Peasant labor in the Middle Ages. Development of a child’s personality in work

The lesson for the course “Origins” was:

Topic: “Peasant labor”

1.Introduction to the sociocultural category “Peasant Labor”

2. Accumulation of positive experience when working in a circle, in pairs, the ability to listen to each other, and pay attention to the words of the interlocutor.

3. fostering a respectful attitude towards working people.

Progress of the lesson.

ACCESSION,

The class begins with students in national costumes. The girl has a loaf of bread in her hands. Children read poetry. 1(Slide)

1.If we want someone

Greet with honor and honor.

Greet generously from the heart,

With great respect,

We meet such guests

A lush round loaf.

It's on a painted platter

With snow-white sleeves.

2. Loaf of earth and sky

On your table-

Nothing is stronger than bread

Not on the whole earth.

There are fields of grain in every small piece

And on each spikelet the earth rests.

TEACHER: Thank you for the hospitality, for the bread and salt, dear hosts. We accept your invitation.

Guys, why in Rus' were dear guests greeted with bread and salt?

Today we will visit peasant fields, hear sayings about labor and bread, songs about peasant labor, feel how important it is to take care of bread, our native land - our breadwinner,

The topic of today's lesson is “Peasant Labor” (Slide)

Read the words on the board: plowman, farmer, grower, peasant.

What do these words have in common?

If we turn to explanatory dictionaries, we will find out that a peasant is (Slide)

New explanatory and word-formative dictionary of the Russian language. Author.

peasant

PEASANT

Conclusion: these words are about a man who worked on the earth.

The peasant calendar was full of work and completely dependent on nature.

Field work began in the spring. As soon as the earth dried out and warmed up, the peasants went out into the field to plow the land.

The peasants plowed with plows. They harnessed the horse, attached the plow and went out into the field. (slide)

The peasant treated the field as a living creature, observing the biblical commandment: “Do not harm the earth, nor the sea, nor the tree.”

Reader 2

Reader 3

When going out into the field to sow grain, the peasant put on wide winter bast shoes: “In order not to crush the earth - it is alive, it feels heavy, but in bast shoes it is softer, easier for it.”

Reader 4

Even a horse, when working on arable land, steps with its hind hoof in the footprint of its front hoof, i.e. it does not trample the ground in vain.

TEACHER (Slide)

“Work is bitter, but bread is sweet,” our ancestors said. They worked hard to get their food, because they remembered that if you do not sow, you cannot reap. In many sayings, bread and labor are inextricably linked, because without the second you cannot get the first. A respectful attitude towards work was instilled in children from an early age. Any work was revered because it brought bread.. It is believed that a good worker will not be left without food

WORKING WITH THE BOOK 78-79

What does the text say about the peasants' relationship to the land?

What should a person working in the field be like?

How do you understand the expression “where the owner passed, there the bread was born”

Why is haymaking called a real holiday?

(The peasants worked in factories, mines or in auxiliary jobs during the winter, so working in nature gave them pleasure.

RESOURCE CIRCLE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOLISTIC PERCEPTION.

Many poets and artists dedicated their works to the work of the grain grower. (Slide show)

Artists (slide)

Van Gogh (slide)

Shishkin. Rye (slide)

Poems about bread. (slide)

Here it is, fragrant bread,

With a crunchy twisted crust,

Here it is, warm, golden,

As if filled with sunshine!

In every home, on every table

He came - he came.

In it lies health, our strength,

It's wonderfully warm.

How many hands raised him,

Saved, protected!

After all, the grains did not immediately become

The bread that is on the table.

People work long and hard

We worked hard on the ground.

In every grain of wheat
Summer and winter
The power of the sun is stored
And native land.
And grow under the bright sky,
Slender and tall
Like the immortal Motherland,
Ear of bread. (ORLOV)

Grains of our days, shine
Gilded carved!
We say: “Take care.
Take care of your native bread...
We did not dream of a miracle.
A live speech to us from the fields:
“Take care of your bread, you people!
Learn to save bread."

People spoke of bread as a living being: bread-breadwinner, bread-father. From time immemorial, people have treated the labor of those who created it in the same way as they did with bread. In Rus', bakers enjoyed special respect; they were never called Ivashka, Fedka, Petrushka - they were called respectfully, with their full names Ivan, Fedor, Peter. Bread was highly valued in Rus'. People who grow and harvest bread were respected. At all times, bread has been and remains a product that can feed a person.

MAIN STAGE (Music + slide)

Take the spikelets in your hands and stand in a circle. Imagine yourself in the middle of a grain field, listen to the sounds, try to understand your experiences.

We will now collect our spikelets together, creating the image of a field. The harvest is ripe, wheat is heading in the field.

Finish the sentence

I went out into the field and see (hear, feel)

REFLECTION

Did you get the feeling that you were in a real field?

Which guys' statements helped you with this?

PHYSICAL MINUTE.

Learning the folk game “Grandfather-Sysoi”

Grandfather-Sysoy,

Don't shake your beard!

Listen to what we say

Look what we show you.

Grandfather - Sysoy answers

Hello kids.

Where were you on copper?

Children: - They walked freely in an open field, and ...... (they showed with gestures what they were doing)

SOCIOCULTURAL TRAINING - work in pairs

Teacher Bread is earned by the sweat of the brow, and farmers value the experience of their ancestors.

Folk wisdom is especially evident in proverbs and sayings.

They instruct, give wise advice, condemn laziness.

What sayings do you know about bread and labor? (slide)

· Seek business like bread.

· You can't cut bread without a knife.

You can't get bread by lying down.

But observing nature, folk signs have developed. They give advice to the peasant when to start this or that work.

Individual work using cards

Fill in the circle on the left with red for the proverb, and blue for the folk signs.

Group stage

- Listen carefully to the opinion of your seatmate

Jointly choose your one common opinion.

Fill in the circles on the right.

Agree which of you will represent the joint solution

REFLECTION

Were you able to come to an agreement?

What did you find difficult about your job?

What worked best?

SUMMARIZING

At first the grain was sown with grain,

Then the sprouts were nurtured by an agronomist.

Then the combine operator took the ear of grain in his hands,

He rubbed it carefully in his palms.

Having learned that the bread had long since ripened,

He went out into the field to remove it with a combine harvester.

Reader 2

Then flour was ground from the grain

And she went to the baker.

And he was able to try:

You baked such delicious buns!

Appreciate, love and respect the one

Who sowed bread, raised it and baked it!

How do you understand the proverb “What goes around comes around?” They not only sowed bread, they sowed the habit of working, so from early childhood the child developed a respectful, respectful attitude towards a good worker.

We bring salt with the loaf,

As we worship, we ask you to taste:

Our dear guest and friend,

Take the bread and salt from your hands.

Rating: 1 - impressions of the lesson

2- your work during the lesson

d/z We will create a book of sayings and proverbs about bread. Everyone will design their own page with their own proverb.

peasant, treated the field as a living being, observing the biblical commandment: “Do not harm the earth, nor the sea, nor the tree.”

Reader 2

The field is alive. It’s breathing—if I cover it with my hand, don’t let in any air, it will suffocate. Hence the respect for the earth: do not trample it, do not roll it around unnecessarily.

Reader 3

When going out into the field to sow grain, the peasant put on wide winter bast shoes: “So that the earth does not crush - it is alive, it feels heavy, but in bast shoes it is softer, easier for it.”

Reader 4

Even a horse, when working on arable land, steps with its hind hoof in the footprint of its front hoof, i.e. it does not trample the ground in vain

“Work is bitter, but bread is sweet,” our ancestors said. They worked hard to get their food, because they remembered that if you do not sow, you cannot reap. In many sayings, bread and labor are inextricably linked, because without the second you cannot get the first. A respectful attitude towards work was instilled in children from an early age. Any work was revered because it brought bread. It is believed that a good worker will not be left without food. But laziness is not held in high esteem; no one needs parasites.

