KNOW YOUR MEASURE. Northern tradition of house building

Interview with the master of wooden architecture Igor Tyulenev, who creates houses according to the principles of old principles of house building and fathom proportioning. The interview was conducted specifically for readers of the Pashkovka newspaper.

“The foundations of our Russian, Northern Tradition found a deep response in my heart,” shares Igor Tyulenev. – Gradually I learned to perceive, understand and pass on the traditions of house building. And I continue to study. In Rus', osmerik or shesterik (a house with eight or six (like a honeycomb in a beehive) corners) was installed everywhere. And this is directly related to the harmony of the ascending and descending flows of power: The Earthly and Heavenly Yari are alive (as it is now fashionable to call these flows - Yin and Yang, and the Ancestors called them - the nature of the Father and Mother, male and female energy) with their flow in a spiral. The towers and huts were mostly round in shape. Everything in a house building has a certain importance, and the form is no exception.

For example, try, without changing the shape of the vessel or product, to fill ripe apples mineral water bottle. It won’t work, either you’ll have to break the bottle or finely chop the apples. A basket is better suited for storing apples; they will breathe easily in it and, accordingly, will be stored well, but no one would think of storing fresh honey or mature kvass in a wicker basket. That is, everything needs a proper container.

Life is Power, and the form is activated by that Power, and the house is the filling. For example, a “gasoline” car will not run on diesel fuel. Thus, a form may or may not be able to accommodate and perceive this or that energy or force. The well-known expression: “a house is a full cup” is now perceived as a house full of all kinds of “good” - things, furniture, but initially no one put such a meaning into this expression-wish. “A house is a full cup” is a house filled to the brim with harmoniously intertwined flows of Earthly and Heavenly power, which require a certain form for this; here the place where the house is placed is also decisive.

I repeat, gradually dwellings and other buildings acquired a geometrically more “simple” shape, becoming square and rectangular. At the intersection of the walls, a right angle is formed, but the Heavenly force tends to flow down and the Earthly one to rise. The Force, like water in a river, does not flow at a right angle, and therefore in the corners of today’s brick, stone and panel houses, “negativity” constantly accumulates, there the current of the Force is disrupted, without movement it “fades out”, the river turns into a swamp. A permanent minus point is formed in the corner. Subsequently, to avoid this process in wood, already square houses, began to hew the walls, thus giving rounding to the corners, and allowing the streams of Power to flow.

– Why was wood preferred? building material?

– The trunk of a tree is essentially a revolving (coil, spiral, and Vita – Life) structure of tubular systems, since the entire trunk from the butt to the top is penetrated by bellies - channels through which, while the tree grows, sap flows - from the roots up the trunk , and the materialized sunlight from the leaves of the crown also flows through the bellies, spreading throughout the entire tree. Depending on the purpose of the tree: to receive or give out force, its trunk in the process of growth acquired a left-sided or right-sided twist, the so-called twist, and because of this, the felled log became “right” or “left”.

Previously, huts were cut by combining these logs proportionally, or consciously giving the structure certain qualities, placing predominantly right-handed or left-handed twisted logs into the frame. Thanks to the method of laying logs in rows in a log house (butt - top), a continuous flow of Zhiva and Yari in a spiral was achieved. In the cups (places of cutting), the poles of energy change, a phase transition of 90 degrees takes place - plus to minus, the Force of the Father “becomes”, filled with the Force of the Mother, and vice versa. But this only happens if the core, the core of the tree, is not damaged. That’s why they used to chop into the okhryap at home – into the lower bowl. Today, experts criticize this method of cutting, saying that moisture accumulates in the lower bowl, and the wood in the log house is more susceptible to rotting, and they offer log houses cut into a hook - into the upper bowl. At the same time, they avoid making fat-tailed locks, not realizing that the core of the tree damaged in the log house in this case is a disservice to the residents of such houses.

The roof closes the entire contour of the house. And here the angle of the roof, or rather the corners, already matters, since there are many options for them in the canon of house building. They built a house with one corner of the roof, and a barn with another... Nowadays, few people think about this, approaching this issue from the concepts of aesthetics, or the possibilities of the material, nothing more. The house is designed to accommodate Life with certain qualities. Thus, it is necessary to take into account the location of the installation (have you heard the expression “a house must be placed on a stone”, this is because the current of power intersects differently). Do not build houses on sand, not only because it can collapse, but also because sand is not a conductor, there will be no strength in such a house.

You also need to take into account the shape of the house, the angle of the roof, as well as the material from which the house is built, and then the house can be given any properties - Healing House, Ritual House, Residential House. All structures and houses must have 100% compliance with Form and Content.

By the way, the stove in the house, like its engine, must necessarily rely on load-bearing beams floor, not on independent foundation- as is often customary now. Depending on how the stove is positioned in the house in relation to the entrance, to the right or to the left of it, the stove can be Spinner or Unspinner, respectively. So in your house, either everything is “rushing”, going well, or not so well... We can and should talk about the magic of the Russian stove separately, its ability to Generate bread, warm the house and keep the Fire of the hearth is priceless in itself.

– How were houses built in the old days?

- In the old days, houses were built by the whole Relatives, and often by the whole world, the term was - help, everyone got together and built them together. The ovens were made of adobe, and only virgin girls and boys were invited to “beat” the ovens; what power they put into the oven! “In your own home, even the walls help” - that’s what they say. Since we are talking about home as a concept, about the essence of its purpose, so to speak, I can say it more simply: Home is a place of Power that you create artificially. Home is an instrument of evolution given by Rod. Your house, universal tool, with which you can do everything! This house has now been built, but we don’t know how to interact with it. I mean with the house itself, with its space.

