Ancient houses of Russia. House in the Russian style: characteristic features, varieties and implementation features. The surviving ancient Russian buildings

29.05.2020

The Russian hut has always been fine, solid and original. Its architecture testifies to the fidelity to centuries-old traditions, their durability and uniqueness. Its layout, design and interior decoration have been created over the years. Not many traditional Russian houses have survived to this day, but they can still be found in some regions.

Initially, huts in Russia were built of wood, partially deepening their foundation underground. This provided greater reliability and durability of the structure. Most often, it had only one room, which the owners divided into several separate parts. An obligatory part of the Russian hut was the stove corner, to separate which a curtain was used. In addition, there were separate zones for men and women. All corners in the house were lined up in accordance with the cardinal points, and the most important among them was the eastern (red), where the family organized the iconostasis. It was the icons that the guests should have paid attention to immediately after entering the hut.

Russian hut porch

The architecture of the porch has always been carefully thought out, the owners of the house devoted a lot of time to it. It combined excellent artistic taste, centuries-old traditions and the ingenuity of architects. It was the porch that connected the hut with the street and was open to all guests or passers-by. Interestingly, the whole family, as well as neighbors, often gathered on the porch in the evenings after hard work. Here guests and owners of the house danced, sang songs, and children ran and frolicked.

In different regions of Russia, the shape and size of the porch were radically different. So, in the north of the country, it was quite high and large, and the southern facade of the house was chosen for installation. Thanks to this asymmetric placement and the unique architecture of the facade, the whole house looked very peculiar and beautiful. It was also quite common to find porches placed on poles and decorated with openwork wooden posts. They were a real decoration of the house, making its facade even more serious and solid.

In the south of Russia, the porch was installed from the front of the house, attracting the attention of passers-by and neighbors with openwork carvings. They could be both on two steps, and with a whole staircase. Some home owners decorated their porch with a canopy, while others left it open.

canopy

In order to keep the maximum amount of heat from the stove in the house, the owners separated the living area from the street. The canopy is exactly the space that the guests immediately saw at the entrance to the hut. In addition to keeping warm, the canopy was also used to store the yoke and other necessary things, it was here that many people made closets for food.

To separate the hallway and the heated living area, a high threshold was also made. It was made to prevent the penetration of cold into the house. In addition, according to centuries-old traditions, each guest had to bow at the entrance to the hut, and it was impossible to go inside without bowing before the high threshold. Otherwise, the guest just hit the bare bare.

Russian stove

The life of the Russian hut revolved around the stove. It served as a place for cooking, relaxing, heating and even bathing procedures. Steps led upstairs, there were niches in the walls for various utensils. The furnace has always been with iron barriers. The device of the Russian stove - the heart of any hut - is surprisingly functional.

The stove in traditional Russian huts was always located in the main zone, to the right or left of the entrance. It was she who was considered the main element of the house, since they cooked food on the stove, slept, she warmed the whole house. It has been proven that food cooked in the oven is the healthiest, as it retains all the beneficial vitamins.

Since ancient times, many beliefs have been associated with the stove. Our ancestors believed that it was on the stove that the brownie lives. Garbage was never taken out of the hut, but burned in an oven. People believed that in this way all the energy remains in the house, which helps to increase the wealth of the family. It is interesting that in some regions of Russia they steamed and washed in the oven, and also used it for treatment. serious illnesses. The doctors of that time claimed that the disease can be cured simply by lying on the stove for several hours.

Furnace corner

It was also called the "woman's corner", since all the kitchen utensils were located exactly to make it. It was separated by a curtain or even a wooden partition. The men from their family almost never came here. A huge insult to the owners of the house was the arrival of a strange man behind a curtain in the stove corner.

Here, women washed and dried things, cooked food, treated children and told fortunes. Almost every woman was engaged in needlework, and the stove corner was the most calm and convenient place for this. Embroidery, sewing, painting - these are the most popular types of needlework for girls and women of that time.

