Unlike the feudal lords, especially the nobility, the position of the peasants and serfs in the 17th century. deteriorated significantly. Of the privately owned peasants, the palace peasants lived better, the worst of all - the peasants of the secular feudal lords, especially the small ones. The peasants worked for the benefit of the feudal lords in the corvée ("product"), made natural and monetary quitrents. The usual size of the "product" is from two to four days a week, depending on the size of the lord's economy, the solvency of the serfs (rich and "samily" peasants worked more days a week, "meager" and "lonely" - less), their quantities earth. "Table supplies" - bread and meat, vegetables and fruits, hay and firewood, mushrooms and berries - were taken to the yards by the same peasants. Nobles and boyars took carpenters and masons, brickmakers and painters, other masters from their villages and villages. Peasants worked in the first factories and factories that belonged to feudal lords or the treasury, made cloth and canvas at home, and so on. etc. Serfs, in addition to work and payments in favor of the feudal lords, carried duties in favor of the treasury. In general, their taxation, duties were heavier than those of the palace and black-mowed. The situation of the peasants dependent on the feudal lords was aggravated by the fact that the trial and reprisals of the boyars and their clerks were accompanied by overt violence, bullying, and humiliation of human dignity.
After 1649, the search for fugitive peasants assumed wide dimensions. Thousands of them were seized and returned to their owners.
In order to live, the peasants went to waste, to "farm laborers", to work. The impoverished peasants passed into the category of beans.
Feudal lords, especially large ones, had many slaves, sometimes several hundred people. These are clerks and servants for parcels, grooms and tailors, watchmen and shoemakers, falconers and "singing guys". By the end of the century there was a merger of serfdom with the peasantry.
The average level of well-being of the Russian serfs decreased. Reduced, for example, peasant plowing: in Zamoskovny Krai by 20-25%. Some peasants had half a tithe, about a tithe of land, while others did not even have that. And the wealthy happened to have several tens of acres of land. They took over the master's distilleries, mills, etc. They became merchants and industrialists, sometimes very large ones. From the serfs B.I. Morozov came out, for example, who became contractors-shipowners, and then large salt traders and
fisherman Antropov. And the Glotovs, the peasants of Prince. Yu.Ya. Sulesheva from the village of Karacharova, Murom district, became the richest merchants of the first half of the century.
Life was better for the state, or black-mowed, peasants. Above them did not hang the sword of Damocles of direct subordination to a private owner. But they depended on the feudal state: taxes were paid in its favor, they carried various duties.

Unlike the feudal lords, especially the nobility, the position of peasants and serfs in the 17th century deteriorated significantly. Of the privately owned peasants, the palace peasants lived better, the worst of all - the peasants of the secular feudal lords, especially the small ones.

The peasants worked for the benefit of the feudal lords in the corvée ("product"), made natural and monetary quitrents. The usual size of the "product" is from two to four days a week, depending on the size of the lord's economy, the solvency of the serfs (rich and "samily" peasants worked more days a week, "meager" and "lonely" - less), their quantities earth. Peasants plowed arable land and mowed hay for the masters, cultivated their vegetable gardens and orchards, took manure to the fields and built mills and dams, cleaned ponds, made “ezy”, “stalls” for catching fish, and much more. The hottest times were “driven” (general) work during sowing and reaping, haymaking and repairing dams, when “we lived at work as long as we had done.”

"Table supplies" - bread and meat, vegetables and fruits, hay and firewood, mushrooms and berries - were taken to the yards by the same peasants. Nobles and boyars took carpenters and masons, brickmakers and painters, other masters from their villages and villages. The peasants worked in the first factories and factories that belonged to the feudal lords or the treasury, made cloth and canvas at home, etc., etc.