Of course, in order for the house to truly become yours, you must build it yourself, or at least take maximum part in its construction. You need to structure it for yourself, in the process of birthing a house, water it, where with your salty sweat, and maybe where even with a little blood if you get hurt, the more valuable it will become for you, the more of your strength you put into it, into your home. Previously, at least three generations of relatives lived in one hut: Father, Mother, Grandfather and Grandmother, and children. Knowledge was passed on naturally. There was a continuity of knowledge transfer, from grandfather and father to grandson and son.

– Have you heard that there used to be a concept of “Construction victim”?

- Yes it is. Before cutting down a tree, gifts were brought to each tree and permission to cut down was directly asked from each tree. Promising him continued existence in a new form, in the form of Dwelling. And if the tree gave such permission, then it experienced a state of supreme joy. As a result of the action of such a higher emotion, the entire molecular structure of the wood changed, and now it was friendly to humans. In the new incarnation there is a new measure, this expression is equal to everyone. A tree cut down in this state will imprint it forever in its body, and a house built from such a log will constantly share this state of joy with the residents. It will also protect them from all misfortunes.

Now almost no one does this. But what I want to say: the attitude of a person himself towards home, towards Life can change everything down to the atomic level. It is very important what is inside you, in what mood you live and act. Even a house built from railroad sleepers impregnated with creosote can become a source of positive power if a bright person full of the Joy of Life lives in it...

House, Family Estate as an artifact.

The estate is not only a hedge, a garden, a vegetable garden, a forest, a clearing, a pond, but also a variety of buildings - a house, a storage room, a barn, a bathhouse, a gazebo.

Nature and man himself should be the model and measure for the structures created on the estate. Then all the buildings will be harmonious and beautiful, life will flow in them as beneficially as possible for the psyche and health, and it will become possible to discover and realize many of the abilities inherent in a person.

Today in architecture there are:

1. Estates and houses built to living dimensions.

These houses have the properties of all living beings - they were created taking into account the golden ratio and the so-called wurf coefficients. Wurf is a three-member division of the human body (it will be discussed in more detail below). This includes houses created using the ancient Russian fathom system. This is how houses are built for a comfortable and pleasant life.

Basic fathoms in meters:

Policeman 2,848
Large 2,584
Great 2,440
Greek 2,304
Breech 2.176
Pharaoh 2,091
Piletsky 2.055
Tsarskaya 1.974
Church 1,864
Narodnaya 1,760
Chernyaeva 1,691
Egyptian 1,663
Masonry 1,597
Simple 1,508
Small 1.424
Minor 1.345

All 16 fixed fathoms, according to which it is proposed to design structures, are calculated based on the size of historical buildings - cultural monuments. Fathoms increase in accordance with the harmony coefficient of the musical series - 1.059.
I would like to emphasize that fathoms are a tool for creating volume, and not just a unit of measurement of length. You can make a fathom from any size.

Harmonious dimensions give buildings and structures the following properties:

1. Beauty;
2. Durability;
3. Durability;
4. Excellent acoustics;
5. Health benefits for people;
6. Harmonization of space.

Before the introduction of design by meters, not only houses, but also parks and cities were created by fathoms; the name of one of the fathoms reminds us of this - gorodovaya.

The land on the estate varied in tithes - 1 tithe - 109 acres. One tithe contains 2400 square fathoms. 4,548 sq. m – square fathom.

2.848x1.597=4.548 sq. m;
2.548x1.76=4.548 sq. m;
2.44x1.864=4.548 sq. m;
2.304x1.974=4.548 sq. m;
2.176x2.090=4.548 sq. m;
1.508x2x1.508=4.548 sq. m;

When creating a house by fathoms, it is taken into account that in nature there are no identical figures - diversity pleases the eye and pacifies the psyche.

Amazing harvests were also noted on the ridges marked by fathoms.

A separate topic on the estate is the creation of a “living pond”, i.e. such a reservoir, where the water is self-purifying as much as possible (does not become overgrown), everything is favorable for the life of fish, crayfish and, at the request of the owners, for swimming. Of course, for the construction of a pond, it is important, first of all, to have a water source (source indicators are green grass, willow, alder), a clay bed, and the location of the banks along geodetic lines. And only then the pond is marked by fathoms.

The depth of the bottom should be different, and it is desirable that the reservoir be deeper in the north and shallower in the south. For convenience, it is possible to build 1 or 2 terraces deep into the pond, about 0.5 m wide, for planting aquatic plants, such as water lilies and reeds. It is advisable to extend the banks of the pond in the direction of the wind. The combination of natural shapes and geodetic lines is important. Thus, a pond in the shape of a shrimp or snake will not self-clean if built on a plain. But this form is perfect for a pond at the foot of a mountain or in a ravine.

Paths in the estate should not be straight. The energy moves in a tortuous way. A striking example is the streets of old Moscow. Standing at the beginning of such a street, you will not see its end - it is so crooked. It is necessary to follow nature, and there are no straight lines in it, especially parallel ones. The same goes for ridges. It is better when long ridges are arranged in the shape of a meander or snake.

2. Dead estates and houses.

These structures slow down natural processes Therefore, they are used to preserve inanimate products and bodies, such as refrigerators, storehouses, and crypts. Such houses are based on regular geometric shapes that are not found in nature - a square, a circle, an isosceles and equilateral triangle. The exception here is the hexagon - a honeycomb, a regular geometric figure, but alive.

