The proposed article and video material, without any doubt, will be received with interest by our colleagues. Extremely interesting facts are revealed to us in the process of becoming acquainted with the dietary habits of the ancient Slavs. Without in any way denying the usefulness of vegetarianism and Ayurvedic cuisine, however, we are forced to admit that the food of our ancestors was much more varied. In places where, due to natural conditions, it was difficult to grow grain or keep domestic animals, the Slavs were forced to eat what a successful hunt or fishing would send them. And yet bread, milk, kvass and porridge are our strength. It's hard to disagree.
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FOOD OF THE EASTERN SLAVS
The traditional food of the East Slavic peoples has not been studied enough. The economic activities of the population were studied much more intensively. Methods of processing products and preparing various dishes from them, that is, folk cooking techniques, attracted attention to a much lesser extent. Meanwhile, it is in the various details of folk cuisine, in the everyday diet and nutrition, in festive and ritual food that the characteristic features of the traditional way of life of an ethnic group are manifested with particular brightness.
In the 19th - early 20th centuries, information about the food of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians was published mainly in local publications. They characterized the nutrition of the population in one district, province or in individual localities and were written by doctors, economists, statisticians, military personnel, etc. This determined a different approach to the phenomena under consideration. Thus, medical articles aimed to find out the causes of common diseases and, in connection with this, paid attention mainly to nutritional deficiencies. The composition and quality of the products were taken into account in the statistical and topographical descriptions. Finally, some works colorfully depicted the richness and diversity of the population's culinary skills.
In general, we can say that in those days collecting work was carried out, and there was no unity in understanding the subject of research and methodology. Therefore, such publications are fragmentary. Typically, researchers have noted the predominance of plant products, largely attributing it to the restrictions imposed by the Christian religion, which established fast days when it was forbidden to eat meat and drink milk. There were more than two hundred such days a year, which in itself established certain proportions in the diet. Reporting an approximate menu for residents of a particular area, many authors listed the most popular dishes that are eaten during fasting and during meat-eaters. Basically, the nutritional conditions of the peasantry were displayed, which in most works was considered as a single whole, without taking into account its social stratification.
Bread, dough products, cereals, stews
The leading branch of the economy of the Eastern Slavs was grain farming, so flour and cereal products formed the basis of nutrition. Bread was especially important. Due to its high calorie content and good taste, it has been and is an invariable component of the diet of all segments of the population. The expression: “Bread and salt” served as one of the forms of greeting, meaning a wish for well-being. They greeted especially honored guests and young spouses on their wedding day with bread and salt; they went with bread to visit the woman in labor. Guests were treated to bread products and brought as gifts to the owners when they went to visit. When setting off on a long journey, the first thing they stocked up on was bread. None of the other types of food can compare with it in terms of variety of both preparation methods and finished products.
Bread differs in the types of flour, its quality, methods of making the dough and its recipe, the nature of the baking, and shape. Rye bread “black” has played a major role in Russia since ancient times. Its predominant consumption in the northern and middle zone of settlement of the Eastern Slavs (non-chernozem lands) was explained by the zonal features of agriculture: the predominance of rye crops over wheat crops. The expansion of wheat crops observed during the 19th century in the southern part of the black soil steppes contributed to the fact that by the beginning of the 20th century, wheat - “white” - bread became the main bread in the south and southeast. In some places (Altai, Minusinsk regions) they stopped eating rye bread altogether, and in some areas they baked rye-wheat - “gray” - bread.
However, the rural population did not have enough reserves of rye and wheat, so flour from other grain crops was also used. They baked the so-called chaff (in Belarus) - bread from wholemeal rye flour, to which half of the bread was added barley, buckwheat or oatmeal. Depending on the type of flour used, the bread was called grechanik (with buckwheat flour), yachnik (with barley flour), prosyanik (with millet flour). In the Carpathians and the Urals, where there were poor grain harvests, oatmeal was also used.
In lean years or in the spring, when supplies were running low, various impurities from dried and crushed plants were added to the flour. So, in Belarus and in the Carpathians, when there was a shortage of crops, bread with the addition of grated potatoes was very common (Belarusians call it bulbyan bread, Hutsuls - riplyanyk, Lemkos - banduryannik). In general, a lot of such impurities were known at that time: among cultivated plants, these were most often potatoes, then carrots, beets, bran; from wild ones - crushed pine and oak bark, acorns, wild buckwheat, quinoa, fern, etc.
Depending on the quality of the flour, a distinction was made between sieve bread - made from flour sifted through a sieve (with a fine mesh), sieve - from flour sifted through a sieve (with a fine mesh), and fur (or chaff) - from wholemeal flour.
The Eastern Slavs, like other Slavic peoples, baked bread from sour dough. The most ancient techniques of baking bread from unleavened dough in the form of shortcakes were preserved in folk memory, but were usually used occasionally. As a basic and everyday unleavened bread, unleavened bread was common only in the Carpathians: the Boykos baked it from oatmeal flour (oshchipok), the Lemkos and Hutsuls baked it from corn flour (the Lemkos called it adzimok, oschinok, the Hutsuls called it mala, korzh). They baked it immediately before eating, kneading the dough in a wooden trough, often without salt.
Preparing sour bread required longer processing of the products. The flour taken for baking was carefully sifted into a special wooden trough (selnitsa, nochva, nochva, netski). Then they kneaded the dough in wooden (dugout or cooper's) kneaders, and in Ukraine in some places also in clay kvass (Northern Russian kvashnya, South Russian dezha, Ukrainian dizha, white dzyazha) and at the same time fermented it. Yeast, special mixtures with hops, kvass or beer grounds, and most often the remains of dough from previous baking were used as leaven. In southern Russian villages they also prepared scalded bread, for which the flour was brewed with boiling water before fermentation. The well-kneaded dough was placed in a warm place where it would rise. To ensure that the breads were fluffy, zealous housewives “beat” them and let them rise a second time.
The finished dough was cut into round loaves (in the form of tall, thick flat cakes) and baked in a hut oven on a cleanly swept hearth (hearth bread). Bread was sometimes placed on cabbage leaves, and in some areas in the 20th century they used tin round cylindrical or oblong rectangular shapes (tin bread).
Usually bread was baked once a week, but in areas with stable high yields (southern Western Siberia), daily baking became customary.
In cities at the end of the 19th century, bread was usually bought ready-made. It was baked in bakeries and sold in bakeries. In bakeries, they made a wide variety of products from rich (with the addition of butter and eggs) wheat dough, which varied both in dough recipe and shape. These were various round and oblong rolls and buns, pretzels (figure eight), rolls (round or shaped), etc. Bagels, bagels and sushki (dried and small sizes) were made from wheat dough, rolled into a ring, boiled in water and then baked. All these products were very popular. They were sold in bakeries and shops, peddled at bazaars and fairs, in taverns and teahouses. They widely entered the life of the urban commoner and, together with tea, constituted a daily breakfast for many. These products were brought to the village as gifts.
In rural areas, small cookies were baked in a frying pan from sour dough left when cutting bread (Belarusians called them skavarodniki, Ukrainians called pampushki) in the form of flat cakes or rings, which were usually served for breakfast (in the north and in Siberia they were called soft, soft breakfast).
From pieces of bread, various grain remains, crusts and crackers, they prepared tyurya, or murtsovka, which on fasting days constituted the main food of the poorest segments of the population of the city and village (with the exception of Transcarpathia, where it was almost unknown). Tyurya was pieces of bread crumbled into salted water, kvass, spring birch sap, whey, milk, and in Belarus they used potato decoction for this (the dish was called kapluk). As food for children, prison also entered the life of the wealthy: pieces of white bread or buns were soaked in milk or cream with sugar and served as sweets.
On holidays they baked pies (pie) from sour wheat or rye dough. In areas with unstable grain harvests (Belarus, the Carpathians, Russian non-black earth provinces), pies were also considered bread baked from higher quality flour; among northern Russians and Belarusians - wheat, among southern Russians and in the Carpathians - even rye, but from sifted flour . For Russians in other areas and Ukrainians, pies with fillings are more typical, for which vegetables, berries, mushrooms, fish, eggs, meat, cottage cheese, porridge, etc. were widely used. It is interesting to note that the areas of the most common types of pie fillings have developed. Thus, the Russians of the northern provinces and Siberia loved pies with wild berries (blueberries, cloudberries, bird cherry) and especially with fish; in the southern zone of Russia and Ukraine - with garden berries. Very popular were small flat cakes, on which a filling of cottage cheese (cheesecakes) or another type of dough was placed (shanegs, common in the European North, the Urals and Siberia), as well as without any filling at all, smeared with sour cream on top (pampushki of Ukrainians and Belarusians ), sprinkled with salt, caraway seeds, poppy seeds, crushed hemp seeds (lacunas, sochni Belarusians), with mushrooms, with porridge. Pies baked from sour dough in the Carpathians were called baked pies and were rarely prepared. More common there were pies made from unleavened dough - knishes, filled with boiled potatoes, sauerkraut, sometimes cottage cheese and usually had a triangular shape.
Ritual cookies were baked from sour dough, specially intended for annual and family holidays. Each of them was designed in a certain way. So, on Holy Week, for Maundy Thursday, cookies were prepared in the form of animal figurines (Russian roe, cow), which were given to livestock; for March 9 (“forty martyrs”), larks were baked from dough to commemorate the arrival of birds; for the Ascension, ladders (oblong a pie with cross bars), for Epiphany - crosses, for Easter Easter cakes (tall, fluffy rich breads in cylindrical shapes). These cookies reflected ancient religious and magical ideas in materialized form, for example: the ladder symbolized the ascension and were baked both on the corresponding holiday and on days of remembrance of the dead.
