Art of the Netherlands 16th century
Painting "Peasant Dance". In 1567–1569, Pieter Bruegel painted a number of paintings on the themes folk life(“Peasant Dance”, “Peasant Wedding” - both in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). Apparently, Bruegel managed to create one of his best genre works - “Peasant Dance”. Its plot does not contain allegory, but general character characterized by self-contained pathos and rigid rationality. The artist is not so much interested in the atmosphere of a peasant festival or the picturesque separate groups, but the peasants themselves - their appearance, facial features, habits, nature of gestures and manner of movement. The heavy and strong figures of the peasants are depicted on a large scale, unusual for Bruegel, creating the elements and natural power of nature. Each figure is placed in an iron system of compositional axes that permeates the entire picture. And each figure seems to be stopped - in a dance, an argument or a kiss. The figures seem to grow, exaggerated in their scale and significance. Gaining almost super-real persuasiveness, they are filled with rough, even ruthless, but inexorably impressive monumentality, and the scene as a whole is transformed into a kind of clot characteristic features the peasantry, its spontaneous, powerful force.
In this picture, the everyday peasant genre, specific in its method, is born. But, unlike later works Of this kind, Bruegel imparts exceptional power and social pathos to his images. When this picture was painted, a powerful uprising of the popular masses—iconoclasm—had just been suppressed. Bruegel's attitude towards him is unknown. But this movement was from beginning to end popular, it shocked contemporaries with the obviousness of its class character, and, presumably, Bruegel’s desire to concentrate in his painting the main, distinctive features people stands in direct connection with this fact (it is significant that before his death he destroyed some drawings that apparently had a political nature).
Another work by Bruegel, “The Peasant Wedding” (Vienna), is also associated with iconoclasm. Here the sharpness of the vision of the folk character increased even more, the main figures acquired even greater, but already somewhat exaggerated power, and the allegorical principle was revived in the artistic fabric of the picture. Three peasants look in horror or bewilderment at the wall supposed to be in front, outside the picture. Perhaps this is an allusion to the biblical story about the feast of Belshazzar, when words appeared on the wall predicting death for those who stole treasures from the temple and wanted to get out of their insignificant state.
Let us remember that the rebel peasants who fought against Catholicism destroyed Catholic churches. The tinge of some idealization and softness unusual for Bruegel even has a taste of bitter regret and kind humanity - qualities that were not present in the clear and consistent “Peasant Dance”. A certain departure from the principles and ideas of “Peasant Dance” can also be found in the drawing “Summer” (Hamburg), which at first glance is close to the named painting. However, a complete departure from his previous hopes occurred a little later, when the master created a number of gloomy and cruel paintings (“The Misanthrope”, 1568, Naples; “The Cripples”, 1568, Louvre; “The Nest Destroyer”, 1568, Vienna, Museum), and in including the famous “Blind” (1568; Naples, Capodimonte Museum). They are indirectly connected with the first crisis in the development of the Dutch revolution.
CHAPTER 2. IMAGE OF THE PEASANTRY IN RUSSIAN ART OF THE 18TH CENTURY
2.1. The image of the peasantry in painting
In the 18th century, secular art came to the fore in Russian art. Several stages can be distinguished in the development of Russian painting of the 18th century. The first stage - the first third of the 18th century - painters then depicted mainly people of high rank. At this time, peasants are practically not depicted. Popular genres are portrait and landscape. The next two stages are the mid-18th century and the second half of the 18th century. These two stages interest us, since they are marked by the further flourishing of Russian national painting, which developed along the path of realism, but our topic can be traced more in the second half of the 18th century, so we will talk about this half.
The 18th century is rich in Russian portrait artists, but among them there are also those who were interested in the theme of the peasantry. These include A.I. Vishnyakova. , Shibanova M. , Ermeneva I.A. , Argunova I.P. . Through the paintings of these artists we can see the life, holidays and life of peasants in general.
Vishnyakov Alexander Ivanovich is the son of the famous portrait painter Vishnyakov I.Ya. , not much is known about him, he was a genre artist. His painting "Peasant Feast" (Fig. 5) late 1760s - early 1770s. - one of the earliest images of peasant meals. Here we see the grotesque characteristic of the depiction of rough nature, characteristic of Dutch and Flemish paintings by masters of the 17th century, that is, here we see the imitation of a Russian artist by these masters, which does not reflect the originality of the Russian people and in the community of peasants.
Another artist Mikhail Shibanov - Russian artist second half of the XVIII century, a painter from serfdom, from 1783 - a “free painter”. He can be called the founder of the peasant everyday genre in Russian art. His paintings are unique for their time in terms of the subject matter depicted - in the 18th century fine arts Almost no artist depicted peasants. First of all, we're talking about about two canvases depicting scenes from the life of peasants, “Peasant Lunch” (Fig. 6) and “Celebration of the Wedding Contract.”
Figure 5
In 1774, Mikhail Shibanov painted the painting “Peasant Lunch”. This work came out during Pugachev uprising. This topic was new to Russian society, and works dedicated to the peasantry were even considered scandalous. And although what is depicted by Shibanov is far from what the real life of the peasantry was, he depicted them this way not because he wanted to embellish the life and life of the peasants, but because it could offend the aristocracy. We can say that Shibanov was placed within a certain framework and could not fully express his vision. Despite the festive clothing, you can see the love of a mother for her child, the thoughtfulness of a grandfather, the cry of the Russian soul; the truthful peasant life is shown here.
Figure 6
Another picture of this theme is “Celebration of the wedding contract” (Fig. 6). The title refers to what is depicted in the painting. It really is a celebration. Some women are in decorated dresses, the guests are happy and happy for the bride and groom, who are in the center of the composition. These subjects of Shibanov are depicted masterfully. What is also striking is his courage that he was not afraid to raise such an acute problem.
Argunov Ivan Petrovich Russian portrait painter. Argunov was not busy with this topic, but we can highlight one painting from him, “Portrait of an unknown peasant woman in Russian costume” (Fig. 7) - one of his famous works. The portrait reflects the interest in the topic of the peasantry that has appeared in Russian society. Argunov, himself a descendant of the serfs of Count Sheremetyev, tried to show beauty and dignity in portraits, regardless of class.
Figure 7
The image of the peasant woman in this work by Argunov is conveyed with truthfulness, sincerity and respect. Since the author dressed the girl in a festive outfit, many believe that she was an actress. From an ethnographic point of view, we see how accurately the costume of a peasant woman from the Moscow province was conveyed. It is also easy to determine that this girl belongs to the peasant class by her lack of mannerisms and ingenuousness. The girl’s soft features, light smile, calm posture indicate modesty, openness, and kindness of a girl from the people.
Ermenev Ivan Alekseevich Russian painter, also considered a serf, he became friends with the future Grand Duke, to whom he was assigned to serve. Known for his series of eight watercolors “Beggars”, as well as the watercolor “Lunch (Peasant Lunch)”. Most often, he depicted two full-length figures against the sky: a beggar old woman and a child, a beggar and a guide, or a lonely figure of a beggar, but “Peasant Lunch” (Fig. 8) falls out of this series.
Figure 8
Many researchers believe that this picture reflects a formidable force ordinary people with such a difficult fate and life. Ermenev's paintings, especially paintings on the theme of the peasantry, have a tragic meaning, show hopelessness and gloom, which we can see even from the colors chosen for the painting.
