work of N.V. Gogol “Viy”. All evil spirits disappeared after the rooster crowed. Therefore, the “screamer” is called upon to protect the home from evil spirits. Photos showing the decoration of the Russian hut in all its glory are presented in this article.

Roof structure diagram

The roof was also made according to a special scheme:

• gutter;
• stupefied;
• Stamik;
• slightly;
• flint;
• prince's sleg (knes);
• general illness;
• male;
• fall;
• hairline;
• chicken;
• pass;
• oppression.

General view of the hut

The decoration of the Russian hut on the outside, the way our great-grandfathers imagined and built it, was special. According to old traditions, huts have been built for thousands of years. The Russian decoration of a hut depended on where the person lived and what tribe he belonged to, since each tribe had its own traditions and laws by which they can be distinguished.

And even now it is impossible not to distinguish the huts on the European territory of Russia. After all, in the north, log houses predominated, since there was plenty of forest there. In the south there were huge reserves of clay, so mud huts were built from it. The interior decoration of the Russian hut was decorated in the same way. Photos are a clear example of this.

According to ethnographers, not a single popular thought was created immediately in its original form, such as we can observe now. History, culture, and with them the thought of people, changes and develops, bringing harmony, beauty and the great power of love to everything that has been created. This also applies to the home, which was formed and became more and more functional and comfortable. These statements are also proven by the mass of archaeological excavations carried out.

The Russian decoration of the hut largely depended on the climatic conditions in which people lived and on the available building material. Thus, in the north there was moist soil and dense forests full of logs suitable for building houses, while in the south other products predominated and were actively used. Based on this, the half-dugout was widespread in the southern regions. This dome was one and a half meters deep into the ground and, accordingly, had a bulk floor. This type of housing in Rus' existed until the 14th-15th centuries.

After this time period, they began to build above-ground buildings with wooden floors, as they learned how to process logs and make boards from them. Houses were also made that were raised above the ground. They were more multifunctional, since they had 2 floors and provided opportunities for a comfortable life, storage of vegetable supplies, hay and housing for livestock in one house.

In the north, with an abundance of dense forests and a fairly damp, cold climate, semi-dugouts quickly turned into above-ground houses, faster than in the south. The Slavs and their ancestors occupied a fairly large territory and differed from each other in centuries-old traditions, including in the construction of housing. But each tribe adapted to the surrounding conditions in the best possible way, so it cannot be said that some huts were worse. Everything had its place. Now you can understand how to draw the decoration of a Russian hut.

More about construction

Below is a photo. The decoration of the Russian hut is demonstrated in the most typical way for Ladoga, corresponding to the time period of the 9th-11th centuries. The base of the house was square, that is, the width was equal to the length, which reached 5 meters.

The construction of a log hut required a careful and thorough approach, since the crowns had to match, and the logs had to fit tightly to each other, otherwise all the work was in vain.

The beams had to fit as tightly as possible in order to protect residents from cold winds and drafts. Therefore, recesses were made in the log house through one log. Another beam was placed into this hole with a convex edge. The grooves between them were insulated with swamp moss, which had not only thermal insulation value, but also antibacterial value. The top of this building was coated with clay.

About the nuances of construction

The interior decoration of a Russian hut sometimes involved watering it and compacting it, causing it to become hard and smooth. During cleaning, a layer of dirt was simply swept away with a broom. But more often than not, the interior decoration of a peasant hut involved a wooden floor raised above the ground to a height of one and a half meters. This was done in order to build an underground. A hatch led from it to the living space with the stove. All vegetable supplies were kept underground.

The Russian decoration of the hut for wealthy people required another superstructure on top. From the outside, this house looked like a three-story house.

About extensions

The interior decoration of the Russian hut also had several nuances. Russian people often added a hallway with large wide windows to their homes. It was called the canopy. So, when entering the house, you first had to go into the vestibule, and then enter the upper room. This hallway was 2 meters wide. Sometimes the canopy was connected to a barn for livestock, so they were made larger accordingly.

