Noticeable shifts are taking place in the cultural life of Russia. Local cultural traditions are gradually fading into the past, giving way to general Russian tendencies. "Observation horizon" phenomena of public life among cultural figures is expanding. Yes, and opportunities, monetary, political and psychological, within the framework of a large state, naturally, have increased. The motives of patriotism and national pride are even more weighty and sonorous. At the same time, along with acquisitions, there were also losses - the mighty breath of the creators of the era of the Kulikovo battle (A. Rublev and F. Grek, chronicles and legends about the struggle against the Horde) disappeared, the growing and deadening influence of autocratic tyranny and the extremes of serfdom, oprichnina terror on the cultural environment of Russian society. The culture of that era is developing in contradictions and struggles.
Folklore of the late 15th - 16th centuries ... There are no records of oral-poetic folk art of this time. But some literary works, documents, for example Stoglav, conciliar epistles, etc., are mentioned about folk songs, merrymaking.
The events of that glorious era were reflected in fairy tales. So, in "The Tale of Borma-Yaryzhka" its hero, a simple Russian person, obtains signs of royal dignity for Tsar Ivan the Terrible in Babylon City. A similar plot developed in , but it is about the regalia for the Byzantine emperor. Russian fairy tale remakes this plot, adapts it "for yourself", some of its variants associate the receipt of the regalia by the tsar with the capture of Kazan.
Other tales glorify the mind, the sharpness of people from the people ( "Smart Boy Judge", "Fire serpent", "Wise maiden" and others), some tales were included in "The Tale of Peter and Fevronia"(about a peasant girl who became the wife of a prince).
In proverbs and songs, sayings and riddles, words and teachings, live folk speech, well-aimed and sharp, was reflected. These are, for example, the proverbs that he wrote in his message to the elders of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery: "The king pays, but the huntsman does not favor", "Give will to the king, to the other and to the hound".
In the second half of the century, a large number of fairy tales idealize the image of Ivan the Terrible as a fighter against the boyars, "Peasant" a king, a defender of the poor, a just judge, and so on. The genre of the historical song flourishes. In them, the people glorify the capture of Kazan, especially the heroes of the assault - gunners. Ermak in the eyes of singers and the people is an ideal Cossack hero. In the song about Kostryuk-Mastryuk, a simple Russian, "Inhabited country bumpkin", wins the visiting braggart of Prince Kostryuk in single combat. The image of the latter reflected the real features of the tsar's brother-in-law, the brother of his wife, Prince Dmitry Mamstryukovich Cherkassky. The people, on the one hand, sing of the Tsar for military exploits, reprisals against the boyars; on the other, notes his cruel disposition; generally supports the defense united Russia — "Moscow kingdom", "Stone Moscow" how "The middle of the kingdom of Russia".
The people in their creativity are proud of the strong; his sons - peasants and artisans - are beginning to realize themselves not only faceless "The people of God", but also real people with earthly concerns, joys and sorrows.
Education. As before, monasteries remained centers of literacy and education. In them and in churches, especially at the metropolitan and episcopal courts, there were libraries of manuscript, later and printed books, sometimes very significant (for example, in Solovetsky, Trinity-Sergiev, Joseph-Volokolamsk, Kirillo-Belozersky, Rostov and other monasteries, in St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, etc.).
"Masters of Literacy" appear in cities and villages. Children and adults studied with them. Famous spiritual leaders Zosima of Solovetsky and Alexander Svirsky studied in the Obonezh villages, Anthony of Sia - in a village near the White Sea, Simeon, Archbishop of Novgorod - in his native village near Moscow, etc. The teachers were monks and clerks. Boyars and nobles put their signatures on many acts; to a lesser extent - peasants and townspeople.
They taught first the alphabet, then the Book of Hours (prayers, liturgical texts for the hours of the church service), the letter, the Psalter (the psalms of King David). This usually ended the teaching. Those who are richer managed to continue it - next in line were "Apostle", The gospel. Mathematical wisdom was reduced to counting to a thousand and further, addition and subtraction, less often multiplication and division.
Texts and numbers were learned by heart and aloud, in a common school room, and therefore it was filled with noise and discord. For negligence, the teacher, in accordance with custom, could and should "Crush the ribs", "Increase the frequency of wounds" to his disciples. The same goal is for suggestion "Book wisdom"- served and "Soul-saving" rod. But even then they speak and write with encouragement about didascals - teachers who "Yours for teaching, so that the cunning was and reasonable mind, and meaningful, and not a rude person".
But, obviously, in real life we met, depending on the circumstances and the nature of the teachers, both. No wonder Domostroy includes teachings that are mutually exclusive: "Do not faint, baby bey", “Teaching children, love and take care of them”... V "Bees", collections of moralizing content, one can find common thoughts about raising children and educators: "Let the teacher subdue the student with his temper, and not with his word".
Grammar guides appeared - the works of Maxim the Greek: "The beginning of the Greek and Russian literacy", "Preface about the Bukovitsa, Reksha about the ABC", "Conversation about teaching literacy ...", "Telling by a literate degree" etc. Knowledgeable people highly respected grammar, it is said in "Azbukovnik" the end of the 16th century, "Base and sole of all free tricks".
In this century, the first textbook on arithmetic appears - "A book, recomma in Greek Arithmetic, and in German Algorism, and in Russian tsyfir counting wisdom"... According to a simple calculus system ( "Small number") studied units, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands (darkness), hundreds of thousands (legions), millions (leodra), according to a complex system ( "Great Slovenian number") - millions (also - darkness), trillions (also - legions), trillions of trillions (also - leodra, another name - septillions), crows (leodra leodr - a number of 49 digits). Fractions (known as far back as the 11th century) are also studied at this time; the numerator was called "Top number", the denominator is "Underneath".
Under Ivan IV, Fyodor Ivanovich, some young people were sent to Constantinople to study Greek and grammar. Traveled "parobki" with similar goals and in European countries.
Some noble people collected libraries of handwritten books in their homes. Tsar Ivan the Terrible had a large collection of such books. Where his library went is unknown. Maybe she is walled up in the Kremlin dungeons. Or the books included in it were later distributed to other libraries, for example, the Metropolitan's, later - the Patriarchal's, and others.
The appearance of book printing was of pivotal importance for enlightenment. Even under Ivan III, Bartholomew Gotan, the first printer in Lubeck, tried to print books in Russia. But the first experiment failed. More than half a century later, in the mid-50s. XVI century, the first books of the so-called "Hopeless printing"(did not have a designation of the place and year of publication) appeared in Moscow. It was then that Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich started a printing house. 10 years later, on April 1, 1564, Ivan Fedorov published in it "Apostle"... Then followed "Book of Hours" and others, books. Two years later Fedorov moved to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and died in Lvov in 1583. Here he continued his beloved work. Among other books "Drukar Muscovitin"(a Moscow printer), as he was called in the Ukraine, published the first printed Russian Primer “for the benefit of the Russian people,” as he wrote in the afterword.
In Moscow, books were published by the collaborators and followers of Ivan Fedorov (Andronik Nevezha and others); in total, about 20 books of theological content have appeared. A big step forward has been made in teaching and enlightenment.
Scientific knowledge. The elements of scientific knowledge, multiplying from century to century, were of an applied nature. So, the need for accurate accounting of land and the calculation of taxes from them gave rise to a complex system of soshny writing - the same amount of money was taken from the plow, that is, from a certain amount of land, which was not the same for different classes.
Gennady, Archbishop of Novgorod, Metropolitan Zosima in Moscow and their assistants at the end of the 15th century. compiled special tables for Easter, indicating the dates of Easter and other holidays by year. Later Agathon, priest of St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, prepared a manuscript of the work "Peaceful circle", continued Gennadiy's tables. In the middle of the 16th century, Yermolai-Erasmus did the same, the author "Sighted Easter"... Translated works "Sixwing", "Cosmography" made it possible to calculate lunar phases, eclipses of the Sun and Moon.
