As in the old days they made wooden houses. Wisdom, secrets and secrets of the Russian hut. Elements of a Russian hut and a peasant estate: a dictionary

The main, and often the only tool of the ancient Russian architect was an ax. Saws, although known since the 10th century, were used exclusively in carpentry for interior work. The fact is that the saw breaks the wood fibers during operation, leaving them open to water.

The ax, crushing the fibers, seals the ends of the logs, as it were. Not without reason, they still say: "cut down the hut." And, well known to us now, they tried not to use nails for construction wooden houses used wooden crutches.

log cabin

The basis of a wooden building in Russia was a "log house". These are logs fastened ("tied") together into a quadrangle. Each row of logs was respectfully called a "crown". The first, lower crown was often placed on a stone base - "ryazh", which was made up of powerful boulders. So it's warmer, and rots less.

According to the type of fastening of logs, the types of log cabins also differed from each other. For outbuildings, a log house "in cut" (rarely laid) was used. The logs here were not stacked tightly, but in pairs on top of each other, and often they were not fastened at all. When the logs were fastened "in a paw", their ends, whimsically hewn and really resembling paws, did not go beyond the wall from the outside. The crowns here already fit snugly together, but in the corners it could still blow in winter.

The most reliable, warm, was considered to be the fastening of logs "in the cloud", in which the ends of the logs slightly went beyond the wall. Such a strange name today comes from the word "obolon" ("oblon"), meaning the outer layers of a tree (cf. "clothe, envelop, shell"). As early as the beginning of the 20th century. they said: "cut the hut into sapwood", if they wanted to emphasize that inside the hut the logs of the walls are not cramped. However, more often outside the logs remained round, while inside the hut they were hewn to a plane - "scraped into a las" (a smooth strip was called a las). Now the term "oblo" refers more to the ends of the logs protruding from the wall, which remain round, with a bummer.

The rows of logs themselves (crowns) were connected to each other with the help of internal spikes. Moss was laid between the crowns in the log house and after final assembly the log house was caulked with linen tow. Attics were often covered with the same moss to keep warm in winter.

In terms of plan, the log cabins were made in the form of a quadrangle "four", or in the form of an octagon "octagon". Of the several adjacent quarters, mainly huts were made, and the octagon was used for the construction of wooden churches (after all, the octagon allows you to increase the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe room by almost six times without changing the length of the logs). Often, putting fours and eights on top of each other, the ancient Russian architect folded the pyramidal structure of the church or rich mansions.

A simple covered rectangular wooden frame without any outbuildings was called a "cage". "Cage with a cage, tell a story," they used to say in the old days, trying to emphasize the reliability of a log house in comparison with an open canopy - a story. Usually the log house was placed on the "basement" - the lower auxiliary floor, which was used to store supplies and household equipment. And the upper crowns of the log house expanded upwards, forming a cornice - "fall". This interesting word, derived from the verb "fall down", was often used in Russia. So, for example, the upper cold common bedrooms in the house or mansions, where the whole family went to sleep (fall down) from a heated hut in the summer, were called "tumblers".

The doors in the cage were made as low as possible, and the windows were placed higher. So less heat left the hut.

Both the house and the temple were built in the same way - both that and the other - the house (of man and god). Therefore, the simplest and most ancient form wooden temple, as well as at home, there was a "cage". This is how churches and chapels were built. These are two or three log cabins connected to each other from west to east. The church was supposed to have three log cabins (a refectory, a temple and an altar prirub), in a chapel - two (a refectory and a temple). A modest cupola was placed over a simple gable roof. Many small chapels were set up in remote villages, at crossroads, over large stone crosses, over springs. A priest is not supposed to be in the chapel; they did not make an altar here. And the services were sent by the peasants themselves, they themselves baptized and buried. Such unpretentious services, which were held, as in the case of the first Christians, with the singing of short prayers at the first, third, sixth and ninth hours after sunrise, were called "hours" in Russia. Hence the building itself got its name. Such chapels were looked down upon by both the state and the church. Therefore, the builders here could give free rein to their imagination. That is why today these modest chapels amaze the modern city dweller with their extreme simplicity, sophistication and the special atmosphere of Russian solitude.

Roof

The roof over the log house was arranged in ancient times without nails - "male". For this, the completion of the two end walls was made from decreasing stumps of logs, which were called "males". Long longitudinal poles were laid on them in steps - "dolniks", "lay down" (cf. "lie down, lie down"). Sometimes, however, they were called males, and the ends came down, cut into the walls. One way or another, but the whole roof got its name from them.

From top to bottom, thin tree trunks, cut down with one of the branches of the root, were cut into the slegs. Such trunks with roots were called "hens" (apparently for the similarity of the left root with a chicken paw). These branches of the roots, directed upwards, supported a hollowed-out log - a "stream". It collected water flowing from the roof. And already on top of the hens and lay down the wide boards of the roof, resting with the lower edges in the hollowed out groove of the flow. The upper joint of the boards - the "horse" ("prince") was especially carefully blocked from rain. Under it, a thick "ridge slug" was laid, and from above the joint of the boards, like a hat, was covered with a log hollowed out from below - a "helmet" or "skull". However, more often this log was called "cold" - that which covers.

Why didn’t they just cover the roof of wooden huts in Russia! That straw was tied into sheaves (bundles) and laid along the slope of the roof, pressing with poles; then they chipped aspen logs on planks (shingles) and with them, like scales, they covered the hut in several layers. And in ancient times they even covered with turf, turning it upside down and laying a birch bark.

The most expensive coating was considered "tes" (boards). The very word "tes" well reflects the process of its manufacture. An even log without knots was split lengthwise in several places and wedges were hammered into the cracks. The log split in this way was split lengthwise several more times. The irregularities of the resulting wide boards were hemmed with a special ax with a very wide blade.

The roof was usually covered in two layers - "undercut" and "red tess". The lower layer of the tess on the roof was also called a rocker, since it was often covered with a “rock” (birch bark, which was chipped from birch trees) for tightness. Sometimes they arranged a roof with a break. Then the lower, flatter part was called "police" (from the old word "floor" - half).

The entire pediment of the hut was importantly called the "brow" and was richly decorated with magical protective carvings. The outer ends of the under-roofing slabs were covered from the rain with long boards - "prichelina". And the upper joint of the berths was covered with a patterned hanging board - a "towel".