Everything necessary for everyday life in the city was taken by the boyars and nobles in the form of dues from the peasants. Stolnik A. I. Bezobrazov in the 60-70s demanded from Belevsky estates a year 18 buckets of wine, 7 pounds of meat with pork hams and young pigs, 16 rams, 16 arshins of canvas, 15 arshins of cloth, 16 chickens, 16 "shoes of bast shoes ", two harnesses, reins, tugs, cords and "snakes". Everywhere the owners received "korowai" butter and bacon, cheese, cottage cheese and sour cream; in other places - nuts and berries, horseradish and mushrooms. They took the products of village craftsmen made of iron and wood, leather and matting, fish and honey, etc.; all this, as they said then, and to count and know not to be able. Various whims were also fulfilled: the same B.I. Morozov once wished “the hunters have starlings, collect from everyone”, deliver them to him in Moscow in a large cage, “so that they, if they are lucky to Moscow, do not die; and they wouldn't be cramped."

The owners combined all three types of exploitation of the peasants. But gradually, especially in the second half of the century, the proportion of dues, especially cash, increases in the Zamoskovskiy Territory, and corvee works in the southern districts and near Moscow.

Serfs, in addition to work and payments in favor of the feudal lords, carried duties in favor of the treasury. In general, their taxation, duties were heavier than those of the palace and black-mowed. The situation of the peasants dependent on the feudal lords was aggravated by the fact that the owners disposed of not only their labor. The trial and reprisals of the boyars and their clerks were accompanied by undisguised violence, bullying, and the humiliation of human dignity. It came, and quite often, to batogs and whips, torture by fire and rack, shackling and imprisonment. The complaints of the peasants against the landowners had no force. The owner was not responsible for their murder. The nobles intervened in the family sections of the peasants, marriages.

After 1649, the investigation of fugitive peasants assumed wide dimensions. Thousands of them were seized and returned to their owners. Serfdom included non-enslaved groups of the rural population: the so-called “free” or “walking people”, children and relatives of peasants who were not included in the scribe books, freed bonded serfs, freed from captivity of rural residents; townspeople and instrumental people who left the tax or service and settled in the village, etc. Many of them were fugitive peasants and serfs. Freemen and walkers usually came to the landowner "in body and soul", they said about such people: "a goal, like a falcon." They took a loan from the feudal lord and, according to the “loan record” or “orderly”, pledged to live “forever”, “no way out”, “not to go anywhere and continue to live motionless”, “to live forever in the peasantry”, pay taxes and dues.

Many peasants could not, due to dire need, bear their duties, and the “mortal” right came to the aid of the feudal lords and authorities with merciless punishments, the sale of “bellies” (property) and “the last nags” for a pittance. After that, what to do? Lie down and die! Or it remains "to walk around the world with a stake." Even the clerks, who extorted taxes and dues from the peasants, saw that there was nothing to take from them. One of them complained to his owner (1674):

“And always, sir, I should be beaten by them, because they are meager and poor. You start to rule, but they have nowhere to take, and bread was not born, and there is nothing to take money on.

Owners and clerks gave peasants who had fallen into poverty, especially in the spring, loans with bread "for seeds and for seeds." Steward Bezobrazov's clerk explains the purpose of such loans:

“We give bread because: so that your work does not become any. And if you don’t give bread, there will be no one to work.”

In order to live, the peasants went to waste, to "farm laborers", to work. They were hired by artels. The impoverished peasants passed into the category of beans. Especially a lot of them appeared during the Time of Troubles: the peasants, unable to bear the tax, asked the owners to allow them to “live in the bobs for a while”. Some beans plowed their land, worked on the boyar arable land, but did not make taxes and payments. Others could not do this either, they did not even have a yard, they "fed themselves among the peasants by work", like "backbones", "neighbors and neighbors" with other peasants. Gradually, as the condition of the beans improved, they were again forced to bear the tax in half or less, and eventually in full. According to the decree on the household tax (1679), they were equated with peasants. But even after that, bobyls, as a social category of the rural population, continued to exist.

In the north of European Russia, there was a category of ladles, usually from black-haired peasants. For help, a loan, they worked on the farms of monasteries and wealthy peasants, giving them half, two-fifths, a third of the crop.