2.2. The image of the peasantry in literature
Literature of the 18th century prepared fertile ground for the development of literature of the 19th century, therefore it cannot be said that the 18th century is forgotten. Writers of this time tried to solve the pressing problems of their time. Of course, here many of them did not ignore the peasant issue. As in painting, a number of authors can be identified who are interested in this problem, such as I. I. Bakhtina, M. V. Lomonosova, A. N. Radishcheva, D. I. Fonvizina, N. M. Karamzin.
Ivan Ivanovich Bakhtin - public figure and writer, his work was dominated by satirical themes. The most daring theme in Bakhtin's work was the peasant question. In the work “Satire on the cruelty of some nobles towards their subjects,” the author showed the real features of peasant life in the 18th century. In the fairy tale “The Master and the Peasant Woman,” the writer also showed sympathy for the peasants, like some others.
Fonvizin Denis Ivanovich is a Russian writer who also raised the theme of the peasantry in his work. First of all, we can trace this in his work “The Minor.” In this work, Fonvizin, seeing the root of all evil in serfdom, ridicules the noble system and noble education. Moreover, this can be seen already by the surnames and names of the main characters; all these surnames tell us about the inner qualities of these people. Fonvizin in many works talks about the nobility and ridicules their life.
Another writer who was interested in the peasant question was Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin. In his work we see the development of literature and an in-depth look at the relationship between the landowner and the peasant. These trends can be observed in the work “ Poor Lisa" Given the conventionality of the figure of Lisa, this is still a depiction of the individual experiences of a peasant girl, her personal dramatic fate, in terms of the author’s emphasized sympathy and sympathy for her, which in itself was a new and, of course, progressive literary fact. All this can be seen in an excerpt from the work “Poor Liza”:
“Only Lisa, who remained after her father for fifteen years, - only Lisa, not sparing her tender youth, not sparing her rare beauty, worked day and night - weaving canvases, knitting stockings, picking flowers in the spring, and taking berries in the summer - and selling them in Moscow. A sensitive, kind old woman, seeing her daughter’s tirelessness, often pressed her to her weakly beating heart, called her divine mercy, nurse, the joy of her old age, and prayed to God to reward her for all that she does for her mother.” We see the image of a hardworking, modest girl and how the author treats her. Karamzin in his works tried to reflect not only the attitude towards the peasantry and draw a real image of the peasantry, but also to show his attitude towards the relationship between peasants and landowners; the author himself believed that relations should go in a different direction, and real relations are relics of the past.
Despite the fact that the above-mentioned authors were interested, spoke and examined the image of the peasantry and its place in Russian reality, Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev made the most contribution to the study of this problem. This author was arrested and exiled to Siberia for his views. Radishchev reflected the image of the peasantry in his works “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” and “Liberty.”
One of the most significant events Russian literature of the eighteenth century is the work of A. N. Radishchev “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” It was written in the travel genre that was popular at that time. The main characters are the traveler and the Russian people. On his way, the traveler met representatives of all classes and the picture that the traveler paints is unsightly, he speaks of the fall of Russian society. Moral baseness and filth are characteristic of all layers of society, but the worst thing is for the peasants, as the most socially vulnerable people: “the peasant is dead in law.” Indeed, the arbitrariness of the landowners goes beyond all moral boundaries, and ordinary people have to endure it. For example, in the chapter “Lyubani” the author meets a peasant plowing on Sunday - a holy day of rest for the Orthodox:
“You are, of course, a schismatic, why do you work on Sundays?
No, master, I am baptized with a straight cross,” he said... “There are six days in a week, master, and we go to corvée six times a week...
How do you manage to get bread if you only have a free holiday?
Not only holidays, but the night is ours. If our brother is not lazy, he will not die of hunger.”
The traveler threatens the serf owners with this. In addition, the author says that the traveler sees not only the patience and hard life of the oppressed peasantry, but also the sleeping strength of the people, which can wake up at any moment. The writer was exiled for this work.
CHAPTER 3. IMAGE OF THE PEASANTRY IN RUSSIAN ART OF THE 19TH CENTURY
3.1. Image of peasantry painting
In the second chapter we already talked about the relevance of the theme of the peasantry in the 18th century and that many representatives of art began to raise this topic in their work, but still the topic was not the main one and not widespread. In the 19th century Russian art acquired a folk sound; in painting we see this in the transition from romanticism to realism. In Russian painting, the national accent in creativity was valued, which tells us that in this period the image of the peasantry can be traced in its most vivid form. The theme of the peasantry can be seen not only in more complex form, i.e. the authors of the works highlight the problems in the acute form that actually existed in Russian society without censorship, but the number of authors writing about the peasant issue has increased many times, in addition, this topic has become new for Russian artists. All this is connected with the events that took place in connection with the reform of Russia and, first of all, this concerns the reform that abolished serfdom. Russian painters who were interested in this topic - A. G. Venetsianov, V. A. Tropinin, P. A. Fedotov - they are also artists of the first half of the 19th century. In the second half of the 19th century, this theme was reflected primarily in the works of the Wanderers G.G. Myasoedova, I. E. Repin, V. M. Maksimova, S. A. Korovin, etc.
The 19th century can be divided into two parts. The first part of the 19th century is represented in the works of such artists as Venetsianov A.G., Tropinin V.A., Fedotov P.A. - the peasant world before the abolition of serfdom is reflected here, and the second part of the 19th century is represented mainly in the works of the Itinerants - here we see the peasant world after the abolition of serfdom. At the beginning of the 19th century, the theme of the peasantry and people's life was new. Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov is a master of genre scenes from peasant life, he not only made a huge contribution to culture with the help of his paintings, but also educated many peasants, giving them an education and a path to another life. Despite Venetsianov’s talent in painting portraits, his greatest fame was brought not by portraits, but by painting peasant images. Although Venetsianov was not the first to depict peasants, he was the first to depict them in poetic form. The artist painted peasant children, peasant girls and, of course, the life of the peasant people. We see a number of paintings called “peasant woman” by the artist, which depict peasant girls engaged in one activity or another; on their faces we see fatigue and a sad gaze into the distance, their hands point to the hard daily work of the girls, but at the same time speaks about their hard work and modesty; besides, of course, one cannot help but highlight some of his most famous paintings in this topic are “Reapers” (Fig. 9) and “Threshing Floor”. The artist was inspired to paint the painting “The Reapers” by peasants who admired nature and a butterfly that landed on the hand of a peasant woman. This picture is one of those that reflects the significance of the image of the Russian peasantry. The theme of the harvest in Venetsianov’s work can be traced throughout his entire artistic activity, as for this picture, in it we see a peasant woman and her son who admire nature, that is, butterflies perched on the peasant woman’s hand. Also, looking at the picture with the naked eye, we see that all the action takes place during the harvest, their clothes are yellowed from hard work and dust, and their hands are black from the work just completed. No matter how strange it may be, the painting “The Reapers” still did not bring such success as the work “The Barn”, which was completed for a huge amount of money. Here again the theme of the harvest is traced, but in the painting “The Threshing Floor” we already see a composition depicting many peasants either resting or preparing for hard work. The author emphasizes the importance of peasant labor and its difficult orientation. 
