Log cabin. Wooden huts in Russia

The most significant buildings in Russia were erected from centuries-old trunks (three centuries or more) up to 18 meters long and more than half a meter in diameter. And there were many such trees in Russia, especially in the European North, which in the old days was called the "Northern Territory". Yes, and the forests here, where the "filthy peoples" lived from time immemorial, were dense. By the way, the word "filthy" is not a curse at all. Simply in Latin, paganus is idolatry. And that means that the pagans were called "filthy peoples". Here, on the banks of the Northern Dvina, Pechora, Onega, those who disagree with the opinion of the authorities, first the princely, then the royal, have long taken refuge. It kept its own, ancient, unofficial. Therefore, unique examples of the art of ancient Russian architects have been preserved here to this day.

All houses in Russia were traditionally built of wood. Later, already in the 16th-17th centuries, stone was used.
Wood has been used as the main building material since ancient times. Exactly at wooden architecture Russian architects developed that reasonable combination of beauty and usefulness, which then passed into stone structures, and the shape and design of stone houses were the same as those of wooden buildings.

The properties of wood as a building material largely determined the special form of wooden structures.
On the walls of the huts there were pine and larch tarred at the root, a roof was made of light spruce. And only where these species were rare, they used strong heavy oak or birch for walls.

Yes, and not every tree was cut down, with analysis, with preparation. Ahead of time, they looked out for a suitable pine tree and made cleats (lasas) with an ax - they removed the bark on the trunk in narrow strips from top to bottom, leaving strips of untouched bark between them for sap flow. Then, for another five years, the pine tree was left to stand. During this time, she thickly highlights the resin, impregnates the trunk with it. And so, in the cold autumn, before the day had yet begun to lengthen, and the earth and the trees were still sleeping, they cut down this tarred pine. Later you can’t chop - it will begin to rot. Aspen, and deciduous forest in general, on the contrary, was harvested in the spring, during the sap flow. Then the bark easily comes off the log and, dried in the sun, it becomes strong as a bone.

The main, and often the only tool of the ancient Russian architect was an ax. The ax, crushing the fibers, seals the ends of the logs, as it were. Not without reason, they still say: "cut down the hut." And, well known to us now, they tried not to use nails. After all, around the nail, the tree begins to rot faster. In extreme cases, wooden crutches were used.

basis wooden building in Russia it was a "log house". These are logs fastened (“tied”) together into a quadrangle. Each row of logs was respectfully called a "crown". The first, lower crown was often placed on a stone base - "ryazhe", which was made up of powerful boulders. So it's warmer, and rots less.

According to the type of fastening of logs, the types of log cabins also differed from each other. For outbuildings, a log house "in cut" (rarely laid) was used. The logs here were not stacked tightly, but in pairs on top of each other, and often they were not fastened at all.

When fastening logs "in the paw" their ends, whimsically carved and really resembling paws, did not go beyond the wall outside. The crowns here already fit snugly together, but in the corners it could still blow in winter.

The most reliable, warm, was considered to be the fastening of logs "in the cloud", in which the ends of the logs slightly extended beyond the wall. Such a strange name today

comes from the word "obolon" ("oblon"), meaning the outer layers of a tree (cf. "clothe, envelop, shell"). As early as the beginning of the 20th century. they said: “cut the hut into sapling”, if they wanted to emphasize that inside the hut the logs of the walls are not cramped. However, more often outside the logs remained round, while inside the hut they were hewn to a plane - “scraped into a las” (a smooth strip was called a las). Now the term "oblo" refers more to the ends of the logs protruding out of the wall, which remain round, with a bummer.

The rows of logs themselves (crowns) were connected to each other with the help of internal spikes - dowels or dowels.

Moss was laid between the crowns in the log house and after final assembly the log house was caulked with linen tow. Attics were often covered with the same moss to keep warm in winter.

In terms of plan, log cabins were made in the form of a quadrangle (“chetverik”), or in the form of an octagon (“octagon”). Of the several adjacent fours, they were mainly made up of huts, and the eights were used for the construction of the choir. Often, placing quadruples and octals on top of each other, the ancient Russian architect folded rich mansions.

A simple covered rectangular wooden frame without any outbuildings was called a "cage". “Cage with a cage, tell a story,” they used to say in the old days, trying to emphasize the reliability of a log house in comparison with an open canopy - a story. Usually a log house was placed on the "basement" - the lower auxiliary floor, which was used to store supplies and household equipment. And the upper crowns of the log house expanded upward, forming a cornice - a “fall”.

This interesting word, derived from the verb "fall down", was often used in Russia. So, for example, the upper cold common bedrooms in the house or mansions, where the whole family went to sleep (fall down) from a heated hut in the summer, were called “polushas”.

The doors in the cage were made as low as possible, and the windows were placed higher. So less heat left the hut.

The roof over the log house was arranged in ancient times without nails - "male". For this, the completion of the two end walls was made from decreasing stumps of logs, which were called “males”. Long longitudinal poles were placed on them in steps - “dolniks”, “lie down” (cf. “lie down, lie down”). Sometimes, however, they were called males, and the ends came down, cut into the walls. One way or another, but the whole roof got its name from them.

Roofing diagram: 1 - gutter; 2 - chill; 3 - stamic; 4 - slightly; 5 - flint; 6 - princely sleg ("knes"); 7 - general slug; 8 - male; 9 - fall; 10 - prichelina; 11 - chicken; 12 - pass; 13 - bull; 14 - oppression.

From top to bottom, thin tree trunks, cut down with one of the branches of the root, were cut into the slegs. Such trunks with roots were called "hens" (apparently for the similarity of the left root with a chicken paw). These upward branches of the roots supported a hollowed-out log - a "stream". It collected water flowing from the roof. And already on top of the hens and lay down the wide boards of the roof, resting with the lower edges in the hollowed out groove of the flow. The upper joint of the boards - the “horse” (“prince”) was especially carefully blocked from rain. Under it, a thick “ridge slug” was laid, and from above the joint of the boards, like a hat, was covered with a log hollowed out from below - a “helmet” or “skull”. However, more often this log was called "cold" - something that covers.

Why didn’t they just cover the roof of wooden huts in Russia! That straw was tied into sheaves (bundles) and laid along the slope of the roof, pressing with poles; then they chipped aspen logs on planks (shingles) and with them, like scales, they covered the hut in several layers. And in ancient times they even covered with turf, turning it upside down and laying a birch bark.

by the very expensive coating was considered "tes" (boards). The very word "tes" well reflects the process of its manufacture. An even log without knots was split lengthwise in several places, and wedges were hammered into the cracks. The log split in this way was split lengthwise several more times. The irregularities of the resulting wide boards were hemmed with a special ax with a very wide blade.

The roof was usually covered in two layers - “undercut” and “red tess”. The lower layer of the tess on the roof was also called a rocker, since it was often covered with a “rock” (birch bark, which was chipped from birch trees) for tightness. Sometimes they arranged a roof with a break. Then the lower, flatter part was called the "police" (from the old word "floor" - half).

The entire pediment of the hut was importantly called the “brow” and was richly decorated with magical protective carvings.

