Barge haulers pull a barge. Who are “Barge Haulers on the Volga”
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Burlak - hired worker in Russia XVI- late XIX centuries, who, walking along the shore, pulled a river boat against the current with the help of a tow. IN XVIII-XIX centuries The main type of vessel driven by barge haulers was bark - Rashiv - Wikipedia.
Burlatsky labor was seasonal. The boats were pulled along the “big water”: in spring and autumn. To fulfill the order, barge haulers united in artels. The work of a barge hauler was extremely hard and monotonous. Songs helped the barge haulers maintain the pace of movement. One of the well-known burlatsky songs is “Eh, dubinushka, let’s whoop,” which was usually sung to coordinate the forces of the artel in one of the most difficult moments: moving the bark from its place after raising the anchor.
Library of A. Sosnin: The emergence and decline of the ship fishery
TO end of XVII - early XVIII centuries process social division labor, development of commodity-money relations and the emergence of a single all-Russian market made significant changes in the organization of navigation on inland waterways // library.riverships.ru...Burkering was a unique phenomenon in the economy of feudal Russia. The work of barge haulers was seasonal, which at best continued during navigation, and most often was limited to one flight, or, as they said then, poutina, and could not, therefore, serve as a permanent object of labor application and source of livelihood. Some of the barge haulers even in the winter found some work in the ship industry (building and repairing ships, preparing ship equipment, equipment, etc.) or other occupation, but the vast majority of them went home to the village, from which they could not break away connection.
The peasantry was the main base from where barge haulers went to all waterways. But in general, the composition of the barge haulers was quite motley. Despite the heterogeneity of the burlatsky masses, it was clearly divided into professionals and random people. The first, who had been barge haulers all their lives, knew the river very well, were always hired as “indigenous” and were the most reliable element of the barge haulers environment.
The poor peasants, the urban and town poor, or the “extra hands” who could not find use for their labor in the countryside went to random barge haulers out of extreme need. A significant part of the casual barge haulers were (before the abolition of serfdom in 1861) landowner peasants, rented out for arrears or as a form of punishment, as well as fugitive people without a passport, who could be hired for a pittance or simply “for grub.” An irresistible lure was the deposit that could be obtained by hiring a barge hauler, precisely at the time of year when the peasant was in most dire need.
The hiring of barge haulers was usually carried out in winter during the period between the holidays of Maslenitsa and Easter (from late February to early April). Traditionally certain points barge haulers gathered for the “burlak” bazaars. The Big Bazaar on the Volga was held annually in Puchezh. Large points for hiring barge haulers were also Kostroma, Kineshma, Yuryevets, Gorodets, Balakhna, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saratov, and on the Kama - Perm, Chistopol, Laishev.
Burlatsky bazaars were very a picturesque picture.
Early in the morning on market day, barge haulers gathered in an artel on the market square and chose a contractor from among themselves, who negotiated with the shipbuilders in full view of the entire artel. The artel usually set a maximum price, which the contractor could, as a last resort, agree to. Sometimes unscrupulous contractors, for a good bribe, informed the shipbuilders in advance of the maximum price for hiring an artel, but if the barge haulers somehow found out about this, they brutally dealt with the contractor.
The hiring of barge haulers was formalized by an agreement, which stipulated the responsibilities of the parties and, in particular detail, the responsibilities of the barge haulers. Thus, in the agreement concluded on April 24, 1847 in the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the Rybinsk shipping reprisal by an artel of shipworkers with the Balakhna merchant Nesterov, the former assumed the following obligations: upon arrival at the bark, “to remove it properly to the float, float it down the Volga River to the Baronsky colony to the barns shown, from which, after we have made the bridges, we can load them with wheat, as the owner wishes, and, according to the load and having really removed them, lift this bark up, along the Volga River to Nizh. Novgorod with haste, without waking up the morning and evening dawns, in the work, assign us three and a half people for every thousand pounds of cargo, except for the pilot, and during the voyage we will try in every possible way so that the ship is not subject to the slightest delay. We must all remain with the owner and his messenger and pilot in all obedience and obedience... If we encounter shallow water, then reload the luggage into pauskas, for which we have to walk up and down 30 miles without paying. If misfortune occurs with the ship and there is no way to save it, then we are obliged to immediately bring it to the shore, drain the water from it, unload the luggage onto the shore, dry it out and load it back into one or another vessel and proceed as before. At the same time, we are obliged to have extreme caution against fire on board and for this purpose not to smoke tobacco on board, to defend ourselves from attacks by thieves and not to allow robbery, to protect the vessel and the owner day and night. Upon arrival in the mountains. Place the lower vessel, dry up the supplies, remove it wherever ordered, then, having received passports and settled the settlement, be free. If, during the calculation, we end up with an excessive surplus of money, then we are obliged to pay in full without question. Each person gets 16 silver rubles for poutine. Each person receives a deposit of 10 rubles. 29 k. silver.”
