Guilt for someone else's vice or the history of prostitution in Russia

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

Actually. there were many rumors around this painting during the artist's lifetime. Who was the woman depicted by the Itinerant? The author did not reveal this secret, and at the moment there are many interesting versions regarding the prototype of the most famous "Unknown".

Many argue that "Unknown" is a collective image of a woman who could not serve as an example to follow. Allegedly, Kramskoy painted a picture in order to expose the moral foundations of society - painted lips, fashionable expensive clothes give out a rich woman in a woman. The critic V. Stasov (1824-1906) called this picture "The Coquette in a Carriage", other critics wrote that Kramskoy depicted "an expensive camellia", "one of the fiends of big cities."

Neither in the letters nor in the diaries of Ivan Kramskoy there is any mention of the personality of this woman. Several years before the appearance of the painting, L. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina was published, which gave rise to some researchers to assert that Kramskoy portrayed the main character of the novel. Others find similarities with Nastasya Filippovna from Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot.

Most researchers are nevertheless inclined to think that the prototype has not literary, but quite real origin. The external similarity made us say that the artist portrayed the beautiful Matryona Savvishna - a peasant woman who became the wife of the nobleman Bestuzhev.

In one of the essays about Blok (1880-1921) Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) cites the story of a prostitute he recorded about an amusing episode that happened to the poet in one of the rooms of the visiting house on Karavannaya Street in St. Petersburg.

One autumn, very late and, you know, slush, fog […] on the corner of Italyanskaya I was invited by a decently dressed, handsome, very proud face, I even thought: a foreigner […] They came, I asked for tea; he called, and the servant didn’t come, then he went into the corridor himself, and I’m so, you know, tired, chilled and fell asleep sitting on the sofa. Then I suddenly woke up, I saw: he was sitting next to […] "Oh, excuse me, I say, I'm going to undress now." And he smiled politely and replies: "Don't, don't worry." He moved to the sofa next to me, sat me on his knees and said, stroking my hair: "Well, take a nap again!" And - just imagine! - I fell asleep again, - a scandal! I understand, of course, that this is not good, but - I cannot! He shakes me so gently, and so comfortable with him, I will open my eyes, smile, and he will smile. I think I was even completely asleep when he shook me gently and said: "Well, goodbye, I have to go." And he puts twenty-five rubles on the table. "Listen, I say, how is it?" Of course, I was very embarrassed, I apologize […] And he laughed softly, shook my hand and even kissed me.

Fornication for free

In our opinion, this story very accurately conveys one of the features of Russian culture - its asexuality, in comparison with the civilization of the West. Here, too, the young lady did not show herself as a woman. And she is paid for this, not a woman is paid, but a person - a suffering person without gender. Agree that such an episode was hardly possible in France or Germany. One of the manifestations of this feature of our value system was the long absence of brothels in Russia. Unlike Europe, we did not inherit an ancient sexual culture, the principles of which could successfully compete with Christian ethical norms: until the beginning of the 18th century in Russia, church courts still tried cases of “sexual crimes”. So, according to church norms during intercourse, only the missionary position was allowed, when the man was on top. The pose "woman on top" was punished with repentance from three to ten years. The pose "man behind" was called bestial fornication and could be punished by excommunication.

Until the middle of the 17th century, we have no evidence of the presence of brothel houses in Muscovy. No, there was, of course, debauchery in the sense of extramarital affairs, and it is condemned in Domostroy, but one has to speak very carefully about venal debauchery. Certainly, a number of secret brothels existed at the taverns. However, carnal love here was usually limited to rough drunken intercourse in the backyard. There is no need to speak of any eroticism, analogous, for example, to the eroticism of the Renaissance.