The roof is the most important part of a wooden building. "There would be a roof over your head," - they still say among the people. Therefore, over time, it became a symbol of any temple, house, and even economic structure of its "top". "Riding" in ancient times was called any completion. These tops, depending on the wealth of the building, could be very diverse. The simplest was the "kletsky" with the "tent" top in the form of a high octagonal pyramid, usually decorated with temples. The "cubic top" was intricate, resembling a massive tetrahedral onion. Terems were decorated with such a top. The "barrel" was quite difficult to work with - a gable covering with smooth curvilinear outlines, ending with a sharp ridge. But they also made a "crossed barrel" - two intersecting simple barrels. Tent churches, cube-shaped, tiered, many-domed - all this is named after the completion of the temple, according to its top.

However, most of all loved the tent. When it was indicated in the scribe books that the church was "wooden from above", this meant that it was tented. Even after Nikon's ban on tents in 1656, as demons and paganism in architecture, they still continued to be built in the Northern Territory. And only in the four corners at the base of the tent did small barrels with cupolas appear. This technique was called a tent on a groin barrel.

Particularly difficult times came for the wooden tent in the middle of the 19th century, when the government and the governing Synod set about eradicating schismatics. Northern "schismatic" architecture then also fell into disgrace. And yet, despite all the persecution, the form of "four-eight-tent" remains typical for the ancient Russian wooden church. There are also octals "from the seam" (from the ground) without a quadrangle, especially in bell towers. But these are already variations of the basic type.

Perhaps you want to know how houses were built in the places where you and I live?

You can't answer this question right away. Great Soviet country. Many days and nights one has to travel by train from one end of it to the other.

You look out the window and wonder: the views change every now and then.

Here stretch Russian villages with fine wooden huts. Houses line the streets in straight rows. These are places rich in forests, and dwellings are still built here from wood. And if you go around Ukraine, everything will turn white around, as if it is winter, and not a gentle summer. Ukrainian huts-huts, built of clay and neatly whitewashed with lime or chalk, flash by.

But now our train rushes among the mountains of the Caucasus, past the villages of Dagestan, and it seems that you are not approaching these places, but low, but solid houses made of gray stone are running towards you from the mountains. And above them, on the slopes, vineyards are green.

Sometimes it is difficult to find a saklu among the gardens.

The saklya, which is what the highlander's dwelling is called today, is molded near the rocks, like a swallow's nest. The roof of one such house is often located next to the courtyard of another - the one that stands higher. Its back wall is a rock. The owner only added three others of the same stone to it and covered the roof with thin stone tiles, and the housing turned out to be reliable. Winds do not blow through such walls. Fire won't take them.

And if you could look into the saklya, then everywhere - on the walls, on the floor - you would see beautiful carpets woven by the hostess and her daughters. Goryanka are great craftswomen weaving carpets. Carpets adorn the walls, lie on the floor.

But here you are already on another train, which is heading to Uzbekistan. And in front of you are long yellow clay houses with flat roofs and the same clay fences - duvals. This is where it is cool on a hot day and you can have a good rest from the heat. In winter, there is a sandalwood in the middle of the room - a large brazier with coals. It burns day and night. Uzbeks sleep wrapped in large quilted blankets, stretching their legs to the fire. During the day, these blankets lie neatly rolled up in a high hill; The better an Uzbek lives, the more blankets he has.

We are returning to Russia.

Russian hut!

The hut is warm in the harsh winter, dry in the rainiest autumn. Between the logs from which the hut is built, builders usually lay moss or tow. The roof is now covered with iron, and earlier it was covered with a thick layer of straw, boards or reeds coated with clay. And on the sheds and forges they laid pieces of earth cut out in the field along with grass. It will rain, and the roof will turn green: grass grows on it.

Previously, there was no pipe on the roof at all. The smoke from the stove slowly spread over the top and went out into the street through a hole in the ceiling. It was called black-out. Everything in the hut was sooty, black.

And the windows were usually set very low. This is so that the peasant or his wife can observe what is happening in the yard, see if the mother hen with chickens wander into the garden, if the piglet spoils the planting.

Sometimes the owner did not build such a house himself, but bought it ready-made.

It turns out that four centuries ago in Moscow, in the market where they traded various forest products, you could buy a small house even with an extension - a pantry for storing food.

A log cabin stood separately: four walls folded together - log to log - walls, a beautiful carved porch, doors and one or two window frames.

The buyer will bargain with the seller, both will slap each other's hands, as custom required, and they will begin to collect the house on the road.

The one who built the hut, and then delivered it to its destination.

The convoy turned out to be long.

Ahead, the buyer rode importantly on the first sleigh, and behind him they brought a log house, a porch, a window, doors - in general, disassembled, the whole house in which he will live.

Russian people in the old days were excellent builders.

Sometimes even whole cities were built in ancient Russia unusually fast.

In 1551, it was necessary to urgently build a Russian fortress near the besieged Tatar fortress of Kazan, and with it a city on the Sviyaga River.

The builders prepared log houses, fortress walls and towers a thousand miles from Sviyaga, near the city of Uglich. And then they dismantled these log cabins, numbered each log so as not to confuse, and knocked them together into rafts. So, in rafts, the future city approached the shore, where it was supposed to be placed.

The Sviyazhsk fortress was built in just four weeks. It was a large city at that time with a fortress wall, spacious huts for soldiers and residents, and even a city clock installed on the main square.

At that time, of course, they built not only simple peasant huts, heated in black, but also spacious chambers for boyars and nobles, magnificent palaces for Russian tsars.

So, in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow, a wooden palace was erected, which was admired by all foreign guests visiting Russia. It had two hundred and seventy large and small rooms. It was so beautiful that it was called “a wonder of the world.” And one king lived in this palace with his family and servants.

Although Russia is a forest region, it has long been famous for its masters of “stone-cutting cunning”, as masons were called at that time.

"Moscow white stone" - this is how the Soviet capital is often called now. Many buildings of this great city, which has existed for eight centuries, were built of beautiful white stone - limestone. There is still a lot of it in the Moscow region.

Builders have long begun to use for their buildings and artificial stone- brick.

