Noble estate as a center of culture. Noble estate in Russian culture of the XIX century

Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education

"Tyumen State Academy of Culture and Arts"

Institute of Service and Social and Cultural Technologies

Department of Cultural Studies

Test

On the ecology of culture

Topic: Culture of the Russian estate

Tyumen 2010

Culture of the Russian estate

This is where culture comes into play. Many philosophers see its purpose in the organization of social chaos. To do this, society develops some average ideals and values, which constitute its ideology. However, a particular person most often does not correspond to average social ideals. And a person perceives the values ​​imposed on him by society as a restriction of his freedom. So gradually culture, remaining a powerful means of regulating relations in society, becomes a mechanism for suppressing the individual.

Thus, the life of an individual person proceeds in two sharply demarcated plans. Social activity carried out during the so-called working hours. It is opposed (sometimes very sharply) by individual time, free time. IN psychological world individual, this difference is fixed in precise terms: I need and I want. For a person, the work that needs to be done is in a completely different world than the one that one wants to do. And "I need time", in contrast to "I want time", is filled with a completely different meaning.

Free time (time I want) cannot be spent in the same place where you usually work. Here, everything should be different, desired, not due. Other behavior is expressed in emphatically solemn, or emphatically free gestures, in special jokes. Other behavior expresses itself in gifts and joint meals, which is especially characteristic of Rus'. So everything - a special place, a special time, special objects and other behavior serve to create an ideal reality that is not like everyday life, the one that we only dream of. A reality that embodies our idea of ​​an ideal existence, of a bygone "golden age".

In the world of noble culture with its rigid hierarchy, this was felt especially sharply. That's why Catherine II said that "living in society does not mean doing nothing." This stage, highly theatrical life was a real daily social labor. The nobles served the "Sovereign and Fatherland" not only in departments, but also at court festivities and balls. Festive court life was the same "must" for a nobleman as serving in the sovereign's troops.

And the "ideal reality" was embodied for the Russian nobles of the 18th - 19th centuries by their family estates. Therefore, the main task of any, albeit "poor", manor construction is to create an ideal world, with its own rituals, norms of behavior, type of management and special pastime.

And the estate world was created very carefully and in detail. In a good homestead, nothing should be thought out. Everything is significant, everything is an allegory, everything is "read" by those initiated into the manor sacrament. The yellow color of the manor house showed the wealth of the owner, being perceived as the equivalent of gold. The roof was supported by white (symbol of light) columns. The gray color of the outbuildings is a remoteness from active life. And red in unplastered outbuildings is, on the contrary, the color of life and activity. And all this was drowned in the greenery of gardens and parks - a symbol of hope. Swamps, cemeteries, ravines, hills - everything was slightly corrected, corrected and called Nezvanki, Shelters, Joy, becoming significant in the estate symbolism. Naturally, this ideal world was necessarily, although often purely symbolic, fenced off from the outside world with walls, bars, towers, artificial ditches - ravines and ponds.

Nature itself is the ideal garden of God, like the Garden of Eden. Every tree, every plant means something in the overall harmony. White birch trunks, reminiscent of white column trunks, serve as a stable image of the homeland. Linden trees in the driveways during the spring flowering hinted at the heavenly ether with their fragrance. Acacia was planted as a symbol of the immortality of the soul. For the oak, perceived as strength, eternity, virtue, special clearings were arranged. Ivy, as a sign of immortality, wrapped around the trees in the park. And the reeds near the water symbolized solitude. Even the grass was seen as mortal flesh, withering and resurrecting. It is characteristic that aspen, like " cursed tree"practically not found in noble estates.

So gradually the ideal world acquired reality in the estate. This ideality was akin to a theater, where ceremonial scenes lined up on the stage, and behind the scenes their own daily life flows. Therefore, the estate construction was carefully hidden from prying eyes. Construction sites were surrounded by a veil of secrecy. High fences were erected around them, access roads and bridges were dismantled, technical documents were destroyed. The estate was supposed to appear as if created overnight, by magic. The scenery was created in the theater of noble life. This is how Petersburg arose - overnight, on a deserted Finnish swamp. In an instant, a new stone Russia appeared to astonished Europe.