In addition, this extension had a lot of other purposes. There they stored goods and made something necessary in bad weather, since the peasant never sat idle. In summer, you can also put guests to bed there after a noisy celebration. Archaeologists gave this type of dwelling the name “two-chamber”, since it consisted of 2 rooms.

The interior decoration of a peasant hut would not be complete without a cage. Since the early 10th century, this room has served as an additional bedroom, used only in the summer as it was not heated. It was also possible to store food there all year round. And in winter - even perishable food, because it’s always cold there.

How the carpet was built

The roof of the hut was made using several techniques: it could be wooden, shingled, planked or shingled. With the development of history, and with it the skills of the people, in the time period of the 16th-17th centuries, the Slavs developed a unique concept of covering the roof with birch bark, which protected it from leakage. It also served an aesthetic purpose, as it represented the diversity of the building. A little earth and turf was placed on the roof. This was an old "smart technology" to protect your home from fire.

Dugouts and half-dugouts, as a rule, did not have windows. Because of this, the interior decoration of the Russian hut looked, of course, not the way we used to imagine. There were small window openings covered with cattle stomachs. However, later, when the hut “grew” above the ground, they began to make large glazed windows that not only let in light, but also made it possible to see what was happening on the street. The external decoration of the Russian hut was glazed, which in the beginning (10th century) was only available to wealthy owners.

The toilet in Rus' was called “zadok” and was located, as a rule, in the entryway. It was a hole in the floor that “looked” down towards the ground level, where cattle were usually kept. It has appeared in huts since the 16th century.

About the construction of windows

The Russian decoration of a hut in later times could not be imagined without windows. Usually the window opening consisted of 2 adjacent logs, which were cut in half. A rectangular frame was inserted there, having a valve that “moved” in the horizontal direction.

The interior of the hut

The interior decoration of a Russian hut consisted of one to three living spaces. The entrance to the house began with the entryway. The room intended for living was always very warm and heated by a stove. The interior decoration of the hut (photo) perfectly illustrates the life of commoners of those times.

As for wealthy peasants and people of high rank, their homes had space for an additional room, which was called the upper room. The owners received guests in it, and it was also very warm, bright and spacious. It was heated by a Dutch oven.

The interior decoration of a Russian hut could not be imagined without an oven, which occupied most of the room, which was located at the entrance. However, in the southern part of the country it was located in the far corner.

The interior decoration of the Russian hut was distinguished by a special, but at the same time quite simple, placement of objects. The dining table usually stood in the corner, diagonally from the stove. Directly above it was a “red corner” with icons and other amulets. There were benches along the walls, and above them there were shelves built into the walls. Such interior decoration of a Russian hut (photo) was found almost everywhere.

The stove had a multifunctional load, since it brought not only warmth and tasty food, but also had a sleeping place.

The interior decoration of the Russian hut also demonstrates that there were many similarities with the traditions of the East Slavic peoples, but there were also differences. In the north of Rus', people built stone stoves. They got their name because they were made of stone without the use of any fastening mortar.

In the areas of Staraya Ladoga, the base of the stone firebox was one and a half meters in diameter. The decoration of a peasant hut in the Izborsk region involved a stove made of clay, but on a stone base. It reached up to 1 meter in length and width, as well as in height.

In the southern regions of the East Slavic countries, the furnace was built larger and wider, its stone foundation was laid with an approximate calculation of one and a half meters in length and 2 in width. Such ovens reached a height of 1.2 meters.

Types of residential buildings in the Russian North

“In the 17th-19th centuries, a high construction culture, technical and artistic methods of wood processing were formed in the Russian North. Building traditions in peasant house-building reached their peak by the middle of the 19th century. It was by this time that the type of northern house with a characteristic architectural, structural and planning solution, and decorative decoration had developed. Folk craftsmen subtly took into account and reflected in the architecture of the home the features of the natural environment and the layout of northern villages. Despite the commonality of standard architectural and compositional techniques, each hut bore the stamp of individuality and reflected the inner world of its owner.” 2

The simplest type of peasant housing is the hut, which consists of an insulated cage (the hut itself) and small canopies that protect the entrance from bad weather. Such buildings are typical for the poorest part of the Russian peasantry. Often such buildings did not have a yard, since such a farm did not have horses or cattle. The owners of such housing were mainly engaged in waste trade or worked for wealthier peasants.

