Forest crafts wood processing in Bashkiria. Bashkir arts and crafts: historical and cultural specifics
The fossil wealth of Bashkiria, especially non-ferrous metals, iron and building materials, has long been widely used in the economy of the local population. The Bashkirs knew many ore places; they were familiar with primitive methods of metal processing. There is evidence that in the first quarter of the 18th century. the Bashkirs of the Nogai road smelted cast iron and iron; Bashkirs living along the river. Ay, they were developing silver ore, from which they made jewelry for horse harness. The Iletsk salt deposit was discovered by the Bashkirs even before joining the Russian state. In a number of areas Southern Urals the population was engaged in the search for gold placers. However, exploitation natural resources had a very small scale and barely went beyond domestic crafts.
More intensive development of minerals in the South Urals began in mid-eighteenth V. In the 40s XVIII years V. Russian entrepreneurs built the Voskresensky (Tabynsky) plant - the first industrial enterprise on the territory of Bashkiria. Following Voskresensky, Preobrazhensky, Verkhotorsky, Arkhangelsky, Upper and Lower Avzyansky-Petrovsky, Beloretsky, Tirlyansky, Zigazinsky and other plants appeared. They were mainly employed by Russian peasants, who were taken out by the factory owners from the central provinces of Russia. At the same time, the Bashkir population also played a significant role in the development of the mining industry. Entire Bashkir auls of the northern Cis-Ural regions were involved in prospecting and ore mining. From among the Bashkirs, a kind of fishing group of miners emerged, whose services were used by entrepreneurs and factory owners. The development of some ore deposits was entirely in the hands of the Bashkirs. They sold the mined ore to nearby factories. For example, the Bashkirs of the Taininskaya volost concentrated in their hands the supply of copper ore to the neighboring Polevskoy plant. History has preserved the name of the Bashkir owner of the mines, Izmail Tasimov, who became famous for his petition in 1771 to the Senate to open a school for the training of mining specialists in the Southern Urals. To a lesser extent, the semi-nomadic pastoral population of the south and east was involved in the commercial life of the region, but in these areas, as nomadic pastoralism declined and the majority of the population was ruined, otkhodnye crafts associated with various auxiliary factory work began to develop.
The reforms of the 1860s, which cleared the way for capitalism, contributed to the more intensive industrial development of Bashkiria. The expansion of mining and metallurgical production, which needed wood fuel, led to the emergence of the timber industry. Since the end of the 19th century the amount of timber harvested made it possible not only to meet the needs of local factories, but also to export it far beyond the Urals.
The factory industry associated with the processing of agricultural raw materials began to develop rapidly. Small flour-grinding, distilleries, vodka, tanneries, fat-roasting and other factories sprang up everywhere.
The development of industry was accompanied by the formation of the working class. It was based on Russian peasants freed from serfdom and previously assigned to factories. Gradually, tens of thousands of bankrupt peasants from neighboring villages and among them there are many Bashkirs. The Bashkirs most often worked in the timber industry, in mines and gold mines, in much lesser degree V metallurgical industry and small enterprises for the processing of agricultural raw materials. At factories, the Bashkirs were used mainly for various auxiliary work that did not require qualifications: charcoal burning, transportation of ore, firewood, etc.
However, the involvement of the Bashkir population in industrial production was held back by the long-term preservation of a semi-nomadic way of life over a large area, and most importantly, the remnants of feudal-patriarchal relations. Even at the beginning of the 20th century only 13.5 thousand Bashkirs were employed in permanent jobs in industry. True, every year, under the pressure of need and hunger, the Bashkirs were hired for seasonal work: logging and rafting of timber, transportation of ore, and gold mining. Only the Pimenovs and Shchetinins, the lumberjacks, recruited up to 5-6 thousand workers from the Bashkir villages along the banks of the Ik and Sura.
The situation of workers in the factories and factories of Bashkiria was extremely difficult. Workers in South Urals enterprises earned two to three times less than workers in metallurgical plants in southern Russia. The money earned was barely enough to pay fines and cover debts to shopkeepers. Factory and especially mine workers, together with their families, lived in old dugouts or plank barracks; only some factories had small rural-type settlements. In an even worse situation were the Bashkir workers, who were subjected not only to capitalist exploitation, but also to national oppression. in the water, to work 14 hours a day.There were no dwellings at the summer logging sites.People died from exhaustion and hunger, but they could not leave work, as they had to work out the deposit received from the entrepreneur in the spring.At the factories, the working day of the Bashkirs lasted 16-17 “A Bashkirian,” we read in one of the reports to the Orenburg Governor-General, “is becoming a serf in the hands of the factory administration, from whom it tries to extract as much benefit as possible, not caring whether his physical strength will endure the labors imposed on him or not ". Difficult working conditions, cruel exploitation led to the strong solidarity of the Bashkirs with the Russian workers, which was repeatedly manifested in many joint performances against the arbitrariness of breeders and manufacturers.