Feudal lords, especially large ones, had many serfs, sometimes several hundred people (for example, the boyars N. I. Romanov, B. I. Morozov had 300–400 people each). These are clerks and servants for parcels, grooms and tailors, watchmen and shoemakers, falconers and "singing guys". They did not run an independent household, they were fully supported by the owner. Some nobles began to transfer their serfs to the land, endowed them with inventory, and they paid them dues, performed corvée work, but, unlike the peasants, they did not bear the state tax. However, the tax reform of 1678-1681 equalized both. By the end of the century, in essence, there was a merger of serfdom with the peasantry.

The average level of well-being of the Russian serfs decreased in the 17th century. Reduced, for example, peasant plowing: in Zamoskovny Krai by 20-25 percent. Some peasants had half a tithe, about a tithe of land, while others did not even have that. And the wealthy happened to have several tens of acres. The stolnik Bezobrazov in Kashin's possession had, on the one hand, horseless peasants who did not even have a hen; on the other - the headman F. Oparin with his brothers, who owned nine horses, two foals, 1 2 cows and other cattle. For a special dues, this rich peasant rented three wastelands and hayfields from the master.

Unlike the feudal lords, especially the nobility, the position of the peasants and serfs in the 17th century. deteriorated significantly. Of the privately owned peasants, the peasants of the palace lived better, the worst of all - the peasants of the secular feudal lords, especially the small ones. The peasants worked for the benefit of the feudal lords in the corvée ("product"), made natural and monetary quitrents. The usual size of the "product" is from two to four days a week, depending on the size of the lord's economy, the solvency of the serfs (rich and "samily" peasants worked more days a week, "meager" and "lonely" - less), their quantities earth. "Table supplies" - bread and meat, vegetables and fruits, hay and firewood, mushrooms and berries - were taken to the owners' yards by the same peasants. Nobles and boyars took carpenters and masons, brickmakers and painters, other masters from their villages and villages. Peasants worked in the first factories and factories that belonged to feudal lords or the treasury, made cloth and canvas at home, and so on. etc. Serfs, in addition to work and payments in favor of the feudal lords, carried duties in favor of the treasury. In general, their taxation, duties were heavier than those of the palace and black-mowed. The situation of the peasants dependent on the feudal lords was aggravated by the fact that the trial and reprisals of the boyars and their clerks were accompanied by overt violence, bullying, and humiliation of human dignity.
After 1649, the search for fugitive peasants assumed wide dimensions. Thousands of them were seized and returned to their owners.
In order to live, the peasants went to waste, to "farm laborers", to work. The impoverished peasants passed into the category of beans.
Feudal lords, especially large ones, had many slaves, sometimes several hundred people. These are clerks and servants for parcels, grooms and tailors, watchmen and shoemakers, falconers and "singers". By the end of the century there was a merger of serfdom with the peasantry.
The average level of well-being of the Russian serfs decreased. Reduced, for example, peasant plowing: in Zamoskovnoe krai by 20-25%. Some peasants had half a tithe, about a tithe of land, while others did not even have that. And the wealthy happened to have several tens of acres of land. They took over the master's distilleries, mills, etc. They became merchants and industrialists, sometimes very large ones. From the serfs B.I. Morozov came out, for example, who became contractors-shipowners, and then large salt traders and
fisherman Antropov. And the Glotovs, the peasants of Prince. Yu.Ya. Sulesheva from the village of Karacharova, Murom district, became the richest merchants of the first half of the century.
Life was better for the state, or black-mowed, peasants. Above them did not hang the sword of Damocles of direct subordination to a private owner. But they depended on the feudal state: taxes were paid in its favor, they carried various duties.