Nikolaus Knüpfer (1603-1660). "Scene in a Brothel" (1630s). Russia did not know anything like this until the 19th century, but then it was possible to rent a blank prostitute in most restaurants and cafes of large cities. In the essay “Kvisisan” (1910), publicist Yuri Angarov described one of them as follows: “An ugly sight! Here and there, a mass of colorful fabrics, boas, jackets, ribbons, huge hats dazzle the eyes. The cynicism of postures, gestures, conversations defies description […] They kiss, hug, crush the breasts of women …"

From pub to brothel

We know for sure about the presence of prostitutes in Russia only from the moment when the state begins to fight them. In 1649, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1629-1676) issued a decree instructing the patrolmen to make sure that there was no whores on the streets and lanes. From the decree of Peter II (1715-1730) in 1728, we know that there were already secret brothels in St. Petersburg. However, we do not know how much they differed from the old taverns. The case of 1753, brought against the owner of a secret brothel, a certain German woman from Dresden, who settled in St. Petersburg, tells about the very first aristocratic brothel. The female employees of the institution were foreigners.

However, these and subsequent attempts by the state to fight prostitution did not have much success, and the authorities changed their tactics. Now the task was to take prostitution under state control, primarily in order to stop the spread of syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases. These efforts ended with the issuance of a decree of 1843, which legalized prostitution. From that moment on, the police began to issue permits for the opening of legal brothels under state medical supervision. The "golden age" of Russian prostitution began, which lasted until 1917 and, of course, influenced the formation of Russian sexual culture, but did not manage to help her go beyond the framework of adolescent romanticism.

There were two main categories of prostitutes in Russia: ticket and blank. These included the priestesses of love registered with the police. The first lived in brothels and were obliged to undergo a rather humiliating medical examination procedure twice a week for revealing sexually transmitted diseases. They did not have passports: they had to leave him at the police, receiving instead a "yellow ticket" - the only document proving their identity and confirming the right to practice their profession. It was not allowed to change it again to a passport. The "ticketless" prostitutes were punished with fines.

The origin of the name "yellow ticket" is not entirely clear. The paper was white, but probably of poor quality and quickly turned yellow. Another version recalls the decree of Paul I (1754-1801), which ordered all prostitutes to wear yellow dresses. However, due to the death of the emperor, the decree was not executed.

Blank prostitutes differed from ticket ones by the presence of a rented apartment and relative freedom of movement under the control of pimps, who replaced brothel housewives for girls. The identity card he issued - the "blank" - was like a "yellow ticket", but allowed its owners to look for clients on city streets and show up for a medical checkup only once a week. According to the 1889 census, 1216 brothel houses, in which 7840 prostitutes lived, offered their services on the territory of Russia. There were more blanks - 9763. In total - 17603 supervised girls of easy virtue.

The same "yellow ticket". "And they blow with ancient beliefs / Her elastic silks / And a hat with mourning feathers / And a narrow hand in the rings …" (A. Blok. "Stranger"). The artist Yuri Annenkov (1889-1974) writes in his memoirs: “The students knew Blok's“Stranger”by heart […] Two girls from the same mistress from Podyachnaya Street, Sonya and Laika, dressed as sisters, wandered along Nevsky, attaching black ostriches to their hats feathers. “We are a couple of Strangers,” they smiled, “you can get an electric dream in reality.

Brothel fears

The ranks of women in the free profession were replenished mainly from two sources - the peasantry (47% of the total number of prostitutes) and the bourgeoisie (36%). The latter in the past were, as a rule, maids, seamstresses, dressmakers, and sometimes factory workers. Most of them ended up in love houses while looking for work. Special agents tracked them down and, colorfully describing the carefree living conditions of free women, turned those who trusted them into living goods. However, according to statistics, the total number of people recruited into brothel houses was insignificant in comparison with the total number of peasant women and bourgeois women who found a more respected way of earning a living. This question makes one think about the psychological characteristics of women who have dedicated their lives to serving Priapus.

Based on the observations of pre-revolutionary and modern psychologists, first of all, Yuri Antonyan, we can say with a certain degree of probability that one of the basic feelings of a woman who decides to become a prostitute is anxiety, which is mainly formed from the complete absence of emotional contacts with parents at an early age. … The anxiety of prostitutes is of two characteristics that are often intertwined - the fear of material need and the fear of not being liked by men. As a result, they are prone to bouts of depression, accompanied by the experience of feelings of their own inferiority and the perception of themselves as being dependent, insignificant and even insignificant.