An example of such a hut is a hut from the beginning of the 19th century. hereditary peasants who rafted timber along the Sukhona, which belonged to E.A. Ershova in the village of Yastreblevo, Veliky Ustyug district, Arkhangelsk region.

House of E.A. Ershova in the village of Yastreblevo. Veliky Ustyug region. Vologda Region

The hut, square in plan, on a low basement, was cut from logs 25-30 cm thick. On the inside, the logs were smoothly hewn to the height of a man. The ceiling is a log slab, smeared with clay and covered with earth on top. The floor is made of split plates, carefully fitted to each other. A large adobe stove on a wooden platform (oechka) is placed in the corner near the front door, the mouth of the stove faces the front windows. Near the stove there is a “golbets” - a wooden box covering the stairs to the underground. From the stove to the walls there are shelves made of beams (Voronets). There are floors laid between the stove and the side wall, and benches along the walls. In the front corner there is a dining table and a shrine. Opposite the mouth of the stove in the “woman's kutu” there is a table-cabinet attached to the wall for preparing food and storing dishes.

An example of the further development of a peasant hut can be a house from Vologdaregion built in the 60s of the XIX century.

House of A.I. Sokolova in the village of Skrebino. Charozersky district. Vologda Region

The house belonged to a middle-class peasant family, which was engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. The house has a significantly enlarged courtyard area, where stables, farmsteads and stalls for horses, cows and small livestock are located.

The house itself belongs to the simplest type of four-walled huts, but unlike the house in the village of Yastreblevo, the number and size of windows have been increased. The space near the stove is fenced off with a plank partition; the interior features artistic treatment of the details of the interior furnishings.

The courtyard adjacent to the entryway is located on the same line with the hut and is under the same roof. In the lower part of the yard there are premises for domestic animals, and in the upper part the winter stock of feed for livestock is stored.

Such a complex of house and yard allowed the peasant to carry out household work in inclement weather without going outside.

The most ancient building (1812) in the Novgorod region is the house of P.I. Lepin in the village of Sytinka, Valdai region.

House of P.I. Lepin in the village of Sytinka. Valdai district. Novgorod region

The log house of the house consists of two parts of equal height: the upper hut and the lower one - the sub-house, in which bread, vegetables, and property were stored. Each of the premises had its own entrance. From the hut, doors led to a vestibule, connected by an internal staircase to a small porch. From the podzybica, the entrance was located directly on the street in the center of the main facade.

The division of the house into two floors was emphasized by a small canopy - a cover. This is a unique element in Novgorod residential wooden architecture. The cover covered the lower part of the frame from the rain, leaving the platform in front of the entrance to the podzybitsa dry and firewood for lighting the stove; a bench was also placed here for the owners to rest. The cover consisted of a plank canopy supported by a bracket or vertical posts. It could encircle the hut on three sides, only along the facade, or cover the area from the door of the hut to the porch.

The cover received its most developed form when supported on racks, which made it possible to increase the projection of the roof, arrange a gallery with a parapet and decorate the supporting pillars with carvings, which enriched the compositional appearance of the buildings.

Similar galleries can be traced by archaeologists in Novgorod in the layers of the 13th century.

A feature of the huts in the Voldaysky district is the large number of windows and the size of the window openings. The height of the window reached 1.15 m with a width of 76-80 cm, which significantly exceeded the size of windows in other regions of Russia. This is due to the proximity of Novgorod, where glass came into use first, and the need to increase natural light due to the prevailing cloudy weather here.

An example of a more complex, three-part hut layout is the house of N.I. Bibina in the village of Selo, Kargopol district, Arkhangelsk region. Here, behind the vestibule, an additional room appears - the upper room.

