How peasant women looked and lived in pre-revolutionary Russia

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

The fact that the female share in tsarist Russia was clearly not sweeter than a radish can be guessed even by those who at school had a passing acquaintance with the classics of Russian literature. Hard work from dawn to dawn, constant pregnancies, caring for children and a grumpy, rude husband. How did the women of pre-revolutionary Russia live and look when beatings and cuffs were commonplace, and marriage was considered “holy” and indestructible?

The phrase that Russian women do not really like, but still very accurately characterizes their fortitude: "He will stop a galloping horse, he will enter a burning hut …" was written by Nikolai Nekrasov back in 1863, but came into wide use after the Great Patriotic War. It is not surprising, because if before women lived as the "shadow" of their spouse, but at the same time quietly doing the lion's share of hard peasant work, then after the men were called to the front, and the work still continued to be done, it became clear how the workload is distributed among Russian families. Nekrasov still has a continuation there, mentioning beauty in the movements and views of the queens, but how relevant was this for the women of Tsarist Russia and is their life comparable to the life of their contemporaries?

What peasant women of tsarist Russia looked like

This is in the films, but in the pictures the peasant girls of those times are depicted as ruddy beauties in kokoshniks, sundresses, lush breasts and a fair-haired braid, as thick as a fist. However, if you come across old photographs, which depict peasants who lived in that era, it becomes clear that the photographs are rather haggard and tired, and not beautiful people. It is not clear where Nekrasov saw the calm importance of the faces. However, even during his lifetime, Nekrasov did not enjoy respect among fellow writers, who whispered behind his back that he wrote beautifully about peasant hardships and hardships, and that his own peasants were languishing in poverty and afraid of the writer.

Much also depends on the conditions under which these photographs were taken, if we are talking about pictures from photo salons, then here women are combed, dressed up, carefully dressed and give the impression, if not well-groomed, then very smart. But ethnographers and travelers, whose goal was to capture the realities and the entire existing way of life, portrayed the peasant people as they are, without embellishment. In addition, even at that time, retouching was used in salons, covering up the scars and pits on the skin left after smallpox. And there were a lot of them.

… Here she is still a barefoot 10-year-old girl who is okay helping her mother with the housework, looking after her younger brothers and sisters. Here she is 15 - she is already of marriageable age, despite the fact that her beauty has not yet blossomed, it is clear that her figure is okay, and her hands are strong - she will be a good housewife. Alas, as soon as the girl got her family, this meant that she had to work a lot and difficult, and by the time she was 30, she was an emaciated tired woman with a dull look, who could not even be called pretty.

The beauty of Russian peasant women was a passing phenomenon. Earlier marriage, constant childbirth, hard work did not contribute to the preservation of natural data. Moreover, the commoners did not have any opportunity to take care of themselves. A typical broad peasant back (from hard work, the figure became heavy and squat), cracked legs, black from work, huge work-worn hands, a face that did not know care, covered with a network of wrinkles by the age of 25 and locks of brown hair burnt out in the sun, hastily tucked under a headscarf - this is approximately how women of those years looked, with age, except that they became more heavy and loud.

Marriage and intrafamily relations in tsarist Russia

The daughters were given in marriage one by one, if the youngest managed to jump out to marry the older one, then this, as a rule, meant that she would remain unsettled. A woman outside of marriage was considered second-rate, various name-calling was used in relation to her, moreover, they had fewer rights, they lived constantly fighting off (or not fighting back) from the harassment of outsiders.

The husband was the unquestioning head of the family, but Russian women were not at all powerless. They could dispose of their dowry in the future family life, if the husband left to work, then she could represent the interests of the family at gatherings and other economic affairs, took on a leadership role. If the husband behaved badly, as a rule, this concerned drunkenness, then she could complain to the community and the family was taken on bail, the man was issued a fine, or he received another punishment. A woman of her own free will could not leave her husband, but he had the right to do so, though he had to pay life support to her and the children.

The wife had no right to leave the house without the permission of her husband, up to the imposition of a fine. Even if she was forced to flee from this very house by beatings from her husband. There are cases when a woman was forcibly returned "for further housekeeping", and her husband was advised to behave more restrainedly. Parents could also be judged when they accept a daughter who had run away from her spouse in her father's house. Beating from a spouse was considered normal and natural, a kind of manifestation of the husband's power. Therefore, complaints to the head of the family were received only when life became completely unbearable. In addition, the punishment for the husband was carried out only with the permission of the wife, even if it was she herself who filed a complaint. Needless to say, what would have happened behind the doors of the hut after the return of the man "punished" in this way? A married peasant woman was completely subordinate to her husband and was perceived by him and his family members as a labor unit that had to perform certain functions until her death.

What kind of work did peasant women do every day?