Burgomasters and clerks usually dressed up as landowner peasants. Often the shipmaster, wanting to hire a crew of barge haulers cheaper, came to the village headman or foreman. They called in the poor peasants and forced them to become barge haulers. In these cases, the deposit was usually taken away by the headman “for arrears,” and the barge haulers, after the end of the poutine, often practically did not receive a penny: all the remaining money was spent “on grub.” Hired barge haulers came to the places where ships were built or wintered two weeks before the ice drift, prepared the ships for sailing, brought them to places safe from ice drift, and loaded them. Ships usually set off on their voyages immediately after the ice broke up.
A group of barge haulers pulling a towline was called a “sada.” At its head stood the most experienced and healthy barge hauler, who was called “bump” or “uncle,” who chose the path and set the rhythm in the first strap. general work, which required clear consistency. Behind the “bigwig” were placed the most lazy or enslaved barge haulers, who, having already squandered their earnings, served for nothing but grub and were not interested in work. They were followed by conscientious workers, who, if necessary, urged the lazy ones on. Behind everyone walked the “inert” one, who watched the line and “tangled” it, that is, took it off if it touched something.
The movement of barge haulers with a towline was so difficult that normal walking, even with small and slow steps, was impossible, so they first put their right foot forward, rested it on the ground and slowly pulled the left one towards it, or took a very small step with their left foot. The step was even and always simultaneous, so the “sedation” was smoothly swaying slightly to the sides all the time.
Almost all barge haulers' work, including moving the towline, was accompanied by the singing of songs, which not only set the required rhythm, but also, to some extent, set up the barge haulers to do hard work. These songs were the work of the barge haulers themselves, primitive in form and content, they reflected the conditions hard work and a joyless existence.
Hard labor with virtually no rest, unsanitary conditions, lack of medical care did their job and the barge haulers, after several years of work, turned into exhausted disabled people, primarily those who died in the then frequent epidemics.
Hundreds of thousands of people were engaged in heavy barge labor. According to the calculations of F.N. Rodin, in the last quarter of the 18th century. in the Volga basin and on the Vyshnevolotsk system, at least 340 thousand shipworkers were employed. In the early 30s of the XIX century. on the Volga and Oka there were 412 thousand people, on the Kama 50 thousand people. And during the heyday of the ship fishing industry, in 1854, on rivers and canals only European Russia 704.8 thousand barge haulers worked. Social composition they were extremely heterogeneous. Among the barge haulers in 1854 there were (in thousands of people):
Peasants (state, landowner, appanage) - 580.8
Freed and free cultivators – 4.4
Soldiers (retired, arable, indefinitely released) and Cossacks - 14.1
Bourgeois, merchants, single-dvortsev – 85.9
Nobles – 2.8
Upon arrival at the agreed destination, the barge haulers received payment for their work. In order not to pay for downtime, they did not delay the calculation and generally tried to send the barge haulers home as quickly as possible, considering the accumulation of a large mass of these restless people undesirable.