House of N.I. Bibina in the village of Selo. Kargapolsky district. Arhangelsk region

The house, built in 1860, consists of a hut, a vestibule and an upper room, placed on a high basement. A large two-story courtyard encloses the living spaces on both sides. The first floor is used for keeping livestock, the second for storing hay supplies, where a log platform led - “vzvoz”.

The upper room adjacent to the vestibule was intended for housing in the summer. The basement had its own entrance, but not from the street, as in the Novgorod region, but from the basement. The hut was divided into two halves by massive cabinets connected to each other. In one half there was a Russian stove, a polavnik (table for preparing food) and all the household equipment was concentrated - this was the housewife’s half. In the second half there was a table for eating, benches, a bed, it was the clean half of the hut. Here they ate, did housework: weaving, spinning, repairing harness, and receiving guests.

Five-walled

The development of another type of peasant dwelling, the five-walled hut, was determined by the need to increase the number of living quarters for a peasant family. Often from 10 to 20 people lived in one peasant yard, so to expand the living space, additional rooms were attached to the main log hut.

The black-mown peasants of the northern regions found themselves in the most favorable position, having escaped serfdom and having a stronger economy and the availability of timber. That is why the Russian North was the birthplace of the most developed types of peasant houses and the place of their wide distribution.

The first five-walls date back to the second half of the 18th century. are presented in the figure.

More developed than a five-walled hut in northern villages

1st house In the village of Verkhovye, Prionezhsky district, Arkhangelsk region. The residential complex consisted of a hut, two upper rooms, a hallway with a storage room and a courtyard located on the same axis under a common gable roof.

The hut was built in 1765. Two transverse walls were introduced into the structure of the log house. One of them is located in the center of the building and serves as a support for the floor and stove. The second is significantly shifted to the side and separates it from the living space - a nook intended for storing and grinding flour and preparing food. The technique of moving the stove from the corner to the middle part of the rear wall, characteristic of the Onega region, helps to separate the alley into a utility room, illuminated by an independent window.

2nd house From the village of Brusenets, Totemsky district, Vologda region. The hut was built in the second half of the 18th century. and represents a new type of peasant house, already completed in its formation - a five-walled house. Instead of one room, two were formed in the front part of the house - a hut and an upper room, isolated from each other.

Light entered the hut through one slanted and two slanted windows, the upper room was illuminated by one slanted window on the facade and two on the side.

The stove, unlike the Prionezhsky huts in the houses of the Northern Dvina basin, was placed in a corner, and between the stove and the door there was a golbets with a ladder to the underground.

To provide structural strength to the significantly enlarged gable, two transverse log walls were installed. They form an additional room for housing in the summer - a “tower”. The appearance of the tower brought to life balconies with fencing in the form of figured balusters and carved columns.

3rd house Derevtsov's house in the village of Kodima, Verkhnee-Toemsky district, Arkhangelsk region (1816). The residential part of the hut consists of two rooms located along the front facade: a black hut with an upper room (now a Russian stove is installed there) and a winter hut with windows along the side facade. A large two-story courtyard adjoins the hut at the back and is under the same roof as the living area.

A characteristic type of a finally formed courtyard house with a five-walled wall can be the house of A.V. Popov in the village of Kuzminskoye, Tarnogsky district, Vologda region and the house of S.A. Uvaeva in the village of Mytishchi, Yuryevets district, Ivanovo region.

House-yard A.V. Popov in the village of Kuzminskoye. Tarnogsky district.

Vologda Region

The house was erected at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries by Kuzma Panfilovich Popov.

Popov's house is a developed residential complex consisting of a five-walled hut, a wintering hut, three cold cages “on the povita” (the second floor of the courtyard) and a light room in the attic.

The five-wall building of S. A. Uvaev in the village of Mytishchi, Yuryevets district, Ivanovo region, is distinguished by the functional expediency of the planning system, the integrity of the compositional design, and the richness of architectural forms.

The layout of the house is based on the traditional layout of residential and utility log houses. Ahead is a hut, then utility rooms (cages, closets) and a barnyard. All buildings are interconnected by canopies, passages, stairs and are located one after another on the same longitudinal axis and covered with a common gable roof. From the interior decoration, one can note the separation of part of the hut opposite the mouth of the stove.