Industrial development of Bashkiria in late XIX- early XX century. r its scale and direction were determined, on the one hand, by the low level of development of capitalism in Russia, and on the other hand, by the peculiar position of the Urals as an internal colony of tsarism. The existence of mining plants and mines in the Southern Urals, the emergence of timber, light and food industries did not turn Bashkiria into a developed industrial region of Russia: the share of industry in the total production of the economy of Bashkiria before the revolution was only 13%.
With the victory of the October Socialist Revolution, broad prospects opened up for the most rational use natural resources of Bashkiria. All plants, factories and mines have passed into the hands of the working people. From now on, the free worker has become not only the creator, but also the owner material assets. However, the young Bashkir Republic inherited from the past an economy destroyed by the war. In the Southern Urals, which became the arena of the struggle against the counter-revolutionary gangs of Dutov, Kolchak and local nationalists, almost all factories and factories were stopped, mines and mines were flooded, and the surviving equipment was taken out by the White Guards during the retreat. The industry of the republic actually had to be created anew. The pre-war level of industrial development in Bashkiria was reached in 1928.
The Communist Party and the Soviet government, the Russian people rendered the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic enormous assistance in industrialization. In just a decade, starting from 1929, about 2 billion rubles were received by the economy of the republic from the all-Union budget, most of which was used in industry and transport. The construction of many large industrial enterprises, in particular the Ufa cracking plant, was announced people's construction projects of national importance. The large factories of the country supplied them with the necessary equipment and machines, sent their engineers and technicians; skilled workers arrived in Bashkiria from Moscow, Leningrad and other cities. At the same time, many Bashkirs were trained at enterprises in central cities. .Thanks to the help of the entire Soviet people, Bashkiria is already in prewar years turned into a developed industrial republic.
Modern Bashkiria is one of the major industrial regions of the country. The industrial appearance of the republic is determined by the petrochemical industry. IN post-war period dozens of new oil fields, among which are such large ones as Shkapovskoye, Belebeevskoye, Arlanskoye, Sergeevskoye. In terms of oil production, Bashkiria was far ahead of oil-producing Azerbaijan and became the center of the “Second Baku”. The republic ranks first in the Soviet Union in oil refining. A large number of chemical products are produced by large Novo-Ufimsky and Novo-Ishimbaysky oil refineries, Sterlitamaksky soda-cement plant. In the general plan for the struggle for "great chemistry", adopted by the May Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1958, Bashkiria was assigned one of the first places. Already in 1962, the construction of the first stage of the petrochemical giant, the Sterlitamak synthetic rubber plant, was completed in the republic, the construction of the Ufa synthetic alcohol plant was being completed, and a number of production facilities were launched at the Salavat petrochemical plant.
The industrial branch centers of the republic were determined. Ferrous metallurgy is developing in the east (Beloretsk, Tilyan). The center of the coal industry is the south. The oil refining industry covers the central, western and northwestern regions. The timber industry is concentrated mainly in the northern and eastern regions - along the banks of Ufa and Belaya. The main machine-building and chemical enterprises are located in the cities of the central zone: Ufa, Sterlitamak, Ishimbay, Salavat, Blagoveshchensk. The products of enterprises of Bashkiria come to almost all economic regions Soviet Union and in many foreign countries. By 1962, the gross output of large-scale industry had grown 214 times as compared with 1913.
Grandiose achievements in the field of industry are facilitated by the widespread use of local energy resources. A large amount of energy is provided by gas-fired thermal power plants; in 1960, the construction of the Pavlovskaya hydroelectric power station on the river. Ufa is one of the largest power plants in the Urals. At present, twice as much electricity is generated in Bashkiria as in 1913 in all of tsarist Russia.
The development of a powerful industry is accompanied by the growth of local workers. Already by 1958, more than 800 thousand workers and employees were employed at the enterprises, of which almost 30% were representatives of the indigenous nationality. The influx of the Bashkir population into industry especially increased in last decade. Accordingly, the proportion of the Bashkir population in the cities and workers' settlements of the republic is growing rapidly. Bashkirs work in the most important areas National economy People: in the workshops of factories, in oil fields, in mines, construction teams, etc. Many of them are in charge of individual production sections, workshops and laboratories. A great achievement is the formation of a national! technical intelligence. Many Bashkir engineers and technicians, trained by the country's higher and secondary educational institutions, work at factories, factories and construction sites.
