Five reasons why a Russian man should wear a beard

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

Russian philosophers called the beard a fundamental virtue of the Orthodox Russian person. Spiritual poems and odes were written about "brad-loving husbands," and in the pre-Peter era the razor was equated with a knife, which was used for operations to turn a man into a eunuch. So why should a Russian man wear a beard?

From time immemorial, among men in Russia, it was customary to wear thick thick beards. And everyone knows that Peter I was the first to oppose this tradition, declaring in 1698 a special duty that was imposed on everyone who wore a beard. Somewhat later, in 1705, this fee was divided into four categories. Each category corresponded to one or another class:

- 600 rubles a year were paid by courtiers, officials of various levels and city nobles; - 100 rubles a year were given to the treasury by guests of the 1st article; - 60 rubles a year were collected from merchants of small and medium articles. The townspeople paid the same amount; - 30 rubles a year was levied on servants, cabbies and coachmen, as well as from church clerks and all kinds of ranks of Moscow residents.

Only the peasants were exempted from this tax, and even then not completely. Each time they entered the city, they were obliged to pay 1 kopeck to the state treasury for one beard. Ten years later, in 1715, by the tsar's decree, this duty became the same for all estates and amounted to 50 rubles a year. And only a few decades later, in 1772, this type of taxation as a duty for wearing a beard was completely abolished. And yet, why did the Russians need a beard? There are several explanations for this, each of which is relevant for its time. So …

Beard as a pass to Paradise

In the last decades of the 17th century, Patriarch Adrian wrote: "God created man with a beard, and only dogs with cats are beardless." All who "scraped" were excommunicated. All this was done because, according to the Holy Scriptures, a person professing the faith of Christ, in his appearance, should resemble the image of Christ. And it was precisely because it was believed that smooth-shaven men would not be allowed into the Kingdom of Heaven.

A beard for a show of strength

In those distant times in Russia, any man was greeted by his beard, by its width and thickness. It was believed that the thicker the vegetation on a man's face, the better the "breed" of this man and the greater his masculine strength. Those who had sparse "vegetation" on their faces were considered degenerates. And the completely beardless were almost always single.

To preserve your dignity. It was believed that the honor of a Rusich is his beard. Therefore, the damage caused to the beard was automatically recognized as the most serious crime against this person. The fine for hair torn from the beard was established during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise. The culprit paid 12 hryvnias for one torn shred in favor of the state treasury. During the time of Ivan the Terrible, civil executions of the guilty boyars were practiced - they plucked out his beard. To wash away this shame, it was necessary either to accomplish a feat, or to go to a monastery.

Beard as a gift from God

The beard in Russia was equated with the gift of God. And in this sense, the Russian people were quite gifted. In other words, the beard became a national wealth, which was guarded even by an unspoken ban on marriages with foreigners. In particular, this applied to those whom nature deprived of thick hair. It was very easy to recognize those who sinned with the "infidels" - by their descendants, or rather, by their rare "goatee" beards. Such people were called "bastards" (derived from "fornication"). And there was no way to remove this status and be a full-fledged member of the surrounding society.

Beard for harmony in worldly life

A beard for a Russian person was a kind of balancer in a difficult world. For example, stroking a beard could hide anxiety, pause a conversation, or grab the other person's attention. The loss of a beard or part of it was considered a bad sign. Lost hair or accidentally torn tufts were treated very seriously: the “bald” husband had to go to confession and keep a fast, moreover, quite strict. Those who voluntarily shaved off their beards were always considered obsessed. The most terrible thing for a Russian person has always been the tsarist "scraping".

The beard is a symbol of independence

But since the 19th century, a beard has been considered a sign of freethinking. Only the beards worn by merchants, Old Believers and priests still did not cause any complaints. In the early Soviet period, the beard was the hallmark of a wealthy peasant, academician or priest, and later admirers of the informal Vysotsky or Hemingway eccentric. We can say that the presence of a beard is evidence of the independence of views, and even a revolutionary person. Confirmation of this is the bearded leaders of numerous world revolutions.

Beards are popular today. A striking example is the hipster movement that emerged in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. And if not long ago clean-shaven men were popular among women, today bearded men are on the crest of male attractiveness, especially if the beard of such an individual has a unique styling and exclusive style. Against the background of the "smooth" representatives of the male population, bearded hipsters look more masculine, and just more brutal. However, this does not at all preclude the fact that a hipster's beard should be well groomed. Contemporary hipsters see themselves as the engine of contemporary art. True, today, when wearing a beard has become mainstream, neo-hipsters are increasingly losing touch with their forerunners of the mid-20th century.

At all times, a beard was considered a sign of a person's maturity and masculinity. The beardless were not even allowed on the battlefield without God's blessing. Nowadays, blurring the clear line of the gender boundary makes having a beard another sign of masculinity, and for many creative personalities, a beard has become an art object, for example, for Isaiah Webb, who presented his bearded creative.