M. Korotkova. Traditions of Russian life (11). The country is bast shoes. A master weaving bast shoes about his unusual craft

27.09.2019

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Lapti are a famous type of shoe. Historical notes The scale of use of bast shoes only on the territory of our Motherland is truly impressive. Imagine that the average peasant wore out half a hundred pairs of bast shoes a year.

About the history of bast shoes

I already wrote in an article about weaving from birch bark that it is impossible to preserve products woven from short-lived materials for a long time. It's a similar story with bast shoes. However, the kochedyk, as the main tool for weaving bast shoes, is known to archaeologists as a find indicating its use almost in the Stone Age.

At least, the first mention of bast shoes in the chronicle is usually dated to the end of the 10th century. In the Tale of Bygone Years (XII) there is a description of the victory Prince of Kyiv Vladimir the Red Svyatoslavich and his uncle Dobrynya over the Volga Bulgars. According to the story, Dobrynya said something like: “...I looked at the prisoners, and they were all wearing boots. These will not pay us tribute; Let’s go with you to look for bast shoes...”

Of course, the few evidence of the manufacture and use of bast shoes around the world causes many disputes and theories in the history of the origin of this type of footwear.

Interesting judgments are presented in an article by St. Petersburg archaeologist A.V. Kurbatov, who says that the history of bast shoes began in the 15th-16th centuries, and the found kochedyki could be used for weaving fishing nets. In support of his thoughts, he refers to many early monuments visual arts, which should have captured bast shoes in one form or another. The reader can independently search for this material on the Internet.

Numerous facts in the history of the last century and the century before last already make it possible to assess the scope of the spread of bast shoes in the territory modern Russia and abroad. After all, even at the beginning of the 20th century, Russia was often called “bast shoe”, albeit in a negative context, in order to emphasize its backwardness.

Among the “abroad” we can confidently note the “Lychak” of the Karelians, Mordovians, Tatars, Finns, Estonians, Chuvash. A similar type of footwear was used by both the Japanese (Waraji) and North American Indians, and even Australian aborigines. Each nation, to varying degrees, has in its history the use of some type of wicker shoes.

It is interesting that not everywhere where bast shoes were worn were they produced. Bast shoes were a popular and cheap product. Reliable sources mention trade consignments of five hundred thousand pairs of bast shoes sent to Moscow. And during the first Civil War there was even a department involved in supplying felted and wicker shoes (CHEKVALAP) to Red Army soldiers.

In addition to professional artisans and even artels of craftsmen, bast shoes were shoes that almost any peasant could weave for himself. However, this should not be considered a good indicator of the “handiness” of the peasants, who were placed in the framework of poverty and need, and that life forced them to be able to make everything for themselves.

The level of education and wealth of a person could be determined by shoes. A peasant in primitive shoes looked like a narrow-minded man, a simpleton. Even wealthy peasants could only afford to wear boots on holidays, and the rest of the time they used simpler shoes. Agree, even today, a person in bast shoes will look at least strange if he is not on stage in a thematic theater production.

Such a long history, popularity and prevalence has given rise to many types and styles of bast shoes, and at the same time disputes about which ones are better, which ones should be considered “Russian”, and so on.

Types of bast shoes

If the reader wants to see in the article a clear classification of bast shoes into groups, then I have to disappoint him, since the classification is not difficult to make, but it will be very conditional and will only give rise to even more controversy.

If we classify according to the material, then, as is typical for a Russian person, calling things by their proper names, we can note:

Lychniki from linden bast,
Birch bark from birch bark,
Willow trees made of willow bark,
Dubachi from young oak shingles,
Straws made from straw and even hairs made from horse manes and tails.

This is far from a complete list, because it is possible to list a lot of materials from which it is generally possible to weave.

Undeniably, the most common material was linden, or rather linden bast, which had the necessary properties for weaving, acceptable strength and availability. The mass production of bast shoes from bast was a factor in the destruction of young forests, and many sayings on the topic of bast shoes were firmly entrenched in Russian speech, for example, “to peel off like a sticky thing.”

The great craft idea and the need to make things better, stronger, more beautiful required craftsmen to experiment with materials. This is how not only bast shoes made from roots appeared, but also combined bast shoes, where bast weaving was strengthened with hemp, birch bark weaving with strips of fabric, and others.

But even when using one material, for example, bast or birch bark, bast shoes can be woven in several ways and get different results.

In the designation of bast shoes by the number of ribbons (straps) used in weaving, the names of bast shoes, such as fives, sixes and sevens, were fixed. Although this division is extremely relative, because not every material can be represented in the form of two-meter linden strips, of which five to seven are enough for each bast shoe.

It is very interesting that there were ceremonial bast shoes, which were made from special materials and were even decorated with paintings. Among these we can note elm reddish sevens with black woolen threads, instead of bast or hemp.

The approach to weaving bast shoes differed in different areas. Russian bast shoes had oblique weaving, trailed from the heel (back) and had rounded shape sock, while in the western regions there was a more conservative type - straight weaving and bast shoes began to be woven from the sock.

Northern bast shoes (Novgorod) were often made of birch bark with triangular toes and low sides. So my father taught me to weave such bast shoes (feet), which were also paired (left and right), but he made a reservation that in neighboring regions they weave bast shoes “on one leg,” which he considered inconvenient and ugly.

Indeed, bast shoes, which are considered traditionally Russian, especially those woven from linden bast, do not look at all aesthetically pleasing, and this is justified due to rapid wear and tear. They needed shoes that weaved quickly, and there was no need to take care of their beauty.