Large ritual pies for weddings were baked from the best types of flour. In the Russian North, in the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia, such pies were called kurniks; they were filled with chicken, lamb, and beef. In the southern Russian provinces (Don, Kuban), as well as in Ukraine and Belarus, tall, fluffy loaf bread was baked for weddings. It was decorated with cones baked from dough, animal figures, as well as flowers or tree branches.
An ancient ritual dish was pancakes (Russian pancake, white pancake, Ukrainian pancake). They were baked from sour dough of any type of flour (buckwheat, millet, oatmeal, barley, sometimes pea), and in the 20th century mainly from wheat; They ate it with butter and lard, with sour cream and liquid cottage cheese, sometimes with honey, with salted fish and sturgeon caviar. For Russians and Belarusians, pancakes have been a mandatory dish during funeral rites since ancient times. Until now, Russians eat them in large quantities and with a variety of seasonings in the spring, on the holidays of farewell to winter. Ukrainians (mlintsi) consumed pancakes made from sour dough much less often. They were baked in the central Ukrainian provinces, usually from buckwheat flour (grechaniky). More often they prepared pancakes from unleavened dough, known to all East Slavic peoples (Russian blintsy, Ukrainian and white nalisniki).
At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, in the cities of central Russia, gingerbread cookies, known since the 17th century, which were distributed throughout Russia as a festive treat, were sometimes served as ritual cookies. They were baked from round dough with plenty of spices, on molasses with honey or pure honey, sprinkled with raisins on top, and decorated with embossed patterns (gingerbread patterns were cut out on pear or linden boards). Gingerbread was given as a gift to relatives and distributed to the poor on the day of remembrance of the dead. They have long been a favorite gift at all wedding and pre-wedding parties, and in cities they replaced chicken and loaf.
Many different dishes were prepared from unleavened dough. Flatbreads are known to all agricultural peoples. Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians baked them from any type of flour, usually as a substitute for bread when there was a shortage of it. In some areas of Belarus, flat cakes (lapuns), spread with cottage cheese, crushed poppy seeds or hemp, were sent to relatives during family holidays.
Dishes made from dough cooked in boiling water, milk, and broth are very common not only among the Eastern Slavs, but also among many peoples of Western Europe, as well as the peoples of the East. Of these, the most famous is noodle soup (Russian noodles, Ukrainian lokshina, white noodles). Steep noodle dough was kneaded with eggs, rolled out thinly, cut into small narrow strips, dried and then boiled in broth or milk. Other soups had less complex cooking, prepared with boiled dough, scooped out with a spoon (Ukrainian dumplings, Russian dumplings) or torn off (rvantsy). Boiled pieces of dough were eaten without broth, pouring them with sour cream (Ukrainian dumplings) or “milk” made from poppy seeds and hemp (bel. kama).
Dishes made from unleavened dough in the form of small filled pies boiled in water: dumplings and dumplings were very popular.
Dumplings were the favorite national food of Ukrainians; Belarusians and Russians in the southern provinces also prepared them. The dough for dumplings was rolled out thinly, cut into circles and stuffed with cottage cheese, shredded cabbage, and, in the summer, with berries, primarily cherries. After boiling, the dumplings were taken out and eaten with sour cream or butter. Ukrainians also made dumplings from yeast dough, filling them with plums or sire (cottage cheese).
Dumplings were a favorite dish among the Russians of the Urals and Siberia. The dough for them was rolled out not into a sheet, but into a thin sausage; they cut it up, kneading each small piece into a flat cake; stuffed with minced meat and folded into a half ring. Boiled dumplings were removed from the broth, if with hot seasoning: vinegar, pepper, mustard. There is an opinion that dumplings were adopted by Russians from the peoples of the Urals (the Komi-Permyak word “pelnyan” means “bread ear”). In Siberia, in winter, dumplings were prepared in large quantities, frozen, put in bags and used as needed.
Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians who lived in Central Asia adopted from the local peoples a dish similar to dumplings - manti. They were made larger, filled with minced meat with a lot of onions and steamed on special grates.
Dough products boiled in boiling fat were considered festive table dishes among the Eastern Slavs, as well as among many other peoples of Eurasia. Their forms were very diverse. Most often, the dough was cut into narrow strips (Russian brushwood, struzhni), in Ukraine round nuts (gorishki) were rolled up and served at weddings, in Siberia they used a variety of tin forms (they were dipped in dough and then in boiling fat). In cast iron molds with patterns, the dough was dried and waffles were made, which were considered a delicacy.
In Ukraine, dough in the form of balls was boiled in boiling honey (cones). Brewing in honey, as you know, is very common among the Caucasian peoples.
Everyday meals included easy-to-prepare, but extremely high-calorie dishes made from custard or steamed flour. Russians and Ukrainians widely used salamata (Ukrainian salamakha), which was made from fried flour, brewed with boiling water and steamed in the oven. The finished salamata was poured with fat (animal or vegetable) on top. Kulaga (kvasha) was prepared from sweetish malt flour with the addition of viburnum berries in the north and Siberia, and fruits in the south. This sweet dish was served as a delicacy, usually during Lent. Ukrainians prepared sauerkraut from a mixture of millet, buckwheat and rye flour; Flatbreads were made from heavily boiled buckwheat flour, which were eaten with fresh milk. Ukrainians and Belarusians prepared grout in the form of flour crumbs brewed with boiling water (Russian grout, Ukrainian grout, white grout). Liquid dishes made from boiled flour (bautukha, kalatukha, tsirka) were especially common among Belarusians. They are still cooked today, but with milk. Similar dishes are known in Poland (zacirca).
Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians prepared oatmeal from oatmeal (Belarusians also call it milta), which some researchers consider an ancient Slavic dish. For this purpose, oats were steamed, then dried and ground into flour. When eating, it was diluted with salted or sweetened water, kvass, milk, or added to liquid dishes. In the North and in the Urals, oatmeal was one of the ubiquitous dishes; Ukrainians prepared it less often than others. Oatmeal was very common in central Europe and Asia, but it is almost unknown to the southern Slavs.
Kissels were made from leavened flour (most often oatmeal, but also rye and pea). For this purpose, the flour was poured with boiling water, left for several days, changing the water (“fermented”), and then filtered and boiled. Russians and Belarusians ate these thick jelly with the addition of cow or vegetable oil, and Ukrainians also with honey and milk. Kissels were an ancient ritual dish; they were served at all family holidays (birthdays, weddings), as well as at funerals.
Cereal dishes, and especially porridge, were no less common than flour dishes. In the Russian North, in the Urals, in Siberia and in the Ukrainian Carpathians, mainly oat and barley cereals were consumed, in the south - millet, and on the border with Moldova - corn. Buckwheat, which was not very common in other countries, was very loved by the East Slavic peoples. Rice cereals were available to the rural population of the southern strip of Siberia and Central Asia, where they were purchased from the local indigenous population. In the European part of the country, only privileged sections of the urban population had the opportunity to buy rice. In the Amur region they used budu - Manchurian millet.
Porridge was cooked in water and milk and steamed in the oven. They have been ritual food since ancient times, they were fed to newlyweds at weddings, they were served at christenings, and they were prepared as boiled kutya (sometimes with honey or raisins).
Since ancient times, porridges have been eaten with liquid hot dishes (cabbage soup, borscht); in the south-west of Ukraine, liquid dishes were served with kulesha - corn porridge, which replaced bread. Widespread among Ukrainians and Russians in the southern regions, kulesh (Ukrainian kulish) was a liquid millet porridge cooked with lard (in the 20th century also with potatoes and onions). Russians in the northern provinces of Siberia and the Urals prepared thick, so-called “thick” cabbage soup, boiling barley with flour dressing. In the 20th century, potatoes began to be added. Ukrainian groups in the Carpathians made "rye borscht". To do this, flour was poured with water and fermented, and then boiled. Since that time, people began to eat this borscht with separately boiled potatoes. Belarusians also prepared a hot dish of cereals (krupnik).
Liquid hot dishes (Russian stews, Ukrainian yushki) were also cooked from vegetables. However, cereals or a dressing made from flour stirred in water were often added to them. Gradually, these dishes became more widespread. Legumes used for stews were peas, and in the south, beans and lentils.
In the middle and southern zone of the country, the most popular dish among Russians was cabbage soup (“Shchi and porridge are our food”). To prepare them, sour or fresh cabbage was used, root vegetables were added to it and seasoned with flour dressing. Belarusians called a similar dish cabbage.
In Ukraine and in the southern Russian and Belarusian provinces, a favorite hot dish was borscht, which was prepared from beets, sometimes with the addition of other vegetables. It was cooked with beet kvass (the beets were filled with water and left for a day - fermented) or with bread kvass (raw cheese). Ukrainians put many different vegetables in borscht besides beets: cabbage, potatoes, onions, dill, parsley, beans, seasoned with flour or cereal grout, lard or vegetable oil. In Kuban, plums were also added to borscht.
In the spring, in many places, young beets and their tops were used to prepare botvinya (white: batsvinne) - a stew, to which various greens that had grown by this time were added.
On fast days, hot dishes were cooked in meat broth or seasoned with sour cream and whitened with milk. During the 6th post they cooked them with mushrooms and fish (in the summer - fresh fish soup, in the winter - stew with smelt - small dried fish, Ukrainians - with taranka - dried fish). Lenten hot dishes were seasoned with vegetable oil.
Vegetables
The consumption of vegetables varied depending on the possibilities of their cultivation: the food of the inhabitants of the northern provinces was poor in them; The further south you went, the more different vegetables were used. In the northernmost zone of vegetable growing, only onions, garlic and horseradish were grown. Simple dishes were prepared from onions: they ate them green and onions, cut them, pounded them with salt and ate them with bread, sometimes washed down with kvass. In poor families this was a common breakfast. Onions and garlic were added in abundance when boiling and stewing vegetable and meat dishes as seasonings. The East Slavic peoples generally greatly valued hot and spicy seasonings, but used them in relatively small quantities, more so in the southern provinces. Horseradish, vinegar (in the north), mustard (in the south), and sometimes also pepper were served at the table in wealthy houses. Imported spicy seasonings (saffron, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg) and almonds were more familiar to the townspeople, and the wealthy added them to holiday dishes, and the rest - on special days, such as Easter.
