1.1 Features of the lifestyle of the Russian nobility

The origin of the nobility in Russia occurred in the 12th-13th centuries; it was the lowest stratum of the military service class, from which the court of the boyar or prince was formed. Over time, the nobles became the main social support of the princely power. For several centuries, the duty of the nobles was to enter the service of the sovereign, and only after the publication of the Charter of the Nobility by Catherine II in 1785, the nobles were transformed into an estate with great privileges. By letter they were exempted from military service and taxes, formalizing the organization of local self-government of the nobility. In addition, the nobles as a class received a number of privileges, including the exclusive right to own lands and peasants, the right to trade and engage in industry, exemption from physical punishment, the right to self-government and their own class. .

The class of nobles was quite heterogeneous. In addition to the Russian nobles, it included the top of the territories annexed to Russia (German Otese knighthood, magnates from Poland and the gentry, Cossack elders of Ukraine, Bessarabian boyars, Georgian tavads and aznaurs, Muslim princes, khans, etc.).

Throughout the entire 19th century. nobles held leading positions in the administrative and bureaucratic apparatus of the state and formed the basis of the officer corps. Civil service was considered not prestigious, and nobles usually began with army service, after which they entered the civil service, or upon receiving higher education, they immediately entered the civil service, but not from lower ranks. From the middle of the 19th century. Service became the only source of livelihood for most nobles. By the end of the 19th century. the nobility made up 90% of the officer corps and 75% of the total number of class officials. In most cases, the highest bureaucratic positions were also occupied by hereditary nobles. Civil service was financially more profitable than military service, but in the circles of the landed nobility, it was still considered good manners to show contempt for the civilian rank.

Since the nobility was a cultural, educated and literate layer, the entire political elite was formed from it. Representatives of the nobility were the most prominent reformers of the 19th century. (S.Yu. Witte, M.M. Speransky, P.D. Kiselev, etc.), and the “guardians” of the Russian autocracy (A.H. Benkendorf, N.M. Karamzin, K.P. Pobedonstsev). The nobility significantly influenced the development of the history of Russian culture and social thought in the first half of the 19th century. The nobles, as the most independent and educated representatives of Russian society, formed opposition movements to the government, demonstrating a wide range of positions - from moderate liberal to radical socialist. Therefore, the nobility reflected the interests of many social groups in society and advocated different directions for the development of society.

The life of the nobility was divided into domestic and secular. Secular life consisted of the implementation of local self-government. To implement self-government, the nobles of the districts and provinces united into noble societies. Every three years, district and provincial elections were held, which were a significant event in the life of landowners, the subject of their worries and discussions. The elections elected leaders of the nobility, judges, police officers and many other elected officials.

Within the framework of this work, we are interested, first of all, in the home life of Russian nobles. In the first half of the 19th century, the noble family in Russia had some similarities with the bourgeois small family: the division of life into two parts - business and private, the release of family members from production work, the close nature of the relationship between spouses, late marriages for men and early marriages for women. At the same time, the noble family also retained features that brought it closer to the peasant family: a large number of relatives, hangers-on, nannies, servants, tutors who lived with the family and were often directly included in it; patriarchal authoritarian nature of family relations; dependence on the opinion of noble society.

During the post-reform period, changes emerged in noble families. The number of family members was reduced to a married couple with children. The age of marriage has increased, family relationships have become more humane, and more people have appeared who avoided marriage.

The nobility and intelligentsia adhered to the ideals of the bourgeois family with such classic features as the separation of business and private life, the distribution of roles: the man is the breadwinner, the wife is the lover and mother, autonomy and closeness from society. The personality becomes more individual, the relationship between spouses and children becomes closer. Home takes on the meaning of a refuge in which you can hide from worries, relax and psychologically rehabilitate.

An important component of the culture of any society or class is the culture of communication. Thus, the speech etiquette of the Russian nobility was very different from what is familiar to modern people. Those younger in age, rank or social status were required to demonstrate an emphatically respectful attitude towards their elders in their interactions. The elders were allowed a somewhat dismissive manner of addressing the younger ones. The foundations of speech etiquette were laid in the family from early childhood.

In noble families, children addressed their parents and older relatives only as “you.” In aristocratic families, the address “You” was the norm even when spouses communicated with each other, although it is worth noting that among the provincial nobility such an address was rare. Conversations between unfamiliar and completely unknown people were very diverse. The most respectful and official were the addresses “dear sir” or “gracious empress.” This formula emphasized the distance in communication and could also be used by acquaintances when relations were cooling or aggravating. In common parlance, addresses were simplified to “sovereign” and “empress”, and then to “sir” and “madam”.

In an official environment, a junior in rank, when addressing a senior in title or rank, used a number of formulas: from “your honor” to “your excellency.” Superiors addressed their subordinates as “Mister” with the addition of their surname, rank or position.

The life of representatives of the noble class differed depending on their place of residence - in the city or in the countryside. Village landowners mostly owned estates and maintained a staff of servants needed to care for them. The majority of the capital's nobles rented housing. Mainly apartments in tenement buildings, furnished rooms, rooms in hotels, boarding houses or cottages. Apartment buildings were not intended for individual use; apartments in them were rented out. Each apartment had two parallel suites of rooms. Such double-sided apartments were valued because they were easy to ventilate.

By the middle of the 19th century, apartments began to be landscaped, which led to sectional apartment layouts, in which kitchens and toilets were located on top of each other. According to the 1890 census, the majority of apartments in St. Petersburg (40 percent) consisted of three to five rooms (not counting the kitchen and hallway), costing from 500 to 1000 rubles per year; another 24.4 percent were two-room apartments, with an average price of 360 rubles per year.

The nobles who retained their estates left the city for the summer. Noble estates, as a rule, were a wooden building with three to four columns at the front porch and a pediment triangle above them. The country noble estate of the first third of the 19th century was at the same time the residence of an aristocrat, a rural cultural salon, an office, a shelter for a poet, scientist, philosopher, a household and a patriarchal family hearth.

A.A. Fet wrote: “What is a noble estate from a moral and aesthetic point of view? It is a “house” and a “garden” built in the lap of nature, when the human is united with the “natural” in the deepest organic flourishing and renewal, and the natural does not shy away from ennobling cultural cultivation a person, when the poetry of native nature develops the soul hand in hand with the beauty of the fine arts, and under the roof of the manor house the special music of home life does not dry out, living in alternation between the activity of labor and idle fun, joyful love and pure contemplation."

The favorite entertainment of the nobility in the 19th century was balls. The pomp of the ball depended on the financial capabilities of the host party. In rich houses, state apartments were used for receptions. Sometimes separate buildings were built specifically for balls. Poorer nobles used the living quarters of the house for receptions. Evening parties performed very important social functions, making it possible to establish and maintain connections not only between different circles of society, but also between generations. This was very significant, since women usually married early, and men married relatively late, after they had achieved notable ranks or a certain position in society. So, in fact, the party, especially those accompanied by a ball, was a kind of brides' fair.

Thus, social life played a large role in the personal and public life of Russian nobles. Balls were not only entertainment, but also a form of social organization, one of the few forms of collective life allowed in Russia at that time. In this sense, secular life received the value of a public cause.

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Nobility. In the first half of the 19th century, the topic of the wealth of the nobles was closely related... In the first half of the century, noble children received home education. ... A strict subordination was maintained in the houses, similar to the requirements of Domostroy. The noble family at all times had a certain, traditional way of life, regulated at the legislative level.

We have already briefly reviewed these regulations, and now it is our turn to look at the noble family through the eyes of its members.

For this purpose, I selected sources of personal origin, namely diaries and memoirs of nobles, covering both the first and second half of the 19th century.

Family structure is a style of family behavior. The family structure depends on the position of the family, its class and level of well-being. Family structure is the rhythm of family life, the dynamics of its development, the stability of spiritual and moral principles, the psychological climate, and emotional well-being.

What were the general features of the noble family structure?

In the first half of the 19th century, the noble family was dominated by patriarchy and hierarchy.

The head of the family was always recognized as the father - through whose efforts the family lived, secured in many ways precisely by his efforts in financial and moral terms.

In the notes of P.I. Golubev, a St. Petersburg official of the 30s, we find that he served diligently, and brought all the means and favors to the family. He called his wife “you” and by her first name and patronymic, but she, in turn, treated him with respect and followed him everywhere.

While he was away at work, his wife took care of the house and children.

They had two children - a boy and a girl. As P.I. writes Golubev:

“I only worked with my son, the mother worked with her daughter.” In the evenings, the family loved to have conversations, they also went to church, diligently invested energy and resources into the future lives of their children - their son was given a university education, their daughter was married off.