Even the linden bast stripes themselves were of different widths and had a pronounced “torn” edge, where bark fibers stuck out in all directions, which made the new bast shoes look sloppy and cheap. When weaving from birch bark, it is possible to obtain an even, beautiful bast shoe, but this feature is now valued due to the transition from a utilitarian function to a souvenir one.

However, no matter how famous bast shoes are, one must understand that bast shoes have a place in history, because a modern person will not wear bast shoes at work, be it a driver or a manager, a shepherd or a watchman. And there are many undeniable reasons for this.

And, although interest in Russian peasant life is growing in waves, now bast shoes of all kinds and stripes have become established only on museum shelves and in souvenir shops.

Modern bast shoes

Contrary to many misconceptions, bast shoes are not healing, comfortable shoes with all sorts of miraculous features. The properties it “weaves in” are largely embellished. On the contrary, the new bast shoes are quite rough and can only be worn with canvas foot wraps (onucha). If you put bast shoes on the foot of a modern person, a few hundred meters of walking will be enough to rub your feet bloody.

Bast shoes are not characterized by strength at all. In the summer, the peasant did not have enough of them even for a week, but now, at home, simple textile slippers will “outlast” several dozen bast shoes.

The bast shoes are light, but flat shape soles contribute to the development of flat feet. The wicker structure will not save you from moisture, but we are used to keeping our feet dry and warm. The material (linden or birch bark) is significantly inferior in strength to leather or even synthetic analogues. The reduction in the cost of processing natural materials, the emergence of inexpensive systolic fabrics and manufacturing production, as well as the growing welfare of the population, allow families to have in their wardrobe a variety of different shoes for all occasions, where there is no longer a place for primitive wicker bast shoes.

What cannot be taken away from bast shoes is their environmental cleanliness. If we are talking about traditional natural material, then bast shoes are simply beyond competition. And given the rapid wear and tear, the material does not have time to age along with the product.

All that is in lapta for a modern person is his originality, it is an opportunity to touch the culture of his ancestors, their way of life. Therefore, many people try to learn how to weave bast shoes on their own, and this site exists for such people.

Having studied the basic techniques of weaving from birch bark, each reader can make his own bast shoes, and even come up with his own type. After all, it is not at all necessary to strive for traditional look bast shoes, when, with all the variety of forms of wicker shoes, it all began with a simple checkered sole, which was attached to the foot with a thread.

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The peasant population in Rus' has always been very poor, and villagers had to get by difficult situations by any means. Therefore, until the beginning of the twentieth century, bast shoes remained the most popular here. This even led to the fact that Russia began to be called “bast shoes”. This nickname emphasized the poverty and backwardness of the common people of the state.

The meaning of the word "bast shoes"

They have always been the shoes of the poorest population, including the peasantry, so it is not surprising that bast shoes became a kind of symbol that was often mentioned in folklore, in various fairy tales and proverbs. These shoes were worn by almost all residents of the country, regardless of age and gender, except for the Cossacks.

It is difficult to explain what bast shoes are without mentioning the material from which they are made. Most often they were made from bast and bast taken from trees such as linden, willow, birch or elm. Sometimes they even used straw or horsehair, since this is a very practical, affordable and manageable material, and shoes can be made from it various forms and sizes that are suitable for both adults and children.

What were bast shoes made from?

Due to the fact that these shoes were not durable and wore out very quickly, it was necessary to constantly make new ones, up to several pairs per week. The stronger the material, the better the quality of the shoes, so the craftsmen were very careful in choosing it. The best bast was considered to be obtained from trees no younger than 4 years old. About three trees had to be stripped to get enough material for one pair. It was a lengthy process that took a lot of time, and the result was shoes that would soon become unusable in any case. This is what bast shoes are in Rus'.

Peculiarities

Some craftsmen managed to make bast shoes using several materials at once. Sometimes they were of different colors and with different patterns. It is noteworthy that both bast shoes were absolutely the same; there was no difference between the right and left.

Despite the fact that the process of making such shoes was not complicated, people still had to make a lot of bast shoes. This was often done by men winter period when there was less housework to do. “bast shoes” simply means wicker shoes, but this absolutely does not reflect all of its features. So, to put them on, you first had to use special canvas foot wraps, and then tie them with special leather garters.

Boots

A more durable type of footwear at this time were boots, which were much more durable, beautiful and, in addition, comfortable. However, not everyone could afford such a luxury; they were available only to wealthy people who had never experienced what bast shoes are. Boots were made of leather or fabric; holiday boots were decorated with embroidery, silk and even various beautiful stones. They were much more elegant than usual, in Everyday life people were more likely to wear simple boots without any decoration, as this is a much more practical solution.

Bottom line

IN modern world It is very difficult to judge the hardships of life in a village in the 19th century in Rus', but realizing what bast shoes are and how many problems peasants had to overcome just to make shoes can show people how difficult life was before. They were quite impractical and wore out very quickly, but the poor stratum of the population had no choice; they had to winter evenings gather around the stove and make bast shoes for the whole family, and sometimes even for sale.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Russia was still often called a “bast shoe” country, putting into this concept a connotation of primitiveness and backwardness. Bast shoes, which have become a kind of symbol, included in many proverbs and sayings, have traditionally been considered the shoes of the poorest part of the population. And it’s no coincidence. The entire Russian village, with the exception of Siberia and the Cossack regions, all year round walked in bast shoes. It would seem that the theme of the history of bast shoes is complex? And yet even exact time The appearance of bast shoes in the lives of our distant ancestors is unknown to this day.