During calculations, big misunderstandings arose regarding payment for downtime. According to the situation that existed at that time, idle days not due to the fault of ship workers were paid only starting from fourth day idle time is 15 kopecks. for a day. For the first three days, the barge haulers and the horse handlers received nothing. To avoid paying simple money, shipowners often resorted to a trick: after standing in one place for three days, they forced the shipworkers to move the ship forward by 400-600 m, and thus received another three preferential days. Numerous complaints and indignations of ship workers forced the Senate to issue a decree on August 27, 1817, which established that the day would not be considered idle if the daily journey downstream exceeded 16 versts, and upstream - 6 versts. In addition, the limit on three preferential days, when the shipowner could not pay workers simple money, applied to the entire navigation, and not to a one-time stay. It should be noted, however, that this decree did not eliminate the arbitrariness of the owners. After deducting the deposit and food costs, the barge haulers received little, and sometimes nothing at all, in the final payment.
In some places (for example, on the canals of the Mariinsky system) barge haulage survived until the 1900s.
Epigraph:
“What a horror, however,” I say bluntly. “People are harnessed instead of cattle! Savitsky, is it really not possible to transport barges with luggage in a more decent way, for example, by towing steamers?”
“Distant Close” (Autobiography), Ilya Repin
Monument "Barge Haulers on the Volga". Samara
I think everyone knows who barge haulers are. At least many people have seen Ilya Repin’s painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga”. Their life and work are described in sufficient detail. Me, as a person involved in history Russian Empire, I was interested in this moment. If you believe Wikipedia and other sites that replicate this statement: " Burlatsky labor completely disappeared with the spread of steamships“This is said somehow not definitely, I thought, I would like to be more specific about when in the Russian Empire the barge haulers, as a phenomenon, ceased to exist completely?
To begin with: “The first Russian steamship was built on the Neva in 1815 by the owner of a mechanical foundry in St. Petersburg, Karl Bird.” He made flights between St. Petersburg and Kronstadt. "The first steamship in the Volga basin appeared on the Kama in June 1816." "In the 40s years XIX V. Steamboats also appear on the rivers of Siberia" ().
Very good, I thought. What period does Repin’s painting belong to? Conceived in 1869, completed in 1873, i.e. more than 50 (!) years after the appearance of steamships in the Volga basin. And during all this time, barge haulage has not disappeared?
In this regard I read:
“Repin’s painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga,” completed in 1873, depicted a passing nature (like Nekrasov’s lines “Go out to the Volga: whose groan is heard / Over the great Russian river? / We call this groan a song - / Then the barge haulers go on a towline! "), for the golden age of the Volga barge haulers was far behind by that time. early XIX century, there were up to 600,000 barge haulers in Russia, but by the middle of the century there were less than 150,000 of them left. Moreover, it was not steam engines that first began to displace them, but horses. Horse-drawn vessels were the first attempt to replace man as a draft force." ()
“As you know, after painting “Barge Haulers” I.E. Repin was criticized by one of the ministers:
"- Well, tell me, for God’s sake, what is the difficult reason that compelled you to paint this absurd picture? You must be a Pole?.. Aren’t you ashamed - Russian?.. But this antediluvian method of transport a lot has already been reduced to zero, and soon There will be no mention of him."
Speaking modern language: “You, Ilya Efimovich, are falsifying history. We don’t have such relics, because they report that we have continuous modernization, steam locomotives and steamships.”
This was in the early 1870s. And in the early 1880s, N. Bogolyubov in “History of the Ship” devoted an entire article to barge hauling, where he indicated:
"Now that manpower replaced the steam, it weakened significantly, but it cannot be said that it completely disappeared. And now you can meet barge haulers harnessed to straps and dragging a ship by the towline, accompanying the pull with a mournful song more for tact, on those rivers where steamboats do not go, and on rivers that are convenient for rafting only during floods, and even on large rivers it is not yet hatched" ()
Oh, how they “didn’t come out”! And this despite the fact that, by that time, the competition from steamships was also railway, the pace of construction of which gentlemen French bakers love to boast so much. And they “didn’t come out”!
So when did they “hatch up”?
Some of the photos that I provided in this post have quite accurate dating. Take a look and draw your own conclusions...