Land is measured in squares - square meter, square weave, square hectare.

Ponds are created in the form of regular geometric shapes, regardless of geodetic lines, cardinal directions and wind direction.

The paths are straight, turns at clear angles.

3. Other structures.

Not “living” and “dead” estates and houses. Such structures are created by amateurs or are intended for some unknown, cosmic purposes. These include new buildings and city apartments. The topic has not been studied, you can write a dissertation....

Used Books:

2. Seminar July 6-10 by Sepp Holzer in Krameterhof.
3. Website sazheni.ru
4. Forum http://forum.anastasia.ru/topic_47351_90.html

Justification for the use of fathoms

God created the World, and the Harmony of the World distantly reflects the perfection of God. God gave people reason and feelings capable of perceiving the Harmony of the World. Moreover, Harmony is inherent in Man himself. And Man can not only perceive, but also reproduce the Harmony of the World in his works.

Harmony is measurable. One of the measures of Harmony is the human measure - the fathom. By creating something fathom by sazhen, Man imparts Beauty and Harmony to his works. As much as it is natural for Man to live in nature created by God, so natural is it for Man to live and use creations that reflect this Harmony.

It is natural for a person to live in a harmonious environment created by himself. This so-called “cultural” environment. It is a secondary, artificially created habitat by Man. However, this secondary nature must also comply with the laws of Harmony and be favorable for humans. Such a correspondence can be ensured by the fathom.

The uniqueness of the Old Russian fathom system is that “there is fundamentally no single standard measurement unit for fathoms, and the measurement system itself is not Euclidean.

For many centuries, the lack of a unified standard did not hinder, and moreover, contributed to the construction of magnificent structures, aesthetically proportional to the nature, also because in ancient Russian architecture all divisions were three-part, notes in the book “Golden Fathoms” Ancient Rus'"A.F. Chernyaev.

For example, fingers, toes, arms (shoulder-forearm-hand), legs (thigh, lower leg, foot), etc., have a three-part structure. Moreover, a two-membered limb did not exist in nature.

The ratio of the 3 lengths makes up a proportion called wurf. Wurf values ​​across the human body vary, averaging 1.31.

Moreover, the coefficient of the golden section squared, divided by two, is equal to the wurf. (1.618x1.618):2=1.31.

Currently, most architects in Russia have undeservedly forgotten the design methodology by fathoms and use the metric system.

Let's look at the history of the meter. The meter was first introduced in France in the 18th century and originally had two competing definitions:

Like the length of a pendulum with a half-period of swing at a latitude of 45° equal to 1 s (in modern units this length is equal to m).

As one forty-millionth of the Paris meridian (that is, one ten-millionth of the distance from the north pole to the equator along the surface of the earth's ellipsoid at the longitude of Paris).

The modern definition of the meter in terms of time and the speed of light was introduced in 1983:

A meter is the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in (1/299,792,458) seconds.

It turns out that the meter is an artificially derived unit of measurement, not directly related, and, accordingly, does not reflect the Harmony of the World and Man. Meter is a standard that forms a line. Fathoms are a natural measure for Man. They form a tripartite (3 - sacred number) a system according to which area and volume are harmoniously formed.

Peter the Great, as D.S. writes. Merezhkovsky, in his work “Antichrist,” abolished the natural measures: fathom, finger, elbow, vershok, present in clothing, utensils and architecture, making them fixed in a Western manner. It was not for nothing that the meter was introduced in France and Russia during the revolutions. The destroyers knew why it was necessary to forget the wisdom and traditions of their ancestors, to destroy the roots...

Ancient people felt Harmony intuitively, without thinking about measurements. But the connection with God weakened, which is why rigidly fixed sizes of fathoms arose, and rules for constructing various structures according to fathoms appeared.

Our ancestors carefully preserved and passed on age-old wisdom and beauty, embodying them in the temples of Ancient Rus'. Life on estates and houses built by fathoms made it possible not to lose the feeling of the Harmony of the World and reminded Man of God.

Now we are visiting estates miraculously preserved after collectivization and urbanization. For example, in Moscow, near Red Square, there is the Romanov family estate, where now only the house-museum, “House of the Romanov Boyars,” remains. The house-museum and part of the estate of the artist Vasnetsov have been preserved in the former Troitsky Lane near the Sukharevskoye metro station.

On Novy Arbat, behind the high-rise buildings, a piece of the estate and the Lermontov family home are hidden. Everyone knows Boldino, the family estate of the great Russian poet Pushkin. A charming corner is the estate of the artist Polenov in Tarusa, where the museum is run by his descendants.

The family estate of the “father of Russian aviation”, the memorial house-museum and Zhukovsky’s estate are located in the village of Orekhovo, 30 km from Vladimir, on the Vladimir-Alexandrov highway. And there are many such examples.

The revival of ancient traditions of creating estates and estates will undoubtedly serve the socio-economic recovery and improvement of life in the country, the development of the spiritual, creative forces and abilities of new landowners.

Used Books:

1. A. F. Chernyaev “Golden fathoms of Ancient Rus'”.
2. Forum http://forum.anastasia.ru/topic_47351_90.html
3. Wikipedia.

Variety of fathoms

Let's consider various options for using fathoms when designing a residential building. Common to all methods: when building a house by fathoms, the external dimensions of the house must have different sizes along 3 coordinate axes, and only an even number of fathoms is plotted. The space inside the house is planned in the same way, only an even number of half-fathoms, elbows, spans, pasterns or vershok is taken.