In the non-chernozem zone, radishes, rutabaga, turnips, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and cucumbers grew.
Since ancient times, vegetables (except for potatoes, which spread late) have been used to prepare parenki: vegetables were heated in an oven in a sealed container until soft.
The radish kept well throughout the winter. It was finely cut (lomtikha) or grated (trikha) and eaten with vegetable oil, sour cream, and kvass.
They ate boiled rutabaga, finely chopped and seasoned with milk. Belarusians cooked stew from rutabaga and carrots.
Until the 19th century, turnips occupied a leading place among vegetable crops. It was eaten raw, steamed in the oven, and dried for future use. In the northern provinces, turnips at times acted as a bread substitute. Its value fell due to the spread of potatoes. In the second half of the 19th century, it was already known everywhere and won general recognition.
Potatoes were boiled, fried, baked, eaten whole, chopped, mashed, with the addition of meat, butter, dairy products, and seasoned with sour and salty vegetables. However, eating it was not the same everywhere: the Old Believers treated it with prejudice as an innovation, calling it a “damn apple”; The Russian old-timers of Siberia also ate little of it. But among the Belarusians it acquired the greatest importance; they prepared a large number of dishes from it, baked flat cakes, pancakes (dzerun), added it to bread, cooked soup, made potato porridge (kamy, potato porridge). This brings Belarusians closer to their western neighbors: Poles, Germans, Czechs, Slovaks.
For all levels of society, potatoes became a necessary product, but its importance was especially great among low-income workers and peasants, where in years of grain shortages it became almost the only food. The resulting monotony in diet had a negative impact on the health of poor families, and especially children.
Cabbage was no less important in nutrition. In autumn and early winter it was consumed fresh, the rest of the time - pickled (sour, salty). For pickling, cabbage was chopped in wooden troughs with special chops. Women from several families usually united for this work (gathered for kakustka) and prepared several barrels for each household. Sometimes small whole heads of cabbage were placed among the chopped cabbage (they were considered a delicacy), apples and carrots were added, which improved the taste. Sauerkraut, chopped or shredded (very finely chopped), was on the table every day in winter. It was seasoned with vegetable oil or kvass and eaten with bread. Also, cucumbers were eaten fresh in summer and autumn, and pickled in barrels for the winter. In the fall, lightly salted, delicate-tasting lightly salted cucumbers were served as a delicacy.
Red or table beets were grown everywhere in Russia, and white sugar beets were also grown in the black soil zone of the European part. Red beets were eaten boiled (especially in the south), borscht and botvinya were prepared with it. Both types were used to make kvass: they were fermented, and sugar was also simmered in the oven.
Pumpkin (Ukrainian, White watermelon) was of great importance in nutrition, especially in the black earth zone. Pumpkin was fried, baked, and porridge was made with it. The seeds were dried and “hulled” in their free time, from which they obtained edible oil or crushed them and ate them with bread, pancakes, and flat cakes. In the southern part of this zone, tomatoes (tomatoes), zucchini, eggplants, parsnips, and peppers are widespread.
Vegetables were consumed as a side dish for other dishes and as an independent dish. They were stewed by cutting them, each type separately or in a mixture. In the summer, okroshka was prepared with vegetables using kvass (mainly from potatoes, onions, cucumbers) with the addition of eggs, fish, and meat. Vegetable soups were common among Belarusians (hernia from rutabaga, garbuzianka from pumpkin, carrot from carrots, etc.).
Fruits, wild fruits and plants
In Ukraine, the Volga region, Central Asia, and the Amur region, melons grew - melons and watermelons. They were eaten fresh, watermelons were also salted, and melons were dried.
In the European part of the country, almost everywhere, with the exception of the cold regions of the North, gardens were planted and apple trees, pears, cherries, plums, cherries and various berry bushes were grown. In some places they also planted rowan and bird cherry. The most common were apple and cherry trees. Particularly popular were some ancient folk varieties (Vladimirskaya cherry, Nezhinskaya rowan), as well as those bred by Tambov breeders in the 19th century (apple trees Antonovskaya, Semirenko, etc.).
The fruits were eaten fresh, jam and jelly were made from them, and compotes were prepared from various fresh and dry fruits. They prepared marshmallows for future use from dried fruit and berry purees and candied fruits from fruits boiled in sugar syrup. Pears were fermented in barrels for the winter, apples were soaked and filled with sweet must.
Wild fruits (apples and pears for drying and pickling) and berries were collected everywhere: currants, cranberries, raspberries, blueberries, lingonberries, in the North - cloudberries (ate fresh and stored for the winter), in Siberia - bird cherry (dried and ground into flour, which was baked into pies or, brewed with boiling water, eaten with pancakes and pancakes).
Wild plants have been known to people since ancient times; among many nations they are still held in high esteem. Wild green products also occupied a worthy place in Russian national cuisine. The folk calendar even designated a special day for “Moor green cabbage soup” - May 16, when cabbage soup, borscht, botvinya, and gruel prepared from the leaves of young nettles, lungwort, and quinoa appeared in abundance on the table. The collected leaves were boiled in water, rubbed through a sieve and poured with kvass.
In lean years, quinoa was threshed, ground and, mixed with rye flour, baked into bread. They also collected brood buds of the spring clear, which were sometimes carried away by wind and rain and accumulated in large quantities at the bends in the lowlands. The peasants called these buds “heavenly wheat”, “millet” and used them for food. Chistya tubers, washed from the ground by rain, were also used for food; they taste a little like potatoes.
The fragrant stalks of caraway seeds, which in peasant usage were called “meadow apples,” were also eaten in the spring.
When there was a shortage of crops in the past, they ate the giant grass angelica, and in the North angelica replaced vegetables the whole summer.
For a long time, horsetail was held in high esteem on the peasant spring table; in the Smolensk and Kaluga provinces it was called piedstrukh. In early spring it was a delicacy for village children, and then no less a delicacy were the young strong green fruits of the willow, called “cones” by the peasants; after that, sorrel and sorrel ("hare cabbage"), wild strawberries, raspberries, wild currants and other gifts of wild nature, used by the people to this day, ripened. Once upon a time, pies with nightshade (“late nightshade”) were a considerable delicacy for peasant children. Ripe late fruit was even sold on market days, although it could not compete with raspberries, black currants, and blackberries.
In Siberia and the European North, forest berries - blueberries, strawberries ("glubenina" - in Altai), raspberries, black and red currants, and bayarka - were a great source of food and delicacy. viburnum, bird cherry, blueberry ("shiksha") - gonobobel and marsh - cloudberry, cranberry, lingonberry. In Altai, the berries were boiled with honey and eaten on fasting days as a special dish, and also used as a filling in pies and shangi. Kissel was prepared from viburnum. Boyarka, raspberries, bird cherry and viburnum were dried, scattered on the stove or in the oven on baking sheets, on cabbage leaves, and often on dryers in the yard, on which grain is dried in the summer. In winter, dried raspberries were used for colds, and viburnum and boyarka were steamed in pots in the oven and eaten with bread. Dry bird cherry berries were ground into flour, diluted with water, placed in the oven overnight so that it “malted,” and eaten with bread.
In Siberia, in the forest zone, collected lingonberries and cranberries were often stored in the forest (fresh) in large birch bark containers lowered into dug closed pits. Some peasants had up to 80 such pits, and berries were taken from them in the winter as needed.
In many places they collected and stored nuts for the winter (in the forest belt - hazel, in the Siberian taiga - pine nuts), which were a favorite treat at all evenings and gatherings. They started harvesting pine nuts from the end of August and often went skiing for them in winter. They were not only a delicacy (“Siberian talk”); Oil was squeezed out of the peeled nuts, and the cake was used to whiten tea and, like butter, it was eaten with bread.
Chewing larch resin (serki) was widespread in Siberia. Its preparation was usually done by old people who were good at finding trees suitable for this.
Fireweed (the popular name for Ivan-tea) has long been known as “Koporie tea” - from the village of Koporye, from where for many years hundreds of pounds of tea were exported, prepared from young fireweed leaves steamed and dried in the free spirit of the Russian oven. When brewed, the color of fireweed tea is indistinguishable from natural varieties of tea. Fireweed rhizomes were dried and ground when crops were in short supply. The resulting flour was used to bake flat cakes or add it to bread, which made it sweeter. Hence the popular nicknames of this plant - “breadbox” and “miller”. Young May leaves of fireweed ("cockerel apples") were used for salad, and fireweed honey. as experts say, the sweetest.
Everywhere they drank an infusion of St. John's wort, and in the European North. Altai and Transbaikalia - oregano herbs, or "white scrolls", "shulpa" (rotten birch wood) and bergenia leaves. For tea, they used last year's brown, leathery bergenia leaves, which had already lost their bitterness. In addition, in Transbaikalia they drank brewed chaga as tea. In Altai, the population ate wild onions and sweet onions, as well as mountain garlic.
Wild garlic, wild garlic ("flask"), was widely consumed in fresh and salted form. Ramson, one of the first spring plants in Siberia, is widely used by people to this day. In the Far North of Siberia, the roots of the macaria plant - "snake root" - were eaten as an antiscorbutic remedy.
The use of sunflower to obtain oil testifies to the people's ingenuity. Until the second half of the 18th century, it was only an exotic golden flower, when Count Sheremetyev’s serf Danila Bokarev was the first to obtain oil from sunflower seeds. On his initiative, a makeshift butter churn was built in the Alekseev-ka settlement, Voronezh province. And in three years, Alekseevka turned into the center of the Russian oil industry.