During the years of Soviet power, working conditions at industrial enterprises have changed dramatically. Regulated seven-, and in hazardous industries, six- and five-hour working days, extensive use of technology, the introduction of integrated automation and dispatching, strictly< соблюдение санитарно-гигиенических условий намного повысили культу ру производства, значительно облегчили труд. Автоматизация основные процессов на многих нефтяных промыслах позволила при сохранении кру глосуточного производства организовать основные работы в дневное время
At the enterprises of Bashkiria, the movement of innovators, fighters for technical progress, is growing. Many workers regularly study! technical literature, study at schools of advanced labor methods at correspondence and evening departments of technical schools and institutes. In recent years, a struggle has unfolded among the workers for the title of shock workers of the 1st collectives of communist labor. More than 3 thousand workers' brigades of the republic joined this struggle, hundreds of them have already been awarded this honorary title; The movement is growing rapidly, capturing entire enterprises and even cities.
The way of life of workers has changed radically. The workers and their families live in bright, comfortable apartments. Non-family people live in factory dormitories, in spacious rooms for two to four people. The enterprise provides great assistance to working families consumer services, canteens, factory nurseries, kindergartens. There are clubs and libraries attached to plants and factories. In their free time from slavery, workers study in various educational institutions, I visit] people's universities of culture, circles of current politics, creative mugs, sport sections.
Home production and crafts
Most of the Bashkir crafts before the revolution did not go beyond home production. Weaving, knitting, sewing shoes and clothes, processing skins, dressing leather, wool. almost every Bashkir household was engaged in the manufacture of leather (in the steppe southern regions) or wooden (in the forest area) dishes. Clothes and shoes were made only by women. The manufacture of leather and wooden utensils was the business of men.
The processing of livestock products occupied a large place in the Bashkir cattle breeding economy. With the transition to agriculture, these industries gradually lost their former importance. The skins of the Bashkirs were processed in the same way as many other pastoral peoples: they were cleaned of the remnants of meat and dried in the sun in a stretched form, then rubbed with fresh cheese (yesh korol) and fermented for several days. Sheepskins for sewing outerwear were smoked for two weeks in special dugouts from two rooms connected by chimneys; in one room (sokor) pieces of rotten wood smoldered, in another (ydtyk) skins were hung up. In a similar way processed and leather. The Bashkirs did not use tanning. Skins for making dishes were sewn together, filled with ash and dried. After the vessels acquired a certain shape, they were smoked. The smoke was used to treat leather, from which shoes and belts were made.
Sheep wool was used to make woven ornamented carpets (balads), cloth, knitwear, felt for shoes, stockings and hats, and felt kosh (keye$). Felt was felt by hand, laying the wool between two mats. In the southern regions, mats were tied around a shaft to which a horse was harnessed and rolled on the ground until the felt fell off.
Wool was used for weaving, as well as threads obtained from vegetable fibers: nettle, wild hemp, later - from cultural hemp and fiber flax. On looms with two or more shafts, which moved with the help of steps, weaved cloth and carpets, simple and patterned canvas. Clothes were sewn from homespun canvas and motley, towels, curtains, tablecloths and napkins were made.
A large place in the Bashkir battle was occupied by wooden products, especially dishes. The Bashkirs did not know pottery. Ladles, bowls, spoons, scoops, etc. were hollowed out of birch growth and burl-root. They also made dishes with a false bottom: vessels of various sizes for storing food, tubs and buckets.
The Bashkirs have long been familiar with metalworking. Products of Bashkir blacksmiths, gunsmiths were distributed among the population of the surrounding villages. Bashkir blacksmiths were engaged not only in forging metal, but also in fine jewelry work. Separate household items, metal parts of horse harness, weapons, skillfully decorated with chasing, engraving and blackening, have been preserved. But since the 16th century, when the tsarist government, frightened by the popular movement in the Southern Khral, forbade the Bashkirs to have forges, the jewelry craft began to disappear, and in the 19th century. rare Bashkir jewelers were engaged only in the manufacture of simple women's jewelry from silver and coins.
In the 19th century Under the influence of the industrial development that began in the region, crafts related to wood processing became widespread: charcoal burning, tar race, tar smoking, the manufacture of rims, arcs, sledges, carts, wheels, weaving of mats. From the second half of the 19th century, when cattle breeding lost its former role in the economy of the Bashkirs, forestry became the main occupation of the Bashkir population in many villages in mountainous regions.