THE LIFE OF A RUSSIAN PEASANT WOMAN INXVI- XVIICENTURIES

Koronova Lilia Romanovna

student of the faculty of history and jurisprudence of the EI K(P)FU

E-mail: lilia [email protected] yandex . en

Krapotkina Irina Evgenievna

cand. ist. Sciences, Associate Professor EI K(P)FU, Yelabuga

The history of everyday life is one of the most promising areas that have been developed in Russian historiography since the end of the 20th century. The topic is relevant against the backdrop of increased at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. interest in the study of the status of Russian women in modern society, which requires the study and understanding of the economic and socio-political position of women in Russia over a long historical period.

According to the first general census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897, the peasantry was the largest estate and accounted for 77.1% of the population, and peasant women accounted for 38.9% of the total population of the entire Russian Empire.

For the peasant family of the XVI-XVII centuries, it is characteristic that the spirit of mutual assistance reigned in it; responsibilities were strictly assigned. The authority of family life was very high among the people.

The Russian peasant family of the 16th century consisted of an average of 15-20 people. It was a patriarchal family in which three or four generations of relatives lived together. However, already in the 17th century, there were no more than 10 people in families, representatives of only two generations.

A peasant marriage was concluded for economic reasons: the feelings or desires of the young were not taken into account - the landowner could marry the serfs at his own discretion. In addition, it was not accepted among the people that young men and girls themselves entered into marriage.

When choosing a bride, preference was given to healthy and hardworking girls - this was due to the fact that after marriage, women's shoulders fell on the household, raising children, working in the garden and field. Girls who were engaged in needlework were more likely to successfully marry.

In the 16th-17th centuries, marriage was entered into very early - girls from the age of 12, and boys from 15. And there was also a ban on marriages with relatives up to the sixth generation and with non-believers. It was possible to enter into marriage no more than three times, and Stoglav also speaks of this: “The first marriage is the law, the second is forgiveness, the third is a crime, the fourth is wickedness, there is life like a pig.”

The creation of a new family was necessarily accompanied by a wedding celebration. The Russian wedding contained two elements: Christian (wedding) and folk (“fun”). It was customary to play weddings in autumn or winter - this was the most successful time, since all agricultural work was completed. Before the wedding, matchmaking always took place, during which the bride's parents decided whether they should marry their daughter to this groom. If they agreed, then a “conspiracy” took place: the groom and his father came to the bride’s parents in the house and the parties agreed on wedding expenses, terms, the size of the bride’s dowry and the groom’s gifts. Having come to a single decision, they began preparing for the wedding.

"Domostroy" taught parents to collect their daughter's dowry from birth, setting aside "from any profit." The dowry included pieces of linen, clothes, shoes, jewelry, dishes - all this was put in a box or chest.

After all the preparations were completed, the wedding was played at the agreed time. A peasant wedding of the 16th-17th centuries was accompanied by many rituals: scratching the head with a comb dipped in honey, putting hair under a kiku, showering the newlyweds with hops, treating them with bread and salt - these rites were aimed at attracting happiness to the young in family life. However, there was a custom that determined the further position of a woman in the family: the groom put a whip in one of the boots, and a coin in the other. The task of the bride was to remove the boots from the groom's feet in turn, if the first was a boot with a coin, then she was considered lucky, and family life was happy, and if the boot with a whip was the first, then the husband defiantly hit his wife with it - thus the husband showed the nature of further relations in family .

The position of a married peasant woman of the 16th-17th centuries was freer than that of women of the upper classes: she could freely leave the house, doing household chores.

Peter Petrey notes that peasant women worked in the field and at home on a par with their husbands. At the same time, the woman had other things to do, such as cooking, washing, needlework, that is, making clothes for all family members, and they also carried firewood and water to the hut. In addition, the foreigner notes that husbands often beat their wives.

However, the woman had great authority in the family. It especially increased after the birth of a boy - this was due to the allotment of land only to men. Peasant women of the 16th-17th centuries were constantly busy with business even during pregnancy, in connection with this, childbirth could take place anywhere - in a field, in a hut or in a barn. In the Russian medieval society, the hospital was replaced by a bathhouse and, if possible, they tried to give birth there. "Domostroy" ordered to teach children respect for parents. The child was taught the appropriate craft from an early age. The mother taught her daughter to housekeeping and needlework from an early age: from the age of 6 she began to master the spinning wheel, from 10 - the sickle, sewing. At the age of 14, girls already knew how to weave, mow hay and bake bread. At the age of 15, peasant girls worked in the field on an equal basis with adults.