It is generally accepted that bast shoes are one of the most ancient types of shoes. In any case, archaeologists find bone kochedyki - hooks for weaving bast shoes - even at Neolithic sites. Does this not give reason to assume that already in the Stone Age people may have woven shoes from plant fibers?

The wide distribution of wicker shoes has given rise to an incredible variety of varieties and styles, depending primarily on the raw materials used in the work. And they wove bast shoes from the bark and bark of many deciduous trees: linden, birch, elm, oak, willow, etc. Depending on the material, wicker shoes were called differently: birch bark, elm, oak, broom... The strongest and softest in this series were considered bast bast shoes made from linden bast, and the worst were willow carpets and bast shoes, which were made from bast.

Often bast shoes were named according to the number of bast strips used in weaving: five, six, seven. Winter bast shoes were usually woven into seven basts, although there were instances where the number of basts reached up to twelve. For strength, warmth and beauty, bast shoes were woven a second time, for which, as a rule, hemp ropes were used. For the same purpose, a leather outsole (undersole) was sometimes sewn on. For a festive appearance, written elm bast shoes made of thin bast with black woolen (not hemp) frills (that is, braid securing the bast shoes on the legs) or reddish elm sevens were intended. For autumn and spring work in the courtyard, high wicker feet, which had no frills at all, were considered more comfortable.

Shoes were woven not only from tree bark, thin roots were also used, and therefore the bast shoes woven from them were called korotniks. Models made from strips of fabric and cloth edges were called plaits. Lapti were also made from hemp rope - kurpy, or krutsy, and even from horsehair - volosyaniki. These shoes were often worn at home or worn in hot weather.
The technique of weaving bast shoes was also very diverse. For example, Great Russian bast shoes, unlike Belarusian and Ukrainian ones, had oblique weaving - “oblique lattice”, while in the western regions there was a more conservative type - straight weaving, or “straight lattice”. If in Ukraine and Belarus bast shoes began to be woven from the toe, then Russian peasants made the braid from the back. So the place of origin of this or that wicker shoe can be judged by the shape and material from which it is made. For example, Moscow models woven from bast are characterized by high sides and rounded heads (that is, socks). The northern, or Novgorod, type was more often made of birch bark with triangular toes and relatively low sides. Mordovian bast shoes, common in the Nizhny Novgorod and Penza provinces, were woven from elm bast. The heads of these models were usually trapezoidal in shape.

It was rare for anyone among the peasants to not know how to weave bast shoes. A description of this trade has been preserved in the Simbirsk province, where whole teams of lykoders went into the forest. For a tithe of linden forest rented from a landowner, they paid up to one hundred rubles. They removed the bast with a special wooden prick, leaving a completely bare trunk. The best was considered to be the bast obtained in the spring, when the first leaves began to bloom on the linden tree, so most often such an operation ruined the tree (hence, apparently, the well-known expression “to peel it off like a stick”).

Carefully removed basts were then tied in hundreds into bundles and stored in the hallway or attic. Before weaving bast shoes, the bast was necessarily soaked in warm water for 24 hours. The bark was then scraped off, leaving the phloem. From the bast shoes - from 40 to 60 bundles of 50 tubes each - approximately 300 pairs of bast shoes were obtained. Different sources speak differently about the speed of weaving bast shoes: from two to ten pairs per day.

To weave bast shoes, you needed a wooden block and, as already mentioned, a bone or iron hook - a kochedyk. Weaving the point where all the basts were brought together required special skill. They tried to tie the loops in such a way that after holding the loops, they would not bend the bast shoes and would not force the legs to one side. There is a legend that Peter I himself learned to weave bast shoes and that a sample he wove was kept among his belongings in the Hermitage at the beginning of the last (XX) century.

Boots, which differed from bast shoes in their comfort, beauty and durability, were unavailable to most serfs. So they made do with bast shoes. The fragility of wicker shoes is evidenced by the saying: “To go on the road, weave five bast shoes.” In winter, a man wore only bast shoes for no more than ten days, and in the summer, during working hours, he wore them down in four days.

The life of the Lapotnik peasants is described by many Russian classics. In the story “Khor and Kalinich” by I.S. Turgenev contrasts the Oryol peasant with the Kaluga quitrent peasant: “The Oryol peasant is short in stature, stooped, gloomy, looks from under his brows, lives in crappy aspen huts, goes to corvée, does not engage in trade, eats poorly, wears bast shoes; Kaluga obrok peasant lives in spacious pine huts, is tall, looks bold and cheerful, sells oil and tar, and wears boots on holidays.”

As we see, even for a wealthy peasant, boots remained a luxury; they were worn only on holidays. Our other writer, D.N., also emphasizes the peculiar symbolic meaning of leather shoes for the peasant. Mamin-Sibiryak: “Boots are the most seductive item for a man... No other part of a man’s costume enjoys such sympathy as the boot.” Meanwhile leather shoes was not valued cheaply. In 1838, at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, a pair of good bast bast shoes could be bought for three kopecks, while the roughest peasant boots at that time cost at least five to six rubles. For a peasant farmer, this is a lot of money; to collect it, he had to sell a quarter of the rye, and in other places even more (one quarter was equal to almost 210 liters of bulk solids).

Even during the Civil War (1918-1920), most of the Red Army wore bast shoes. Their preparation was carried out by an emergency commission (CHEKVALAP), which supplied the soldiers with felted shoes and bast shoes.