At the same time, the spiritual world of prostitutes is very poor - they do not read or go to the theater (we are talking about the 19th century), their personality remains immature, which is sometimes mistaken for childish spontaneity. For this reason, the desire of girls of easy virtue to acquire a lasting social status is often limited solely to the desire to lead a beautiful life, freely managing money. In the 19th century, the spiritual food of prostitutes was replaced by "romance" with the regulars of their rooms or with someone from the servants, or, perhaps, with one of the girlfriends at the institution. After all, they were locked up almost all the time: there was a ban on the "yellow ticket", depriving them of the right to freely go out into the city. However, all these attachments were fleeting: a prostitute changed two or three brothels a year. This was the rule for the entire chain of brothels: the client should not have a feeling of satiety with her female workers.

But basic anxiety is just one of the factors that send a woman to the panel. The second is sexual indifference. As a rule, it is formed in a child who understands early what sexual love is. And I must say that in many peasant families the sexual relations of the parents were not hidden. So if the father and mother were overly expressive or rude in their sex life, the child was at risk.

The third, and most important factor, according to Antonyan, is desomatization, depersonalization of one's own body, a natural feature of the character structure. A desomatized person subconsciously feels his flesh as something alien, isolated from his own I, which can be freely manipulated. This explains the strikingly careless attitude of prostitutes to sexually transmitted diseases, the possibility of being beaten and even killed. All of this is perceived as a cost to their craft.

Everyone, I hope, understands that most women with the psychological characteristics described above do not become prostitutes, for this there must be some accompanying factor that sends them to the panel: need, disappointment in life, etc.

Sonechka Marmeladova - 50 kopecks

Brothels were divided into three categories. In the first hour of amorous pleasures cost from 3 to 5 rubles. Night - from 10 to 25 rubles. In houses of the second category - 1–2 and 2–5 rubles, respectively. Students, officials, junior officers and people of liberal professions came here. Brothels of the third class were the cheapest and were intended for factory workers and general laborers: 30-50 kopecks were left here per hour, 1-2 rubles per night.

The nineteenth century silver ruble in terms of its purchasing power is approximately equal to the modern thousand. Oddly enough, but today's prices for call prostitutes, which can be compared in status with the inhabitants of brothels, almost coincide with the prices of a century ago.

The working day in brothels began at five in the evening. Everybody got down to dressing up: whitewash, blush, antimony … All this was generously applied to the face, often turning the girl into a matryoshka - the village idea of beauty - “what is red is beautiful” was reflected. The forearms of some were decorated with tattoos: a heart with an arrow, doves, the initials of lovers or mistresses. Tattoos were applied on intimate parts of the body, but their appearance, according to the doctors who examined the inhabitants of the brothel, was "shamelessly cynical."

In large cities, brothel owners sought to locate their establishments near the center, so that a potential client could easily get to them and not be intercepted by street prostitutes. But not in the very center, so as not to plague the eyes of the authorities. In the provinces, on the other hand, red-light districts were moved to the outskirts.

Madame, the owner of the house, was greeted by visiting clients. The visitor was taken to the hall, where he could choose the young lady he liked. They usually expected him topless. In expensive houses, they undressed completely. The overwhelming majority of brothels were small - 3-5 young ladies, in large cities - 7-10. The age of the brothel itself was not too long - 5-10 years. Although there were older ones, there weren't many of them.

Moscow. House on the corner of Plotnikov Lane. Its bas-reliefs depict Russian writers drawn by the priestesses of love. But if in relation to Pushkin (1799-1837) the plot looks quite natural, then how Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) and Gogol (1809-1852) got here is a mystery. Both were high and sincere moralists. For example, the hero of Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata (1889) recalls his visit to the brothel: “I remember immediately, in the same place, without leaving the room, I felt sad, sad, so I wanted to cry, cry about the death of my innocence, about forever ruined attitude towards a woman. Yes, sir, the natural, simple attitude towards a woman was ruined forever. Since then, I have never had a pure attitude towards a woman and could not have. I have become what they call a fornicator. Photo (Creative Commons license): NVO

Oh, this is not an easy job …

The class of the brothel depended on the level of service: the number of women "in juice" (from 18 to 22 years old), the presence of "exotic" ("Georgian princesses", "Marquis of the times of Louis XIV", "Turkish women", etc.), as well as sexual delights. Of course, the furniture, women's outfits, wines and snacks were also different. In the brothels of the first category, rooms were buried in silks, and rings and bracelets flashed on the workers; in brothels of the third category, there was only a straw mattress, a hard pillow and a washed blanket on the bed.