Repin. "Barge Haulers on the Volga". Fragment
Burlak on the Volga, 1904
Barge haulers on the Ladoga Canal, 1900
Resting barge haulers
"... here comes the 20th century, the century of progress and technical revolutions, but the barge haulers still exist. In the photograph from 1910, women are already harnessed to the strap.
Barge hauler women pull a barge on the Sura River in the Nizhny Novgorod province. 1910
Photography from the beginning of the 20th century. photographer Z.Z. Vinogradov. From State funds historical museum in Moscow.
To the photo above
What's the matter?
A patriotic contemporary confidently explains: it was beneficial for the peasant (and even more so for the woman), the earnings were supposedly large: “Having traveled with a barge from Tsaritsyn to Nizhny, the barge hauler earned so much that he could buy a house in the village.”
It is true that a barge hauler’s earnings were great for a peasant. Here Repin can be used as a witness. He recalls how he was struck by the phrase of one of the men, who admitted that 20 rubles would be enough for him for the rest of his life.
“I couldn’t help but think: “What is the budget of these guys. Twenty rubles is capital for him for the rest of his life, and he would have buried him in the ground, and he would have died without opening his treasure to anyone.” yes." I.E. Repin “Far and Close”
But what was the reason to pay the owner such sums if the maintenance of horses cost much less than the price of houses in the village? There is an obvious inconsistency with this.
Although, in my opinion, the answer is on the surface - human labor was much cheaper than horse labor, and women’s labor was even cheaper.
“The share of the barge hauler, as the reader sees, is not enviable - work is often beyond his strength, meaningless work, dulling mental abilities, all kinds of deprivation, and in the future there will be the same need as there was at the beginning,” Bogolyubov testifies at the end of his article.
Why couldn’t the tramp men earn enough to buy a house in the village? Yes because the price labor force depended on supply, and there was an abundance of people willing to make money from such work throughout Russia. So women have already begun to compete, driving down the prices of respectable artel men. Women, as a rule, were paid (and agreed to such payment) even less than men." ()
Siberian women's hard labor. Barge haulers at work 1903
Non-agricultural trades were common and forced for Trans-Volga peasants. P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky, who himself grew up in these parts, wrote: “In the forested Trans-Volga region, the land is cold, unhomely, a peasant only has enough of his own bread until the oil week, and then only in a good year. No matter how much you fight on the allotment strip, no matter how much suffering you take on it, you won’t be able to feed yourself with labor bread all year round.”
The peasants of the Chistopol volost, which included the village of Popovo, also could not feed themselves on rural labor. According to the RGIA, in 1811 they collected only 9,393 quarters of rye, and the need, according to the most conservative estimates, was 13,164 quarters.
If the men with allotments could not do without farming, then the landless Pyotr Yegorov simply had no other choice. Which business should you choose? The crafts were local and latrine. Of course, local crafts were preferable for both the authorities and the peasants themselves. The traditional Trans-Volga craft was felt shoemaking and hat making. With the onset of the first winter journey, whole families of peasants went to different provinces to sell the hats they had prepared during the summer. Peter, working for his master in Popov, mastered this skill thoroughly, but he did not have his own workshop. And then the crisis of the Volga hat production came. The princess's competitors were pressing in. The same Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov reflected this process in his novel “In the Woods”: “Now the Trans-Volga hat has come quite right. At least give it up completely, the demand is low, there is almost no sales at all... The cap caused the most trouble... The baptized people managed to adopt the cap from the German. The cheap cap replaced the more valuable old hat.”
And Pyotr Yegorovich had to go to the latrine industry. This was also not easy, because to “leave” you needed a “passport”, for which you had to pay a lot of money to the state, and even a bribe to the official. The acting governor-general of the Nizhny Novgorod and Penza provinces, Prince Vyazemsky, back in the 18th century, reported to his superiors that “to support the peasants with work, passports are given with an excellent payment compared to the price set in the treasury,” i.e. for a bribe. It was all the more difficult for the Old Believers to get such a document corrected, from whom any tax was already levied at double the rate. But there was nowhere to go, Peter strained himself, straightened his “passport” and, leaving his young wife in the care of his mother-in-law, went to the Volga. In barge haulers.