Bricklayers built many wonderful houses that still exist today. The palaces belonging to the relatives of the king, and the mansions of the rich: breeders, manufacturers, merchants were distinguished by special luxury. And for those who are poorer, gloomy tenement houses were built. They were so called because they brought income to their owner. Residents were required to pay rent to the landlord. He had the right to evict them from the apartment at any moment. In a conspicuous place, under the house lamp, where the name of the street and the number of the house are still written, one could read the name of the house owner, well, let's say, “A. I. Lobov" or "G. S. Permyakov".

Over the years, the palaces rose higher and higher, the houses of the rich became more and more beautiful. And the builders of these palaces themselves lived in winter in dark and cramped village huts, and in summer - in basements and closets of distant city outskirts.

In winter, at that time, they still did not know how to build. Summer was approaching, and peasants who knew the construction business left the villages for the cities: diggers, masons, carpenters, plasterers, painters. They usually walked. Sometimes hundreds and even thousands of miles passed. The father took his son with him, the grandfather took his grandson; Slowly they were accustomed to the construction business.

AT old Russia there were entire villages of masons, carpenters, painters. These masters were wonderful, but they did not know letters, they put crosses instead of signatures. They were hired by the same peasants, only the rich - contractors. Contractors at that time were also called "persuaders".

Clever and cunning persuaders were engaged in looking for work for diggers, masons, carpenters, so much so that they would take more money for themselves, and give less to those who work.

The contractors got even richer, and the builders walked around in bast shoes, they could not get out of poverty.

In large cities, “builders’ exchanges” were organized. Somewhere on the forecourt or not far from the market, artels of carpenters, masons, plasterers, and painters stood for hours waiting for work.

They could be immediately recognized either by an ax neatly wrapped in linen, or by a trowel - a must-have accessory for a plasterer, or by a brush on a long pole.

The night will catch people at the exchange, they go to bed right there on the stones, putting bags with belongings under their heads.

In the morning, a “persuader” will come up to hire people and start shouting: “Ten carpenters, fifteen painters, five plasterers!”
People get up, get up, scratching themselves awake. Then begins a short bargaining about the price.

The price of labor at that time was low.

Summer will quickly fly by at the construction site of a factory or a house, and in late autumn, through mud, slush, the builders go home to the village in the same walking order.

There were few literate people among them, letters from home were rare. A man goes home and does not know himself what is there: whether the old men and women have harvested, whether the cattle survived, whether it will be possible to correct the economy that has fallen into decay with the pennies earned.

And in the spring, need again drove people to the city. And they went there with pain in their hearts, longing for the family left in the village, perhaps without bread.

At that time there was a builder and a worker and a peasant. They called him "seasonal" because he worked only one season a year.

This continued until October 1917, when the workers and peasants took power in our country.

Now builders are building beautiful, comfortable dwellings no longer for the rich, but for working people like themselves.

Thousands of masons, carpenters, plasterers, painters permanently moved to the cities, became construction workers. They have been building for a long time not only in summer, but also in winter. They have more than enough work now. The people themselves became the customers of the builders. And they build for him thousands of spacious and bright houses, schools, clubs, hospitals.

We, in the Land of Soviets, are also building palaces, but not for tsars, of course, but for the people. The magnificent stations of the Moscow and Leningrad metro are called underground palaces. Not only boys and girls live and study in the Palace of Science on the Lenin Hills Soviet Union but also the youth of other countries. Palaces of culture - clubs for the people - adorn many of our cities. And the schoolchildren of Leningrad were given one of the old royal palaces. Here is now the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers.

Ecology of life. Manor: It is no coincidence that a person devoted considerable sections of folk life and arts and crafts to bird stories. Yes, and the first dwellings of the Northern and Middle Urals - covered with wide slopes of the roofs of the hut - can be called bird huts.

From time immemorial, watching birds, people admired their attachment to their nest, river, lake, tract. And people from ancient times celebrated the first appearance in the spring sky of flocks of migratory birds returning to their nesting places as a holiday announcing the onset of a new cycle of active life in nature.

It is no coincidence that a person devoted considerable sections of folk life and arts and crafts to bird stories. Yes, and the first dwellings of the Northern and Middle Urals - covered with wide slopes of the roofs of the hut - can call huts-birds.

From the end of the 11th century, the Slavs began to actively settle in the Urals. Describing this process, the famous historian V. O. Klyuchevsky figuratively said: “According to the conditions of historical life and the geographical situation, it (the Slavic population. - L.B.) spread across the plain not gradually, by way of generation, not settling, but moving, carried by birds flights from region to region, leaving their familiar places and sitting on new ones.

The roots of the old-timer population of the Northern and Middle Urals are in areas abounding in birds, - on the banks of the Northern Dvina, Pinega, Mezen, Izhma, Pechora rivers. This land in Russia has long been called Pomorie.

If we start from the figurative definition of Klyuchevsky, it becomes clear why the concepts of “sit down” and “sit down” were common in folk life (primarily among the first settlers). They were used not only in relation to peoples and settlements, but also to families, and even to individuals who chose to later life a piece of harsh North Ural land.

The Russian people who found themselves in the Northern and Middle Urals did not seem to have gone beyond the limits of their usual climatic zone with a long, harsh winter. However, the abundant annual rainfall at the foot of Stone Belt, a huge barrier that stood in the way of the humid northwestern Atlantic winds. It was for these circumstances that the Pomor man was forced to “land” in the Urals in a special way, creating a local, Permian, version of his dwelling.

The first Permian peasant dwellings can be called bird huts, covered with wide roof slopes, like bird wings. This type of dwelling has been known in these parts since the time of the Lomatov archaeological culture that existed in the Upper Kama region in the middle of the first millennium AD. She left behind a high metallurgical art, small plastic items made of copper, the so-called amulets depicting a variety of animals, ranging from a fossil lizard to elk and birds. Amulets were attached to clothing and travel items.

One of the main symbols of this culture was a large bird with open wings and a human face on its chest, designed to protect the house and hearth.

They put up, or, as they say, cut down, the huts were skillful peasant carpenters, who masterfully owned their main tool - an ax. For one simple hut, about one hundred and fifty logs were needed - in the old days they were called "trees". (And the word “village” has the same root. In ancient times, villages were built by groups of people who settled in the forest zone.) And even a dwelling not yet built, but existing only in plans, seemed to acquire a certain living image. The builders of the hut, in the popular understanding, were referred to only as "builders of the world."

The construction of the hut began with the manufacture and installation of "chairs" - large logs from a larch trunk; they were placed vertically in the ground at the four corners of the hut. Her Majesty's hut “sat down” on the chairs, or rather, her log house, called in the old way “foot” or “cage”.

