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Darya Opochinina

Saint Petersburg, 19 Mar 1845 – Saint Petersburg, 19 Mar 1870

8 facts1 source

Facts and their sources

A life in time

  1. 19 Mar 1845

    Born in Saint Petersburg

  2. 19 Mar 1870

    Dies in Saint Petersburg, aged 25

Family

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Parents

Partner

During her lifetime

She lived through 4 decades. Pick one to hear and see what it was like around Saint Petersburg.

General history, not a record about the family: each item says where it comes from.

The 1840s · Darya is born in Saint Petersburg

In the news1848

Cholera and Crop Failures in 1848

In 1848, a major cholera epidemic, coupled with a bad harvest and dry weather that caused widespread town fires, severely disrupted the lives of the agrarian population.

Getting around

Travel times to Siberia varied wildly

In 1827, traveling by road from Moscow to Irkutsk took 23 days, which was considered extremely fast for that time. In mud-prone seasons, however, the same journey could take up to nine months.

In Europe1845–1852

The Great Famine in Ireland

Potato blight ruined harvests: a million Irish people died and a million more emigrated, many to America.

Daily life

Low rates of peasant literacy and education

Literacy among serfs was extremely low, with estimates not exceeding 1%. Education was largely confined to home training by local sextons or clerks, often limited to reading, writing, and basic arithmetic.

What people wore

Peasant women's daily and festive attire

Peasant women wore a woolen skirt called a ponyova over a linen shirt, and they protected their hair with headdresses like the soroka, as showing hair was shameful for married women.

Music

Traditional khorovod dances and reed instruments

In the Kursk region, women performed traditional round dances called khorovod or karagod while singing and playing kuvichki, a set of pan-flute pipes made of reeds of varying lengths.

At the table

Staple Foods of Ordinary Russian Families

Ordinary families primarily ate rye bread and various porridges, with cabbage soup known as shchi being a staple dish served year-round. Meat was a rare luxury for the poor, typically reserved for major holidays like Christmas and Easter, while fish and vegetables were more accessible.