The outer ends of the under-roofing slabs were covered from the rain with long boards - "prichelina". And the upper joint of the berths was covered with a patterned hanging board - a “towel”.

The roof is the most important part of a wooden building. “There would be a roof over your head,” people still say. Therefore, over time, it became a symbol of any house and even an economic structure of its “top”.

"Riding" in ancient times was called any completion. These tops, depending on the wealth of the building, could be very diverse. The simplest was the "cage" top - a simple gable roof on a cage. The “cubic top” was intricate, resembling a massive tetrahedral onion. Terems were decorated with such a top. The “barrel” was quite difficult to work with - a gable covering with smooth curvilinear outlines, ending with a sharp ridge. But they also made a “crossed barrel” - two intersecting simple barrels.

The ceiling was not always arranged. When burning furnaces "in black" it is not needed - the smoke will only accumulate under it. Therefore, in a living room it was made only with a “white” firebox (through a pipe in the furnace). At the same time, the ceiling boards were laid on thick beams - “matits”.

The Russian hut was either a “four-wall” (simple cage) or a “five-wall” (a cage partitioned off inside by a wall - “overcut”). During the construction of the hut, utility rooms were attached to the main volume of the cage (“porch”, “canopy”, “yard”, “bridge” between the hut and the yard, etc.). In the Russian lands, not spoiled by heat, they tried to bring the whole complex of buildings together, to press them against each other.

There were three types of organization of the complex of buildings that made up the courtyard. A single large two-story house for several related families under one roof was called a "purse". If the utility rooms were attached to the side and the whole house took on the form of the letter “G”, then it was called the “verb”. If the outbuildings were adjusted from the end of the main frame and the whole complex was pulled into a line, then they said that this was a “beam”.

A “porch” led to the house, which was often arranged on “helps” (“releases”) - the ends of long logs released from the wall. Such a porch was called "hanging".

The porch was usually followed by "canopy" (canopy - shade, shaded place). They were arranged so that the door did not open directly onto the street, and it was warm in winter time did not come out of the hut. The front part of the building, together with the porch and the hallway, was called in ancient times the "sprout".

If the hut was two-story, then the second floor was called the "tale" in the outbuildings and the "room" in the living quarters.
On the second floor, especially in outbuildings, there was often an “import” - an inclined log platform. A horse with a cart loaded with hay could climb along it. If the porch led directly to the second floor, then the porch platform itself (especially if there was an entrance to the first floor under it) was called a “locker”.

There have always been many carvers and carpenters in Russia, and it was not difficult for them to carve the most difficult floral ornament or reproduce a scene from pagan mythology. The roofs were decorated with carved towels, cockerels, skates.

Terem

(from the Greek. shelter, dwelling) the upper residential tier of the ancient Russian choir or chambers, built above the upper room, or a separate high residential building on the basement. The epithet "high" has always been applied to the tower.
The Russian tower is a special, unique phenomenon of centuries-old folk culture.

In folklore and literature, the word terem often meant a rich house. In epics and fairy tales, Russian beauties lived in high towers.

In the terem, there was usually a light-filled room with several windows, where women were engaged in needlework.

In the old days, towering above the house, it was customary to richly decorate. The roof was sometimes covered with real gilding. Hence the name of the golden-domed tower.

Amusements were arranged around the towers - parapets and balconies, fenced with railings or gratings.

Palace Terem of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in Kolomenskoye.

The original wooden palace, Terem, was built in 1667-1672 and amazed with its magnificence. Unfortunately, 100 years after the start of its construction, due to dilapidation, the palace was dismantled, and only thanks to the order of Empress Catherine II, all measurements, sketches were made before it was dismantled, and a wooden layout of the Terem was created, according to which it became possible to restore it today. .

During the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the palace was not only a place of rest, but also the main country residence of the Russian sovereign. Meetings of the Boyar Duma, councils with heads of orders (prototypes of ministries), diplomatic receptions and military reviews were held here. The timber for the construction of the new tower was brought from Krasnoyarsk Territory, then processed by craftsmen near Vladimir, and then delivered to Moscow.

Izmailovsky Tsar's Terem.
Made in the classic old Russian style and incorporated architectural solutions and all the most beautiful toy era. Now it is a beautiful historical symbol of architecture.

The Izmailovsky Kremlin appeared quite recently (construction was completed in 2007), but immediately became a prominent landmark of the capital.

The architectural ensemble of the Izmailovo Kremlin was created according to the drawings and engravings of the royal residence of the 16th-17th centuries, which was located in Izmailovo.

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

In the basement- barrels and tubs with pickles, cabbage, mushrooms and lingonberries, bags of flour, grain and bran for poultry and other livestock, lard and sausages on hooks, dried fish; in the cellar potatoes and other vegetables are poured into piles. And there is order in the barnyard: two cows are chewing hay, with which the tier above them is littered to the roof, pigs are grunting behind a fence, a bird is dozing on a perch in a chicken coop fenced off in the corner. It's cool here, but there's no frost. Built of thick logs, carefully caulked walls do not let in drafts and keep the heat of animals, rotting manure and straw.

And in the hut itself, I don’t remember the frost at all - a hotly heated stove cools down for a long time. It’s just that the kids are bored: until the storm ends, you won’t get out of the house to play, to run. Babies are lying on the floor, listening to fairy tales that grandfather tells ...

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

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

We know best traditional huts, as they are preserved in the villages of Russia from the western to the eastern limits. This is a five-wall hut, consisting of two rooms - a vestibule and a living room, or a six-wall when the actual living space is divided by another transverse wall into two. Such huts were erected in villages until very recently.

The peasant hut of the Russian North was built differently.

In fact, the northern hut is not just a house, but a module for the complete life support of the family of a few people during a long, harsh winter and a cold spring. A sort of spaceship on a joke, the ark, traveling not in space, but in time - from heat to heat, from harvest to harvest. Human habitation, premises for livestock and poultry, stores of supplies - everything is under one roof, everything is protected by powerful walls. Is that a woodshed and barn-hayloft separately. So they are right there, in the fence, it is not difficult to break a path to them in the snow.

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

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

However, they were built differently. In the museum "Vitoslavlitsy" in Veliky Novgorod there is a hut inside, like an ocean ship: behind street door moves and transitions to different compartments begin, and in order to get into the upper room, you need to climb a ladder-ladder under the very roof.

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

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

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

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

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

Chimneys on the roofs of rural houses appeared only in the XV-XVI centuries, yes, and then where the winters were not too severe. Huts with a pipe were called white. But at first they did not make pipes of stone, but knocked down from wood, which often caused a fire. Only at the beginning XVIII century Peter I by special decree ordered in the city houses of the new capital - St. Petersburg, stone or wooden, to put stoves with stone chimneys.

Later, in the huts of wealthy peasants, in addition to Russian ovens, in which food was prepared, began to appear brought to Russia by Peter I dutch ovens, convenient for their small size and very high heat dissipation. Nevertheless, stoves without chimneys continued to be laid in the northern villages until the end of the 19th century.

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

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

What did the corner itself mean in Russia? Each house in the old days was a small church, which had its own Red Corner (Front Corner, Holy Corner, Goddess), with icons.
It is in this Red Corner parents set their children to pray to God for their misdeeds and in the hope that the Lord would be able to reason with a naughty child.