Mushrooms have been a great help in food since ancient times. But according to established habits in different places, their use was different. In the central provinces of the European part of Russia, the collection of different types of mushrooms and their consumption fresh were more widespread. In Siberia, more milk mushrooms and saffron milk mushrooms were prepared for winter and spring consumption in salted form. In Ukraine, mushrooms were held in less esteem, but in Belarus and the European North they were widely consumed fresh, salted and dried. Porcini mushrooms are considered the best, followed by black ones: birch and boletus mushrooms, called “obabki” in Siberia, then red ones: aspen mushrooms, butter mushrooms, saffron milk caps, milk mushrooms and others. Apparently, the noted proverbs were born in the mushroom areas: “If there is mushrooms, so there is bread”; “They take every mushroom in their hands, but not every mushroom they put in the back.” In some places, mushroom picking had commercial significance - they were sold fresh and dried.
Beverages
In the forest belt, the sap of birch, maple, and pine was collected and consumed as a refreshing drink. Various drinks were obtained from plant products by fermentation. Particularly popular was the sour-tasting kvass, the methods of preparation of which were very diverse. Ukrainians and Russians from the southern provinces drank kvass from beets. In Ukraine and Belarus, kvass was made from apples and pears, which were soaked for a long time, and the infusion was fermented with yeast and hops. Bread kvass had the most pleasant sweetish taste. Ukrainians used it as a liquid for borscht, and among Russians and Belarusians it was a favorite everyday drink. Kvass was made from rye malt, bran or crackers, which were brewed with boiling water, steamed in an oven, fermented, allowed to brew and filtered. Bread kvass, which has a pleasant aroma and slight “playfulness,” quenched thirst well and satiated. During fasting, kvass with bread was the main food of the poor.
For the holidays, beer was brewed from oats, often from barley with the addition of sprouted malt grains. This intoxicating drink was widespread among the Western Slavs, Balts, and Scandinavians. For Russians, beer was a ritual drink in the old days. It was prepared communally and drunk on holidays and special days. Joint brewing of beer (by families, villages, church parishes) was especially common in the northern Russian provinces. They brewed in special log houses (breweries or breweries). in large artel boilers. In the 19th century, “brothers” were organized on church holidays. which was the manifestation of the ancient custom of drinking together from a common larger bowl, usually hollowed out of wood, which was called bratina. Home beer production lasted the longest in the North and Siberia, while industrial beer production was established in the cities.
Another drink widespread not only among the Eastern Slavs, but also in many Western European countries, was honey. Bee honey was diluted with water, boiled, hops were added and infused (sometimes with plant leaves), causing fermentation to occur and alcohol to be formed. However, by the beginning of the 20th century, intoxicated meads had already become a rarity; in some places (in Siberia, Ukraine) the preparation of light beer - mead - was preserved, and in the cities they sold a hot honey drink with sbiten spices.
Samosidka vodka was used as an intoxicating drink, which was made at home or distilled in factories from wheat, and in the 19th century also from potatoes. It appeared in Russia in the 16th century, and soon the sale of vodka became a state monopoly. By infusing vodka or alcohol (of higher strength) with herbs, they made tinctures ("St. John's wort", "Zubrovka", "ryabinovka", etc.), and with fruits and berries - liqueurs ("Vishnevka", "Slivyanka", "Grushovka", "robin", etc.). On the Don and Kuban, grapes were grown, from which various wines were prepared; but this did not become widespread due to unfavorable climatic conditions. Nobles, merchants and the townsfolk who imitated them in everyday life considered it necessary to serve foreign wines and liqueurs to the table on special occasions.
In the 19th century, tea was included as an everyday drink, imported from other countries, primarily China. Wealthy townspeople preferred Indian and especially flower tea (the best variety, obtained from the buds of a tea bush), which gave a pale yellow, very aromatic infusion. More accessible was long tea (black) and cheap, so-called branded, or brick (pressed in the form of tiles - bricks) tea of the lower grade. When brewing, rural residents added dried flowers, leaves and small shoots of some plants that have been used since ancient times as aromatic or medicinal decoctions (mint, currant, raspberry, carrot leaves, linden flowers, roses, apple trees, etc.).
Tea was especially loved in Siberia, where it was served with almost every meal. Here, in the neighborhood of the Chinese and Mongols, among whom this drink has been known since ancient times, tea spread earlier than in the European part of the country. Among Russians, tea became such a beloved and popular drink that it gave rise to new national ways of preparing it, like no other borrowed dish. So, water was boiled in samovars. They were developed on the basis of ancient vessels with a heating device in the form of a hollow pipe in the center, into which smoldering coals were placed. These devices were used to keep drinks (sbitennik) and dishes hot. In the samovar, the heat of hot coals brought the water to a boil and did not allow it to cool for a long time. The samovar in the house became a symbol of prestige and prosperity. They brewed tea in small earthenware or porcelain teapots, which were placed on a samovar to keep warm. In the cities in the 19th century, many public teahouses were opened, where huge samovars holding several buckets of water were constantly boiling. Carami were served on the table. The pair consisted of a small teapot with tea leaves placed on a small samovar or kettle with boiling water. In cities, water for tea was also boiled in large tin kettles. Among Ukrainians and Belarusians, teapots were more common than samovars. Rural residents often brewed tea in cast iron, in a Russian oven, where it was steamed.
Tea was usually drunk with bread products. Prosperous families served it with confectionery and cream (tea “in English”). Among the people, the addition of milk and cream to tea became widespread in areas where there were contacts with the Turkic and Mongolian peoples. Yes, in the Urals. In the Lower Volga region, in the Northern Caucasus and Southern Siberia they drank tea “Kalmyk”, “Mongolian”, “Tatar”, adding milk, flour, and butter to the boiling broth.
Coffee, cocoa and chocolate (imported, as well as tea) were familiar mainly to city dwellers. Cocoa and chocolate, cooked with milk, were a delicacy and were used mainly in the diet of the children of the townspeople. In rural areas, the difference in children's food was mainly that babies were given more dairy, as well as soft or crushed food and they were limited in the use of fat and spicy seasonings. Special food for little ones was prepared in wealthy and mostly urban families (various porridges with milk, especially semolina, omelettes, cutlets). All families tried to allocate more sweets, delicacies, and fruits to their children.
Vegetable oils
Since ancient times, some oilseed plants have been used to produce vegetable oils, which were also called “lenten”, since they could be consumed during fasting. Their distribution showed zonality, which was explained by natural conditions. In the northern and central provinces they used mainly linseed oil, and south of Moscow - hemp oil. Along with it, from the middle of the 19th century, oil from sunflower seeds began to be squeezed out in the black earth zone. From here sunflower oil was exported to the central provinces. Petersburg, Moscow. It gained universal recognition and gradually replaced other varieties. Mustard, poppy, and pumpkin oils were extracted in small quantities in the black earth zone of the European part of the country, which were used as aromatic flavors and as a delicious seasoning for flour dishes. The olive oil produced in Transcaucasia was little known to the rural population; it was used only by wealthy city dwellers, mainly for salads.
Vegetable oil was cheaper than animal fats and therefore more accessible. It was used to season soups, flour dishes (jelly, zavarukhi, grout, salamata, etc.), porridges, poured onions and potatoes with it, dipped flatbreads in it, and cooked dough products in it.
The seeds of some oilseeds were pounded in a mortar to obtain a fat emulsion (hemp, pumpkin, poppy milk), which was spread on bread and eaten with flatbreads. This use of seeds is also known to the peoples of the Baltic and Urals.
Milk and dairy products
East Slavic peoples consumed mainly cow's milk, and Ukrainians, Russians of the southern provinces and the Urals also consumed sheep's milk; in some farms where goats were kept - also goat. They drank fresh milk (fresh - straight from the cow and chilled, boiled and baked), ate fermented milk (yogurt, sour) with bread and potatoes. In the North and Siberia, milk was frozen, cut into thin shavings and eaten with flatbread. Frozen milk was stored in winter, taken on the road, melted as needed.
Milk was consumed more often in the summer. They “whitened” soups with it, fried eggs with it, cooked milk porridge, and added it to porridge cooked in water. Baked milk was fermented with sour cream and Varenets was obtained. In the southern Russian provinces they made kaymak (a word borrowed from Turkic languages), which was cream with foam skimmed from baked milk (it was melted several times to obtain as much foam as possible). However, sour milk was more often consumed. To ferment, raw milk was placed in a warm place and sour cream or other sour products (yogurt, bread) were added to it.
Cottage cheese and cottage cheese were made from sour milk. To obtain cottage cheese (in many places it has long been called cheese), sour milk was drained and the whey was allowed to drain. For longer storage, it was pressed in a wooden vice and dried. If with bread, milk, sour cream. Russians in the Urals and Siberia rolled cottage cheese into cakes, like local peoples, and dried them in the sun. Cottage cheese was used to prepare a ritual dish - cheese Easter.
Cheeses were cooked at home only in some districts of central Russia, Kuban and Ukraine. To curdle milk, they used starter cultures (in particular, the stomach of a young calf or lamb). In Ukraine, feta cheese was made from sheep's milk. Industrial cheese making was of incomparably greater importance. Cheese was consumed mainly by urban residents.
Cream (the upper fat layer formed when milk settles) and sour cream (sour cream) were almost never consumed as a separate dish in peasant families. They were used as a seasoning.
With the spread of separators, the development of commercial butter-making and cheese-making, peasants who handed over milk to factories either did not leave it for their families at all, or were content with what they had removed. Among the wealthy urban and rural bourgeoisie and nobility, on the contrary, the use of concentrated dairy products: butter, cheese, cream became widespread. The latter were used as baby food and served with tea and coffee. Ice cream was prepared using cream (with the addition of eggs and sugar), and it was sold on the streets of cities and large villages.