The division of the family into male and female hierarchies can be traced in women's memoirs. M.S. Nikoleva and A.Ya. Butkovskaya constantly mentions in her memoirs that their social circle always consisted of either sisters, or cousins, or numerous aunts and acquaintances of their mothers, mothers-in-law, etc. In the family home or at a party, the rooms allocated to them always meant a “female half” and were distant from the men’s quarters.

But this does not mean at all that they shunned male relatives; brothers and cousins ​​also formed their social circle, but to a very small extent. It's all about the role of men - they were busy with business, or were absent on duty. Brothers M.S. Nikoleva spent quite a long time away from her family, as she was in the active army and fought against the French. A similar situation developed among Nikoleva’s other relatives. Here's what she writes about her aunt's son, cousin Pyotr Protopopov:

“Peter Sergeevich, having spent 30 years in the service, was unaccustomed to female society and therefore seemed like a savage and an original. Until the age of 45, he visited his family only occasionally for short periods of time. “The second brother, Nikolai Sergeevich, served in the ministry in St. Petersburg, was devout, belonged to the Masonic lodge, and rarely visited his parents.”

After the death of her husband A.Ya. Butkovskaya wrote:

“In 1848, my husband, who held the rank of lieutenant general engineer and director of the Naval Construction Department, suddenly died of apoplexy. Of course, in the past years we had heavy family losses, but this event was especially sensitive to me and completely changed my life.

I retired to my estate and began to take less part in public life. During the Hungarian campaign, the Eastern War, two of my sons were in the active forces, and I was involuntarily interested in the course of military events.”

Young women, unlike their male relatives, were almost always under the shadow of their parents' home, under the care of their mother, or older relatives or companions, nannies, and governesses. And only after marriage did they throw off such harsh shackles of excessive guardianship, although they came under the wing of their mother-in-law or their husband’s relatives.

Patriarchy in relation to women also had its exceptions to the rules. If a man is the head of the family, then after his death this leadership passed, as a rule, to his widow, or to the eldest son, if he was not busy in the service.

“The behavior of widows, who were entrusted with the responsibilities of the status of head of the family, was freer. Sometimes, having transferred actual control to their son, they were satisfied with the role of the symbolic head of the family. For example, the Moscow general-governor Prince D.V. Golitsyn, even in small things, must ask for the blessing of his mother Natalya Petrovna, who continued to see a minor child in the sixty-year-old military leader.”

Besides the role of the wife, the role of the mother was considered the most important. However, after the birth of a child, a distance immediately arose between him and the mother. This began from the very first days of the baby’s life, when, for reasons of decency, the mother did not dare to breastfeed her child; this responsibility fell on the shoulders of the nurse.

P.I. Golubev wrote that due to the custom of weaning a child from his mother’s breast, he and his wife lost two babies. The first daughter died from improper feeding while they were looking for a wet nurse, the second son died after contracting a disease from his wet nurse.

Taught by bitter experience, they moved away from the custom and his wife, contrary to decency, herself fed the subsequent children, thanks to which they remained alive.

But the custom of weaning children from their mother’s breast continued until the end of the 19th century.

The cooling towards the child as an individual was determined by his social role in the future. The son was alienated from his mother, since he was being prepared to serve his homeland and his circle of interests, activities, acquaintances was under her jurisdiction only until he was seven years old, then he went to his father. The mother could only monitor her son's progress. The girl was seen as a future wife and mother, and this resulted in the family’s special attitude towards her - they tried to make an ideal out of her.

V.N. Karpov wrote in his memoirs:

“In those years, the “women’s question” (the question of changing the role of women, including in the family) did not exist at all. A girl was born into the world - and the task of her life was simple and not difficult. The girl grew and developed so that at the age of seventeen she could blossom into a magnificent flower and get married.”

From this follows another characteristic feature of the noble family structure of the first half of the 19th century - the chilled relationship between children and parents. The generally accepted goal of the family is to prepare its children to serve the fatherland or the family of the spouse. The relationship between parents and children was built on this goal. Duty to society became more important than parental feelings.

In families of wealthy nobles leading a secular lifestyle, where spouses were found either at court, or the spouse held a high-ranking position, visits with children became a rare occurrence. Such children were either left in the care of nannies or sent to prestigious educational boarding schools.

Ah. In his youth he remained in the care of his father's relatives:

“I lived with my uncle, my father’s brother; my aunt, an excellent woman, took all the care of me personally.”

The practice of transferring care of their child to relatives was quite common among the nobility. This happened for various reasons - orphanhood, social life, or the plight of the parents.

M.S. Nikoleva described the following incident in her aunt’s family:

“Among the Protopopovs’ relatives was a certain Kutuzov with nine daughters and a son. The daughters were all good-looking. The mother, a capricious, self-willed woman, remained a widow, did not like one of her daughters, Sofya Dmitrievna, and did not give her shelter, except for the girls' room, where, in the company of servants, she sat on the window and knitted a stocking. My aunt, seeing the mother’s dislike for the child, took her into her house. Her cousins ​​fell in love with her and began to teach her everything she could...

When brother Peter retired, he found Sonechka, 15, living in his family for years, like her own...

Her mother completely forgot her and did not see her, so even after her aunt’s death she remained in the Protopopovs’ house.”

We can come to the conclusion that during the period of time we are considering, the essence of noble children was inevitable service in the social hierarchy. Patriarchy dictated which unwanted and undeserving emotions of the child should be suppressed. “Not a single emotion - fear, pity, even maternal love - was considered a reliable guide in education.”

Therefore, marriages between nobles were concluded both for love and for convenience. What remained constant was the fact that marriage issues were controlled by parents, guided only by practical benefits and not by the feelings of their children. Hence the early marriages of girls with men two or even three times older.

K.D. Ikskul in “The Marriage of My Grandfather” gives the age of the groom as twenty-nine years old, and the bride as twelve.

M.S. Nikoleva writes that her cousin Peter, out of strong love, married their mother’s pupil Sophia, who was only fifteen years old, but he was twice as old.

AND I. Butkovskaya, in her “stories,” describes how her thirteen-year-old sister became the wife of the chief prosecutor, who was forty-five years old.

In noble culture, marriage was considered a natural need and was one of the meaningful structures of life. Celibate life was condemned in society; it was looked upon as inferiority.

Parents, especially mothers, approached their daughter’s upbringing with full responsibility, both in matters of behavior and in matters of marriage.

Countess Varvara Nikolaevna Golovina wrote in her memoirs regarding her daughter Praskovya Nikolaevna:

“My eldest daughter was almost nineteen years old at that time, and she began to go out into the world...

Her tender and sensitive affection for me protected her from the hobbies so characteristic of youth. Outwardly, she was not particularly attractive, was not distinguished by either beauty or grace and could not inspire dangerous feelings, and her strong moral convictions protected her from everything that could harm her.”

Countess M.F. Kamenskaya, remembering her cousin Varenka, wrote:

“I loved Varenka very much, and she and I were very friendly for many years in a row, but I didn’t like my aunt’s shy, distrustful manner of treating her daughter at all. Ekaterina Vasilievna kept Varenka near her as if on a string, did not let her go one step away from her, did not allow her to speak freely with anyone, and for whole days did not stop training her in a high-society manner.”

E.A. Gan described in her work “The Court of Light” the whole essence of a woman in marriage:

“God gave a woman a wonderful destiny, although not as glorious, not as loud as he indicated to a man - the destiny of being a domestic penate, a comforter to a chosen friend, the mother of his children, to live the life of loved ones and to march with a proud brow and a bright soul towards the end of a useful existence »

While women's attitudes toward marriage changed, men's attitudes remained unchanged throughout the 19th century. A man started a family in order to find heirs and a mistress, a warm friend or a good adviser.

The fate of Lieutenant General Pavel Petrovich Lansky is noteworthy. His first marriage was concluded in 1831 with the ex-wife of a colleague, Nadezhda Nikolaevna Maslova. Lansky's mother was categorically against this union and after the wedding broke off relations with her son. And ten years later, having given birth to two children, his dear wife ran away from him, with her lover, to Europe. It is known that the divorce process lasted about twenty years. And having become free, Pavel Petrovich marries for the second time a poor relative of his former wife, the elderly Evdokia Vasilievna Maslova. The motive for the marriage was the noble heart of Lansky, who wanted to brighten up the loneliness of the old maid.

A.S. Pushkin, in a letter to Pletnev, wrote the famous lines after his marriage to Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova:

“I’m married and happy; My only wish is that nothing in my life changes - I can’t wait for anything better. This state is so new to me that it seems that I have been reborn.”

