How landowners lived in Russia at the beginning and middle of the 19th century

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Many, studying the history of Russia or Russia, argue, defending their interests about what they previously heard from someone or read from some sources that life was good or bad before, or, say, that before the revolution the peasants lived very well, but the landowners were fattening and from that the people revolted … And so on and so forth.

And the wrong end. If we ignore the fact that only comparable things can be compared. And the history of life, even ours with you, changes every decade and, moreover, radically.

So it was before with our ancestors. And this is evidenced by many sources, for example, the fiction of Russian classics. In order to dispel all your doubts that the landowners were fattening, and the people suffered, I propose to read a chapter from the last work of the great Russian writer M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, which is a grandiose historical canvas of an entire era. According to the author himself, his task was to restore the "characteristic features" of the life of a landlord estate in the era of serfdom.

So, ME Saltykov-Shchedrin "Poshekhonskaya antiquity", chapter "Landowners' environment". For those who are interested in reading this work in full, below is a link to download this book.

Landlord environment

There were many landowners in our land, but their financial situation did not seem particularly enviable. It seems that our family was considered the most prosperous; only the owner of the village of Otrady, whom I once mentioned, was richer than us, but since he lived on the estate only by collisions, there was no question of him in the landowners' circle . Then it was possible to point to three four average states from five hundred to a thousand souls (in different provinces), and they were followed by small things from one and a half hundred souls and below, descending to tens and units.

There were areas where in one village there were up to five or six manor estates, and as a result, there was a stupid patchwork. But disputes between co-owners rarely arose. Firstly, everyone knew their scrap very well, and secondly, experience proved that quarrels between such close neighbors are unprofitable: they give rise to endless squabbles and interfere with the community. And since the latter was the only resource that somehow mitigated the boredom that was inseparable from the uninterrupted life in the backwoods, the prudent majority preferred to turn a blind eye to the land turmoil, just not to quarrel. Therefore, the question of delimiting the inter-lane possessions, despite the insistence of the authorities, remained untouched: everyone knew that as soon as it began to be put into practice, a common dump would not be avoided.

But sometimes it happened that in such a tightly closed landlord murye there appeared a scoundrel or simply an insolent person who planned destinies and, with the assistance of clerks, spread poison all around. Under the influence of this poison, the murya began to move; everyone began to look for his own; litigation arose and gradually involved all the neighbors.

The dispute over a scrap of several dozen square yards turned into a personal quarrel, and finally into open enmity. The enmity intensified, became inexorable. There were cases when neighbors, fellow villagers, all without exception, not only did not visit each other, but avoided meeting on the street and even in church made mutual scandals. Of course, the one who was stronger and more helpful prevailed; the weak and seedy, and there was nothing to sue. The latter, against their will, resigned themselves and, all around the dispossessed, came to beg for mercy. Then peace and quiet and God's grace were restored in Murya again.

The landlords who owned the mansions, of course, were spared the hustle and bustle that inevitably belong to too close a neighborhood, but they lived more boringly. People rarely went to hunt, they were engaged in hunting only in the fall, and the economy was too weak a resource to fill life.

Passionate hosts met as an exception; most were content with established routines, which provided a daily meal and provided enough leisure to be entitled to be called a master or mistress. It does not hurt to note that the landowners, who at least to some extent rose above the material level of smallness, looked down on their seedy brethren and, in general, were too easily infected with arrogance.

The manor houses were extremely unattractive. Having conceived to build, they set up an oblong log house like a barracks, divided it inside with partitions into closets, dug the walls with moss, covered it with a timber roof and huddled in this unpretentious room as best they could. Under the influence of atmospheric changes, the blockhouse dried up and darkened, the roof leaked. There was a barrel in the windows; the dampness penetrated everywhere without hindrance; the floors were shaking, the ceilings were stained, and the house, in the absence of repairs, grew into the ground and fell into disrepair. For the winter, the walls were wrapped in straw, which was attached with poles; but this did not protect well from the cold, so that in winter it was necessary to heat both in the morning and at night. It goes without saying that the richer landowners built their houses more extensively and more solidly, but the general type of buildings was the same.

There was no talk of the comforts of life, much less a picturesque area.

The estate was set up mainly in a lowland so that there would be no offense from the wind.

Household services were built on the sides, a vegetable garden was planted at the back, a tiny front garden was in front. There were no parks, not even orchards, even if only as a profitable item, did not exist. Rarely, it was rare where you could find a natural grove or a pond lined with birch trees. Now, behind the garden and the services, the master's fields began, on which work went on without interruption from early spring to late autumn. The landowner had the full opportunity to observe the process from the windows of the house and rejoice or grieve, depending on what lay ahead, the harvest or lack of food. And this was the most essential in life and all other interests were pushed far into the background.