Knowledge in the field of physics and technology was required by the foundry craftsmen in the manufacture of guns, arquebuses, including rifled guns, created in Russia. The same is with the construction of buildings, stone and wood, sometimes very high, up to 50-60 m; in this matter, one cannot do without accurate calculations, knowledge of building statics, technology.
Salting and potash production, medical and icon painting required knowledge of applied chemistry, medicine, and they are reflected in recipe manuscripts, herbalists (herbs, their healing properties, the preparation of medicines from them).
Geographical knowledge can be studied from documents of that time - scribes and landmarks, from ambassadorial and category books; by cards ( "Drawings") and unsubscriptions of service people, chronicles and descriptions of travelers, Russians and foreigners.
Historical knowledge is reflected in chronicles and chronographs, stories and legends; knowledge of the language - in various dictionaries ( "Speeches of the subtleties of the Greek", "Sense of the Polovtsian language", "Se Tatar language", dictionary of Slavic words, etc.).
In the second half of the XVI century. this applied knowledge is multiplied and complicated. For example, the construction of the Intercession Cathedral (Basil the Blessed) on Red Square in Moscow, a very complex structure, could not do without theoretical information on mechanics and mathematics. The same - with the casting of powerful cannons that accompanied the Russian armies on campaigns to Kazan, Livonia, etc.
In the second half of the 16th - early 17th century. detailed manuals on salting appeared ( "Painting, how to conceive to make a new pipe in a new place"), on clerical business (1556), article "About the earthly layout, how to layout the earth"(calculus of the area of squares, straight and triangles, parallelograms, trapezoids).
V "Walking" the authors described the countries they visited; such is, for example, the visit of the ambassador and merchant Vasily Poznyakov, who visited Constantinople and Mount Athos, Jerusalem and Egypt (1558-1561). And even earlier, in 1525, the diplomat and translator Dmitry Gerasimov, in a conversation with Pavel Iovy Povokomsky, said: China and India can be reached not only by the warm southern seas, but also by the Northern Arctic Ocean... He described the conversation in his treatise on Russia, and they learned about it in Western Europe. There, as if under the influence of these messages, an expedition was equipped, a member of which R. Chancellor came to Russia. Ivan the Terrible promised a reward to whoever finds "Sea route to China and India".
Russian literatureXV - XVI centuries ... Historical and political thought. There was a noticeable rise in this area. In the annals, stories and legends, the ideas of the greatness of the grand ducal and royal power, the world role of Russia are developed. As stated in "Chronograph"(review of world history) 1512, after the conquest of Byzantium by the Turks and others "Kingdoms" they are in "Put desolation and subdue sha under your rule", "Our Russian land ... is growing and younger and rises".
"Tale of the Babylonian Kingdom" with their idea of the continuity of the power of the Byzantine emperors from the rulers of Babylon on Russian soil, they are supplemented by the version about the transfer of the Monomakh hat, porphyry and scepter byzantine emperor Leo to the Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir Monomakh: "... and to this day that cap of Monomakhov in the Russian state, in the God-protected in the reigning city of Moscow".
"The Legend of the Princes of Vladimir" early 16th century deduces the genealogy of the Moscow rulers from Augustus, the Roman Caesar. This is how the autocracy and the sovereignty of the power of the Russian monarchs were exalted. This was used in subsequent journalism and in political practice. "Tsar's place" Ivan the Terrible, for example, on one of the locks has a thread with a story about the sending of the cap of Monomakh from Byzantium. And Grozny himself, in a letter to the Swedish king, argued without a shadow of a doubt: "We are by kinship from Augustus Caesar".
The same or similar ideas are developed in the letters of Philotheus, abbot of the Pskov Eleazarov Monastery, to Vasily III, in "The Tale of the White Hood", "The Tale of the Beginning of Moscow", chronicle vaults of the XVI century.
In the writings of heretic freethinkers at the turn of the 15th - 16th centuries ( "Heresy of the Judaizers"), especially their left, radical, wing, the main dogmas of the Christian doctrine were denied - the Trinity of God, the Immaculate Conception, Communion, the need for icons, the very institution of the church. The heretics criticized bribery and other vices of the clergy. The more moderate wing claimed only free thinking in literature and scientific pursuits.
The humanistic, rationalistic ideas of heretics, their criticism of ecclesiastical and monastic land tenure, and acquisitiveness at first aroused sympathy even among the Grand Duke Ivan III. But in the end, the Orthodox Church, led by Joseph Sanin, prevailed! hegumen of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery, whom the grand ducal authorities considered the best support for themselves than heretics. The Church Council of 1504 condemned the latter, some of them were executed.
Ideas "Non-acquisitiveness" the Trans-Volga elders (monks of the Trans-Volga monasteries), led by Nil Sorsky, also developed. They denounced the desire to appropriate the labor of others' hands, love of money, gluttony, pride, vanity and other vices. They preached humility, contemplative life, moral self-improvement. Monks, according to their teachings, should earn their living by their labor, not have land and peasants, and abandon worldly vanity and money-grubbing. Joseph Volotsky spoke about something else: "The wealth of the churches is the wealth of God".
The struggle between the Josephites and the non-possessors continued after the death of their leaders (Joseph died in 1525, the Nile in 1508). Iosiflyan was headed by Metropolitan Daniel, the non-possessors - by the monk-prince Vassian Patrikeev Kosoy (princes Golitsyn, Kurakin, Khovansky, etc.) The latter were joined by Maxim the Greek (Mikhail Trivolis), a learned monk from Athos, who arrived in Moscow in 1518. They found support among the opposition boyars and paid for it: church councils in 1525 and 1531. condemned them, and they ended up in exile. Their denunciations of the church, and thus of the secular authorities, references to the plight of the peasants were in line with the topical sentiments of Russian society.
Stories and legends tell about major events that era - the annexation of Novgorod the Great and other Russian lands to Moscow, Tsar Ivan the Terrible and his deeds, the struggle of Russia with foreign invaders (for example, "The Tale of the Molodinsky Battle" 1572, "The story of the passage of Stefan Batory to Pskov" in 1581, etc.).
A galaxy of talented publicists is working in the 16th century. F.I.Karpov, a very educated person (knew Latin, Greek, Oriental languages), the falconer of Vasily III, grieved over the imperfection of society, secular power: "Now there is strife everywhere, now they live from plunder", "I understood what harmful and unwanted ways, lame feet, with blind eyes, the earthly power and the whole human race now walk"... The rulers should, in his conviction, bring to the world "The truth, to root out the wicked who do not want to be healed and love God".
In the middle of the century, many publicists keenly and passionately discuss the problems of autocracy and the organization of the state, boyars and the position of the peasants. I. S. Peresvetov is a supporter of a strong royal power, its support "Warriors"- nobles and restrictions on the rights of boyars, centralization of government. He wrote: "The king cannot be without a thunderstorm: like a horse under the king without a bridle, so is a kingdom without a thunderstorm"... He is a supporter "Truth" ("God loves not faith, but truth"), "Books", "Wisdom", an opponent of servitude, enslaving dependence, "Which land is enslaved, in that land evil is created ... the whole kingdom is a great impoverishment".
Ermolai-Erasmus, a priest of one of the churches of the Moscow Kremlin, calls to alleviate the situation of the peasants, for, as he says: "Ploughmen are most useful, their works create the most important wealth".
Sylvester, Archpriest of the Annunciation Cathedral in the same Kremlin, in the epistles, "Domostroy"(he owns the final edition of the monument) preaches rational management, obtaining "Correct acquisition"(arrived).
The second half of the century was marked by a vivid, emotional correspondence between the Tsar of Terrible and the fugitive prince A.M. Kurbsky. To the first of these also belong messages to many other persons, secular and spiritual; the second - "The story of the Grand Duke of Moscow" and other compositions. The tsar proceeds in his judgments from the idea of the power of the autocrat being disposed of by God, its unlimitedness: “We are free to grant favor to our slaves (all subjects - V. B.), and I am free to execute”.