A. H. Benckendorff described his feelings in connection with his marriage no less eloquently:

“Finally, nothing else stood in the way of my plans to get married, I had time to think them over thoroughly during those eight months while I was separated from my betrothed. I often hesitated, fear of losing the freedom to choose love that I had previously enjoyed, fear of causing unhappiness to a wonderful woman whom I respected as much as I loved, doubt that I possessed the qualities required of a faithful and thoughtful husband - all this frightened me me and fought in my head with the feelings of my heart. Nevertheless, a decision had to be made. My indecision was explained only by the fear of causing harm or compromising the woman, whose seductive image followed me along with the dream of happiness.”

“Too two weeks have passed that I have not written to you, my faithful friend,” wrote I.I. Pushchin to his wife.

“My dear friend,” S.P. Trubetskoy and I.I. Pushchin addressed their wives in letters.

If we do not take into account matters of the heart, then for a man, family is also a very expensive matter, since it required considerable material investments. He had to provide his wife and children with shelter, food, clothing and a proper environment. Such was his duty, in the eyes of society.

Therefore, parents always preferred a wealthy candidate with a good reputation.

M.A. Kretchmer in his memoirs describes a similar incident that happened to his father and mother in his youth:

“...I met my mother’s family, people of a good family, the Massalskys, and very rich ones at that. This family had two sons and three daughters; two of them are married, the third is my mother, a girl of 16 years old, with whom my father fell in love and who answered him in the same way. My father planned to get married, but since he led a most extravagant and, at the same time, not entirely commendable life in Krakow, my mother’s parents flatly refused him.”

Relationships in the family were rarely built on mutual respect; they were mainly based on the subordination of the younger to the elders and the veneration of these elders.

The eldest in the family was the father, followed by the mother; we must not forget about the authority of grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts and uncles, as well as godparents; the youngest were always children. Controlling the destinies of children in the hands of irresponsible fathers turned into nightmarish realities, so colorfully picked up by writers.

And if men had at least some chance to deviate from parental care - to enter the service, to leave their father's house for education, then girls in the first half of the 19th century did not have such a chance. They remained in the care of their parents until the very end and did not dare to resist their will, and sometimes sacrificed their personal lives out of deep devotion to their relatives.

M.S. Nikoleva even describes two cases in the family of her relatives, the Protopopovs:

“The Protopopov brothers were, of course, at war; Of the men, only my father and a sick uncle remained with us, with whom, in addition to his wife, the eldest daughter Alexandra was inseparable. She did not leave her father either day or night, and if she left for a minute, the patient began to cry like a child. This went on for many years, and my poor cousin did not see youth (her uncle died when she was already thirty-five years old).”

“Of the five Protopopov sisters, not one married; although the corresponding suitors were approaching, they chose not to separate and live together as one family, and when Pyotr Sergeevich (their brother - S.S.), being a retired colonel, got married, they devoted themselves to raising his children.”

The family structure of the noble family was built not only on patriarchal foundations, but also on reverence for traditions. So, any self-respecting family attended church, was religious, organized family celebrations and gatherings, and also quite often visited relatives living far away, staying with them for months.

Patriarchy, hierarchy, traditionalism, subordination to elders and authorities, the sanctity of marriage and family ties - this is what formed the basis for intra-family relations of the nobility in the first half of the 19th century. The dominance of duty prevailed over feelings, parental power was not unshakable, like the power of the spouse.

But what happens to the family structure in the second half of the 19th century?

The memoirs of nobleman S.E. Trubetskoy vividly depict this junction at the turn of generational change:

“Father and mother, grandfathers and grandmothers were for us in childhood not only sources and centers of love and untouchable authority; they were surrounded in our eyes by some kind of halo that was not familiar to the new generation. We, children, have always seen that our parents, our grandfathers, not only ourselves, but also many other people, primarily numerous household members, are treated with respect...

Our fathers and grandfathers were, in our children’s eyes, both patriarchs and family monarchs, and mothers and grandmothers were family queens.”

From the second half of the 19th century, a number of innovations penetrated the noble family. The role and authority of women increased, the search for new, profitable sources of livelihood increased, new views on marriage and children developed, humanism penetrated into the sphere of family relations

Natalya Goncharova-Lanskaya (widow of A.S. Pushkin), in a letter to her second husband writes regarding the marital fate of her daughters:

“As for settling them down, marrying them off, we are more prudent in this regard than you think. I rely entirely on the will of God, but would it be a crime on my part to think about their happiness. There is no doubt that you can be happy without being married, but this would mean passing by your calling...

By the way, I prepared them for the idea that marriage is not so easy and that one cannot look at it as a game and connect it with the thought of freedom. She said that marriage is a serious responsibility, and one must be very careful in choosing.”

Noble women began to actively engage in the upbringing and education of their daughters, encouraging them to move away from the traditionally assigned role of a wife, closed in the environment of family relationships, awakening in them an interest in social and political life, and instilling in their daughters a sense of personality and independence.

As for parental attitudes in general, society advocated

Partnership, humane relations between parents and children.

The child began to be seen as an individual. Corporal punishment began to be condemned and prohibited.

O.P. Verkhovskaya wrote in her memoirs:

“The children no longer felt the same fear of their father. No rods

There was no trace of any punishment, much less torture. Obviously, the serf reform also had an impact on the upbringing of children.”

Relations between spouses began to acquire an egalitarian character, that is, based not on subordination, but on equality.

However, the old generation, brought up in patriarchal traditions, came into conflict with the new generation - their own children, who adopted advanced European ideas:

“...during this period of time, from the early 60s to the early 70s, all intelligent strata of Russian society were occupied with only one issue: family discord between old and young. No matter what noble family you ask about at that time, you will hear the same thing about each:

Parents quarreled with children. And it was not because of any material, material reasons that quarrels arose, but solely because of questions of a purely theoretical, abstract nature.”

Freedom of choice influenced the foundations of noble society - the number of divorces and unequal marriages increased. During this period, women had the opportunity to marry at their own discretion, which was quite often used by noblewomen as a means of achieving independence within the framework of a fictitious marriage.

Marriage gave girls the opportunity to leave the care of their parents, travel abroad, and lead the life they wanted, without being burdened with marital responsibilities.

Noblewoman E.I. Zhukovskaya, in her memoirs, notes that both she and her sister married for convenience, wanting to escape from the care of their parents, but did not live with their husbands.

According to the intra-family structure, relations between spouses could be classified into three types - along with the still dominant “old noble family”, a “new ideological noble family” based on the ideas of humanism, and a “new practical noble family” practicing egalitarianism appeared.

The crisis of generational contradiction also gave rise to three types of parental attitudes - “old parents”, “new ideological” and “new practical”.

We can conclude that the second half of the 19th century is characterized by a crisis of the patriarchal family. The noble family evolves and is divided into “new” and “old”. With the modernization of life, new ideological trends have shaken traditional foundations, forcing most of society to move away from patriarchal norms in family relationships.

The nobility served society, and the family was a means of serving the fatherland. The personality of one family member was lower than the family in the hierarchy of values. The ideal throughout the 19th century remained self-sacrifice for the sake of the interests of the family, especially in matters of love and marriage.
For many centuries in Rus' there were no detailed rules of etiquette for girls. The basic requirements could be summarized in a few lines: to be pious, modest and hardworking, to honor your parents and take care of yourself. In the famous “Domostroy”, which for several centuries was the main instruction on family and household relations, the main requirements for ensuring the proper behavior of girls were placed on the father and, to a much lesser extent, on the mother.

“Domostroy” demanded from the head of the family: “If you have a daughter, and direct your severity towards her, then you will save her from bodily harm: you will not disgrace your face if your daughter walks in obedience, and it is not your fault if, out of stupidity, she violates her virginity, and it will become known to your friends as a mockery, and then you will be put to shame before people. For if you give your daughter immaculate, it’s as if you’ve accomplished a great deed; you’ll be proud in any society, never suffering because of her.”

Even during the period of reforms carried out in the country by Peter I, there were no fundamental changes in the formation of etiquette requirements for girls. In the manual for young nobles “An Honest Mirror of Youth, or Indications for Everyday Conduct,” prepared and published by order of Peter in 1717, recommendations for the behavior of girls remained at the level of the patriarchal “Domostroy.”

The lack of proper regulation of the behavior of girls in society, by the way, did not correspond to the current situation. Thanks to Peter's innovations, the girls received immeasurably more freedoms than they had just a few years ago. They dressed in fashionable European dresses with a low neckline, learned to dance, and began to actively attend various entertainment events and assemblies. Naturally, they now have significantly more opportunities to communicate with gentlemen.