Details such as windows and doors rounded at the top, a high roof, different terraces and porches, asymmetrical elements and parts of the house make it original and memorable. A separate topic is decorating the house with carvings, the so-called “patterning”. This is a whole language of different figures, telling about the family living in the house. Furniture is made according to the size of the house and the owners. Complements inner space home color of decoration: curtains, carpets, paintings.

Design for 16 fixed fathoms

An even number of fathoms is laid out along the 3 axes, which must be different and not appear next to each other in the list.

1. Piletsky 2.055
2. Egyptian 1,663
3. Smaller 1.345
4. State-owned 2,176
5. Folk 1,760
6. Small 1.424
7. Greek 2,304
8. Church 1,864
9. Simple 1.508
10. Great 2,440
11. Tsarskaya 1,974
12. Masonry 1,597
13. Big 2,584
14. Pharaoh 2,091
15. Chernyaeva 1,691
16. Policewoman 2,848

So, the external dimensions of the house can be as follows: length - 6 church fathoms, height - 4 royal fathoms, width - 4 folk fathoms. If the house is round or polygonal, then the outer diameter is equal to an even number of fathoms, for example, 4 masonry fathoms.

Fathoms according to the owner's golden proportions.

It is proposed to take five consecutive numbers of the golden ratio 0.382/0.618/1/1.618/2.618. These coefficients must be multiplied by the height of the owner - the result is a series of fathoms proportional to his height. For example, with a height of 1.764 m, the scale will be as follows: 0.674/1.090/1.764/2.854/4.618 m. The specified series is successively multiplied by 2, 4, 8, 16... - a table is formed from which the sizes of individual fathoms are determined. The fathoms calculated by this method are divided into 2, 4, 8, 16, 32... parts, respectively. As a result, we obtain independent units: half fathoms, cubits, spans, pasterns, tops.

Types of “human” fathoms.

The most famous “human” fathoms:

- flywheel. This is the length of outstretched arms;

- height. Just the height of a person;

- oblique. The height of a person with his arm raised up.

Based on the specified fathoms, the house is designed taking into account the size of the owner and mistress. The external dimensions of the house are calculated according to the size of the owner, and the internal dimensions - according to the size of the owner. There is a hidden meaning here: such correspondence is intended to reflect the relationship between the roles of men and women in the family.

In conclusion, it should be noted that regardless of the units of length (distance can be measured in feet, meters or parrots), when designing by fathoms, we create a “living”, harmonious Human space for Love, creativity and relaxation.

Used Books:

1. A.F. Chernyaev “Golden fathoms of Ancient Rus'”.

Feedback from the owner of a house built according to the Old Russian fathom system about her house

My house is really built according to Russian fathoms. But only outside. Inside - that’s how it happened. It’s comfortable to live in it, we don’t want to leave it - we perceive it as Living being, very friendly and cheerful.

Is it the reason for this fathom, or the fact that it was built with Love by our like-minded person, very pure and kind person, with extensive construction experience – it’s hard to say.

Most often I hear the following words about my house: “how nice it is!” It seems small, but it seems not very, moderately tall, moderately wide, so strong - in a word - okay. But this, I think, is the merit of the fathoms.

It is pleasing to the eye with its proportions, and, of course, elegant (after all, we love it - so we dressed it up). Guests, coming in for a minute, do not leave for hours - they just sit on the steps or on the terrace. This is especially noticeable in children; the baby’s mother lowers him to the ground to go home, and he again climbs the stairs into the house - and is so happy.

Six months after the house was built, I attended Chernyaev’s seminar in Lipetsk. There I learned an important thing that everyone should take into account when building a house, even if the construction is not in fathoms.

The ceiling height in a stove-heated house should be as high as possible - superheated air rises up and hangs near the ceiling. If the ceilings are 3 meters (Chernyaev says 3.20 is better), then everything is fine. If it is lower, then our head is always in the discomfort zone.

Indeed, during the heating season my son could not sleep on top bunk bed(the height of our ceilings is 2.5 meters) - it’s very hot and stuffy up there.

I am for the settlers’ houses to be solid, beautiful and in good order. Extra expenses “on beauty” pay off handsomely – how many times does my

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

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

In this article:

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

Russian hut

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

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

Where were huts built before?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Attitude to the Russian hut in folk culture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Proverbs about hut

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Construction of a Russian hut

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Door and the entrance to the house, the exit to the outside world is one of the most important elements of the house. She greets everyone who enters the house. In ancient times there were many beliefs and different 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 braid was placed under the threshold ( garden tools). This reflected people's ideas about the horse as an animal associated with the sun. And also about metal, created by man with the help of fire and which is a material for protecting life.

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

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

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

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

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

Windows in a Russian hut could be of three types:

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

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

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

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

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

During construction, the walls of the house were left between the window beam and the log. 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” = platband). The platbands were decorated with ornaments to protect the house: circles as symbols of the sun, birds, horses, lions, fish, weasels (an animal considered the guardian of livestock - it was believed that if a predator was depicted, it would not harm domestic animals), floral ornament, juniper, rowan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dimensions of a Russian hut

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

Decoration of a Russian hut

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

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

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

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

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

Russian stove

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Red corner in a Russian hut

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This arrangement of family members at the table is shown by the model social relations inside the Russian family.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's interesting to think about our modern houses:

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

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

Types of Russian huts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Barn floor– a platform for threshing compressed bread.