Kurbsky is the enemy "Ferocity" the king, who, according to him, should reign with "Wise counselors"... As a follower of the non-possessors (he was a student of Maxim the Greek), the prince opposes the Josephite clergy. Oprichnina is criticized, along with Kurbsky, Korniliy, the abbot of the Pskov-Pechersky monastery, the compiler of the Pskov chronicle collection of 1567, the authors of the story about the defeat of Novgorod by the tsar of Terrible in 1570, inserted into the Novgorod chronicle.
In the XVI century. compiled one after another large annalistic collections - Vologda-Perm, Voskresensky, Nikonovsky, etc. They include, in addition to the previous collections, stories, legends, and extensive documents. In the second half of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the so-called obverse vault was compiled - the Nikon Chronicle was adorned with almost 16 thousand miniature illustrations (“faces”, hence the name of the vault). In it, the history of Russia is conducted from ancient times to the mid-50s. XVI century This grandiose monument, like others, affirms the ideas of the greatness of the Russian autocracy, its centralizing policy. The same are the ideas underlying the Book of Degrees (1562-1563, the author is Athanasius, who came out of the circle of Metropolitan Macarius), Kazan History (Kazan Chronicler, mid-60s), Cheti-Miney (collection of the lives of Russian saints, arranged by months of the year).
At the end of the century, there are heavyweight in style "The Tale of the Honorable Life of Tsar Fyodor"(the author is the patriarch Job), "Life of Metropolitan Philip"... The compilation of chronicles continues, although not as extensive as before.
Russian architectureXV - XVI centuries ... This era was characterized by a significant rise in the art of building. At the turn of the XV-XVI centuries. the Kremlin ensemble in Moscow is being formed - walls and towers, cathedrals and the Faceted Chamber. They were erected by Italian architects (Aristotle Fioravanti, Pietro Solari, Marco Ruffo, Aleviz Novy, etc.) and Russian masters (Vasily Dmitrievich Ermolin and others). They used the traditions of Old Russian, primarily Vladimir-Suzdal, architecture, as well as the techniques of Italian architecture of the Renaissance.
Fortifications in the first half of the century were built in Nizhny Novgorod, Tula, Zaraysk, Kolomna. The wall of Kitay-gorod (1530s) and the Novodevichy Convent (1525) appear in the capital.
In church architecture, a tent-roofed temple, modeled on wooden churches ( "For woodwork"). The most outstanding example of this style is the Church of the Ascension in the village of Kolomenskoye (1532), built to commemorate the birth of Ivan the Terrible. A contemporary chronicler could not restrain a sense of admiration, writing down the news about this architectural miracle in his work: "Velma is wonderful in height and beauty, and lordship, the same has not been before this in Russia".
Throughout the century, timber construction continues to prevail. In addition to the ubiquitous huts, mansions of rich people are being built, sometimes very complex in plan and bizarre in shape. Such are the mansions of the Stroganovs, eminent merchants, in Solvychegodsk (1565).
In stone architecture, the Russian national style is clearly expressed in the nine tent buildings of St. Basil's Cathedral. It was erected on the occasion of the capture of Kazan in 1552.
They continue to build cathedrals and fortress walls in monasteries - Solovetsky, Trinity-Sergiev, and others. In Moscow, the White City was surrounded by a wall, within the modern Boulevard Ring.
Following the example of the Moscow Assumption Cathedral in Vologda, St. Sophia Cathedral is being built (1568-1570). And in Vyazymy, west of Moscow, in the estate of Boris Godunov, a majestic five-domed church of the Holy Trinity appears; later they began to call him Preobrazhensky.
Extensive construction throughout Russia made it necessary to create a special institution - the Order of Stone Affairs (1580s). He organized construction works, very large but in scale (calling workers from different cities, procurement of building materials).
Russian paintingXV - XVI ... At the turn of the XV - XVI centuries. in icon painting and fresco painting, Dionysius with his sons and associates became famous. They own the icons of the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, the frescoes of the Ferapontov Monastery. They attract with their colorfulness, decorativeness, lush solemnity. The icon painting of the Novgorod school is distinguished by a greater laconism and severity.
In painting, the predominance of the Moscow school is increasing. Genre motives are more and more penetrating into icon painting, there are elements of realism. This is even more characteristic of the second half of the 16th century.
Painting is becoming more and more a state matter. The church after the Stoglav Cathedral in 1551 strengthens the supervision of icon painters. Icon "Militant Church"(mid-16th century) in an allegorical form sings, the Russian army, the young autocrat. The paintings of the Golden Chamber in the Kremlin (1547-1552) are dedicated to historical events. For example, the frescoes of the Faceted Chamber, telling about Joseph the Beautiful, tell about.
At the end of the XVI century. icons become famous "Stroganoff letter"... They are distinguished by their diminutiveness, subtlety and gracefulness of drawing, decorativeness and festivity. Moscow masters Prokopiy Chirin, Istoma Savin and other “tsarist icon painters” worked in this manner. They often performed icons on the orders of the eminent people of the Stroganovs. Their own masters from their former slaves in Solvychegodsk also worked for them. This school also existed in the 17th century, under its influence many masters subsequently worked, including in the famous Palekh.
The craving for decorativeness and virtuosity, sophistication and splendor is characteristic of the painting of this era. There is, on the one hand, an increase in skill and technical excellence; on the other, the loss of depth, monumentality, and the broad breath of painting by A. Rublev and F. Grek.
Everyday lifelate 15th - 16th centuries ... The extensive construction of temples and monasteries, palaces and towers caused a desire to decorate them with items of applied art. The masters of that time made frames for books and icons of amazing beauty and subtlety with filigree (filigree) and basma embossing. From the end of the 15th century. the flourishing of the art of enamel, forgotten in.
In church use, products with artistic embroidery were often used - hanging shrouds and tombstones, shroud and "Air"... They were usually made of silk, gold and silver, in "Picturesque style"(combination of multi-colored tones, dark and light, brightness and colorfulness).
The book miniatures depicted scenes from the Old and New Testaments, the lives of the saints, the events of Russian history. Illustrations of the Observatory of the Chronicle and the collection of the lives of the saints of Chetia-Minea are rightfully considered masterpieces of Russian miniature art. Illustrations in printed editions are marked with splendor and decorativeness.
In the second half of the XVI century. outstanding examples of sewing came from the workshop of the Staritsky princes ( "Shroud" "Appearance of the Mother of God to Sergius of Radonezh"). Ksenia Godunova, the daughter of Tsar Boris, skillfully embroidered on Spanish and Venetian velvet.
All these products were prepared for the rich, who had considerable means and extensive premises for housing or church services.
Noble people lived in mansions, usually two-story, with different outbuildings, residential and economic, for themselves, courtyards, cattle and poultry. The houses were mostly wooden, but there were also stone ones. They are filled with cellars with utensils of silver and copper, pewter and glass; chests with clothes, jewelry (rings, earrings, etc.). There were sometimes clocks on the walls. There were foreign fabrics, adornments, dishes, clothes; oriental footwear, carpets, weapons. Even greater splendor is inherent in royal palaces and courtyards.
The nobles even then began, in the Western manner, to cut their hair short, shave or pluck out the mustache and beard.
The meals were plentiful and varied. Spices were used for seasoning: pepper and saffron, cinnamon and cloves. We were familiar with lemons, raisins, almonds, rice and sugar.
Noble people had fun at feasts with buffoons, playing folk instruments, dancing. No matter how the church persecuted "Demonic games", it was difficult to get them out. Were carried away by bear baiting, "Horse rippling", hound and falconry. At home they played dice and cards, checkers and chess.
Folk songs and church music met another side of spiritual needs. In the XVI century. polyphonic church chants came from Novgorod to Moscow and other regions of Russia. The Russian people also loved the bell ringing. New instruments (organs, harpsichords, clavichords) and Western European music penetrate into the life of the nobility from abroad.
Ordinary nobles lived more modestly. The bulk of the population - peasants - lived in wooden huts, covered with straw or shit; there were cages for property, cattle sheds, sheds. The huts were drowned in black, illuminated with torches. In winter, small livestock and poultry were placed in them.