The penetration of commodity-money relations into the Bashkir village led to the development in some areas of a rather narrow specialization of handicraftsmen. So, in vil. Tokiyevo, Ufa district, 103 yards were engaged exclusively in cooperage, selling products to visiting buyers. The centers for the production of wooden utensils were the eastern part of the Sterlitamak district and the Birsky district of the Ufa province. These products were sold at local fairs, through buyers they entered the central Russian markets. At the beginning of the XX century. handicrafts-Bashkirs appeared, engaged in carpentry. The harvesting of timber, log cabins for building houses and selling them to the treeless regions of Bashkiria became almost the only means of subsistence for many Bashkir families along the banks of the river. Inzer and in the upper Belaya.
IN Soviet time factory products - clothing, shoes, fabrics, household utensils, furniture - gradually replaced household and handicraft products. Now it is difficult to meet leather craftsmen, woodcarvers, and jewelers in the Bashkir villages. Despite the fact that many Bashkir women know how to sew clothes, factory-made products are preferred. At the same time, objects of artistic weaving continue to occupy a firm place in the Bashkir folk life. In the north of the republic, decorative towels, tablecloths, and curtains are woven; in the west and south - mostly carpets, in the southeast - shawls. In Ufa, there is an Artistic Combine that produces tufted and lint-free carpets, panels, and runners. Artists and craftswomen of the plant widely use the Bashkir folk ornament in their work. Folk motifs are also reflected in the products of the Ufa factory of stitched products. In the south of Bashkiria, in the Zianchurinsky district, a workshop has been created where folk knitters and weavers are busy making downy and woolen shawls.
Knitting is still widely developed. Socks, mittens, shawls, scarves are knitted from goat down and sheep wool. Further development was received by crafts associated with wood processing. In the mountain-forest regions there are many workshops for the manufacture of rims, wheels, sledges, carts. Joiners and carpenters are united in collective-farm building brigades. A factory of Bashkir souvenirs has been created in Birsk, producing carved and painted wooden (from birch burl) jars for honey, caskets, snuff boxes, women's jewelry, etc.
Fighting. For an inexperienced person, this word is usually associated with history. Ancient Rus', and like many occupations of bygone days, the ancient craft itself seems to have disappeared without a trace. However, this is by no means the case.
Reference: Beekeeping is the original form of beekeeping, based on keeping bees in tree hollows to obtain honey.
In the very heart of Russia, on the territory of modern Bashkortostan, a corner has been preserved where even today honey is extracted in the old way: with the help of a beet. Bort is a hive of the simplest device: a hollow or hollowed out block.
The Shulgan-Tash reserve on the territory of the Burzyansky district of the republic was created specifically to preserve the unique form of beekeeping, which has been known in these parts since the seventeenth century. If we turn to history, then Bashkiria was famous for its success in beekeeping from the very beginning. “There is hardly a people that could surpass the Bashkirs in beekeeping,” wrote the well-known geographer and official Pyotr Rychkov in the eighteenth century about the achievements of the local population in beekeeping. In the 18th-19th centuries, almost every Bashkir family had its own sides and hollows. And to avoid confusion, the owners of bee colonies marked their trunks and decks with the help of a special nominal sign - tamga. Borti in those days were valued by the Bashkirs no worse than real estate is valued today. When giving away their patrimony as a quitrent, they stipulated the cost of the boards separately: "... for each tree, 10 kopecks worth, and 50 kopecks for a living bee, and where the bee sat for a ruble, and for the removed top and customs a tree for 5 kopecks, and for a self-carrier for 6 rubles. "Effective tree" meant a new board, "living bee" - that was the name of the board with bees, "where the bee sat" - a board that had previously been inhabited by bees, "a removed top and a local tree" - a tree prepared to be made in it board. The unique craft almost disappeared in these parts in the middle of the 20th century. However, the advantages of the ancient method of extracting honey were appreciated in time and the conditions for its prosperity were preserved.
Gift of wild bees: field honey.
For the development of airborne fishing, a rare combination in nature is needed: hectares of linden forest in combination with tall pine. It is these unique forest tracts that have been preserved in the Burzyansky district of Bashkiria.
Another condition for the restoration of an unusual form of beekeeping was the preservation of the wild honey bee population, which has already become an inhabitant of the Red Book of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The wild honey bee, which is called “kyr korto” in these parts, is a special population of bees of the Central Russian breed, formed in climatic conditions Southern Urals.