Figure 9
Pavel Andreevich Fedotov made no less contribution to conveying the image of the Russian peasantry. Fedotov laid the foundations of critical realism in everyday genre, which was the main thing for him in his work. But if Venetsianov showed the peasantry itself, then Fedotov showed the upper strata of society, showing their meaninglessness of existence, the emptiness inside them. The artist uses satire to show the insignificance of some and the importance of others. The work of Venetsianov and Fedotov was continued by the Itinerant artists, who formed the color of the second half of the 19th century. Despite the fact that when talking about the beginning of realism and conveying the image of the Russian peasantry, we are talking about the names of Venetsianov and Fedotov, we must not forget to mention Tropinin. Tropinin Vasily Andreevich is a master of romantic and realistic portraits. He painted people of different classes, trying to convey not their belonging to a certain class, but to show specific person, typical for a given society. In Tropinin’s work, we are interested in such works as “The Lacemaker” (Fig. 10), “Gold Seamstress”, where we see the hard manual work of peasant women. These films were well received by critics and audiences alike. The painting “The Lacemaker” has become a real pearl of Russian art. This picture, like “The Gold Seamstress,” shows us a very sweet girl and unlike a peasant serf. The author of these works wanted to convey to the viewer the image of hard peasant work, and Tropinin shows that hard work, happiness and dignity do not go against the grain. The artist demonstrates all this in his painting “The Lacemaker.” In the first half of the 19th century, the theme of the peasantry was new, but still the theme manifested itself much more clearly in the second half of the 19th century. In the second half of the 19th century, “Itinerants” can be distinguished in painting; almost each of them contributed to the formation of the image of the peasantry. Myasoedov Grigory Grigorievich is the most prominent representative of Russian realism. The main topic that Myasoedov addressed was peasant life. The evolution of Myasoedov’s creativity is visible in his works. One of the paintings reflecting the theme of the peasantry is “The Zemstvo is having lunch” (Fig. 11). The painting was painted during the years of the abolition of serfdom. The peasants are next to the zemstvo, apparently they were going with some business, but they are forced to sit on the threshold. In the window you can see a servant who has washed all the dishes, apparently the peasants decided that the ranks had a good lunch and their problem would not interest them. The picture shows a new reality, which shows without embellishment Russian society. 
Figure 10
In addition, in the picture we see a new technique of the author, expressing the theme he is a critic who shows the truth of Russian society, and the author leaves some understatement, a question in his works, allowing the viewer to draw conclusions on their own. The main emphasis in this picture is on the peasants: their facial features are well drawn, which shows us inner world peasants who had a hard time adjusting to their new free life and did not become happier from the reforms adopted peasant question. Their facial expressions are unhappy and tired from hard work, which calls on the viewer to sympathize and pity the poor peasant husbands.
Figure 11
Unlike the previous painting, “Mowers,” painted even before “The Zemstvo is Dinning,” shows us the lyrical image of the peasantry and speaks of their unity and good nature.
Another famous Wanderer artist, Vasily Maksimovich Maksimov, devoted all his work to the development of the theme of the peasantry. One of his main works, the work “The Healer at a Village Wedding” shows the true view of the Russian village, here the author tries to reveal the charm folk images, peasant life, but the author reflected not only the life of the peasants, but also described the image of the Russian peasantry, in such paintings as “The Sick Husband”, “Family Division”, etc.
An artist such as Abram Efimovich Arkhipov also contributed to the development of this topic. Not much is known about Arkhipov, but much has been said about his work. Main topic Arkhipov’s creativity is peasant. He wrote many paintings about peasant life, these include “The Drunkard”, “Washwomen” (Fig. 12), “Northern Village”, “On the Volga”, etc. All paintings show true life peasants after the abolition of serfdom.
Figure 12
Each painting by Arkhipov shows a scene of peasant life. For example, the “Washerwomen” painting shows us the grueling, hard work. In this picture we can trace the detail of the image, as well as social motives. Social motives can be traced in the depiction of fatigue from hard work and the hopelessness of their position as women, as well as spiritual melancholy, which is caused by a feeling of hopelessness.
When considering this point, we must not forget such artists as Perov and Repin. Repin Ilya Efimovich is an outstanding artist; the theme of the peasantry was not the main one for him, but his first painting on this topic became world famous. “Barge Haulers on the Volga” (Fig. 13) is precisely the picture that we have known since school, it emphasizes many literary works. Each barge hauler painting is different, but they all show the oppression of the poor. The picture calls for mercy towards ordinary people. Repin showed the verdict with this work modern society and showed the oppression of the powerless. 
Figure 13
Like Repin, Perov wrote peasant subjects, but unlike him, he devoted great importance. He painted many canvases on the theme of peasant oppression and the difficult fate of peasants. Vasily Perov, like Repin, painted a painting similar to “Barge Haulers on the Volga”, the painting “Troika”. The meaning is similar, but in the second work Perov speaks not about barge haulers, but about ordinary children who pull a barrel of water. Perov’s painting tells us about the need of peasants and peasant children and their difficult journey, the latter is emphasized by the author, showing how cold it is, the water freezes outside, so we can imagine how cold it is for children to carry such a burden. 
Figure 14
Authors depicting images of the Russian peasantry express the national character of the Russian people. Artists depict in their canvases real life Russian society of the 19th century, but speaking about the Russian peasantry in art, we must not forget about the writers who tried to reach Russian society, raising current issue enslavement.
Nikolay Nevrev. "Bargaining. A scene from serf life." 1866
One landowner sells a serf girl to another. Imposingly shows the buyer five fingers - five hundred rubles. 500 rubles - the average price of a Russian serf in the first half of the 19th century. The girl's seller is a European-educated nobleman. Pictures on the walls, books. The girl humbly awaits her fate, other slaves crowd at the door and watch how the bargaining will end. Yearning.
Vasily Perov. "Rural religious procession at Easter." 1861
Russian village of the 19th century. Orthodox Easter. Everyone is drunk as hell, including the priest. The guy in the center is carrying the icon upside down and is about to fall. Some have already fallen. Funny! The essence of the picture is that the Russian people’s commitment to Orthodoxy is exaggerated. Addiction to alcohol is clearly stronger. Perov was recognized master genre painting and portraiture. But this picture of him Tsarist Russia was prohibited from display or reproduction. Censorship!
Grigory Myasoedov. "The zemstvo is having lunch." 1872
Times of Alexander II. Serfdom cancelled. Introduced local government- zemstvos. Peasants were also chosen there. But between them and the higher classes there is an abyss. Therefore - dining apartheid. Gentlemen are in the house, with waiters, peasants are at the door.
Fedor Vasiliev. "Village". 1869
1869 The landscape is beautiful, but the village, if you look closely, is poor. Poor houses, leaky roofs, the road is buried in mud.
Jan Hendrik Verheyen. "Dutch village with figures of people." 1st half 19th century.
Well, that's it, for comparison :)
Alexey Korzukhin. "Return from the city." 1870
The situation in the house is poor, a child is crawling on the shabby floor, and for an older daughter, her father brought a modest gift from the city - a bunch of bagels. True, there are many children in the family - only in the picture there are three of them, plus perhaps another one in a homemade cradle.
Sergey Korovin. "On the World". 1893
This is already a village of the late 19th century. There are no more serfs, but a division has appeared - fists. At a village gathering there is some kind of dispute between a poor man and a kulak. For the poor man, the topic is apparently vitally important; he almost sobs. The rich fist laughs at him. The other fists in the background are also giggling at the loser beggar. But the comrade to the poor man’s right was imbued with his words. There are already two ready-made members of the committee; all that remains is to wait until 1917.