The furnishings in the hut were very sparse: wooden, crudely made tables and benches; a dress was kept in chests and boxes (among the poor they hung it on poles propped against the wall). In the summer they wore clothes made of home canvas, in the winter - from homespun cloth and lamb fur, on their feet - bast bast shoes, for those who are richer - boots. Dishes - wooden and earthenware: dishes and plates, ladles, ladles, bowls, cups, broths, wooden spoons and clay pots, occasionally - pots and pans made of iron and copper.
Bread and pies, jelly, beer and kvass were made from grain and flour; ate cabbage, fresh and sauerkraut, carrots and cucumbers, beets and horseradish, radishes and turnips. The meat was on the table mainly on holidays. They ate a lot of fish, river and lake.
Similar to the peasants, but with the more prosperous, the townspeople lived in cities. The courtyard often consisted of an upper room, which stood on a porch, a porch for a porch, a cage for a porch, a bathhouse; it is surrounded by a tynom with a gate that had a canopy. There were mica and "Glassy" window. In the house, among other things, there were icons, sometimes richly decorated, a lot of dishes, including silver, and clothes, sometimes of fur. Guests, large trading people lived richly - stone chambers, a large number of dishes, gold and silver, and other property.
Festivities with songs, dances, and buffoonery performances gave the working people the opportunity to take a break from work. Folk performers - singers, like all buffoons, were professionals. From them, peasants and townspeople heard historical and lyrical songs, satirical and ritual songs. The singing was accompanied by accompaniment on instruments: wind instruments - pipes and horns, snuffs and flutes, bagpipes, trumpets and surnas; strings - psaltery, beeps, balalaikas; percussion - tambourines and rattles.
Elements of the theater, drama contained Christmas games, carnival, winter and summer farewell. Their participants put on masks, staged dressing up, mimic performances, dramatic performances, staged riddles. In round dance songs, at weddings, a kind of performances were played with a large number of characters, specific roles, a strict ritual (matchmaking, arm-wrestling, hen party, wedding, bread, etc.).
The buffoons gathered in troupes, sometimes very large, up to 60-100 people. Their art is the embryo of folk theater. They - actors and musicians, singers and dancers, acrobats and magicians - acted out comedy scenes, including those with the beloved people of Petrushka. His humor and ingenuity, ridicule of the rich, confidence and inexhaustibility in inventions delighted the audience.
Circus performances with a bear, a goat and other animals were also organized. Skomorokhs walked all over Russia, as well as across Europe, right up to Italy. The authorities and especially the clergy persecuted buffoons. Strongly condemns them "Domostroy": "Buffoons and their business, dancing and sniffing, always loving demonic songs ... all together I will be in hell, and here cursed"... But buffoonery, like other folk entertainments, continued to exist in spite of everything.
According to the historian A. I. Kopanev, as well as the economist and demographer B. Ts. Urlanis, the population of Russia in the middle of the XVI century. was approximately 9-10 million people, by the end of the century - 11-12 million. About 90% of them were peasants.
Among the types of settlements in which the peasants lived, the following can be distinguished:
a) a village - 20-30 yards, the center of a church parish. As a rule, the village was the center of a fiefdom;
b) settlement - a settlement of peasants called up on favorable terms from other lands;
c) village - 3-5 yards. The name comes from the word "shit" - virgin soil. Villages usually arose as a result of peasants moving to new lands;
d) repairs - 1-3 yards. The term originated from the word "pochnu" - to start. It is a small settlement on freshly cultivated land;
e) wastelands, settlements, stoves - desolate, abandoned settlements. They differed in the degree of emptiness. The land of the wasteland was still included in the land censuses as suitable for agricultural use, and the stove was considered completely dead - only the burned-out skeletons of the stoves remained from it.
In the center of Russia, the density of location settlements was such that, according to the figurative expression of contemporaries, one can shout from one village to another. The distance between them was 1–2 km. Thus, the center of the country was a space covered with forests, cultivated fields and several thousand small settlements-villages of three to five households each with a population of five to several dozen people. The further from urban centers, the more forests and land prevailed, and the number of settlements and cultivated land decreased.
During the first half of the 16th century, as shown by A. L. Shapiro, the number of villages, villages and repairs was growing. In the second half of the century, quantitative growth slows down, but the size of existing rural settlements begins to increase, their courtyard grows, i.e. the number of households in each settlement. The enlargement of settlements contributed to the folding of large arable tracts, the elimination of the fractional land use.
In the XVI century. the rural population is socially heterogeneous. The most prosperous was the personally free black-sowed (state) peasantry, which carried the sovereign's tax, but at the same time was freed from additional proprietary duties.
The proprietor peasants (secular and ecclesiastical landowners) had significant social stratification. At the top of the social pyramid were old-time peasants - peasants who stood firmly on their feet, living and working for the same landowner for many years.
Alien peasants - newcomers - rented land in a new place because of their lack of land. At the same time, they received temporary tax benefits from the landowner, subject to the performance of some work for the master. Usually newcomers were sent to raise virgin lands, to revive abandoned villages. A few years later, when the grace period ended, newcomers joined the bulk of the peasantry and became old residents. Or, if they did not fulfill the agreed conditions, they had to pay the owner a penalty - the so-called charge.
Peasants who did not have land and rented it from the landowner for half the harvest were called ladles. However, due to the excessive scale of exploitation, the ladle did not have in the 16th century. significant distribution. Mainly in the monastic farms, a special group of hired workers is distinguished - the so-called cubs, formed from free "walking" people, "Cossacks". They came from the landless and propertyless marginal poor.
A peculiar form of avoiding excessive exploitation was the transition of the peasant to bobbing or servitude. Beans were called poor peasants who quit the tax (due to their inability to pay it) and began to “live for the master” on his land, doing work for the landowner. Beans could be plowed (performed corvee) and unplowed (worked on the farm of the landowner). They were personally free, their dependence came by agreement ("row") and had an economic origin.
A completely ruined peasant, entangled in debt, could sell or mortgage himself into servitude - complete personal, slavish dependence on the master. Self-sale to slaves increased in hungry and lean years: a person lost his freedom, but saved his life, because the owner was obliged to support him. In addition, the slave could no longer pay taxes and debts. In the years of famine, crop failure, self-sale to slaves acquired alarming proportions.
The main sphere of activity of the peasantry was agriculture, primarily agriculture. Russian peasants sowed in the 16th century. about 30 different types of plants (rye, wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat, millet, etc.). The most common combination was rye (winter) and oats (spring). In the XVI century. the share of industrial crops, primarily flax, hemp, and hops, is increasing among crops.
Gardening is developing, some districts begin to specialize precisely in the supply of garden vegetables (for example, onions were massively grown in the Rostov Veliky district). The most widespread were turnips, cabbage, carrots, beets, cucumbers, onions, and garlic. Orchards gradually spread, in which they planted apple trees, plums, cherries, in the southern regions - melons and watermelons.
The yield varied depending on the area, soil fertility, agricultural crops from one-three to one-four. These figures are similar to the average European figures for the 16th century. The grain yield was about the same in Germany, Poland and other countries. Where the development of capitalist production began (the Netherlands, England), the yield was higher - ten or more itself.
Farming systems continued to exist undercutting (especially in colonized forest areas), fallow (the field is sown for several years in a row, then rests, then plows again, etc.) and arable land by collision (peasants find new territory, plow, then come to harvest and then throw this land). The most common was the three-field, which was improved by the so-called rotational cycle (the site was divided into six fields, in which a sequential crop change took place).
The size of the cultivated land for the peasant household varied greatly depending on the area, socio-economic situation. They could range from 2 to 20 dessiatines. The tendency of their decrease by 1570–1580 is obvious. Apparently, this was due to the demographic consequences of the oprichnina and the Livonian War. The number of workers decreased, and, accordingly, the area of land that they were able to cultivate also decreased.
