Construction of a Russian hut and its arrangement

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

Wood has been used as the main building material since ancient times. It was in wooden architecture that Russian architects developed that reasonable combination of beauty and utility, which then passed into structures of stone and brick. Many artistic and construction techniques that meet the living conditions and tastes of forest peoples have been developed over the centuries in wooden architecture.

The most significant buildings in Russia were erected from centuries-old trunks (three centuries or more) up to 18 meters long and more than half a meter in diameter. And there were many such trees in Russia, especially in the European North, which in the old days was called the "Northern Territory".

The properties of wood as a building material largely determined the special shape of wooden structures.

A log - its thickness - has become a natural unit of measurement for all dimensions of a building, a kind of module.

On the walls of huts and temples there were pine and larch tarred on the root, and a roof was made from light spruce. And only where these species were rare, they used a strong heavy oak or birch for the walls.

Yes, and not every tree was chopped down, with analysis, with preparation. In advance, they looked out for a suitable pine tree and made weeds (weasels) with an ax - they removed the bark on the trunk in narrow strips from top to bottom, leaving strips of intact bark between them for sap flow. Then, for another five years, they left the pine tree to stand. During this time, she thickly secretes resin, impregnates the trunk with it. And so, in the cold autumn, while the day had not yet begun to lengthen, and the earth and the trees were still sleeping, they chopped down this tarred pine. You can't cut it later - it will start to rot. Aspen, and deciduous forest in general, on the contrary, was harvested in the spring, during sap flow. Then the bark easily comes off the log and it, dried in the sun, becomes strong as bone.

The main, and often the only tool of the ancient Russian architect was an ax. Saws, although they have been known since the 10th century, were used exclusively in carpentry for interior work. The fact is that the saw tears the wood fibers during operation, leaving them open to water. The ax, crushing the fibers, as it were, seals the ends of the logs. No wonder, they still say: "cut down the hut." And, well known to us now, they tried not to use nails. Indeed, around the nail, the tree begins to rot faster. As a last resort, wooden crutches were used.

The basis of the wooden building in Russia was the "log house". These are logs fastened ("connected") to each other in a quadrangle. Each row of logs was reverently called a "crown." The first, lower crown was often placed on a stone base - "ryazh", which was made of powerful boulders. So it is warmer and less rotting.

By the type of fastening of the logs, the types of log cabins also differed. For outbuildings, a “cut-to-cut” frame was used (rarely laid). The logs here were not stacked tightly, but in pairs on top of each other, and often were not fastened at all. When fastening the logs "in the paw" their ends, whimsically hewn and really resembling paws, did not go beyond the outside of the wall. The crowns here were already tightly adjacent to each other, but in the corners it could still blow out in winter.

The most reliable, warm, was considered to be the fastening of logs "in a flash", in which the ends of the logs slightly went beyond the wall. Such a strange name today comes from the word "oblon" ("oblon"), meaning the outer layers of a tree (compare "to clothe, envelop, shell"). Back at the beginning of the XX century.they said: “to cut the hut into the Obolon”, if they wanted to emphasize that inside the hut, the logs of the walls are not constrained. However, more often the outside of the logs remained round, while inside the hut they were hewn to a plane - "scraped into a las" (las was called a smooth strip). Now the term "bummer" refers more to the ends of the logs protruding from the wall outward, which remain round, with a bummer.

The rows of logs themselves (crowns) were tied together with the help of internal spikes. Moss was laid between the crowns in the frame, and after the final assembly of the frame, the cracks were caulked with linen tow. Attics were often laid with the same moss to keep warm in winter.

In terms of the plan, the log cabins were made in the form of a quadrangle ("four"), or in the form of an octagon ("octagon"). From several adjacent quarters, mainly huts were made, and the octagon was used for the construction of wooden churches (after all, the octagon allows you to increase the area of the room almost six times without changing the length of the logs). Often, placing fours and eights on top of each other, the ancient Russian architect folded the pyramidal structure of the church or rich mansions.

A simple covered rectangular wooden blockhouse without any outbuildings was called a "cage". “Crate in a cage, tell a povet”, - they used to say in the old days, trying to emphasize the reliability of a log house in comparison with an open canopy - a povet. Usually the frame was placed on the "basement" - the lower auxiliary floor, which was used to store supplies and household equipment. And the upper rims of the frame expanded upward, forming a cornice - "fell". This interesting word, derived from the verb "to fall down," was often used in Russia. So, for example, "tumblers" were called the upper cold dormitories in the house or mansions, where the whole family went to sleep in the summer (to tumble down) from a heated hut.

The doors in the cage were made as low as possible, and the windows were placed higher. So less heat left the hut.

In ancient times, the roof over the log house was made without nails - "male". For this purpose, the ends of the two end walls were made from shrinking stumps of logs, which were called "males". Long longitudinal poles were placed on them with steps - "dolniki", "lie down" (compare "lie down"). Sometimes, however, the ends of the beds, cut into the walls, were also called males. One way or another, but the whole roof got its name from them.