Uvaev's house has rich carved decoration, both inside and outside the house. The house was built and decorated by master Emelyan Stepanov and his team.

House-yard of S. A. Uvaev in the village of Mytishchi. Yuryevetsky district. Ivanovo region

The arrangement of a five-wall building with its side facing the street, with three walls facing the façade of the house, is typical for the regions of the North and Upper Volga region.

In the Novgorod region, five-walled huts were placed with the narrow side facing the street. For example, the house of P.P. Kovalev in the village of Chistovo, Mstinsky district, Novgorod region.

House-yard P.P. Kovalev in the village of Chistovo. Mstinsky district. Novgorod region

Twins and six-walled

In addition to the four-walled and five-walled hut, a third type of peasant dwelling, the six-walled one, became widespread in Russian folk architecture. The structural basis of this building is the connection of six main walls (two located parallel to the street and four perpendicular). The peculiarity of the six-wall layout is the presence of three isolated rooms along the front line of the house. The yard is located behind the house, on the same longitudinal axis with the housing.

The six-walled hut was predominantly common in the northern regions. However, its varieties can be found in the Novgorod, Kostroma and Yaroslavl regions.

The path of development of the six-wall can be traced by comparing a number of buildings. First of all, this is a twin hut that developed back in ancient Russian architecture.

The twin hut consists of two independent log houses, tightly pressed against each other and having a common canopy and roof. In one room there was a hut, with three windows on the facade and two on the side. The stove in the hut stood at the front door and was moved away from the side wall. Here there was a hand millstone for grinding flour and cereals, hence the name “millstone corner”. The rest of the layout is traditional: along the walls of the shop, above the door, in the red corner there are icons. A similar layout of the hut is typical for all Mezen and Pinega buildings. The second room is a cold cage - a summer room.

The carpenters explained the presence of two adjacent log walls in the twin hut with the desire to make the dwelling more durable. They believed that one log wall separating a warm and cold room was more likely to rot because it condensed moisture, which could not evaporate due to the lack of air movement in the adjacent room. Two walls with a gap between them provided natural ventilation. It is no coincidence that over time they began to install a drag window between these walls, and subsequently a slanted one. The increasing distance between the log houses made it possible to create additional space in the house. At first it was a cold closet, and then a warm, isolated room. The longitudinal logs of the walls were lengthened and structurally connected to each other.

Over time, the upper room received the same dimensions as the hut and the same number of windows along the main facade. The main façade was clearly divided into three parts by transverse walls along its entire height. The central axis was emphasized by balconies, doorways, paired windows and high porches with long flights of stairs. Thus, a new type of peasant dwelling was gradually formed - six-walled.

Twin hut in northern villages

Forming a house with a side street from a twin hut

Six-walled huts in northern villages

The six-walled hut of the North, with a general structural system, has two main varieties. The first type of six-wall structure has three living spaces located in the front part of the house, a canopy running in the transverse direction and separating the housing from the yard, and porches located on the side. In the second type, the hut and the upper room are located in the same way, but between them there is a canopy instead of an alley. Moving the entryway to the longitudinal axis of the building significantly changed its appearance due to the installation of a front porch on the façade.

Moving the main entrance and high porch with the main staircase from the side to the street façade of the building significantly enriched the plastic expressiveness of the building and allowed the architect to create a strong volume-spatial center of the entire composition of the house.

Six walls with a porch on the central facade

Houses with similar layouts are located in the Northern Dvina, Kostroma region and Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

House with a purse

The hut with a purse characterizes a new, different type of peasant development. “Koshel” (“koshevnik”, “koshma”) is a term widely used in folk life. This word denotes large rafts made of logs and firewood, long carts, wide sleds, spacious baskets, and bags. In peasant architecture, it represents residential buildings with a huge courtyard area, two to three times larger than the dimensions of an ordinary hut and adjacent to the hut on the side.

