Vera Opochinina

At the table

Rye bread and cabbage soup staple

Ordinary families relied heavily on rye bread and shchi, a cabbage soup that was a dietary staple and was often made with sour, fermented grey cabbage.

What people wore

Lifelong festive peasant clothing

A peasant family would prepare a festive outfit meant to last a lifetime, which was stored carefully and worn only on the most important holidays.

Getting around

Essential road gear and carriages

Travelers commonly used specialized chests called pogrebetz, which featured internal partitions to hold essential items like tea-pots, glass carafes with rum, and milk jugs for long journeys. Many peasants used simple, horse-drawn carts known as telegi, which were frequently built without iron tires, making them highly susceptible to damage on rough roads.

Work

The rhythm of a working day

During busy periods like threshing, families began their workday at two in the morning and finished on the threshing floor by ten in the morning. For the rest of the day, men typically repaired equipment, hunted, or prepared materials like tar, while women spun flax and tended to cattle.

Music

Large communal round dances called khorovod

Ordinary people held khorovods, which were large communal round dances that could involve up to one hundred participants. These dances were often accompanied by a cappella singing, though in some southern regions, they featured instruments like small reed pipes called zhaleika, pan-flutes known as kugikly, and horns called rozhok.

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.