In their free time from field and household work, women were engaged in weaving. I. E. Zabelin writes that the linen business in the peasant economy was exclusively in the hands of women. In addition, sewing and spinning were also the occupation of women and girls on long winter evenings. Sewing shirts was a very troublesome business: the preparation of flax fiber took place in the summer, then it was soaked for several weeks, then the stems were crushed, ruffled and combed - as a result, raw materials for spinning were obtained. Having finished spinning, peasant women wove canvases, for this a loom was brought into the house from the shed. In the summer, when the linen was woven, it was whitewashed in the sun, spread out on a meadow. Only after all this was the canvas ready for cutting and sewing. In the XVI-XVII centuries, girls were engaged in needlework, having gathered together by the light of a torch; Evenings were spent in conversation.

Since ancient times, clothing has been designed not only to hide nudity, but also to emphasize the wealth of a person. In addition, it was believed that clothes are designed to ward off evil spirits.

Thanks to the information of foreign guests, it is possible to compile a description of the outfits of Russian peasant women. The clothes of men and women were very similar; was not pleasing to the eye and was sewn at home. The peasants worked in old clothes, after finishing their work, they changed into everyday clothes, and on holidays, they put on smart clothes to the church. Clothes were often inherited, carefully stored in crates and chests, and cleaned after each wear. The main item of clothing in the 16th-17th centuries was a shirt made of woolen fabric, the so-called sackcloth, and linen or hemp, but due to the complexity of the manufacturing technology, linen shirts were less common.

According to Russian medieval mores, a woman was not allowed to emphasize her figure, so the shirt had a loose fit, did not fit to the body and reached the knees. From the 17th century, they began to wear a sundress over a shirt, that is, a sleeveless dress that fitted the chest and expanded downwards or poneva - a blue or black woolen skirt with a decorated bottom.

In the clothes of peasants until the 16th-17th centuries, the belt played the role of a talisman, but by the indicated period this meaning had been lost and it became just a traditional costume detail.

Particular attention in the XVI-XVII centuries was paid to women's headdresses, as there was a clear distinction between girls' and women's. Before marriage, girls were allowed to bare their heads, after marriage - this was considered indecent behavior. Girls wore dressings - decorated strips of fabric that wrapped around their heads with a hoop, “kosniks” - decorations for a braid, and married women wore volosniki (home dress), underbrusniks (soft hats worn with a ubrus or scarf), ubrusy (holiday dress), kokoshniks (worn from marriage to the birth of the first child and on holidays) or kiki, that is, they twisted their hair and hid it under a cap.

Peasant outerwear was made from ram skin, which had a specific smell. Peasant women had bast shoes on their feet, which were made in their own household from bast mixed with pieces of fur or coarse cloth. In winter, felt boots and woolen socks were worn. There were no stockings - they were replaced by pieces of linen that wrapped the legs.

It is typical for the peasants that they always kept their elegant dresses clean and stored in chests, taking them out only on holidays and for going to church. Often items of clothing passed by inheritance.

Women of the peasant class of the 16th-17th centuries could not afford to purchase expensive items of jewelry, so clothes were decorated with embroidery.

The girl in advance began to make clothes that would be her dowry, since this required a very long and painstaking work. For the wedding, most often the bride wore a beautiful, that is, red dress.

I would like to note that the peasant women did not care about grace, taste or combination of colors. All the clothes were made by hand and therefore they were treated very carefully, new clothes were put on in exceptional cases and, having taken care of their safety, they were put back into the chests where they were stored. Clothing in the XVI-XVII centuries was worn until it became completely unusable. Another feature of Russian peasant clothing in the period under review is that there were no clothes made specifically for children - they were forced to wear the clothes of adults, and if clothes were sewn on them, then “for growth”.