Currently, this population exists only in the Burzyansky district of the Republic of Bashkortostan, for which these bees are often called "burzyanka". Wild bees live in hollows in colonies (families) of up to 80-100 thousand individuals. Large, one and a half times more than ordinary bees, the wild Bashkir bee is distinguished by a dark gray color with the absence of any yellowness familiar to bees. It is this variety of bees that is genetically adapted to life in "wild" conditions: they are not spoiled by human help and are able to independently survive fifty-degree frosts, they are distinguished by strong immunity, enviable performance and a very spiteful disposition. The inhabitants of the hollow hive are capable in two weeks - that short term that linden blossoms - prepare from 5 to 15 kilograms of honey! During the period of honey collection, a wild bee works with enviable diligence: it flies from early morning until late in the evening, and even bad weather is not perceived by it as a good reason to rest. It was not easy to save the airborne fishery, primarily because it was not easy to save the population of wild honey bees. It was impossible to allow the complete ruin of the boards: in the event of taking all the stored honey, the bee colony was doomed to starvation in winter. In addition, the peculiarities of the reproduction of the Burzyanka turned the need to preserve its tribal purity into a non-trivial task. Wild bees leave for mating 17 kilometers from the nest - with such a feature, it is almost impossible to avoid the cross breeding process, since apiaries with domestic bees roam very close to the reserve. However, the scientists managed not only to preserve the Burzyanka, but also to bring out even several daughter populations of the Bashkir bee on the territory of the reserve. Work in breeding apiaries and breeding laboratories continues.
Both specialists of the reserve and the local population are engaged in the revival of onboard beekeeping. The work of a modern bortevik-beekeeper practically does not differ from the work of his "historical" colleagues.
For the device of the board, which in Bashkir is called "solok", a tall and thick-stemmed pine is selected: with a diameter of about a meter. Putting on soft shoes and tied with a special braided belt to a tree, the boarder climbs along the notches made to a height of 12-15 meters with the help of special devices. Yes, wild bees love heights! Perhaps this is historically determined: the higher the bee colony settles, the more likely it is to avoid ruin - the "poaching" of a bear or marten could end for the tireless workers in a hungry winter.
Having reached the level at which it was decided to make a hollow, the beekeeper ties a special “lyange” stand to the tree, leaning on it, he can work steadily at a height. The hollow hollowed out in the trunk communicates with external environment two holes: a small notch - an entrance / exit for bees and a long one - a slot that is closed with a damper and through which the beekeeper can inspect the bee and select honey. An artificial hollow, the diameter of which can reach 60-80 centimeters, is carefully scraped out, removed from the inside with dry wood and left to dry well for a year or two. After about this time, a new bee family will move into a clean and dry room with excellent thermal insulation properties. Demanding new settlers need a summer entrance to the south, clean water and a rich forage base nearby. In addition, borteviks also have their own old, time-tested methods of luring buzzing residents into hollows: rubbing them with fragrant herbs, gluing pieces of honeycombs, etc. A well-made board can last more than a century and a half!
In autumn, when you need to get honey, the beekeeper acts in the same way: he climbs the tree with the help of a belt and notches (bees, surprisingly, do not worry) and, having secured himself at the right height with the help of a stand, works like an ordinary beekeeper: he fumigates the inhabitants of the bee , takes out honeycombs, etc.
Along with hollow bead boards, wild bee breeders widely use bee boards. The hollow is hollowed out in a piece of the trunk of an old tree according to all the rules for arranging a board, and then this beehive deck is tied to a growing tree at a height loved by wild bees: 6-15 meters. This method of beekeeping allows you to increase the number of bees on the territory suitable for this trade and at the same time not injure healthy trees.
Currently, on the territory of the Bashkir reserve, about 800 families of the Burzyan bee live in the conditions of wild beekeeping and in natural tree hollows. The interest in the revival of wild-hive fishing is not accidental: wild-hive honey was rated as the most environmentally friendly product with pronounced healing properties. It differs from honey from frame hives both in color and in taste. Traditionally, wild honey is dark brown in color, as it is saturated with wax and bee bread. Perga is the pollen of flowers, processed by the secretions of bee glands and intended for feeding the brood. Wild honey is especially valued for its maturity: since wild bees are disturbed by humans only once a year, closer to autumn, the honey has time to ripen properly. Availability a large number trace elements, the absence of harmful impurities and a particularly tart taste and delicate aroma make this honey an expensive, but highly valuable delicacy. The craft, which only yesterday seemed like an atavism, is gradually becoming profitable business. Wild honey is recognized as one of the Seven Wonders of Bashkortostan. Today, the Shulgan-Tash Reserve, located on the territory of Bashkiria, is considered the only place in the world where beekeeping has been preserved, and therefore the only region where you can taste real wild honey.
