Who in Russia was called tea-cutters, and Why tea was worth its weight in gold

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In old Russia, the word "chaerezy" was used to describe criminals who attacked and plundered tea carts. Why exactly tea? Did they really have little other goods - furs, jewelry, fabrics, dishes? After all, one could profit well by attacking a trade train. Read in the material why tea aroused such interest among robbers, why it was Siberia that became the birthplace of terrible and dexterous tea trees, why they were named that way and why people were horrified when they were mentioned.

How tea appeared in Russia and how a tea bag was changed for a sable skin

According to researchers, such a drink as tea was discovered in Russia relatively recently - at the beginning of the 17th century, when Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich received it as a gift from the Mongol ruler. The Russians did not immediately appreciate the fragrant gulls, but in the future it began to quickly gain popularity and spread. At the end of the 17th century, Russia was buying a huge amount of tea. This is surprising since it was originally used as a medicine, using it for colds and relieving hangovers.

It should be noted that the peasants began to drink tea later than everyone else, for several centuries using linden, raspberries, and other plants as tea leaves. The reason was the high cost of the drink, and not every peasant could afford to buy it. If you turn to Vitaly Gagin's works on national holidays and rituals, you can find amazing records: initially only very rich people indulged in tea. Not surprisingly, the 800-gram bag was exchanged for a sable hide. Many researchers write that in ancient inventories of goods, tea was next to precious stones, gold and silver.

How the tea-trees stole tea on the go

Tea from China was distributed in Russia. And he entered the European part of Russia through Siberia. The goods were transported by land, which is why tea in Russia was very expensive. For comparison, in countries such as Germany and Great Britain, such a product was sold ten times cheaper. The wagons traveled for a very long time, sometimes for six months, overcoming eleven thousand kilometers. Here we must add a considerable (reaching 120%) duty on the purchase price. And that's not all: merchants also paid carters, and, of course, security. If you add up all the costs, it becomes clear that tea was indeed a very expensive pleasure.

Therefore, he was the prerogative of rich people. And for the same reason, he attracted the attention of dangerous Siberian robbers. Such robbers were called tea-cutters. Where did the term come from? If you believe the assumptions of Georgy Kublitsky, who wrote the book "Yenisei", the reason is the following: tea trees often lay in wait for carts during bad weather or on a dark night. Taking advantage of poor visibility, cunning robbers cleverly cut the ropes used to tie the tea bags. It happened that this manipulation was carried out on the go. The unlucky carter might have noticed that he was robbed when the deed was already done. Some tried to catch up with the robbers, but most often it ended in failure. Merchants hated chaerez, because they lost goods because of them, and, accordingly, received a huge loss.

Sudden attacks of Siberian tea hunters and what names are especially famous in this case

Naturally, the merchants fiercely hated and feared the tea cutters. They acted carefully, dexterously and harmoniously, attacking, robbing carts and stealing precious tea. The situation was complicated by the fact that the robbers from the local population knew very well the area through which the caravans followed. They had deep ravines and secret paths at their disposal. The robbers also used the element of surprise - they swooped down when they were not expected. Over time, a whole clan of tea-cutters appeared in Siberia. These were dashing people who chose robbery as their profession and lived on the means that they received from attacks on tea carts. There were even whole dynasties, frightening with their cruelty and impudence. Historians note that such surnames as Bazins, Kolyasovs and Zolotarevs, who enjoyed ill fame, were especially famous. These were the families of famous tea cutters, passing on their sinister art from generation to generation.

Brutal robbers, because of whom refrigerators were installed on Siberian highways for the dead

But not only because of the loss of goods and money, merchants were afraid of tea cutters. The fact is that attacks on tea carts often ended in tragedy, that is, in murders. It got to the point that so-called refrigerator houses were installed along the highway for the bandits who died at the hands of the bandits. If no one could identify the body, then the responsibility for his funeral fell on the local peasants. Among the unidentified dead were not only the carriers and the guards of the carts, that is, the victims, but also the robbers themselves.

The historian Georgy Kublitsky writes that the fate of the chaerez caught by the drivers or guards was unenviable. Most often they were deprived of their lives. Therefore, many chaereza used the so-called "quiet method" of theft to hedge. It consisted in the fact that some part of the goods was appropriated at the beginning of the journey. For example, when in the city of Kyakhta they made a tea sample. And for this, in boxes with goods (they were called cibics and could weigh up to two poods), a hole was made using a special tool. That's it, it's done! Having seen in which cibics the holes had already been made, the tea-cutters proceeded to steal the tea.

These tea passions may seem strange today. After all, you can buy any drink in stores - Chinese, Indian, Azerbaijani, and so on. And people are so accustomed to drinking tea that sometimes they consider it to be primordially Russian, without even realizing how many people gave their lives for the usual seagulls.

It happened that the criminals did gain control over the territories. For example, this was the case after the 1953 amnesty, when criminals seized Ulan-Ude.