Vasily Maksimov. "Auction for arrears". 1881-82.
The tax office is furious. Tsarist officials auction samovars, cast iron pots and other peasant belongings. The heaviest taxes on peasants were redemption payments. Alexander II “the Liberator” actually freed the peasants for money - they then had to pay their native state for many years for the plots of land that were given to them along with their will. In fact, the peasants had this land before; they used it for many generations while they were serfs. But when they became free, they were forced to pay for this land. Payment had to be made in installments, right up to 1932. In 1907, against the backdrop of the revolution, the authorities abolished these taxes.
Vladimir Makovsky. "On the boulevard." 1886-1887
At the end of the 19th century. Industrialization came to Russia. Young people go to the city. She's going crazy there. Their old life is no longer interesting to them. And this young hard worker is not even interested in his peasant wife, who came to him from the village. She's not advanced. The girl is terrified. The proletarian with an accordion doesn’t care.
Vladimir Makovsky. "Date". 1883
There is poverty in the village. The boy was given away to the public. Those. sent to the city to work for an owner who exploits child labor. The mother came to visit her son. Tom obviously has a hard life, his mother sees everything. The boy greedily eats the bread he brought.
Vladimir Makovsky. "Bank collapse." 1881
A crowd of defrauded depositors in a bank office. Everyone is in shock. The rogue banker (on the right) is quietly getting away with the dough. The policeman looks in the other direction, as if he doesn’t see him.
Pavel Fedotov. "Fresh Cavalier" 1846
The young official received his first order. They washed it all night. The next morning, putting the cross directly on his robe, he shows it to the cook. A crazy look full of arrogance. The cook, personifying the people, looks at him with irony. Fedotov would be a master of such psychological paintings. The meaning of this: flashing lights are not on cars, but in heads.
Pavel Fedotov. "Aristocrat's Breakfast". 1849-1850.
Morning, the impoverished nobleman was taken by surprise by unexpected guests. He hastily covers up his breakfast (a piece of black bread) with a French novel. Nobles (3% of the population) were a privileged class in old Russia. Owned a huge amount land, but they rarely made a good farmer. Not a lord's business. The result is poverty, debt, everything is mortgaged and re-mortgaged in banks. In Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, the estate of the landowner Ranevskaya is sold for debts. Buyers (rich merchants) are destroying the estate, and one really needs the lord’s cherry orchard (to resell as dachas). The reason for the problems of the Ranevsky family is idleness over several generations. No one was taking care of the estate, and the owner herself had been living abroad for the last 5 years and wasting money.
Boris Kustodiev. "Merchant". 1918
Provincial merchants are Kustodiev’s favorite topic. While the nobles in Paris wasted their estates, these people rose from the bottom, making money in huge country, where there was where to put your hands and capital. It is noteworthy that the picture was painted in 1918, when the Kustodiev merchants and merchant women throughout the country were already being pushed to the wall by fighters against the bourgeoisie.
Ilya Repin. "Religious procession in the Kursk province." 1880-1883
Different layers of society come to the religious procession, and Repin depicted them all. They carry a lantern with candles in front, an icon behind it, then they walk best people- officials in uniforms, priests in gold, merchants, nobles. On the sides there are guards (on horseback), then there are ordinary people. People on the side of the road periodically rake in order not to cut off the bosses and get into his lane. Tretyakov did not like the police officer in the picture (on the right, in white, beating someone from the crowd with all his might). He asked the artist to remove this cop chaos from the plot. But Repin refused. But Tretyakov bought the painting anyway. For 10,000 rubles, which was simply a colossal amount at that time.
Ilya Repin. "Gathering". 1883
But these young guys in another painting by Repin no longer go with the crowd to all sorts of religious processions. They have their own way - terror. This " People's Will", an underground organization of revolutionaries who killed Tsar Alexander II.
Nikolai Bogdanov-Belsky. "Oral counting. In public school S.A.Rachinsky". 1895
Rural school. Peasant children in bast shoes. But there is a desire to learn. The teacher is in a European suit with a bow tie. This real person- Sergei Rachinsky. Mathematician, professor at Moscow University. On a voluntary basis he taught at a rural school in the village. Tatevo (now Tver region), where he had an estate. Great deal. According to the 1897 census, the literacy rate in Russia was only 21%.
Jan Matejko. "Chained Poland". 1863
According to the 1897 census, literate people in the country were 21%, and Great Russians - 44%. Empire! Interethnic relations the country has never been smooth. The painting by Polish artist Jan Matejko was written in memory of the anti-Russian uprising of 1863. Russian officers with angry faces shackle a girl (Poland), defeated, but not broken. Behind her sits another girl (blonde), who symbolizes Lithuania. She is groped dirty by another Russian. The Pole on the right, sitting facing the viewer, is the spitting image of Dzerzhinsky.
Nikolay Pimomenko. "Victim of fanaticism." 1899
The painting shows real case, which was in the city of Kremenets (Western Ukraine). A Jewish girl fell in love with a Ukrainian blacksmith. The newlyweds decided to get married with the bride converting to Christianity. This worried the local Jewish community. They behaved extremely intolerantly. The parents (on the right in the picture) disowned their daughter, and the girl was obstructed. The victim has a cross on his neck, in front of her is a rabbi with fists, behind him is a concerned public with clubs.
Franz Roubo. "Assault on the village of Gimry." 1891
Caucasian War of the 19th century. Hellish mix of Dags and Chechens tsarist army. The village of Gimry (Shamil’s ancestral village) fell on October 17, 1832. By the way, since 2007, a counter-terrorist operation regime has again been in effect in the village of Gimry. The last (at the time of writing this post) clearing by riot police was on April 11, 2013. The first is in the picture below:
Vasily Vereshchagin. "Opium eaters." 1868
The painting was painted by Vereshchagin in Tashkent during one of the Turkestan campaigns of the Russian army. Central Asia was then annexed to Russia. How the participants in the campaigns saw the ancestors of today's guest workers - Vereshchagin left paintings and memoirs about this. Dirt, poverty, drugs...
Peter Belousov. "We will go the other way!".1951
And finally, the main event in the history of Russia in the 19th century. On April 22, 1870, Volodya Ulyanov was born in Simbirsk. His elder brother, a Narodnaya Volya member, tried himself, perhaps, in the sphere of individual terror - he was preparing an attempt on the life of the Tsar. But the attempt failed and the brother was hanged. That’s when young Volodya, according to legend, told his mother: “We will go a different way!” And let's go.
A. Smirnov.
"Gerasim Kurin - leader of the peasant partisan detachment in 1812."
1813.
Peasant:
1. Villager, whose main occupation is cultivation of the land.
Besseldeevka consisted of only twenty-two peasant souls. ( Turgenev. Tchertophanov and Nedopyuskin.)
2. Representative of the lower tax-paying class in pre-revolutionary Russia.
Dictionary of the Russian language. Moscow. " Russian word" 1982
Adrian van Ostade.
"Peasant family"
1647.
Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov.
"Peasant girl with a sickle in the rye."