The burlatsky trade, at that time, was the last resort of the poor. The attitude towards this activity in society was disdainful. Barge haulers were treated as outcasts. History professor N. Ya. Aristov in the study “About historical significance"robber songs", for example, disgustingly calls them the scum of society, which threw them out as lazy people, thieves, drunkards, in general, worthless people, branded with the nickname "Yarygi". Academician of literature D.I. Yazykov, explaining the word “barge hauler” in his “Encyclopedic Lexicon,” wrote that “these workers consist of rude, drunken bastards.”
And yet it was not easy to get into the barge haulers; there were, as they say, a ton of homeless poor fellows like our hero Pyotr Yegorov. According to the calculations of the researcher of barge haulers in Russia F.N. Rodin, in the 30s of the 19th century the Volga and its tributaries were served by at least 600 thousand barge haulers, and almost half of them came from the Nizhny Novgorod province.
The largest “burlatsky bazaar” on the Volga was in Rybinsk. In Nizhny Novgorod, a number of (hiring) barge haulers took place twice a year. The first time was at Skoba, on Ivanovskaya Square under the Kremlin in early spring, when the “path was collapsing,” that is, before the ice drift. The second time - in the summer during the fair at the pontoon bridge. Dressed up as artels. There was a legal norm for hiring barge haulers: for every thousand pounds of cargo there were “eight legs,” i.e., four barge haulers. There were two main routes (burlatsky flights): the big one - from Astrakhan to Nizhny. And a small one - from Nizhny to Rybinsk. Residents of Nizhny Novgorod worked mainly on the small Putina, its length was 454 miles.
According to the description of the expert on Volga shipping I.A. Shubin, at the “burlatsky bazaars” “people gathered visibly or invisibly, and the streets and squares where the row itself passed were so crowded that it was extremely difficult not only to drive through them, but also to walk through them. The barge haulers stood in a solid mass, but in artels. Each of them chose a contractor who negotiated with the shipowners.”
It was to such a bazaar that Pyotr Egorov’s son, the founder of the later famous Bugrov merchant family, came to Nizhny for many years in a row. According to the recollections of those who knew him, he was well-cut, had remarkable physical strength and a sociable character. Therefore, he quickly entered the barge hauler environment and gained the respect of both his fellow barge haulers and the shipowners. The famous everyday life writer and head of the Nizhny Novgorod appanage office V.I. wrote about this. Dahl: “Petrukha the balalaika player was remembered by the old merchants and their clerks as a lively, but sober and meek barge hauler, who appeared on the pier even before the arrival of the larks, as soon as the ice on the Volga began to turn blue... Except for the spoon and the strap in the bag behind his shoulders he had a balalaika, the shipmen greeted the squat, stocky little fellow in a friendly manner.”
What did the hauler look like? Each one has a strap - a wide belt worn over the shoulder. At the end of the strap there is a tail rope with a cone for a strong tie to the string, the main rope attached to the mast of the ship. The outward sign of a barge hauler is a special felt hat with a “hairpin”, behind the ribbon of which a wooden spoon stuck out like a knight’s feather.
How were responsibilities distributed within the burlatsk artel (mob)? The head was the pilot, who knew the river fairway from memory. The barge haulers called him “uncle.” He was followed by a “water bearer”, who protected the ship and cargo from sinking, and the artel dorm for grub was also trusted to him. Among the rank and file, the main one was the “bump”, the strongest, walking in front, who knew the coastal route (sakma or flagellor) well. “Shishka” skillfully chose paths between stones and bushes, bypassing bays, making his way through ravines, and reliably led the gang, encouraging them and singing barge haulers’ songs. At the tail of the artel there were one or two inert men, whose duties included “picking up” the whip (throwing it off if it clung to bushes and trees). The youngest in the artel was the cook, usually a boy of 11-12 years old. poor family, hired for grub alone. According to the observations of I.A. Shubin, “the entire mass of barge haulers was quite sharply divided into two categories. The first was made up of professional barge haulers, almost all from the native Volga, largely from Nizhny Novgorod.” The second is everyone else. We can safely assume that Pyotr Yegorovich, with his physical strength, sociability and innate ingenuity, quickly became part of the Burlatsky elite.