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

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

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

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

Platband– decoration of a window (window opening)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stable- premises for livestock.

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

Russian hut utensils

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

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

They drank tea from samovar.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Used for raking coals poker.

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

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

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

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

Russian hut decor

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

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

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

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

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

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

Proverbs and sayings about the Russian hut and housekeeping

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

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

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

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

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

Literature about the Russian hut

For adults

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

For children

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

Russian hut: video

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

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

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

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

Home for each of us is a place where we want to come. At home, a person rests his soul and body. His family and loved ones are waiting for him there. There he eats food and raises children. And it is not surprising that the ancient Slavs paid great attention to the competent construction of their housing. The man has always been in the image of a house-builder, and the woman has always been the keeper of the hearth and home comfort. We receive basic information about the buildings in which our ancestors lived from written sources, as well as from archaeologists.

As soon as the Slavs appeared and began their settlement across the vast expanses of Europe and modern Russia, they lived near rivers. Agree that a source of water nearby was a great necessity in the household. Of course, the first dwelling of the Slavs was very primitive. Not much information has been preserved about him. Some sources describe that the entire community (while the communal system still existed) lived in a very long building along the shore of the reservoir.

The dwellings of the Eastern Slavs were built of wood. Of course, no other materials existed at that time. But the Slavs did not use all types of trees for construction. After all, some were considered dangerous and bringing troubles and misfortunes. The optimal species for buildings were conifers (spruce, pine). They both protected the house from excessive moisture and were useful. In no case did our ancestors use aspen. She was considered an unclean tree.

Another important condition was how old the tree was and where it was cut down. Firstly, it was forbidden to cut down trees from the cemetery. Secondly, it was impossible to take a tree that was too young or too old. Thirdly, it was impossible to use a tree trunk that had a hollow, growths or unusual shape. Since cutting down trees among the Slavs was akin to killing a person, they necessarily made sacrifices to nature.

After the tree was cut down and delivered to the future construction site, it had to be processed. To begin with, they peeled off the bark and chopped off the branches. So the tree was left for a while so that the tree spirits would leave it. The main tool for construction would be an axe. Although the Germanic tribes already had saws at that time, they caused the wood to deteriorate faster and cracks appeared on it.

There were certain rules when building a home. For example, it could not be erected in the following places:

• Where there once was a bathhouse.
• Where the road once ran.
• Where were the remains of the victims found?
• Where there was someone's confrontation with blows with cutting objects.
• Where once a cart overturned.
• Where there used to be a house that was struck by lightning.

All these places were considered energetically negative and even life-threatening for the future owners of the new home. Where then should you build your house? In places where cattle rest. For example, in Ukraine they specially released cattle and looked at where they would lie down to rest. In addition, the choice of construction site could be determined using fortune telling.

We also paid attention to the start time of construction. In some areas, this most important mission was performed by fortune tellers. They gave a specific start date. In Siberia, for example, the beginning of spring and the new moon were considered a good time. There was also a belief that the construction process must necessarily fall on Trinity.

According to archeology, the Slavs lived in dugouts until the ninth century. That is, these are dwellings that were completely in the ground. And a little later they began to “get out” to the light, building real ordinary huts. Historians say that the dwellings of the Slavs could easily be distinguished from those of other tribes. This applies to both the building itself and the interior decoration of the house.

What did the dwellings of the Slavs look like? They differed from each other in different time periods. Let's briefly look at the main varieties.

Dugouts and half-dugouts

The first dwellings of the ancient Slavs were dugouts. How was it made?

1. They dug a large hole about one and a half meters deep.
2. They surrounded the walls of the dwelling with logs.
3. Clay was placed at the bottom of the pit to form a floor.
4. They made the roof.
5. They furnished the dugout from the inside with existing household items.

When the Eastern Slavs formed their first state - Kievan Rus, then the main type of dwelling was the half-dugout. In order to build it, they dug a huge square hole. Its depth should be about a meter. The walls of the pit were surrounded by a frame (boards), which rose another meter above the ground. Thus, a dwelling was obtained that was half in the ground and half above it. The entrance to it was from the south. Be sure to make a ladder to make it convenient to go down.

As for the roof, it had two slopes (like today in wooden village houses). It was also made from wooden planks which were covered with straw and earth. The log house “sticking out” from the ground was covered with earth to retain heat in the home and protect it from the “red rooster.”

After building the main frame, we began to build the stove. It was built in a corner that was as far away from the entrance as possible. The material for the furnace was clay or stone, depending on their availability. They were most often rectangular or square in shape, with a hole for storing firewood. And when the oven was ready, they placed a table and benches along the walls.

The southern Slavs had interesting semi-dugouts. For the first time, the so-called canopy appears. This small space allowed to keep heat in the home. But semi-huts were quickly replaced by completely above-ground huts (from the tenth to eleventh centuries).

Why did this happen so quickly? There are a number of important reasons for this:

• The dimensions of the dugouts and semi-dugouts were very small, which meant that it was cramped for an entire family to live there.
• There were no windows in these types of dwellings. That is, neither sunlight nor air penetrated.
• It was often very humid in the “house” (after all, underground - groundwater). The situation got worse when it rained.

Huts

For the first time, huts appeared in the northern regions.

This can easily be explained by the fact that the ground there was either too cold and damp, or swampy. In the huts they initially made only one large room. A canopy was usually built in front of the entrance. The window problem has been resolved. But there was only one window, and it was very small. Its main function was not the entry of light, but the ventilation of the home. The stove was built in the same way as in a half-dugout. If the owner built a pipe in the hut for the smoke to escape, then it was called white. Otherwise - black. In the huts, the so-called red corner reaches its heyday. It was opposite where the stove stood.