Perhaps, it was during the Peter the Great period that girls were the most liberated, since new rules for the behavior of girls in society had not yet been invented, they were just beginning to emerge, and fathers of families were obliged to take their daughters out into the world, otherwise they could be seriously harmed - the tsar did not tolerate it when the orders were not carried out, and he was quick to punish. There were no age restrictions at that time; Berchholz, describing the St. Petersburg society of the time of Peter, noted that girls 8-9 years old took part in assemblies and entertainment on an equal basis with adults.

The young gentlemen were undoubtedly pleased with the innovations in the behavior of women and girls. But the older generation greeted them with caution. MM. Shcherbatov, who published the book “On the Corruption of Morals in Russia” in the 18th century, noted: “It was pleasant for the female sex, who had almost until now been slaves in their homes, to enjoy all the pleasures of society, to adorn themselves with robes and headdresses that multiply the beauty of their faces and render them good.” camp ... the wives, who had not previously felt their beauty, began to recognize its power, began to try to multiply it with decent attire, and more than their ancestors they spread luxury in decoration.”

For girls, imitation of European rules of behavior was an exciting game, since significant remnants of patriarchal morals still remained in the home circle. Only by breaking away from the home circle to a social reception or assembly could the girl behave as required by European rules. Although in an exaggerated form, this was very accurately noted in the film “The Tale of How Tsar Peter Married a Blackamoor.”

Since for girls and ladies behavior in society has become a kind of game, it was filled with actual game elements. For communication, “languages” appeared: fans, flies, bouquets, poses, a lot of various small conventions that were not regulated by generally accepted rules, but which everyone knew about and tried to follow. It is worth noting that there was no particular effort to officially regulate the behavior of women and girls in society. These rules developed largely spontaneously in imitation of European etiquette. This happened especially actively during the reign of Russian empresses. It is curious that these rules nevertheless intertwined both European courtliness and Russian patriarchy.

Count L.F. Segur, who spent several years in Russia during the reign of Catherine II, wrote that Russian “women have gone further than men on the path of improvement. In society one could meet many elegant ladies, girls of remarkable beauty, who spoke four and five languages, who knew how to play various instruments and were familiar with the works of the most famous novelists of France, Italy and England.”

Noble families now began to pay considerable attention to preparing their daughters for adult life. Not much was required for this - to learn to speak fluently at least one or two foreign languages, to be able to read, preferably in French or English, to dance and maintain small talk. Mothers practically did not do this, entrusting the care of their daughters to governesses and bonnets. Girls were rarely purposefully prepared for family life, but they were thoroughly prepared for communication with future grooms.

If in the time of Peter a girl could be married off at the age of 13-14, then by the 19th century a girl was considered a bride from the age of 16, and less often from the age of 15. It was at this age that girls began to be officially taken out into the world. Girls had been taken to visit before, but their social circle was limited to games with peers or special children's balls and concerts. But at the age of 16, an event took place that all the girls were looking forward to - their first official trip out into the world to a ball, to the theater or to a reception.

For the first time, a girl was usually taken out into the world by her father, less often by her mother or an older relative. The girl had to look elegant, but modest - a light light dress with a small neckline, no or minimal jewelry (small earrings and a string of pearls), a simple hairstyle. They tried to start going out with a ball or reception, when the girl could be officially introduced to acquaintances and family friends. Naturally, many of those to whom the girl was introduced knew her before, but the ritual had to be observed.

From that moment on, the girl became an official participant in social life, they began to send her invitations to various events, just like her mother. In official cases, a girl was accepted in accordance with her father’s rank, which was enshrined in the “Table of Ranks.” If the father had the rank of I class, the daughter received “rank... above all wives who are in rank V. Girls whose fathers are in rank II are over wives who are in rank VI,” etc.

By the beginning of the 19th century, the order of a girl’s behavior at a ball and communication with gentlemen was clearly regulated. Deviations from the rules were not allowed, otherwise it was possible to compromise not only oneself, but also the family. I have already written about this in detail in an article devoted to noble balls - bride fairs. I will only add that until the age of 24-25, a girl could only go out with her parents or relatives. If for some reason it was not possible to get married, then from this age she could travel on her own. But even before the age of 30, a girl (widows and divorcees had their own rules) could not receive men or go to visit them without the presence of an older relative, even if they were old enough to be her grandfather.

A lot of conventions surrounded the matchmaking and the girl’s behavior in communicating with the groom after the engagement. Actually, the girl’s opinion about the potential groom was not often asked; usually the parents made the decision. But it was considered desirable that the groom be introduced to the potential bride in advance and have the opportunity to communicate with her several times, naturally, under the supervision of one of the older family members.

For the grooms, the situation was not easy. Talking about your feelings to a girl, which was allowed only in a veiled form, when the future mother-in-law or aunt of a potential bride stands over your soul, is not an easy task. Involuntarily, you will become tongue-tied, but you need to conduct an elegant small talk, and even allegorically confess your love.

Even after the engagement, the groom could not remain alone with the bride and accompany her to balls or social events. The bride came to all events with one of her relatives, but there the groom could take her under his wing and be with her inseparably; the engaged status allowed this. But the bride went home only with relatives; if the groom was invited to accompany her, he rode in a separate carriage.

After the engagement, the girl entered into a new life; now many of the conventions of girlish behavior could be forgotten. Her husband began to manage her social relationships. The behavior of married ladies in society had many of its own characteristics, but more on them in the next article.

The book "Domostroy" first appeared in the 15th century. Under Ivan the Terrible, the book was revised and supplemented by the clergyman Archpriest Sylvester. It was written in an orderly style, with frequent use of sayings. The book described ideal family relationships, home life, recipes, social and religious issues, and norms of behavior.

The book “Domostroy” was popular among boyars, Russian merchants, and then nobles who sought to create a certain way of life in their home in order to somehow organize eating, drinking drinks appropriate for a certain moment, what words to say, how and what things to wear. People from these classes were educated and had every opportunity to read these recommendations and then could afford to implement all this point by point. Domostroy also described in detail the rules of going to church, wedding ceremonies, wedding and funeral ceremonies. And not only Russia used this kind of “Domostroi”. In many other European countries, thick volumes containing advice and statements on housekeeping and family life were distributed.
The fashion for "Domostroy" began to gradually fade in the 19th century, personifying something ancient, useless and patriarchal. Writers of that time used images from Domostroy to more colorfully ridicule the petty-bourgeois, ossified way of life of medieval Russia.
In modern life, there are still similar books with descriptions of ancient Russian recipes from the royal kitchen and with recommendations for performing rituals, but very few turn to these overly inflated delights of that distant era, except perhaps to study what they lived, what they did, what rules they followed our ancestors. The ideal of behavior in the family of a metropolitan nobleman in Russia in the first half of the 19th century: traditions and innovations
In the old days, in noble families, as well as in noble society as a whole, the ability to behave, observe tact, and follow etiquette was considered the first indicator of the degree of aristocracy.

In the old days, in noble families, as well as in noble society as a whole, the ability to behave, observe tact, and follow etiquette was considered the first indicator of the degree of aristocracy. The nobles simply flaunted noble manners in front of each other. In French it was called bon ton, and in Russian it was called good manners. Decent manners were usually instilled from childhood. But it often happened that a person, due to a lack of aesthetic education, could master secular etiquette himself, imitating its skilled bearers or consulting the relevant rules.

It is known that the basis of peaceful, respectable cohabitation of people is love, mutual respect and politeness. A disrespectful attitude towards someone close primarily causes moral damage to that person and negatively affects the reputation of the one who unwisely disregards the rules of etiquette. In the book “Good Form”, published in St. Petersburg in 1889, it is written about this: “We must never forget that the laws of society, like Christian ones, from which they draw their origin, their principles, require love, consent, long-suffering, meekness , kindness, humane treatment and respect for the individual." No matter what feelings people have for each other, they in any case must observe external decency.

An important source of rules of behavior in the family and society as a whole in the pre-Petrine period was the so-called. Domostroy is a set of ancient Russian everyday rules based on the Christian worldview. The head of the family according to Domostroy is certainly a man who is responsible for the entire house before God, is a father and teacher for his household. The wife should take care of the housework, and both spouses should raise children in the fear of God, keeping the commandments of Christ.