The peasant of the 16th century was a free tiller who lived on someone else’s land under an agreement with the landowner; his freedom was expressed in peasant exit or refusal, i.e., the right to leave one plot and move to another, from one landowner to another. Initially this right was not constrained by law; but the very nature of land relations imposed a mutual limitation both on this right of the peasant and on the arbitrariness of the landowner in relation to the peasant: the landowner, for example, could not drive the peasant off the land before the harvest, just as the peasant could not leave his plot without paying the owner at the end of the harvest. From these natural relations of agriculture followed the need for a uniform, legally established period for the peasant exit, when both parties could pay each other. The Code of Law of Ivan III established one mandatory period for this - a week before Saint George's Day (November 26) and the week following this day. However, in the Pskov land in the 16th century there was another legal deadline for peasants to leave, namely Filippovo (November 14).
V. Klyuchevsky. "Russian History". Moscow. "Exmo". 2000..
Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov.
"A peasant's yard in Finland."
1902.
Their own and other observers, marveling at the greatness of the deeds of the transformer [Peter I], were amazed at the huge expanses of uncultivated fertile land, a lot of wastelands, cultivated somehow, on site, not introduced into normal economic circulation. People who thought about the reasons for this neglect explained it, firstly, by the decline of the people from a long war, and then by the oppression of officials and nobles, who discouraged the common people from any desire to put their hands to anything: oppression of the spirit resulting from slavery, according to him Weber, has darkened the peasant’s every meaning to such an extent that he has ceased to understand his own benefit and thinks only about his daily meager subsistence.
V. Klyuchevsky. "Russian history" I. Moscow. "Exmo". 2000
Vasily Grigorievich Perov.
"Return of peasants from funerals in winter."
Early 1880s.
Immediately after Peter’s death, the impatient Prosecutor General Yaguzhinsky, before anyone else, spoke about the plight of the peasants; then in the Supreme Privy Council there was lively talk about the need to alleviate this situation. “The poor peasantry” became a common government expression.
Actually, it was not the peasants themselves who were concerned, but their escapes, which deprived the government of recruits and tax payers. They fled not only in individual households, but also in entire villages; From some estates everyone fled without a trace; from 1719 to 1727 there were almost 200 thousand fugitives - official figure, usually lagging behind reality.
The very area of flight expanded widely: previously the serfs ran from one landowner to another, but now they flocked to the Don, to the Urals and to distant Siberian cities, to the Bashkirs, to the schism, even abroad, to Poland and Moldova. In the Supreme Privy Council under Catherine I, they reasoned that if things went like this, then it will come to that, that there would be no taxes or recruits to take from anyone, and in the note of Menshikov and other dignitaries the indisputable truth was expressed that if it is impossible for the state to stand without an army, then it is necessary to take care of the peasants, because the soldier is connected with the peasant, like the soul with body, and if there is no peasant, then there will be no soldier.
To prevent escapes, the capitation tax was reduced and arrears were added up; the fugitives were returned to their old places, first simply, and then with corporal punishment. But here’s the problem: the returned fugitives fled again with new comrades, who were persuaded by stories about a free life on the run, in the steppe or in Poland.
Small ones joined the escapes peasant riots caused by the arbitrariness of owners and their managers. Elizabeth's reign was full of local, silent disturbances among the peasants, especially those in the monasteries. Pacifying teams were sent and beat the rebels or were beaten by them, depending on who took them. These were small test outbreaks, which 20-30 years later merged into the Pugachev fire.
V. Klyuchevsky. "Russian History". Moscow. "Exmo". 2000
Vasily Maksimovich Maksimov.
"Peasant Girl"
1865.
PEASANTRY IN RUSSIA. Peasants are small rural producers who run individual households with family resources and are united in communities. At 18 – beginning. 20th centuries The peasantry was the main population of Russia.
The term "peasant" first appeared in the 14th century. and came from the word “Christian” (in contrast to non-Christians from the Golden Horde, enslavers of the Russian land).
By the time of the Great Reforms of the 60-70s. 19th century landowners (serfs) made up 37% of the Russian population - 23 million people. In Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine there were from 50 to 70% of the rest of the population. In the northern and southern (steppe) provinces, the number of serfs ranged from 2 to 12% of the population. There were practically no serfs in the Arkhangelsk province and Siberia.
Serfs did not have civil and property rights.
Landowner peasants were divided into corvee peasants (who worked in the lord's field) and quitrent peasants (who paid the landowner a monetary quitrent). On the eve of the Great Reforms, 71% of the landowner peasants were on corvée, and 29% on quitrent. In the central industrial provinces, the landowner form prevailed. It was more profitable for the landowners to let the peasants go on quitrents than to keep them in corvée labor. In these areas, up to 67% of the peasants were on quitrent, and in some provinces with developed latrine industries, for example in Kostroma and Yaroslavl, up to 80-90% of the peasants. The quitrent system and the development of crafts gave some peasants the opportunity to acquire significant capital. The serfs who became rich sought first of all to redeem themselves and their family for freedom, since they were often several times richer than their owner. From the serfs came such merchant dynasties as the Morozovs and Konovalovs. On the contrary, in the agricultural regions of the Central Black Earth, Middle Volga and Ukraine, where farming conditions were more favorable, corvée prevailed (up to 80-90% of peasants). Corvee also prevailed in Lithuania and Belarus, where the economy of the landowners was oriented towards the European market.
A type of corvee in the 18th-1st floor. 19th centuries it was a month ago. Serf peasants, deprived of land plots, worked 6 days a week as corvee labor, for which they received a monthly food ration and clothing in kind. A peasant transferred to a monthly wage sometimes retained his farm - a yard, agricultural implements and livestock, for the maintenance of which he also received a monthly wage. But most often he lived in the master's yard and cultivated the landowner's field with the master's equipment. The month could not be spread widely, since it required additional costs from the landowner to maintain the peasant, whose almost slave labor was characterized by low productivity.
The monastery peasants were also in serfdom. In 1764, approx. 2 million peasants and transferred them to the jurisdiction of the College of Economy. These peasants (they were called economic) received part of the monastery lands as allotments; corvée was replaced by monetary rent in favor of the treasury. But the monasteries retained large land holdings until 1917.
Close in their position to the landowners were the peasants who belonged to the grand ducal and later royal family, or “palace.” They were called “palace warriors”. In 1797, the Department of Appanages was approved to manage the palace peasants, royal estates and palaces, and the peasants began to be called appanages. By this time there were 463 thousand male souls and the number was constantly increasing. They were bought from landowners, some of the state-owned peasants were transferred to the inheritance. To the beginning 1860s there were already approx. appanage peasants. 2 million
However, not all the peasantry were enslaved. In mid. 19th century OK. 19 million people, i.e., slightly less than the number of landowner peasants, were state or state peasants who belonged to the state (treasury). This was a legally free, but state-dependent category of peasants. They received a plot of land for use, for which they bore duties in the form of a monetary rent. Although state peasants were personally free, they were limited in their right to move to other classes. They were forbidden to move to other parts of the country, engage in farming, contracts, wholesale trade, open industrial establishments. Until 1861, they did not have the right to acquire land ownership, acquire real estate in their own name, establish factories and factories, did not have the right to go to work without the permission of the specific authorities, and could not defend their interests in court.