Benches in the hut

In the Russian hut there were movable and fixed benches, and already from the 19th century chairs began to appear. Along the walls of the house, the owners installed fixed benches, which were fastened with supplies or legs with carved elements. The base could be flat or tapered towards the middle, and its decor often included carved patterns and traditional ornaments.

There were also mobile shops in each house. Such benches had four legs or were installed on blank boards. The backs were often made so that they could be thrown to the opposite edge of the bench, and carved decor was used for decoration. The bench was always made longer than the table, and was also often covered with thick cloth.

Male corner (Konik)

It was to the right of the entrance. There was always a wide shop here, which was fenced on both sides. wooden planks. They were carved in the shape of a horse's head, so the male corner is often called "konik". Under the bench, the men kept their tools intended for repairs and other men's work. In this corner, men repaired shoes and utensils, as well as wove baskets and other wickerwork.

All the guests who came to the owners of the house sat down on a bench in the men's corner. a short time. It was here that the man slept and rested.

Women's Corner (Wednesday)

This was an important space in the fate of women, because it was from behind the stove curtain that the girl came out during the bride in elegant attire, and also waited for the groom on the wedding day. Here, women gave birth to children and fed them away from prying eyes, hiding behind a curtain.

Also, it was in the women's corner of the house of the guy she liked that the girl had to hide the overcast in order to get married soon. They believed that such a wrap would help the daughter-in-law to make friends with the mother-in-law and become a good housewife in the new house.

red corner

This is the brightest and most important corner, since it was he who was considered a sacred place in the house. According to tradition, during construction, he was allocated a place on the eastern side, where two adjacent windows form an angle, so the light falls, making the corner the brightest place in the hut. Icons and embroidered towels hung here, as well as faces of ancestors in some huts. Be sure to put a large table in the red corner and eat. Freshly baked bread was always kept under icons and towels.

To this day, some traditions associated with the table are known. So, it is not advisable for young people to sit on the corner in order to create a family in the future. It is bad luck to leave dirty dishes on the table or sit on it.

Our ancestors kept cereals, flour and other products in senniks. Thanks to this, the hostess could always quickly prepare food from fresh ingredients. In addition, additional buildings were provided: a cellar for storing vegetables and fruits in winter, a barn for cattle and separate facilities for hay.

The Russian-style house is gaining more and more popularity. Such an interior embodies the culture and centuries-old traditions of the country. Houses in this style are unique and original; for their construction and decoration, separate projects are created that provide for all the nuances. Also, such buildings have high rates of thermal insulation, are environmentally friendly and easy to use.

Source kelohouse.ru

Pros and cons of buildings

One of the main advantages of the Russian style is the use of natural materials in construction. Wood and stone are perfectly combined with each other and allow you to create a cozy home with an original design.

Also, such buildings allow you to pay tribute to your ancestors. The base of the timber and a properly designed interior will help to turn the house into a kind of museum that will contain objects reminiscent of ancient times.

Source stroy-podskazka.ru

Interiors in the Old Russian style are distinguished by their incredible beauty and attractiveness. You can use a wide variety of decorative elements to help decorate the room.

The disadvantages include perhaps the high price of materials for construction. Also, not everyone will like the Russian style, so it is better to familiarize yourself with the options for such a design in advance.

Characteristic features of the style

The Russian style of the house today combines ancient traditions and modern technologies construction. For the construction and design of buildings are often used natural materials, the main one being wood. Most often, logs of coniferous wood are used, but recently timber is gaining great popularity.

Source zoon.kz

The main nuances of decorating houses in Russian style include:

Usage a large number various patterns for exterior cladding. Most often, shutters and platbands, railings, pediments and so on are decorated with patterns. Many designers provide original patterns that have not been used anywhere else.
Large and lighted room. In the old days, a large oven was installed in the upper room. These days, heaters are often used, which take up much less space.
Unheated corridor. According to tradition, this place is called the hallway.
Furnace installation. Such a product is used as a source of alternative heating, so in winter you can save a lot. You can also install a decorative stove that will serve as a decoration.
Quality wood floors. Outwardly, they should resemble natural wood that has not yet been processed. To date, parquet and laminate with such an invoice are being produced.