Butter was churned from sour cream, cream and whole milk. The most common method was to prepare butter from sour cream by melting it in a Russian oven. At the same time, an oily mass was separated, which was cooled and beaten with wooden whorls, spatulas, spoons, and hands. The finished oil was washed in cold water. The resulting so-called butter could not be stored for long. It was consumed little as food, mainly by wealthy city dwellers, and in less affluent environments it was given to children little by little. Peasants usually melted butter in the oven and washed it in cold water, melted it again in the oven and filtered it. Its preparation is typical for all Eastern Slavs and is also known to some of the neighboring peoples, who borrowed it from the Russians (hence its common name Russian butter).
Meat and fish
The traditional meat diet of the Eastern Slavs was meager. This was partly due to the fact that in Tsarist Russia livestock farming was one of the most backward branches of agriculture. Although cattle, pigs and sheep were bred everywhere, certain areas of animal husbandry and the predominant consumption of certain meat products developed. Thus, in the southern Russian provinces, Ukraine and Belarus, they ate mainly pork. Preference for it is also typical for Western Slavs. Beef was eaten everywhere, but very limitedly; it played a somewhat larger role in the northern provinces. In mountainous areas (Urals, Carpathians, Caucasus), Siberia and Central Asia, preference was given to lamb.
In the southern part of Siberia and Central Asia at the end of the 19th century, pig farming and, accordingly, pork consumption increased significantly, which was associated with the resettlement of people from the southern Russian provinces and Ukraine. Beyond the Urals, more livestock was bred and the population was better provided with meat food, however, seasonality was also acute here. This was caused by the established timing of slaughtering livestock in cold weather (November-December) and so on. that fresh meat does not withstand long-term storage. It came to the market at low prices, and at this time the poorest residents of the cities were better supplied with meat products. During the rest of the year, the rural population consumed them more.
Poultry: chickens, ducks and geese were bred everywhere (especially chickens), eaten mainly in the fall and winter, slaughtering the birds as needed. Poultry dishes were considered festive, and chicken meat and eggs were used, for example, to make wedding cakes. The eggs were used to make fried eggs (the eggs were put into a frying pan, keeping the yolks intact), scrambled eggs with milk (milk was added to the mashed eggs) and scrambled eggs (coarse flour and sugar were added to the mashed eggs and baked), which was eaten. washed down with milk. Eggs were also eaten boiled, baked and, less often, raw.
They tried to prepare the meat for future use, for which they salted it (put it in barrels and filled it with brine), smoked it and dried it. In winter, the carcasses were frozen. This method of storage was most suitable for the climate of Siberia, where it was constantly practiced. In the warm season, they ate mostly corned beef (salted meat).
Boiled meat was most often eaten. They cooked it in cabbage soup. borscht, noodles, but they were also eaten as a separate dish, and in rural areas usually without side dishes, and in cities - with vegetables and cereals. Roast meat was a festive dish; it was prepared with the addition of various seasonings. Whole carcasses of suckling pigs (sometimes baked in dough) and poultry were fried; According to tradition, for Christmas they cooked a roast goose (Christmas goose), and baked a pig or ham in the oven. Dishes of stewed meat with the addition of cereals or vegetables were common; they especially loved solyanka (pieces of meat stewed with sauerkraut). In Ukraine and Kuban, meat was generously mixed with lard when stewing.
A traditional dish of the Eastern Slavs, served on all family and many other holidays, was aspic (Russian jelly, jellied meat, Bel. scyudzen, Ukrainian jellied meat). To prepare it, bones with meat, legs and head, containing a lot of sticky substances, were boiled down. The boiled meat was selected, placed in bowls, poured with broth and placed in a cold place, where jellied meat was formed - a gelatinous jelly. Jelly was eaten with the addition of hot seasonings: horseradish, mustard, pepper, and sometimes kvass was served with it. The head was prepared separately as a ritual dish (for Christmas, weddings). The entrails were also eaten. Giblets were considered most suitable for rassolnik - a hot dish cooked with the addition of chopped pickles.
In Ukraine, Belarus, and in some places in the southern Russian provinces they made sausage (Ukrainian kovbasa, white kaubasa). At the same time, lard and various spices were added to the meat. Sausages were also prepared from chopped liver and blood, mixing them with flour or cereal. Cleaned and washed animal intestines were stuffed with all this. Sausages were smoked or baked in ovens and filled with fat. Ukrainians, Belarusians, and occasionally Russians also smoked pork hams.
Animal fat was considered the most valuable product. The internal lard was rendered, poured into bowls, cooled and stored until consumption. The outer lard of pork carcasses was salted, cut into pieces, and stuffed into intestines or packed into boxes and barrels.
Lard was used for frying, soups and porridges were seasoned with it. Pieces of pork fat were fried in a frying pan and served with potatoes and porridge along with fried pork cracklings. Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Russians from the southern provinces seasoned cabbage soup and borscht with crushed lard (sometimes along with garlic). In winter they liked to eat frozen lard with hot potatoes. However, lard was a favorite, but not an everyday food. As the most high-calorie product, they tried to save it for holidays, during intense field work, and on the road.
Meat and lard from domestic animals were scarce for the majority of the population. This deficit was partially compensated by hunting products.
Hunting was especially developed in the forest areas of Siberia and the European North. In the central regions, hunting has long been the privilege of feudal lords. They ate poultry carcasses (partridges, geese and ducks, swans, hazel grouse, quails, etc.), bear meat, hare meat, meat of wild boars, elk, deer, etc. But in accordance with ancient Slavic religious prohibitions, Old Believers, especially conservative ones in In terms of food, they did not eat hare, bear meat, or the meat of certain birds (pigeons, swans). Among the nobles, game was considered a particularly valuable dish, and for the landed nobility it was a matter of pride to serve game from their possessions and hunted with their own hands.
Meat, lard, and milk were considered “meat” food, which the Christian religion forbade consumption during weekly and annual fasts. This rule was very strictly adhered to by the majority of the population in the European part of the country, various Old Believer groups, and the Cossacks. The peasant masses in the North, Siberia and Central Asia, where the influence of the official church was not so strong, did not always and not everywhere observe it. The advanced layers of the Russian intelligentsia also refused to observe fasts.
Fish was no less, and at times even more important than meat, since it was considered a “semi-lenten” food; it was not eaten only on the days of the strictest fast. In northern Pomerania, where cultivated plants grew poorly, fish was the main daily food.
Fresh fish was boiled and fried in oil, sometimes topped with sour cream and eggs. A favorite dish was ukha - a fish broth served as a first course. Especially tasty is the fish soup, in which several different types of fish were boiled successively, and the last of them, the best, was served with yushka (decoction) to the table.
In the European North, in the Urals and Siberia, fish was baked in dough (fish pie) and eaten with the bottom crust of the pie soaked in fat. Belarusians baked fish on coals, in an oven, after clearing it of scales; in other areas they baked it in scales.
When preparing fish for future use, it was salted, dried, dried, fermented, and frozen.
They salted fish in barrels. Herring was in great demand. It was sold in all cities, and brought to villages remote from water bodies as gifts. Herring was the most affordable fish food for the urban poor, and in families where it was a luxury, they bought herring brine and consumed it with bread and potatoes. Of the dried fish, vobla (Ukrainian taran) was especially popular, which often replaced meat for the urban poor. Small fish, especially smelt, were dried; in winter, cabbage soup and stews were cooked with it.
In the northern coastal zone of the country, fish was fermented in barrels, for which it was filled with weak brine and kept warm. The fermentation process that developed softened the meat and bones, giving the fish a specific pungent taste. It was seasoned with onions and sour milk and eaten with bread. In the Primorsky region of Eastern Siberia, fish for pickling was placed in earthen pits, where it was fermented. This ancient method of canning was preserved until the end of the 19th century among the Russians, as well as among the neighboring peoples of the North, where the food of the population was depleted in vitamins.
In winter, the fish was frozen and stored in this form. Russians in Eastern Siberia, like the local population, ate stroganina - finely chopped frozen fish.
In areas rich in sturgeon and salmon fish, they prepared caviar, which was very valuable on the world market - black (sturgeon) and red (salmon), keeping it in strong brine. Such caviar was a delicacy and was consumed mainly by rich city dwellers; it was available to the rural population only where it was mined. Caviar was eaten with bread, pancakes, and red caviar was also baked into pies, adding chopped onions. Near the seas and large bodies of water, caviar of any other fish was used, which, like sturgeon and salmon, was a high-calorie product and an important source of vitamins. Therefore, they ate a lot of salted caviar, and in the north of Siberia they made flat cakes, pancakes, and pancakes from frozen and mint caviar.
Meals
Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians ate three to four times a day. Breakfast (Russian breakfast, zautrok, Ukrainian snidanok, sshdannya, white snyadannya) was early, usually at sunrise (5 - 6 am) and quite hearty (they ate a lot of bread with tea or milk, fresh or salted vegetables and etc.). Lunch (Ukrainian ooid, white abyad, breakfast) was arranged in the first half of the day (10 - 12 o'clock). It was the most abundant meal. They served two or three dishes, and always among the first - liquid ones: hot in winter, and sometimes cold in summer.
In the summer, in the afternoon (4-5 o'clock) there was an afternoon snack (Russian afternoon tea, g.auzhina, Ukrainian. midday, midday, white. paludzin, pydvyachorak), consisting of tea, milk, and light snacks. We had dinner in the evening, at sunset (Russian supper, Ukrainian supper, Bel. vyachera), with anything left over from lunch or with tea, milk, or a light snack.