Each architectural structure imposes its own rhythm of life on its inhabitants. The city gates open and close at specific times, starting and ending the city day. IN imperial palace Time doesn't flow like it does in a business office. So the noble estate formed its own rhythm of life. For about two centuries, the life of a nobleman began in the estate, flowed in it, and often ended here. The life cycle was supplemented by the daily one. Days in the estate were clearly divided not only temporarily, but also spatially. "The Dawn Twilight of the Lobby" continued with "Men's Study Early Morning", "Living Room Noon", "Theatre Night", and so on, all the way to "Deep Bedroom Evening".

Like the theatrical existence, life in the estate was clearly divided into front and everyday life. The men's study was the intellectual and economic center of the estate's everyday life. However, they furnished it almost always very modestly. "The study, placed next to the sideboard (buffet room), was inferior to him in size and, despite its seclusion, seemed still too spacious for the owner's scientific studies and the repository of his books," wrote F. F. Vigel. Throughout the 18th century, when intellectual and moral work became the duty of every nobleman, the owner's office belonged to almost the most unofficial rooms of the estate. Here everything was designed for solitary work.

Accordingly, the office was furnished. The "Golan" or "English" cabinet was considered fashionable. Almost all of its furnishings were ascetic oak furniture, with very discreet upholstery, and a modest table clock. The desks didn't complain. Preference was given to secretaries, desks, bureaus.

The master's study, unlike the mistress's quarters, was almost undecorated and rather modestly decorated. Only an exquisite decanter and a glass for "morning consumption" of cherry or anise were considered indispensable (it was believed that this contributes to the prevention of "angina pectoris" and "stroke" - the most fashionable diseases of the 18th - early 19th centuries) and a smoking pipe. Smoking at the turn of the century became a whole symbolic ritual. “In our time,” E.P. Yankova recalls at the end of the 18th century, “rare people didn’t sniff, but they considered smoking very reprehensible, and women didn’t even hear of it; and men smoked in their offices or in the air, and if the ladies are around, then they always ask first: “let me.” In the living room and in the hall, no one ever smoked even without guests in his family, so that, God forbid, somehow this smell would not remain and that the furniture would not stink .

Each time has its own special habits and concepts.

Smoking began to spread in a noticeable way after 1812, and especially in the 1820s: they began to bring cigars, which we had no idea about, and the first ones that were brought to us were shown as a curiosity.

For smoking in the office, several still lifes on the theme of Vanitas (the transience of life) were specially placed. The fact is that for a whole century, "eating smoke" was associated in the mind of a nobleman with reflections on the topics of "vanity of vanities" and "life is smoke." This evangelical theme was especially popular in Russia. Children blew short-lived soap bubbles, adults blew ephemeral smoke from pipes and flew fragile balloons - and all this was perceived at the turn of the century as symbols of the extreme fragility of existence.

It was here, in the office of the owner of the estate, that managers reported, letters and orders were written, dues were calculated, neighbors were simply accepted, projects of estate architects were discussed. Today, researchers often come to a standstill when discussing the authorship of certain estates. Who was their true creator? The architect who created the original design? The owner of the estate, who almost always remade it in his own way? A contractor who reckoned more with his skill than with the tastes of the architect and owner?

Since the men's office is designed for work, books played the main role in its interior. Some of the books were necessary for successful farming. The landlords did not disdain to carefully study the architectural works of Vignola or Palladio, especially at the beginning of new estate construction. Indeed, along with the French language, architecture was supposed to be known to every educated nobleman. Calendars containing advice for all occasions are an indispensable attribute of such offices. What was not here? "A list of the Order granted by Her Imperial Majesty...", "A sure way to breed Abolene dogs in non-hot regions", "Recipe for the fastest extinguishing of quicklime", "The simplest means of dyeing linden into mahogany and ebony", "About the most elegant and inefficient way of English to break parks", "about a cheap and true method of treating scrofula", "about making cherry early liquor" and much more.