The hut and the courtyard formed a single and unbroken plane of the front facade. One of the roof slopes was made longer than the other, which made the composition of the facade asymmetrical. The residential part of the house could consist of a cage hut, a twin hut, a five-wall hut or a six-wall hut.

Koshelem houses are found in the lower reaches of Pechora and the Upper Kama region, on the coast of the White Sea, but the most widespread house is on the islands of Lake Onega.

The houses of Pechera and Prikamye have a structurally monolithic frame, covered with equal roof slopes, giving symmetry to the entire volume. Residential log houses have small dimensions and stand on low basements. The number of windows on the main facade ranges from two to three. The houses do not have balconies, walkways, high porches or rich carved platbands.

House of M.S. Chuprova in the village of Ust-Tsilma. Komi

Development of a house with a purse in Pechersk villages

The difficult living conditions of the Pechersk peasants, crop failures, explain the simplicity and severity of the local peasant architecture.

On the shores of the White Sea and Northern Dvina, along with agriculture, salt, ore, resin, fishing were mined, shipbuilding, various crafts and trades developed. Therefore, local residents could afford to build luxurious houses and decorate them richly.

The rapid economic growth of Zaonezhye occurred at the beginning of the 18th century. and is associated with the activities of Peter I, who organized ore mining here and founded metallurgical plants.

Zaonezh villages that arose around churchyards consisted of small groups of buildings. Numerous lagoons and straits separated them from each other, and sometimes from fields, meadows and forests. The boat in these places was the only means of communication; it was used to transport bread, hay, fish, transport livestock, and go to church.

A large number of huts in these villages, despite the variety of internal layouts and decorations, are classified as houses by the purse.

Development of a house with a purse in Zaonezhie

The living quarters of Zaonezhian houses do not have partitions, floors or hoods near the stove, so they seem unusually large and free.

Koshel houses are the most archaic type of house in Karelia; houses of later times consist of a four-walled hut or a five-wall hut with a courtyard located behind the dwelling; such a building is called a timber house.

This housing layout made it easier to repair the roof and increased the height of the second floor of the utility part.

Two-story buildings

Two-story huts do not represent an independent type of residential building. In most cases, the layout of a one-story peasant dwelling is repeated on both floors.

Two-story houses were built mainly by the wealthy part of the peasantry. They required more material and were significantly more expensive to build and operate.

According to travelers, there were three- to four-story buildings in Moscow in the 16th-17th centuries, and the residential log buildings of the palace in Kolomenskoye reached six floors.

Among the two-story peasant dwellings, one can distinguish narrow log-towers, which were additional housing and were placed next to the main house.

House of A.I. Orets in the city of Pechery. Pskov region

The second type is an ordinary peasant house (four walls, five walls, six walls), with two floors.

House of N.A. Zueva in the village of Opalikha. Chkalovsky district. Nizhny Novgorod Region

Usually on the first floor there was a hut with a heavy adobe stove, and on the second floor there were cold rooms, sometimes with a white stove or a light “Dutch” type.

House in the village of Yedoma. Leshukunsky district. Arhangelsk region

House M.I. Burmagina in the village of Bredovitsy. Vinogradovsky district. Arhangelsk region

In the Russian North, there were two ways to cut down houses: in the first case, the house was built by the owner himself with the help of relatives and neighbors, this is the so-called “help”. Or they invited special carpentry teams. The cost of the house fluctuated depending on the complexity from 30-500 rubles.

Estates

In the north, estates with closed courtyards predominated - a courtyard house, where the residential part was combined under one roof with a utility yard. The first floor of the farm yard was occupied by the cattle yard, the second floor of the story was the hayloft. The stable logs were not connected to the second floor, which rested on special pillars, which made it possible to promptly replace rotten stable logs.

Depending on the location of the residential and commercial parts, the following types can be distinguished.

“Brus” is a house with a single-row connection, covered with a gable symmetrical roof. The house and utility parts have the same width and are located along the same axis.

The house is a courtyard with “timber” Yurova from the village of Kriulya. Vologda Region.

A variation of this building is a “timber with a widened barn”, in this case the economic part is wider than the living part, in the resulting corner they arrange transportation to the village. Such estates were typical for the Kargopol region.