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

And wealthy peasants shared a vast a residential log cabin with two walls crosswise, thus blocking four rooms. Even a large Russian stove could not heat the entire room, and here it was necessary to put an additional one in the room farthest from it dutch oven.

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

Men have fewer worries in winter than in spring, summer and autumn. The owner of the house is the breadwinner- Works tirelessly all summer from dawn to dusk. He plows, mows, reaps, threshes in the field, cuts, saws in the forest, builds houses, gets fish and forest animals. As the owner of the house earns, so his family will live all winter until the next warm season, because winter for men is a time of rest. Of course, without male hands in farmhouse indispensable: fix what needs to be repaired, chop and bring firewood into the house, clean the barn, make a sled, and arrange a dressage for the horses, take the family to the fair. Yes, in a village hut there are many things that require strong male hands and ingenuity, which neither a woman nor children can do.

The northern huts, cut down by skillful hands, stood for centuries. Generations changed, and the ark-houses still remained a reliable refuge in the harsh natural conditions. Only the mighty logs darkened with time.

Museums of wooden architecture Vitoslavlitsy" in Veliky Novgorod and Small Korely» near Arkhangelsk there are huts whose age has exceeded one and a half centuries. Ethnographers searched for them in abandoned villages and ransomed them from the owners who moved to the cities.

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

The tradition of decorating houses with carved wooden architraves and other decorative elements arose in Russia not from scratch. Initially, wooden carving, like ancient Russian embroidery, had a cult character. The ancient Slavs applied to their homes pagan signs designed to protect dwelling, provide fertility and protection from enemies and natural elements. No wonder in stylized ornaments you can still guess signs denoting sun, rain, women raising their hands to the sky, sea ​​waves, depicted animals - horses, swans, ducks or a bizarre interweaving of plants and outlandish paradise flowers. Further, religious meaning wood carving lost, but the tradition of giving various functional elements of the facade of the house artistic view has remained so far.

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

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

In the second half of the 20th century, with the development of transport, printing, television and other means of communication, ornaments and carvings that were previously inherent in one particular region began to be used in neighboring villages. A widespread mixing of wood carving styles began. Looking at photographs of modern carved architraves located in one settlement, one can be surprised at their diversity. Maybe it's not so bad? Modern cities and towns are becoming more vibrant and unique. Carved architraves on the windows of modern cottages often incorporate elements of the best examples of wooden decor.

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

We know a lot about how modern wooden houses are built, what building material, tools, and means of protection are used for this. We are also familiar with other information, thanks to which we can easily build a house with our own hands. All this is good, but only in order to build the future, you need to know our past well, in fact, what we will do today. In this article, we will fill the informative void in our memory and find out how wooden huts were built in Russia.

So, before talking about the construction itself, let's look at what tool our ancestors used. Here, there is nothing special to talk about, since our ancestors had a single, reliable and trouble-free tool - an ax that was used at any stage of construction. With its help, cut down trees, remove the bark from them, clear them of knots, fit the logs to each other. In a word, they did everything that could be required at the time of building a house. Due to the widespread use of an ax in construction, the expression “cut down a house” was widely used at that time.

That is why today, out of habit, we call wooden houses log cabins, although we hardly use an ax.

So, armed with an ax, our near ancestors went into the forest and cut down trees. It is worth noting that the priority building material of that time was coniferous trees, mainly pines and spruces. This is explained by the fact that these rocks have an even structure, so they are easy to process and lay. In addition, these trees, for the most part, have a suitable level of humidity, which made the house more resistant to shrinkage. Of course, at that time they did not know about the humidity of the tree, but they noticed that when using the same pine, the walls of the house less often gave deformation and cracked, as happened with other species.

Trees were cut down in winter. First of all, this was due to the fact that in winter there was more free time, since there was almost no housework. In addition, our ancestors believed that a tree sleeps in winter, so it simply does not feel pain from ax blows. Surprisingly, they were right, since the tree in winter stops the vital processes associated with metabolism, as a result of which the internal moisture content of the tree decreases several times, which, in turn, favorably affects the construction. Of course, people did not know any of this, but only used what their hearts told them.

The felled trees were hauled home on horseback. Further, with the help of the same ax, the bark was removed from the tree and sorted, where diseased trees, on which rot or insects were noticed, were culled for sawing. After that, the tree was dried for some time, shifting from place to place, and then, directly, they began construction, in which men from the streets of the city or from all over the village took part.

So, when starting to build a log house, our ancestors used the same tool - an ax, with which, having previously stepped back a certain distance from the edge of the log, they cut out special holes in which other logs were fixed. There was no concrete, crushed stone, durable stone at that time, so no one equipped the foundation. The first logs that fit into the crown were laid on compacted soil. To compact the soil, a certain layer of earth was removed. In the same way, the surface was leveled relative to the horizon. Having laid the first crown, the carpenters of that time proceeded to lay the next, then another, and so on, until the walls of the house were completely ready. It is worth noting that when laying, the carpenters signed each log, regardless of the row. This was done in order to protect yourself from unnecessary work, if suddenly something goes wrong and you have to dismantle the whole house to the log.

In the construction of a log house of the past, it is striking that the builders did not use a single nail, and this did not affect the strength of the house in any way. In addition, there were no heaters, protective equipment, paintwork materials before, but wooden houses, with proper care, were always warm and could stand for 50 years or more. It turns out that this was the case.

In order to make the house warm, close all the cracks and compact the logs, the carpenters of that time went to the trick. Ordinary forest moss was placed on the surface of each next log, which, when the wooden house was shrinking, pressed so hard that it completely closed all the through holes. In addition, these houses were small sizes, so it was very easy to heat them.

They built the house not as fast as in the old days. As a rule, construction began in early spring, and finished in autumn. The owners simply did not have time to wait a year or two for the house to shrink, so they started building the roof immediately after the walls of the house were completed.

As for the construction of the roof, then, for the most part, the roof was gable. This was due to the fact that the construction of this type roofs used a minimum of building material. As a roofing material, people chose straw, as it was free and well protected the house from rain and snow. The roof structure itself strongly resembles modern roof in two slopes bearing beams, "interfloor floor beams", a primitive crate, a ridge and the roof itself. Attic space of that time, people used it to dry clothes, store some supplies from the garden, and also for unnecessary things. This was explained by the fact that in the house, due to the lack of free space, these things simply did not have a place. In turn, in an empty attic, the air was much warmer than outside, which was achieved thanks to the chimney.

As wall cladding, but more for the purpose of insulation, our ancestors used straw, which, no matter how strange it may sound, they mixed with cow dung and clay. The clay was smoothly rubbed, giving the contour of the house perfectly even edges of the walls and surface. Whitewash was applied over the clay, which was renewed, as a rule, several times a year.

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

"Oh, what mansions!" - so often we talk now about the spacious new apartment or cottage. We speak without thinking about the meaning of the word. After all, mansions are 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 arranged?