Recently, it has been widely used decorative cladding timber, which imitates the surface of the logs. This allows you to achieve the effect of antiquity. For interior work, natural wood is mainly used, with its help it is possible to achieve maximum environmental friendliness. It is not recommended to use red wood, it is best to use conifers, oak or birch. It is also often used for decoration natural stone or limestone, there are even stone houses in Russian style.

On our site you can find contacts of construction companies that offer house design services. You can directly communicate with representatives by visiting the exhibition of houses "Low-Rise Country".

Directions of the Russian style

There are 3 independent directions of Russian style:

Russian country. It is the most popular choice for the home. It is distinguished by the use of ancient Russian symbols and objects in the interior. As a decor, you can install wooden barrels, chests and other details.
Russian hut. It does not contain unnecessary decorative elements, it is characterized by restraint and rigor in design. When building a building from scratch, it is best to use natural wood for windows and doors. Plastic structures will not fit into the chosen style, although they will be more reliable. Installing a Russian stove will help to achieve coziness and comfort.
Terem. It is the most luxurious variation of the style; various expensive decorative elements are used in the design. Suitable textile wallpaper of various types, carpets. For this style, you can set not only wooden furniture, leather sofas will also look harmonious. Crystal chandeliers are best suited for lighting, they will perfectly fit into the interior and complement it.

Source pinterest.ca

Also, the style has another direction, which is called the Russian estate. Its features include:

Decoration of the building with relief and through carving.
Rooftop cladding.
Canopy under the porch.
Carved shutters and windows.
Landscapes and paintings depicting animals in pagan stylization are used for decoration.

To decorate a house in the Russian style, it is customary to use floral ornaments and antique furniture. To create the necessary atmosphere, wooden benches and large tables are installed as furniture. The table is decorated with bright tablecloths with embroidery and lace.

Video description

Learn more about the Russian style in this video:

Features of building a house

Usually, Russian-style houses are built on the basis of wood, but recently stone and brick have been used quite often. Russian stone buildings can be attributed to a separate type of architecture. The brick room is also decorated with various decorative elements. It has a higher strength, is not afraid of rain, moisture and harsh winters.

Source pinterest.com

Log cabin remains the most popular material for a Russian-style home. Construction is not particularly difficult, but has a number of features. For example, round logs are connected in a circle. The fastening element are special semicircular grooves. The logs are connected so that their end parts protrude 40 cm beyond the walls.

Other methods of joining logs can also be used: in a paw, which is made without protrusions outside the walls, and in a clasp. The clasp is made in the form of an inverted bowl. With this technique, a new log is laid with a recess on the previous one.

Russian house interior

The interiors of a Russian-style log house can vary quite a lot. The design can be done both in a rough and in a rich and luxurious style. Various decorations and objects are used as decorative elements. The design is chosen based on the personal tastes and preferences of the owner.

Source rmnt.ru

For two-storey houses an essential element is wooden staircase. It is decorated with various beautiful columns and patterns. Large stoves are often installed in living rooms. This allows you to achieve the effect of antiquity. There are not so many in one-story buildings free space, so installing a large oven in this case is not the best solution. As a replacement, you can use fireplaces decorated in the old Russian style. They take up much less space and become wonderful decoration supporting the overall style.

Wall decoration

For facing the walls of a house in the Russian style, it is best to use wood. If the room was built on the basis of a bar, additional wall cladding can be abandoned. Such a surface looks attractive without additional materials.

Source igenplan.ru

In addition to wood, you can use whitewash or paint to decorate the walls. Usually the walls are decorated with fabric or textured wallpaper with various pictures or patterns. It is best not to make the walls too dark, as the shade of the furniture should be a little darker.

Furniture selection

The Russian style of a house made of timber is created using furniture. It is necessary to use large wooden furniture that can be sheathed with a light cloth. A good solution would be lining with velor or other luxurious fabric.