· If they give you some bread, they will also give you a businessman.

· Seek business like bread.

· Sweat on your back means bread on the table.

· Don’t leave things for tomorrow, but leave bread.

· Then the bread obtained and stale is sweet.

· You won’t be satisfied with conversation if you don’t get bread.

· Work until you sweat, eat bread when you want.

· He who works tirelessly cannot live without bread.

· To get up early is to get a lot of bread, and to sleep long is to earn a lot of bread.

· Without bread and without porridge, our labors are worthless.

· You can't cut bread without a knife.

· The harvest is ripe, and the sickle is sharpened.

· Don’t sleep on this bread: if you reap, you won’t have time to sleep

You can't get bread by lying down.

The meaning of the word "PEASANT"

New explanatory and word-formative dictionary of the Russian language. Author.

peasant m. 1) A villager whose main occupation is cultivating the land.

Explanatory Dictionary, ed. S. I. Ozhegova and

PEASANT,. A rural resident engaged in cultivating crops and raising farm animals as his main job. Peasant farming.

Bread and porridge are our food.

Bread and water are heroic food.

It is not the fur coat that warms you, but the bread.

Without bread and honey you will not be full.

Without a piece of bread there is sadness everywhere.

There would be a head on your shoulders, and there would be bread.

Where the owner walks, there the earth will give birth to bread.

Buckwheat porridge is our mother, and rye bread is our dear father.

Just as there is a land of bread, so there is paradise under the spruce tree, but there is not a piece of bread, so there is melancholy in the mansion.

Not a piece of bread - and there is longing in my throat.

If there is more bread, the country cannot be defeated.

The earth is mother, and bread is father.

Rye bread - grandpa rolls it.

A well-fed man counts the stars in the sky, but a hungry man thinks about bread.

The hungry godfather has bread on his mind.

Bread on the table - and the table is a throne, but not a piece of bread - and the table is a board.

A well-fed man thinks about business, and a hungry man thinks about bread.

The plowman's hand is black, but his bread is white.

A beggar has bread on his mind, a stingy man has a crust on his account.

Without salt, without bread - half a meal.

If you want to eat rolls, don’t sit on the stove.

REMEMBER THE BREAD

You know, one day I saw
Like an old man asking for forgiveness.
He offended a loaf of bread
By suddenly dropping it to the ground

He knelt before her,
Bent in half, somehow.
He shook the litter off the top... Clumsily
He hung the sign of the cross on himself.

“Forgive me a piece of bread,
I became awkward in my later years.
Let the blue sky be a witness,
There is nothing more important than you here.

You were the farmer's reward,
It was a consolation to the traveler.
Prayers were sent to God for you,
And they carried out military affairs.

And I also remember my childhood,
Difficult war years.
The grief that we inherited
And bad, meager food

And the boys like gingerbread, like sweetness
A small piece was given out
Black bread is a simple joy...
Who could have thrown him to the ground?”

The old man stood still for a little while,
And he wandered off into the distance alone.
Remember bread, for God's sake,
With him the people are forever invincible

In every grain of wheat
Summer and winter
The power of the sun is stored
And native land.
And grow under the bright sky,
Slender and tall
Like the immortal Motherland,
Ear of bread. (ORLOV)

Grains of our days, shine
Gilded carved!
We say: “Take care.
Take care of your native bread...
We did not dream of a miracle.
A live speech to us from the fields:
“Take care of your bread, you people!
Learn to save bread."

So the summer has flown by, the cold is coming from the river.
The rye has ripened, turned yellow, and bent its ears.
Two combines are in the field. Back and forth, from end to end.
They reap - they thresh, they reap - they thresh, they harvest.
In the morning the rye stood like a wall. By nightfall, the rye was gone.
As soon as the sun set, the grain was empty.

It's spring day, it's time to plow. We went out into the tractor field.
They are led by my father and brother, hunchbacked over the hills.
I hurry after them, asking them to give me a ride.
And my father answers me: “The tractor plows, but doesn’t roll!”
Wait a minute, when you grow up, you’ll lead one yourself!

Bread as an object of worship.

There are many rituals associated with bread. It was customary among the Eastern and Western Slavs to place bread in front of icons, as if thereby testifying to their loyalty to God. They took bread with them when they went to get married; they greeted the guest with bread and salt, the newlyweds upon returning from church after the wedding; they brought bread along with the bride's dowry. Bread was often used as a talisman: it was placed in the cradle of a newborn; They took him with them on the road so that he would protect him along the way. A loaf of bread and each piece, especially the first, or crumb, embodied a person’s share; it was believed that his strength, health and luck depended on his handling of them.

Types of peasant labor

Before getting acquainted with child labor, let us briefly recall peasant labor in general.

From ancient times, the basis of all peasant life, as is known, was agriculture, which largely determined the way of social and family life, views on the environment, relationships between people and the upbringing of children. Agriculture developed in various and complex natural and climatic zones, required enormous labor and observation, and accumulated rich traditions.

The main and reliable agricultural crop was rye, which almost always yielded a harvest; Barley, wheat, millet, peas, flax, hemp, etc. were also grown. The main tool for tillage was the plow (XIII-XX centuries), which was improved over time; in some regions they used a plow with a metal share. The main working animal is the horse. The farmstead housed cows, goats, sheep, chickens, and geese. Agricultural tools - scythe, sickle, harrow. All these were attributes of an agrarian culture that had been preserved for many centuries.

The success of farming largely depended on nature, in particular, the weather meant a lot to the farmer, so it was carefully monitored, and the results of the observations made it possible to determine agricultural work. So, if it was cold on Candlemas (February 15), wait for late spring, which means get ready to sow grain, etc., at a certain time; if a chicken drinks water from a puddle on Evdokia Day (March 14), then a sheep on Yegoriya (May 6) will eat grass, i.e. there will be a good spring. Other natural features also spoke volumes: the flowering period of the bird cherry tree, the blossoming of the leaves of the oak tree; a lot of snow in winter - a lot of grain, if the snow melted “together” - spring crops were sown early. A snowstorm and a blizzard on the day of Evdokia were foreshadowed - the cattle would have to be kept in the barn longer in the spring, which was difficult for a peasant farm that was not rich in feed. Thus, by observing signs on certain days, peasants made a long-term forecast, which allowed them to prepare accordingly for the upcoming seasonal agricultural work.

The specifics of the natural and climatic conditions of Russia are also reflected in the names of the Russian folk calendar, which arose in ancient times.

There were other variants of names: zharnik, stradnik - July, raisin June, etc. At the same time, each month and day had its own signs: if in December the snow piles up close to the fences, it will be a bad summer; May is cold - a grain-bearing year; in November there will be snow - bread will arrive, etc.

Agriculture on peasant farms was closely connected with cattle breeding, which also required tireless attention and a lot of work both in summer and winter.

Let us note a characteristic feature of peasant labor: despite the repetition of the same work from season to season, from year to year, there was no routine in it. It may seem that the monotony of affairs does not require anything other than mechanical skills, but no: weather conditions, the condition of the seeds for sowing, the health of the livestock, the burrows of each animal and much more required mental agility, intelligence, observation and the peasant’s daily adaptation to these features. Even small children were taught to do work in different ways, taking into account different circumstances; So, the girl-nanny, trying to calm the child, resorted to various measures: she spoke strictly to one, caressed another, entertained someone. Also, in dealing with animals, a different approach was required: a shepherd boy could besiege one cow with a menacing cry, and caress another, i.e. work constantly required the manifestation of creativity.