In this article:

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

Russian hut

Since I am from the north and grew up on the White Sea, I will show photos of northern houses in the article. And as an 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 land. When for the first time, as a boy of thirteen, I drove through the Barents and to the White Seas, along the Northern Dvina, visited the coast-dwellers, in peasant huts, listened to songs and fairy tales, looked at these unusually beautiful people, who kept themselves 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 getting so much satisfaction from this work ... In the Russian North, there is an amazing combination of the present and the past, modernity and history, the watercolor lyricism of water, earth, sky, the formidable power of stone , storms, cold, snow and air "(D.S. Likhachev. Russian culture. - M., 2000. - S. 409-410).

Where were huts built before?

A favorite place for the construction of a village and the construction of Russian huts was the bank of a river or lake. At the same time, the peasants were guided by practicality - proximity to the river and the 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 the courtyard with barns, the bathhouse near the river itself.

The 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, fit organically into the surrounding landscape. On the highest place they usually built a church and a bell tower in the center of the village.

The house was built thoroughly, "for centuries", a place for it was chosen high enough, 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 were provided with a good entrance and approach, and the windows were turned "for the summer" - on 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 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 closed the garden 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 - at the sun, at the river. From the window one could see sunrises and sunsets, the movement of ships along the river.

Prosperous place for the construction of a hut was considered a place where cattle lie 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 or near swamps, these places were considered "chilly", and the crops on them 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. She was placed in a clay pot. And left for the night at the site of the future home. The result was considered positive if the wool was damp by morning. So the house will be rich.

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

They began to chop 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 a waning moon, then it will quickly rot, which is why there was such a ban. There were also more stringent prescriptions for the days. The forest began to be harvested from the winter Nikola, from December 19th. The best time for harvesting a tree was considered December - January, according to the first frosts, when excess moisture comes out of the trunk. They did not cut dry trees or trees with growths for the house, trees that fell to the north during felling. These beliefs related specifically to trees, other materials were not furnished with such norms.

They did not build houses on the site of houses burned by lightning. It was believed that lightning Elijah - the prophet strikes places of evil spirits. They also did not build houses where there used to be a bathhouse, where someone was injured with an ax or a knife, where human bones were found, where there used to be a bathhouse or where a road used to pass, where some kind of misfortune occurred, for example, a flood.

Attitude to the Russian hut in folk culture

The house in Russia had many names: a hut, a hut, a tower, kholupy, a mansion, a horomina and a temple. Yes, do not be surprised - the temple! Mansions (huts) were equated with the temple, because the 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 its world! This is a feature of the Russian house - "human", that is, anthropomorphic names of parts of the hut:

• Chelo hut is her face. Chelom could be called the pediment of the hut and the outer opening in the furnace.
• Prichelina- from the word "brow", that is, the decoration on the forehead of the hut,
• platbands- from the word "face", "on the face" of the hut.
• Ochelie- from the word "eyes", a window. This was the name of the part of the female headdress, the window decoration was also called.
• Forehead- so the frontal board was called. There were also "fronts" in the design of the house.
• Heel, foot- so the part of the doors was called.

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

The word "hut" comes from the Old Slavic "ist'ba". “Istboy, firebox” was a heated residential log house (and a “cage” is an unheated log house of 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 part of life and a way to connect and shape your life. The house is a sacred space, an image of the 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 of the work of the Creator by a person, because a human dwelling, 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, it was possible to determine the social status, religion, and nationality of its owners. In one village there were no two completely identical houses, because each hut carried an individuality and reflected inner world kind that lives in it.

For a child, the house is the first model of the outer big world, it “feeds” and “nurtures” the child, the child “absorbs” the laws of life in the big adult world from the house. If a child grew up in a light, cozy, kind house, 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 chaos is in the soul and in the life of a person. From childhood, the child mastered the system of ideas about his house - the outcrop and its structure - the mother, the red corner, the female and male parts of the house.

The house is traditionally used in Russian as a synonym for the word "motherland". If a person does not have a sense of home, then there is no sense of homeland! Attachment to the house, taking care of it was 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” - they said “There are four houses on the hill” - this meant that there were 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 inner space of the Russian hut has long been associated in folk culture as the space of a woman - she followed him, put things in order and comfort. But the outer space - the courtyard and beyond - was the space of a man. My husband's grandfather still remembers such a division of duties, which was accepted 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 they lived in large families, there were no problems. If one of the women could not carry water now, then this work was done by another woman in the family.

The male and female half were also strictly observed in the house, but this will be discussed further.

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

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

Proverbs about the hut

On the roof there is a heavy ridge made of wood - a sign of the sun. There must have been a house goddess in the house. S. Yesenin wrote interestingly about the horse: “The horse, both in Greek, Egyptian, Roman, and in Russian mythology, is a sign of aspiration. But only one Russian peasant 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 proportionately and harmoniously. In its design - the law of the golden section, the law of natural harmony in proportions. They built without a measuring tool and complex calculations - by instinct, as the soul prompted.

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

Myth and truth about the Russian hut. There is an opinion that in Russian huts it was dirty, there was unsanitary conditions, diseases, poverty and darkness. I used to think so too, that's how we were taught in school. But this is absolutely not true! I asked my grandmother shortly before her departure to another world, 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 darkness and mud?

She was very surprised and said that the house was always not just clean, but very light and comfortable, beautiful. Her mother (my great-grandmother) embroidered and knitted the most beautiful valances for the beds of adults and children. Each bed and cradle was decorated with her valances. And each bed has its own pattern! Imagine what a job it is! And what a beauty in the frame of each bed! Her dad (my great-grandfather) carved beautiful ornaments 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. Sometimes, in the evening, her grandmother would say to the children: “Soon mother and father will come from the field, we need to clean up the house.” And oh yes! Children take brooms, rags, put things in order so that there is not a speck in the corner, not a speck of dust, and all things are in their places. By the time 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 was beautiful and the house was cozy. Even on the day of childbirth, her mother (my great-grandmother) whitewashed the stove, and then went to give birth in the bathhouse. Grandmother recalled how she, being eldest daughter helped her.

There was no such thing as clean on the outside and dirty on the inside. Cleaned very carefully both outside and inside. My grandmother told me that “what is outside is how you want to appear to people” (outside is the appearance of clothes, house, closet, etc. - how they look for guests and how we want to present ourselves to people clothes, appearance of the house, etc.). But “what’s inside is what you really are” (inside is the wrong side of embroidery or any other work, the wrong side of clothes that should be clean and without holes or stains, inner part cabinets and other moments of our lives that are invisible to other people, but visible to us). Very instructive. I always remember her words.

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

The device of the Russian hut

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

Hut as a design It was a frame made of logs, which 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 - prichelin, towels, platbands. They built houses "as measure and beauty will say."

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

The upper part of the house (prichelina, towel) were decorated with solar, that is, solar signs. In some cases, the full sun was depicted on the towel, and only half of the solar signs were depicted on the berths. Thus, the sun was shown at the most important points of its path across the sky - at sunrise, at zenith and at sunset. There is even an expression in folklore, "the three-light sun," reminiscent of these three key points.

Attic was located under the roof and stored items that were not needed in this moment removed from home.

The hut was two-story, 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 He protected the living quarters from the cold. The basement was used for food storage and was divided into 2 parts: the basement and the underground.