House-yard with a wide yard Popov from the village of Pogost. Kargopol district. Arhangelsk region

“Verb” - the utility part in such houses is located on the side and behind the living area, in plan it resembles the letter “G”.

House-yard “verb” by Tsareva E.I. from the village of Pyrischi. Novgorod region

“Koshel” - in this case, the residential part and the courtyard stand side by side and are covered with a common asymmetrical gable roof. One roof slope above the residential part is steeper, above the utility part it is flatter. In plan, the purse forms an almost perfect square. The name “purse” comes from a large birch bark box (Oshevnev’s house).

The house is the yard of Oshevneva’s “wallet” from the village of Oshevneva. Karelia

“T-shaped connection” is a residential building consisting of two log buildings connected by a vestibule. The long side of the house faces the street, and the utility yard is adjacent to the opposite wall to the entryway. Such a house has a “T” shape in its plan. Similar houses were common in Kargopolye.

House-yard with a “T”-shaped connection of Pukhov from the village of Bolshie Khalui. Kargopol district.

Arhangelsk region

“Double-row connection” - the house and yard in this case stand parallel to each other.

House-yard two-row connection Kirillov from the village of Kiselevo. Kargopol district. Arhangelsk region

Sometimes a low log house of a “winter” or “cattle” hut was attached to the side of the house-yard. Here they prepared food for the cattle and kept them in extreme cold.

House with winter hut Bolotova from the village of Korolevskaya. Vologda Region

In addition to the courtyard house, the peasant estate included barns for storing grain and clothing (usually from 1 to 3) and a glacier for storing various food products. Barns were placed “in sight” in front of the house or outside the village where they created “barn towns”. In addition to barns, the estates included a threshing floor, a barn, and a bathhouse; they were located away from the housing. In the collective use of the peasants there were mills, forges, public barns - shops. The boundaries between estates were not distinguished; usually all settlements were surrounded by a fence to protect them from livestock.

Epilogue

A peasant wooden house, as it were, indicates with its entire appearance that man, by interfering with nature, introduces something new, not similar to the natural pristine state, and at the same time does not completely break with it.

The Russian village, with its man-made nature, sharply contrasts with the miraculous landscape, but at the same time is inseparable from it.

In a house built in accordance with centuries-old traditions, ergonomics and aesthetics do not oppose each other, but are naturally combined.

Our ancestors always linked their home with the environment, hence it seems that the hut seemed to have grown out of the ground, it fits so well into the overall ensemble that no one planned, it’s just that each builder respected everything created before him, this is a necessary condition a construction culture that cannot be deviated from.

The builders, calling on their own experience and the experience of many previous generations, have always strived to ensure that people feel comfortable living in the house they built. Everything was taken into account. For example, great importance was given to how the light from the window would fall when women sat down to weave and spin. Depending on this, there were huts - “spinners” and huts - “non-spinners”.

A hut was considered beautiful if the layout and furnishings made it possible to work and relax comfortably.

All household items are just a background for revealing the person himself. Take the smooth surfaces of log walls: the warm, light texture of pine logs, a beautiful but neutral background that does not absorb a person, but highlights him.

A person enlivens a building with himself, brings meaning and content into it, he is its soul.

Now the old traditional forms are disappearing or have even become an irrevocable past, but you should not completely renounce the traditions that have been proven by centuries-old folk wisdom (experience). However, “tradition is a process; it must constantly be in development in the conditions of an ever-changing life.” You shouldn’t cling to the antiquity where it has completely become obsolete, but you still need to listen to its echoes.

“Any contact with traditional folk art teaches taste and tact, measure and proportionality, harmony in life and society.” (V.G. Smolitsky).

Literature:

1. Makovetsky I.V. Architecture of Russian folk housing: North and Upper Volga region. - M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1962. - 338 pp.: - ill.

2. Permilovskaya A.B. Peasant house in the culture of the Russian North (XIX - early XX centuries). - Arkhangelsk: Pravda Severa, 2005.- 312 p.: 290 ill.