In written sources, the word “bast shoe”, or more precisely, a derivative from it - “bast shoe”, is first found in the “Tale of Bygone Years” (in the Laurentian Chronicle): “In the summer of 6493 (985), Volodymer went to the Bulgarians with Dobrynya with your own boats, and bring Torquay along the shore to the horses, and defeat the Bulgarians. Dobrynya said to Volodimer: I saw the convict was all in boots, so don’t give us tribute, let’s go look for the bastards. And Volodymer create peace with Bolgara...” In another written source of the era Ancient Rus', “The Word of Daniel the Sharper”, the term “lychenitsa” as the name of a type of wicker shoe is contrasted with a boot: “It would be better for me to see my foot in lychenitsa in your house than in a scarlet boot in the boyar’s courtyard.”

Historians know, however, that the names of things known from written sources are not always the same as the things that correspond to those terms today. For example, in the 16th century the upper men's clothing in the form of a caftan, and a richly embroidered neckerchief was called a “fly”.

An interesting article on the history of bast shoes was published by the modern St. Petersburg archaeologist A.V. Kurbatov, who proposes to consider the history of bast shoes not from the point of view of a philologist, but from the position of a historian of material culture. Referring to the recently accumulated archaeological materials and the expanded linguistic base, he reconsiders the conclusions expressed by the Finnish researcher of the last century I.S. Vakhros in a very interesting monograph “Name of shoes in Russian”.
In particular, Kurbatov is trying to prove that wicker shoes began to spread in Russia no earlier than the 16th century. Moreover, he attributes the opinion about the initial predominance of bast shoes among rural residents to the mythologization of history, as, indeed, social explanation this phenomenon is a consequence of the extreme poverty of the peasantry. These ideas developed, according to the author of the article, among the educated part Russian society only in the 18th century.

Indeed, in published materials devoted to large-scale archaeological research in Novgorod, Staraya Ladoga, Polotsk and other Russian cities, where a cultural layer synchronous with the Tale of Bygone Years was recorded, no traces of wicker shoes were found. But what about the bone kochedyki found during excavations? They could, according to the author of the article, be used for other purposes - for weaving birch bark boxes or fishing nets. In the urban layers, the researcher emphasizes, bast shoes appear no earlier than the turn of the 15th-16th centuries.

The author’s next argument: there are no images of those shod in bast shoes either on the icons, or on the frescoes, or in the miniatures of the front vault. The earliest miniature showing a peasant shod in bast shoes is a plowing scene from the Life of Sergius of Radonezh, but it dates back to the beginning of the 16th century. The information from scribe books dates back to the same time, where “bast workers” are mentioned for the first time, that is, artisans engaged in making bast shoes for sale. In the works of foreign authors who visited Russia, the first mention of bast shoes, relating to mid-17th century century, A. Kurbatov finds from a certain Nicolaas Witsen.

One cannot help but mention the original, in my opinion, interpretation that Kurbatov gives to early medieval written sources, where bast shoes are discussed for the first time. This, for example, is the above excerpt from The Tale of Bygone Years, where Dobrynya gives Vladimir advice to “look for bast shoes.” A.V. Kurbatov explains it not by the poverty of the Lapotniks, opposed to the rich Bulgarian captives, shod in boots, but sees in this a hint of nomads. After all, collecting tribute from sedentary residents (Lapotniks) is easier than chasing hordes of nomadic tribes across the steppe (boots, the footwear most suitable for riding, were actively used by nomads). In this case, the word “bast shoe”, that is, shod in “bast shoe”, mentioned by Dobrynya, perhaps means some kind of special kind low shoes, but not woven from plant fibers, but leather. Therefore, the assertion about the poverty of the ancient Lapotniks, who actually wore leather shoes, is, according to Kurbatov, groundless.

Everything that has been said again and again confirms the complexity and ambiguity of assessing medieval material culture from the perspective of our time. I repeat: we often do not know what the terms found in written sources mean, and at the same time we do not know the purpose and name of many objects found during excavations. However, in my opinion, one can argue with the conclusions presented by archaeologist Kurbatov, defending the point of view that the bast shoe is a much older human invention.

So, archaeologists traditionally explain single finds of wicker shoes during excavations of ancient Russian cities by the fact that bast shoes are, first of all, an attribute of village life, while city dwellers preferred to wear leather shoes, the remains of which are found in huge quantities in the cultural layer during excavations. And yet, an analysis of several archaeological reports and publications, in my opinion, does not give reason to believe that wicker shoes did not exist before the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. Why? But the fact is that publications (and even reports) do not always reflect the entire spectrum of mass material discovered by archaeologists. It is quite possible that the publications did not say anything about poorly preserved scraps of bast shoes, or they were presented in some other way.

To give an unambiguous answer to the question of whether bast shoes were worn in Russia before the 15th century, it is necessary to carefully review the inventory of finds, check the dating of the layer, etc. After all, it is known that there are publications that went unnoticed, which mention the remains of wicker shoes from the early medieval strata of the Lyadinsky burial ground (Mordovia) and the Vyatiche mounds (Moscow region). Bast shoes were also found in the pre-Mongol strata of Smolensk. Information about this may be found in other reports.

If bast shoes really became widespread only in the late Middle Ages, then in XVI-XVII centuries they would be found everywhere. However, in cities, fragments of wicker shoes from this time are found during excavations very rarely, while parts of leather shoes number in the tens of thousands.

Now about the information content of medieval illustrative material - icons, frescoes, miniatures. It is impossible not to take into account that it is greatly reduced by the conventionality of images that are far from real life. And long-skirted clothes often hide the legs of the characters depicted. It is no coincidence that historian A.V. Artsikhovsky, who studied more than ten thousand miniatures of the Facial Vault and summarized the results of his research in a solid monograph “Ancient Russian miniatures as historical source”, does not concern shoes at all.