Floor they made it double to keep warm: at the bottom there is a “black floor”, and on top of it is a “white floor”. The floor boards were laid from the edges to the center of the hut in the direction from the facade to the exit. It mattered in some ceremonies. So, if they entered the house and sat on a bench along the floorboards, then this meant that they had come to woo. They never slept and did not lay the bed along the floorboards, As the dead person was laid along the floorboards "on the way to the doors." That is why we did not 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.

Important in the arrangement of the Russian hut was the diagonal "red corner - oven." The red corner always pointed to noon, to the light, to God's side (red side). It has always been associated with Votok (sunrise) and the south. And the stove pointed to the sunset, to darkness. And associated with the west or north. They always prayed for 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 (garden tool) was laid under the threshold. This reflected people's ideas about the horse as an animal associated with the sun. And also about the metal created by man with the help of fire and which is a material for protecting life.

Only closed door saves life inside the house: "Do not trust everyone, lock the door tighter." That is why people stopped in front of 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 localities, a young wife, entering her husband's house, was not supposed to touch the threshold. That is why it was often brought 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. It was a sign of that. That she is now her own kind of husband.

The threshold of the doorway is the border of "one's own" and "alien" space. In popular beliefs, it was a borderline, and therefore unsafe place: “They don’t greet people across the threshold”, “They don’t shake hands across the threshold.” You can't even accept gifts across the threshold. Guests are met outside the threshold, then let in ahead of them through the threshold.

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

Window- another entrance to the house. Window - the word is very ancient, it was first mentioned in the annals in the 11th year and is found in all Slavic peoples. In folk beliefs, it was forbidden to spit through the window, throw out garbage, pour something out of the house, since under it "there is an angel of the Lord." “Give (to the beggar) through the window - give to God.” Windows were considered the eyes of the house. A person 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 architraves. The riddles of the Russian people say this: “The red girl looks out the window” (the sun). The windows in the house traditionally in Russian culture have always tried to be oriented “for the summer” - that is, to the east and south. Most big windows houses always looked at the street and the river, they were called "red" or "skewed".

Windows in a Russian hut could be of three types:

A) Volokovoe window - the most ancient type of windows. Its height did not exceed the height of a horizontally laid log. But in width it was one and a half times the height. Such a window was closed from the inside with a latch, “dragging” along special grooves. Therefore, the window was called "portage". Only dim light penetrated the hut through the porthole window. Such windows were more common in outbuildings. Through the portage window, the smoke from the stove was taken out (“dragged out”) from the hut. They also ventilated basements, closets, winds and cowsheds.

B) A box window - consists of a deck made up of four bars firmly connected to each other.

C) An oblique window is an opening in the wall, reinforced with two side beams. These windows are also called "red" 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 passed if the children born in the family died. It was believed that this way you can save the child and ensure him a long life. In the Russian North, there was also such a belief that the soul of a person leaves the house through the window. That is why a cup of water was placed on the window so that the soul that left the person could wash and fly away. Also, after the commemoration, a towel was hung on the window so that the soul would rise into the house through it, and then descend back. Sitting at the window, waiting for news. A 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, between the window beam and the log, the walls of the house left free space (sedimentary groove). It was covered with a board, which is well known to all of us and is called platband("on the face of the house" = casing). The platbands were decorated with ornaments to protect the house: circles as symbols of the sun, birds, horses, lions, fish, weasel (an animal that was considered the guardian of livestock - it was believed that if a predator was depicted, it would not harm pets), floral ornament, juniper, mountain ash .

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 at night.

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

Russian hut porch was more open and spacious. Here were those family events that the whole street of the village could see: they saw off the soldiers, met the matchmakers, met the newlyweds. On the porch they talked, exchanged news, rested, talked about business. Therefore, the porch occupied a prominent place, was high and rose up on pillars or log cabins.

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

What do you think, from what word the word "porch" was formed? From the word "cover", "roof". After all, the porch was necessarily with a roof that protected from snow and rain.
Often in a Russian hut there were two porches and two entrances. The first entrance is the main one, where benches were set up for conversation and relaxation. And the second entrance is “dirty”, it served for economic needs.

Bake located near the entrance and occupied about a quarter of the space of the hut. 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.” “Our mother bake us”, “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 turns into boiled, “own”, mastered. The furnace 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 the elderly 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 road was happy), during a thunderstorm (because the stove is another entrance to the house, the connection of the house with the outside world).

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

The entire space of the hut was divided into female and male. Men worked and rested, received guests on weekdays in the male part of the Russian hut - in the front red corner, away from it to the threshold and sometimes under the curtains. The man's workplace during the repair was next to the door. Women and children worked and rested, stayed awake in the female half of the hut - near the stove. If women received guests, then the guests sat at the threshold of the stove. Guests could enter the female territory of the hut only at the invitation of the hostess. Representatives of the male half, without a special emergency, never went to the female half, and women to 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 the bench.

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

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

Married adult couples slept in the boots, on the bench under the curtains, in their separate cages - in their places. The old people slept on the stove or by the stove, the children on the stove.

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

Svetlitsy the room was called - a light room, a burner on the second floor of the house, clean, well-groomed, for needlework and clean classes. There was a wardrobe, a bed, a sofa, a table. But just like in the hut, all items were placed along the walls. There were chests in the gorenka, in which they collected dowry for daughters. How many marriageable daughters - so many chests. Here lived girls - marriageable brides.

The dimensions of the Russian hut

In ancient times, the Russian hut did not have internal partitions and was square or rectangular in shape. The average dimensions of the hut were from 4 x 4 meters to 5.5 x 6.5 meters. The middle peasants and wealthy peasants had large huts - 8 x 9 meters, 9 x 10 meters.

The decoration of the Russian hut

In the Russian hut, four corners were distinguished: oven, woman's kut, red corner, back corner (at the entrance under the floor). Each corner had its own traditional purpose. And the whole hut, in accordance with the angles, was divided into the female and male halves.

The female half of the hut runs from the mouth of the furnace (furnace outlet) to the front wall of the house.

One of the corners of the female half of the house is a woman's kut. It is also called "bake". This place is near the stove, women's territory. Here they cooked food, pies, stored utensils, millstones. Sometimes the "women's territory" of the house was separated by a partition or screen. In the female half of the hut, behind the stove, there were cabinets for kitchen utensils and food, shelves for tableware, buckets, cast iron, tubs, oven appliances (bread shovel, poker, tong). The “long bench” that ran along the female half of the hut along the side wall of the house was also female. Here women spun, weaved, sewed, embroidered, and a baby cradle hung here.

Men have never entered the "women's territory" and touched the utensils that are considered women's. And a stranger and a guest could not even look into a woman's kut, it was insulting.

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

Russian oven

Approximately a fourth, and sometimes a third of the hut was occupied by a Russian stove. She was a symbol of the hearth. They not only cooked food in it, but also prepared fodder for livestock, baked pies and bread, washed themselves, heated the room, slept on it and dried clothes, shoes or food, dried mushrooms and berries in it. And even in winter they could keep chickens in the oven. 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 multidimensional, uneven height.

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

“Bake us like a mother,” people used to say. Many folk healing practices were associated with the stove. And omens. For example, you can not spit in the oven. And it was impossible to swear when the fire burned in the furnace.