On holidays, they tried to prepare food as plentiful as possible. The table was especially richly decorated for Easter and Christmas, when after a long fast it was allowed to eat meat. Several courses were served for Christmas dinner. Here is a description of such a dinner among Ukrainian peasants: “First of all, they snack on Lenten pies, drink a glass of vodka, then serve yesterday’s cabbage and peas. Having finished with Lenten dishes, they begin to eat meat: initially they serve pies with pork filling and with dumplings coated with buckwheat flour ( baked the day before), and heated sausage. Next comes cabbage with pork. First, they eat the cabbage itself, and the meat is served separately on a wooden plate. The owner cuts the meat himself, adds salt, takes the first piece for himself, and then the rest, according to seniority. After the cabbage they serve lokshina (noodles), and again, first they eat the noodles, and then the goose, which the owner also cuts. Finally, yesterday's kutya with honey or poppy seeds appears on the table, and, finally, “uzvar.”
The Easter meal “breaking the fast” was no less plentiful. They loved not only to eat heartily themselves, but also to feed to the full the guest who came to the house.
Hospitality - the ability to generously receive guests - was considered a great advantage of the owner. Guests were served the best dishes available in the house (the Russians had a saying: “What is in the oven is all swords on the table,” similar ones were common among Belarusians and Ukrainians). Feasts were especially abundant among merchants and nobles and landowners, where each owner sought to outdo the others with a variety of dishes and drinks. The meals of the wealthy classes were also based on folk cuisine.
To the south of the capital of Buryatia, Ulan-Ude, lies a land of rare beauty: high mountains and ridges, centuries-old pine forests, sandy gullies and water meadows in river valleys. Tarbagatai district is located here. The Moscow-Vladivostok Trans-Siberian Highway passes through Tarbagatai, a beautiful Old Believer village. More than 18,000 people live in 22 villages and hamlets of the district. This is mainly the Russian Old Believer population - “Semeyskie”.
Semeyskie are a very bright and ancient branch of the Russian people – a part of pre-Petrine Moscow Rus'. Who are they, why did they end up in Transbaikalia and why are they called that?
In the second half of the 17th century, radical changes occurred in the history of Russia.
Two major phenomena in the history of Russia: the schism and Peter I. The Russian ruler wanted to win over the peoples professing Orthodoxy (Slavs, Georgians, Armenians, Greeks) towards Russia. To this end, the Tsar decides to reform and bring the forms of worship and rituals closer to modern Greek models, which were already adopted in other Orthodox centers (Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia). The books were corrected, the salting walk was changed, that is, walking in the sun around the lectern while performing rituals, the number of bows was reduced, and the church chant was greatly changed, because of which it actually lost the “polyphony” that shortened the service in the church.
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The spelling of the name Jesus with two “and” was introduced; all adjustments were made in accordance with the rites of the Greek church. For many believers, it seemed that a new faith had actually been introduced in Rus'. All supporters of double-fingered in 1656 were equated with heretics, excommunicated from the church and cursed. The reform divided the Russian Church into two camps of Orthodoxy: the mainstream and the Old Believer.
Old Believers are that part of the Russian population that abandoned innovations, continuing to adhere to the old faith, rituals, and way of life. For this they were subjected to severe repression, many were forced to flee to free lands on the Terek, Don, beyond the Urals, and many abroad, to Poland.
In the second half of the 18th century, by decree of Catherine II, schismatics were forcibly expelled from Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. An unknown land awaited them, harsh Siberia, untouched lands. The first Old Believers taken from Vetka in 1766 were settled near Verkhneudinsk in the villages of Tarbagatai, Kuitun, B-Kunaley, Desyatnikovo, Burnashevo.
They settled as whole families, which is why they were later called “semeiskie”. They quickly got used to the harsh Siberian nature. Thanks to the exceptional hard work of the Semeis, good-quality villages soon grew up.
Intangible culture served as a constant support in the difficult fate of Semeysky or Old Believers, always persecuted by the official church and state.
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About 240 years have passed. The Semey Transbaikalia firmly rooted themselves in the Siberian soil and found a second homeland here. Semeysky huts are tall wooden buildings; they are painted inside and out and washed twice a year. If you approach from the outside, you can barely reach the window with your hand. The frames and cornices in many huts are decorated with carvings and painted. From the 17th-18th centuries to the present day, Semeyskie have preserved the ancient form of clothing without changes.
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The traditional folk culture of the Semeis is a unique, original ethnocultural phenomenon. The value of Semeyskie, as a historical and cultural phenomenon of Russia, is difficult to overestimate. They managed to preserve spiritual experience, which was actually lost from other groups of the Russian people. Folk singing traditions, which are a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage, have their origins in ancient Russian musical culture and whose roots go back to the depths of the Middle Ages.
The skill and unique technique of polyphonic singing, which incorporates many special techniques, deserve the highest praise.
Representing exceptional value for a new civilization, the original spiritual culture of the Semeis of the Tarbagatai region of the Republic of Buryatia in May 2001 in Paris was proclaimed by UNESCO as a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” and included in the first list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
By visiting the museum created at the temple in the village of Tarbagatai by Father Sergei, you will see antiques, icons, household utensils, and touch the distant past of the Semeis.
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LLC offers tourist routes to the villages where Old Believers live.
From the history of Russian baking
Russian holidays have always been an amazing combination of elation and simple table pleasures. It’s just that food was always considered by our ancestors as an indispensable part of any celebration. It’s just that food was always considered by our ancestors as an indispensable part of any celebration. And looking into our hoary antiquity, we sometimes come across paintings that are surprisingly close to us today.
“The Russian people are eager for the holidays, and in these two weeks from Christmas until Epiphany no one will take on any work. For most people, carols came - pancakes and ladki (pancakes),” the time had come for mutual treats, fun and joy.
If our contemporary agrees with anything in this quote from a book from 1899, it’s about work. It seems that the long-winded disputes between ministers and deputies - whether 10 days of New Year holidays are too much or not - were resolved a long time ago by our ancestors. The tradition of long, leisurely celebrations and mutual treats at Christmas was unshakable in Rus'.
Since 1700, thanks to the decree of Peter the Great (who decided to introduce the Gregorian calendar in Russia), Christmas actually merged with the New Year celebration. “Carols”, “caroling” - we all remember this ancient pagan custom. But, of course, in the memory of modern people, carols are Christmas songs, they are children knocking on the door, hoping to get candies and sweets. However, don't rush. Not so simple. Carols are also a very simple, undemanding dish that has long been baked for the holiday. Today it is almost forgotten, but 200-300 years ago everyone knew it. “Carols”, “wickets” or “presnushki” are a type of pies made from unleavened rye dough.
For the dough, take one rye flour, or half with wheat, 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of liquid (water, milk, curdled milk), salt on the tip of a knife. Knead the dough and leave to “rest” for 20-30 minutes, covering with a napkin so as not to dry out. Then roll out the dough into a rope, cut into equal parts, roll into balls and roll them into thin flat cakes, giving them a round or oval shape. Place the filling and pinch or fold the edges. The filling can be made from berries: a glass of berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc.) 2 tbsp. l. sugar, as well as potatoes, carrots, cottage cheese, cheese or feta cheese, mushrooms, porridge. “Carols” are baked at a temperature of 200-220 degrees. The finished hot pies are brushed with melted butter.
And if “carols” and “wickets” are more or less known, then “fresh songs” are generally an empty phrase for many. It is mentioned that they were preparing in the Yaroslavl province.
In general, dough dishes are the most typical for our historical cooking. And, above all, the festive front door. Perhaps no Russian historian has dwelled in such detail on the description of our ancient cuisine as Nikolai Kostomarov. In his “Essay on the Home Life of the Russian People in the 16th and 17th Centuries” (1887), he gave extremely detailed characteristics of our culinary dishes, methods of preparation and processing of products. There is a whole section about pies:
“Of the dishes prepared from dough, pies occupy the first place. According to the baking method, they were yarned and hearth. The hearths were always made of red dough, sometimes spun from leavened dough, sometimes from unleavened dough. Coarse or crushed wheat flour was used for them, depending on the importance of the day when they were prepared; Rye pies were also baked. In general, all Russian pies in the old days had an oblong shape and varied in size; the big ones were called pirogi, the small pies.”
The word “yarn” is unfamiliar to the current reader. Meanwhile, 150-200 years ago it was quite common. We read, for example, “Dictionary of the Russian Academy”. So, “spun – prepared by spinning (frying) in oil.”
Holiday pies are one of the best traditions of our cuisine. Traditions are very old, lost in the centuries. Especially a lot of baking was timed to coincide with church city holidays.
“Pies were baked with different fillings: eggs, cabbage, fish, mushrooms, rice, peas, etc. It must be thought that the pies with filling were also kulebyaki - an old and beloved Russian dish, which surpasses many overseas inventions in the cake part. – Sweet pies, prepared with sugar, with raisins, jam and spicy roots, replaced the current confectionery at that time, and were called left-handers. They were shaped like pipes. – They also used hearth pies with sugar, meat, eggs, cheese, spun pies with sugar, spun pies with cheese, spun sour pies with cheese. “The Russians were very fond of pies, which is where the saying came from: “The hut is not red in its corners, but red in its pies.”
Moreover, baking is a subject very connected with the regions of Russia. Simply put, each province has its own pies. In Kostromskaya - the former ones, the former ones, for whom they mixed a thick dough with yeast from wheat flour with milk and eggs. They were stuffed, “fixed,” with raisins, rice, pockmarked eggs, and eggs and fried in the form of pies. They baked unleavened cookies in the form of a round pretzel - vitushka, kulichka, shishulya, gogulya, svertysh. And from strands of unleavened dough - cookies in the form of a spiral, bows, figure eights.
Cookies in the shape of birds - larks, rooks, ducks, starlings - were baked in the Vladimir province.
In the Arkhangelsk province, as elsewhere, at Christmas children went to caroling, for which they received shangi and rolls. On the Pomeranian coast, such a detour was generally called “shangi to glorify.” On the Northern Dvina, children were treated to kozuli - shaped cookies in the shape of cows, goats, and other animals.