Children's labor

From early childhood, the child was immersed in the working atmosphere of the family, became a participant in various activities, and was gradually drawn into the system of work responsibilities and relationships.

As soon as the child grew up, began to stand firmly on his feet and understand the speech of those around him, he easily and naturally joined in the work. His parents did not force him, they did not force him to work, but they interested him in business, allowed him to do something on his own, to help his elders, because it is known that a child is by nature an active being. A child's thirst for imitation, activity, and the example of others were the most effective incentives to work. Already at the age of four or five, the girl helped her sister wind threads, feed the chickens, the boy gave bast to his father, who was weaving bast shoes, etc. The boy began to drive cattle to water and learned to ride a horse. A six or seven year old child was trusted to drive the cattle into the yard and bring firewood to the hut. The boys were next to their father doing carpentry, the girls were next to their mother at the spinning wheel and carried out their feasible, simple tasks. Girls very early began to babysit their younger brothers and sisters and were involved in housework - caring for poultry, washing dishes and floors, fetching water.

At the age of seven or eight, a peasant boy was already helping his father in the arable land, handling a horse. In winter, he helped his father prepare firewood and learned to use a saw and an ax. I went hunting with my father, learned to set a snare, shoot a bow, and could fish.

At nine or ten years old, the teenager could handle a horse himself and knew how to harness it.

But the children did not immediately get down to business, the people's experience of education told adults that this should be done gradually, including them in the game. A small shovel and rake were in the child's hands as he worked with the adults; the father often left a small piece of land for his son, where the boy learned to plow. The girl learned to cook with her mother, making her own flat cakes and bread from the dough. She began to carry water in a small bucket. They made a small spinning wheel for the girl and she sat at it next to her older sisters. She learned to sew outfits for a doll that older children could make. Thus, gradually mastering labor skills, children with age became involved in work, skillfully handling tools, equipment, and livestock.

They gradually moved from play to real work.

At ten to thirteen years old, a teenager could already plow, and by the age of fourteen, he could mow, reap with a sickle, work with an ax and a flail, i.e. became a real worker. In winter, he could weave bast shoes and baskets.

A boy of fourteen to sixteen years old learned such difficult types of work as mowing, was engaged in plowing, threshing, collecting firewood in the forest, and knew many of the subtleties of peasant work. At the age of eighteen he could carry out sowing (this is the most difficult work), and from that time on he was considered a full-fledged owner.

Teenagers also helped the family with their earnings, hiring out as summer shepherds or going out to graze horses at night with a group of peers. The family received the necessary extra income, and for the teenager himself it was a kind of school, where he learned to comply with his obligations and to carry out his work in a disciplined manner.

In addition to housework, which she was introduced to very early, the girl began working with a sickle in the field at the age of nine or ten; from that time on, she was really engaged in knitting sheaves, weeding beds, pulling flax and hemp. At ten to twelve years old, she was already milking a cow, could knead dough, cooked, washed, looked after children, carried water, sewed, knitted and did many other household chores.

At the age of fourteen, the girl reaped bread, mowed grass, and began to work on an equal basis with adults. And let's not forget - by this time she should have already prepared a dowry for herself.

Competition and rivalry are especially characteristic of adolescence. “The teenager had to be stopped, because he wants to learn to plow before his age, so that all the girls, big and small, can see it. I want to chop more firewood than my neighbor, so that no one calls him small or lazy, I want to catch fish for my mother’s pies, collect berries to treat the younger ones."

At the age of fourteen to sixteen, boys and girls, having undergone extensive labor training, became independent, confidently took to work, and behaved more sedately.

The demands of adults on the behavior of young people also changed with age, while the guy was freer from parental care, he could leave in the evenings without asking, and go to parties. Girls were another matter; their parents tried to keep an eye on them; they were not allowed to attend festivities without the permission of adults; they were supposed to behave modestly in the house with guests, eat little, remain silent, with downcast eyes, and not laugh loudly.

Not all work activities in which a child was involved from an early age are described here. But those described above testify to how much they meant to the growing child.

“The whole life of a peasant was permeated with concern for the harvest, livestock, and weather, which shaped the worldview of children and taught them responsibility for the fate of the harvest and the well-being of the family. In a poor and rich family, work was the basis of existence.”

Labor is not only the development of skills and abilities, it is also the development of a worldview, moral strengthening, aesthetic experiences and, of course, physical development and health.

By getting involved in work, a person learned the patterns of natural phenomena, saw their interconnection and interdependence (for example, that rye can be sown only at a certain time, when nature favors it, that it will ripen in a few weeks and that it can also be harvested taking into account natural conditions, etc. .P.). Subtle observations of the surrounding world, carried out in the process of performing various tasks and necessary for their success, contributed to the development of mental operations, the ability to draw conclusions from observations, and awakened insight and inquisitiveness.

Involving himself at first voluntarily, and later out of necessity, in various activities, the child or teenager perceived his work as a natural and necessary occupation, from which it would be impossible to escape throughout his life: after all, everyone around him works, there was no need to say that without labor it is unthinkable existence itself. Awareness of the role of labor as a vital necessity also shaped an appropriate attitude towards it. Peasant work is difficult, associated with many inconveniences: getting up early, working in the rain or snow, in mud and abyss - requires a lot of physical stress. All these difficulties were perceived by both the Little Child and the young men as inevitable, and they accepted them without complaint, although they probably dreamed of an easier life. Perhaps the fabulous Ivanushka and Emelya were the embodiment of this dream?

Patience, the ability to endure the hardships of life, to rejoice at work successes, to experience tremulous feelings at the sight of rising greenery in the fields - this is also a consequence of labor activity. From an early age, work nurtured the mind and soul of a person.

Labor activity strengthened and tempered the growing organism, developed physical strength and endurance, which in turn manifested itself in work.

Rituals associated with basic peasant work contributed to the development of a serious, respectful attitude of children towards work. Let us dwell on two such rituals.

The ceremony began agricultural work. The beginning of spring field work was given special importance, since the fate of the harvest and the well-being of the family largely depended on it. Therefore, a special ritual for starting work with various magical actions developed, the observance of which was supposed to guarantee the success of plowing and sowing, and therefore was the key to a good harvest. In each village this ritual was performed in its own way, but there were also common features. “Correct behavior at the “inception” was supposed to ensure success in the future, prevent, in the opinion of the peasants, possible troubles and natural disasters, and help protect the whole world from them.

Before the beginning - the beginning of plowing - a meeting was held, at which a person was elected, the beginning of which, it was believed, would be “easy”. What was needed was a peasant who had a “light hand,” a kind, good person, definitely a man: “God Himself ordained that a man sow.” Here they decided when to start sowing for everyone else: before lunch or tomorrow. Then they took out the bread and the icon, harnessed the horse to the plow and went to the field. The chosen peasant made three prostrations in front of the icon, then, bowing on all four sides, made furrows with a plow through all the plots.

Community money was used to order a religious procession in the church during sowing; They usually didn’t work that day.

When the winter crops “started to grow,” they could also serve a prayer service in the field. And then, right there in the field, they held a feast, where all the peasants were present.

Also, the day dedicated to the first pasture of cattle, which took place on May 6, on the day of St. George the Victorious, whom researchers consider to have replaced the pagan Yaril, was arranged in a special way. The peasants believed that Yegor himself, invisible to people, rode out on his horse and grazed cattle, protecting them from animals, over which he also ruled (it is known that grazing cattle was always associated with the danger of an attack by animals, of which there were plenty in the forests surrounding the village) . “Our Father, George, save and preserve our cattle in dark forests, in liquid places from wild animals, from creeping snakes and from evil people. Amen.”