In other words, the clothes of a Russian peasant woman of the 16th-17th centuries did not differ in a variety of forms and matter, so they tried to decorate them with embroidery and other methods. The main purpose of clothing was protection from the cold and covering nudity - and homespun clothing coped with this.

The peasant table of the 16th-17th centuries did not differ in variety and was based on custom. The basis of the diet was black bread, cabbage soup, porridge and kvass; many dishes were similar to each other.

"Domostroy" advised the hostess to be interested in the tricks of cooking from "good wives". The food of the peasants was closely connected not only with religion (strict observance of fasts), but also with what the peasant farms themselves produced.

In the 16th-17th centuries, each Orthodox Christian attached special importance to the observance of fasts. For this reason, the table of the Russian peasant was divided into lean and modest (meat-eater). During fasting days, the use of meat and dairy products was prohibited, and all this was allowed in the meat-eater. In the Orthodox calendar, there were four main multi-day fasts and many one-day fasts. Thus, the number of fasting days in total took about 200 calendar days. In addition to large fasts, Wednesday and Friday throughout the year, with the exception of Christmas time and continuous weeks, were also fast days. Religious norms and "Domostroy" regulated the use of certain products during the four main posts.

The first was Great Lent, which lasted 40 days, lean bread, fish, porridge with it, porridge from peas, dried and boiled mushrooms, cabbage soup, pancakes, jelly, pies with jam, onions, peas, turnips, mushrooms , cabbage .

The next was Peter's fast, which began a week after Trinity Day and ended on Peter's Day, that is, on July 12. During this fast, Orthodox peasants ate fish, fish soup flavored with saffron, onions and garlic, pies with millet and peas, mushrooms, cabbage soup.

Next came the Assumption Fast, which lasted from 1 to 14 August. At this time, fish food was served at the table: sauerkraut with fish, fish seasoned with garlic, in gravy with seasonings, fish jellies, fish soup, fish balls, pastries, sour pies with peas or fish.

And the final major post was Christmas, which lasted 6 weeks from November 12 until the Nativity of Christ. Here, the peasants of the 16th-17th centuries ate boiled and stewed fish seasoned with garlic and horseradish, fish jelly, fish soup, loaves. At the end of the Christmas Lent, the peasants tried to serve dishes from the meat of piglets or ducklings on the festive table.

The largest one-day fasts are the day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Christmas Eve. On these days, wholemeal porridge, peas, baked turnips, cabbage soup and pickle were served.

The basis of peasant nutrition was rye bread, and pastries made from wheat flour were put on the table only on major holidays. No meal was complete without bread. In addition, he played an important role in various rites: religious (prosphora for communion, Easter cakes for Easter), wedding (newlyweds were greeted with “bread and salt”), folk (pancakes for Shrovetide, gingerbread for spring).

Bread was baked once a week in a special wooden tub - a kvass, which was rarely washed, because it was constantly in operation. Before putting the dough, the hostess rubbed the walls of the tub with salt, then poured warm water over it. In the peasant economy of the 16th-17th centuries, a piece of dough left over from previous baking was used for sourdough. Next, the flour was poured and thoroughly mixed, left overnight in a warm place. The hostess kneaded the dough that had risen in the morning until it began to lag behind both the hands and the walls of the kneading bowl. After that, the dough was again put in a warm place for the night, and kneaded again in the morning. Now the dough was molded and placed in the oven. Baked bread was stored in special wooden bread bins. A woman who knew how to bake delicious bread was especially respected in the family. In lean years, the peasants were forced to add quinoa, tree bark, ground acorns, nettles and bran to the flour, as a result of which the bread acquired a bitter aftertaste.

