The writer Nikolai Nekrasov describes the people found in St. Petersburg. He wrote about this in "Petersburg: The Physiology of a City". However, a visual record of 18th and 19th century Russia provided by Russian artists makes Nekrasov's people more real. The art is not limited to city life. Serfs, the rare freed serfs, and others left the country estates, either legally or otherwise and flocked to cities (with or without internal passports). Some city dwellers left the cities and returned, legally or otherwise (with or without internal passports) back to country estates. Thus city life and the life in the countryside was in continual flux. It is notable that artist Alexei Venetsianov employed linear perspective, as linear perspective was mostly unknown in Russia during the 19th century, unknown even to the Yusupov (<<Юсупов>>) family 1, related by marriage to the Romanovs (<<Романов>>). Let us look at some of this art.
Nikolai Nekrasov was a progressive thinker. He bought the magazine
"Sovremennick" (founded by Pushkin) and printed the works of
writers Goncharov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Grigorovich, Druzhinin, Ostrovsky.
Nekrasov worked with Belinsky, who highly admired the art of
Schedrovsky: his views of everyday people. The writing of Charles Dickens
was first translated and published in Russia in "Sovremennick". These
thinkers realized that the system of serfs had run its course and was
now historically counterproductive towards building a modern Russia.
It is to be noted that Nicolai Milyutin was very close to Ivan Turgenev,
and was very close to and worked with Mikhail Saltikov (Shchedrin) and
Nicolai Turgenev (a Decembrist) as pioneers in Russian reform. Milyutin,
it might be recalled, advised Tsar Alexander II that a major reason why
Russia lost the Crimean War was a lack of industrial development due to
the backwardness of a society based upon serfdom and a parasitic nobility,
telling the Tsar that it was either reform or revolution. "Sovremennick"
might be viewed as a propaganda arm of the Tsar Alexander II's government
along with the writings of Shchedrin, Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, etc. in
bringing about the freeing of the serfs in 1861. Alas, the reforms were not
put in place rapidly enough; the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 were necessary.
(English: work) | (Russian) |
---|---|
buffoons Click to see | Скоморохи |
card player | картëжник |
carpenter | плотник |
chimney sweep | трубочист |
coachman (yamshchik) | ямщик |
cooper (barrel maker) | бондарь |
degtekurs (distilled tar from birch bark) Click to see | Дёгтекуры |
factory reader Click to see | Читальщик or Чтец |
farrier (blacksmith that shoes horses) | кузнец |
foot porter (podnoschik) | подносчик |
glazier | стекольщик |
hook makers | Крючники |
hunter (ohotnik), example: Sea of Ohotsk (Hunter Sea) | охотник |
knot tiers (knots for good or evil: pagan) | Наузницы |
kocar' (kosar', scythe reaper or kosa, not sickle or serp) | косарь |
lampman (lights/extinguishes street lights) | фонарщик |
copper smiths | Медники |
midwife | Повитуха |
milk vendor, female (molochniza) | молочница |
mourners Click to see | Плакальщицы |
nursery governess | бонна |
oath taker (like a license, a tseloval'nik) See below. | целовальник |
pastillers (pastry makers) | Пастильщицы |
peddlers Click to see | Коробейники |
plevalschiki (turnip seed sower) Click to see | Плевальщики |
postman (letter carrier) | почтальон |
pottery maker [possibly using a pottery wheel, in a kiln] | Горшечники [Гончарный круг, in a Печь для обжига глины] |
Russian Christmas Costume celebration (similar to Halloween) | Ряженые |
saddle makers or harness makers | Шорники |
seamstress | швея |
Seller, apples | продавец, яблоки |
Seller, bread and cracknel | продавец, хлеб и крекеры |
Seller, cranberries | продавец, клюква |
Seller, fish (fishmonger) | продавец, рыба |
Seller, flowers | продавец, цветы |
Seller, kvass | продавец, квас |
Seller, lubok (folkcraft) | продавец, лубок |
Seller, milk | продавец, молоко |
Seller, pashka ('tvorog' cheese eaten on Easter) | продавец, пасха |
Seller, sbiten' (lemonade vendor) | продавец, сбитень |
Seller, shoes | продавец, обувь |
street organ grinder | шарманка |
tavern or inn (kabak, traktir, pogrebok, korchma) 2 | кабак, трактир, погребок, корчма |
tradeswoman (second hand dealer) | распространительница |
vagrant | бродяга |
wash woman | прачка |
water carrier (female) | водоноска |
wild bee honey collector | Сборщик дикого пчелиного мёда |
yard sweeper (janitor, dvornik) | дворник |
During the times of Ivan the Terrible (1530 – 1584), local self-governing
bodies existed called the Zemsky hut (Земская иэба).