The decrease in income from the peasant economy caused an increase in levies, especially in private farms, which, by increasing exploitation, tried to compensate for losses during the crisis of the 1570s and 1580s. As a result, the peasant reduced his plowing even more in order to pay less taxes (at the beginning of the 17th century, there are cadastres in which up to 0.5 tithes of land are recorded for peasant households).
What way did the peasants look for in the event of a land shortage? In the XVI century. there was a practice of leasing land “for rent”, i.e. with the obligation to pay a special quitrent. Moreover, in this way, both agricultural land and land for grazing, crafts, fishing, etc. were leased. Thus, the peasant economy could consist of both “taxable” lands, that is, imposed with duties and copied by the sovereign scribes, and from additional "rent", rented.
The practice of renting for the “fifth or sixth sheaf” became especially widespread in the last third of the century. For the state, it was unprofitable, since it turned out that the allotments “over-taxed” with obligations were reduced to a minimum (correspondingly, the amount of taxes levied also fell). And real economic life flourished on leased land, but the income went into the pockets of the tenant and landlord. Another thing is that at the end of the XVI century. the authorities often had no way out: a large number of patrimonial and local lands were desolate, and it was better to rent them at least “for rent” than to allow them to stand empty. Moreover, at the end of the 16th century. rent rates were significantly raised (earlier it ranged from 12 to 30 kopecks for arable land, and in 1597 the price was set from 40 to 60 kopecks).
The soil was cultivated with plows (one-, two- and three-toothed). They plowed mainly on horses. In the XVI century. the most widespread is the plow with the police, i.e. with a dump board that carries the loosened earth with it and rolls it to the side. Such a plow worked the soil more thoroughly, destroyed weeds and allowed the fertilizer to be plowed in. The plow with an iron share was less common. In the XVI century. manure of the soil is developing, and “carrying pus (manure) to the fields” becomes one of the peasant's duties.
Cattle breeding developed. One peasant farm, on average, had one or two horses and cows. In addition, small livestock (sheep, goats) and poultry were kept. Of the breeds of small livestock, sheep breeding prevailed, which, in addition to meat and milk, provided skins and warm clothes.
The breed of cattle was low, primitive breeds predominated, giving little milk and differing in modest weight (according to archaeological data, the average cow in the 16th century weighed up to 300 kg; today the average weight of a thoroughbred cow is 500 kg, a bull is 900 kg).
There was no division into meat and dairy breeds. Livestock were kept in open-air yards or in special wicker pens, lined with manure for warmth. Young animals, as well as all livestock in the cold season, could be kept in huts, if space allowed. During the XVI century. Gradually, there is a transition from open pen keeping of livestock to its transfer to a special covered room (barn).
In the economy of the peasants, crafts played a huge role, accounting for up to 20% of the total income of the household. Of these, first of all, it is worth noting fishing (including in specially dug and stocked ponds), beekeeping, making wooden and earthenware dishes, tar smoking, ironwork, etc.
Peasant farming was seen as the main source of income for the state. Peasant duties were divided into the sovereign tax and quitrent, corvee, appointed by the landowners.
The tax included (the main duties are listed):
1) tribute - direct cash payments; was preserved as a legacy of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, when Moscow collected tribute for the Tatars. The horde was long gone, but the collection of tribute by Moscow remained. In 1530-1540-6. in Novgorod land this payment was 4–5 kopecks. with fired;
2) fodder - fees for feeding governors and volostels (until the middle of the 16th century, then they were replaced by a feeding payback in favor of the state);
3) duty - the so-called staff was formed from the peasants, accompanying the Russian army in any campaign. These are a kind of "unskilled warriors" that were used for any kind of black work: they dragged guns on themselves, built temporary fortifications, camps, buried corpses after the battle, etc .;
4) Yamskaya duty - the peasants had to provide carts and horses for the needs of state communication, transportation. From the second half of the XVI century. instead of this duty, “Yamsk money” is being levied;
5) tamga - collection of duties on horse branding. The stigma (tamga, brand) indicated the owner;
6) construction duty - the participation of peasants as laborers in the construction of fortresses, bridges, roads, etc .;
7) food money - a special fee for providing the army with firearms. In addition, from the second half of the 16th century. a special collection for the production of gunpowder - "pearl money" is spreading; in the second half of the 16th century. also introduces the collection of polyanny money for the ransom of prisoners, mainly from the Crimean Khanate;
8) arrangement of fish ponds for the sovereign.
The owner's quitrent was divided into sharecrops (collected in grain: from a fifth to half of the harvest on draft lands, or every fourth or sixth sheaf on quitrent lands) and pop (food, for example, popcorn bread).
In the XVI century. peasants also performed forced labor for the landowner - corvee. For the most part, the land of the master was cultivated not by peasants, but by plowed slaves, and there is a noticeable tendency to transfer corvee lands to quitrent. There were relatively few corvee lands (there is evidence that at the beginning of the 16th century they were correlated with quitrent lands as one to five).
In total, for various duties, the peasants in the 16th century. gave away about 30% of annual income. In the beginning, the peasants paid “according to their strength,” that is, as much as he can. After drawing up at the end of the 15th - 16th centuries. scribal descriptions of lands (cadastres), they began to pay "by books." The unit of taxation was land areas. In the black-moored lands, they were called plows, in proprietary villages - vyty. Their size varied by region.
In general, the taxation of the peasantry in the XVI century. was relatively small (in the following centuries, the peasants will begin to give much more, for example, under Peter I the number of duties will increase to about 40).
Here you can find information about home improvement, clothing and food of the peasants.
Knowledge of folk life, traditions, customs gives us the opportunity to preserve historical memory, to find the roots that will nourish new generations of Russians.
A peasant dwelling is a courtyard where residential and farm buildings, a garden and a vegetable garden were built.
The roofs of the buildings were thatched or wooden; often wooden figures of heads of various birds and animals were attached to the roofs.
The buildings themselves were built of wood, mainly pine and spruce. Dm and in the literal sense they were cut with an ax, but later saws also became known.
For the construction of even the largest buildings, no special foundation was built. But instead of him, at the corners and in the middle of the walls, supports were laid - stumps, large boulders.
The main buildings of the peasant's yard were: "hut and cage", an upper room, tumblers, a sennik, a barn, a barn. The hut is a common residential building. The upper room is a clean and bright building, built on top of the lower one, and here they slept and received guests. Dumpsters and sennik are cold storerooms, in summer they were living quarters.
The most important component of the peasant house was the Russian stove. They baked bread in it, cooked food, washed themselves, and slept on the upper wall.
Images (icons) were the main decoration of the house. The images were placed in the upper corner of the chambers and closed with a curtain - a dungeon.
Wall paintings and mirrors were banned by the Orthodox Church. Only small mirrors were brought from abroad and were part of the women's toilet.
In the home arrangement of the Russians, there was a noticeable custom of covering and covering everything. The floors were covered with carpets, matting, felts, benches and benches with shelves, tables with tablecloths.
The houses were lit with candles and torches.
Houses of poor and rich people had the same names, structures, differed only in size and degree of decoration.
The cut of the clothes was the same for both the tsars and the peasants.
Men's shirts were white or red, they were sewn from linen and canvas fabric. The shirts were low-girded with straps with a weak knot.
The clothes they wore at home were called zipun. It was a tight, short white dress.
Women's clothing was similar to men's, only longer. The summer man wore a long shirt. In front he had a slit that was fastened with buttons right down to the throat.
All women wore earrings and hats.
The peasants wore a sheepskin coat. Sheepskin coats were changed for children.
The peasants' shoes were bast shoes, vine shoes and leather soles, which were tied to their feet with belts.
The peasant cuisine was Russian, national. The best cook was considered to be the one who knew how to cook with other housewives. Changes in food were introduced imperceptibly. The dishes were simple and varied.
According to the custom of the Russians, to sacredly keep fasting, the table was divided into two parts: fast and lean, and according to the supplies, the dishes were divided into five: fish, meat, flour, milk and vegetable.
Mealy bread included rye bread - the head of the table, various pies, loaves, casseroles, rolls; to fish - fish soup, baked dishes; to meat - side dishes, quick soups, pates and many others.