In the 16th-17th centuries, peasants baked not only bread from flour, but also pies, pancakes, pancakes, gingerbread, but all this was present exclusively on the festive table. Pancakes can be considered the most popular flour dish: they were cooked for Shrove Tuesday, fed a woman in labor and commemorated the deceased. Next came pies - they were prepared from yeast, unleavened and puff pastry, and they could be baked in oil (spun) and without it in the hearth of the oven (hearth). The filling for pies was eggs, fruits and berries, meat and fish, cottage cheese, vegetables, mushrooms, cereals. Another flour dish of the Russian peasant holiday table was gingerbread of various shapes. When preparing the dough, honey and spices were added to it - hence the name. Kalachi was baked from a mixture of rye and wheat flour.

In the peasant environment of the 16th-17th centuries, cabbage soup and porridge were the most widespread, and any stew was called cabbage soup. Porridges were cooked from cereals in milk or water with the addition of butter. Kashi was an attribute of many folk rituals, for example, it was boiled for christenings, weddings and commemorations. If a woman knew how to cook tasty cabbage soup and bake bread, then this was already a reason to consider her a good housewife. Shchi was prepared from fresh and sour cabbage, often with the addition of turnips and beets. In general, turnips were considered the second bread. Shchi was cooked both in meat broth and simply in water.

In the early days, on the Russian medieval peasant table, one could often find milk soups and cereals from various cereals, flavored with butter or lard, cheeses, cottage cheese, sour cream and meat dishes. There was plenty of meat on Russian soil, but the peasants ate little of it; each type of meat was supplemented with garden crops (turnips, garlic, onions, cucumbers, peppers, radishes). From spring to late autumn, meat dishes were prepared mainly from lamb; in winter - from beef (since a large amount of meat did not spoil in the cold), before Christmas - from salted or smoked pork.

However, not everything on the peasant table was grown by the peasant family itself. Fish soup, cooked from river fish caught on communal lands, was widely used. The fish was also consumed in a salted, boiled, smoked form and was used for making cabbage soup, pies, cutlets, served with buckwheat, millet and other cereals. Poultry dishes (home-raised or hunted) were well seasoned with horseradish and vinegar.

A feature of the dishes of the Russian table is that they were richly seasoned with onions, garlic, pepper, mustard and vinegar, but salt, due to its high cost, the peasants could rarely afford.

The most common drinks among the peasants of the 16th-17th centuries were kvass, fruit drink, and in April - berezovets, that is, birch sap. Beer, honey, vodka were also widely used.

Kvass drinks were available to many, besides, many dishes could be prepared on its basis, for example, okroshka, beetroot, tyuryu. A good housewife knew how to prepare a wide variety of kvass: from barley or rye malt, from honey and berries (cherries, bird cherry, raspberries, cranberries) or fruits (apples, pears). In addition, kvass, as well as cabbage, were excellent means of preventing diseases such as scurvy. Beer was brewed from barley, oats, rye and wheat. The original and best Russian drink, famous among foreigners, was mead; all travelers unanimously recognized his dignity. Honey was brewed from berries (raspberries, currants, cherries, lingonberries, bird cherry), with yeast or hops.

In the 17th century, vodka appeared and became widespread among the peasantry. Usually Russian vodka was made from rye, wheat or barley, but there was an exception - this is women's vodka, which was made with the addition of molasses or honey, due to which it turned out to be sweet. In addition, in the manufacture of vodka, they often insisted on various spices (cinnamon, mustard) and fragrant herbs (mint, St. John's wort, juniper) and made liqueurs on different berries.

Alcoholic drinks were widespread - they were usually consumed on various holidays and occasions, but foreign travelers note that drunkenness was a frequent occurrence among the Russian people in the 16th-17th centuries. "Domostroy" forbade a woman to drink intoxicating drinks, however, Jacques Margeret notes that women and girls were often given to drunkenness.

In the peasant environment, it was believed that food must be earned, so they rarely had breakfast. A peasant family of the 16th-17th centuries rarely managed to dine together: in a bad time, they ate right in the field in order not to waste time.