And, of course, the main holiday for baking dough is Maslenitsa. It is rightly considered one of the most “culinary” of the whole year. Pancakes, pancakes, pancakes! Wheat, buckwheat, oatmeal, millet, custard, yeast... We say “Maslenitsa” - we mean “pancakes”. These joyful days have long been saturated with their delicious smell. Previously, they write in old books, on the Sunday before cheese week, “the eldest women in the family went out to the river, lake or well, quietly from others and, calling on the month to look out the window and blow on the dough, they prepared it from snow.”
And how they ate pancakes in the old days! Read it for yourself. This is an excerpt from the book of the famous Russian ethnographer A.V. Tereshchenko:
“All week they bake pancakes from buckwheat or wheat flour with butter, milk and eggs, round, in the entire volume of the frying pan; pancakes are no more than a tea saucer, thin, light and mostly made from milk and eggs, from wheat flour alone, they are called pancakes. In rich houses they serve liquid caviar with pancakes. In Little Russia and adjacent places they bake the same pancakes and prepare dumplings. These are small pies, similar to Siberian dumplings, with the difference that they are filled with fresh cottage cheese, and then dipped in boiling water for a few minutes, after removing from the water, they are immediately served hot: they are eaten with butter and sour cream. Pancakes are served hot everywhere; those who have cooled down lose their dignity. There are pancake lovers who only eat hot ones, which burn their tongue and mouth, but butter softens their burn. The widespread feasting of pancakes with butter and vodka gave rise to the saying: “It’s not life, but Maslenitsa.”
By the way, if you noticed, real Russian pancakes are buckwheat. Today we are all accustomed to making them from wheat flour, but previously it was used infrequently. Which, in general, is easy to explain: even white cotton bread was more of a festive treat.
And, of course, the usual association – “to your mother-in-law for pancakes.” Where is she from? The fact is that in Rus' young families who separated from their parents after marriage really had such a tradition. Mothers-in-law taught their daughters how to bake pancakes. All the necessary supplies were stocked up in advance: a tagan, frying pans, a ladle and a tub for sponge. That is, he had to bring a bag of buckwheat flour and cow butter. Inviting a mother-in-law was considered a great honor. The son-in-law's disrespect for this custom was considered dishonor and insult and was a reason for possible enmity between him and his mother-in-law.
However, one should not assume that the pancake tradition for Maslenitsa existed everywhere in Rus'. This is what Ekaterina Avdeeva (a famous Russian culinary specialist of the 19th century) notes: “I don’t know why buckwheat pancakes didn’t come into use in Siberia, but they are hardly known there, and at Maslenitsa they bake thin, milky pancakes, fritters, and yarn cakes. and before, in almost every house who had a fortune, they baked brushwood, a kind of cake...”
“I’ll say a few words about my favorite ancient dishes that have survived to this day. One of the first is buckwheat pancakes, which are excellently prepared in Kursk and eaten with butter, sour cream, caviar and olives; The top of the liver is sprinkled with eggs or spread with fresh cottage cheese, and during Lent it is sprinkled with onions fried in oil or with squash.”
By the way, she is not the only one making this unexpected observation for today. Of course, pancakes have existed in Rus' for a long time. Another thing is that they were not always used as an oilseed treat. Let's say more: there are no written indications of this before the 16th century. That is, there was Maslenitsa, and there were pancakes. But you can, in particular, read about this from the famous Russian historian Nikolai Kostomarov (1817 - 1885):
“Pancakes were not part of Maslenitsa, as they are now,” the symbol of Maslenitsa was pies with cheese and brushwood, “stretched dough with butter. They also baked dough cones, left-handers, perepechi, and nuts: all these types were served in oil; The same dishes were prepared during Lent with vegetable oil.”
So both the well-known “Domostroy” (mid-16th century) and the much less popular “Painting of the Tsar’s Food” (1610 – 1613) - all this did without “pancake” associations for Maslenitsa. And there is a simple explanation for this. The fact is that initially in Rus', as in many other countries of the world, the New Year was a spring holiday. According to ancient tradition, it has long been celebrated in early March. And in this sense, pagan Maslenitsa (or Komoeditsa, as it was called then) simply preceded it. This continued in Rus' until approximately the end of the 15th century, when in 1492 Grand Duke Ivan III, the grandfather of Ivan the Terrible, approved the resolution of the Church Council to postpone the New Year to September 1.
At the same time, church authorities established their own holiday instead of the pagan one, specifically shifting the boundaries of Lent for this purpose. Even the term “Maslenitsa” itself appears only in the 16th century. The period of the ancient Slavic holiday has been reduced to one week. And it turned out to be moved to the first week of light Lent, which in the church calendar was called “cheese week” or “meat week”, preceding the time of Great Lent.
Thus, the church, on the one hand, “defeated pagan superstitions.” On the other hand, she preserved the folk tradition of setting abundant tables with all kinds of food. Eat a large amount of a variety of dairy foods: sour cream, cream, cottage cheese, cow butter, milk, as well as eggs, fish, various cereals, pies, pancakes. After this, Maslenitsa completely turned into a Christian religious holiday. And its name began to correspond to Orthodox custom: meat is already excluded from food, but dairy products can still be consumed - so they bake butter pancakes.
Pancakes, pies, shangi and cheesecakes – there are countless names for all these names in Russian cuisine. Our baked goods have rightfully won a completely separate place in domestic cooking. And at the same time she made this our cooking an absolutely unique page in the book of world gastronomy.
,Shanezhki - I got shanzhischi - typical Siberian yeast baked goods. And our filling is Transbaikal ground bird cherry. Fragrant, fluffy, light - a real treat for tea. I don’t agree with what they sometimes write - take sour dough - no, not sour, but from the highest grain, rich and sweet - then there will be cravings! The sponge method, long proofing, a fairly large amount of baking, beating out the dough - all this gives the shanezhkas tenderness and crustiness, preventing them from becoming stale for several days. If there is no bird cherry, you can grease the top with sour cream, slightly mixed with flour and sugar - also a local shaving brush. And now I would like to introduce you to the concept of “family”... In poetic form, the history of the resettlement of the Old Believers and their consolidation in new lands beyond Lake Baikal is described by N.A. Nekrasov in the poem “Grandfather”: A handful of Russians were exiled to a terrible wilderness for a split, Land and freedom were given to them; A year has passed unnoticed - the commissars are going there, Lo and behold, the village is standing, Riga, sheds, barns! The hammer is knocking in the forge... A year later we visited again, A new miracle was found: Residents collected bread From the previously barren land... So gradually, over half a century, a huge planting grew - The will and labor of man create marvelous wonders! Semeyskie are a very bright and ancient branch of the Russian people – a part of pre-Petrine Moscow Rus'. Who are they, why did they end up in Transbaikalia and why are they called that? In the second half of the 17th century, radical changes occurred in the history of Russia. Two major phenomena in the history of Russia: the schism and Peter I. The Russian ruler wanted to win over the peoples professing Orthodoxy (Slavs, Georgians, Armenians, Greeks) towards Russia. To this end, the Tsar decides to reform and bring the forms of worship and rituals closer to modern Greek models, which were already adopted in other Orthodox centers (Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia). The books were corrected, the salting walk was changed, that is, walking in the sun around the lectern while performing rituals, the number of bows was reduced, and the church chant was greatly changed, because of which it actually lost the “polyphony” that shortened the service in the church. The spelling of the name Jesus with two “and” was introduced; all adjustments were made in accordance with the rites of the Greek church. For many believers, it seemed that a new faith had actually been introduced in Rus'. All supporters of double-fingered in 1656 were equated with heretics, excommunicated from the church and cursed. The reform divided the Russian Church into two camps of Orthodoxy: the mainstream and the Old Believer. Old Believers are that part of the Russian population that abandoned innovations, continuing to adhere to the old faith, rituals, and way of life. For this they were subjected to severe repression, many were forced to flee to free lands on the Terek, Don, beyond the Urals, and many abroad, to Poland. In the second half of the 18th century, by decree of Catherine II, schismatics were forcibly expelled from Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. An unknown land awaited them, harsh Siberia, untouched lands. They settled as whole families, which is why they were later called “semeiskie”. They quickly got used to the harsh Siberian nature. Thanks to the exceptional hard work of the Semeis, good-quality villages soon grew up. Intangible culture served as a constant support in the difficult fate of Semeysky or Old Believers, always persecuted by the official church and state. About 240 years have passed. The Semey Transbaikalia firmly rooted themselves in the Siberian soil and found a second homeland here. Semeysky huts are tall wooden buildings; they are painted inside and out and washed twice a year. If you approach from the outside, you can barely reach the window with your hand. The frames and cornices in many huts are decorated with carvings and painted. From the 17th-18th centuries to the present day, Semeyskie have preserved the ancient form of clothing without changes. The ethnography of the Semeisk people gives an indelible idea of the uniqueness and originality of their culture. We find this in their way of life, in everyday life, in the culture of the family, the strength of moral principles, in the majesty of their clothes, in the design of their homes, in the painting of their utensils and living quarters. To this day they have preserved the golden fund of Russian folk culture. The traditional folk culture of the Semeis is a unique, original ethnocultural phenomenon. The value of Semeyskie, as a historical and cultural phenomenon of Russia, is difficult to overestimate. They managed to preserve spiritual experience, which was actually lost from other groups of the Russian people. Folk singing traditions, which are a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage, have their origins in ancient Russian musical culture and whose roots go back to the depths of the Middle Ages. The skill and unique technique of polyphonic singing, which incorporates many special techniques, deserve the highest praise. Representing exceptional value for a new civilization, the original spiritual culture of the Semeis of the Tarbagatai region of the Republic of Buryatia in May 2001 in Paris was proclaimed by UNESCO as a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” and included in the first list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Semeys are hospitable, hospitable people who love bright, cheerful colors. The coloring of the cornice, shutters, and trim pleases the eye with cheerful colors. This speaks of the love of life of the people, their cheerful disposition and prosperity. Semeyskie cuisine presents a large selection of meat, dairy dishes, and baked goods. Having visited the Semeyskie farmstead and tasted the pies, shanegs, pancakes, cabbage soup, and porridge, everyone will want to come back again. In order to obtain reliable information about the life of the people living in the Tarbagatai district, you need to drive through the villages: Tarbagatai, Kunaley, Desyatnikovo, Kuitun, you will find yourself at the end of the 19th century on a typical Old Believer street. By visiting the museum created at the temple in the village of Tarbagatai by Father Sergei, you can see antiques, icons, household utensils, and touch the distant past of the Semeis. I was there, saw the museum created by the priest on his own, talked with Father Sergius - an amazing man - there are few such unmercenaries these days... Of course, we also visited the Semey family themselves - many now work in the tourism business. They treated us to pickles - very tasty, plentiful, patriarchal! They sang and danced for us, played games - an amazing and unforgettable journey... The echo of which is my chanting - according to old recipes... Help yourself - and come to us, eh?!