The legs of chairs and tables are often decorated with carvings. Also often used artificial aging furniture. For the production of furniture, pine is usually chosen. This type of wood is of high quality, attractive shade and affordable price.

Source pinterest.co.uk

Also, a characteristic feature of furniture for the Russian style is simplicity. Cabinets, chests of drawers, shelves and headsets should not contain a large number of sections, drawers or shelves.

Lighting and decor

A good choice would be lighting fixtures in the form of candlesticks or lamps, they will look harmoniously with the rest of the decor. Beautiful lamps and wrought iron candlesticks will perfectly fit into the Russian style of home decoration.

As decorative elements and decorations, national items are usually used, which can be bought in various souvenir shops. To create a cozy atmosphere, you can use barrels, chests or caskets. Various plastic products are not recommended. Modern technical inventions will need to be additionally decorated so that they do not stand out from the general background.

Source artm.pro

It is customary to decorate ceramic and porcelain items with folk painting called Gzhel. It is a complex hand painting, which is done in blue on a white background. This design option will help achieve the desired effect.

To create an atmosphere of a fairy tale in the house, the interior can be diversified with popular prints. Lubok is a type of graphics, which is distinguished by the simplicity of the figures depicted and the original design.

A fairly common type of decor is Khokhloma. Often such a painting is done on a gold background. If it is applied to wood, then due to its features, the wood acquires the characteristics of ceramics.

Source yandex.ru

Conclusion

The Old Russian style can also be enriched with the help of blankets made on the basis of patches of various colors. To create a pleasant and comfortable atmosphere in the bedroom, you can arrange pillows beautifully.

Ecology of consumption. House: Lost in the forests of Chukhloma of stunning beauty is the ancient Russian house-tower of the village of Pogorelovo. Two storey with bay windows...

Old Russian house-terem

Lost in the forests of Chukhloma of stunning beauty is the ancient Russian house-tower of the village of Pogorelovo. The two-story wooden house with bay windows and a turret is truly unique and is definitely a fine example of wooden architecture, if not an architectural monument.

The old Russian house-terem in Pogorelovo is original in its eclecticism - a building with a complex volumetric layout, echoing the best examples country cottages in the Russian style, with incredibly rich interiors of the front rooms, at the same time it is completely practical from a village point of view - everything here is done according to the mind and everything is adapted for running a peasant economy.

Having passed the age of 100 years, the house has never been restored, thus retaining its original decor and original interior painting.

540 km from Moscow, between Suday and Chukhloma, there is a picturesque region stretching along the banks of the Viga River. Even 25 years ago, there was the village of Pogorelovo, the first written mention of which dates back to the beginning of the 17th century. Today, all that remains of the village is only the name and the skeletons of wooden log cabins.

But, not otherwise than by a miracle, on a small hill there is still a single surviving and living house.

This house was built in 1902-1903. local peasant-otkhodnik I.I. Polyashov.

The inhabitants of the village of Pogorelovo were state (state) peasants who could go to work (as opposed to appanage) or conduct a craft in their native land.

One of these otkhodniks was Ivan Ivanovich Polyashov, popularly nicknamed Polyash.

Ivan Ivanovich had artels of carpenters and carvers - he was engaged in the construction of country houses and small architectural forms in St. Petersburg and its environs, i.е. was a contractor.

The Terem is a 2-storey building, cut from logs, on a brick plinth and sheathed on the outside with calved timber.

The large volume is complicated on the facades by risalits, a bay window and a low turret; the roof is completed by a skylight and a mezzanine. The overhangs of the roof are decorated with sawn ornamental gaps, the openwork pattern of which resembles embroidery. The facades are decorated with an exquisite pattern of sawn carvings and several types of architraves of various shapes.

On the one hand, a 2-story utility part of the house was originally attached to the house (dismantled in 1973, now it looks like a veranda), which is typical of peasant houses in the northern region.

According to one version, the construction of this house was carried out by a German architect who helped Polyashov with a mill and a sawmill on the Viga River.

