What a boy could do in a Russian village a century ago

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

From 6-7 years old, the child had stable household duties, while labor acquired a sexual division: the boy gradually moved into his father's labor sphere, he was attracted to male occupations, the girl to female ones.

For example, in Simbirsk province at 6 years old boys were instructed to carry sheaves during threshing, at 8 - to graze horses, at 9-10 - to harrow, at 12 - to plow, and at 16-17 - to mow.

Attracting boys to work on the ground was one of the most important moments in the transfer of work skills necessary for independent living. Without owning them, a teenager could not become a full member of the village community. In the Russian tradition, farming was perceived as the basis of a full-fledged male status.

Becoming an assistant to his father, the boy participated in all his work. When manuring the land: the father brought manure and scattered it in large heaps, the son pulled it across the entire field, and then, during plowing, made sure that the clods of earth and manure did not interfere with the work of the plow and did not fill the furrow.

From the age of 11-13, the father taught the boy to plow. “For lack of time,” he rarely explained to his son how to plow, and there was no particular need for that, since he, following his father relentlessly, adopted all the necessary work methods. The father trusted his son to make a couple of furrows or provided an opportunity to practice, allocating a small area of arable land for self-cultivation. A teenager mastered plowing usually by the age of 14-15 - on the threshold of adulthood.

In a Russian village at the turn of the XIX - XX centuries. the boy's entry into the family's working life, the mastery of male household functions was accompanied by the obligatory involvement of him in caring for the horses: he gave them food, gave them to drink, in the summer he drove them to the river to drink. From 5-6 years old, the child learned to control a horse, sitting on top of it. From 8-9 years old, the boy learned to harness a horse, control it, sitting and standing in a cart. At this age he was already sent to the nocturnal - summer nocturnal grazing of herds of village horses.

In the Russian North and Siberia, where trades (fishing, hunting, etc.) were of great importance in the circle of economic concerns, children were attracted to fishing activities from early childhood.

First in the game, and then - watching his father and brothers, helping them to the best of his ability, by the age of 8-9 the boy had learned the basics of fishing: he knew how to put loops on ducks on a nearby lake, shoot a bow. At the age of 10, teenagers caught gophers, columns. Selling booty to visiting merchants, they received their first money of their own, which they could spend at their own discretion. At this age, almost every boy in a Siberian village could independently make a "muzzle" for catching fish and set it in the river. The first fish caught was a special source of pride.

The fishing activities also included the picking of berries and the extraction of pine nuts. The teenagers took an active part in collective fishing trips, which included several families. During them, they got acquainted with nature, learned to better navigate the terrain, and adopted the experience of constructing fishing camps. By the age of 14-15, the basic fishing skills were adopted. The father, who went fishing in the spring, was not afraid to leave his son of this age to hunt in the forest alone.

An important stage in the social and economic development of a teenager in fishing areas was membership in an adult fishing cooperative, which included all the men in the village, from teenagers to old people.

Men's fishing, less often hunting, associations, as well as latrine, handicraft professions, contributed to the preservation / revival of the traditions of men's organizations. One of them was a probationary period for admission to the artel of adolescents of 8-12 years old, without which they could not become its full members. A striking example was the tests of adolescents in the Murmansk fisheries of the Pomors: they were entrusted with impossible tasks, deceived, putting stones instead of fish in bags and tackles, forced themselves to get food for themselves, organized competitions between them, etc.

From that moment on, the professional and life education of a teenager was concentrated in the artel. Growing up, the boys passed into the category of cabin boys and coastal fishermen, who already had their share and contributed a significant share to the family budget. The adults treated them with respect and affectionately called them "breadwinners".

By the age of 15, a teenager had adopted all the household skills, was considered fit for any male work and, if hired as workers, received a pay equal to an adult. He was considered the right hand of his father, his replacement in absences and illness.

In the fishing areas, adult sons took over all the spring field work. While the father was on the hunt, the teenager independently plowed and fenced the site, and then went to help his father. Having a salary, such a teenager spent part of it on himself, preparing an age-old outfit for festivities, without which he could not be considered an enviable groom.