All who could walk spent most of their time in the household, in the spring and summer before the harvest in the fields. I had to get up very early to make the most of the daylight hours. Before all, women got up (3-4 in the morning), who needed to light the stove and cook food. Sometimes they had to cook with the expectation of lunch, when they worked all day without returning home.

A strict division of labor was practiced, if men, in addition to general work, were engaged in construction, logging and firewood, then women cooked, cleaned, washed, looked after cattle, did needlework, and this is in addition to seasonal work in the field. Men worked according to the order of their elders, doing "female" work was considered shameful and unworthy. Therefore, even if at the time of the harvest, the wife's load tripled or she was on demolition, then there was no question of helping her to heat the stove in the morning. Despite the fact that women took on a significant load and performed the dirtiest and most thankless work, their work was little appreciated.

After returning from field work, the woman had to prepare an evening meal, feed the cattle, milk the cows, and clean up the house. It is good if the mother's helpers were growing up - teenage girls who had not yet had time to get married, they were responsible for cleaning the house and looking after the younger members of the family. On Saturdays, the amount of work was added, traditionally it was a bathing day, which means, in addition to the fact that the bathhouse needs to be heated, water must be brought in, it is also necessary to tidy up the house, wash, make sure that all family members have washed. The only entertainment, and even then with a stretch, was the "priapryadhi" - evenings when women gathered in order to do handicrafts. However, in those days it was not for fun and relaxation, but the heavy duty of every woman - to dress her family members. Often it was the responsibility of a young woman to sheathe a widowed father-in-law or single brother-in-law. It took at least a month to sew one shirt, this together with the weaving slabs, which demanded tremendous strength and perseverance from the peasant woman.

Beauty canons of peasant women and the secrets of its preservation

It would be wrong to think that a hard life was a good reason to completely forget about your female origin and a reason to give up trying to retain beauty. Moreover, the main fear of women was "the husband will stop loving", and therefore some attempts to correspond to the ideas of beauty, of course, were made. Young people were most afraid of losing weight, tanning and losing their blush. It was these three factors that determined the beauty canons of those years, and the braid, of course, the braid is the main source of pride for a Russian woman. Russian beauty standards were very humane, and while Europeans used mercury and lead to whiten their skin, tried to regulate the size of their feet with wooden blocks, Russian girls rubbed themselves with cucumber and yogurt to whiten their skin and ate as much as possible for pleasant fullness.

Unmarried girls, before evening walks, blushed with beets, and painted their lips with it. The eyebrows were brought down with a piece of ash, they could be fixed on top with burdock oil, but no attention was paid to the color of the eyelashes, they remained light with dark eyebrows. Instead of powder, flour was used to whiten the skin. A natural blush was considered a sign of health, which means that the future bride was a good option, no wonder that the girls did their best to preserve this shade of their face. For example, in the morning they ran to the field or to the spring to wash themselves with dew or cold water, this supposedly helped to return the blush. It is no wonder that the skin was red, given that this ritual was performed early, before the start of the morning chores. Lack of sunburn and fullness testified to the woman's good wealth. She did not tan from hard work in the field, which means there is someone to work instead of her, has a pleasant fullness - which means there is plenty of food in the family.

But with completeness, the matter was more complicated. Any peasant family knew that the secret of lordly corpulence was in sweets and flour baked goods. But even relatively wealthy peasants did not have the opportunity to feed their daughters with muffin in such quantities. Sour cream came to the rescue, rightly believing that a fatty and thick product would help girls become more appetizing, the parents fattened the girls in order to get married more profitably. For this, yeast and hops were given, it was believed that growth was also added from them. But even these options were suitable only for those who were classified as "firmly on their feet." If all these tricks did not help, then deceitful ways were used. Several layers of clothing were put on under a sundress, and then go and figure out what size the bride really is. However, the guys were not a miss, the arms and neck still gave out the true size. The girls believed that coral beads made the neck thicker and the skin lighter. But a rare bride could afford them.

Women's fate was unenviable, whether she got married or remained without a husband, dangers and hardships awaited her everywhere, and even her parents were not support and protection. As a rule, peasant women were married at the age of 14-15, children appeared on average every 2 years. It is not surprising that by the age of 30-40, women were already considered old women. The more children (read, workers) she manages to give birth to by this time, the stronger and stronger her family will be, and her old age is relatively calm. The attitude towards the elderly was humane, they slept the longest, as a rule, spent time entertaining babies, but not doing heavy caring for them. Therefore, the young woman always basked in the thought that someday she would take the place of her mother-in-law and would boldly command her daughters-in-law and even put her husband in her place. The fate of those women who managed to come to the courtyard, for example, nurses, honor and respect for them were guaranteed until old age.