What were the terms of the agreement between barge haulers and merchants? As a rule, they were enslaved. Here are some points of the “Conditions of the artel of barge haulers with the merchant I.M. Vologdin, concluded on September 18, 1817 to escort a barge with salt from Nizhny Novgorod to Rybinsk: “While following the journey, do not stand idly anywhere and do not get drunk. Try to preserve the salt in every possible way, do not trample it with your feet, do not take it for food or sell it. If somewhere along the way, due to something, the barge begins to sink and the salt perishes, then we, the workers, are obliged to work together to save the barge from the flood and preserve the integrity of the salt. If it turns out that the ship was sunk and the salt was lost by the power of God, then nothing should be collected from the workers for it and the money they received as a deposit should not be demanded. If it turns out that the ship was sunk and the salt was lost due to the negligence of our pilot, waterman or cook, then we all undertake to be generally responsible for that dead salt pay at the existing price for free sale money.” So burlatsky labor was distinguished not only by its grueling severity, but also by its enormous financial responsibility.
As for physical hardships, only people with very good health could withstand them. Many people stretched veins in their legs. From the constant pressure of the strap on the chest, many developed consumption. The barge haulers' clothes and shoes were literally “burning.” During three months of moving along the large “sakma” from Astrakhan to Nizhny, the barge hauler wore out up to 20 pairs of bast shoes, a strap, canvas ports, and a shirt. According to the memoirs of former barge hauler D.E. Frolov, literally the entire river bank was covered with worn-out bast shoes of barge haulers. The barge haulers walked slowly, no more than five miles a day, and only if the weather permitted. I.A. Shubin described the Burlatsky movement as follows: “They stepped forward with only one right leg and then pulled their left leg towards it. The weight of the strap did not allow me to walk equally with both legs.” Everyone remembers the textbook lines of N.A. Nekrasov about the groaning song of barge haulers. The barge haulers really sang and moaned. Not out of fun, but so as not to groan from the effort. The song helped them follow the rhythm of movement and invigorated them.
By the way, the barge haulers invigorated themselves not only with drawn-out songs, but also with very “salty” jokes. On the Nizhny Novgorod section of the route, for example, the following refrains were in use:
Here is Slopinets and Tatinets -
Breadwinner for all scammers!
Nearby is the village of Rabotki -
Buy vodka master!
And behind it the village of Bezvodno,
Girls live shamefully!
Here is the village of Great Enemy.
There's a tavern in every house!
But Kstovo is something of Christ
Cheerful village...
Here is the village of Kunavino,
I was brought together in three arcs...
And here is the village of Kozino,
A lot of girls have been brought in!
The city of Cherna Balakhna
It’s worth opening the floors...
In Gorodets on the mountain
Three girls in the yard!
What was the income of barge haulers? He made a reservation back during the series, and at that time he was, indeed, quite good. On average, 35 rubles in silver for a small poutine. According to the conditions, row barge haulers immediately received a deposit of half the contract. Although most of This deposit was often immediately taken from them by village elders and landowner mayors in order to pay quitrents and other duties. The barge haulers scrounged on the remaining pennies along the way. Many barge haulers were drawn into drunkenness by poutine, which was indulged by the contractors. The drinking began already upon hiring, the deal was “sprinkled with mogarych.” First, at the expense of the owners, each of whom bought wine for his artel according to the norm: one quarter of vodka for 20 barge haulers. The host’s treat whetted the appetite, and the gang of barge haulers went to the tavern to “wet their straps.” By evening the whole gang was drunk.
