The life of beggars in Tsarist Russia

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

Popular wisdom says that one should not excuse himself from prison and from the bag. If in the first case everything is obvious, then the second part of the saying is debatable. Before the revolution, begging was for many a profitable business that did not require investment and made it possible to live better than those who earned money by labor.

At the end of the 19th century, any believer in Moscow or St. Petersburg had to overcome a whole "obstacle course" before entering the church service. All approaches to the cathedrals, from the gates to the porch, were densely packed with beggars who shouted, sobbed, laughed, pulled at their clothes and threw themselves under their feet in order to receive at least some alms from the parishioners.

To the ignorant person, the army of the poor imagined a chaotic mass acting in a disorderly manner, but an experienced eye immediately noticed a serious organization among those asking "for Christ's sake." The mendicant brethren played whole plays in order to receive alms. This is how Anatoly Bakhtiarov, a St. Petersburg journalist at the beginning of the 20th century, writes about it in his documentary book "Reckless People: Essays from the Life of Perished People":

“… At this time, a merchant of a rather elderly age appeared in the narthex of the church. Seeing him, the beggars instantly quieted down and, groaning and sighing, began to chant, begging for alms.

- Give it, for Christ's sake! Do not refuse, benefactor! The husband is dead! Seven children!

- Give the blind man, the blind man!

- Help the wretched, unfortunate!

The merchant thrust a copper into the hand of the “unfortunate widow” and walked on. Anton does not yawn: he opened the church doors at the very moment when the merchant approached them, for which he also received a copper."

Anton participating in the performance is the husband of an inconsolable widow who is trying to pity the merchant with 7 children. Needless to say, if a couple actually have children, then they also work in this area, perhaps even in conjunction with their parents.

Most of the infirm are quite healthy, but very convincingly play their chosen roles. The same Bakhtiarov describes the moment the bishop met near the cathedral. One of the beggars, working in the role of a blind man, gives out the phrase:

"I looked through all my eyes, so as not to miss Vladyka!"

Performances with beggars were performed in pre-revolutionary Moscow in the hundreds, like at churches, and just on the streets. Tens of thousands of beggars worked in the capital, having a clear specialization, a dedicated territory and, of course, a paid "roof". In other large cities of the empire, the situation was not much better. Remember the dialogue between Panikovsky and Balaganov from the novel "The Golden Calf" by Ilf and Petrov?

“- Go to Kiev and ask what Panikovsky did before the revolution. Be sure to ask!

- What are you harassing? Balaganov asked gloomily.

- No, you ask! - Panikovsky demanded. - Go and ask. And you will be told that before the revolution Panikovsky was blind. If not for the revolution, would I have gone to the children of Lieutenant Schmidt, do you think? After all, I was a rich man. I had a family and a nickel-plated samovar on the table. What fed me? Blue glasses and a stick"

This is not a literary fiction or a joke - the profession of a beggar was actually quite profitable and many ragamuffins fed their families alone and even saved money "for a rainy day."

Where did the tradition of begging come from in Russia? Sociologist Igor Golossenko claims that before the advent of Christianity, the Slavs could not even imagine that the sick and the crippled should be fed for food. A natural disaster that spread around the world or disability suggested two ways of solving it: die of hunger or go to a more successful fellow countryman as a slave and do a feasible job. Those who could not work physically, nursed the children, entertained them with songs and tales, and guarded the property of the master.

Christian charity radically changed the harsh world of the pagans - everyone who suffers and is in need has now become a "son of God" and it is sinful to refuse him alms. Thanks to this, the streets of cities and villages of Russia quickly filled hordes of real cripples and cunning simulators who howled "Give me, for Christ's sake …" under the windows, in the shopping arcades, at the porches of churches and the porches of the merchants' choir. Christarads - this is how the merciful donors called these people and tried not to refuse them handouts.

Attempts to curb the beggars have been made on several occasions. The first to solve this problem was the tsar-reformer Peter I. He issued a decree prohibiting the giving of alms in the streets. Now anyone who takes pity on the poor fellow with an outstretched hand was in for a solid fine. Himself asking, if caught red-handed, received lashes and expelled from the city. Someone went to their homeland, to a village forgotten by God, and a beggar, caught again, went to explore Siberia.

As an alternative to begging, the king ordered the opening of many almshouses, shelters at monasteries and hospice houses, where the poor were fed, watered and provided with a roof over their heads. Of course, the initiative of Pyotr Alekseevich failed and the beggars preferred to take risks than sit on starvation rations in four walls, waiting for death.

Other Romanovs also took up this question. For example, Nicholas I in 1834 issued a decree on the creation of a Committee for the analysis and charity of the poor in St. Petersburg. This institution was engaged in sorting the tramps and beggars caught by the police into real invalids and hardened "pros". They tried to help the first with treatment and small payments, and the second were again sent to sunny Siberia to cut wood and dig ores. This good initiative also failed - the number of people begging on the streets of cities did not decrease.