According to another, the design of the house was made by Polyashov himself, who in his lifetime built many dachas near St. Petersburg. This version seems to be more plausible.

The Pogorelovskiy Terem echoes the best examples of country cottages in the Russian style, with incredibly rich interiors of the front rooms.

On the main staircase you can immediately go up to the 2nd floor, where the living rooms and master bedrooms were located. But perhaps the most beautiful place in the whole house is the front hall.

So richly decorated, both in carving and painting, that if it weren’t for pastel colors, it would be full of eyes.

Just amazingly, a century later, all this has come down to us in its original form. And not somewhere in a large city, but in the real wilderness.

Although, after 1917, all agricultural equipment and cattle were taken away from the Polyashovs, they left the house to the family. Before collectivization, the family lived in their own house, after which Ivan Ivanovich and his family were left with only a small part of the house on the 1st floor, and the rest of the premises were occupied by different offices.

Polyashov died in his house, but his wife had to leave the village immediately after her husband's funeral.

While there was life in the village, the house housed Kindergarten, and a forest office, and a school.

But by the end of the 1960s, the village became unpromising.In 1972, the village council closed and left the Polyashovsky house.

The house would undoubtedly have disappeared if it weren't for sheer luck.A couple of Moscow avant-garde artists - Anatoly Zhigalov and Natalia Abalakova - made a kayaking trip along the Viga River that same summer and, quite by chance, noticed this house and bought it.

Since then only on your own Anatoly's house is at least somehow maintained. published . If you have any questions on this topic, ask them to specialists and readers of our project .

In the morning the sun was shining, but only the sparrows screamed loudly - a sure sign of a blizzard. In the twilight, frequent snow fell, and when the wind picked up, it blew so much that even an outstretched hand could not be seen. It raged all night, and the next day the storm did not lose strength. The hut was covered with snow to the top of the basement, on the street there are snowdrifts in human height - you can’t even get to the neighbors, but you can’t even get out of the outskirts of the village. But you don't need to go anywhere. Unless for firewood in a woodshed. There will be enough supplies in the hut for the whole winter. In the basement - barrels and tubs with pickles, cabbage, mushrooms and lingonberries, bags of flour, grain and bran for poultry and other living creatures, bacon and sausages on hooks, dried fish; in the cellar, potatoes and other vegetables are piled into piles. And there is order in the barnyard: two cows are chewing hay, with which the tier above them is littered to the roof, pigs are grunting behind a fence, a bird is dozing on a perch in a chicken coop fenced off in the corner. It's cool here, but there's no frost. Made of thick logs, carefully caulked walls do not let in drafts and keep the heat of the animals rotting manure and straw.

Wooden house with courtyard buildings in a Karelian village.

And in the hut itself, I don’t remember the frost at all - a hotly heated stove cools down for a long time. It’s just that the kids are bored: until the storm ends, you won’t get out of the house to play, to run. They lie on the floor, listen to fairy tales that grandfather tells ...

The most ancient Russian huts - until the 13th century - were built without a foundation, buried almost a third in the ground - it was easier to save heat that way. They dug a hole in which they began to collect crowns from logs. Plank floors were still far away, and they were left earthen.

A hearth was laid out of stones on a carefully rammed floor. In such a semi-dugout, people spent winters together with domestic animals, which were kept closer to the entrance. And there were no doors. A very small inlet - just to squeeze through - was covered from the winds and cold weather with a shield of half-logs and a cloth canopy.

In the center of Gorodets in the Nizhny Novgorod region, entire streets from wooden houses old building.

Centuries passed, and the Russian hut got out of the ground. Now it was placed on a stone foundation. And if on piles, then the corners rested on massive decks. Those who were richer made roofs from hemp, the poorer peasants covered the hut with wood chips. And the doors appeared on forged hinges, and the windows were cut through, and the size of the peasant buildings increased noticeably. The traditional huts are best known to us, as they were preserved in the villages of Russia from the western to the eastern limits. This is a five-wall hut, consisting of two rooms - a vestibule and a living room, or a six-wall, when the actual living room is divided into two by another transverse wall. Such huts were erected in villages until very recently.