Why is the necessary information not included in written documents? First of all, due to the scarcity and fragmentary nature of the sources themselves, in which the least attention is paid to the description of the costume, especially the clothing of a commoner. The appearance on the pages of scribe books of the 16th century of references to artisans specially engaged in weaving shoes does not at all exclude the fact that even earlier bast shoes were woven by the peasants themselves.
A.V. Kurbatov does not seem to notice the above-mentioned fragment from “The Word of Daniel the Sharper”, where the word “lychenitsa”, opposed to “scarlet boot”, appears for the first time. The chronicle evidence of 1205, which speaks of tribute in the form of bast, taken by the Russian princes after the victory over Lithuania and the Yatvingians, is also not explained in any way. Kurbatov's commentary on the passage from The Tale of Bygone Years, where the defeated Bulgarians are presented as elusive nomads, although interesting, also raises questions. The Bulgar state of the late 10th century, which united many tribes of the Middle Volga region, cannot be considered a nomadic empire. Feudal relations already dominated here, huge cities flourished - Bolgar, Suvar, Bilyar, growing rich from transit trade. In addition, the campaign against Bolgar in 985 was not the first (mention of the first campaign dates back to 977), so Vladimir already had an idea about the enemy and hardly needed Dobrynya’s explanations.

And finally, regarding the notes of Western European travelers who visited Russia. They appear only at the end of the 15th century, so earlier evidence in the sources of this category simply does not exist. Moreover, in the notes of foreigners the main attention was paid to political events. The outlandish, from a European point of view, clothing of the Russians almost did not interest them.

Of particular interest is the book by the famous German diplomat Baron Sigismund Herberstein, who visited Moscow in 1517 as an ambassador of Emperor Maximilian I. His notes contain an engraving depicting a sleigh ride scene, in which skiers shod in bast shoes accompanying the sleigh are clearly visible. In any case, in his notes, Herberstein notes that people went skiing in many places in Russia. There is also a clear image of peasants wearing bast shoes in the book “Travel to Muscovy” by A. Olearius, who visited Moscow twice in the 30s of the 17th century. True, the bast shoes themselves are not mentioned in the text of the book.

Ethnographers also do not have a clear opinion about the time of spread of wicker shoes and its role in the life of the peasant population of the early Middle Ages. Some researchers question the antiquity of bast shoes, believing that previously peasants wore leather shoes. Others refer to customs and beliefs that speak precisely of the deep antiquity of bast shoes, for example, pointing to their ritual significance in those places where wicker shoes have long been consigned to oblivion. In particular, the already mentioned Finnish researcher I.S. Vakhros refers to a description of a funeral among the Ural Old Believers-Kerzhaks, who did not wear wicker shoes, but buried the deceased shod in bast shoes.

To summarize the above, we note: it is difficult to believe that widespread early Middle Ages bast and kochedyki were used only for weaving boxes and nets. I am sure that shoes made from plant fiber were a traditional part of the East Slavic costume and are well known not only to Russians, but also to Poles, Czechs, and Germans.

It would seem that the question of the date and nature of the spread of wicker shoes is a very particular moment in our history. However, in in this case it touches on the large-scale problem of the difference between city and countryside. At one time, historians noted that the rather close connection between the city and the rural area, the absence of a significant legal difference between the “black” population of the urban settlement and the peasants did not allow drawing a sharp line between them. Nevertheless, the results of excavations indicate that bast shoes are extremely rare in cities. This is understandable. Shoes woven from bast, birch bark or other plant fibers were more suitable for peasant life and labor, and the city, as is known, lived mainly on crafts and trade.

Redichev S. “Science and Life” No. 3, 2007

At the beginning of the 20th century, Russia was still often called a “bast shoe” country, putting into this concept a connotation of primitiveness and backwardness. Bast shoes, which have become a kind of symbol, included in many proverbs and sayings, have traditionally been considered the shoes of the poorest part of the population. And it’s no coincidence. The entire Russian village, with the exception of Siberia and the Cossack regions, wore bast shoes all year round. It would seem that the theme of the history of bast shoes is complex? Meanwhile, even the exact time of the appearance of bast shoes in the lives of our distant ancestors is unknown to this day.

Lapti (" ";" ";" ") are the most common footwear in Rus', woven from tree bark. The first mentions of bast shoes are found in documents dating back to the 10th century, although the kochedyk itself (“svayka”; “shvaiko”), the tool used for weaving bast shoes, is found in ancient sites dating back to the early iron age(1st millennium BC).

At all times, our ancestors willingly put on bast shoes, and, despite the name, they were often woven not only from bast, but also from birch bark and even leather straps. “Picking” (hemming) bast shoes with leather was also practiced.

In Russia, only villagers, that is, peasants, wore bast shoes. Well, peasants made up the overwhelming population of Rus'. Lapti - low shoes, common in Rus' in the old days, but, nevertheless, were in wide use in rural areas until the 1930s, woven from wood bast (linden, elm and others) or birch bark. The bast shoe was tied to the leg with laces twisted from the same bast from which the bast shoes themselves were made.

Depending on the material, they were called differently: birch bark, elm, oak, broom... The strongest and softest in this series were considered bast bast shoes made from linden bast, and the worst were willow carpets and bast shoes, which were made from bast.

For a festive appearance, they were made of thin bast with black woolen (not hemp) frills (that is, braid that secures bast shoes on the legs) or reddish elm sevens. For autumn and spring work in the yard, high wicker feet, which did not have frills at all, were considered more convenient.