According to Dr. Ilya Konkarovich (1874–?), Who was engaged in the study of prostitution in the 19th century, in expensive houses of prostitutes “their mistresses are forced to the most refined and unnatural debauchery, for which purpose in the most luxurious of such houses there are even special devices that are expensive., but nevertheless always finding buyers for themselves. There are houses that cultivate in themselves some kind of perverted debauchery and have acquired wide popularity for their specialty. These brothels were intended for a small number of wealthy regular customers.

There is an opportunity to tell more about one of the undertakings of expensive brothels. We are talking about rooms decorated with mirrors. Several couples gathered there, lighted alcohol lamps, and the binge began. After a while, the courtesans began to dance and undress … in the end, it all ended in an orgy, repeatedly reflected in the mirrors under the trembling light of alcohol lamps. They say the "attraction" was popular.

The daily "norm" of prostitutes in the brothels of the first category was 5-6 people a day. The second category - 10–12 and the lowest - up to 20 (!) People. Thus, the "average" prostitute earned up to 1,000 rubles a month. But she gave ¾ of them to Madame, with whom she was at full board. However, even with this, the earnings of 250 rubles were very considerable (the blank prostitute earned half as much and also shared with the pimp). For comparison, a servant received 12 rubles, a worker of a textile factory - 20 rubles, a worker of the highest category - 100 rubles, and a junior officer - 120 rubles. Of course, prostitutes with their psychological characteristics did not even think to leave their profession as long as their breasts were high.

However, such a more or less comfortable existence was sent to them for a rather short time. Sexually transmitted diseases, alcohol and age were their destructive companions. According to statistics from medical committees, at the end of the 19th century, at least 50% of prostitutes were sick with syphilis, which, due to the lack of antibiotics, was incurable, although doctors knew how to slow down its development. Almost no one could escape this infection. Sooner or later, the disease brought its mistress to a hospital bed, and from there there was only one road - to the slums, to live out its short life. It is surprising why the medicine of the time did not recognize the need to use condoms, which already existed and were called condoms.

Alcohol also contributed to the early aging of prostitutes. Former peasant women were especially addicted to him, most of whom, after 10 years of work, turned into alcoholics. Their status declined, from brothels of the higher category they moved to lower ones and in the end they perished, thrown out into the street.

The tradition of hanging red lanterns on the facade of a brothel dates back to ancient times, only then, instead of a lantern, there was a red phallus. In the opinion of the same Yuri Angarov, the entire Nevsky Prospect was supposed to be illuminated with red lanterns. In the evenings there are “whole crowds of idle people, prone to debauchery. Flirting girls […], St. Petersburg Nyushas, who want to get a profitable job on the maintenance […], ladies in mourning are simulators. To some they say that their husband has died; to others they lie that they have lost their fiancé, and then they go to a restaurant."

No sex

The social-idealistic period in the history of Russian sexual culture comes to naught at the beginning of the twentieth century, in the era of the Silver Age, which finally drew attention to the passion of love itself, to pleasure without any complexes. The essence of this transformation was well expressed by Vyacheslav Ivanov (1866-1949): “All human and world activity is reduced to Eros. There is no more aesthetics, no ethics - both are reduced to eroticism, and any boldness born of Eros is sacred."

But the process was interrupted by the events of 1917. The revolutionary government banned brothels, and sent prostitutes to Siberia to settle. By the mid-1930s, they were done away with. Only a few remained, serving the Soviet elite and foreigners (as a rule, for intelligence purposes). But the Soviet people did not at all regret the closure of brothels, the Soviet culture was distinguished by the same asexuality - there was nothing to regret.