The entire hut was made of logs, forming a kind of crown. It could have a basement - this is the lower floor, such as an underground or cellar. The roof was usually covered with straw or clay. Over time, the Slavic hut improved. If at first windows were simply cut into a log wall, then later they began to make them full-fledged, with frames. And they always carved out various ornaments and patterns on the facade of the house, which, according to the ancient Slavs, protected their home from evil forces and the evil eye. Progress was also expressed in the creation of a room in the hut, that is, there were essentially two rooms. And in the north, they generally built two full-fledged huts connected together.

Of course, the appearance of the hut was an important step in housing issues. They were spacious and warm. In addition, optimal humidity was maintained in the hut. All these conditions significantly improved the quality of life of people, especially if there were small children in the family.

The structure of the dwelling of the ancient Slavs

The hut for the Slavs was a micro-Universe. Its angles corresponded to the cardinal points, the roof to the sky, and the floor to the earth.

It was important to plan your home in such a way as to protect yourself as much as possible from evil and bring good luck and prosperity into your home. As we remember, the doors were located on the south side. After all, the Slavs associated the south with the sun, warmth, and the triumph of life. And when windows appeared, they were also facing south or east. The furnace was always built in the northern part. In general, the stove played an important role in the life of the Slavs. Firstly, it was a source of heat. Secondly, food was prepared in it. Even today, some national restaurants are trying to revive the tradition of cooking in a Russian oven. The fact is that the cooking in it turns out simply delicious. Thirdly, the stove was used as a sleeping place.

And, of course, the interior decoration of the house was also decorated with signs and symbols of protection and protection. This applied to walls, furniture, and household utensils. If the outside of the house was decorated from external threats (robbers, fire, envy of passers-by), then from the inside - from possible ill-wishers.

From time immemorial, the peasant hut made of logs has been considered a symbol of Russia. According to archaeologists, the first huts appeared in Rus' 2 thousand years ago BC. For many centuries, the architecture of wooden peasant houses remained virtually unchanged, combining everything that every family needed: a roof over their heads and a place where they can relax after a hard day of work.

In the 19th century, the most common plan for a Russian hut included a living space (hut), a canopy and a cage. The main room was the hut - a heated living space of a square or rectangular shape. The storage room was a cage, which was connected to the hut by a canopy. In turn, the canopy was a utility room. They were never heated, so they could only be used as living quarters in the summer. Among the poor segments of the population, a two-chamber hut layout, consisting of a hut and a vestibule, was common.

The ceilings in wooden houses were flat, they were often lined with painted planks. The floors were made of oak brick. The walls were decorated using red plank, while in rich houses the decoration was supplemented with red leather (less wealthy people usually used matting). In the 17th century, ceilings, vaults and walls began to be decorated with paintings. Benches were placed around the walls under each window, which were securely attached directly to the structure of the house itself. At approximately the level of human height, long wooden shelves called voronets were installed along the walls above the benches. Kitchen utensils were stored on shelves along the room, and tools for men's work were stored on others.

Initially, the windows in Russian huts were volokova, that is, observation windows that were cut into adjacent logs, half the log down and up. They looked like a small horizontal slit and were sometimes decorated with carvings. The opening was closed (“curtained”) using boards or fish bladders, leaving a valve in the center small hole(“peeping contest”)

After some time, the so-called red windows, with frames framed by jambs, became popular. They had a more complex design than the fiber ones, and were always decorated. The height of the red windows was at least three times the diameter of the log in the log house.

In poor houses, the windows were so small that when they were closed, the room became very dark. In rich houses, windows with outside closed with iron shutters, often using pieces of mica instead of glass. From these pieces it was possible to create various ornaments, painting them with paints with images of grass, birds, flowers, etc.

DEVELOPMENT OF A SLAVIC HOUSE.