The drinks were as follows: vodka, wine, juices, fruit drinks, birch, kvass, tea.
The sweets were natural: fresh fruits, fruits cooked in molasses.
I hope that my small contribution to the promotion of folk culture and everyday life will partly contribute to the fact that this culture will be preserved, knowledge of it will strengthen the mind and soul of the growing citizens and patriots of our Fatherland.
A feature of everyday life in Russia in the XVI century. there was an increase in class stratification. There is a further increase in the distance between social groups, development of estate-corporate household culture.
Scenarios of the life of a Russian person in the 16th century. had a lot in common. Families, as a rule, were large for both nobles and commoners; there was no medicine, and hence the high infant mortality rate (even Tsar Ivan the Terrible had five children out of seven who died in infancy). After the birth of all children, they were baptized - this is the first Christian Sacrament to which they partake. Childhood was relatively the same, with the only difference in the level of material wealth. In the XVI century. written recommendations appear on how to educate children (before that, such "instructions" were drawn only from the Holy Scriptures, sermons and teachings of spiritual fathers).
Between 1546 and 1558 the priest of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, Sylvester, was created " Domostroy ", a kind of domestic charter that strictly determined all the rules of family life, the basics of housekeeping, etc. It contains several chapters on parenting. The upbringing of children was based primarily on Christian morality and Russian family traditions. It was based on the concept responsibility: parents - for the moral character of children, for who they will grow up, children - for the fate of parents in old age. Parents had to teach their children the basics of the household and their profession (craft, military affairs, government, etc.). The purpose of upbringing was to cultivate a God-fearing, pious, loyal Christian, observing moral and bodily purity. "Domostroy" speaks of corporal punishment as a widespread method of education, but to what extent it was a theory, and to what extent spanking of children was used in practice, we do not know.
Public schools in Russia in the 16th century. did not have. Education was mainly carried out at home, in the family. According to Ch. On the 26th resolution of the Stoglav Cathedral (1551), church schools were opened in the cities. Educational literature for them was the books of Holy Scripture, mainly the Psalter, and some liturgical books. But the education of children was not widespread and was not compulsory.
Childhood has changed little compared to the Middle Ages. Until the age of seven, the children lived with their mother. Then the peasant and townspeople children were gradually included in the household chores that were feasible for them. Noble children from the age of 15 began their career. They were brought in tens(lists for noble military reviews), but until they received their own estate, they were considered "novices" - newcomers.
The majority came from the moment of creating their own family, with marriage. Marriage was officially allowed for women from the age of 12, for men - from the age of 15 (Chapter 18 "Stoglava"). In practice, apparently, there were both earlier illegal marriages (at eight or nine years old - to attract an employee to the family, to enter into formal kinship with noble names), and later. The "Feeding Book", a set of rules of canon law translated from Greek, established the age limit for marriage for women - 60 years.
We do not know the statistics of the number of marriages concluded by a person of Muscovite Rus. Apparently, the majority nevertheless got married once. Re-marriages were committed by widows and widowers, with the exception of those who left for the monastery after the death of their spouse. Divorce was allowed only for valid reasons (adultery by a wife, committing a state crime by one of the spouses, physical inability to have an intimate life during three years of marriage, unknown absence of one of the spouses for five years, etc.), in this area the situation has not changed compared to the Middle Ages. The reasons for the divorce included the immoral behavior of the wife (drinking alcoholic beverages in a tavern, washing in a men's bath, spending the night outside the house, participating in depraved "games", despite the husband's prohibitions). The church was more condescending to similar adventures of husbands. The infertility of the spouses was not considered a reason for divorce: God decides whether to give children or not. Finding a new mate for childbearing meant going against God. No wonder Vasily III, divorcing the barren Solomonia Saburova, prepared accusations of witchcraft and divination, and the theme of "infertility" sounded in the background.
The second and even more so the third marriage was not welcomed by the church. Permissions on them were accompanied by the imposition of church punishment (penance): a bigamist was deprived of the sacrament for two years, and a triune was deprived of the Holy Communion for five years (Chapter 21 of "Stoglava"). The fourth marriage was prohibited. Church wedding according to the rules was possible only in a nervous marriage, in the second and third, prayers were simply read. But in practice, the prohibitions were often violated (Ivan the Terrible, who, by definition, had to act as a moral model for his subjects, got married either six or seven times).
The Church (through the spiritual fathers and the institution of confession) fought primarily against bodily impurity and immoral behavior. The Church monitored the morality of intimate behavior more carefully than social sins. So, in confession it was ordered, first of all, to inquire in great detail about misconduct in the sphere of personal life (priests were even given special questionnaires, numbering several dozen highly detailed items), and only then it was necessary to inquire about murder, theft and other crimes against society.
In the XVI century. the category of "prodigal" sins and debauchery included sexual life on days prohibited by the church (fasting, holidays, Saturday and Sunday and some other days of the week, most often Wednesday and Friday), intercourse with other people's wives or molesting girls, intercourse with non-believers, various kinds unconventional sexual relations, "prodigal thoughts", dressing up in clothes unusual for their sex, shaving a beard (for such a likeness of oneself to a woman, a person could be anathema), sleeping without night clothes, participating in "games" with "demonic songs, gusli, snuffles and unclean games, "vomiting from overeating or overdrinking," even "laughter to tears" was a prodigal sin. In addition, "Stoglav" forbade the joint washing of men and women in the baths, gambling, pagan merrymaking (mermaids), false prophecy, etc. Buffoons, drunkenness, dissolute and immoral behavior were limited and condemned.
After marriage or marriage, a period of vital and social activity began. For women, it consisted primarily of housekeeping and procreation, procreation. Professional activity of a woman in the 16th century. engaged in little: they were employed in the peasant economy, in some branches of the service sector, handicrafts and trades. We know about the role of female boyars in court life, about women's monasteries, which became economic units. There is even one evidence of a Russian warrior woman named Katya, who was killed in the Livonian campaign in 1558. But in general, the social role of women in the 16th century. had a rather special framework.
"Domostroy" about the duties of a wife
"Getting out of bed, having washed and praying, tell the servants to work for the whole day, to each - his own: to whom I cook food for the day, and to whom to bake sieve or sieve bread, and the hostess herself would know how to sow flour, how to mix and knead the dough , and roll up bread and bake, and sour, and fluffy, and baked, as well as rolls and pies ... And meat and fish food, and all sorts of pies and pancakes, various cereals and jelly, any dishes to bake and cook, all by herself the mistress knew how to teach her servants what she knew.
When the bread is baked, then the clothes are washed: this is how it is not unprofitable for common work and firewood; but at the same time, you need to keep an eye on how smart shirts and the best clothes are washed, and how much soap and ash goes ... And all kinds of food, both meat and fish, and every dish, fast or lean, the hostess herself would know and be able to cook , and teach the servants: such a hostess is homely and skillful ... If a good hostess knows all this by her husband's strictness and instructions, as well as by her abilities, then everything will be sportive and everything will be enough.
And which woman or wench is needlework, so tell the one: to sew a shirt or to embroider and to weave, or to sew on a hoop with gold and silks - which of them was taught what, and even this is all to look at and notice ...
Yes, the hostess herself would know which one of them to give, how much to give what and how much to take, and how much of what will someone do in a day, how much is not enough, and how much of what will turn out, she would know everything herself, and everything would have it counts. Yes, and the hostess herself would never, under no circumstances, and never, unless she became ill or at the request of her husband, would not sit idle, so that the servants, looking at her, were accustomed to work. Whether her husband comes, or a simple guest, she would always sit at work herself: for that, honor and glory to her, and praise to her husband. And the servants would never wake the hostess, but the hostess herself would wake up the servants and, going to bed after all the work, she would always pray, teaching the servants the same. "
The average life expectancy, according to various estimates, ranged from 21 to 30 years, but this interval took into account the indicators of infant mortality and longevity of the elderly. More accurate demographic information is difficult to derive. There is no data whatsoever on the peasants and townspeople. According to the rank books, it is clear that the period of mentions in the ranks of a nobleman actively involved in the sovereign service, on average, rarely exceeded 15 years. Considering that the service began at the age of 15, we get the period of social activity from 15 to 30 years. The highest aristocracy had a longer period of activity - up to 40 years or more. Some of the boyars who survived among the sovereign's opals reached a very old age, still holding government posts. Among the ordinary children of the boyars, the "staff turnover" was higher.