In the era of Peter the Great, a manual appeared on the rules of conduct for secular youth, “An Honest Mirror of Youth, or Indications for Everyday Conduct, Collected from Various Authors.” This essay shows the norms of etiquette in conversation - with superiors, with a confessor, with parents, with servants - and the style of behavior in various situations. A young man must rely on himself and respect others, honor his parents, be polite, brave, courageous. He should avoid drunkenness, extravagance, slander, rudeness, etc. Particular importance was attached to knowledge of languages: youths should speak to each other in a foreign language, “so that they could learn the skill.” Along with community instructions, this book also gives specific bonton rules of behavior at the table and in public places, and some hygiene standards.

The final part of this book is devoted to the special norms of behavior of girls, which, moreover, are strictly determined by church morality. These instructions are obviously close to traditional ancient Russian teachings. The virginal virtues are as follows: love for the word of God, humility, prayer, confession of faith, respect for parents, diligence, friendliness, mercy, modesty, bodily purity, abstinence and sobriety, frugality, generosity, fidelity and truthfulness. In public, a girl should behave modestly and humbly, avoid laughter, chatter, and coquetry.

In general, the monument reflects both general ethical norms of behavior and specific features of education related to the period of the most active perception of Russian tradition, Russian culture, and the peculiarities of the lifestyle of Western Europe.

In the 19th century, the importance of tradition was still extremely great. The wife must certainly honor her husband and please his family and friends. This is what the book “Life in the World, at Home and at Court,” published in 1890, teaches the average person. However, in contrast to the recommendations of Domostroy, the spouses often lived separately. Aristocratic families that owned large mansions arranged their homes in such a way that the husband and wife had their own separate chambers - the “female” and “male” halves. Each of these halves had its own special routine. True, there were cases when the house was divided into two parts for other reasons. For example, E.A. Sabaneeva in her book “Memories of the Past: From a Family Chronicle 1770–1838” describes the house of her grandfather Prince P.N. Obolensky in Moscow: “Large on two floors, between the street and the house there is a courtyard, behind the house there is a garden with an alley of acacias on both sides. The house was divided by a large dining room into two halves: one half was called Knyazeva, the other - maid of honor. In the same way, the people in the house, that is, footmen, coachmen, cooks and maids, as well as horses and carriages, were called princes and ladies-in-waiting. There was always a parade on Grandma's half; she had the best part of the house at her disposal; she always had visitors. Grandfather had his own small chambers, above which there was a mezzanine for the children.”

Psychologists note that spouses, often without realizing it, when building their intra-family relationships, are largely guided by the family of their parents. At the same time, sometimes the order that exists in the parental family is perceived by a person as a certain ideal, which he strives to follow at all costs. But since in the parental families of the husband and wife these orders could not be at all similar, such thoughtless adherence to them can ultimately lead to serious complications in the relationship between the spouses.

Prince V.P. Meshchersky considered the behavior of his parents - both in the family and in society - to be standard. Father “was, without exaggeration, I will say, the ideal of a Christian man, namely a man,” the prince writes in his memoirs, “because he lived a full life of light, but at the same time shone, so to speak, with the beauty of Christianity: his soul loved his neighbor too much and good in order to ever think evil, and at the same time, always cheerful, always content, he lived the life of everyone around him; I read everything I could, took an interest in everything and, like my mother, never touched even in passing lies, arrogance, vulgarity, or gossip.”

V.N. Tatishchev in his will - a kind of Domostroy of the 18th century - says that “family legislation still has an extremely patriarchal character. The basis of the family is the unlimited power of the parent, which extends to children of both sexes and of all ages and ends only by natural death or deprivation of all rights of the estate.”

Until at least half of the 19th century, respectful attitude towards parents was a phenomenon, as they would now say, without alternative. However, some “freethinking”, which arose, in particular, under the influence of sentimental and romantic works, appeared. So the main character of the novel D.N. Begicheva’s “Olga: the life of Russian nobles at the beginning of the century” (1840) fiercely resisted her father’s desire to marry her to an unloved man, although she did not dare to contradict him openly.

The Khomyakov family has a tradition that when both sons - Fyodor and Alexey - “came of age,” Marya Alekseevna called them to her and solemnly explained her idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe relationship between a man and a woman. “In today's terms,” she said, “men seem to enjoy freedom. And in a Christian way, a man must maintain his purity just as strictly as a woman. Chastity is the lot of people before marriage. Therefore, I want you to swear to me that you will not enter into a relationship with any woman until you marry, choosing your one and only. Swear it." The sons swore.

V.F. Odoevsky in “Excerpts from Masha’s Journal” shows a certain ideal of the relationship between parents and children. On the day Masha turns ten, she is given a journal, where the girl writes down everything that happens to her during the day. Mom gradually accustoms her to housekeeping, dad teaches her geography lessons. Masha treats her parents with great respect, respect, which is reinforced, in addition to general education in the spirit of the Law of God, by positive examples from the lives of some familiar parents. Parents themselves never raise their voices at their children. And if Masha deserves punishment, they, for example, oblige Masha not to leave the room. According to the author, his fairy tale should teach children and their parents to follow this example.

Emperor Nicholas I wrote in 1838 to his son Nicholas: “Love and honor your parents and elder brother and always resort to their advice and with full confidence, and then our blessing will always be over your dear head.”

The first principle in raising a noble child was that he was oriented not towards success, but towards an ideal. He should have been brave, honest, educated, not in order to achieve anything - fame, wealth, high rank - but because he was a nobleman, because he had been given a lot, because that’s what he should be.

Siblings were expected to be respectful of each other, and the eldest son had some authority over the younger children. Boys under 15 and girls under 21 walked ahead of their parents, who “vomited” them. The girl was completely dependent on the will of her parents, while the young man was not subject to their control and was free in his acquaintances. V.F. Odoevsky wrote: “This is our custom: a girl will die of boredom and will not give her hand to a man if he does not have the happiness of being her brother, uncle, or the even more enviable happiness of being eighty years old, because “what will mothers say?”

At the beginning of the 19th century, traditions and customs adopted in the previous century and characterized by a certain patriarchy began to be supplanted by new, more liberal rules. This also applied to the period of mourning. “Now all decency is poorly observed, but in my time they strictly followed everything and according to the proverb: “love to count kinship and give honor to it” - they were considered as if kinship and, when one of the relatives died, they wore mourning for him, depending on proximity or distance , how much was due. And before me it was even stricter. Widows wore mourning for three years: the first year only black wool and crepe, in the second year black silk and black lace could be worn, and in the third year, on ceremonial occasions, it was possible to wear silver mesh on the dress, not gold. This was worn at the end of three years, and the black dress of the widow was not removed, especially by the elderly. And the young woman would not have been praised if she had rushed to take off her mourning. They wore mourning for their father and mother for two years: the first - wool and crepe; on major holidays you could wear something woolen, but not too light. ...When weddings took place in a family where there was deep mourning, the black dress was temporarily removed and a purple one was worn, which was considered mourning for the brides,” wrote D.D. Blagovo in "Granny's Stories". But over time, this standard of behavior begins to disappear.

The behavior of the nobles in Moscow and St. Petersburg was different. As the same D.D. writes. Blagovo, with reference to the memories of his dear grandmother, “those who are more important and richer are all in St. Petersburg, and those who live out their lives in Moscow, or are outdated, or impoverished, sit quietly and live poorly, not in a lordly manner, as it used to be.” , but in a bourgeois way, about themselves. ...There may be good names, but there are no people: they don’t live by name.”

E.A. Sushkova, having first attended a ball in Moscow, finds many differences in the behavior of Moscow and St. Petersburg young ladies. The latter “are more than talkative with young people,” she says in her “Notes,” “they are familiar, they are their friends.” They address each other as “you”, call each other by last name, first name or nickname, and not in French, as was customary in the ancient capital. Life in Moscow was simpler. Yu.N. Tynyanov says that Nadezhda Osipovna Pushkina, for example, could sit unkempt in her bedroom all day long. And Yu.M. Lotman wrote that “military events brought Moscow and the Russian provinces closer together. The Moscow population “spread out” over vast areas. At the end of the war, after the French left Moscow, this gave rise to a reverse movement. ...The rapprochement between the city and the province, so noticeable in Moscow, had almost no effect on the life of St. Petersburg in those years. Moreover, the occupation of Moscow by the enemy cut off many of the threads connecting St. Petersburg with the country.”

Unlike capitals, as V.A. writes. Sollogub in his “Memoirs”, “biblical calm reigned in the life of the old-world landowner of that time (1820s - A.K.). The old man, his children, his servants, his few peasants formed exactly one continuous family with varying degrees of rights.” However, one should also distinguish between villages and cities in the provinces: the distances between neighbors living in their villages were generally enormous and therefore they saw each other much less often than in cities. Thus, the heroine of the novel “Alexandrina” by Fan Dim (E.V. Kologrivova) complained that Christmas time was the only opportunity for girls who saw each other extremely rarely to “go wild”, and they had fun during the entire period of separation, while in the capitals the number of boring visits increased several times.