Reconstruction of the northern Russian hut.

But peasant hut The Russian North was built differently. In fact, the northern hut is not just a house, but a complete life support module for a family of several people during a long, harsh winter and cold spring. A kind of space ship laid up, an ark that travels not in space, but in time - from heat to heat, from harvest to harvest. Human habitation, premises for livestock and poultry, stores of supplies - everything is under one roof, everything is protected by powerful walls. Is that a woodshed and barn-hayloft separately. So they are right there, in the fence, it is not difficult to break a path to them in the snow.

Such a dwelling was built in two tiers. The lower one is economic, there is a barnyard and a storehouse of supplies - a basement with a cellar. The upper one is the dwelling of people, the upper room (from the word mountainous, that is, high, because at the top). The warmth of the barnyard rises, people have known this since time immemorial. To get into the upper room from the street, the porch was made high. And, climbing it, I had to overcome a whole flight of stairs. But no matter how snowdrifts piled snowdrifts, they will not notice the entrance to the house. From the porch, the door leads to the canopy - a spacious vestibule, which is also a transition to other rooms. Various peasant utensils are stored here, and in the summer, when it gets warm, they sleep in the hallway. Because it's cold. Through the canopy you can go down to the barnyard, from here - the door to the upper room.

Residential hut, built of powerful logs more than a hundred years ago.

You just have to be careful when entering the chamber. To keep warm, the door was made low and the threshold high. Raise your legs higher and do not forget to bend down - an uneven hour will fill a bump on the lintel.

The spacious basement is located under the upper room, the entrance to it is from the barnyard. They made basements with a height of six, eight, or even ten rows of logs - crowns. And having started trading, the owner turned the basement not only into storage, but also into a village trading shop - he cut through a window-counter for buyers to the street. However, they were built differently. In the Vitoslavlitsy museum in Veliky Novgorod there is a hut in general like an ocean ship inside: behind street door moves and transitions to different compartments begin, and in order to get into the upper room, you need to climb a ladder-ladder under the very roof.

A hundred-year-old wooden hut on the shores of the White Sea.

You cannot build such a house alone. Therefore, in the northern rural communities, a hut for the young - a new family - was set up by the whole world. The whole village was building: together they chopped and hauled wood, sawed huge logs, laid wreath after wreath under the roof, together they rejoiced at what had been built. Only when wandering artels of artisan carpenters appeared did they begin to hire them to build housing.

From the outside, the northern hut seems huge, and there is only one living space in it - a room with an area of twenty meters, or even less. Everyone there lives together, old and young. There is a red corner in the hut, where icons and a lamp are hanging. The owner of the house sits here, guests of honor are also invited here.

The main place of the hostess is opposite the stove. It's called kut. And the narrow space behind the stove is a corner. From here came the expression to huddle in a nook - in a cramped corner or a tiny little room.

The most elegant and bright room in the hut is the room. Museum of Wooden Architecture "Small Korely" near Arkhangelsk.

“It’s light in my room ...” - is sung in a song that was popular not so long ago. Alas, long time it wasn't like that at all. For the sake of keeping warm, small windows in the upper room were cut down, they were covered with bull or fish bubbles or oiled canvas, which hardly let light through. Only in rich houses one could see mica windows. The plates of this layered mineral were fixed in curly bindings, which made the window look like a stained-glass window. By the way, there were even windows made of mica in the carriage of Peter I, which is kept in the collection of the Hermitage. In winter, plates of ice were inserted into the windows. They were carved on a frozen river or frozen in shape right in the yard. It came out brighter. True, it was often necessary to prepare new “ice glasses” instead of melting ones. Glass appeared in the Middle Ages, but how construction material the Russian village recognized him only in the 19th century.

Upper room in a residential hut in Karelia.