What were the material living conditions of the people of Muscovite Rus? Judging by the "Domostroi", food, at least in the wealthy urban strata and among the wealthy small and middle nobility, to which this codec is oriented, was quite varied. Only the lists of dishes have dozens of names; the daily menu had to be updated almost every two or three days. This variety, of course, is more related to the noble and wealthy strata. Bread was the basis of food for the poor. Foreigners noted the extreme unpretentiousness of the Russian warrior: on the campaign he ate breadcrumbs, cold water and a mash of flour (usually oatmeal).
The basis of the costume of the inhabitants of Muscovite Russia in the 16th century, as in the Middle Ages, was shirts and ports. Gets spread shirt-shirt with an offset cut of the collar from the center line to the left. Worn over the shirt zipoon- swing clothes above the knees, semi-tight, with butt fasteners. Outerwear were caftans, ohabni, feryazi, terliks. Nobles could have a dress of a foreign cut (Polish and Hungarian caftans). Women wore over shirts sundresses(for example, shushun - long closed sundress with false false sleeves), padded jackets(soul warmers), letniki. Simple casual clothes for girls could be apron - two unstitched long panels, gathered on a lace on the chest. A set of output clothes (shirt - zipun - caftan or other outerwear) could weigh up to 15–20 kg, which made movements slower and gave majesty to the gait.
Clothes were girded with leather belts or cloth sashes, often also decoratively decorated. Small leather bags were hung from the belt. The main headdress for men was a cloth round hat, for the rich - with fur trim. (by band). The style of the hat largely depended on the fabric: they made tall caps, often with curved ends. At the base of the cap there were lapels on which the decor was placed, usually in the form of embroidery or buttons. The peasants wore felted round hats with small, upward-curved brims. Noble people wore at home tafew, or skofyu, - a small round cap that looks like a small skullcap. The church fought against this custom (especially in those cases when the tafia was not removed in the church). "Stoglav" even contains a special chapter "On the taffyahs of the godless Mahmet" (Ch. 39), where these headdresses are called "the godless Mohammed by tradition."
Winter hats included triuchi, or malachai(traditional-shaped earflaps), ceremonial high throated hats(from fur from the throat of fur animals), worms(hats made of fur removed from the belly). For solemn exits, the simultaneous use of several hats was characteristic: a skoufia, on top of it - a cap, then a throat cap.
Unmarried girls in the summer could walk bareheaded, tying up their hair with strips of cloth, weaving pieces of leather, colored cloth, etc. into them. Married women covered their hair with scarves (ubruzami, fly), warriors(with headbands like a cap tightly covering the hair). Ceremonial headdresses were kicks and kokoshniks. Kika consisted of three elements: a decorative head ornament (actually a kika), a cover for her (magpie) and decoration of the back of the head (backside). The kokoshnik was an arched decoration in the forehead, often decorated with embroidery, pearls, gold and silver threads. The lower edge was trimmed with pearl threads (short - down, or long, shoulder-length, strands of beads - cassock).
Shoes was represented by leather shoes, boots and boots, onuchi, bast shoes. Also worn gloves(know - from expensive fabrics and leather) and mittens(made of wool and sheepskin), women - sleeves(fur couplings). Rings, rings, necklaces and other jewelry (including among men) were widespread as a sign of wealth and position in society. Among noble women, it was customary to abundantly use cosmetics (whitewash, blush), literally "paint a face". Since the paints contained many harmful substances, metal salts, they accumulated in the female body and led to serious diseases. But beauty and custom demanded sacrifice.
Men cut their hair "in brackets" or "in a circle" (cutting in a straight line of hair around the head, shorter on the forehead). A mustache and a beard, as in the Middle Ages, were considered signs of manhood, a person's growing up. The women wore braids. An interesting manner was to cut the nails of women aristocrats: in two arcs from the base, so that a sharp point resembling a claw was obtained.
The main types of peasant buildings remained a hut and a cage. According to scribes, more than 40% of peasant households at the end of the 16th century. generally consisted of only these two buildings. But this was, apparently, a consequence of the socio-economic crisis at the end of the century. In more prosperous times, the peasant courtyard, apparently, was more complex in structure, there were one or two huts, a cage, a barn, a stable, a barn for storing hay, a barn, a bathhouse, and other outbuildings.
In the northern and central regions in the huts begin to appear large huts with basements(the second floor turned out to be residential, and the first (basement) was used for household needs). In the conditions of the Russian winter, the concentration of everything necessary under one roof, the keeping of cattle here was a rational decision. Such a scheme for organizing a peasant house will develop in the Russian North in the 19th century, but its examples can be found earlier.
Dwellings of aristocrats in the first half of the 16th century in their main features continue the tradition of medieval chambers, choirs and chambers. In large cities, the number of stone buildings is gradually increasing.
In the first half of the XVI century. the distance between the people's domestic life and the life of the aristocracy was not yet so great. It was expressed rather in quantitative indicators, the size of wealth and diversity, but did not have any fundamental differences.
16th century in Russia - the time of the formation of the centralized It was during this period that feudal fragmentation was overcome - a process that characterizes the natural development of feudalism. Cities are growing, the population is increasing, trade and foreign policy relations are developing. Socio-economic changes lead to the inevitable intensive exploitation of the peasants and their subsequent enslavement.
The 16-17th century is not easy - this is the period of the formation of statehood, the formation of the foundations. Bloody events, wars, attempts to defend against the echoes of the Golden Horde and the Time of Troubles that followed them demanded a strong hand of government and the rallying of the people.
Formation of a centralized state
The prerequisites for the unification of Rus and the overcoming of feudal fragmentation were outlined as early as the 13th century. This was especially noticeable in the Vladimir principality, located in the northeast. Development was interrupted by the invasion of the Tatar-Mongols, which not only slowed down the process of unification, but also caused significant damage to the Russian people. The revival began only in the 14th century: the restoration of agriculture, the construction of cities, the establishment of economic ties. Everything more weight recruited the principality of Moscow and Moscow, whose territory gradually grew. The development of Russia in the 16th century followed the path of strengthening class contradictions. In order to subjugate the peasants, the feudal lords had to act as one, use new forms of political ties, and strengthen the central apparatus.
The second factor that contributed to the unification of principalities and the centralization of power is a vulnerable foreign policy position. To fight against foreign invaders and the Golden Horde, it was necessary to unite all. Only in this way were the Russians able to win a victory at the Kulikovo field and at the end of the 15th century. finally throw off the Tatar-Mongol oppression, which lasted more than two hundred years.
The process of the formation of a single state was expressed primarily in the unification of the territories of previously independent states into one great Moscow principality and in the change in the political organization of society, the nature of statehood. From a geographical point of view, the process was completed by the beginning of the 16th century, but the political apparatus was formed only by the second half of it.
Vasily III
We can say that the 16th century in the history of Russia began with the reign of Vasily III, who ascended the throne in 1505 at the age of 26. He was the second son of Ivan III the Great. The sovereign of all Russia was married twice. For the first time on the representative of the old boyar family Solomonia Saburova (pictured below - face reconstruction from the skull). The wedding took place on September 4, 1505, but for 20 years of marriage, she never gave birth to an heir to him. The worried prince demanded a divorce. He quickly received the consent of the church and the boyar duma. Such a case of an official divorce with the subsequent exile of his wife to a monastery is unprecedented in the history of Russia.
The second wife of the sovereign was Elena Glinskaya, who came from an old Lithuanian family. She bore him two sons. Widowed in 1533, she literally made a coup at court, and Russia in the 16th century for the first time received a ruler, however, not particularly popular with the boyars and the people.