Subsistence farming by the Bashkirs required the development of home production. Many different adaptations required cattle breeding. Let's say a different harness is required to control a horse. It is necessary to make bridles, halters, a halter rein, a harness, reins, a collar, an arc and much more. All this was made by hand at home from improvised materials. In each Bashkir aul there were masters in the manufacture of saddles. The saddles consisted of a wooden frame, usually covered in leather. This frame of a special configuration could be solid, or it could consist of four parts, fastened with straps: from the front and rear pommel, as well as two tree planks. Lenchik itself could be solid, semi-cylindrical. Each master sought to give a different configuration of the pommel of the saddle (say, the shape of a bird's head). Ornamentation of the front pommel with incised patterns of spirals and rosettes was used.
Men's, women's and children's saddles were somewhat different from each other. A sweatshirt was made from a thick felt, most often using goat hair. A felt saddlecloth with a leather or cloth top was superimposed on a sweatshirt, and a saddle was installed on the saddlecloth. Saddlecloths also carried an aesthetic load, it was customary to decorate them with colored appliqué or embroidery. Saddle accessories include stirrups, mostly iron or brass, forged or brass. Wooden stirrups (bent, solid, carved) were made from birch, birch root, bird cherry. Often, wooden stirrups were ornamented using notched lines, dotted dots, etc.
The manufacture of leather dishes from the skins of horses, bulls, cows and calves, sheep and goats, as well as camels was widespread among the Bashkirs. From the removed skin, the remains of fat and meat were carefully removed, then dried and the wool was removed. Details of the vessel were cut out from the stretched skin. For sewing the vessel, cow tendons or horsehair were used. They sewed with dense stitches, the bottom of the vessel was attached with a double seam. The outer side of the skins became inside vessel. Next, the vessel had to be hardened in smoke (smoked) for 2-3 weeks, then lubricated with horse fat. Then the vessel became completely waterproof.
The most voluminous leather vessel, containing 6-12 buckets of liquid, is haba (saba), which was made from the skin of a horse's body. This vessel was a tetrahedral pyramid with a rectangular base, its wide neck was covered with a leather cover. The specific shape of the saba was achieved due to the fact that triangular wedges were sewn into the side parts. Saba was used for the preparation and maintenance of koumiss. In saba, mare's milk was periodically churned with a large wooden stubble (beshkek) with a heavy mushroom-shaped base. This contributed to a better, more uniform souring of milk.
Saba occupied an exceptional place in the life of the Bashkir family. It was located in a special permanent place in the dwelling. There is a well-known custom of saying goodbye to a young bride before leaving her parental home for the house of her future husband: she approaches the saba, hugs her and thanks her for feeding her. As a gift, the girl hangs a piece of canvas or string on the sub.
Another type of leather vessel, turgyk (tursyk, tursuk), was used to transport koumiss. Going on the road, the Bashkirs took with them a tursyk with koumiss. For the manufacture of tursyk, skins from the upper part of the legs of young animals, most often horses, were used. The vessel was sewn together from two pieces with seams on the sides. The neck of the vessel was slightly narrowed, and belt loops were attached to the shoulder protrusions. There were tursyks with sewn-in side triangular wedges. Tursyk usually contained 2-3 buckets of koumiss.
A different type of vessel was made from horse or cow skin - a travel flat flask with a narrow bottom - murtai. This vessel has a flattened pear-shaped shape, ears are sewn at the neck for attaching straps. The back and front walls of the flask are semi-oval, a wedge-shaped strip of leather is inserted between them. Murtai could be of various sizes, usually it was made 30-35 centimeters high. Vessel medium size burgyk (bursyk, wineskin) was sewn from the whole skin of a sheep, goat or calf.
In the life of the Bashkir family, wooden utensils were widespread, which almost completely replaced leather utensils by the beginning of the 20th century. Bashkir craftsmen made numerous and varied types of utensils by chiselling a single piece of wood. Whole-cut tableware and kitchen utensils were made from the trunk of a linden, from the root of a birch and larch, from the growth of willow and birch.
Homemade wooden bowls for food were varied. For example, a round bowl with a handle - a ledge (ashlau) has sloping walls from the inside. Less sloping outer walls pass into the base. The handle has the shape of a semicircle or a vertically located corner; often the handle is cut in the shape of a snake or a bird's head. Ashlau was often used as a ritual bowl. Large festive ashlaus could even reach one meter in diameter.