Among the known methods of preparing and eating food, Russian traditions dominated, and the influence of Ukrainian cuisine was strong. In the methods of processing, storing and preserving food products, many borrowings are found from the cooking of the peoples of the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Volga region, Siberia and the Far East. The methods of preparing and storing food and dishes in field conditions, known among the Cossacks, are similar to those that existed among the Russian population of different regions and non-Russian peoples of the outskirts of Russia (freezing meat, fish, dumplings, milk, drying cottage cheese, vegetables, fruits and berries and etc.). Everywhere the most common bread was made from sour dough with yeast or sourdough. Bread was baked in a Russian oven (on a hearth or in molds), pies, pies, shangi, rolls, pancakes, pancakes and more were baked from sour dough. The Ural Cossacks baked eggs into bread intended for the journey. Pies are a festive and everyday dish filled with fish, meat, vegetables, cereals, fruits, and berries, including wild ones.
Unleavened dough was used to bake flatbreads (presnushki), bursaki, koloboki, knishes, makans, nuts, rosantsy (brushwood). They were cooked in a Russian oven or fried in oil. Flatbreads were often cooked in a frying pan without fat, similar to the bread-baking traditions of the nomadic peoples of Central Asia. Rolls and pretzels were made from sour choux pastry. Dishes made from flour boiled in boiling water - zatirukha, dzhurma, balamyk, salamat - formed the basis of the Lenten diet; they were prepared during fishing, on the road, in haymaking. Dumplings, dumplings, noodles, and dumplings were among the dishes of the everyday and festive table. Kulaga was also made from flour (the flour was brewed with a fruit decoction), and jelly for funeral and Lenten meals. Cereals played a major role in nutrition; porridge with water and milk, vegetables (pumpkin and carrots) were added to them. On the basis of porridges, dishes were prepared like pudding - millet (from millet and rice), with the addition of eggs and butter. “Porridge with fish” was known among the Ural, Don, Terek and Astrakhan Cossacks.
Dairy dishes are an important part of the daily diet. The basis for preparing many dishes was sour milk. It was used to make aryan (ayran) - a thirst-quenching drink, skimmed milk, suzbe, like feta cheese. Dried cheese was common among many troops. Kuban Cossacks made cheese similar to the traditions of Adyghe cooking. Kaymak (cream melted in a Russian oven) was added to many dishes, giving them a special taste. Remchuk, sarsu - dishes made from sour milk, borrowed from nomadic peoples, were common among the Ural, Astrakhan, and Don Cossacks. Varenets, fermented baked milk, sour cream, and cottage cheese were also made from milk.
Fish dishes are the basis of the diet of the Don, Ural, Astrakhan, Siberian, Amur, and partly Kuban Cossacks. The fish was boiled (ukha, shrba), fried (zharina), and simmered in the oven. Cutlets and veal were prepared from fish fillets - a dish also known among the Pomors and Russian Ustyinets. Fish pies, jellied and stuffed fish were served on the festive table. Cutlets and meatballs were made from the caviar of particulate fish. The fish was dried, smoked, dried (balyk).
Meat was used to prepare first courses (borscht, cabbage soup, noodles, stew, soup), second courses (roast with vegetables, fried food, pozharok), and filling for pies.
Vegetable and fruit dishes were very varied. The most popular vegetable dish among the Kuban, Don and Terek Cossacks was borscht with meat, among the Ural Cossacks it was cabbage soup made from meat, cabbage, potatoes and cereals. Carrots, pumpkin, stewed cabbage, and fried potatoes were part of the daily diet. Kuban and Terek Cossacks prepared dishes from eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and other things, similar to the traditions of Caucasian cuisine. The Ural Cossacks made melon dryers in the same way as the Turkmens, only after drying in the sun they were simmered in a Russian oven. Vegetable dishes with kvass (okroshka, grated radish) were popular among the Siberian, Transbaikal, Orenburg, Ural and Don Cossacks. Melon crops - watermelons, melons and pumpkins dominated the food of the Cossacks of many troops in the summer. Watermelons and melons were salted. Salted tomatoes, cucumbers, and cabbage were poured with watermelon pulp. Bekmes was a widespread dish made from watermelon and molasses among the Don, Astrakhan, Ural and other Cossacks. Terek and Kuban Cossacks added spicy seasonings from local herbs to their dishes.
Wild plants (sloes, cherries, currants, cherry plums, apples, pears, nuts, rose hips) were consumed everywhere. Terek and Kuban Cossacks made mamalyga from corn, steamed it in a Russian oven, and boiled it. Porridges and liquid dishes were prepared from beans, peas and beans. Bird cherry was widely used by the Transbaikal Cossacks, they baked gingerbreads (kursuns), and made filling for pies.
The drinks were varied: kvass, compote (uzvar), sour milk diluted with water, syta made from honey, buza made from licorice root and others. Intoxicating drinks were served at the festive table: mash, sourdough, chikhir - young grape wine, moonshine (vodka). Tea was very popular among the Cossacks. All festive and often daily meals ended with tea drinking. The Cossacks of the Transbaikal army drank tea with “zabela” made from milk, butter and eggs, adding wheat flour and hemp seed to it. Old Believers at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries. They observed the ban on drinking tea and brewed wild herbs and roots.
Until the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The Cossacks are characterized by the existence of a large undivided family. Its long-term preservation was facilitated by the special social position of the Cossacks and their specific way of life: the need to cultivate large plots of land, the impossibility of separating a young family during service or before it began, and the isolation of family life. The Cossacks of the Don, Ural, Terek, Kuban troops had 3-4 generation families, the number of which reached 25-30 people. Along with large ones, small families were known, consisting of parents and unmarried children. The class isolation of the Cossacks in the 19th century significantly limited the range of marriages. Marriages with non-residents and representatives of local peoples were extremely rare even at the beginning of the 20th century. However, traces of marriage alliances between Cossacks and non-Russian peoples in the early period of the existence of Cossack communities can be traced in the anthropological type of Don, Terek, Ural and Astrakhan Cossacks.
The head of the family (grandfather, father or older brother) was the sovereign leader of the entire family: he distributed and controlled the work of its members, all income flowed to him, he had sole power. The mother occupied a similar position in the family in the absence of the owner. The uniqueness of the Cossack family structure was the relative freedom of a Cossack woman compared, for example, with a peasant woman. The youth in the family also enjoyed greater rights than the peasants.
The long coexistence of the Cossack agricultural, fishing and military communities determined many aspects of social life and spiritual life. The customs of collective labor and mutual assistance were manifested in the pooling of draft livestock and equipment for the period of urgent agricultural work, fishing gear and vehicles during fishing, joint grazing of livestock, voluntary assistance during the construction of a house, etc. The Cossacks are characterized by traditions of joint leisure activities: public meals after finishing agricultural or fishing work, seeing off and welcoming Cossacks from service. Almost all holidays were accompanied by competitions in cutting, shooting, and horse riding. A characteristic feature of many of them were “religious” games, which staged military battles or Cossack “freedom”. Games and competitions were often held on the initiative of the military administration, especially equestrian competitions. Among the Don Cossacks there was a custom of “walking with a banner” at Maslenitsa, when the chosen “vatazhny ataman” walked around the houses of the village residents with a banner, accepting treats from them. At the christening, the boy was “initiated as a Cossack”: they put a saber on him and put him on a horse. Guests brought gifts of arrows, cartridges, and a gun to the newborn (for teething purposes) and hung them on the wall.
The most significant religious holidays were Christmas and Easter. Patronal holidays were widely celebrated. The day of the saint - the patron saint of the army - was considered a general military holiday.
Agrarian calendar holidays (Yuletide, Maslenitsa and others) formed an important part of all festive rituals; they reflected traces of pre-Christian beliefs. In festive ritual games, the influence of contacts with Turkic peoples can be traced. Among the Ural Cossacks in the 19th century, the holiday amusements included an entertainment known among the Turkic peoples: without the help of hands, one was supposed to get a coin from the bottom of a cauldron with flour stew (balamyk).
The unique way of life of the Cossacks determined the nature of oral poetic creativity. The most common folklore genre among the Cossacks were songs. The traditions of choral singing had deep roots. The widespread existence of the song was facilitated by living together on campaigns and training camps, and performing agricultural work by the whole “world.”
The military authorities encouraged the Cossacks' passion for choral singing, creating choirs, organizing the collection of ancient songs and publishing collections of texts with notes. Music literacy was taught to schoolchildren in village schools; the basis of the song repertoire was ancient historical and heroic songs associated with specific historical events, as well as those that reflected military life. Ritual songs accompanied calendar and family holidays; love and humorous songs were popular. Under the influence of the city, “cruel” romances and literary adaptations spread in the early 19th century. Among other genres of folklore, historical legends, epics, and toponymic stories have become widespread.
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