Before this day, the children went from house to house singing the song “Father Yegoriy” and collecting bribes. Families performed a number of ritual actions aimed, as it was believed, at preserving livestock; for example, the owners pray, then walk around their cattle with bread and salt, with an icon of St. George, saying: “Saint Egory the Father, we hand over our cattle to you and ask you: save it from the fierce beast!” Then they put a lock and a key under the gate - so that the animal’s mouth is locked as tightly as a lock is locked with a key. When driving the cattle out of the yard, they said: “Brave Yegory, accept my animal for the whole summer and save it!”

Cattle herding began simultaneously throughout the entire community before lunch. From each yard, children drove cows, sheep and pigs through the willows, followed by the owner and mistress. When the flock had gathered, the shepherd walked around it three times, holding a loaf of bread on his head and a whip on his shoulder. Behind the shepherd walked a healthy, blooming young woman, followed by the headman, also with a rug on his head. Then everyone prayed.

The shepherd gathered the whole herd together and threw a stick over it: “Well, thank God, I threw all the diseases of our little cattle through the whole herd.” Well, after that the boys played burners, running around the herd, which was supposed to contribute to good milk yield. It was impossible to work that day.

On the day of St. Nicholas the Pleasant (May 22), the first horse drive was carried out at night. Village teenagers and a shepherd burned fires at night, baked potatoes in the ashes, and played games until dawn.

These days were followed by others, surrounded by certain ritual actions: “Zazhin” - the beginning of the harvest; the beginning of haymaking, etc.

Let us ask ourselves: how did these rituals contribute to the labor education of children, since the ritual did not require the participation of children in labor? While performing them, the children once again became imbued with the main concerns of the peasants - about a good harvest and the safety of livestock. By participating in rituals associated with agricultural affairs, adolescents mastered those ritual actions that, according to the peasants, contributed to good labor results and called upon the help of magical forces to ensure, along with everyday work, the well-being of the family. The seriousness with which adults treated the described rituals aroused in children an understanding of the great importance of the work they were starting and developed in them the same serious attitude towards work.

Children's participation in community service

Help. There were village works that united, taught mutual assistance and support, and brought to life such human qualities as mercy, generosity, responsiveness, and conscientiousness.

Work of this kind includes providing assistance to neighbors, fellow villagers who find themselves in difficult situations: fire victims, orphans, widows, lonely old people, families of recruits, assistance during funerals, etc. A peasant who suffered, for example, from a fire turned to the world with a request to help build a hut, and society necessarily responded to the request: together they harvested logs from the forest, took them out and built a house. A sick owner who was unable to prepare seeds in time could collect them for sowing in baskets from the yard and cultivate the land and sow the seeds.

This form of mutual assistance was called help. Usually, help was used in field work, plowing the land, and harvesting for those who do not have a horse or do not have enough workers. The owner, as a rule, turned for help either to the community or to his close friends, neighbors and relatives. Rarely did anyone refuse to participate in the help, because every peasant understood that he himself could find himself in distress.

Peasants gathered for help not only when their owners approached them, but they themselves took the initiative if they saw the plight of their owners. Participation in help was considered the moral duty of everyone, a common occurrence, and if someone refused to come to the rescue, then no one punished him, but society condemned him, and they rarely decided to act against public opinion.

Young people were also attracted to help because already during work there were songs, jokes, and pranks started. And after finishing work they could sing all night, ride the owner’s horse, etc. The owner had his own ethics: he did not indicate who should work and how, did not make comments, but was kind and friendly, but careless people were not invited next time.

Here are some types of help:

Bribes - the erection of a log house prepared by the owner on the foundation, when the finished log house was dismantled, placed in a prepared place, and caulked.

Baking is the building of an adobe stove, which was usually done by single boys and girls. These are youth events where work was combined with partying. It was necessary to bring clay, then knead it and compact it with boards, trample it with feet. As a rule, this help was going to help during the construction of a new hut.

Supryadki is the spinning of wool, flax, and hemp by women and girls. They were usually placed in families where there were few women or too many children. First, yarn was prepared from raw materials; the raw materials for this were sent in advance to women - acquaintances and relatives, they spun threads, sometimes each worked separately in her own hut, and often at general gatherings. Then an evening ceremony was appointed, to which the spinners appeared with ready-made yarn and threads in their best outfits, and the hostess arranged a treat with songs and dances.

They also arranged marriages as alternating pomos, taking turns among many girls, when they gathered in one or the other hut.

Flax pounding is predominantly for girls and women, although young boys could also take part in them. They gathered alternately in different huts, starting from the outer yard of the village, and were necessary because it was necessary to quickly process the collected flax. Girls and young women came with their sheaves at night, worked until dawn by the light of a lantern or tallow candle. Each worker had to process 100 sheaves during work. They worked all night with songs, and during the day the owner treated them to dinner.

There were still many reasons for help: when plowing, finishing the harvest, hay sheds - help in making hay, wood sheds - when cutting down forest, cabbage sheds - when pickling cabbage, etc.

The child realized the need for mutual assistance very early, observing the life of his family, listening to adults talk about upcoming help and gradually becoming involved in them. For him, as well as for adult peasants, help was a given, a necessity, so the obligation to participate in them was not in doubt. Thus, from early childhood, kindness towards people, a readiness for mutual assistance and a desire to make life easier for one’s neighbors, relatives and those simply in need of help were awakened in a person’s soul.

During general work, intelligence, dexterity, and virtuosity in individual matters were demonstrated. The opinion about the girl was based on her appearance; she made many of her clothes herself, and from this it was clear what kind of worker she was.

The joint work caused a great emotional upsurge among its participants; the young people not only worked here, but also rallied, became closer, got to know each other better, and songs and jokes evoked a joyful mood. All this colored hard work in positive tones, and therefore participation in help was not perceived as a heavy duty. Pomochi were characterized by the interweaving of labor and holiday elements.

Labor holidays. In mid-August, the harvesting period ended. Harvest is a time of very intense work, when it was important to harvest the harvest in a short time with a minimum of losses, when it was impossible to delay the work deadlines - they were dictated by nature. It was at this time that the whole family was in the field: reaping, knitting sheaves, stacking haystacks, etc., work went on from dawn to dusk.

In the final days of the work, help was held - “dozhinki”, which organically merged with the holiday marking the end of the entire harvest. Help could be arranged on the strip with a sick woman or with orphans, the eldest of whom is only 13-14 years old, i.e. for those who could not handle the cleaning themselves. There was also help, to which they especially invited relatives and close people, and sometimes even guys.

The joy at the successful completion of hard work was so great that it required a special holiday.

At the end of the work, the harvesters rolled around in the field so that their backs would not hurt for the future harvest, with the words “Nivka, Nivka, give back my snare.” And there was always a ritual of curling the “beard,” which has been preserved since ancient pagan times and was aimed at returning strength to the earth for the next year’s harvest.

On the eve of the ceremony, they went around the houses and, knocking on the window with a stick, invited: “Tomorrow on the beard!” The helpers came to the field early in the morning with their sickles and worked with songs and jokes until they had squeezed out all the bread. And in some places the last sheaf was reaped in silence; if someone speaks, that “fiancé will be blind.” The last ears of corn were left unharvested, they were tied up - this is the beard. They decorated it with ribbons, tied it with grass and bent it to the ground, lightly sprinkling it, put bread and salt under the beard, bowed low and said:

Here's a beard for you, Ilya, give us rye and oats!