Place. Landscape.
Our Ancestors had different views than ours on the place called home, where they were to live, raise children, celebrate, love, and receive guests.
Let's try to turn to their experience, to restore for ourselves their sense of the space of being, which they “did” in compliance with customs and rituals in order to serve their lives as successfully as possible.
First of all, the choice of location was not accidental. The Russian village, as a rule, is very picturesquely located. A settlement was established on the banks of a river, lake, on a hill near the springs. The place was well ventilated and washed by energy flows of air and water.
When building a house, the peasant gave it orientation to the cardinal points. He placed the hut where the rays of the sun gave more warmth and light, where the most open view was from the windows, from the porch area, from the yard wide view to the lands he cultivated, where there was a good approach and access to the house. For example, in Nizhny Novgorod province they tried to orient the houses to the south, “towards the sun”; if this was impossible, then “face” to the east or southwest. The houses of single-row settlements are oriented only to the south. Natural shortage of places on sunny side with the growth of the settlement, it led to the emergence of a second row of houses, with facades facing north. On a flat and dry area, he built a barn and a threshing floor, “before his eyes” - he placed a barn in front of the house. He raised a windmill to the top of the hill, and built a bathhouse below by the water.
It was impossible to build housing where the road used to pass. The space of the former road was piercing, “breathy”; the energy of life did not accumulate in the house, but passed through it along the old route.
A place was considered unfavorable for construction if human bones were found there, or someone was wounded with an ax or knife until they bled, or other unpleasant, unexpected events occurred that were memorable to the village. This threatened misfortune for the residents of the future home.
It was impossible to build a house on the site where the bathhouse stood. In the bathhouse, a person did not simply wash off the dirt from himself, but, as it were, immersed himself in a vessel with living and dead water, was born anew each time, subjecting himself to the test of fire and water, steaming under high temperature, and then plunged into an ice hole or river, or simply doused himself with ice water. The bathhouse was both a maternity hospital and a habitat for the spirit of the bannik. The bathhouse is an unconsecrated place - there are no icons there. The bathhouse is a place where a lot happens, if you don’t adhere to the rituals of visiting it.
Based on all this, the house, built on the site of the bathhouse, was built in a space where a lot of things happened and it continued to preserve the memory of it. The consequences of living on the site of the bathhouse were unpredictable.
The place where cattle lay down to rest was considered favorable for construction. People attributed to him the power of fertility. Animals are more sensitive to the energy characteristics of a place. The ancients knew this and used it widely in life. The peoples of the world have many similar signs and rituals that use the senses of animals.
The entire house-building process was accompanied by rituals. One of the obligatory customs is making a sacrifice so that the house stands well.
Here it would be appropriate to recall that Orthodoxy has pagan roots, which Christianity has not destroyed. The paganism of a Christian reflects the reality of his existence among living nature, which he perceived as spiritualized, that is, manifesting itself as a subject equal to him. Our ancestors, the Slavs, as a rule, clothed knowledge in mythological metaphors, proverbs, sayings, and signs. This did not in any way reduce the value of the knowledge they accumulated, which today is forgotten and little used. We tend to turn to a modern designer, again relying on the traditional, but Chinese Feng Shui, rather than using the experience of our own ancestors.
Fragments of the worldview of the ancient Slavs were preserved by the Russians almost until the end of the 19th century. Speaking about the construction of a house, we can observe its manifestations in the ritual described below.
At the site of the future log house, a tree was installed, usually a birch or rowan tree, which symbolized the “world tree” - the “center of the world.” In our opinion, this ritual reflects the idea of ​​our ancestors about their own time and place in the world. Let us note that the peasants of the 19th century hardly did this consciously or with understanding. The archaic meaning of the ritual could mean that it was here, in the space of the future house, that all the most significant events for the owner of the house would take place, his life, the life of his children and, possibly, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The ritual tree was replaced by a living one, planted near the house. It carried the sacred meaning of the world tree, and besides this, the person who planted the tree demonstrated that the space around the house was not wild, but cultural, mastered by him. It was forbidden to cut down specially planted trees for firewood or other household needs. The choice of tree species - most often planted was rowan - was also not accidental. Both the rowan fruit and the leaf have the graphic of a cross, which means, in the Russian worldview, they are a natural amulet.
Particular importance was attached to the laying of the first crown: it divided the entire space into domestic and non-domestic, internal and external. From the chaos of the surrounding nature and elements, the promised island stood out - the macrocosm of human life.

Estate. HOUSE.
Let's consider the typical form of traditional housing. A hut is a cage, which is a rectangle, above which rises a gable roof. Let's try to read this in the Feng Shui system. According to the elements, it is earth heated by fire. That is, energetically the house was like a continuation of the element Earth, but so that it was not washed away by the element of water pouring from above, the roof - fire protected and warmed. Fire connected the space of the house with the Fire of Heaven, the Sun, the Light of the Stars and the Moon. By gable roof energy flows onto the house, washing it. For comparison: our today's box houses lack verticality, which would facilitate, like an antenna, connection with the energy of the Cosmos. This is directly related to the well-being of a person living in such a house and among such flat architecture. In the architecture of Nizhny Novgorod, for example, over the last 10 years they have been trying to create a tower, a spire, a high roof reaching towards the sky, both for residential buildings and for administrative ones. This is an intuitive desire to compensate for a long period of a kind of gray stagnation in external decoration and well-being. What can we remember from the “architectural styles” of the Soviet period? "Stalin", "Khrushchev", panel construction. Both their appearance and interior decoration cannot be called comfortable for humans.
On the facades of the houses of our ancestors, for example, in our forest Nizhny Novgorod region, the picture of the world of the ancient ancestors was reflected in the wooden carving or its individual details were present, as if hinting at it. The essence of ornamental decoration is the image of the three worlds. The pediment is the upper world, the middle part of the facade is the earth. The lower part, as a rule, not filled with ornaments, is the chthonic, unmanifested world. The abundance of solar signs, signs of fertility, the world tree - everything was intended not to decorate, but to carry certain meanings through which the space of the required quality unfolded. That is, it was assumed that the house should be cup full, its space contribute to the health and happy life of the family. This was what the façade ornaments served.