For many centuries of living in the north, in the immediate vicinity of permafrost, Russian peasants learned to build not low or “earth” huts, but to cut dwellings protected from the cold at a sufficient height above the ground.

That is why, starting to cut down the hut, the carpenters “sat down” on the chairs not the living quarters, but the “podizbitsa”, or “podklet” (the place, then used to store various supplies and equipment). And only then, over the "bridge" of floor cedar blocks of almost a meter wide, they cut down the actual hut - "stopa".

The largest space in it was occupied by a huge and versatile Russian stove in its capabilities - it was called the “mistress of the dwelling”. (She kept warm for a long time, heating the house, they baked bread in it, cooked food that remained hot until the evening, dried clothes and felt boots on it, and slept on the stove on frosty winter nights.)

Crown after crown, the carpenters rallied the walls of the hut, already taking care of how the walls would hold the enormous weight of the roof littered with damp snow, sheltering the house and its inhabitants from all sorts of misfortunes, including dampness that corrodes the tree, brought by heavy spring and autumn rains.

And the carpenters gradually began to build up the size log crowns so that the roof rests not only on vertical walls, and also on the log cornices that continued them, which were called "falls". The releases of logs along the gables were called "helps". And it is no coincidence. The walls, as it were, helped the heavy roof, the lower edges of which, according to the plan of its creators, protruded beyond the walls (that is, hung) at a distance often greater than human height.

Above the log, with a special filling, the ceiling along the top of the walls, two large triangular supports for the roof were erected from "male logs". The males were cut into slats, forming a longitudinal frame of the roof, and its transverse frame consisted of the trunks of young spruces. They were harvested in advance, selecting specimens with powerful one-sided roots (often the root ends were processed in the form of bird heads).

Spruce trunks were cut with butts down into the bed. It turned out "hens" - holders of huge logs-gutters designed to drain melt and rainwater from the roof. They are also called water sources or streams.

On the lattice frame lay down and the "hens" were laid in one or two layers of cleft, the lower end of which rested on the bottom of the water source. The upper stumps of the clefts along the entire length of the roof were pressed against a special massive log-chill, ridge or helmet. On the heavy front end of this log, the head of a bird, a horse or some kind of monster patronizing the house, on the back of which sat, also carved from wood, a man-rider sat for a long time.

The Perm hut never stood by itself. It was overgrown with outbuildings necessary for everyday life, often very large. severe natural conditions forced to bring the yard and premises for cattle under one roof with a hut. Sometimes, however, a yard was created next to the hut, under a separate roof, but no smaller than the roof of the hut. In these cases, they talked about "a house under two, three", or even "four horses."

Garden land, or “usad”, “yard land”, that is, arable land, pastures for livestock, hay, forest, and water lands adjoined the courtyards. The main areas of activity of the peasants of the Northern and Middle Urals were agriculture and cattle breeding, forestry, fish and other crafts, as well as many crafts.

It is very interesting that the mining "civilization" that was emerging in the neighborhood absorbed the Ural people's dwelling and the custom of living in it in their traditional form. Simply put, the Permian peasant huts, together with their established way of life, successfully moved to the new Kama cities and formed the first city streets, determined the estate character of building not only large settlements at salt mines, but also plant cities.

Among the Russian old-timers of the Kama land, as well as among the indigenous population, everything traditional and symbolic around the house and inside it was in special honor. Almost all basic household items and simple decorations - wooden, cloth, clay, iron, copper, bone, leather - are hollowed out, carved, cast, forged, painted, embroidered with images of birds and animals, trees and herbs.

Folk life has long kept a wealth of symbols associated with the bird. They are presented with the greatest expressiveness in woodcarving, in ceramics and in copper plastic of the so-called Permian animal style, which was born on the territory of the already mentioned Lomovatov archaeological culture.

Therefore, the house itself, filled to the brim with a variety of reflections of life, seemed alive. He has a unique face, always turned to the rising or midday sun, or, as they said, his face, his forehead.

The ancient Permian hut usually had two windows on the facade, like two eyes - a look from inside the house to the outside. Through the windows, according to popular belief, the “soul of the house” contemplated the beauty of the world, lived with it, treated it, enjoyed it. Windows in the old days were called "windows", and they were often made by special craftsmen - window makers. Because the house has always had its own face, such names for the details of the hut appeared: platbands, ochelie, prichelins, valances, helmets and many others.

The talent of a peasant craftsman at all times was recognized only when his house from all sides looked like a proportionally folded log monolith. Each carpenter, with an ax in his hands, sought to cut an attractive silhouette from the log mass that could decorate the village - especially in cloudy weather.

In sunlight, the play of light and shadow on large log and plank planes, bizarre light and shadow spots on protruding parts, overhangs, water pipes and a ridge can suddenly stop a passerby - admire the beauty of handmade woodwork. The rhythms of the crowns, the rhythms of the huts and outbuildings in the settlement not only delighted the eye, but also delighted the soul with the sight of a well-groomed human habitation. published

Both the house and the chapel are all made of wood.

Russia has long been considered a country of wood: there were plenty of vast, mighty forests around. Rusichi, as historians note, lived for centuries in the "wooden age". Frames and residential buildings, baths and barns, bridges and fences, gates and wells were built from wood. And the most common name of the Russian settlement - the village - said that the houses and buildings here were made of wood. Almost universal availability, simplicity and ease of processing, relative cheapness, strength, good thermal properties, as well as the rich artistic and expressive possibilities of wood brought this natural material to the forefront in the construction of residential buildings. Far from the last role was played here by the fact that wooden buildings could be erected in a fairly short time. High-speed wood construction in Russia was generally highly developed, which indicates a high level of organization of carpentry. It is known, for example, that even churches, the largest buildings in Russian villages, were sometimes erected "in one day", which is why they were called ordinary.

In addition, log houses could be easily dismantled, transported over a considerable distance and put back in a new place. In the cities there were even special markets where prefabricated log cabins and entire wooden houses with all interior decoration were sold "for export". In winter, such houses were shipped straight "from the sleigh" disassembled, and it took no more than two days to assemble and caulk. By the way, all the necessary building elements and details of log houses were sold right there, on the market here you could buy pine logs for a residential log house (the so-called "mansion logs"), and beams hewn into four edges, and solid roofing boards, and various boards"dining rooms", "shops", for sheathing the "inside" of the hut, as well as "beams", piles, door decks. There were also household items on the market, with which the interior of a peasant hut was usually saturated: simple rustic furniture, tubs, boxes, small "wood chips" up to the smallest wooden spoon.