After they curled the “beard”, they left the field singing with the last compressed sheaf - the “birthday boy”, dressed in a sundress. Many special songs were reserved for this occasion. The sheaf was solemnly brought into the owner’s hut and placed under the icons, and then fed to cattle and poultry. In the owner's house, a treat was prepared for the arrival of the pomochanka and the feast began. After the treat, the girls walked around the village singing and dancing and calling the owner; There were also guys here, sometimes they rode down the street on the owner’s horses, singing and joking.

Haymaking turned into a holiday - a difficult but fun time, lasting about a month at the height of summer, in July. The women dried the grass cut by the mowers - turned it over, tousled it, raked it into a pile - hoarded it, etc. They mowed the grass, dried it and piled it together, and then divided the finished hay heart to heart.

And everywhere you had to know the rules of work, feel when the hay was ready to be stacked; The rains added a lot of hassle. But under favorable weather conditions, hay harvesting is a pleasant agricultural job.

Warm nights, the scent of grass in the meadows, swimming after the heat - all this created a festive mood.

All participants, especially the girls, put on their best dresses, dressed up, and sang a lot while working. The meadow then turned into a place of celebration, where they danced in circles, played harmonicas, joked, and where girls showed off in front of the grooms. Peasants often traveled to distant meadows with their families, taking their babies with them. They rested in huts and cooked food over fires. Several families united for lunch; after work, the older ones rested in the meadow, and the young ones went to pick berries. People moved to huts outside the village even when meadows were nearby; At this time, young people remained in the meadows throughout the haymaking period. Therefore, they looked forward to this time and, despite the hard work, considered it a holiday.

Autumn cabbages began the time of autumn parties for young people. After the end of the cabbage harvest, the labor-intensive work of salting it was necessary, for this purpose the cabbage girls were invited to it, and the guys came without an invitation to help the girls, and mainly to entertain the workers. In one day they had to chop and shred the cabbage, put it in tubs and lower it into the cellar. Sometimes up to 5,000 heads of cabbage were processed, then a lot of heads were required - up to 200 girls. And they often gathered for cabbages and in a small composition, if there was not much cabbage. But the custom remained unchanged: work was combined with holiday.

After the work was completed, the hostess invited everyone to the hut and set out refreshments for the young people. Here the fun began until the morning: songs, games, dances; They usually sang play songs, and also performed songs of greatness, those that were sung at wedding parties in honor of single relatives.

So, help, playing an important role in the economic life of the village, meant a lot in consolidating certain ethical standards, preserving customs and forming public opinion. Through help, economic skills were passed on from generation to generation, and young people perceived the knowledge acquired by their elders in their practice. Here the reputation of the bride and groom was created, their strengths and weaknesses were revealed, and in the process of communication, friendly affections were cemented.

Assessing the overall importance of child labor in the development of personality, we note its enormous role in the development of physical and spiritual strength and in preparation for active work. The main feature of the work of peasant children is seen in its attachment to all types of work of an adult peasant. This is how, entering labor relations and responsibilities, children gradually, step by step, were included in the main spheres of life, living through its main stages in childhood. They did not prepare for future work, but lived it, were engaged in matters that were significant for the family and society, while simultaneously mastering practical skills and abilities, producing a certain product of work. Work was not so much a means of education as the meaning of a person’s life from an early age. Associated with the main areas of life, child labor ensured the multifaceted development of the individual and was the key to a person’s success in an independent adult life.

Literature

Konstantinov N.A., Medynsky E.N., Shabaev M.F., History of pedagogy - M., Education, 1982.

Kharlamov and. F. Pedagogy: Proc. manual for students of universities and teachers. Inst. – 2nd ed., revised. and additional – M.: Higher. school, 1990.

Kharlamov I.V. Pedagogy. Minsk, 1998.

Likhachev B.T. Lectures on pedagogy. M., 1995.

Bordovskaya N.V., Rean A.A. Pedagogy. Textbook for universities. "Peter", 2000.

Similar abstracts:

Folk pedagogy as part of folk culture. The need to educate students in the traditions of Russian culture, the information and educational function of folk holidays. Inclusion of folklore material in music programs in primary schools.

We have long been accustomed to the statements that prayer is our spiritual food, the basis of our inner life, the source of our salvation. Meanwhile, rather quickly, spiritual laziness forces these words to be perceived precisely as words - beautiful and correct.

There are quite a lot of young people in our villages. Hence the following two-sided conclusion: either the exodus of a new generation of peasants has ended, or this is a temporary lull before the mass exodus to large and small industrial cities. Both are equally likely. On the one hand, the surrounding farms are withering away before our eyes, while others are directly looking into the grave, and it seems that nothing hints at a renaissance. On the other hand, there is little work in the cities; in our regional center, Zubtsovo, for example, it is much more difficult to find a job than to meet a wife destined by God. How six thousand townspeople live and feed there is dark for us.

In general, the peasantry is a cold-blooded, unpoetic people, and yet I would like to think: what if rural youth have finally comprehended the poetics of agricultural labor... After all, this is still not like drilling the same hole for eight hours in a row, or hanging around behind the counter, or lay sand-lime bricks with a poke and poke...

Peasant labor is this... After you have risen with the sun, washed your face from a washstand nailed to a birch tree, had breakfast with scrambled eggs and your own lard, the master leaves the village on a tractor with dogs barking and roosters crowing. If plowing is on the agenda, then it’s nice to watch how the ground rises behind you, looking like chocolate butter, and, instead of seagulls, crows circle above it. If it’s haymaking, then the smell of freshly planted clover, tart-sweet, like a good cologne, will take your breath away. If this is cleaning, then all the time you are caressed by the thought that in your bunker you already have buns and rolls stored in some part of Russia.

In a word, if you approach the matter somewhat poetically, then peasant labor is an enviable lot for a serious man. Firstly, it is beautiful, because you are plowing, and there is a blue sky above your head, endless fields on both sides, and quiet mixed forests darkening in the distance. Secondly, it is noble, because the farmer feeds the people, receiving mere trifles for his work. Thirdly, it’s great, because it’s varied and in the fresh air - it’s not for nothing that there are no crazy people in the villages.

Finally, it is a prejudice that the peasant works on the land full daylight hours. Except that when plowing you have to sweat almost from dawn to dusk, because there is a lot of land, but not enough equipment, and even it starts up every once in a while. During haymaking and the harvest season they work from dew to dew, that is, in our places, from about noon to six.

Just like in the old days, which despite all the current troubles one cannot dare to call good, they don’t drink during the famine, they carry lunch in the field, the bread is no thinner than in the era of work meetings and workdays.

Troubles happen like this: every year, the loans that the region allocates to collective farms for diesel fuel and other utilities disappear somewhere. And then the Rossiya collective farm bought the latest hay harvesting machine, which itself packs rolls of mowed grass into film - it now stands near the chairman’s fence and is only of interest to stray dogs. The reason for this trouble is this: our film, manufactured in St. Petersburg, breaks every now and then, and the Dutch film, which never breaks, cannot be raised given the collective farm poverty. If you buy Dutch film, then a kilogram of hay will cost five rubles, and our collective farms sell milk at three rubles per liter - they don’t give them more.

The peculiarity of peasant labor in modern times is that there are far fewer workers than those registered in the countryside. On the collective farm “Ilyich’s Way” there are only sixty farmers, one free tiller and several hundred villagers who live on who knows what. That is, it is known what: a vegetable garden, otherwise they sell milk and meat to the outside, build fences for summer residents, steal, collect non-ferrous metal wherever necessary. As for the free tiller, he grows cabbage on his ten hectares and takes it to Rzhev to sell. This occupation is dangerous for three reasons: because there is a market mafia everywhere, because you can’t get sick - there are only three pairs of hands in a family, because at times you have to hire farm laborers and thereby instill a sense of class in your fellow villagers. Our families are small because, according to the general belief, a large family is too labor-intensive; a hole for a latrine will need to be dug at least once a year.