The number of Christians reached their apogee after wars and epidemics, and the abolition of serfdom in 1861 turned the invasion of beggars into a real disaster on an imperial scale. A third of the peasants of Russia, who were, in fact, in the position of slaves, found themselves free without money, property and land that fed them from generation to generation. More precisely, the allotment could be obtained from the master according to the law, but for this it was necessary to redeem it, which practically no one could do.

Tens of thousands of former peasants rushed to the cities in search of a better life. Only a few of them were able to adapt, organizing their own small business or reforging themselves into the proletariat - most joined the already huge army of beggars. Historians still do not agree on the total number of members of the mendicant fraternity - their number in Russia at the end of the 19th century is estimated from several hundred thousand to two million.

It is known for sure that at the beginning of the 20th century, from 1905 to 1910, 14-19 thousand beggars were detained and registered only in Moscow and St. Petersburg every year. This figure makes it clear the scope of the phenomenon. Beggars earned their bread quite easily - a little artistry, a couple of tearful stories and simple equipment - that's all that was needed to start a career.

Merchants and intellectuals willingly served begging, pitying them and sincerely believing in the stories told. It is difficult to say how many sleepless nights writers, poets and philosophers spent thinking about the “fate of the Russian people”, inspired by the stories of real and imaginary cripples and homeless people.

The mendicant fraternity was divided into groups according to their specialization. The most prestigious "profession" was working on the porch. The so-called "praying mantises" can be called an elite of beggars. In the presence of some talents, these beggars got money relatively easily, and of the minuses of the specialty, only high competition can be called.

It was not at all easy to get into the "praying mantises". All the beggars who hunted at the temples were in artels, where jobs were carefully distributed. A stranger who entered someone else's territory risked serious injury, since in the fight against competitors, the sick and crippled did not know pity. You could also get it on the neck and from your own people in case of violation of the schedule. If one poor man begged for alms at matins, then by the evening service he had to hand over the post to his colleague.

Less money, but also not too dusty, was the work of "gravediggers" begging in cemeteries. When the "crucian carp" appeared (as the deceased was called in the jargon of the beggars), the crowd of beggars rushed to the inconsolable relatives and friends, shaking their rags, groaning and demonstrating real and "fake" sores and injuries.

There was a clear calculation of psychologists - grieving and confused people always serve willingly and more than in other situations. The profession of the "gravedigger", like the "praying mantis", was quite monetary. Often, those begging for alms were an order of magnitude richer than the givers.

The role of the Jerusalem wanderer was very popular. In this case, even mutilation was not required - a mournful face and black clothes were enough. The pious Orthodox pilgrim, who returned from the worship of the Holy Places, inspired respect and religious awe among the layman, which was used by the beggars. Their methods of work were special - they asked modestly and unobtrusively, sometimes even with dignity. In return, the submitter received a blessing and several hackneyed tales about distant countries.

Fire victims or "firefighters" are another category of beggars who have worked wherever possible. These people portrayed peasants who lost their homes and belongings as a result of the fire and collected for the restoration of their homes or the construction of a new one. Fires were common in Russia, built of wood, and no one was immune from such a disaster. Therefore, such beggars were willingly served, especially if they worked in groups in the company of grimy sobbing children and a grief-stricken wife.

There were always many immigrants who told a simple story that they left their home in a distant starving province in search of a better life and were forced to wander, enduring the most incredible hardships. This way of begging was not the most profitable, since usually the "settlers" worked in groups, dividing the spoils among themselves equally or by right of the mighty.

Also, a huge number of cripples worked in the Russian Empire. Among them were both real invalids and those who exaggerated their weakness or even invented it. To simulate the deformity or the consequences of injury, a variety of methods were used, from banal crutches, to tying raw meat in the body in order to imitate a severe illness.

Many "legless" showed the miracles of stoicism, sitting on sidewalks or churches with their limbs tucked in for long hours. When exposed, such cripples were often beaten and even arrested and escorted to the already familiar lands beyond the Ural ridge.

Beggars-writers have always been considered a special, "white bone" in Russia. These people were often well educated, had trustworthy looks and were neatly dressed. They worked according to a special scenario, without stopping to begging on the streets. This type would go into a trade shop and with dignity asked the clerk to call the owner, or he addressed a lonely, fine-looking lady.

At the same time, the pressure was made not on religious feelings, but on human compassion. The writer told a short but plausible story about what prompted him, a noble man, to fall so low and reach out his hand. Here it was important to choose the right narration - the ladies willingly served the victims of unrequited love and intra-family intrigues, and the merchant people to the ruined and lost entrepreneurs.

It should be noted that little has changed since then, and these specializations, somewhat modified, still exist. In addition, in our time, many new ways have appeared to beg from gullible citizens, and professional beggars have become more cynical and resourceful.