The new furnace began to warm up gradually and evenly. The first day began with four logs, and gradually one log was added every day to ignite the entire volume of the furnace and so that it was without cracks.

At first in Russian houses there were adobe ovens, which were drowned in black. That is, the furnace then did not have an exhaust pipe for smoke to escape. The smoke was released through the door or through special hole in the wall. It is sometimes thought that only the poor had black huts, but this is not so. Such stoves were also in rich mansions. The black oven gave more heat and kept it longer than the white one. Smoked walls were not afraid of dampness or rot.

Later, stoves were built white - that is, they began to make a pipe through which smoke escaped.

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

Red corner - the central main place in the hut, in a Russian house. It is also called "holy", "divine", "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 for the image. Here, at the table, all the meals and the main events in the life of the family took place: birth, wedding, funeral, seeing off to the army.

There were not only icons here, but also the Bible, prayer books, candles, consecrated willow twigs were brought here on Palm Sunday or birch twigs on Trinity.

The red corner was especially worshiped. Here, during the commemoration, they put an extra device for another soul who had gone 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 rigidly fixed by tradition, And not only during the holidays, but also during regular meals. The meal brought family and family together.

• Place in the red corner, in the center of the table, under the icons, was the most honorable. The host, the most respected guests, the priest were sitting here. If a guest, without the invitation of the host, passed and sat in a red corner, this was considered a gross violation of etiquette.
• The next most important side of the table is right from the owner and the places closest to him on the right and left. This is a men's shop. Here, according to seniority, the men of the family were seated 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 "lower" end of the table on the "women's bench", women and children sat down along the pediment of the house.
• mistress of the house was placed opposite her husband from the side of the stove on a side bench. So it was more convenient to serve food and arrange lunch.
• During the wedding newlyweds also sat under the icons in the red corner.
• For guests had its own guest shop. It is located by the window. Until now, there is such a custom in some areas to seat guests by the window.

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

Table- he was given great importance in the red corner of the house and in general in the hut. The table in the hut stood on permanent place. If the house was sold, then it must be 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 the 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 impossible to knock on the table: "Do not hit the table, the table is God's palm!" There should always be bread on the table - a symbol of prosperity and well-being in the house. They said this: “Bread on the table - and the table is the throne!”. Bread is a symbol of prosperity, abundance, material well-being. Therefore, he always had to be on the table - God's palm.

A small lyrical digression from the author. Dear readers of this article! Perhaps you think that all this is outdated? Well, what's with the bread on the table? And you 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. Yes, and a loaf in shape - a circle, a symbol of movement, growth, development. When for the first time I baked not pies, not cupcakes, but bread, and my whole house smelled of bread, I realized what a real house is - a house where it smells of .. bread! Where would you like 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!!!, taught me how to bake bread. And then I thought: “If the 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 hands and your soul! And then the loaf on your table will become a symbol of your home and bring you a lot of joy!

The table was necessarily 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" in Russian culture was given a special meaning. The longitudinal one had a “positive” charge, and the transverse one had a “negative” one. Therefore, they tried to lay all the objects in the house in the longitudinal direction. This is also why it was along the floorboards that they sat down 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 is integral with the table. The expression "table and tablecloth" symbolized hospitality, hospitality. Sometimes the tablecloth was called "holy-solker" or "samobranka". Wedding tablecloths were kept as a special relic. The tablecloth was not always covered, but on special occasions. But in Karelia, for example, the tablecloth had to be always on the table. At the wedding feast, they took a special tablecloth and laid it inside out (from spoilage). A tablecloth could be spread on the ground during a commemoration, because a tablecloth is a “road”, a connection between the cosmic world and the human world, it is not for nothing that the expression “tablecloth is a road” has come down to us.

At the dinner table, the family gathered, were baptized before eating and read a prayer. They ate decorously, it was impossible to get up while eating. The head of the family, the man, started the meal. He cut food into pieces, cut bread. The woman served everyone at the table, served food. The meal was long, slow, 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. AT Palm Sunday the red corner was decorated with willow branches, on Trinity - birch branches, veres (juniper) - on Maundy Thursday.

It is 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 “women's kingdom”, do men interfere in it? Do we need it? How and where can you create it?

Question 2. And what is in the red corner of an apartment or cottage - what is the main spiritual center of the house? Let's take a look at our home. And if something needs to be corrected, then we will do it and create a red corner in our house, we will create it to really unite the family. Sometimes there are tips on the Internet to put a computer in the red corner as in the “energy center of the apartment”, organize your own workplace. I am always surprised by such recommendations. Here, in the red - the main corner - to 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 family, but not a TV or an office center! Let's think together what it could be.

Types of Russian huts

Now many families are interested in Russian history and traditions and build houses as our ancestors did. Sometimes it is believed that there should be only one type of house according to the arrangement of its elements, and only this type of house is "correct" and "historical". In fact, the location of the main elements of the hut (red corner, stove) depends on the region.

According to the location of the stove and the red corner, 4 types of Russian hut are distinguished. Each type is characteristic of a particular area and climatic conditions. That is, it is impossible to say directly: the oven has always been strictly here, and the red corner is strictly here. Let's take a closer look at the pictures.

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

The second type is the Western Russian hut. The furnace was also located next to the entrance to the right or left of it. But it was turned by its mouth to a long side wall. That is, the mouth of the furnace was near the front door to the house. The red corner was also located diagonally from the stove, but the food was cooked in a different place in the hut - closer to the door (see picture). At the side of the stove they made flooring for sleeping.

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 to the street not with a facade, but with a side long side. Therefore, here the location of the furnace was completely different. The stove was placed in the farthest corner from the entrance. Diagonal from the stove (between the door and the front long wall hut) was a red corner. In the eastern South Russian huts, the mouth of the stove was turned towards the front door. In the western southern Russian huts, the mouth of the stove was turned towards the long wall of the house, which overlooked the street.

Despite the different types of huts, they follow the general principle of the structure of the Russian dwelling. Therefore, even being far from home, the traveler could always orient himself in the hut.

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

In a peasant estate the economy was large - in each estate there were from 1 to 3 barns for storing grain and valuables. And there was also a bath - the most remote building from the residential building. Every thing has its place. This principle from the proverb was observed always and everywhere. Everything in the house was thought out and arranged sensibly so as not to waste extra time and energy 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 side of the street through a strong gate. There was a roof over the gate. And at the gate on the side of the street under the roof there is a shop. Not only the villagers, but also any passer-by 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 meet them cordially or say goodbye.

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

Bath- a separate building (the building farthest from the 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 on the pediment of the hut. Wishing a rich harvest, happiness, well-being to the family living in the house.

barn- platform for threshing compressed bread.

crate- a structure in wooden construction, formed by crowns of logs laid on top of each other. Mansions consist of several stands, united by passages and passages.

Chicken-elements of the roof of a Russian house built without nails. They said this: "Chickens and a horse on the roof - it will be quieter in the hut." It is precisely the elements of the roof that are meant - the ridge and chickens. A water drain was laid on the chickens - a log hollowed out in the form of a gutter to drain water from the roof. The image of the "hens" is not accidental. The chicken and the rooster were associated in the popular mind with the sun, since this bird announces the sunrise. The cry of a rooster, according to popular belief, drove away evil spirits.