Apparently, the most prosperous category of our peasantry are those who live on who knows what. Judging by the fact that in two months of the summer season in our village they took away: one car, two windshields, four wheels, one gun, one spinning rod and seven refrigerators, we can live.

Some villagers also work in the police, but this is a pure sinecure, because our police officers are mainly engaged in traveling around villages and explaining why they are not able to catch robbers and thieves.

Medieval Europe was very different from modern civilization: its territory was covered with forests and swamps, and people settled in spaces where they could cut down trees, drain swamps and engage in agriculture. How did peasants live in the Middle Ages, what did they eat and do?

Middle Ages and the era of feudalism

The history of the Middle Ages covers the period from the 5th to the beginning of the 16th century, until the advent of the modern era, and refers mainly to the countries of Western Europe. This period is characterized by specific features of life: the feudal system of relationships between landowners and peasants, the existence of lords and vassals, the dominant role of the church in the life of the entire population.

One of the main features of the history of the Middle Ages in Europe is the existence of feudalism, a special socio-economic structure and method of production.

As a result of internecine wars, crusades and other military actions, kings gave their vassals lands on which they built estates or castles. As a rule, the entire land was donated along with the people living on it.

Dependence of peasants on feudal lords

The rich lord received ownership of all the lands surrounding the castle, on which villages with peasants were located. Almost everything that peasants did in the Middle Ages was taxed. Poor people, cultivating their land and his, paid the lord not only tribute, but also for the use of various devices for processing the crop: ovens, mills, presses for crushing grapes. They paid the tax in natural products: grain, honey, wine.

All peasants were highly dependent on their feudal lord; they practically worked for him as slave labor, eating what was left after growing the crop, most of which was given to their master and the church.

Wars periodically occurred between the vassals, during which the peasants asked for the protection of their master, for which they were forced to give him their allotment, and in the future they became completely dependent on him.

Division of peasants into groups

To understand how peasants lived in the Middle Ages, you need to understand the relationship between the feudal lord and the poor residents who lived in villages in the areas adjacent to the castle and cultivated plots of land.

The tools of peasant labor in the fields in the Middle Ages were primitive. The poorest harrowed the ground with a log, others with a harrow. Later, scythes and pitchforks made of iron appeared, as well as shovels, axes and rakes. From the 9th century, heavy wheeled plows began to be used in the fields, and plows were used on light soils. Sickles and threshing chains were used for harvesting.

All tools of labor in the Middle Ages remained unchanged for many centuries, because the peasants did not have the money to purchase new ones, and their feudal lords were not interested in improving working conditions, they were only concerned about getting a large harvest with minimal costs.

Peasant discontent

The history of the Middle Ages is characterized by constant confrontation between large landowners, as well as feudal relations between rich lords and the impoverished peasantry. This situation was formed on the ruins of ancient society, in which slavery existed, which clearly manifested itself during the era of the Roman Empire.

The rather difficult conditions of how peasants lived in the Middle Ages, the deprivation of their land plots and property, often caused protests, which were expressed in various forms. Some desperate people fled from their masters, others staged massive riots. The rebellious peasants almost always suffered defeat due to disorganization and spontaneity. After such riots, the feudal lords sought to fix the size of duties in order to stop their endless growth and reduce the discontent of the poor people.

The end of the Middle Ages and the slave life of peasants

As the economy grew and manufacturing emerged towards the end of the Middle Ages, the industrial revolution occurred, and many village residents began to move to cities. Among the poor population and representatives of other classes, humanistic views began to prevail, which considered personal freedom for each person an important goal.

As the feudal system was abandoned, an era called the New Time came, in which there was no longer any place for outdated relationships between peasants and their lords.

“...In the series of essays “The Peasant and Peasant Labor,” Uspensky set himself the task of determining the principle that governs the life of a peasant worker, shapes his mental interests and moral ideals. Uspensky recognized agricultural labor as this beginning. Observing the life of Ivan Ermolaevich, the narrator, and with him the author, come to the conclusion that, despite the difficult conditions of the post-reform village, the peasant farmer loves his work, subtly understands its beauty and poetry. The whole life of a peasant worker, his entire household and family structure, all his views on the world around him are subordinated to work, and this gives internal integrity to his existence. Uspensky considers Koltsov’s poetry to be the best expression of the poetic ideals of the people, inextricably linked with labor...”

* * *

The given introductory fragment of the book Peasant and peasant labor (G. I. Uspensky, 1880) provided by our book partner - the company liters.

II. General view of peasant life

But what is most striking in this mutual misunderstanding of each other is that Ivan Ermolaevich shows a particularly strong misunderstanding precisely regarding peasant affairs, issues of peasant life, about which I find it necessary to talk with him very often. It is remarkable that whenever the speech touches on the so-called peasant interests, that is, interests directly related to Ivan Ermolaevich, then he especially somehow becomes stiff, here he “does not lead with his ear”, does not hear anything, obviously does not want hear and yawn in the most terrible way. This is complete indifference to "your own" interests amazed me to the highest degree. In my opinion, the life of the modern peasant at every step seems to cry out that only friendship, camaraderie, mutual awareness of the benefits of communal, collective labor for the common good is the only hope of the peasant world for a more or less better future, the only opportunity to “reduce » those incredible amounts of labor absorbing all peasant life, without leaving leisure, which now lies on the peasant with such a heavy and, as it seemed to me (and it seems), a fruitless burden. Really look at what kind of life this is, and judge why a person is fighting. A peasant proverb says: “summer works for winter, and winter for summer.” And for sure: in the summer, from morning to night, without a break, they fight with mowing, with stubble, and in the winter, the cattle will eat the hay, and people will eat the bread, spring and autumn, they go to the trouble of preparing arable land for people and animals, in the summer they will collect what the arable land gives, and in the winter they will eat it. The work is constant, and there is no result except manure, and even that remains, for it also goes into the ground, the earth eats manure, people and livestock eat what the earth gives. God himself, the heavenly father, is remembered only as a participant in this laboratory, fruitless in terms of the results of its activities. God gives the rain, the bucket needed for hay, oats, which are needed for horses, sheep, cows and people, and as a result - the manure needed for the land, etc. ad infinitum. Having suffered (in my opinion) in this way for seventy years, the average person himself goes to the ground.

Looking closely at the continuous labor woven into this eternal chemical process of life, I (a person completely outside the village) cannot explain to myself this continuous tirelessness of labor in any other way than by the fact that all living beings participating in it “must be fed” to maintain their own existence. I know and understand very well that in addition to continuous labor, the chemical cycle of the life I observe is also intertwined in all directions with the suffering of the heart, joys and sorrows; here weeping, there groans, there gnashing of teeth; I know very well that in addition to the chemical element in this whole process, “man” is constantly heard and felt, but precisely because I understand this, I am also struck by the futility of labor, the futility in relation to a person, to his tears, joys and gnashing of teeth. It is precisely in the human sense, or, more precisely, “in the human sense,” that the futility of tireless labor turns out to be amazing. No matter how closely I look at it, no matter how horrified I am by its size, I absolutely do not see that in the depths of this work and in its final result there lies thought and care for a person on a scale worthy of this tireless work.