It is obvious that family relationships are ideally based on mutual respect, piety, obedience of women, children and servants to the head of the family, and observance of the rules of decency. Society existed according to a traditional way of life at its core, which was combined with norms of behavior brought from Europe, which were increasingly taking root among the nobility. Therefore, the ideal of behavior changes over the course of half a century from a more traditional one, carefully preserved by the people of the 18th century, to a more “enlightened” one, which was facilitated by the abundance of foreign tutors, constant conversation in a foreign language, mainly French, and admiration for the West in general.

Marchenko N. Signs of dear old times. Morals and life of the Pushkin era. - M.: Isographus; Eksmo, 2002. - P.92.
Aleshina Yu.E., Gozman L.Ya.. Dubovskaya E.M. Social and psychological methods for studying marital relationships: Special workshop on social psychology. - M.: Publishing house Mosk. University.. 1987. - P.35.
Koshelev V. Alexey Stepanovich Khomyakov, biography in documents, reasoning and research. - M., 2000. - P. 163.
Odoevsky V.F. Motley tales. Tales of Grandfather Irenaeus / Comp., prepared. text, intro. Art. and comment. V. Grekova. - M.: Artist. lit.. 1993. - P.190-223.
Nicholas I. Husband Father. Emperor / Comp., pred. N.I. Azarova; comment N.I. Azarova, L.V. Gladkova; lane from fr. L.V. Gladkova. - M.: SLOVO / SLOVO, 2000. - P.330.

Internet source:
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/arhiv/051006163916

The estates of Russian nobles in the 18th century were a manorial estate with villages, forests, meadows, arable land, and a river.

The estate of a wealthy landowner, a noble nobleman

In the center of the estate there is a two-story manor house. It is built of stone in a fashionable classicism style. The main facade of the building is decorated with a portico with columns. The owner's coat of arms and his monogram are placed on the pediment. The entrance of the manor house faces the park, which is the pride of the owner. Linden, maple, oak, and spruce trees are planted in small groves. Trees planted along the paths form alleys. Exquisite bridges span the small river. And here is the greenhouse, in which exotic southern plants grow - oranges, bananas, pomegranates, laurel... Among the greenery of the park, the contours of fashionable buildings appear: on a hillock there is a stone round gazebo, on the river bank - a mill, and in a small ravine - the tower, or rather its artificial ruins. It was precisely these romantic park structures that architects built at the end of the 18th century. Next to the manor's dwelling there is a house (outbuilding) for servants. At some distance there are a church and outbuildings - a cookhouse, barns, glaciers and cellars, stables, a kennel, a barnyard, a bathhouse.

Lord's house

Climbing up the porch and passing through the oak doors of the manor house, we find ourselves in a spacious lobby. A suite of rooms radiates from it in both directions: a state hall, a living room, an office, a library, a dining room. The pantry stores tablecloths, napkins and dishes. We go up a wide staircase to the second floor: here are the bedrooms, a children's room, a boudoir - a ladies' room... The ceilings of the rooms are high, decorated with stucco and paintings. The floors are made of expensive parquet. The walls of many rooms are covered with damask (silk), and in the library and office they are trimmed with wood. Instead of stoves, the house has fashionable fireplaces. The furniture is made from valuable wood. The house is decorated with floor and wall clocks, many paintings and mirrors, various lighting fixtures - chandeliers, wall sconces, candlesticks on tables and fireplaces.

Celebration in the Tauride Palace in 1791

This is exactly what Prince Potemkin did when in April 1791 he organized a gala reception at the Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg. Three thousand people, led by the empress, were invited to the holiday. Near the palace, tables were set where people from the people could eat. The halls of the palace were illuminated by 140 thousand lamps and 20 thousand candles. In the winter garden, among the orange trees, rose bushes and jasmine, there was a fountain that flowed with lavender water. The nightingales began to sing. In the center of the garden there was a marble gazebo with a statue of Catherine II in the form of a legislator. As soon as the guests filled the hall, the music started playing. 300 musicians and singers were invited. At the first sounds of music, 24 dancing couples appeared in the hall, led by the Grand Dukes Alexander and Konstantin, Catherine’s grandchildren. This was followed by a theatrical performance. A ball follows. And at the end - dinner. 50 tables were set in different parts of the palace. The empress's table was set with gold dishes. Potemkin personally served the guest. The holiday cost the owner 200 thousand rubles.

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Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "Southern Federal University"

Institute of History and International Relations

Abstract on the topic:

"Noble life in the 19th century"

Completed:

Shakhovaya A.I.

Rostov-on-Don 2015

1. Noble family

The noble family in the first half of the 19th century was in some respects similar to the bourgeois small family: there was a separation of business and private life, the release of wives and children from production labor, late marriages for men and early marriages for women. But in some ways the noble family resembled a peasant family. The house often included relatives, housemates, nannies, servants, tutors, who were not sharply separated from the family, and sometimes were directly included in it.

In post-reform times, changes were observed in noble families. The family was compressed into a married couple with children. Among wealthy nobles and wealthy intellectuals, we can talk about the beginning of planning the number of children. Family relationships became more humane, the age of marriage increased, and more people appeared who avoided marriage. Forms of communication between people, even close ones, in the past were very different from modern ones. From those younger in age, rank, and social status, speech etiquette required an emphatically respectful attitude towards elders. The elders were allowed a somewhat dismissive manner of addressing the younger ones.

It started with the family. In noble families, children addressed their parents and all older relatives only as “You.” In aristocratic families, even husband and wife addressed each other with “you.” But “you” between spouses was rare among the provincial nobility. It is noteworthy how noblemen of the same age and friends addressed each other. Along with the “you” that is natural for our days, they called each other by their full name or surname. Conversations between unfamiliar and completely unknown people were very diverse. The most respectful and official formula was “dear sir”, “dear lady”. This formula had a very strict, cool undertone. This is how acquaintances began to communicate when there was a sudden cooling or aggravation of relations. Official documents also began with this appeal. In common parlance, this formula of address was simplified into “sovereign” and “empress”, and then the first syllable was discarded: sir and madam became the most common address to wealthy and educated people. In the official environment, both civilian and military, the junior in rank and rank was required to address the senior in title: from “your honor” to “your excellency.” Superiors addressed subordinates with the words “master” with the addition of their surname, rank or position.

For the nobleman, the estate was his home; he found peace and solitude in it. The location for the estate was chosen to be particularly picturesque, on the banks of a pond or river. In the center of the estate there was a manor house, usually low, two or three floors, or even one floor. Anyone entering the house immediately found themselves in the lobby - a spacious, bright hall that served as an entrance hall. A beautiful marble staircase led from the lobby to the second floor. Behind the lobby there was a state hall - an indispensable part of a manor's house. After all, the landowner had to organize dinners, balls, and receptions. The hall overlooked the park, there was a lot of light and air in it. It also seemed spacious because its walls were decorated with mirrors.

On the left and right sides of the lobby there were living rooms. Usually they received guests. The state living rooms of noble houses were furnished with sofas, armchairs and other upholstered furniture. Its upholstery color had to match the upholstery fabric that was used to decorate the walls of the living room. And often the living room was called that way - pink, green. In the living rooms there were also card tables for playing cards, covered with green cloth. Albums for poetry were laid out on small elegant tables, portraits of ancestors and paintings were hung on the walls.

In the noble house there was also a sofa room - a room for relaxation and homework, an office and a library - strict rooms, decorated with varnished wood, with bookcases, bureaus, secretaries, a billiard room, a boudoir - a ladies' room for relaxing and receiving friends. There certainly was a formal dining room and a pantry - a room next to the dining room for storing expensive silver and porcelain dishes and tablecloths. Prepared dishes were delivered to the pantry from the kitchen. The kitchen itself was placed away from the house so as not to irritate the owner and his guests with unpleasant odors. The ceremonial interior was designed so that the action unfolded in its space: dinners and balls, receptions and conversations, reading books and playing music, enjoying works of art and playing cards.

nobility estate ball tavern

3. Taverns and other establishments

Nobles often spent time in taverns. Taverns were relatively cheap restaurants, often combined with a hotel. Rich taverns had billiard halls and mechanical organs, usually called machines, which officially bore the name orchestrion, since they imitated the playing of an entire orchestra. The visitor could also read the latest newspapers. In the 60-70s of the 19th century, harpists played in rich taverns to attract the public. In coffee shops and pastry shops you could drink coffee, which was called “coffee” or “coffee,” have a snack, and leaf through newspapers. Sometimes pastry shops were called biscuit shops.