Bast shoes were woven, as a rule, by men and teenage boys; it was considered an exclusively male activity; women were trusted only to “pick” soles. A woman’s ability to weave a good bast shoe aroused the distrust of men and special respect from fellow village women. Boys began to learn how to weave bast shoes early, at the age of 7-8, and they could observe this process from the cradle, since all the men in the family winter time We prepared bast shoes for the whole family for the whole year, pairs of 5 - 6 each. By the age of ten or twelve, a teenager could weave a bast shoe no worse than an adult, although not so dexterously, i.e. fast.

The methods of weaving bast shoes - for example, in a straight check or obliquely, from the heel or from the toe - were different for each tribe and, until the beginning of our century, varied by region. Thus, the ancient Vyatichi preferred bast shoes of oblique weaving, the Novgorod Slovenians also, but mostly made of birch bark and with lower sides. But the Polyans, Drevlyans, Dregovichs, Radimichi, apparently, wore bast shoes in a straight check. Weaving bast shoes was considered an easy job that men did literally “in between times.” It’s not for nothing that they still say about a heavily drunk person that he, they say, “doesn’t knit,” that is, he is incapable of basic actions. But by “tying the bast,” the man provided shoes for the whole family—there weren’t very many special workshops. for a long time. Kochedyki were made from bones (animal ribs) or metal.

It requires seven basts, each two meters long. The width of one bast is approximately equal to the width thumb on the hand of a man who himself prepared the bast and, subsequently, wove bast shoes himself. For weaving, a bast was required from a flat part of the linden trunk so that along its entire length it would not have defects. That is, for harvesting bast, mature, even, tall linden trees were selected. Often, after the total loss of bark suitable for weaving, the tree did not survive and stood with a bare, “stripped” trunk. This is reflected in the Russian language in the form of a figurative expression “to peel off like a sticky stick” meaning “to take away everything that someone or something has.” useful resources and thereby create a threat to the life and existence of someone or something.”

The technique of weaving bast shoes was also very diverse. For example, Great Russian bast shoes, unlike Belarusian and Ukrainian ones, had oblique weaving - “oblique lattice”, while in the western regions there was a more conservative type - straight weaving, or “straight lattice”. If in Ukraine and Belarus bast shoes began to be woven from the toe, then Russian peasants made the braid from the back. So the place of origin of this or that wicker shoe can be judged by the shape and material from which it is made. For example, Moscow models woven from bast are characterized by high sides and rounded heads (that is, socks). The northern, or Novgorod, type was more often made of birch bark with triangular toes and relatively low sides. Mordovian bast shoes, common in the Nizhny Novgorod and Penza provinces, were woven from elm bast. The heads of these models were usually trapezoidal in shape.

Carefully removed basts were then tied in hundreds into bundles and stored in the hallway or attic. Before weaving bast shoes, the bast was necessarily soaked in warm water for 24 hours. The bark was then scraped off, leaving the phloem. From the baskets - from 40 to 60 bundles of 50 tubes each - approximately 300 pairs of bast shoes were obtained. Different sources speak differently about the speed of weaving bast shoes: from two to ten pairs per day.

Lapti were not woven in all regions of Russia, that is, they were a commodity or an item of barter. As a rule, bast shoes were not woven in villages where the population was mostly engaged not in farming, but in crafts, for example, pottery or blacksmithing. The Old Believers “Kerzhaks” who lived in the Urals in the 19th century did not wear bast shoes. But the dead were buried exclusively in bast shoes. Lapti were common not only among the Eastern and Western Slavs, but also among some non-Slavic peoples of the forest belt - the Finno-Ugrians and Balts, and some Germans.

The cheapness, availability, lightness and hygiene of such shoes does not require proof. Another thing, as practice shows, bast shoes had a very short service life. In winter, they wore out in ten days, after a thaw - in four, in summer, during lean times, in three. When preparing for a long journey, we took with us more than one pair of spare bast shoes. “To go on a journey, weave five bast shoes,” said the proverb. And our neighbors, the Swedes, even had the term “bast mile” - the distance that can be covered in one pair of bast shoes. How much birch bark and bast was required to make shoes for centuries? whole people? Simple calculations show: if our ancestors had diligently cut down trees for bark (as, alas, was done in later times), birch and linden forests would have disappeared in prehistoric times. It is difficult, however, to imagine that the pagans, who revered trees, would act so murderously. Most likely they owned different ways take part of the bark without destroying the tree.

To strengthen and insulate their bast shoes, peasants “pickled” their soles with hemp rope. Feet in such bast shoes did not freeze or get wet.

When going to mowing, they put on bast shoes of rare weave that do not hold water - crustaceans.
The feet were convenient for housework - they were like galoshes, only wicker.

Rope bast shoes were called chuni; they were worn at home or for working in the fields in hot, dry weather. In some villages they managed to weave bast shoes from horsehair - volosyaniki.

The most shabby bast shoes in Rus' are known as willow and, or carpets, made from willow bark; even weaving them was considered shameful. Shelyuzhniks were woven from thala bark, and oak trees were woven from oak bark.

In the Chernigov region, bast shoes made from the bark of young oak trees were called dubochars. Hemp tows and old ropes were used; bast shoes made from them - chuni - were worn mainly at home or in hot, dry weather. They must be of Finnish origin: Finns in Russia were called "chukhna".
These bast shoes also had other names: kurpas, krutsy and even whisperers. In areas where there was no bast, and it was expensive to purchase it, resourceful peasants wove roots from thin roots; made from horsehair - volosyaniki. In the Kursk province they learned how to make straw bast shoes.