However, with all the positive qualities of wood, one of its very serious drawbacks - susceptibility to decay - made wooden structures relatively short-lived. Together with fires, a real scourge of wooden buildings, it significantly reduced the life of a log house - a rare hut stood for more than a hundred years. That is why the greatest application in housing construction has found conifers pine and spruce, the resinousness and density of wood of which provided the necessary resistance to decay. At the same time, in the North, larch was also used to build a house, and in a number of regions of Siberia, a log house was assembled from strong and dense larch, all the same interior decoration made from Siberian cedar.

And yet, the most common material for housing construction was pine, in particular, upland pine or, as it was also called, "kondovaya". The log from it is heavy, straight, almost without knots and, according to the assurances of master carpenters, "does not hold damp." In one of the orderly records for the construction of housing, concluded in the old days between the owner-customer and the carpenters (and the word "orderly" comes from the Old Russian "row" contract), it was quite clearly emphasized: "... carve a forest of pine, kind, vigorous , smooth, not knotty ... "

Timber was usually harvested in winter or early spring, while "the tree is sleeping and excess water gone into the ground, "while it is still possible to take the logs out by sledge. Interestingly, even now experts recommend logging for log houses in winter, when the wood is less susceptible to shrinkage, decay and warping. The material for the construction of housing was prepared either by the future owners themselves, or hired master carpenters in accordance with the necessary need "as much as needed", as noted in one of the orders. In the case of "self-procurement" this was done with the involvement of relatives and neighbors. Such a custom, which existed in Russian villages from ancient times, was called "help" ("cleaning "). The whole village usually gathered for cleanup. This was also reflected in the proverb: "Whoever called for help, go himself."

They selected the trees very carefully, in a row, indiscriminately, they did not cut down, they took care of the forest. There was even such a sign: if you did not like three forests from the arrival in the forest, do not cut at all that day. There were also specific bans on logging associated with popular beliefs that were strictly enforced. For example, it was considered a sin to cut down trees in "sacred" groves, usually associated with a church or a cemetery; it was impossible to cut down old trees - they had to die their own, natural death. In addition, trees grown by man were not suitable for construction, it was impossible to use a tree that fell during felling "at midnight", that is, to the north, or hung in the crowns of other trees - it was believed that serious troubles and illnesses awaited residents in such a house and even death.

Logs for the construction of a log house were usually selected with a thickness of about eight inches in diameter (35 cm), and for the lower crowns of a log house - even thicker ones, up to ten inches (44 cm). Often the contract stated: "but do not put less than seven inches." We note in passing that today the recommended diameter of a log for a chopped wall is 22 cm. The logs were taken to the village and piled into "bonfires", where they lay until spring, after which the trunks were sanded, that is, removed, scraped off the thawed bark with a plow or a long scraper, which was an arcuate blade with two handles.

Tools of Russian carpenters:

1 - wood ax,
2 - potyos,
3 - carpenter's ax.

When processing scaffolding applied different kinds axes. So, when felling trees, a special wood-cutting ax with a narrow blade was used, for further work, a carpenter's ax with a wide oval blade and the so-called "potes". In general, possession of an ax was mandatory for every peasant. "The ax is the head of the whole thing," they said among the people. Without an ax, wonderful monuments of folk architecture would not have been created: wooden churches, bell towers, mills, huts. Without this simple and versatile tool, many tools of peasant labor, details of rural life, and familiar household items would not have appeared. The ability to carpentry (that is, to "rally" logs in a building) from a ubiquitous and necessary craft in Russia turned into a true art - carpentry.

In the Russian chronicles we find not quite usual combinations - "cut down the church", "cut down the mansions". Yes, and carpenters were often called "cutters". And the point here is that in the old days they did not build houses, but "chopped", doing without saws and nails. Although the saw has been known in Russia since ancient times, it was usually not used in the construction of a house - sawn logs and boards absorb moisture much more quickly and easily than chopped and hewn ones. The master builders did not sawn, but chopped off the ends of the logs with an ax, because the sawn logs are “pulled by the wind” - they crack, which means they break down faster. In addition, when processing with an ax, the log from the ends seems to be "clogged" and rots less. The boards were made by hand from logs - at the end of the log and along its entire length, notches were marked, wedges were driven into them and split into two halves, from which wide boards were hewn - "tesnitsa". For this, a special ax with a wide blade and a one-sided cut was used - "potes". In general, the carpentry tools were quite extensive - here, along with axes and staples, there were special "adzes" for choosing grooves, chisels and clearings for punching holes in logs and beams, "features" for drawing parallel lines.

When hiring carpenters to build a house, the owners specified in detail the most important requirements for future construction, which was scrupulously noted in the contract. First of all, the necessary qualities of the scaffolding, its diameter, processing methods, as well as the timing of the start of construction were recorded here. Then a detailed description of the house to be built was given, the space-planning structure of the dwelling was highlighted, and the dimensions of the main premises were regulated. “Put me a new hut,” it is written in an old order, four fathoms without an elbow and with corners, that is, about six and a quarter meters, chopped “in the oblo”, with the rest. Since drawings were not made during the construction of the house, in the construction contracts the vertical dimensions of the dwelling and its individual parts were determined by the number of logs-crowns laid in the log house - "and twenty-three rows up to the hens." The horizontal dimensions were regulated by the most commonly used long log - usually it was about three fathoms "between the corners" - about six and a half meters. Often in order, information was even given about individual architectural and structural elements and details: "to make doors on the jambs and windows on the jambs, as much as the owner orders to do." Sometimes samples, analogues, examples from the immediate environment were directly named, focusing on which the craftsmen had to do their work: ".. and make those upper rooms and the vestibule, and the porch, like Ivan Olferyev's small upper rooms were made at the gate." The entire document often ended with a recommendation of a disciplinary order, instructing the craftsmen not to quit work until it was completely completed, not to postpone or delay the construction that had begun: "And do not leave until the completion of that good work."