The legal status of state peasants took shape in the beginning. 18th century in connection with the military and financial reforms Peter I. The very name “state peasants” first appeared in Peter’s decrees of 1724. Previously, they were called “black-plow peasants” (the term arose in the 14th century from the words “black plow”, i.e. taxable, taxable plow). From the beginning 18th century the number of state peasants increased. This category included various groups of the rural population of both the original Russian territories and the peasants of the lands that had recently become part of Russian state: Baltic states, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Transcaucasia. The state peasants also included economic peasants, since the College of Economy was abolished in 1786, as well as peasants taken from the Polish gentry after the uprising of 1830-1831; residents of “out-of-state” cities that lost their city status due to their abolition as administrative centers. The state peasants also included “ladles” - peasants northern regions who did not have land and rented it for half the harvest; the peoples of the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia, subject to natural tribute (yasak) and, in addition to it, monetary and some in-kind duties. The state peasants were the tsaranes in Moldova (from the Moldavian word “tsara” - land, i.e. farmers). They lived on the lands of landowners and monasteries, paid them a tenth of the income from the plot and worked corvée for 12 days a year for each household. To manage state peasants, the Ministry of State Property was established in 1837. Its head, P. D. Kiselev, a supporter of the abolition of serfdom, carried out the campaign in 1837-1841. reform of the state village.
The abolition of serfdom in 1861, the implementation of agrarian reforms in the appanage villages in 1863 and in the state villages in 1866 equalized legal status various categories of peasantry. Former landowners and appanage peasants received the same rights as state ones, and unified administration was established in the villages. Zemskaya and judicial reform brought peasants into the fold local government and courts. However, even in the post-reform period, differences between peasants continued to exist: the quality allotment land, the size of payments, the conditions for the redemption of plots, the nature of land ownership, etc. But in place of all these differences that have developed in feudal era, there was a process of social division of the peasantry characteristic of capitalism into the poor majority and the wealthy minority.
School encyclopedia. Moscow, "OLMA-PRESS Education". 2003
Vasily Maksimovich Maksimov.
"The Arrival of a Sorcerer at a Peasant Wedding."
1875.
But why does the expression “resurrect fire” appear in ancient Russian literature? To ignite is understandable, but to resurrect? CROSS - A CROSS that knocks fire out of stone! Then the CROSS was the kindling of life, and by the way, the farmers were called CROSSES, that is, the kindling of life on earth!
And then PEASANT certainly does not come from the word “Christian”.
Sergey Alekseev. "Treasures of the Valkyrie. 6-Truth and fiction.”
Wenceslas Hollar.
"Peasant wedding"
1650.
– Russia is very cold country with bad soils, so these are the people who live here and not others. In Europe, the agricultural period is ten months, and in Russia it is five,” Milov said sadly. – The difference is twofold. In Europe they don’t work in the fields only in December and January. In November, for example, you can sow winter wheat; English agronomists knew about this back in the 18th century. Carry out other work in February. So, if you calculate, it turns out that the Russian peasant has 100 days for arable work, in addition to threshing grain. And 30 days are spent on haymaking. What happens? And the fact that it tears the veins and can barely be controlled. The head of a family of four (a single-draft peasant) manages to physically plow two and a half acres. And in Europe – 2 times more.
The fact that the no-till period in Russia lasts 7 months was written in government documents back in the 18th century. They understood the problem... The average harvest with those tools was only three. That is, from one grain three grew. Out of 12 poods - 36. Minus one grain out of three for seeds, it turns out 24 poods - a net harvest from the tithe. From two and a half dessiatines - 60 poods. This is for a family of 4 people. A family of 4, taking into account that women and children eat less, is equal to 2.8 adults. Despite the fact that the annual consumption rate is 24 pounds per person. That is, you need almost 70 pounds. But there are only 60. And from them you still need to subtract a part for feeding livestock - oats for the horse, supplements for the cow. And instead of 24 according to the biological norm, the Russian consumed 12-15-16 pounds. 1500 kcal per day instead of 3000 required by the body.
Here you go average Russia- a country where there was always a shortage of bread. Where life was always at the limit of possibility. Eternal struggle, eternal fear of hunger. And at the same time, terrible work, exhausting work, involving women, children, old people... Is it possible to expand the arable land? It’s possible, if you work somehow, at random. That's how they worked. If in England they plow 4-6 times, bringing the land to a “fluffy” state, then in Russia the cultivation of the land is still poor. Although the technology has changed - in Europe there are tractors and in Russia there are tractors - but the ratio of arable time has remained the same and the result is the same: in Europe you won’t find such a small lump on the arable land, but in Russia there are such cobblestones lying around in the field. Yes, compared to the 18th century, labor productivity in rural areas has increased 40–50 times. But nature has remained unchanged! Therefore, the cost of Russian agricultural products will always be more expensive than Western ones for the same climatic reasons.
Have you seen the movie "The Chairman"? Do you remember the heartbreaking scene there when women lift a cow on ropes so that it, exhausted, does not fall? This is a typical picture for Russia. By spring, the cows and horses could barely stand. It would seem - huge spaces, fields, copses, meadows. And the peasant has a shortage of hay. Why? Because when the grass is full of vitamins, it only needs to be harvested and harvested - the peasant does not have time for this. Haymaking according to the old style began on June 29 - with Peter and Paul - and lasted until the end of July. And from August (and sometimes from July 20!) it was necessary to hurry to reap the ripe rye.
Therefore, despite the fact that during the haymaking period the entire village, young and old, went out to mow and the peasants simply lived in the fields in a camp, with the mowing technique of that time, the peasant still did not make enough hay in 30 days. And the stall period in Russia is from 180 to 212 days - 7 months. A peasant single-draft household (4 souls) had two cows, one or two horses for plowing, two sheep, one pig and 5–8 chickens. Goats were rarely seen. The quantity could vary from district to district, for example, in the Rzhevsky district of the Tver province a peasant had 3 sheep, and in neighboring Krasnokholmsky 3-4 pigs. But, in general, in conventional calculation this is equivalent to six heads of cattle. For them it was necessary to prepare approximately 620 poods of hay according to the standards of the 18th century. And the peasant and his family in best case scenario could mow 300. And it has always been like that.
What is the way out? The cattle were given straw, which is low in calories and completely devoid of vitamins. But there wasn’t enough straw either! Pigs and cows were fed horse manure, sprinkled with bran. The chronic lack of food for peasant livestock was an eternal headache for collective farm chairmen and Russian landowners. By spring, the cattle literally fell and were hung up. And there was little manure from such cattle, not to mention milk; in some provinces, cows were kept not for milk, which they practically did not produce, but solely for manure. Which was also in short supply for obvious reasons. The manure has been accumulating for years!
Russian cattle were extremely low quality. And all attempts by landowners and enlightened people from the government to import good breeds from Europe into Russia ended the same way - Western breeds quickly degenerated and became practically indistinguishable from thin Russian cattle.
According to all laws, with a three-field crop rotation, the land must be fertilized every three years. But in actual practice, peasants fertilized the land approximately once every 9 years. There was even a saying: “the good earth remembers manure for 9 years.” And there were places in Russia - even at the beginning of the 20th century - where they fertilized the land every 12, 15, 18 years. And in Vyatka province, for example, once every 20 years! What kind of productivity can we talk about?...