Village young dandies appeared in public in written elm bast shoes made of thin bast with black woolen (not hemp) frills and onuchs.
Elm bast shoes (made from elm bast) were considered the most beautiful. They were kept in hot water- then they turned pink and became hard.

On holidays, if it was not possible to wear leather shoes, bast shoes were woven: the bast stripes of such bast shoes were narrow, and craftsmen wove beautiful patterns from them. Sometimes braid was woven together with the bast or individual strips of bast were painted (for example, elm bast was kept in hot water, which caused it to turn pink). Such bast shoes were worn with black or red frills, which immediately stood out against the snow-white festive ones.

The life of the Lapotnik peasants is described by many Russian classics. In the story “Khor and Kalinich,” I. S. Turgenev contrasts the Oryol peasant with the Kaluga quitrent peasant: “The Oryol peasant is short in stature, stooped, gloomy, looks from under his brows, lives in crappy aspen huts, goes to corvée, does not engage in trade, eats poorly, wears bast shoes; the Kaluga obrok peasant lives in spacious pine huts, is tall, looks bold and cheerful, sells oil and tar, and wears boots on holidays."

As we see, even for a wealthy peasant, boots remained a luxury; they were worn only on holidays. Another of our writers, D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak, also emphasizes the peculiar symbolic meaning of leather shoes for a peasant: “Boots for a peasant are the most seductive object... No other part of a peasant’s costume enjoys such sympathy as the boot.” Meanwhile, leather shoes were not cheap. In 1838, at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, a pair of good bast bast shoes could be bought for three kopecks, while the roughest peasant boots at that time cost at least five to six rubles. For a peasant farmer, this is a lot of money; to collect it, he had to sell a quarter of the rye, and in other places even more (one quarter was equal to almost 210 liters of bulk solids).

Many different beliefs were associated with bast shoes in the Russian village. It was generally believed that an old bast shoe hung in a chicken coop would protect chickens from diseases and promote egg production in birds. It was believed that a cow fumigated from bast shoes after calving would be healthy and give a lot of milk. A bast shoe with woodlice grass placed in it, thrown into a river during a severe drought, will cause rain, etc. The bast shoe played a certain role in family rituals. So, for example, according to custom, a bast shoe was thrown after the matchmaker who was setting off to make a match, so that the matchmaking would be successful. When meeting young people returning from church, the children set fire to bast shoes filled with straw to provide them with rich and happy life, protect them from misfortunes.

In the self-perception of Russians, bast shoes are one of the most important symbols of traditional national life.
Hence the series set expressions In russian language:
“bast shoe” as a trope denotes a simpleton, an uneducated person;
derivative adjective “bast shoes” with the same meaning;
“(Tea,) we don’t slurp cabbage soup” means “we are learned, there is no need to explain or point out to us”;
The humorous expression “plus or minus bast shoes” in science means “plus or minus an unknown quantity.”

Getting married is not putting on bast shoes.
The bast shoes are not worth the trouble.
It's like weaving a bast shoe.
You can't weave even a bast shoe without a projectile.
Without studying (without skill) you can’t weave bast shoes.
Only the bast shoes are woven on both legs, but the mittens are different.
A bast shoe is a bast shoe, and a boot is a boot!
Even in bast shoes, but the same military ones, the militia.
And we don’t put bast shoes on our hands.
Don’t try to weave bast shoes without tearing your bast.
Go on the road, weave five bast shoes.
You weave bast shoes, but you don’t know how to bury the ends.
He weaves his bast shoes and confuses them.
It gets confused, like putting porridge in bast shoes.
Change your shoes or change one of your boots into bast shoes.
And in a good lawsuit you won’t have to suffer.
You will begin to weave bast shoes as if there is nothing to eat.
Weave bast shoes, eat one a day, you won’t be able to make more.
One foot is in a bast shoe, the other is in a boot.
Not a servant in bast shoes: buy boots!
Do not judge in bast shoes, boots in a sleigh, says the guest jokingly.
To call in bast shoes, to be idle.
They lost the bast shoes, looked around the yards: it was five, but it became six!
It’s not like weaving a bast shoe, you can’t do it all of a sudden.

Articles on the topic:

The fashion for pointed shoes - poulaines - the bow of a ship - was introduced by knights in the 14th century, thereby emphasizing their non-involvement in labor. The length of noses was strictly regulated: for princes of the blood...

Since ancient times, our ancestors adapted quite easily, adapted, evolved and developed, and were one step ahead of their Western neighbors. If Russian forests were cut down, it was only out of strict necessity - to build a house, for example, or a bathhouse - a real Russian bathhouse.

After all, it has already been proven that Russian people were already considered the cleanest. It was customary for us to go to the bathhouse every week, everyone went, regardless of social status and class. But the Russian man was also far-sighted, rational and very practical - he cut down forests to build a house with a bathhouse, prepared firewood for the winter from branches, and knitted bast shoes for the whole family from tree bark. Our article is about bast shoes today.

LAPTI - EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

Lapti- shoes made of bast, which have been worn for many centuries Slavic population of Eastern Europe. In Russia, only villagers, that is, peasants, wore bast shoes. Well, peasants made up the overwhelming population of Rus'. Lapot and peasant were almost synonymous. This is where the saying “bastard Russia” comes from.

And indeed, even at the beginning of the 20th century, Russia was still often called a “bast shoe” country, putting into this concept a connotation of primitiveness and backwardness. Bast shoes became a kind of symbol, included in many proverbs and sayings; they were traditionally considered the shoes of the poorest part of the population. And it’s no coincidence. The entire Russian village, with the exception of Siberia and the Cossack regions, wore bast shoes all year round.