Based on the foregoing, we can say that the food culture of the peasants of the XVI-XVII centuries was fully dependent on religious fasts and agricultural products. The daily diet of the peasants was extremely unpretentious and consisted of cereals, vegetables (such as turnips, cabbage, cucumbers), meat and fish, that is, their meal was mostly simple, due to the fact that food was consumed that was grown on their plot .

Summing up, I would like to note that a Russian woman of the 16th-17th centuries provided full support and assistance to her husband, she worked on an equal footing with him; in addition, she was engaged in raising children, sewing clothes and cooking. The peasant family was large, and the incomes were small, as a result of which the woman could not afford to buy clothes - everything was produced on the farm itself. The situation was also with the peasant table - they were forced to give most of what they produced to the landowners. Thus, the peasant family was very close-knit, and the position of a woman in the family depended on her own skills.

Bibliography:

1. Adam Olearius. Description of travel to Muscovy // [Electronic resource] - Access mode. - URL: http://www.vostlit.info/
2. Jerome Horsey. Notes on Russia in the 16th - early 17th centuries. / Ed. V.L. Yanina; Per. and comp. A.A. Sevastyanova. - M.: MGU, 1990. - 288 p. // [Electronic resource] - Access mode. - URL: http://krotov.info/
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1. Nobility.

The ruling class - feudal lords . First of all, this boyars who had their own ancestral land holdings - estates. In the 17th century, as the Russian autocracy was asserted, the positions of nobility, which gradually turned into a new estate.

IN 1 649 Zemsky Sobor adopted a new Code, according to which the eternal right of feudal lords to dependent peasants was fixed and the transfer from one owner to another was forbidden(serfdom).

By the end of the century, up to 10% of peasant households in the country belonged to the tsar, 10% to the boyars, 15% to the church, and about 60% to the nobles.

The former system of filling the highest positions in the state by birthright (the system localism ) in 1682 year was finally cancelled. All categories of feudal lords were equalized in rights.

2. Peasants.

The situation of the peasants in the 17th century deteriorated significantly. The peasantry was divided into two main groups: possessory and black-mallowed. The first is the property of the feudal lords. They could be sold, exchanged, donated. The second owned vast lands (mainly in Pomorye and Siberia) and carried state duties.

The peasants worked for the feudal lords corvée (2-4 days a week), paid natural and monetary quitrent . The taxation system has changed. Instead of land tribute was introduced by courtyard.

By the end of the century serfs from semi-slaves they became clerks, messengers, grooms, tailors, falconers, etc.

The average size of peasant plots was 1-2 hectares of land. Prosperous peasants, whose allotments reached several tens of hectares, became entrepreneurs, merchants, and merchants.

3. Urban population.

In the 17th century, the urban population grew. In new cities, after the fortresses appeared tenements. Not only Russians lived in them, but also representatives of other peoples of Russia. Crafts and trade flourished there.

Dominant positions in urban life were occupied wealthy artisans and merchants . The position of the boyars, nobles and monasteries was also privileged. servants and servants who spent their free time in trade and crafts.

Wage labor is beginning to be used, but still on a small scale.

4. Clergy.

By the end of the 17th century, the number of Russian clergy increased (110,000 people in 15,000 churches). A new church hierarchy was formed. The closest to the believers and the most numerous in composition were parish priests . The top layer was bishops, archbishops and metropolitans. Headed the church hierarchy patriarch Moscow and all Russia.

In 1649, the Council Code forbade the church to increase its land holdings and eliminated the rights of white settlements.

5. Cossacks.

The Cossacks became a new estate for Russia, military class , which included the population of a number of outlying areas of Russia (Don, Yaik, Urals, Terek, Left-bank Ukraine). It enjoyed special rights and benefits on the terms of compulsory and general military service.

The basis of the economic life of the Cossacks was trades- hunting, fishing, cattle breeding and agriculture. The main part of the income was received in the form of state salaries and military booty.

The most important issues in the life of the Cossacks were discussed at a general gathering ("circle"). Elected leaders chieftains and petty officers s. The ownership of the land belonged to the entire community.