During the 19th century, restaurants, or restaurateurs (from the French word meaning to refresh, to restore strength), arranged in a European manner, became increasingly fashionable in cities. Mostly Western European dishes were served there, served by waiters in tailcoats and shirtfronts. If taverns and taverns were visited mainly by men, then ladies and even entire families went to restaurants, since balls were also held there.

Modern cuisine has noticeably enriched itself with Western and Eastern dishes. For example, Strasbourg pie. This was the name of goose liver pate, imported from abroad in canned form. Or labardan - cod prepared in a special way, a kind of delicacy. Canned food could also be served for a noble dinner - various kinds of pickles and marinades of plant origin, made either by a home cook from products brought from the estate, or by restaurant cooks. Of the drinks, special attention should be paid to sour cabbage soup - a special kind of fizzy kvass, sbiten - a non-alcoholic drink made from honey with spices, and orshad served at balls - chilled almond milk with sugar.

4. Men's clothing

By the beginning of the 19th century, urban life in both Russian capitals had finally become Europeanized. It seemed that the distance between Paris, London, Vienna on the one hand, Moscow and St. Petersburg on the other, was rapidly shrinking when it came to new fashion items. The 1800s, as if taking into account the calendar beginning of the century, quickly changed urban fashion: overwhelming Most of the nobles took off their wigs and put on tailcoats, vests and long trousers. Tailcoats, which later became only black, at that time were multi-colored and until the middle of the 19th century served as the most common attire for wealthy citizens.

A black tailcoat was a weekend suit - for visits, going to a club or theater. To come to visit without wearing a tailcoat meant to offend the hosts. Even the uniforms on the officers and the uniforms on the officials were cut in tails. However, in the middle of the 19th century, the tailcoat gradually began to be replaced by a frock coat - clothing without an opening in the front and long tails in the back. Over time, the frock coat became more and more spacious and long-brimmed, reminiscent of a modern coat.

By the end of the 19th century, the jacket replaced the frock coat. This English type of men's clothing appeared in Russia in the middle of the 19th century, initially representing clothes that were not entirely respectable and more befitting of a young man. Retired officers who settled in the provinces often wore Hungarian jackets - jackets embroidered with cords on the front, tapered at the waist and trimmed with fur, borrowed from the Hungarian hussars. In the second half of the 19th century, the jacket (from the French “toujours” - constantly, always; in Russian it could be called “casual”) - a home or uniform jacket, buttoned all the way to the collar - came into fashion. Since the 1860s, students and officers have donned jackets. A non-uniform jacket was considered a democratic costume. Men wore, first of all, overcoats as outer, street clothing. If today an overcoat is certainly a uniform coat, then in the old days it could have been ordinary cloth outerwear, not related to military or civil service.

The names of the clothes worn by men on the lower half of the body have not undergone any significant changes. What we now call trousers, or in common parlance pants, were called pantaloons for a long time. The styles of trousers and pantaloons could be different, but there were no significant differences.

5. Women's clothing

Russian fashion of the 19th century was influenced by two discoveries in the history of world sewing. The first was the invention in 1801 of the “jacquard” fabric production technique, which made it possible to produce fabric with any weave of threads and complex patterns. The second event was the appearance of the sewing machine, which became widespread after 1850: it was then that its improved version, created by I. Singer, gained world fame in a few years.

The most common types of women's outerwear in the 19th century were the salop and burnous. The salop was a wide and long cape with slits for the arms or small sleeves. The sable coat was especially prized. For a long time, the coat was considered a sign of a certain wealth. But gradually the coat loses its attractiveness and wearing it becomes a sign of bad taste, poverty and philistinism. A poor woman beggar or a vulgar gossip began to be called a salopnitsa. By the end of the 19th century, salops were going out of fashion. In contrast to the salop, the burnous was much shorter than the dress and usually had a cotton lining and sleeves. Came into fashion in the middle of the 19th century. However, like the salop, by the end of the 19th century the burnous went out of fashion, although dressmakers who sewed women's warm clothing were called “burnous workers” for a long time. Robron - a wide dress with a rounded train - was considered a formal dress. By the end of the 19th century, waterproof, a summer women's coat that came from England, came into fashion for a short time. Translated, this word means “waterproof”; in fact, waterproof was not always like this. In the 19th century, all kinds of capes were in great fashion, worn over open shoulders for warmth and beauty, primarily mantles - short sleeveless capes.

Of the women's headdresses on the pages of classical literature, the most common one is the bonnet, or bonnet. Ladies and wives of officials wore it both at home and when visiting, receiving guests, as well as on the street. It was considered indecent for a married woman to appear to strangers without a headdress. Caps were sometimes worn by young girls, but for married noblewomen it was obligatory. Shawls, scarves and scarves made from a variety of fabrics have also firmly established themselves in women’s everyday and holiday wardrobes. In 1810-1820 The corset, which raised the chest high and tightened the waist, came back into fashion. A tight-fitting bodice with sloping shoulders, a bell-shaped skirt - a typical silhouette of a Russian city woman of the “Pushkin era”. Puffs, trims, ruffles, frills, often stuffed with cotton wool or hair to make the hem heavier and complete the silhouette, are distinctive features of the fashion of the 1830s and 1840s. French lace woven from silk was considered especially fashionable at that time. Being a luxury item, they remained an inaccessible dream for most provincial women.

Balls in the 19th century were a favorite entertainment of the nobility. In rich houses, receptions were served by state apartments - a ballroom, on the sides of which there were living rooms, pantries and dining rooms. The most noble and wealthy even built individual buildings for these purposes, for example, the Ostankino Palace or the ceremonial premises of the Winter and suburban St. Petersburg palaces: no one ever lived in them, they served exclusively for public purposes. Evening parties performed very important social functions - as now, they made it possible to establish and maintain connections between different circles of society, but most importantly, connections between different generations. This was very significant, since women usually married early, and men married relatively late, after they had achieved notable ranks or a certain position in society. So, in fact, the party, especially if its program included a ball, was a brides' fair.

Any ball began with an invitation, which was sent long before the ball. The addressees had to receive them in three weeks and write a response. Guests began to arrive after six or nine in the evening, some arrived at ten or midnight. After the arrival of the guests, whom the owner was obliged to meet, the ball opened with a solemn polonaise, a dance-procession, in which all those invited had to take part, even if they then sat at the card tables all evening and all night. In the second half of the 19th century, the polonaise was sometimes performed at the end of the ball, then the dancing began with a waltz. Then they alternated waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and mazurkas. In the middle of the ball there was a dinner to which each gentleman accompanied the lady.

People came to the ball dressed smartly. Gentlemen wear a tailcoat, tuxedo or suit (depending on the decade), a white shirt and always white gloves. The lady had the right to refuse a gentleman without gloves, and it is better for a gentleman to come to the ball wearing black gloves than without gloves at all. The military came in uniform. The suits of the gentlemen depended little on fashion, and they were recommended to be sewn in classical forms so that the clothes would last longer. Gentlemen wore boots to the ball, and only military men could afford boots, but without spurs. Ladies and girls dressed in dresses according to the latest fashion, each of which was designed for 1-2 balls. Ladies could choose any color for their dress; for girls, dresses were made in white or pastel colors - blue, pink, ivory. Gloves that matched the dress were matched to the dress or were white (wearing rings over gloves was considered tasteless). Ladies could decorate themselves with a headdress. Girls were recommended to have a modest hairstyle. The cut of ball gowns depended on fashion, but one thing remained unchanged in them - an open neck and shoulders. With such a cut of the dress, neither a lady nor a girl could appear in society without jewelry around the neck - a chain with a pendant, a necklace - something was required to be worn. In addition, in the 1820-1830s. It was indecent for a lady or girl to appear in society without a bouquet of flowers: it was carried in hands, in hair, attached to a dress at the waist or on the chest. A fan was a mandatory attribute. It could be left in its place in the ballroom, or it could be held in the left hand (which rests on the partner’s shoulder) during the dance.

The constant point of the program was the music that accompanied the entire evening. It was performed by two or three musicians or a whole orchestra, depending on the wealth of the owners. Almost every noble house had musical instruments - often expensive, richly decorated. Chamber music was performed at house concerts; Famous musicians were invited to rich houses. At first these were mainly vocalists, soloists of court theaters or guest performers, with the development of instrumental performance - virtuoso pianists and violinists. Almost always in the evening party program throughout most of the 19th century, a card game played a prominent role, which went on all evening until dinner in parallel with other entertainment. Guests often left in the morning.