When did bast shoes first appear in Rus'?

There is still no exact answer to this seemingly simple question. It is generally accepted that bast shoes are one of the most ancient types of shoes. One way or another, archaeologists find bone kochedyki - hooks for weaving bast shoes - even at Neolithic sites. Did people really weave shoes using plant fibers back in the Stone Age?

Since ancient times, wicker shoes have been widespread in Rus'. Bast shoes were woven from the bark of many deciduous trees: linden, birch, elm, oak, broom, etc. Depending on the material, wicker shoes were called differently: birch bark, elm, oak, broom. The strongest and softest in this series were considered to be bast bast shoes, made from linden bast, and the worst were willow rugs and bast shoes, which were made from bast.

Often bast shoes were named according to the number of bast strips used in weaving: five, six, seven. At seven o'clock they usually wove winter bast shoes. For strength, warmth and beauty, the bast shoes were woven a second time using hemp ropes. For the same purpose, a leather outsole was sometimes sewn on.

For a festive occasion, written elm bast shoes made of thin bast with a black woolen braid, which was fastened to the legs, were intended. For autumn-spring chores in the yard, simple high wicker feet without any braid were considered more convenient.

Shoes were woven not only from tree bark, thin roots were also used, and therefore the bast shoes woven from them were called korotniks.

Models of bast shoes made from strips of fabric were called plaits. Bast shoes were also made from hemp rope - krutsy, and even from horsehair - hairspray. These shoes were often worn at home or worn in hot weather.

Each nation has its own technology

The technique of weaving bast shoes was also very diverse. For example, Great Russian bast shoes, unlike Belarusian and Ukrainian ones, had oblique weaving, while in the western regions they used straight weaving, or “straight lattice”. If in Ukraine and Belarus bast shoes began to be woven from the toe, then Russian peasants did the work from the back. So the place of origin of this or that wicker shoe can be judged by the shape and material from which it is made. Moscow models woven from bast are characterized by high sides and rounded toes. In the North, in particular in Novgorod, bast shoes were more often made from birch bark with triangular toes and relatively low sides. Mordovian bast shoes, common in the Nizhny Novgorod and Penza provinces, were woven from elm bast.

Weaving bast shoes was considered a simple job, but it required dexterity and skill. It’s not for nothing that they still say about a heavily drunk person that he, they say, “doesn’t knit,” that is, he’s incapable of basic actions! But by “tying the bast”, the man provided shoes for the whole family - then there were no special workshops for a very long time.

The main tools for weaving bast shoes - kochedyki - were made from animal bones or metal. As already mentioned, the first kochedyks belong to stone age. In Russian written sources, the word “bast shoe”, or more precisely, its derivative - “bast shoe”, is first found in The Tale of Bygone Years.

RARELY ANYONE IN THE PEASANT ENVIRONMENT DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO WEAVE bast shoes.

There were whole artels of braiders, who, according to surviving descriptions, went into the forest in whole parties. For a tithe of linden forest they paid up to one hundred rubles. They removed the bast with a special wooden prick, leaving a completely bare trunk. The best was considered to be the bast obtained in the spring, when the first leaves began to bloom on the linden tree, so most often such an operation ruined the tree, often it was simply cut down. This is where the expression “to peel off like a sticky stick” comes from.

Carefully removed basts were then tied into bundles and stored in the hallway or attic. Before weaving bast shoes, the bast was necessarily soaked in warm water for 24 hours. The bark was then scraped off, leaving the phloem. The cart yielded approximately 300 pairs of bast shoes. They wove bast shoes from two to ten pairs a day, depending on experience and skill.

They say that Peter I himself learned to weave bast shoes and that a sample he wove was kept among his belongings in the Hermitage at the beginning of the last century.

Leather shoes or bast shoes

Leather shoes were not cheap. In the 19th century, a pair of good bast bast shoes could be bought for three kopecks, while the roughest peasant boots cost five or six rubles. For a peasant farmer, this is a lot of money; to collect it, he had to sell a quarter of the rye (one quarter was equal to almost 210 liters of bulk solids).

Boots, which differed from bast shoes in their comfort, beauty and durability, were unavailable to most serfs. Even for a wealthy peasant, boots remained a luxury; they were worn only on holidays. So they made do with bast shoes. The fragility of wicker shoes is evidenced by the saying: “To go on the road, weave five bast shoes.” In winter, a man wore only bast shoes for no more than ten days, and in the summer, during working hours, he wore them down in four days.

Even during the Civil War (1918-1920), most of the Red Army wore bast shoes. Their preparation was carried out by a special commission, which supplied the soldiers with felted shoes and bast shoes.

Interesting fact

Arises interest Ask. How much birch bark and bast was required to keep shoes on for centuries for an entire people? Simple calculations show: if our ancestors had diligently cut down trees for bark, birch and linden forests would have disappeared in prehistoric times. However, this did not happen. Why?

The fact is that our distant pagan ancestors treated nature, trees, waters, and lakes with great reverence. Surrounding nature was deified and considered sacred. Pagan gods guarded and preserved fields, rivers, lakes and trees. Therefore, it is unlikely that the ancient Slavs acted murderously with trees. Most likely, the Russians knew various ways to take part of the bark without destroying the tree, and managed to remove the bark from the same birch every few years. Or maybe they knew some other secrets of obtaining material for bast shoes, unknown to us?

Lapti have existed for centuries, and are now a symbol of the Russian village and a good monument to our glorious ancestors.

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