For a long time, in rural and even in urban huts, stoves were laid without pipes. Not because they didn’t know how or didn’t think of it, but all for the same reasons - how best to save heat. No matter how you block the pipe with dampers, the frosty air still penetrates from the outside, chilling the hut, and the stove has to be heated much more often. The smoke from the stove got into the upper room and went out only through small smoke windows under the very ceiling, which were opened for the duration of the firebox. And although the stove was heated with well-dried "smokeless" logs, there was enough smoke in the upper room. That is why the huts were called black or chicken. Pipes appeared only in the XV-XVI centuries, and even then where the winters were not too severe. Huts with a pipe were called white. But at first they did not make pipes of stone, but knocked down from wood, which often became the cause of a fire. Only at the beginning of the 18th century did Peter I order a special decree in city houses new capital- St. Petersburg, stone or wooden, to install stoves with stone pipes. Later, in the huts of wealthy peasants, in addition to Russian stoves in which food was prepared, Dutch stoves brought to Russia by Peter I began to appear, convenient for their small size and very high heat transfer. Nevertheless, stoves without chimneys continued to be laid in the northern villages until the end of the 19th century.

The main thing in the hut is the Russian stove. She will warm, and feed, and put to sleep.

The oven, she and the warmest sleeping place - a couch, traditionally belonging to the oldest in the family. A wide shelf stretches between the wall and the stove - a shelf. It is also warm there, so the children were put to sleep on the bed. Parents were located on the benches, and even on the floor; the bed time has not yet come.

The architecture of the Russian hut gradually changed and became more complex. There were more living quarters. In addition to the vestibule and the upper room, a room appeared in the house - a really bright room with two or three large windows already with real glasses. Now most of the family's life took place in the room, and the upper room served as a kitchen. The light was heated by rear wall ovens. And wealthy peasants divided the vast residential log cabin of the hut with two crosswise walls, thus blocking four rooms. Even a large Russian stove could not heat the entire room, and here it was necessary to put an additional Dutch stove in the room farthest from it.

Bad weather rages for a week, and under the roof of the hut it is almost inaudible. Everything goes on as usual. The hostess has the most trouble: in the early morning to milk the cows and pour grain for the birds. Then steam the bran for the pigs. Bring water from a village well - two buckets on a yoke, one and a half pounds with a total weight! But this is not a man's business, it has been so customary from time immemorial. Yes, you have to cook food, feed your family. Kids, of course, help in any way they can.

Three-tiered Russian hut. Museum of Wooden Architecture "Vitoslavlitsy" in Veliky Novgorod.

In the large northern hut, the residential half and outbuildings were located under one roof. A platform was often built to the doors of the hayloft, along which horses brought hay in carts.

Men have fewer worries in winter. The owner of the house - the breadwinner - works tirelessly all summer. He plows, mows, reaps, threshes, cuts, saws, builds, gets fish and forest animals. From dawn to dawn. As it works, so his family will live until the next warm weather. Because winter for men is a time of rest. Of course, without male hands indispensable: fix what needs to be repaired, chop and bring firewood into the house, clean and walk the horse. And in general, there are many things that neither a woman nor children can do.

The northern huts, cut down by skillful hands, stood for centuries. Generations changed, and the ark-houses still remained a reliable refuge in the harsh natural conditions. Only the mighty logs darkened with time. In the museums of wooden architecture "Vitoslavlitsy" in Veliky Novgorod and "Small Korely" near Arkhangelsk there are huts, the age of which has exceeded one and a half centuries. Ethnographers searched for them in abandoned villages and ransomed them from the owners who moved to the cities. Then they were carefully dismantled, transported to the museum territory and restored in their original form. This is how they appear before numerous sightseers who come to Veliky Novgorod and Arkhangelsk.

FURNACE FROM PETER I

The Dutch stove (Dutch, Galanka) appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 18th century. Peter I brought the first ten such stoves from Holland. Very soon, in their image and likeness, they began to lay stoves in Russian houses. Compared to the Russian oven, the Dutch oven had considerable advantages - modest dimensions (width 1 m, depth up to 2 m) and high heat transfer due to winding smoke channels, in which hot air completely gave off heat, heating the bricks. A well-heated stove in cold weather heated a small house for 12 hours.