Interior.
Sacred meanings in a simple Russian hut, manifested in rituals, dominated over cleanliness and comfort from our modern point of view.
Almost the entire home space seemed to “come to life”, participating as a place for certain family rituals associated with the growing up of children, weddings, funerals, and receiving guests.
Let's start, as usual, from the stove.
The Russian stove is the largest volume in the interior of the house. They occupied an area of ​​2.5 - 3 square meters. m. The heat capacity of the stove ensured uniform heating of the living space around the clock, making it possible to keep food and water hot for a long time, dry clothes, and sleep on them in damp and cold weather.
The stove, as we have already noted, is a home altar. It warms the house and transforms food brought into the house with fire. The oven is a place near which various rituals take place. For example, if a smartly dressed woman comes to the house and, almost without words, approaches the stove and warms her hands by the fire, it means that a matchmaker has come to make a match.
And a person who spends the night on the stove becomes “one of our own.”
The point here is not the oven as such, but the fire. Of all the elements, fire is the most revered. Not a single pagan holiday was complete without the lighting of ritual bonfires. Then the fire migrated to the Orthodox church: the lights of lamps, candles lit with prayer. In traditional Russian culture, a room without a stove was considered non-living.
Let us note that, for example, in the Nizhny Novgorod region the stove was heated black, and there was no talk at all about any convenience in our understanding - cleanliness, fresh air. The white furnace fire transformed the house. At the same time, the traditional furniture and interior of the Trans-Volga peasant hut remained unchanged. Back in the middle of the 19th century, P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky wrote: “The Great Russian hut in the north, east and along the Volga has almost the same location everywhere: to the right of the entrance in the corner there is a stove (rarely placed to the left, such a hut is called “non-spinner”, because on the long bench opposite the stove, It’s not easy to spin from the red corner to the bunk – right hand close to the wall and not in the light). The corner to the left of the entrance and the counter from the door to the corner is called “konik”, here is a place for the owner to sleep, and harness and various belongings are placed under the bench. The front corner to the right of the entrance is the “woman’s kut”, or “cooking room”; it is often separated from the hut by a plank partition. The shop from the holy corner to the cooking corner is called “big”, and sometimes “red”. The counter from the woman’s kut to the stove is a “cooking shop”, next to it until the stove itself is a “cooking station”, like a cupboard and a table together, on which dishes are prepared.”(5, p. 199)
Each family member had their own space in the house. The place of the housewife-mother of the family is at the stove, which is why it was called “woman’s kut”. The place of the owner - the father - is at the very entrance. This is the place of the guardian, the protector. Old people often lay on the stove - a warm, comfortable place. The children were scattered like peas throughout the hut, or sat on the flooring - a flooring raised to the level of the stove, where they were not afraid of drafts during the long Russian winter.
Infant swung in a sway attached to the end of a pole, which was attached to the ceiling through a ring fixed in it. This made it possible to move the shifter to any end of the hut.
An obligatory accessory of a peasant home was a shrine (“tyablo”, “kiot”), which was located in the front corner above the dining table.
This place was called the “red corner”. It was a home altar. A man began his day with prayer, and prayer, with his gaze turned to the red corner, to the icons, accompanied his entire life in the house. For example, prayer was required to be read before and after meals.
The red corner - the Christian altar and the stove - the “pagan” altar, created a certain tension, located diagonally across the space of the house. It was in this - the front part of the hut - that there was a red bench, a table, and food was prepared in front of the stove. The events of everyday life took place in a very powerful energy space. A guest entering the house immediately saw the icons of the red corner and crossed himself, greeting the owners, but stopped at the threshold, not daring to go further into this habitable space, preserved by God and Fire, without an invitation.
In addition to the first level of the interior already described above, there was a second one, located on the stove column, which was located at external corner stove - almost in the middle of the hut and reached the height of the stove's shoulder. From the stove pillar, leaning on it, there were two thick beams - one to the front, the other to the side walls opposite the stove. They were located approximately at a height of 1.6 - 1.7 meters from the floor. The first is a ward, as it served as the supporting structure of the ward flooring - a traditional sleeping place. The bread beam limited the height of the “babiy kut” oven. Freshly baked breads and pies were placed on the bread beam as if on a shelf. As we see, the second residential tier is directly related to the life processes of household members - meals and sleep. If you open the door and look into the hut, then what is going on in the tents will not be visible at all - they are located above the head of the person entering, and the place near the stove will be hidden by a protruding stove pillar and a curtain, which was sometimes used to fence off a woman’s kut just along the upper border, marked by a beam of bread . Naturally, many rituals are associated with the stove pillar - as if it were the strongest supporting structure in the house. For example, when a child stood on his feet and took his first steps, a midwife visited him. She placed her pet with his back to the stove pillar with the sentence: “As the stove pillar is strong, so be you healthy and strong.”
Among the movable furniture we can name only a table and one or two saddle benches. The space of the hut did not imply excesses, and they were not possible in peasant life. A completely different space in the house of wealthy Volga region or always free northern peasants.

Space exploration.
The house was, as it were, a model of man himself and by its very design was designed to help life in it.
The dwelling was likened to the human body. Forehead, face (platbands), window (eye), mouth (mouth), forehead, backside, legs - etc. general terms to describe a person and a home. This is reflected in rituals. For example, at the birth of a child, the doors of the house, which was thought of as a woman’s body, opened.
A fully rebuilt house is not yet a living space. It had to be populated and settled properly. A house was considered inhabited by a family if any event important for the household took place in it: the birth of a child, a wedding, etc.
To this day, even in cities, the custom of letting a cat in front of you has been preserved. In villages, traditionally, in addition to the cat, the house was “inhabited” by a rooster and a hen left overnight. According to popular beliefs, the house was always built “on someone’s head”: this meant the possible death of one of the household members. Therefore, the house was inhabited in a certain sequence, first by animals, then by people.
The transition to a new residence was preceded by rituals associated with the “relocation” of the brownie.
To this day, the brownie in villages is revered as the owner of the home, and when moving into a new house, they ask his permission:
“Master of the brownie, let us stay” or:
"Master and Mistress,
Stay with us
Give life a good one.
It's not a night for us to spend the night,
And the century will last forever.” (3, pp. 24, 21)