But this was only the beginning of burlatsky drunkenness. Enterprising taverns built their establishments near all the river rapids, where barge haulers accumulated to reload luggage onto small ships in order to navigate their ships through the shoals. So at Veal Ford (Vely Brod - Veal Roll) - a roll on the river. Volga, located in 9 ver. below Nizhny Novgorod. Until recently, T. Brod was perhaps the shallowest riffle on the river. Volga, in the reach from Nizhny Novgorod to Astrakhan. In navigation (very shallow waters) 1885 and 1890 depth no more than 1 arsh. 8 tops IN lately Thanks to significant hydraulic structures, T. Brod has become much more convenient for navigation) under Nizhny Novgorod Usually up to 150 heavily laden ships accumulated. To speed up the work, the owners generously treated the barge haulers. And the owner's gifts often developed here into general drunkenness at the expense of the barge workers. As a result, most barge haulers returned from the fishing season penniless. And the resulting pitiful settlement was also drunk out of grief. When asked whether he had earned a lot, the barge hauler usually answered: “As always, I’ve earned a lot of lice.”
It is no coincidence that we dwelled in such detail on the vicissitudes of barge hauler life in order to show what trials our hero went through. People then said that it was better to feed on Christ’s alms than to go to barge haulers. But young Pyotr Egorov did not disappear into the abyss of the barge hauler. Of course, he took a risk by embarking on this difficult business. But this risk was, it seems, not desperate, but quite conscious. He was not only physically strong and hardworking, but also, which is very rare in the barge hauling industry, absolutely sober, like all Old Believers. It was sobriety, together with prudence and a lively disposition, that provided Peter leading position in any gang and helped to achieve profitable contracts.
This was also facilitated by the guardianship practice of the appanage department, which recommended that its local officials “let them go to barge haulers in groups of 10 people, with one of the sober ones appointed as responsible.” Of course, the appanage authorities pursued their own fiscal goals in order to guarantee the timely payment of quitrents by appanage peasants. But Peter Egorov was also quite happy with this order, because it was he, as a sober person, who usually became this “responsible” and the head of the barge hauler artel, receiving increased pay. So, already here, in the barge penal servitude, the thrifty son Pyotr Yegorov could begin his “initial accumulation.” The old faith gave him strength in the fight against the hardships of the burlats.
By book by A.V. Sedov " Kerzhaki. The story of three generations of merchants Bugrov."
Barge haulers were the name given to hired workers who used tow lines to pull river boats against the current. The work was hard, but it gave a huge number of people the opportunity to earn money during the season. The city of Rybinsk was called the capital of the barge haulers. It is not surprising that it was here in 1977 that the first barge hauler monument in our country was erected. For a long time he was also the only one. In 2014, it appeared in Samara sculptural composition"Barge Haulers on the Volga".
The most experienced and strong man In the artel, barge haulers were called “bump.” It was he who kept order and set the pace of movement. This is where the expression “big shot” came from - that is, a noble, respected person.
Barge haulers were also called “bastards,” and there was nothing offensive in that. The word "bastard" comes from "drag." Suffice it to remember that in Russia there are ancient cities - Vyshny Volochek and Volok-na-Lama (Volokolamsk). During the summer shallow waters, ships could not navigate the local rivers; goods had to be transported several miles by “drag.” Artels of barge haulers were hired for this purpose.
But this word could become offensive due to the fact that people who did not know any other craft were hired to do the dragging. But they were famous for their enormous physical strength and often carried out pogroms in drinking establishments. Therefore, the attitude of the local population was corresponding.
Legends circulated throughout Russia about the strength of some barge haulers. Nikitushka Lomov, a native of the Penza province, was especially famous. Once on the Volga he saw a gang of men who were trying to pull a 25-pound anchor out of the coastal sand. They were hired by a local merchant, promising 3 rubles for their work. Nikitushka easily did what the whole company could not do - he swung the anchor and turned it out of the sand. But the merchant stated that he did not hire Lomov, and paid only a ruble for the work. The strong man decided to teach the miser a lesson: he took the anchor to the merchant’s house and hung it on the gate. To return the anchor to the pier, the merchant again hired a team. I just had to pay a lot more.
One of the most popular songs among the barge haulers there was a famous one: “Oh, little club, let’s whoop.” Moreover, the barge haulers sang it not for entertainment, it helped the artel maintain the pace of movement.
Above yours famous painting“Barge Haulers on the Volga” Ilya Repin worked for three years - from 1870 to 1873. Moreover, for the first time Repin saw barge haulers not on the Volga, but on the Neva.