Ordinary everyday utensils (tobacco) have the shape of a plate with a stable bottom and a wide bent edge. A round dish with sloping low walls and a bent wide edge was called a koshtabak. It served boiled meat and poultry, as well as noodles, poured with fat. The soup was served in a medium-sized bowl on a heavy massive base with thickened sheer walls (altyr). Craftsmen also made a deep wooden bowl with two handles.
Drink bowls were made. In deep large bowls with a capacity of 4-5 liters, it was customary to take out drinks to the place of the meal. The drink was poured with a special wooden ladle for each guest into small bowls (tustak, tagayak, tustagan). These ladles and scoops could be carved, capacious, with a short or elongated handle, etc.
Small wooden bowls were used to feed children. Milk and mead were drunk from such dishes, honey, butter, sweets were served on the table. Vessels for honey had a specific shape. Some vases were cut out in the form of deep bowls with a lid. Others were sloping bowls on a patterned stand.
A variety of kitchen utensils were made from wood. Special trays (yulpys, yulpych) were used for airing grain, sifting flour, kneading dough. They were made from half a thick tree trunk by chiselling. Long (up to 80 centimeters), they retain the rounded shape of the tree. Their side walls are sloping, narrow edges gradually turn into protrusions - handles at both ends of the tray. A similar product - a dugout trough (yalgash) was used to store food or wash clothes, or to feed livestock and poultry.
For peeling millet, crushing dried grains of wheat and barley, grinding salt, wooden mortars (keels) were used. They have an elongated upper part, which gradually narrows down and rests on a thick lower base. The height of the keel reaches 75 centimeters, but its working part is very small. The keel was cut down from an elongated tree stump. A double-sided pestle with a recess in the middle for a hand was made from a pole.
Among the elements of wooden kitchen utensils made by Bashkir craftsmen are chef's spoons, scoops and spatulas. Spoons had different purposes. For example, long-handled ladles were used to stir food during cooking. Such a ladle was made with a protrusion - a hook on the handle so that it could be hung on the edge of the boiler. Special wooden spoons with holes in the bottom were meant for picking dumplings from the broth. Wooden scoops were made with a short handle, with their help they collected grain and flour. Cakes and bread were put into the oven with a long-handled spatula, and small wooden spatulas were used for kneading dough.
Wooden tubs were varied: from large tubs for storing flour and other products to small tubs for carrying products. Various buckets were made by chiselling (pailers, buckets for water, small buckets). The pails with a capacity of up to six liters looked wide, stable. A handle made of braided string was attached to the holes in the wall of the bucket. Water buckets held up to 10 liters of liquid. Small buckets were used for picking berries, carrying koumiss, ayran. They were as high as pails, but narrow, elongated and contained 3-4 liters of liquid.
Wooden vessels for collecting and transporting honey were given an elongated shape. These vessels had a tight lid, and with the help of a special handle they could be carried behind the back or hung on the shoulder. In winter, honey and oil were stored in the same vessels. To store butter and honey, special low tubs with straight walls were also made. Similar vessels (tapan) served to serve guests with koumiss and mead. These vessels had slightly convex walls, decorated with carved ornaments. For salt, butter, sour cream, special wooden jars were also used.
Narrow dugout vessels were used to make koumiss and churn butter. Large koumiss vessels were also made with a capacity of up to 7 buckets of milk; similar vessels, but lower, were made as special churns. Oil and ayran were prepared in these cylindrical vessels. Such vessels had a round lid with a hole for a whorl, which made it possible to avoid splashing liquid from the vessel when churning butter.
Large dugout tubs were used to store grain, flour, sour milk or salting meat. They could hold up to 10 buckets of liquid or 60-80 kilograms of grain.
Hollowed vessels had a uniform manufacturing technology. The tree was cleaned of bark and branches, sawn into blanks of the required length and dried. The outer surface was treated with a special plow. The wood inside the trunk was cut down with a chisel, and in thick trunks the dense core was burned out. The inner walls were scraped off. If the bottom was plug-in, then special grooves were cut out. The round bottom was made of oak or maple and inserted into place, previously steamed.
The manufacture of wooden vessels from staves appeared among the Bashkirs relatively recently, at the end of the 19th century. Oak or aspen staves, metal or bird cherry hoops were used for such vessels. Among such riveted vessels of the Bashkirs, one can indicate buckets, tubs for butter, sour cream, sour milk, for salting meat. Riveted churns and narrow tubs for making koumiss could also be riveted. Riveted vessels corresponded in shape and size to their dugout counterparts.