7. Games and other hobbies

Card games occupied a huge place in the life of the wealthy and educated classes of society in the 19th century. Card games were divided into commercial and gambling. The first required not only a successful arrangement of cards, but also calculation, consideration, a kind of talent - almost like in chess. Gambling depended only on blind chance. It is characteristic that the nobles - officers and officials - were mainly fond of gambling - it was not the art of the game that attracted them, but only the winnings, and large ones at that.

Sometimes they played not for the sake of winning, but for the sake of losing, they lost deliberately in order to please their partner, on whom their fate, career, and profitable marriage depended. In addition to playing cards, the nobles, being intelligent people, were almost all passionate about theater, both domestic and professional. In the 19th century, drama theaters performed vaudeville before the main play - a short comic play with music and dancing. During intermissions, the audience was entertained with works of light music by an orchestra located in the auditorium, in its usual place in front of the stage.

Wealthy people went to the theater with their lackeys, who guarded their clothes during the performance. The wardrobe was called a hanger, the theater lobby was called a canopy, and the programs sold to the audience were called posters. Initially, theaters were lit with candles, which were not extinguished during the performance. From the middle of the 19th century, lighting became gas. It was very dangerous in terms of fire. Thus, in 1853, due to careless handling of gas, the Moscow Bolshoi Theater burned down, which was then radically rebuilt. Electric lighting for theaters in large cities did not appear until the 1890s.

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The daily life of nobles at the beginning and first half of the 19th century was very different. Residents of cities and industrialized areas of the country could talk about serious and noticeable changes. Life in the remote province, in the village in particular, went on basically as before. Much depended on the class and property status of people, their place of residence, religion, habits and traditions.

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The debts of the nobility grew for another reason. It had a strong need for free money. The income of the landowners consisted mainly of the products of peasant labor. Capital life demanded a loud coins. Landowners for the most part did not know how to sell agricultural products, and were often simply ashamed to do so. It was much easier to go to a bank or lender to borrow or mortgage an estate. It was assumed that for the money received, the nobleman would acquire new estates or increase the profitability of old ones. However, as a rule, the money was spent on building houses, balls, and expensive outfits. Owning private property, representatives of this class, the “leisure class,” could afford leisure worthy of their condition, and with a demonstration of their high position in the social hierarchy and “demonstrative behavior.” For a nobleman, almost all the time free from official affairs turned into leisure. Having such unlimited leisure, the first estate had the most favorable conditions for the transformation and revision of not only all its previous forms, but also a radical change in the relationship between public and private life in favor of the latter. Since the 18th century, leisure has acquired a status that it had never had before. This process went in parallel with the affirmation of the secular nature of the entire culture and the gradual displacement (but not destruction) of sacred values ​​by secular ones. Leisure acquired increasing obvious value for the nobleman as secular culture established itself. The main forms of this leisure time were initially borrowed in the 18th century, and then in the 19th century they were translated into the language of their own national culture. The borrowing of Western European forms of leisure initially occurred under the pressure of government decrees and in opposition to national traditions. The nobleman was a conductor of this culture and an actor, a performer of this theater. He played out his leisure time, be it a holiday, a ball, an appearance in the theater or a card match, as an actor on stage, in full view of the whole society. It is no coincidence that in the 18th century there was enormous interest in theater; theatrical art dominated over all others, included them and even subjugated them. But the main thing was the theatricalization of the nobleman’s entire life. It manifested itself in private life for show, in the publicity of leisure, in which costume, manners, behavior, important skills and abilities were deliberately demonstrated. This entire demonstration was of a spectacular nature, as in the theater, which became the leader of leisure and a model for the theatrical behavior of a nobleman, for his acting in real life. This study identified factors for the great popularity of social leisure in Moscow. Thanks to the preservation of not only Orthodox, but also pagan roots in the consciousness of the Moscow nobility, the perception of Western forms of leisure took place here much faster. This process was also facilitated by the well-known “everyday freedom” of the Moscow nobility.

The Peter the Great era was marked by new traditions of spectacles. The most important innovation was fireworks, which had a publicpolitical in nature. Masquerades were held either in the form of costumed processions or in the form of a display of carnival costumes in a public place. Theatrical performances glorified the tsar and his victories, therefore they became part of official life and made it possible to introduce translated plays and Western European performing arts to a select audience. Under Elizaveta Petrovna, fireworks were extended to the palaces of nobles, masquerades were turned into a costume ball, in which some timid trends were outlined in its evolution towards an entertainment culture. In the first place in the theatrical tastes of the highest aristocracy was the spectacular and musical art of opera. During the reign of Catherine II, state official celebrations with fireworks and masquerades were replaced by private illuminations in noble estates. The flourishing of city and estate theaters during the reign of Catherine II was due to the artistic aesthetics of the Enlightenment and the growing self-awareness of the Russian nobility. With all the variety of genres, comedy remained supreme. In the first half of the 19th century, fireworks became a spectacle of “small forms”, the property of noble estates.

Fireworks, theatrical performances, and ballroom dancing bore the stamp of those artistic styles that existed during this period of development of everyday culture. From colorful baroque fireworks, spectacular pantomimetheatrical productions, from slow and monotonous dances in magnificent outfits gradually moved to strict architectural forms of fireworks, to classical ballets with naturaldances, ancient drama, fast flying waltzes. But in the first half, the ancient classics turned out to be exhausted and gave way first to romanticism, and then to the national style in everyday culture and attitude. This was reflected in the development of music, theater, dance and entertainment culture.

Along with public masquerades that preserved classpartitions, private ones blossomed in full bloom, where all the participants were well acquainted, and incognito intrigue was a thing of the past. The War of 1812 played a great role in the theatrical life of the Moscow nobility. The nobles welcomed popular divertissements, vaudeville and the development of national opera. Ballet art became the fashion of the highest aristocracy, but interest in Russian dramatic art gradually won out in the tastes of the viewer.

The beginnings of home appearedmusic-making and song art, which existed mainly in the form of lyrical cant and everyday “book songs”. The “Kingdom of Women” on the Russian throne strengthened the role of women in dance culture, and they gradually became the hostesses of the ball. The flourishing of Italian opera and the growth of dance culture contributed to the development of vocal and song art in the noble houses of the Moscow nobility. The reign of Catherine II saw the heyday of private balls and public balls in the Assembly of the Nobility, which became an important part of the self-identification of the Moscow nobility. The salon and ceremony was gradually replaced by the naturalness and relaxedness of the dance culture. Moscow society embraced the musical hobby of playing the piano and vocals. The achievements of this period were serfs, unique horn orchestras, active concert activity, and the spread of song culture. The era of Alexander I and Nicholas I was characterized by the introduction of an entertainment element into ballroom culture. The new dances carried a powerful gender element, a liberated atmosphere and a general emancipation of ballroom culture. The most important factors in the development of performing culture were the flourishing of salons and the distribution of music albums. The nobility became the main contingent among concert listeners. Among the Moscow nobles there appeared real connoisseurs, music experts and even composers. Music became a way of life for the Moscow nobleman.

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The home of the average nobleman in the city was decorated at the beginning of the 19th century with Persian carpets, paintings, mirrors in gilded frames, and expensive mahogany furniture. In the summer, the nobles who retained their estates left the stuffy cities. Village manor houses were of the same type and consisted of a wooden building with three or four columns at the front porch andtriangle of pediment above them. In winter, usually before Christmas, the landowners returned to the city. Convoys of 15-20 carts were sent to the cities in advance and carried supplies: geese, chickens, pork hams, dried fish, corned beef, flour, cereals, butter.

The first half of the 19th century - the time of searching for “European” alternativesgrandfather's morals. They were not always successful. The interweaving of “Europeanism” and traditional ideas gavenoble life features features of bright originality and attractiveness.

In the 19th century, the development of men's fashion began to determine the cultural and aesthetic phenomenon of dandyism. Its basis was a tailcoat with good cloth, skillful cut and impeccable tailoring, which was complemented by snow-white linen, a vest, a scarf, a frock coat, trousers, a top hat and gloves. Russian dandies emphasized material wealth, were fond of fashion accessories, and could not wean themselves from their addiction to diamonds and furs. Women's fashion at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries was marked by the rise of ancient fashion. Dressed in light tunics and flowing shawls, the “ancient goddess” of that time with her costume sharply outlined the role of women in life and society. The airy and fragile appearance of the romantic noblewoman of Pushkin's time was replaced by a socialite, whose costume was characterized by a wide crinoline, smooth, muted forms, emphasizing the earthly beauty of the woman.