Despite, however, inadequate material resources, there was no particular need. Didn't the most petty grassroots manage to make ends meet and looked for help in migrating with their children from one neighbor to another, playing the unenviable role of buffoons and co-workers.

The reason for this comparative contentment was partly in the general cheapness of life, but mainly in the extreme unpretentiousness of requirements.

They were limited exclusively to their own, unbought. Only clothing, vodka and, on rare occasions, groceries demanded cash costs. In some landlord families (not even the poorest ones), they drank tea only on major holidays, and they did not hear about grape wine at all . Tinctures, liqueurs, kvass, honey - these were the drinks that were in use, and homemade pickles and marinades appeared as snacks. All their own was served at the table, with the exception of beef, which was therefore rarely consumed. Households, having no idea about the so-called pickles, were completely satisfied with this everyday life, and the guests did not make any claims. It would have been fat and plenty of everything - that was the yardstick that guided the hospitality of the landlords at that time.

One hundred, two hundred rubles (banknotes) were considered big money at that time. And when they accidentally accumulated in their hands, then something lasting was arranged for the family. They bought cloth, chintz, etc., and with the help of home craftsmen and craftswomen, the family members sewed them together. They continued to walk at home in the old; the new was kept for the guests. They see that the guests are coming and run to change, so that the guests think that the hospitable hosts always walk like that. In winter, when stuck bread and various rural products were on sale, there was more money in circulation, and they were "squandered"; in the summer they trembled over every penny, because only a blind trifle remained in their hands. “Summer is a dry season, winter is a tidbit,” said the proverb and fully justified its content in practice. Therefore, they waited impatiently for the winters, and in the summer they retired and closely watched from the windows the process of creating the upcoming winter expanse.

In any case, they rarely grumbled about fate. We settled down as best they could, and didn’t shave on the extra pieces. Greasy candles (also purchased goods) were taken care of like the apple of an eye, and when there were no guests in the house, then in the winter they twilight for a long time and went to bed early. With the onset of evening, the landlord's family crowded together in a warmer room; they put a greasy candle on the table, sat down closer to the light, made simple conversations, did needlework, dined and left not too late. If there were many young ladies in the family, then their cheerful conversation after midnight was heard throughout the house, but you can talk without candles.

Nevertheless, the extent to which this relatively helpless life was reflected on the serf back is a special question, which I leave open.

The educational level of the landowners' environment was even less high than the material one. Only one landowner could boast of a university education, but two (my father and Colonel Tuslitsyn) received a fairly tolerable home education and had middle ranks. The rest of the mass was made up of undersized nobles and retired ensigns. From time immemorial in our area, it has become a custom that a young man will leave the cadet corps, serve another year and come to the village to eat bread with his father and mother. There he will sew an arkhaluk for himself, begin to travel around the neighbors, look after the girl, marry, and when the old people die, he will sit on the farm himself. There is nothing to hide, not an ambitious, meek people were, neither upward, nor in breadth, nor to the sides did not look. Rummaging around him like a mole, he didn’t look for reasons for reasons, he was not interested in anything that was happening outside the village outskirts, and if life was warm and satisfying, he was pleased with himself and with his lot.

The printing business was not successful. From newspapers (and there were only three of them for the whole of Russia) only “Moskovskie vedomosti” was obtained, and even those no more than in three or four houses. There was no talk of books, except for the academic calendar, which was written out almost everywhere; moreover, there were songbooks and other cheap works of market literature, which were exchanged for young ladies from peddlers. They alone loved to read out of boredom. There were no magazines at all, but in 1834 my mother began to subscribe to the "Library for Reading", and I must tell the truth that there was no end of requests to send them to read a book. Most liked: "Olenka, or All women's life in a few hours" and "The Hanging Guest", which belonged to the pen of Baron Brambeus. The latter immediately became popular, and even his not quite tidy "Literary Chronicle" was read out to rapture. Moreover, the young ladies were great lovers of poetry, and there was no house (with the young ladies) in which there would be no voluminous manuscript collection or album filled with works of Russian poetry, starting from the ode "God" and ending with an absurd poem: "On the last piece of paper ". The genius of Pushkin at that time reached the apogee of his maturity, and his fame resounded throughout Russia. She penetrated into our backwoods, and especially among the young ladies, she found herself enthusiastic admirers. But it doesn't hurt to add that the weakest pieces, like "Talisman", "Black Shawl", etc., were liked more than mature works. Of the latter, the greatest impression was made by "Eugene Onegin", due to the lightness of the verse, but the true meaning of the poem was hardly accessible to anyone.