It was composed of a Zemzky elder (clerk mayor), the Zemsky sexton
(chanter) and the Tselovalnik: only men that paid taxes and were not serfs,
elected for a year or two. The purpose of the Zemsky hut was to collect
money from the local population (tax farming). As time passed, additional
officers were added such as bailiffs and tax and customs officials. The
duties of these additional officers was to find and punish criminals, and
people feared the Zemsky hut. The honesty of the members of the Zemsky hut
was beyond doubt as the officials, including the Tselovalnik (<<Целовальник>>)
means a "sworn man". Technically, the word tselovalnik is derived from
the contraction of "krestny tselovalnik meaning "the one who
kissed the cross" (swore an oath, terminated by kissing the cross).
After the Polish–Muscovite War and the invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth (1605–1618), the function of the Zemsky hut evolved: not only
was it required to collect taxes, and punish people, but people could now
be deprived of property if debts were not paid in a timely fashion. Also,
the duties of the Tselovalnik expanded, they became involved in the
business of the Kabak (Tsar's taverns): Kabatsky Tselovalniki were
overseeing tax collection of wine ("razpoy"), beer, and vodka, but were
allowed to sell nuts, berries, pies and pancakes at the Kabak door, to
"pituhi" (drinkers). Drinks were served with a measuring ladel and records
of payment kept. Tsar Mikhail Romanov ordered that no one could establish
a korchma (kabak) near a state kabak. The duties of the Tselovalnik now
expanded to include enforcing that no korchma were near the Tsar's kabak.
To increase kabak profits, skomorokhi (buffoons), gambling, and prostitution
were encouraged in the tsar's kabak.
During the 19th century the Russian state exercised a monopoly on
alcohol, and vodka sellers in taverns were called tselovalniks as
they swore an oath not to dilute vodka supplied by the Russian state
distilleries. As previously stated, these tselovalniks were feared, thus
took advantage of ordinary people, thus the tselovalnik cooper above (see
the art of Schedrovsky) while he may be thought to be "licensed" to guarantee his
workmanship, but the other coopers look away in anger as the tselovalnik acts immorally.
A cooper makes barrels and these barrels hold a stated volume. If the barrels don't
meet standards it would be like diluting what is held in them. Similarly, if
one were to purchase a horse, if the horse had a disease or was lame or was
in some way defective, the horse dealer responsible for the sale, the
tselovalnik would be liable. As time passed, the tselovalnik usually
referred to the innkeeper in the Kabak: the Tsar's tavern. Often these
innkeepers were Jews. Is this not "odd"? Did Jewish "Tselovalniki" kiss
the cross (swear an oath on the Russian Orthodox Bible)? Who would
believe a Jew taking such an oath? No, the Jewish tselovalniki simply
bribed corrupt officials to buy the "title", they swore no oath on the
Russian Orthodox Bible.
Is there evidence that tchinovniki (governmental
officials with a rank (tchin, or чин) could be bribed?
A tchinovnik could easily be bribed. How do we know this? The well known
writer Mikhail Saltykov (Nikolai Shchedrin), or Михайл
Салтыков
(Николай Щедрин)
author of "Tchinovnicks: Sketches of Provincial Life" tells us so. See especially chapter II.
Shchedrin describes Tchinovnicks using bribery, extortion, blackmail, infinite delays (Shchedrin
even mentions Dickens' "Jarndyce v. Jarndyce" in chapter I), secret proceedings,
etc. In the chapter "Times of Yore", Tchinovnicks use torture, violence, even death.
(Click for additional information).
Thus Jews were thought of as predatory, or at best, as predatory agents
of the Tsar.
2
A distinction must be made for words used for a tavern, or pub. A
kabak (кабак) refers to a tavern or
pub where one can drink and get food and is a Russian word. A
Traktir (трактир) refers
to a tavern or pub where one can drink and get food and is a
Russian word. A pogrebok (погребок)
refers to a tavern or pub where one can drink only (no food) and
is a Russian word. A korchma (корчма)
refers to a tavern or pub where one can drink and get food but is
a Ukrainian word.
In a pogrebok (погребок),
one finds "bochki" (бочки) or barrels,
each filled with different wines. People enjoy them selves, smoking
"papirosi" (папиросы)
or hand-rolled cigarettes.
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