The Bashkirs of the forest regions have long been engaged in the manufacture of utensils from birch bark and the bark of various trees, from bast and bast. However, such household utensils also found their owners in other areas of the Bashkirs' settlement, getting to them mainly as a result of trade operations.
Rectangular boxes and boxes were obtained by stitching whole pieces of birch bark with horsehair. Milk was defended in large boxes with a capacity of 20-30 liters of liquid. Rectangular trays were made in the form of a low box from a solid piece of birch bark. The edge of the box was turned away, all corners were stitched with threads of twisted horsehair. Bread and flour for everyday consumption, dried berries, etc. were stored in such a tray (tuzayak). Small round or rectangular tueskas with a rope handle were used to collect berries. Birch bark utensils could also have a wooden bottom.
Moisture impermeability of such vessels was ensured by dense walls consisting of two or three layers of birch bark. The walls were stitched in several rows or the edges were tightly woven, having previously cut them out with arrow-shaped teeth. Such vessels could be small, designed for 2-3 liters of liquid, or large, with a capacity of up to 20 liters of liquid.
Bashkir craftsmen-masters made boxes, bodies, sacks, tubs, sieves from linden or birch bast, as well as from elm bark. Such utensils were made from a single piece, using bird cherry hoops for strengthening. A rectangular box made of linden bark and bast could be long, oblong, shaped like a box or trough. Such a box was used for settling milk, collecting sour milk, for straining the curd mass. box big size could hold up to three centners of grain and was used to store grain and flour. To store the kurt, a tall bast box was made, as well as a bast body with a wide rectangular base and triangular side walls tapering upwards. Another type of high body had a barely outlined bottom and walls expanding upwards. Lubovye tubs were designed to store flour.
From bark or bast, a shoulder bag was made for picking berries. The rectangular bottom of the sack was made narrow, the vertical walls could be up to one meter high, the top was reinforced with a hoop, and straps were provided on the back wall. From the bast, nests for geese were also made, as well as scoops and sieves for sifting grain. The sidewall of the sieve was made of bast bast, the mesh was made of bast or hair.
Bashkir craftsmen were also engaged in the manufacture of bast utensils. Boxes, bags, baskets, bodies, knapsacks were made from lime, birch or elm bast. Solid bast boxes had a rectangular shape and were adapted to be worn over the shoulder. Bast baskets and bodies were not made high, round or oval. Tall bast bags for bottles were also made. Round in cross section, tapering upwards, they repeated the shape of bottles.
As mentioned above, the Bashkirs were familiar with the manufacture of metal tools and edged weapons from metal. By the way, the weapons for the participants in the uprisings against the authorities were made to a large extent by the hands of their own craftsmen. Work with metal fell into decline after the royal ban in 1736 to maintain forges.
Bashkir craftsmen were familiar with coinage. For the manufacture of jewelry, chasing with silver on iron was used, and ornamentation was used.
Chasing also covered weapons and items of horse harness. Leather quivers for arrows, belt parts of the harness were decorated with specially made plaques, forming peculiar patterns.
Felt production occupies a prominent place in the home crafts of the Bashkirs. Felt was felted by hand according to the following method: "Spreading out a thickness of thumb plucked wool on a sheet or matting, squirt hot water, then they roll it together with a matting or a sheet and again squirt it, roll it and trample it with all their might until the wool is very tightly bound "(I. G. Georgi). There was another way of felting felt: the knocked down wool was laid out on a large reed mat , which, along with wool, was wound on a special shaft. A horse harnessed to the shaft drove it across the steppe, resulting in high-quality felt. In the old days, a lot of felt was made, because it was used to cover floors, bunks, and tents. Bashkirs sewed from felt hats, stockings, made homemade shoes, etc.
Threads twisted from sheep or goat wool were used by the Bashkirs in home carpet weaving on special machines. Thin cloth for homespun clothes was also made by Bashkir craftswomen. Canvas was woven from hemp or flax, and even earlier - from nettles. However, already at the end of the 18th century, nettle fabrics disappeared from the life of the Bashkirs almost completely, because "art taught them that hemp canvas with its kindness is much superior to nettle, which their ancestors used" (I. I. Lepekhin).
Thus, the Bashkirs were engaged in a variety of household crafts, which allowed them to almost completely meet the needs of their own management. At present, these fisheries have completely disappeared from Bashkir way of life. Changing the economic structure, the emergence of new, high-quality materials, items household items made in special working conditions, led to the fact that there were no masters involved in home crafts. However, this activity is also of interest to modern man, as a specific element material culture Bashkir people.