Deprived of a solid educational background, almost not involved in the mental and literary movement of large centers, the landowner environment was mired in prejudices and in complete ignorance of the nature of things. Even to agriculture, which, it would seem, should have affected her most essential interests, she treated quite routinely, showing not the slightest attempt in terms of improving the system or methods.

Once the established order served as law, and the idea of the endless extensibility of peasant labor was the basis of all calculations. It was considered advantageous to plow as much land as possible for grain, although, due to the lack of fertilization, the harvests were meager and did not yield more grain for grain. All the same, this grain constituted a surplus that could be sold, but there was no need to think about the price at which that surplus went to the peasant ridge.

To this general system, as an aid, prayers were added for the sending down of a bucket or rain; but since the paths of providence are closed to mortals, the most ardent supplications did not always help. Agricultural literature at that time almost did not exist, and if monthly compilations of Shelikhov appeared in the "Library for Reading", they were compiled superficially, according to Thayer's leadership, completely unsuitable for our backwoods. Under their inspiration, two three personalities were found - from the young and the early ones, who tried to do experiments, but nothing good came of them.

The reason for the failure, of course, was primarily the experimental ignorance, but partly also in the lack of patience and stability, which is a characteristic feature of semi-education. It seemed that the result should come immediately immediately; and since he did not come at will, the failure was accompanied by a stream of worthless curses, and the desire to experiment as easily disappeared as it came.

Something similar was repeated later, during the emancipation of the peasants, when almost without exception all the landowners imagined themselves to be farmers and, having wasted redemption loans, ended up quickly fleeing the nests of their fathers. I cannot say how this business is worth at the present time, but already from the fact that land ownership, even large ones, is not concentrated more in one class, but is riddled with all sorts of extraneous impurities, it is quite clear that the ancient local element turned out to be not so strong and prepared to retain the primacy even in such an important issue for him as the agrarian one.

Foreign policy issues were completely unknown. Only in a few houses where Moskovskie vedomosti was produced did they enter the arena, with guests, some scant news, such as that such a princess gave birth to a son or daughter, and such a prince, while on a hunt, fell from his horse and injured my leg. But since the news was belated, they usually added: "Now, come on, the leg has healed!" - and passed on to another, equally belated news. They dwelt somewhat longer on the bloody confusion that was taking place at that time in Spain between the Carlists and Christians, but, not knowing the beginning of it, they vainly tried to unravel its meaning.

France was considered a hotbed of immorality and was convinced that the French fed on frogs. The British were called merchants and eccentrics and told jokes how some Englishman bet that he would eat only sugar for a whole year, etc. The Germans were treated more leniently, adding, however, in the form of an amendment: . These short stories and characteristics exhausted the entire external political horizon.

They said about Russia that this state was spacious and powerful, but the idea of the fatherland as something blood, living one life and breathing one breath with each of its sons, was hardly clear enough.

Most likely, they confused love for the fatherland with the implementation of orders of the government and even just the authorities. No "critic" in this last sense was allowed, even covetousness was not looked upon as evil, but was seen in it as a deaf fact, which had to be skillfully used. All disputes and misunderstandings were resolved through this factor, so if it did not exist, then God knows whether we would not have had to regret it. Then, with respect to everything else, which did not go beyond the orders and prescriptions, complete indifference reigned. The everyday side of life, with its rituals, legends and poetry spilled in all its details, not only did not interest, but seemed base, "ignoble". They tried to exterminate the signs of this life even among the serf masses, because they considered them harmful, undermining the system of silent obedience, which alone was recognized as suitable in the interests of the landlord's authority. In the corvée estates, the holiday was no different from everyday life, and among the "exemplary" landowners, songs were persistently expelled from among the courtyards. There were, of course, exceptions, but they were already an amateur affair, like home orchestras, singers, etc.

I know, they can tell me that there were historical moments when the idea of a fatherland flashed very brightly and, penetrating into the deepest backwaters, made hearts beat. I do not even think to deny this. No matter how little developed people are, they are not wooden, and a common calamity can awaken such strings in them that, in the usual course of affairs, they completely cease to sound. I also met people who had in vivid memory the events of 1812 and who, with their stories, deeply moved my youthful feeling. That was a time of great trial, and only the efforts of the entire Russian people could and did bring salvation. But I'm not talking about such solemn moments here, namely about those everyday life when there is no reason for heightened feelings. In my opinion, both in solemn times and on weekdays, the idea of a fatherland should be equally inherent in his sons, for only with a clear consciousness of it does a person acquire the right to call himself a citizen.