Having become interested in this topic, the artist went to the village of Shiryaevo on the Volga, where he met the barge haulers personally. True, the picture did not delight all admirers of Repin’s talent. For example, the Minister of Transport Zelenoy reproached the painter for depicting an antediluvian method of transporting ships, which had almost completely disappeared.
But the famous Russian writer and journalist Vladimir Gilyarovsky had a chance to personally pull the burden. In his youth, with one of the artels, he walked the path from Kostroma to Rybinsk. He was a physically very strong man, but one day an embarrassment occurred to him: Gilyarovsky visited his elderly father, and, deciding to show off his strength, bent an iron poker in an arc. The father, who was already over 70 years old, scolded his son for ruining things in the house and bent the poker back.
In 1929, the People's Commissariat of Railways of the USSR officially banned barge labor. But by that time there were practically no barge haulers left; with the advent of steamships, this profession became a thing of the past.
From the 16th century to the era of steam engines, the movement of river vessels up the river was carried out with the help of barge haulers. The Volga was the main transport artery of Russia. Tens of thousands of barge haulers pulled thousands of ships up the river.
In the North, barge haulers were also called yarygs. Or rashes. This word is formed from two: “yarilo” - “sun”, and “ha” - “movement”, “road”.
Every spring, immediately after the ice drift, wave after wave of barge haulers passed through villages located on the banks of large rivers and into their lower reaches, going to get hired for work.
Barge haulers had their own traditions. In certain places on the Volga, barge haulers initiated newcomers into the profession. These places - high steep banks - were called "Fried hillocks". There were a dozen fried hillocks all over the Volga from Yaroslavl to Astrakhan.
“The barge haulers most often went to desperate people who had lost their economy, interest in life, lovers of travel and free air...”
When the ship passed by the “Fried Hillock” near Yuryevets-Povolzhsky, the barge crew set up a berth. The newcomers lined up at the foot of the hill. The pilot stood behind them with a strap in his hand. On command and to the shouts of experienced barge haulers: “Fry him!” - the newcomer ran along the slope to the top, and the pilot hit him on the back with a strap. Whoever runs to the top faster will receive fewer hits. Having reached the top, the novice barge hauler could consider himself to have received baptism and equal rights was part of the artel.
Hierarchy
The leader of the barge haulers was a senior, authoritative barge hauler, also known as a waterman, who is responsible for contracts and agreements, and also takes responsibility for the safety of cargo. He also had to monitor the technical condition of the vessel, eliminate leaks in a timely manner so as not to flood the barge and spoil the goods.
Next in the artel hierarchy behind the water tank was the pilot, aka “uncle”, aka “bulatnik”. His task was to avoid running the barge aground and to transport the goods through all dangerous places without incident.
The leading barge hauler, pulling the strap, was called a “bump”; he was responsible for the coordinated work of the draft barge haulers. The procession was closed by two barge haulers, called “inert”. If necessary, they climbed onto the masts of the ship, controlled its sailing equipment, and looked over the road from above.
There were indigenous barge haulers, who were hired for the entire season, and there were additional ones, taken to help when required. Often the strap was pulled by horses.
"Deadly" work
The work of a barge hauler was extremely hard and monotonous. Only a tailwind made the work easier (the sail was raised) and increased the speed of movement. Songs helped the barge haulers maintain the pace of movement. Perhaps the most famous of them is “Eh, bludgeon, let’s whoop.” Usually it was sung to coordinate the forces of the artel in the most difficult moments.
At short stops, barge haulers darned worn-out shirts and changed their shoes into new bast shoes.
Having hired an artel of barge haulers, the owner of the ship took away their residence permit. The barge hauler became enslaved until the end of the route. According to the contract, he is obliged:
“Be with the owner in all obedience... Must go day and night with all possible haste, without the slightest delay... Get to work at first light. Do not smoke tobacco on the ship. Do not have any contact with thieves. If such robbers attack, fight off , not sparing life."
It was not only men who became barge haulers. “Need drove women, broken by the hopeless fate of women, to the Volga-nurse.”
With the spread of steamships, barge labor disappeared completely.