Dutch stoves were lined with beautiful tiles or patterned tiles. Quite quickly, they gained such popularity that they significantly pressed the traditional furnace structures especially in city houses. And today, many homeowners in rural areas prefer to heat their homes with stoves of this particular type.

Such Dutch stoves began to be laid in Russian houses at the beginning of the 18th century.

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crate- rectangular one-room log house without attachments
most often 2 × 3 m.

Cage with oven- hut.

basement(podklet, podizbitsa) - the lower floor of the building, located under the cage and used for household purposes.

If we need to scare readers, the surest way is to use the fear of the unknown.

When people face inexplicable phenomenon, even fictional, they automatically have the reaction we need.

Method 1. “Wrong” color

Imagine a hospital room painted blood red. How about a dirty swamp-colored children's room? Tiles in the kitchen - with cheerful scarlet peas, suspiciously resembling drops of blood ... A sweet girl with white pupils - like a boiled fish ...

All this looks “wrong”, and therefore disturbs the subconscious of the reader.

Method 2. Inconsistency with the place or situation

Let's say the protagonist enters the room - into the most ordinary room, looks around and suddenly discovers ... something. For example, a small piece of meat dried to the wall or a doorknob screwed not to the door, but to the wall.

A suspicious object simultaneously arouses both curiosity and anxiety, and it is already difficult for the reader to tear himself away from the book - he wants to know what will happen next.

Method 3: Suspicious activities

Actions and sounds that clearly do not correspond to the usual order of things act on our subconscious in a similar way, but only to an even greater extent. If something moves “incorrectly”, a “danger signal” instantly lights up in our brain.

Imagine that the surface of the table you are sitting at suddenly starts to bubble and crack. All this is scary only because it is inexplicable (well, the table, of course, is a pity - after all, it costs money).

Dig into your nightmares: what scared you the most? I once dreamed that all my dog's teeth fell out at once.

Method 4. Sinister item

There are a number of items that, by definition, look suspicious to our subconscious:

Mirrors (as a portal to another reality)
Thick curtains (who knows what lies behind them)
locked doors
Dirty, disheveled dolls (our subconscious does not like childhood to be associated with decline, death and decay).
Sink or basin with suspicious liquid
Broken railing at high altitude

Things related to death and pain

Attributes of funeral and mourning
syringes
Dirty bandages
Bones
blood stains
dead plants
Artificial flowers (a trifle, but rather symbolic)

Anything related to sinister superstitions

crows
Black Cats
Number 13
Ugly old men and women, like evil sorcerers

Everything related to abandoned housing

Ruins
abandoned houses
Thick layer of dust
cracked glass
boarded up doors

Method 5. Associations and metaphors

You can focus readers' attention on objects that serve as a warning to the hero. It can be, for example, a dead butterfly stuck in a web, or a flashing bright red sign over a locked door - “No way out”.

Method 6. Words-keys

Many words in Russian carry a “gloomy charge”. By themselves, such words will not scare anyone, but in combination with the right images, they can have a very powerful effect. For example:

Slimy
Gloomy
Uterine
Mogilny
Moldy
Creepy, etc.

Make a list of adjectives and adverbs related to threat, anxiety, death, and decay, and you have a “horror vocabulary” that you can adapt to your story.

Method 7. Playing on ancient human instincts

Darkness, night forest, cemeteries, eyes of a predator glowing in the dark, dim lighting, smells of decay, etc. by definition cause fear in a person.

It may sound trite, but it works, because we will not get away from instincts that are many thousands of years old. Everything that frightened our distant ancestors, clinging to the fire in the darkness of the cave, still frightens us.

If you want to show readers a creepy place, describe it from the point of view of a character who already perceives the world in a certain way. He does not notice everything in a row, but only what has a special, sinister meaning for him.

It is one thing if your reader looks at what is happening from the point of view of an outside observer, and quite another if he has got used to the image of the hero and worries about him as for himself.