Glacier- the great-grandfather of the modern refrigerator - an ice room for food storage

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

platband- decoration of the window (window opening)

Barn- a building for drying sheaves before threshing. Sheaves were laid out on the floor and dried.

ohlupen- horse - connects the two wings of the house, two roof slopes together. The horse symbolizes the sun moving across the sky. This is an indispensable element of the roof construction, built without nails and a talisman of the house. Okhlupen is also called "shelom" 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 “cool”, because when laid in place, it makes a “clap” sound. Ohlupni used to do without nails during construction.

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

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

basement- the lower room under the living quarters. The basement was used for food storage and household needs.

Polaty– wood 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 heat for a long time. If the heating stove was not heated, then vegetables were stored on the floors at that time.

Police- curly shelves for utensils above the benches in the hut.

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

Prichelina- boards on the wooden roof of the house, nailed to the ends above the gable (hut hut), protecting them from decay. The prichelins 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 choir (see "mansions") in the female half, in the upper part of the building, intended for needlework and other household activities.

canopy- the entrance cold room in the hut, usually the canopy was not heated. As well as the entrance room between the individual cells in the mansions. It's always utility room for storage. Household utensils were stored here, there was a shop with buckets and pails, work clothes, rocker arms, sickles, scythes, rakes. They did their dirty housework in the hallway. The doors of all the rooms opened into the canopy. Canopy - protection from the cold. The front door opened, the cold let in into the vestibule, but remained in them, not reaching the living quarters.

Apron- sometimes "aprons" decorated with fine carvings were made on the houses from the side of the main facade. This is a wooden overhang that protects the house from rain.

barn- a place 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 - it turned out to be a very beautiful multi-tiered structure.

Utensils of a Russian hut

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

To store bread in a Russian hut, painted box, brightly colored, sunny, joyful. The painting of the box distinguished it from other things as a significant, important thing.

Drinking tea from samovar.

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

Salt- this is not only food, but also a talisman. Therefore, they served bread and salt to the guests as a greeting, a symbol of hospitality.

The most common was earthenware pot. Porridge and cabbage soup were prepared in pots. Shchi in a pot was well rebuked and became much tastier and richer. And even now, if we compare the taste of soup and porridge from the Russian oven and from the stove, we will immediately feel the difference in taste! Out of the oven - delicious!

Barrels, tubs, baskets were used for household needs in the house. They fried food in pans, as they do now. The dough was kneaded in wooden troughs and vats. Water was carried in buckets and jugs.

For good hosts, immediately after a meal, all the dishes were washed clean, dried and put upside down 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 get them out of the oven, they needed grips. If you have the opportunity to try to put a full pot filled with food in the oven or take it out of the oven, you will understand how physically difficult this work is and how strong women used to be even without fitness :). For them, every movement was exercise and physical education. I'm serious 🙂 - I tried and appreciated how difficult it is to get a large pot of food for a large family with a tong!

Used for raking coal poker.

In the 19th century, clay pots were replaced by metal ones. They're called cast iron (from the word "cast iron").

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

furniture in our understanding of this word, there was almost no 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 were always with locks. The design of the chest could tell about the prosperity of its owner.

Russian hut decor

To paint a house (they used to say “bloom”) a master in painting could. Outlandish patterns were painted on a light background. These are the 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 home with their needlework.

Guess what tool was used to carve in a Russian hut? With an ax! And the painting of houses was done by "painters" - that was the name of the artists. They painted the facades of houses - pediments, architraves, porches, chapels. When white stoves appeared, they began to paint guardianships and partitions, lockers in the huts.

The decoration of the pediment of the roof of the northern Russian house is actually an image of the cosmos. Signs of the sun on the berths and on the towel - the image of the path of the sun - sunrise, sun at its zenith, sunset.

Very interesting an ornament that adorns the berths. Below the solar sign on the chapels, you can see several trapezoidal ledges - the paws of waterfowl. For the northerners, the sun rose from the water, and also set into the water, because there were many lakes and rivers around, and therefore waterfowl were depicted - the underwater-underground world. The ornament on the porches personified the seven-layer sky (remember the old expression - “to be in the seventh heaven with happiness”?).

In the first row of the prichelin ornament there are circles, sometimes connected with trapeziums. These are symbols of heavenly water - rain and snow. Another row of images from triangles is a layer of earth with seeds that will wake up and give a harvest. It turns out that the sun rises and moves across the seven-layer sky, one of the layers of which contains moisture reserves, and the other contains plant seeds. The sun at first does not shine at full strength, then it is at its zenith and at the end rolls down to start its journey through the sky again the next morning. One row of ornament does not repeat the other.

The same symbolic ornament can be found on the architraves of a Russian house and on the decoration of windows in central Russia. But the decor of the windows has its own characteristics. On the lower board of the casing there is an uneven relief of the hut (a plowed field). On 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 kept by the owner. The house is being painted by the owner.
• What is it like at home - like this yourself.
• Make a barn, and there the cattle!
• Not according to the house of the master, but the house according to the master.
• It is not the owner's house that paints, but the owner the house.
• At home - not away: after sitting, you will not leave.
• A good wife will save the house, and 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 disorder in the house.
• If the hut is crooked, the hostess is bad.
• What is the builder - such is the abode.
• Our hostess has everything at work - and the dogs wash the dishes.
• Leading the house - do not weave bast shoes.
• In the house, the owner is more archiere
• Start a pet at home - do not open your mouth to walk.
• The house is small, but does not order to lie.
• Whatever is born in the field, everything in the house will come in handy.
• Not the owner, who does not know his economy.
• Prosperity is not maintained by the place, but by the owner.
• If you don’t manage the house, you can’t manage the city either.
• The village is rich, and the city is rich.
• A good head feeds a hundred hands.

Dear friends! I wanted to show in this hut not just the history of the Russian house, but also to learn from our ancestors, together with you, housekeeping - reasonable and beautiful, pleasing to the soul and eye, living in harmony with nature and with 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. And I also used materials from the stories of my grandmother, who shared her memories with me early years his life in the 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 I could not write it for so long: in the bustle of the capital in the usual panel house in the center of Moscow, under the roar of cars, it was too difficult for me to write about the harmonious world of the Russian home. And here, in nature, I completed this article very quickly and easily, from the bottom of my heart.

If you want to learn more about the Russian house, then below you will find a bibliography on this topic for adults and children.

I hope that this article will help you to tell about the Russian house in an interesting way during your summer trips to the village and to museums of Russian life, and also tell you how to look at illustrations for Russian fairy tales with your children.

Literature about the Russian hut

For adults

1. Baiburin A.K. Dwelling in rituals and representations Eastern Slavs. - L .: Nauka, 1983 (Institute of Ethnography named after N.N. Miklukho - Maclay)
2. Buzin V.S. Russian ethnography. - 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. The wisdom of the ancestors Russian yard, house, garden. - Arkhangelsk, 2005.
6. Sukhanova M.A. The house as a model of the world // House of man. Materials of the interuniversity conference - St. Petersburg, 1998.