The twelfth year is a folk epic, the memory of which will pass into the centuries and will not die as long as the Russian people live. But I was a personal witness of another historical moment (the war of 1853 - 1856), which closely resembled the twelfth year, and I can say in the affirmative that in a forty-year period of time, patriotic feeling, due to a lack of nutrition and life development, has largely faded. Everyone has in their memory flintlocks with painted wooden chocks instead of flints, cardboard soles in military boots, rotten cloth from which military clothing was built, rotten military short fur coats, and so on. Finally, the process of substitution of militia officers is remembered, and after the conclusion of peace, the trade in war receipts. They will object to me, of course, that all these shameful deeds were committed by individuals, and neither the landowners' environment (which, however, was the main manager in the organization of the militia), nor the people were involved in them. I readily admit that in all this mood, individual persons are the primary culprits, but after all, the masses were present at these acts - and did not gasp. Laughter rang out, laughter! - and it never occurred to anyone that the dead are laughing …

In any case, with such a vague idea of the fatherland, there could be no question of a public matter.

To the praise of the landowners of that time, I must say that, despite their low educational level, they were careful about raising children - mostly sons, by the way - and did everything they could to give them a decent education. Even the poorest made every effort to achieve a favorable result in this sense. They didn’t eat a piece, they denied household members an extra dress, bustled, bowed, knocked down the doorstep of the mighty of the world … invoice to enter); but as soon as the funds were in the slightest degree possible, so was the dream of a university, preceded by a gymnasium course. And I must tell the truth: the youth, who replaced the old ignoramuses and ensigns, turned out to be somewhat different. Unfortunately, the daughters of the landowners played an extremely secondary role in these educational concerns, so that even the question of any tolerable female education did not arise. There were no women's gymnasiums, and there were few institutions, and access to them was fraught with significant difficulties. But the main thing all the same, I repeat, the very need for female education was not felt.

As for the moral meaning of the landlord's environment in our area at the time described, its attitude to this issue can be called passive. The atmosphere of serfdom that weighed over her was so corrosive that individuals drowned in it, losing their personal attributes, on the basis of which the correct judgment could be pronounced over them. The framework was equally obligatory for everyone, and within this general framework, the contours of personalities that were almost indistinguishable from one another were necessarily outlined. Of course, it would be possible to point out the details, but they depended on a random situation and, moreover, bore related features, on the basis of which it was easy to get to a common source. However, from the entire present chronicle, the unsightly side of the moral state of the then cultured society emerges quite clearly, and therefore I have no need to return to this subject. I will add one thing: an extremely outrageous fact was the harem life and generally untidy views on the mutual relations of the sexes. This ulcer was quite widespread and often served as a pretext for tragic outcomes.

It remains to say a few words about the religious mood. In this respect, I can testify that our neighbors were generally pious; if occasionally one heard an idle word, then it was pulled out without intention, just for the sake of a catchphrase, and all such idle talk without ceremony was called idle talk. Moreover, quite often there were individuals who, obviously, did not understand the true meaning of the simplest prayers; but this should also be attributed not to a lack of religiosity, but to mental underdevelopment and a low educational level.

* * *

Moving from a general description of the landlord environment, which was a witness of my childhood, to a portrait gallery of individuals who have survived in my memory, I think it is not superfluous to add that everything that has been said above has been written by me quite sincerely, without any preconceived idea at all costs to humiliate or undermine. In his declining years, the hunt for exaggeration disappears and there is an irresistible desire to express the truth, only the truth. Having decided to restore the picture of the past, still so close, but every day more and more drowning in the abyss of oblivion, I took up the pen not in order to polemize, but in order to testify to the truth. Yes, and there is no purpose to undermine what is itself, by virtue of the general historical law, undermined.

There were quite a few writers of everyday life in the time I depicted in our literature; but I can boldly assert that their recollections lead to the same conclusions as mine. Perhaps the coloring is different, but the facts and their essence are one and the same, and the facts cannot be painted over with anything.

The late Aksakov, with his Family Chronicle, undoubtedly enriched Russian literature with a precious contribution. But, despite the slightly idyllic shade that is diffused in this work, only myopic ones can see in it an apology of the past. Kurolesov alone is enough to remove the veil from the most biased eyes. But scrape the old man Bagrov himself a little, and you will be convinced that this is not at all such an independent person as he seems at first glance. On the contrary, all his intentions and actions are covered with a fatalistic dependence, and all of him from head to toe is no more than a playground, unquestioningly obeying the instructions of serfdom.

In any case, I will allow myself to think that, among other materials that future historians of the Russian public will use, my chronicle will not be superfluous.