I repeat again: this concern exists, but it does not dare be equal to concerns, for example, about cattle. For example, Ivan Ermolaevich’s ram, named “Senka,” killed a boy with its horns; the boy lay unconscious for some time, then, waking up, he sobbed for a while, like a madman, from fright. And now it is unlikely that this fear will not remain in him for the rest of his life; Ivan Ermolaevich and his wife both “suffered” over the boy: they applied something, for example, warm manure, gave herbs to drink, generally treated him and hurt his soul; but they treated him with means that could be found “around the house,” just as peasants are treated in general; But Ivan Ermolaevich’s mare went lame, he also treated her with his own means, also spread some kind of rubbish on a rag (a rag in itself in the village is like a medicine), and ended up going and bringing a farrier and three silver rubles to him I didn't regret it. I know very well how they can explain to me this difference in Ivan Ermolaevich’s relationship to a horse and a person, but I can’t help but draw attention to the fact that for a horse among the people there is already a profession of farrier, and the profession is not entirely charlatan; Cultural horse owners also resort to the services of a farrier. The farrier has “tools” invented by the people, there are “true”, precise means, but for a person nothing of this kind has been invented except for the healers, who are far inferior in knowledge to the farrier and, as everyone knows, are full of charlatanism, ride on ignorance, then like a farrier, it is in no way possible to go out without knowing his business: every peasant himself understands a lot about these (horse) matters. But when the boy yells, they can only cry and apply a rag with manure or something else that is lying around “near the house” like worthless rubbish. The only way I can explain such attention to the horse is that it is needed for daily and tireless hard labor, since without this labor neither Ivan Ermolaevich nor his boy would have anything to eat. And Ivan Ermolaevich himself, summing up his annual work, says that in the end “we’re just full, nothing more!” I see this well and deeply regret Ivan Ermolaevich and everyone like him, but at the same time I am struck by the following circumstance.

In the very place where Ivan Ermolaevich “struggling” over work just to be fed, they struggled in the same way for no less than a thousand years, his ancestors, and, you can imagine, absolutely did not invent anything and did not They did it in order to make it at least a little easier for him to be “well-fed.” The ancestors, who lived for a thousand years in this very place (and now have long been plowed “for oats” and eaten by cattle in the form of oats), did not even leave the thought that hard labor due to the need to be well-fed should be made easier, did not leave it to their descendants ; in this sense, there is not the slightest memory of our ancestors. From Solovyov, in “History,” you can still learn something about the local past; but here, in the very place, “no one” and “nothing is known.” It is impossible to imagine a worse situation in which the peasant’s labor finds itself, and one must think that a thousand years ago there were the same bast shoes, the same plow, the same cravings as now. There are no means of communication left from the ancestors, no bridges, not the slightest improvements to make work easier. The bridge you see was built by descendants and is barely standing. All the tools of labor are primitive, heavy, inconvenient, etc. The ancestors left Ivan Ermolaevich an impassable swamp, through which he could only cross in winter, and, it seems to me, Ivan Ermolaevich will leave the swamp to his boy in the same form. And his little boy will get stuck, “fight with the horse,” just as Ivan Ermolaevich fights. But, leaving my ancestors aside, I, as an outsider to village life and village work, am decidedly perplexed and at a loss, explaining to myself this indifference that is visible to me and completely incomprehensible to me - let’s say, even in Ivan Ermolaevich - regarding the “relief” of this the need to be “full.” I absolutely don’t understand why Ivan Ermolaevich, who certainly picks up a piece of rope or a nail if he comes across one on the road, loses, in the person of many true “peasants” like him, hundreds, thousands of rubles on the products of his own convict labor, hundreds, even thousands, which would undoubtedly facilitate and improve his well-being. and would give the opportunity to take care of the boy more than a foal. In relation to this indifference to one's own benefit, amazing absurdities are happening before my eyes. For example, hay in these places is a product that can provide almost the same monetary support as flax in Pskov or wheat in Samara, with the difference, however, that hay grows “for nothing.” All the peasants mow it here, including Ivan Ermolaevich, and because it is impossible to take it out in the summer, since the area is cut off by a swamp, he sells it “out of need” on the spot for the most insignificant price to kulaks and dealers, who, having waited until winter, that is, the time when the swamp freezes, they take the hay to St. Petersburg and sell it at exorbitant prices. Before the eyes of all the local peasants, constantly, from year to year, such things happen, for example: a local kulak, who has nothing but greed for now, borrows at his own risk from a neighboring loan partnership one and a half hundred rubles and begins during the months of May, June, July, the most difficult thing in peasant life, buying hay for five or many many ten kopecks per pood; at the first snow, he takes him out onto the main road, where he is immediately given thirty or more kopecks per pood. In front of the entire honest world, a person, without lifting a finger, makes a truly heap of money, which he puts in his pocket in front of everyone. How does Ivan Ermolaevich value a nail, saying: “it’s worth money,” and not value the hundreds of rubles that he throws at his fist for a living? Every year the village mows up to forty thousand pounds of hay, and every year the little kulak puts more than five thousand rubles in silver peasant money into his pocket in front of everyone, without lifting a finger. Does a person value his work by doing this? If he values ​​it, then really the whole village (twenty-six households) cannot, in the name of facilitating common labor, do the same as the little kulachishka? They can borrow “for needs” twenty-six times more than a fistful, and, therefore, “may” not be in bondage, “can” even “make” the price of their goods, can wait for prices, etc. And none of this No. For a thousand years they cannot fill up the swamps for a quarter of a mile, which would immediately enormously increase the profitability of these places, and yet all the Ivan Ermolaevichs know very well that this work “forever and ever” can be done in two Sundays, if each of the twenty-six households puts up man with an ax and a horse.

And at the same time, the most, in my opinion, trivial, worthless worldly affairs, like even a mundane fence or dividing up a fish, absorb a lot of public attention: here they measure twenty times what has long been measured, they measure it with ropes and fathoms, and stakes and bast shoes, so that the toe would certainly hit the heel; here there are badges, and lots, and badges on lots - in a word, everything is elaborated here, even beyond necessity, here the matter is even brought to artistic perfection, turned almost “into a ceremony.” I understand very well that the basis for such thoroughness in the most trivial matters is the desire to get things done “without offence”; but why is it necessary to be torn for not paying taxes, why is it necessary to be torn or to watch how they are torn, at a time when everyone can see that the torn person does not pay because he is fattening his fist - I don’t understand this.

No less incomprehensible to me are those cases when a local peasant, thanks to some unexpected circumstance, seemed to come to his senses and began to understand “his own benefit” in the form in which it should be understood, and, most importantly, took into account the fact that time is now not what it was recently, that now the village must think about collective defense. One such case occurred among local peasants and is as follows. One unsuccessful landowner, who decided to run a “big” farm according to “foreign models,” as usual, went bankrupt and left here completely. After him, a hay press appeared in the village. The machine united the disparate peasant world. The best thing is that, due to the absence of the master, it was a “draw”. They came up with the idea of ​​baling hay with the whole world, renting a wagon together and selling it in St. Petersburg. Things went great, but next year in St. Petersburg They did not accept the local hay in compressed form.“Have mercy! they say they were glad that it was profitable, and so they shoved all sorts of rubbish into the inside: sometimes a piece of wood, sometimes a stone, sometimes they’ll stuff it with manure, fortunately you can’t see it from the sides...” Now the local hay was bought in St. Petersburg only from carts. This peculiar understanding of benefit, of course, has many reasons, but here’s what’s not good: about two years ago, two Englishmen came from London to the provincial town closest to our place. They didn’t and don’t speak a word of Russian; They arrived honorably, rented the best house, got some extraordinary carriages, on high wheels, etc. In these carriages they drive around the city with their families before and after dinner and live for their own pleasure. How could it happen that immediately upon their arrival the entire hay operation for hundreds of miles ended up in their hands? Meanwhile, this is a fact, and the hay business is now in the following form: the kulachishko, having borrowed money from a loan partnership, buys it from the peasants at the “right” time, in the summer, for next to nothing and delivers it to the “Englishmen,” and the Englishmen supply it to St. Petersburg at various government institutions. The press operates as before, but it no longer works for the world, but for the Englishman. “Who are you pressuring?” - “Charles!” - the men answer. Kulachishko, he simply reveres the “English,” and precisely because they don’t seem to lift a finger, they all only ride in carriages on red wheels, and have taken the whole matter into their hands. “Oh my gosh! - says the little fist. - One word! If only we could take Charles Ivanovich or Dixon Petrovich - one word, no matter how you turn it, - gentlemen, finishing work! Thus, while Dixon Petrovich and Charles Ivanovich drive around with cigars in their teeth in their excellent carriages, “resting” after breakfast and lunch, the local peasant continues to perform sacred acts in front of such a huge public need as the countryside, giving whole dramatic performances when hiring a shepherd or when buying a bull - in a word, he tries in every possible way so as not to “offend” either himself or his neighbor even by a grain of powder, and absolutely does not find the opportunity to pave a quarter of a mile of the swamp, in which lies the root of so many of his daily and hourly grievances.