For kids

1. Alexandrova L. Wooden architecture of Russia. – M.: Bely Gorod, 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 rural life

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

Video 3. How a Russian hut is built: a documentary for adults

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

Some people associate the Russian hut with a hut in which there are chests and wooden furniture. The modern interior decoration of the Russian hut differs significantly from this image, it is quite comfortable and modern here. Despite the fact that the house has a rustic style, modern technology is used here.

Historical roots of the Russian house

If earlier, when building a house, peasants were guided by practicality, for example, they built huts near rivers, they made small windows, which overlooked fields, meadows, forests, now special attention is paid to interior decoration. In addition, people used to set up a Russian bath near a river or lake, and in the yard they built barns for storing grain, a barn for cattle. But at all times, a red corner in a Russian hut was always distinguished, in which icons were placed, a stove was installed. At that time, the interior of the Russian hut was chosen so that all items were multifunctional, there was no talk of any luxury.

They tried to locate the Russian house on the site so that it was closer to the north. To protect the house from the winds, trees and shrubs were planted in the garden.

Attention! To increase the level of illumination of a Russian house, it should be placed with windows facing the sunny side.

In the old days, for the construction of a Russian house, they chose the place that cattle chose for their rest.

Interesting facts about the Russian house

In the swamps, as well as near them, no one had built houses before. Russian people believed that a swamp is a “frosty” place, and in a house built on a swamp there will never be happiness and prosperity.

The felling of the Russian house began in early spring, always on the new moon. If a tree was cut down on the waning moon, it quickly rotted, the house fell into disrepair. The Russian house was considered the embodiment of stability, constancy, tranquility, so it was never placed at crossroads, on the road. Also bad omen It was considered the erection of a hut on the site of a burnt house. The peasants treated their houses as if they were living beings.

She singled out her brow (face), they considered the pediment of the Russian house. Decorations on windows were called platbands, and boards used in the construction of walls were called foreheads.

The well at the Russian hut was called the “crane”, and the boards on the roof were called the “horse”.

The interior decoration of the Russian hut was rather modest, and corresponded to the interior style, which today is called Provence.

By the appearance of the house, it was easy to determine the religion, material well-being of the owner, the nationality of its owner. It was difficult to find absolutely identical houses in one village, each Russian hut had its own individual characteristics. The interior of the Russian hut also had some differences, with the help of certain household items, people tried to talk about their interests and hobbies.

It was believed that a child who grew up in a clean and good house has bright thoughts and intentions. From childhood, the child was formed an idea of ​​​​the structural features of the Russian hut, he studied and memorized household items in the Russian hut. For example, a red corner in a Russian hut was considered a holy place.

Features of the interior decoration of a Russian house

A woman has always been involved in the interior decoration of the house, it was she who picked up household items, monitored comfort, and put things in order. For the state of the facade, as well as for personal plot the owner always followed. In the interior of the Russian house, the male and female half stood out, their design had some distinctive features.

The decoration of a Russian hut is the task of a woman. It was she who was engaged in the manufacture of home textiles, in some Russian huts there were even looms on which women wove rugs, canvas for decorating windows.

Polats in the Russian hut were replaced by modern sofas and beds, linen curtains were used to separate them from the rest of the room. Already in those distant times, zoning was carried out in the hut, separating the living room from the sleeping part. The techniques of interior art used in the design of Russian huts have now become the basis of Russian Provence.

Some distinctive features were in the interior of Russian houses located in the Russian North. Due to the difficult climatic conditions characteristic of this region, both the residential part and the outbuildings were located in one hut, that is, cattle and people lived under the same roof. This was reflected in interior decoration at home, there were no frills in it, only solid and simple elements furniture. One of the corners of the room stood out for the chests in which the dowry for the girl was collected.

Some traditions associated with the external decoration of the house, used in Russia, have been preserved in our time. For example, a carved wooden sun was attached to the upper part of the facade. This is decorative element was considered a kind of amulet, its presence was a guarantee of happiness, health, well-being of all the inhabitants of the house. Carved roses on the walls of the hut were considered a symbol of a happy and prosperous life, and the owners still use them in the external decor. country houses. Lions were considered symbols of pagan amulets, which, with their appearance, were supposed to scare away evil spirits from the house.

The massive ridge on the roof of the hut is a sign of the sun. Despite the fact that quite a lot of time has passed since then, the tradition of installing a ridge on the roof has survived to this day. Among required elements ancient Russian hut, it is necessary to note the goddess. The construction of the house was erected according to the law, proportions were strictly observed so that the hut had not only an aesthetic appearance, but also remained a solid and durable structure, withstood strong gusts of wind.

Features of the Russian house

The Russian house is usually divided into three tiers (worlds):

• basement serving as the bottom;
• living quarters make up the middle part;
• attic and roof are top

For the construction of the hut, logs were used, they were tied together in crowns. For example, in the Russian North, nails were not used in the construction of huts, while obtaining durable and solid houses. Nails were needed only for fastening platbands and other decorative elements.

The roof is an element of protecting the house from the outside world, precipitation. In Russian huts they used gable types roofs, which are still considered by architects to be the most reliable structures for wooden buildings.

The upper part of the house was decorated with solar signs, and those items that were rarely used in everyday life were stored in the attic. Russian huts were two-story, in the lower part of the house there was a basement that protected the inhabitants of the hut from the cold. All living rooms were located on the second floor, allocating minimal space for them.

They tried to make the floor double, at first they had a “black” floor, which did not let cold air into the hut. Next came the "white" floor, made of wide boards. The floorboards were not covered with paint, leaving the wood in its natural form.

The red corner in ancient Russia was considered the place where the furnace was located.

Advice! In the country house or in a country house, instead of a stove, a fireplace will harmoniously look in the interior of the living room.

The stove was installed in the direction of sunrise (to the east), associated with light. Icons were placed on the wall next to it, and in temples this place was given to the altar.

The doors were made of natural wood, they were massive, associated with reliable protection of the house from evil spirits.

A horseshoe was placed above the door, which was also considered a symbol of protecting the house from troubles and misfortunes.

Windows were made from natural wood, they were small so that heat did not leave the hut. It was the windows that were considered the “eyes” of the owner of the house, so they were located on different sides of the hut. For decoration window openings used natural material, which was woven by the hostess herself. In the old days, it was not customary to hang windows with thick curtain fabrics that did not let sunlight into the room. Three window options were chosen for the hut:

Modern interior of a Russian hut

Currently, many city dwellers dream of their own chopped hut, furnished in rustic style. The desire to be alone with nature, escape from the bustle of the city and problems.

Among those interior items that still exist in the decoration of the Russian hut, let's single out the stove. Some owners of suburban real estate prefer to use instead modern fireplace. Of particular interest is the design of the walls and ceiling in a modern wooden Russian house. Nowadays, more and more often you can see carved wooden decorations on the facade of the house, which are a typical manifestation of Provence

Advice! When decorating the walls of a Russian hut, you can use light wallpaper having a small pattern. For Provence, it is undesirable to use artificial materials in wall decoration, since the style implies maximum harmony, unity with nature.

Professional stylists involved in the design of wooden Russian huts advise choosing neutral colors for decoration. They offer to pay special attention to home textiles, which are the hallmark of the rustic style.