The beginning of the construction of a dwelling in Russia was associated with certain terms regulated by special rules. It was considered best to start building a house during Great Lent ( in early spring) and so that the construction process includes the Trinity holiday in time, let's remember the proverb: "Without the Trinity, the house is not built." It was impossible to start construction on the so-called "hard days" - on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and also on Sunday. Favorable for the start of construction was considered the time, "when the month is filled" after the new moon.

The erection of the house was preceded by special and rather solemnly formalized rituals, in which the most important earthly and heavenly phenomena were reflected, the most important for the peasant, the forces of nature acted in a symbolic form, various "local" deities were present. According to an old custom, when laying a house, money was put in the corners "to live richly," and inside the log house, in its middle or in the "red" corner, they put a freshly cut tree (birch, mountain ash or Christmas tree) and often hung an icon on it. This tree personified the "world tree", known to almost all peoples and ritually marking the "center of the world", symbolizing the idea of ​​growth, development, connection of the past (roots), present (trunk) and future (crown). It remained in the log house until the completion of construction. Another interesting custom is connected with the designation of the corners of the future dwelling: in the supposed four corners of the hut, the owner poured four heaps of grain in the evening, and if the next morning the grain turned out to be untouched, the place chosen for building the house was considered good. If someone disturbed the grain, then they were usually wary of building on such a "doubtful" place.

Throughout the construction of the house, another custom, very ruinous for future owners, was strictly observed, which, unfortunately, has not gone into the past and today is quite frequent and plentiful "treat" of carpenters building a house in order to "appease" them. The construction process was repeatedly interrupted by "hand", "stowing", "mat", "rafter" and other feasts. Otherwise, the carpenters could be offended and do something wrong, or even just "play a joke" - lay out the log house in such a way that "it will buzz in the walls."

The structural basis of the log house was a four-sided log cabin, which consisted of logs - "crowns" horizontally stacked on top of each other. An important feature of this design is that during its natural shrinkage and subsequent settlement, the gaps between the crowns disappeared, the wall became more dense and monolithic. To ensure the horizontality of the log crowns, the logs were stacked in such a way that the butt ends alternated with the top ends, that is, thicker ones with thinner ones. In order for the crowns to fit well to each other, a longitudinal groove was selected in each of the adjacent logs. In the old days, the groove was made in the lower log, on its upper side, but since with this solution water got into the recess and the log quickly rotted, they began to make a groove on the lower side of the log. This technique has been preserved to this day.

a - "in oblo" with cups in the lower logs
b - "in oblo" with cups in the upper logs

In the corners, the log house was connected with special cuts with original log "locks". Experts say that there were several dozen types and variants of cuttings in Russian wooden architecture. The most commonly used fellings were "in oblo" and "in the paw". When cutting "into a cloud" (that is, rounded) or "into a simple corner", the logs were connected in such a way that their ends protruded outward, beyond the limits of the log house, forming the so-called "remainder", which is why this technique was also called cutting with the remainder. The protruding ends well protected the corners of the hut from freezing. This method, one of the most ancient, was also called cutting "into a bowl", or "into a cup", since special recesses of the "cup" were chosen to fasten the logs in them. In the old days, cups, as well as longitudinal grooves in logs, were cut down in the underlying log - this is the so-called "cutting into the lining", but later they began to use more rational way with a cut in the upper log "in the overlay", or "in the hood", which did not allow moisture to linger in the "lock" of the log house. Each cup was fitted exactly to the shape of the log it came into contact with. This was necessary to ensure the tightness of the most important and most vulnerable to water and cold nodes of the log house - its corners.

Another common method of cutting "in the paw", without a trace, made it possible to increase the horizontal dimensions of the log house, and with them the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe hut, in comparison with cutting "in the open", since here the "lock" fastening the crowns was made at the very end of the log . However, it was more complicated in execution, it required highly qualified carpenters, and therefore it was more expensive than traditional felling with the release of the ends of the "corner" logs. For this reason, and also due to the fact that cutting "in the field" took less time, the vast majority of peasant houses in Russia were cut in this way.

The lower, "collar" crown was often placed directly on the ground. In order for this initial crown - "lower" - to be less prone to decay, and also in order to create a solid and reliable foundation for the house, thicker and more resinous logs were selected for it. For example, in Siberia, larch was used for the lower rims - a very dense and fairly durable wood material.

Often, large boulder stones were placed under the corners and middles of the embedded crowns, or scraps of thick logs - “chairs” were dug into the ground, which were treated with resin or burned to protect against decay. Sometimes for this purpose thick chopping blocks or "paws" were used - uprooted stumps placed down by the roots. During the construction of a residential hut, they tried to lay the "salary" logs so that the lower crown was tightly adjacent to the ground, often "for warmth" it was even lightly sprinkled with earth. After the completion of the "hut salary" - laying the first crown, they began to assemble the house "on the moss", in which the grooves of the log house for greater tightness were laid with a "mokryshnik" torn in the lowlands and dried with swamp moss - this was called "suede" log house. It happened that for greater strength, the moss was "twisted" with tows - combed out fibers of flax and hemp. But since, when drying, the moss nevertheless crumbled, at a later time they began to use tow for this purpose. And now, experts recommend caulking the seams between the logs of a log house with tow for the first time during the construction process and then again, in a year and a half, when the final shrinkage of the log house occurs.

Under the residential part of the house, either a low underground was arranged, or the so-called "basement" or "podyzbitsa" - the basement, which differed from the underground in that it was rather high, did not go deep, as a rule, into the ground and had a direct exit to the outside through a low door. Putting the hut on the basement, the owner protected it from the cold coming from the ground, protected the residential part and the entrance to the house from snow drifts in winter and spring floods, created additional utility and utility rooms right under the dwelling. A pantry was usually arranged in the basement, often it served as a cellar. Other utility rooms were also equipped in the basement, for example, in areas where handicrafts were developed, a small workshop could be located in the basement. They also kept small livestock or poultry in the basement. Sometimes the podyzbitsa was also used for housing. There were even two-story, or "double-lived" huts for two "living". But still, in the vast majority of cases, the basement was a non-residential, utility floor, and they lived in a dry and warm "top", raised above the cold, damp earth. This method of setting the residential part of the house on a high basement was most widespread in the northern regions, where very harsh climatic conditions required additional insulation of residential premises and reliable and isolation from frozen ground, while in the middle lane, a low and convenient underground was more often arranged.