One could give many examples of such boundless indifference to “one’s own benefit,” as it should be understood under the new conditions of peasant life. Positively, at every step, I, a person completely outside the village, could point out that here the peasants are losing this and that, and here they are clearly upsetting their well-being. And, due to my inexperience, explaining this convict existence visible to me only in order to somehow get through, “to be full,” I could not help but worry, and at times not lose my temper positively, seeing the deepest inattention of such genuine guardians “ peasantry,” like Ivan Ermolaevich, to everything that makes labor easier, that transfers the benefits of this labor into those hands to which these benefits belong in fairness, etc. I sometimes expanded a lot and for a long time on the topic “about the lack of understanding of one’s own benefits,” about the robbery that the Ivan Ermolaevichs serve with their labors and hands, etc. And everything is like peas against the wall! There could be no talk of any collective defense against all sorts of modern evils coming to the countryside.

– You wanted to join our people! Would you like to invite our people? What does he understand?

These were Ivan Ermolaevich’s answers to my ranting about “their benefit.” Such a tireless worker did not know where, to whom and why he was paying, having no idea about the zemstvo, about election to the vowels, etc. He was firmly convinced that all this had nothing to do with him. I understood absolutely nothing about the savings and loan partnership from all my reasoning and only remarked: “It’s good to take, but how to give?.. You’ll get involved... God bless him.” And when I pointed to the kulak who takes and gives and has a profit, Ivan Ermolaevich said: “Well, the dog is with him... that’s their calculation... Otherwise, if you get tied up, you won’t be able to get rid of them”...

One day he struck me in the most unexpected way in a conversation about public peasant positions:

- All of them (elected) are unreliable people... As long as they live as peasants - nothing, but once they are elected to office - the dog becomes clean. As soon as he took the oath, he seemed to turn into a beast... For me, I think I wouldn’t have agreed to this for a million.

- For what?

– For example, take the volost oath. I listened to it once and was completely speechless. As soon as the priest began to read - “renounce your father, renounce your mother, renounce your brothers and sisters, renounce your family and tribe” - the hair on the top of my head even stood on end. Before God! Once a person has cursed himself in such a manner, he becomes nothing less than a villain.

This view of the oath surprised me beyond words. He surprised me quite a bit another time, when I accidentally caught him teaching his little son prayers. Ivan Ermolaevich believed in God firmly, unshakably firmly, he felt the closeness of God almost to the touch, and he read prayers in his own way: “I believe in one God, the father,” he taught his son, “and in heaven and earth. Apparently invisible, audible inaudible. You were a show-off, you were sawed off...” And then God knows what happened. “I Believe” ended like this: “from the evil one. Amen".

All this, however, is trivial compared to the lack of attention to determining one’s position not only in this world, but even in the circle of even the twenty-six households among which Ivan Ermolaevich lived, lives and will live. Not to mention indifference to social orders that do not directly concern the economy, I noticed in Ivan Ermolaevich inattention to people. For example, he knew perfectly well how much cattle and grain someone had, what was “given” for a horse in such and such a yard; in a word, how many physical resources someone has for subsistence. But if some out-of-the-ordinary event happened in this yard, which can only be explained by knowing the “people” who participated in it, it will not be explained. There were two suicides in the village, and no one could explain anything. “I must have drunk the money away,” they said about the soldier who just yesterday was working in the garden, weeding cabbage, and today he was found under a fence. “After all, brother, how can I say - why? Therefore, that’s how it’s supposed to be for him. Just last year, a single widow also passed away without permission. And after that she was left with thirty rubles of money, two cows and four sacks of potatoes - just think about it! I was bored, bored, and lo and behold, I choked myself!”

More than once, looking at this almost voluntary giving of myself to be devoured by all who wished, by all who had a paw, I exclaimed in deep despondency, of course in my thoughts: “My God! What other Egyptian executions are needed to crush in Ivan Ermolaevich this unshakable inattention to “his own benefit”!” After all, this inattention means that in ten years (many, many) Ivan Ermolaevich and others like him will not be able to live in the world: by that time they will reproduce two new classes that will squeeze and press on the “peasantry” from two sides: from above there will be a representative of the third estate is pressing, and from below is the same brother, a peasant, but already a representative of the fourth estate, which must inevitably exist if there is a third. This representative of the fourth village estate will certainly angry(about the origin evil man will be said in the next passage) and is relentless in vengeance, and he will take revenge for having been made a fool, that is, he will finally (and very soon) understand that he is paying for his stupidity, that he was and is a fool, a dark fool, that's why I got angry on himself. And all those who, through evil, cunning intent, through inattention or indifference, put him in this “stupid” position will pay bitterly for this. There is no other word to define this situation, for if there is a chronic beggar in the Russian village, it is only by the existence of some kind of stupid place in a social organization, nothing else can explain this phenomenon. Everything is there so that such a phenomenon does not exist, but it already exists; no reasons that even come close to what is defined by the words “necessity” and “inevitability” can explain this phenomenon. The representative of the Russian fourth estate is a product of heartless social inattention - nothing more. However, more on that later; Now let's return to Ivan Ermolaevich.

Ivan Ermolaevich’s immense indifference to the misfortunes pressing upon him, in the form of the third and fourth estates, and, finally, in the form of an alien migrant from the Baltic provinces, more than once stumped me, and I was perplexed: what exactly gives Ivan Ermolaevich the strength to endure his toiling existence? what keeps him in the world and from what tasty seasonings is that lentil stew for which he is clearly selling his birthright made? Are Ivan Ermolaevich and his thousand-year-old ancestors really “fighting” only because of taxes? Or really because of a piece of bread? But if this were so, Ivan Ermolaevich would not have endured the pleasure of paying taxes not only for a thousand years, but also for a thousand minutes. When does he need something? I do not like, gets boring he is impatient; he doesn’t even observe outward decency when he doesn’t like something; After all, he yawns in the most amazing way when I talk to him about things that he doesn’t want to listen to. Every time I start talking about the collective defense of the village, in one form or another, Ivan Ermolaevich will immediately find an excuse to sneak away from me: either he wants to sleep, or his leg hurts, or he needs to see why the dogs are barking? In a word, he will always find an excuse to evade, and he will evade. What kind of pleasantness is there in taxes? What pleasure is it to fight all your life over them or just over bread? Can such an existence really be called life? Meanwhile, Ivan Ermolaevich, in my opinion, is precisely fighting, and precisely because of bread, for he himself quite rightly assures that in the end he has just been “full.”