But if you suddenly thought: “But our peasants rested for 7 months a year! They were lying on the stove in winter,” then they were deeply mistaken. In winter there was also a lot of work. Here's an example. Due to permanent poverty, the Russian peasant, unlike the European one, did not wear boots. In order to put boots on the whole family - 4 people - the peasant had to sell three-quarters of his grain. This is unrealistic. Boots were simply not available. Russia walked in bast shoes. A peasant bore from 50 to 60 pairs of bast shoes per year. Let's multiply by the whole family. Naturally, we made bast shoes in the winter; there was no time in the summer. Further... The peasant could not buy fabric at the market. More precisely, he could, but as some kind of rare luxurious gift - and then only for his wife or daughter, he never bought it. And you need to get dressed. Therefore, women spun and weaved in winter. Plus preparing belts, harnesses, saddles... Harvesting timber for firewood... By the way, until late XVIII century in Russia there was not even a saw, and the forest was cut down with axes. Moreover, since the stoves were imperfect, and there were no ceilings in the huts at all (ceilings as additional heat insulators began to appear only in the second half of the 18th century), a lot of firewood was required - about 20 cubic meters.
– In the summer, the Russian peasant got up at three or four o’clock in the morning and went to the barnyard to supply feed, remove manure, and then worked in the field until lunch. After lunch there was an hour to an hour and a half nap. The men went to bed at eleven o'clock. The women were a little later, as they were sitting at needlework. In winter, the routine was practically the same, with the only exception that we went to bed an hour earlier - at ten.
...Well, tell me, is it possible to live like this?...
The life of a Russian peasant was not very different from the life of a primitive Neolithic savage. Perhaps for the worse... What was a Russian hut, for example? A low, one-room, thatched structure. The lack of a ceiling has already been mentioned. The floor was often earthen. Entrance door– rarely higher than a meter, and sometimes there were doors even half a meter long! Until the 19th century, a typical Russian hut was heated in black. There were no windows in this strange structure. The smoke came out through the so-called porthole windows, the size of half a log. Peasants talk about bed linen and even mattresses and feather beds for a long time They had no idea at all, they slept on sackcloth and straw. In one “room” 8-10 people slept side by side on benches and beds. There were also livestock here - chickens, pigs, calves... The imagination of foreign travelers was amazed by the heads, legs, and arms hanging from the shelves. “Every minute it seemed to me that they would fall to the floor,” wrote Cox, a researcher of Russian life.
The peasants lit the stove in the morning. By three or four o'clock in the afternoon it became very hot, and it was wildly hot all evening. Sometimes in the middle of the night, escaping from the unbearable stuffiness, men jumped out into the cold with their chests wide open, sweaty and steamed, to cool off. Hence, by the way, numerous diseases, colds and fatal. But in the morning the hut got so cold that the sleeping people’s beards froze to their blankets. And since the hut was heated in black, there was a long black fringe of soot hanging everywhere.
And the smell! In an unventilated room (they took care of the heat), such miasma flourished that unprepared people became dizzy. Do you remember when Kharms Pushkin pinches his nose when Russian men pass by? “It’s okay, master...”
In fact, the country was divided into two human “subspecies” - a cultural, European-educated aristocracy, eating from porcelain and discussing the poems of Ovid, and an absolutely gray, downtrodden, half-animal, superstitious mass, bestially living at the limit of possibilities and far, far beyond poverty. It is clear that these “subspecies” not only did not understand, but also could not understand each other: there was an abyss between them. Sometimes they even spoke different languages– some in Russian, others in French. Two countries in one... Eloi and Morlocks.
When Peter I began his reforms, Russia had 6% of the non-peasant population. Only six! Because the peasantry, living from hand to mouth, simply could not feed more dependents in the local climate. And from these six percent, monasticism, the nobility, the army, bureaucracy, science were formed... An amazingly ineffective country!
The standard of living of the elite was not just strikingly, but catastrophically different from the standard of living of 94% of the population. While the black peasants ate cake and quinoa, in the spring they collected snot - the first grass that hatched with such small flowers... at the same time, the Russian nobility ate watermelons, plums, lemons, oranges and even pineapples all year round. To grow tropical fruits in glass greenhouses, complex systems of underground soil heating were invented. At the same time, glass for greenhouses was expensive, but the amount of glass needed for greenhouses was enormous.
From the point of view of an ordinary Russian, the bureaucracy and city authorities are not only small in number and inaccessible. It is incomprehensible, as if it lives on another planet. The bosses are, as it were, not people, they are celestial beings. You can scold them - just as you can sometimes blaspheme, but if a celestial being suddenly condescends to you personally... Father!
I can’t remember one episode filmed hidden camera back in the Yeltsin era. An impressive man with a cell phone in his hand approaches a simple, ingenuous Russian on the street. And he says that he is a representative of the president, and asks: how do you, a simple Russian, feel about our popularly elected? Rusich, naturally, begins to sputter, wave his arms, and swear a lot. His life is bad! It seems that if he sees the president now, he will tear him up. After carefully listening to the passerby, the person dials a number on his cell phone and hands him the handset:
– Now you will speak with Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin. Convey your aspirations to him.
“Hello, Russian,” the receiver echoes in the inimitable presidential voice into the ear of a simple, simple-minded citizen.
And a miracle happens. When asked by the president how he lives, the Russian suddenly answers:
- Yes, it’s okay, Boris Nikolaevich!
Stupid daily work, which does not, however, bring any significant fruit and does not promise prospects; black hopeless life; life on the verge of constant hunger; absolute dependence on weather conditions could not but affect the formation of the Russian psychotype.
No matter how much you work, everything is still in God’s hands; if he wants, he will, if he doesn’t, he will die. Work, don’t work – almost nothing depends on you. Hence in Russians this eternal dependence on “decisions from above.” Hence the superstitiousness reaching the point of obscurantism and the eternal calculation of chance. And to this day, the main gods after Christ for Russians remain the Great Lord Avos and his brother, I suppose.
All the life time of a Russian person, except sleep, from childhood was spent on simple physical survival. Pregnant women hump in the field until the last minute and give birth there. It’s not for nothing that in the Russian language the words “strada” and “suffering” have the same root... A person living in an eternal extreme, whose up to half of his born children die out, ceases to appreciate both someone else’s and own life. Which, anyway, not he, but God, disposes of.
Hence the attitude towards children is completely consumerist. Children are a thing to help with housework. Hence the appeal to our beloved children: “Killing you is not enough!”
My friend Lesha Torgashev, who had lived in America for three years and was a little out of habit, arrived from Chicago and was shocked when he heard at our airport a Russian mother shouting to her three-year-old daughter, who had soiled her dress: “I’ll kill you!” He was struck not only by the situation itself, but also by the details of the deprivation of a child’s life, worked out in the mother’s imagination – “I’ll stab you to death.”
We have children not for the sake of the children themselves, but “so that there is someone to give a glass of water in old age.” “Children are our wealth” is the most terrible, most consumerist slogan invented Soviet power, as if pulled out of a peasant Russia XVIII century. Back then, children were truly considered wealth, because from the age of 7 they could be put to work. Until the age of 15, the boy carried half a load, and from the age of 16 he carried a full load, that is, he worked like a man. Teenagers are wealth. Small children are a burden, extra mouths to feed. They died like flies, and no one really pitied them - the women were still giving birth! From the eternal lack of food there is a saying: “God bless the cattle with their offspring, and the children with the Primorye people.”
Europe was afraid of a Russian bayonet strike. Because the Russian peasant soldier did not value his life. His life was hell incarnate, compared to which death is not a worse option. “Even death is red in the world,” is another Russian proverb.
“Mir” in Rus' was the name given to the peasant community.