From top to bottom, thin tree trunks cut down from one of the branches of the root were cut into the slopes. Such trunks with roots were called "chickens" (apparently for the similarity of the left root to a chicken paw). These upward branches of the roots supported the hollowed-out log - the "stream". Water flowing from the roof was collecting in it. And already on top of the hens and sleds they laid wide roof boards, resting with their lower edges against the hollowed-out groove of the stream. Especially carefully blocked from the rain the upper joint of the boards - "horse" ("prince"). A thick "ridge slug" was laid under it, and from above the joint of the boards, as if with a hat, was covered with a log hollowed out from below - a "shell" or "skull". However, more often this log was called "goofy" - that which embraces.

Why did they not cover the roof of wooden huts in Russia! That straw was tied in sheaves (bunches) and laid along the roof slope, pressing with poles; then they splintered aspen logs into planks (shingles) and, like scales, covered the hut in several layers. And in deep antiquity, even sod wings, turning it upside down and underlining the birch bark.

The most expensive coating was considered "tes" (boards). The word "tes" itself reflects well the process of its manufacture. A smooth, knot-free log was chipped lengthwise in several places, and wedges were driven into the cracks. The log split in this way was chopped several times along. The irregularities of the resulting wide boards were weighed down with a special ax with a very wide blade.

The roof was usually covered in two layers - "undergrowth" and "red plank". The lower layer of the tesa on the roof was also called the rock, as it was often covered with "rock" (birch bark, which was chopped off from birches) for tightness. Sometimes they arranged a roof with a kink. Then the lower, flatter part was called "police" (from the old word "floor" - half).

The entire pediment of the hut was importantly called "brow" and was abundantly decorated with magical protective carving. The outer ends of the under-roof slabs were covered from the rain with long planks - "pricks". And the upper joint of the pischelin was covered with a patterned hanging board - a “towel”.

The roof is the most important part of a timber structure. “There would be a roof over your head,” people still say. Therefore, over time, it became a symbol of any temple, house and even an economic structure, its "top".

In ancient times, any completion was called "riding". These tops, depending on the wealth of the building, could be very diverse. The simplest was the "cage" top - a simple gable roof on a cage. Temples were usually decorated with a "tent" top in the form of a high octahedral pyramid. The "cubic top" was intricate, reminiscent of a massive four-sided onion. The towers were decorated with such a top. The "barrel" was quite difficult to work with - a gable pavement with smooth curved outlines, ending with a sharp ridge. But they also made a "baptismal barrel" - two intersecting simple barrels. Hip-roof churches, cubic, tiered, multi-domed - all of this is named after the completion of the temple, at its top.

The ceiling was not always satisfied. When firing stoves "in black" it is not needed - the smoke will only accumulate under it. Therefore, in the living quarters it was done only with the firebox "in white" (through a pipe in the oven). In this case, the ceiling boards were laid on thick beams - "matrices".

The Russian hut was either a "four-walled" (simple cage), or "five-walled" (a cage partitioned off by a wall inside - a "cut"). During the construction of the hut, auxiliary rooms were added to the main volume of the cage ("porch", "canopy", "yard", "bridge" between the hut and the yard, etc.). In Russian lands, not spoiled by heat, they tried to put the whole complex of buildings together, to press them together.

There were three types of organization of the complex of buildings that made up the courtyard. A single large two-story house for several related families under one roof was called a "purse". If the utility rooms were attached to the side and the whole house took the form of the letter "G", then it was called a "verb". If the outbuildings were adjusted from the end of the main frame and the whole complex was pulled into a line, then they said that it was a "timber".

A "porch" led into the house, which was often arranged on "supports" ("outlets") - the ends of long logs released from the wall. Such a porch was called "hanging".

The porch was usually followed by a "canopy" (canopy - a shadow, a shaded place). They were arranged so that the door did not open directly to the street, and the heat did not come out of the hut in winter. The front part of the building, together with the porch and the entryway, was called in ancient times "sprout".

If the hut was two-story, then the second floor was called "povetya" in outbuildings and "upper room" in the living quarters. The rooms above the second floor, where the maiden was usually located, were called "terem".

On the second floor, especially in outbuildings, was often led by "import" - an inclined log platform. A horse with a cart laden with hay could climb along it. If the porch led directly to the second floor, then the porch platform itself (especially if there was an entrance to the first floor under it) was called a "locker".

Since the huts were almost all "chimney", that is, they were heated "in black", then inside the walls were white, specially cut up to the height of a man's height, and above them - black from constant smoke. On the smoke border, along the walls, there were usually long wooden shelves - "Vorontsov", which prevented the penetration of smoke into the lower part of the room.

The smoke came out of the hut either through small "drag windows" or through the "chimney" - a wooden pipe, richly decorated with carvings.

In rich houses and temples, a "gulbische" was often arranged around a log-house - a gallery covering the building from two or three sides.