Having completed the equipment of the basement or underground, work began on the installation of the floor of the hut. To do this, first of all, "crossbeams" were cut into the walls of the house - rather powerful beams on which the floor rested. As a rule, they were made four or less often three, parallel to the main facade of the hut, two near the walls and two or one in the middle. To keep the floor warm and not blown, it was made double. The so-called "black" floor was laid directly on the beams, collecting it from a thick slab with humps up, or log rolling, and covered "for warmth" with a layer of earth. From above, a clean floor was laid from wide boards.

Moreover, such a double, insulated floor was made, as a rule, over a cold basement-basement, a sub-basement, and a regular, single floor was arranged above the underground, which contributed to the penetration of heat from the living quarters into the underground, where vegetables and various products were stored. The boards of the upper, "clean" floor were tightly fitted to each other.

Male Roof Construction:

1 - chill (with a helmet)
2 - towel (anemone)
3 - prichelina
4 - ochelie
5 - red window
6 - drag window
7 - flow
8 - chicken
9 - slightly
10 - tes

Usually the floorboards were laid along the window entrance line, from the entrance door to the living room to the main facade of the hut, explaining that with this arrangement, the floor boards are less destroyed, less chipped at the edges and last longer than with a different layout. In addition, according to the peasants, such a floor is more convenient for revenge.

The number of interfloor ceilings - "bridges" in the house being built was determined even in order: "... yes, in the same upper rooms, lay three bridges inside." The laying of the walls of the hut was completed by installation at the height where they were going to make the ceiling of the "skull" or "underpressure" crown, in which they cut the ceiling beam - the "matitsa". Her location was also often noted in regular records: "and put that hut on the seventeenth matitsa."

The strength and reliability of the foundation matrix - the foundation of the ceiling - was given very great importance. The people even said: "A thin uterus to everything - a house of confusion." The installation of the mother was very important point in the process of building a house, it ended with the assembly of a log house, after which the construction entered the final phase. Laying the floor and installing the roof. That is why the laying of the mother was accompanied by special rituals and the next "mat" treat for carpenters. Often, the carpenters themselves reminded the "forgetful" owners of this: when setting up the mother, they shouted: "The uterus is cracking, it does not go," and the owners were given to arrange a feast. Sometimes, raising the mother, a pie baked for the occasion was tied to it.

The matitsa was a powerful tetrahedral beam, on which "ceilings" of thick boards or "humpbacks" were laid, placed flat down. In order to prevent the matrix from bending under its weight, its lower side was often cut off along a curve. It is curious that this technique is still used today in the construction of log houses - this is called "carve out a building rise". Having finished laying the ceiling - "ceilings", they tied the frame under the roof, laying "cold" or "cool" logs on top of the cranial crown, with which the ceilings were fixed.

In the Russian folk dwelling, functional, practical and artistic issues were closely interconnected, one complemented and followed from the other. The fusion of "utility" and "beauty" in the house, the inseparability of constructive and architectural and artistic solutions manifested themselves with particular force in the organization of the completion of the hut. By the way, it was at the end of the house that folk craftsmen saw the main and main beauty of the entire building. Construction and decoration the roofs of a peasant house still amaze with the unity of practical and aesthetic aspects.

Surprisingly simple, logical and artistically expressive is the design of the so-called nail-free male roof - one of the oldest, most widely used in the northern regions of Russia. It was supported by the log pediments of the end walls of the house - "recesses". After the upper, "thick" crown of the log house, the logs of the main and rear facades of the hut gradually shortened, rising to the very top of the ridge. These logs were called "males" because they stood "on their own". Long log slabs were cut into the triangles of the opposite pediments of the house, which were the base of the roof "lattice". The tops of the pediments were connected by the main, "princely" slab, which was the completion of the entire structure of the gable roof.

Natural hooks - "hens" - uprooted and hewn trunks of young spruce trees were attached to the lower slabs. They were called "hens" because the craftsmen gave their bent ends the shape of bird heads. The chickens supported special gutters for draining water "streams", or "water outlets" - logs hollowed out along the entire length. They rested against the clefts of the roof, which were laid on the slabs-purlins. Usually the roof was double, with a lining of birch bark - "rocks", which well protected against moisture penetration.

In the ridge of the roof, on the upper ends of the roofing notches, they “slammed down” with a “shell” - a massive trough-shaped log, the end of which went out onto the main facade, crowning the entire building. This heavy log, also called "okhlupny" (from the ancient name of the roof "okhlup"), pinched the gaps, keeping them from being blown away by the wind. The front, butt end of the okhlupny was usually designed in the form of a horse's head (hence the "horse") or, less often, a bird. In the most northern regions, the helmet was sometimes given the shape of a deer's head, often placing genuine deer antlers on it. Thanks to their developed plasticity, these sculptural images were well "read" against the sky and were visible from afar.

To maintain a wide roof overhang from the side of the main facade of the hut, an interesting and ingenious constructive technique was used - a consistent lengthening of the ends of the logs of the upper crowns extending beyond the frame. In this case, powerful brackets were obtained, on which the front part of the roof rested. Protruding far ahead of the log wall of the house, such a roof reliably protected the crowns of the log house from rain and snow. The brackets that supported the roof were called "releases", "helps" or "falls". Usually, a porch was arranged on the same outlet brackets, bypass galleries - "amusements" were laid, balconies were equipped. Powerful log outlets, decorated with laconic carvings, enriched the austere appearance of the peasant house, giving it even greater monumentality.

In the new, later type of Russian peasant dwelling, which became widespread mainly in the regions of the middle zone, the roof already had a covering on the rafters, while the log pediment with males was replaced by a plank filling. With this solution, a sharp transition from a plastically saturated rough textured surface log cabin to a flat and smooth plank pediment, being tectonically quite justified, nevertheless, it did not look compositionally inexpressive, and master carpenters planted to cover it with a rather wide frontal board, richly decorated with carved ornaments. Subsequently, a frieze developed from this board, which went around the entire building. It should be noted, however, that even in this type of peasant house, some of the earlier structures were preserved for a long time - brackets-outlets, decorated with simple carvings, and carved porches with "towels". This determined mainly the repetition of the traditional pattern of distribution of carved decorative decoration on the main facade of the dwelling.