There is an opinion that the only reason Stalin’s collective farms took root was that they were absolutely in the spirit of the people. And in line with the previous life. Yes, yes, I’m talking about this fucking community. The entire Russian peasant psychology is the psychology of collectivism. On the one hand, this is good: everyone should help each other. But the other side of communalism is intolerance towards “upstarts” - people who stand out in some way (intelligence, wealth, appearance)...
Without this collectivist psychology that inhibits development capitalist relations(the essence of which is greater atomization, individualization of society), the Russian peasantry simply could not survive. Well, a single farmer could not exist in conditions of arable time pressure, when “the day feeds the year.” If you were sick for ten or twenty days without plowing, your family is doomed to starvation. The house burned down, the horse died... Who will help? Community. And when the land finally became impoverished and stopped bearing fruit, the peasants all over the world made “clearings” - they reduced the forest to arable land, and then divided the plots according to the number of workers. So without community “help” the peasantry as a class in Russia simply could not exist.
The community is a terrible formation that traumatizes the national mentality. Which in people's heads overcame the agrarian era and fell into the industrial era. Maybe someone remembers, under the Bolsheviks there were even such children’s poems: “My dad brought a real saw from work!...” Why from work, and not from the store? Why “brought” and not “stole”? Yes, all for the same reason. Everything around is folk, everything around is mine! No respect for private property. Community socialist concentration camp...
Instructions from the mid-18th century on the management of landowners noted: “Laziness, deception, lies and theft seem to be hereditary in them (peasants - A.N.). They deceive their master with feigned illnesses, old age, poverty, false sighing, and laziness in work. They steal what was prepared by common efforts, put it away for saving, clean it, smear it, wash it, dry it, repair it - they don’t want to... Those appointed to the authorities, in the expenditure of money and bread, do not know the measures. They don’t really like those who are left in the future and, as if on purpose, they try to bring them into ruin. And those who are assigned to what, so that they correct themselves correctly and in due time, are not looked after. In trickery - for friendship and honors - they are silent and covered up. And on the simple-hearted and good people attack, oppress and drive. They do not remember the mercy shown to them in rewarding them with bread, money, clothing, livestock, freedom, and instead of gratitude and merit they turn into rudeness, malice and cunning.”
Unpretentiousness and long-suffering, minimizing the level of needs (“if only there was no war”), disregard for others and at the same time extreme dependence on them, willingness to help and black envy, emotional openness and cordiality, which can instantly be replaced by hatred - this is just an incomplete list qualities of the Russian person inherited from our unfortunate ancestors. And Russia, with a fairly significant part of its fellow citizens, is entering the post-industrial 21st century, into the information civilization, not even with an industrial, but sometimes with a purely peasant, patriarchal consciousness.
Alexander Nikonov. "The History of Frostbite in the Context of Global Warming."
Vincent Van Gogh.
"Morning. Peasants going to work."
1890.
Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
Vladimir Egorovich Makovsky.
Peasant children.
1890.
Of course, Alexander II did a good deed by freeing the peasants (at that time it was simply impossible not to do this). But then...
In European Russia, 76 million dessiatines of land belonged to 30,000 landowners, and 73 million dessiatines belonged to 10,000,000 peasant households. This is the proportion. The fact is that the peasants were liberated with almost no land, and for the fact that they got everything, they were forced to make so-called “convex payments,” which were canceled only in 1907, after well-known events. There is an interesting government document, the so-called “Proceedings of the Tax Commission.” It follows from it that the peasant contributed more than ninety-two percent of his income per year in the form of taxes and taxes! And in the Novgorod province - everything is one hundred percent. Moreover, this applied only to former “state” peasants. According to the same document, the former landowner peasants in some provinces they were forced to tax more than two hundred percent of their income! In other words, apart from the lucky few, the peasants were constantly in debt, like silk. Here are excerpts from the orders of the peasants to their deputies in State Duma 1906-1907
The village of Stopino, Vladimir province: “The bitter experience of life convinced us that the government, which had oppressed the people for centuries, the government that saw and wanted to see us as obedient payment cattle, could do nothing for us. A government consisting of nobles and officials, not knowing the needs of the people, cannot lead the tormented homeland onto the path of order and legality.”
Moscow province: “The entire land was paid for by us with sweat and blood for several centuries. She was processed during the era of serfdom and received beatings and exile for her work, thereby enriching the landowners. If you now sue them for 5 kopecks. per day per person for the entire time of serfdom, then they will not have enough to pay the people of all the lands and forests and all their property. In addition, for forty years we have been paying a fabulous rent for land from 20 to 60 rubles. for a tithe per summer, thanks to the false law of 61, according to which we received freedom with a small plot of land, a half-starved people, and the parasite landowners acquired colossal wealth.”
Arzamas district: “The landowners have completely turned us around: wherever you turn, there are all of them everywhere - land and forest, but we have nowhere to drive out our cattle; if a cow came onto the landowner's land - a fine, if you accidentally drove along his road - a fine, if you go to him to rent the land - you try to take it as expensive as possible, but if you don't take it, you sit completely without bread; If you cut a rod out of his forest, you’ll go to court, and they’ll tear you off three times more expensive, and you’ll also serve time.”
Luga district of St. Petersburg province: “When we were released, we were allocated three tithes per capita. The population has grown to the point where there are no longer even half a tithe. The population is positively poor, and poor only because there is no land; there is none not only for arable land, but even for buildings necessary for the farm.”
Nizhny Novgorod province: “We recognize that the unbearable burden of dues and taxes lies heavily on us, and there is no strength or opportunity to fulfill them in full and in a timely manner. The proximity of any due date for payments and obligations weighs heavily on our hearts, and fear of the authorities for inaccurate payments forces us to sell the latter, or go into bondage.”
The Bolsheviks have absolutely nothing to do with this - just like any other “politicians”. This is the genuine, undistorted voice of the peasantry. What kind of Bolsheviks are needed here?!
Alexander Bushkov. "Red Monarch".
“The Emperor speaks with the nobility about the work ahead of them to liberate the peasants from serfdom.”
Lithography.
"Meeting of the State Council during the preparation of the Peasant Reform."
(Reign of Emperor Alexander II.)
Lithography.
I. Laminitis.
"Russian peasants".
Engraving based on a drawing by E. Korneev.
1812.
Ilya Efimovich Repin.
"Peasant's Yard"
1879.
Ilya Efimovich Repin.
"Peasant Girl"
1880.
Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky.
"Peasant lunch in the field."
Kristina Evgenievna Gashko.
“A. Pushkin’s visit to the village of Zakharovo. Meeting with Zakharovsky peasants."
2011.
Mikhail Shibanov.
"Peasant Lunch"
1774.
"1812 militiaman in a peasant hut."
Lubok painting.
“The liberated peasants offer bread and salt to Alexander II.”
1861.
From the book: “School Encyclopedia. History of Russia 18-19 centuries." Moscow, "OLMA-PRESS Education". 2003
"Peasant Dance"
1567-1568.
"Peasant wedding"
Around 1568.
Museum of Art, Ghent.
"Peasant wedding"
1568.
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
"Heads of Peasants"
"The Peasants' Revolt of the 1860s"
1951.
"Peasant family"
1843.
"A peasant family before dinner."
1824.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
"Peasant Girl"
1840s.
"Peasant Girl"
1840s.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
"Peasants and skating runners on ice."