In fact, it was a natural continuation of the actions of his father, which were entirely aimed at centralizing power and strengthening the authority of the church.
Domestic policy
Vasily III advocated unlimited power of the sovereign. In the struggle against the feudal fragmentation of Russia and its supporters, he actively enjoyed the support of the church. Those who were disagreeable were easily dealt with by sending them into exile or executing them. The despotic character, noticeable even in his youth, was fully manifested. During the years of his reign, the importance of the boyars at the court fell significantly, but the landed nobility increased. When implementing church policy, he gave preference to the Josephites.
In 1497, Vasily III adopted a new Code of Law, based on Russian Truth, Charter and Judicial Charters, and court decisions on certain categories of issues. It was a set of laws and was created with the aim of systematizing and streamlining the existing rules of law at that time and was an important measure on the way to centralizing power. The sovereign actively supported the construction, during the years of his reign the Archangel Cathedral, the Church of the Ascension of the Lord in Kolomenskoye, new settlements, fortresses and forts were erected. In addition, he actively, like his father, continued to "collect" Russian lands, annexing the Pskov Republic, Ryazan.
Relations with the Kazan Khanate under Vasily III
In the 16th century, or rather, in its first half, it is largely a reflection of the internal. The sovereign sought to unite as many lands as possible, to subordinate them to the central authority, which, in fact, can be considered as the conquest of new territories. Having put an end to the Golden Horde, Russia almost immediately launched an offensive against the khanates formed as a result of its disintegration. Turkey and the Crimean Khanate showed interest in Kazan, which was of great importance for Russia in connection with the fertility of the lands and their successful strategic location, as well as because of the constant threat of raids. In anticipation of the death of Ivan III in 1505, the Kazan Khan suddenly began a war that lasted until 1507. After several defeats, the Russians were forced to retreat and then make peace. History repeated itself in 1522-1523, and then in 1530-1531. The Kazan Khanate did not surrender until Ivan the Terrible came to the throne.
Russian-Lithuanian war
The main reason for the military conflict is the desire of the Moscow prince to conquer and take control of all Russian lands, as well as Lithuania's attempt to take revenge for the past defeat in 1500-1503, which cost it the loss of 1-3 parts of all territories. Russia in the 16th century, after Vasily III came to power, was in a rather difficult foreign policy situation. Suffering defeat from the Kazan Khanate, she was forced to confront the Lithuanian principality, which signed an anti-Russian agreement with the Crimean Khan.
The war began as a result of Vasily III's refusal to fulfill the ultimatum (return of land) in the summer of 1507 after the attack on the Chernigov and Bryansk lands of the Lithuanian army and on the Verkhovsk principalities - the Crimean Tatars. In 1508, the rulers began negotiations and concluded a peace agreement, according to which Lublich and the surrounding area were returned to the Lithuanian principality.
War 1512-1522 became a natural continuation of previous conflicts over territory. Despite the concluded peace, relations between the parties were extremely tense, robberies and clashes at the borders continued. The death of the Grand Duchess of Lithuania and the sister of Vasily III Helena Ivanovna served as a pretext for action. The Lithuanian principality concluded another alliance with the Crimean Khanate, after which the latter began to make numerous raids in 1512. The Russian prince declared war on Sigismund I and advanced his main forces to Smolensk. In the following years, a number of hikes were undertaken with varying success. One of the largest battles took place near Orsha on September 8, 1514. In 1521, both sides had other foreign policy problems, and they were forced to conclude peace for 5 years. According to the agreement, Russia in the 16th century received Smolensk lands, but at the same time refused Vitebsk, Polotsk and Kiev, as well as the return of prisoners of war.
Ivan IV (the Terrible)
Vasily III died of illness when his eldest son was only 3 years old. Foreseeing his imminent demise and the subsequent struggle for the throne (at that time the sovereign had two younger brothers Andrei Staritsky and Yuri Dmitrovsky), he formed a "seven-member" commission of boyars. They were the ones who were supposed to save Ivan until his 15th birthday. In fact, the board of trustees was in power for about a year, and then began to fall apart. Russia in the 16th century (1545) received a full-fledged ruler and the first tsar in its history in the person of Ivan IV, known throughout the world as the Terrible. The photo above is a reconstruction of the shape of the skull.
It is impossible not to mention his family. Historians differ in numbers, naming the names of 6 or 7 women who were considered the wives of the king. Some died a mysterious death, others were exiled to a monastery. Ivan the Terrible had three children. The elders (Ivan and Fyodor) were born from the first wife, and the youngest (Dmitry Uglitsky) from the last - M.F. Naga, who played a big role in the history of the country during the time of troubles.
Reforms of Ivan the Terrible
The internal policy of Russia in the 16th century under Ivan the Terrible was still aimed at centralizing power, as well as building important state institutions. To this end, together with the "Chosen Rada" the tsar carried out a number of reforms. The most significant are the following.
- Organization of the Zemsky Sobor in 1549 as the highest estate-representative institution. All estates were represented in it, with the exception of the peasantry.
- Adoption of a new code of law in 1550, which continued the policy of the previous normative legal act, and also for the first time legalized a single unit for measuring taxes.
- Lip and zemstvo reforms in the early 50s of the 16th century.
- Formation of a system of orders, including Chelobitny, Streletsky, Printing, etc.
During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Russia's foreign policy developed in three directions: the southern - the fight against the Crimean Khanate, the eastern - the expansion of the state's borders, and the western - the struggle for access to the Baltic Sea.
In the east
After the collapse of the Golden Horde, the Astrakhan and Kazan khanates created a constant threat to the Russian lands, the Volga trade route was concentrated in their hands. In total, I. the Terrible undertook three campaigns against Kazan, as a result of the latter it was taken by storm (1552). After 4 years Astrakhan was annexed, in 1557 most of Bashkiria and Chuvashia voluntarily joined the Russian state, and then the Nogai Horde recognized its dependence. So the bloody story ended. Russia at the end of the 16th century opened its way to Siberia. Wealthy industrialists, who received letters from the tsar to own land along the Tobol River, equipped at their own expense a detachment of free Cossacks, headed by Yermak.
In the West
In an attempt to gain access to the Baltic Sea for 25 years (1558-1583), Ivan IV fought the exhausting Livonian War. Its beginning was accompanied by successful campaigns for the Russians, 20 cities were taken, including Narva and Dorpat, the troops were approaching Tallinn and Riga. The Livonian Order was defeated, but the war became protracted, as several European states were involved in it. The unification of Lithuania and Poland into the Rzeczpospolita was of great importance. The situation turned in the opposite direction and after a long confrontation in 1582 an armistice was concluded for 10 years. A year later, it was concluded according to which Russia lost Livonia, but returned all the captured cities except Polotsk.
On South
In the south, the Crimean Khanate, formed after the collapse of the Golden Horde, was still haunted. The main task of the state in this direction was to strengthen the borders from the raids of the Crimean Tatars. For these purposes, actions were taken to develop the Wild Field. The first notch lines began to appear, that is, defensive lines from the debris of the forest, in the intervals of which there were wooden forts (fortresses), in particular, Tula and Belgorod.
Tsar Fedor I
Ivan the Terrible died on March 18, 1584. The circumstances of the royal illness are questioned by historians to this day. His son ascended the throne, having received this right after the death of the eldest son of Ivan. According to Grozny himself, he was rather a hermit and fasting person, more suitable for church services than for reign. Historians are generally inclined to believe that he was weak in health and mind. The new tsar took little part in governing the state. He was under the tutelage of first boyars and nobles, and then his enterprising brother-in-law Boris Godunov. The first reigned, and the second ruled, and everyone knew that. Fedor I died on January 7, 1598, leaving no offspring and thus interrupting the Moscow dynasty of Rurikovich himself.
At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, Russia was going through a deep socio-economic and political crisis, the growth of which was facilitated by the protracted Livonian War, the oprichnina and the Tatar invasion. All these circumstances ultimately led to the Time of Troubles, which began with the struggle for the emptied royal throne.