Erecting a log house, creating a traditional hut, Russian master carpenters for centuries discovered, mastered and improved specific woodworking techniques, gradually developed strong, reliable and artistically expressive architectural and structural units, original and unique details. However, they made full use of positive traits wood, skillfully revealing and revealing its unique capabilities in their buildings, emphasizing it in every possible way natural origin. This further contributed to the consistent entry of buildings into the natural environment, the harmonious merging of man-made structures with pristine, untouched nature.

The main elements of the Russian hut are surprisingly simple and organic, their form is logical and beautifully “drawn”, they accurately and fully express the “work” wooden log, log house, roofs of the house. Benefit and beauty merge here into a single and indivisible whole. The expediency, the practical necessity of any made, is clearly expressed in their strict plasticity, laconic decor, in the general structural completeness of the entire building.

Ingenuously and truthfully, the general constructive solution of a peasant house is a powerful and reliable log wall; large, solid cuts in the corners; small, decorated with platbands and shutters, windows; a wide roof with an intricate ridge and carved piers, and also a porch and a balcony, it would seem, that's all. But how much hidden tension is in this simple construction, how much strength is in the tight joints of the logs, how tightly they "hold" each other! For centuries, this orderly simplicity has been isolated, crystallized, this only possible structure, reliable and captivating with its skeptical purity of line and forms, harmonious and close to the surrounding nature.

Calm confidence emanates from simple Russian huts, they soundly and thoroughly settled on native land. When looking at the buildings darkened from time to time, the old Russian villages do not leave the feeling that they, once created by man and for man, live at the same time some kind of their own, separate life, closely connected with the life of the nature surrounding them - they are so akin to that place where they were born. The living warmth of their walls, the laconic silhouette, the strict monumentality of proportionate relations, some kind of "unartificiality" of their entire appearance make these buildings an integral and organic part of the surrounding forests and fields, of everything that we call Russia.

The evolution of wooden housing construction.Can they modern houses can stay forever?

Not so long ago, the population of planet Earth "went crazy" from fast food, synthetic clothing, energy drinks and artificial materials, but all this had a too serious impact on human health, and the "rebellion of artificial things" was smoothly replaced by a love for everything natural and healthy.

This trend has affected all areas of society, from food to the homes in which people spend half their lives. The first building material that was remembered by the representatives of the "new generation" was wood (,). Indeed, what product can be more environmentally friendly and comfortable for building your own home?

However, a number of questions arose - so that he would serve faithfully for many years? Indeed, recalling the houses located in the villages and occupied by grandmothers and great-grandmothers, one involuntarily wants to abandon this idea - black boards, the smell of dampness, excessive humidity - all this is hardly conducive to improving health.

It's not about the wood at all, but about how it was taken care of and how it was built from it. So let's look at the main mistakes that our ancestors made in the construction and operation of houses.

How were wooden houses built in the past?

What technologies have you used before? It is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to this question - after all, the concept of technology was not used at that time. However, the architects had their own secrets that helped to build high-quality structures.

Required tools:

The main tool of any architect was an ax. It was strictly forbidden to use a saw, as it tore the wood fibers, which made the material accessible to water and thereby worsened its consumer properties. Nails were also banned, as they worsened the quality of the building. Indeed, if we trace the process of wood decay, the area around the nails is the first to suffer.

Base and fasteners:

Not having modern technologies, which humanity now possesses, the construction of a wooden house was a rather laborious task.

Everyone knows the expression "cut down a hut"; it is associated both with the use of an ax - the only tool in the construction of houses, and with the name of the base - interconnected logs forming a quadrangle. Large boulders served as the foundation, which helped to reduce rotting, as well as retain heat.

The types of log cabins depended on the household purpose of a particular building:

1. Cut. The logs were stacked on top of each other, often without the use of fasteners. Since the buildings of this type did not have thermal insulation as such and allowed the wind to roam around the room, they were used exclusively for household purposes.

2. In the paw. The end of each log was combed and attached to the structure. The buildings of this type looked aesthetically pleasing, since the wood was adjusted to size, the logs did not go beyond the corners. However, aesthetics affected the quality, thermal insulation decreased, and in the cold season, the cracks let air through.

3. In oblo. This type of log house was considered the most reliable. The logs were fastened to each other with the help of special spikes and went beyond the wall, which made the building warm and durable. For the purpose of insulation, moss was tightly packed between the logs, and at the end of construction, all the cracks were caulked with linen tow.

Roof:

Like the entire building of the Russian architect, the roof was made completely without nails. At the end of the construction of the building, the logs became smaller and covered with longitudinal poles. With the help of thin tree trunks inserted into the poles, the hollowed out was supported, which collected the flowing water. On top of the entire structure laid out massive boards, resting against the prepared hole in the log, paying special attention to the upper joint of the boards.

There were many materials for covering the roof, but they did not cope very well with the protective functions: straw, shingles, turf with birch bark. The most popular roofing was tes (special boards).

Why modern wooden houses will it last for years?

The modern world amazes with a variety of materials that help to build and competently operate wooden houses. Consider the main "assistants" of modern builders:

Instruments:

Hardware stores offer a huge number of tools, it all depends on what specific work is planned to be carried out during construction, whether there will be a drawing, how the boards will be laid, etc. Workers use a power saw (currently there is a large number of means of preventing rotting, making the saw the main tool in the job), which makes the process of preparing for construction quite fast. In addition, when buying a tree, the consumer receives a finished hewn product. The following tools will also come in handy: a hacksaw, an ax, a hammer, a nail puller, tape measures, a level, brushes, a slice.

Base and fasteners:

At the moment, there are several types of foundation - the choice depends on the type of soil and on the intended design. There are 3 main types:

1. Columnar (dense soil)

2. Pile (capricious soil)

3. Tape (most dense)

At modern construction various ready-made fasteners of open and closed type are used, which guarantees a tight connection, as well as using special heat-insulating coatings, reliable protection against dampness and cold.

Roof:

Modern roofs have high quality characteristics, have the functions of thermal and waterproofing, noise insulation, and are resistant to environment and very wear resistant. We can distinguish the most popular materials for the manufacture of roofing:

2. Ondulin

3. Ceramic tile

4. Welding materials

5. Bituminous mastic.

Summing up, it is worth noting that the imperfection of houses built in Russia is caused by the lack of quality materials and modern instruments. Using, you can not be afraid of darkening of wood or the possibility of decay. A house built in accordance with all norms and requirements will serve more than one generation of owners, but it is important to remember that beauty requires constant care.