In quiet estate offices, a fashion for reading was formed. "In the villages, who loved reading and who could only start up a small but complete library. There were some books that seemed to be considered necessary for these libraries and were in each. They were re-read several times by the whole family. The choice was not bad and quite thorough. For example , in every village library there were certainly already: Telemachus, Gilblaz, Don Quixote, Robinson Cruz, Ancient Vifliofika Novikov, Acts of Peter the Great with additions, History of wanderings in general La Harpe, World Traveler of Abbot de la Port and Marquis G., translation Iv. Perf. Yelagin, a clever and moral novel, but now ridiculed. Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Kheraskov were invariably among those who loved poetry. After that, the works of Mr. Voltaire began to be added to these books; and novels and stories by him; and " New Eloise". At the beginning of this century, the novels of August La Fontaine, Ms. Genlis and Kotzebue came into great fashion with us. But no one enjoyed such fame as Ms. Radcliffe. Terrible and sensitive - these were, finally, the two kinds of reading most according to the taste of the public. Reading of this kind has finally replaced the old books. " So wrote in the middle 19th century M. A. Dmitriev.

Several generations of young nobles were brought up on such literature. From here, from the men's office of the estate, Russian enlightenment spread. Here the projects of the first Lancaster schools in Russia, new crop rotation systems, and women's education were drawn up. Here the capitalist economic system gradually matured. No wonder N.V. Gogol, describing the village of the "enlightened" Colonel Koshkarev in "Dead Souls", sarcastically remarks: "The whole village was scattered: buildings, restructuring, heaps of lime, brick and logs all over the streets. Some houses were built, like government offices. On one was written in gold letters: "Depot of agricultural implements"; on the other: "Main accounting expedition"; "Committee of rural affairs"; "School of normal education of the villagers. In a word, the devil knows what was not."

In the same rooms, curious natural scientists conducted pneumatic, electrical, and biological experiments. Astronomical observations were made from here. Therefore, sometimes the office was literally lined with telescopes, terrestrial and celestial globes, sundials and astrolabes.

Complementing the rather modest, almost ascetic atmosphere of the men's office were two or three portraits of the owner's parents and children, a small picture with a battle or a seascape.

If the men's study was the private center of the estate, then the living room or hall served as its front face. Such a division into home and guest, everyday and festive was characteristic of the entire noble era. One of the consequences of such a division of the entire life of the nobility was the differentiation of manor interiors into "ceremonial apartments" and "rooms for the family." In wealthy estates, the living room and the hall served different purposes, but in most houses they were perfectly combined.

Contemporaries certainly perceived the hall or living room as a front door, and therefore officially - a cold apartment. "The hall, large, empty and cold, with two or three windows to the street and four to the courtyard, with rows of chairs along the walls, with lamps on high legs and candelabra in the corners, with a large piano against the wall; dances, ceremonial dinners and a place for playing "cards were her destination. Then the living room, also with three windows, with the same sofa and a round table in the back and a large mirror above the sofa. On the sides of the sofa are armchairs, chaise longue tables, and between the windows there are tables with narrow wall-length mirrors... During the years of our childhood, fantasies were considered unlawful and all living rooms were in the same way, "recalls P. A. Kropotkin.

Almost all memoirists recall this emptiness and coldness of the living rooms, where "always all the furniture was covered with covers." At first, the coldness of these halls was literal. Why heat them every day? And secondly, architecturally, it was not homely warmth that stood out here, but splendor. Often the hall was made double-height. The windows on one side of the hall overlooked the front yard - courdoner, and on the other - on the "main clearing" (the so-called central alley of the park). Views from large windows carefully taken into account in the design of the estate. The ever-changing nature organically entered the design of the front hall.

Description of work

Man is an extremely disorganized and chaotic being. In himself, in time, perhaps, he will figure it out. He will establish his values ​​and ideals, and learn to build actions in accordance with them. But there are many people and everyone is trying to establish their values ​​in the human community, to establish their ideals as the most important for all. If this is allowed, social chaos begins.

Over the course of several issues, under the rubric “Museum as the face of an epoch”, we talked about various estate museums, both in Moscow and in the country: about the chambers of the Romanov boyars on Varvarka, about the Griboedovs’ estate in Khmelit in the Smolensk region, about Leo Tolstoy’s house in Khamovniki, about the Zamoskvoretsky estate of the artist Vasily Andreevich Tropinin, about the house of Tchaikovsky in Klin and Vasily Lvovich Pushkin - on Staraya Basmannaya. Each of these houses, keeping the memory of their famous owners, revealed to the readers the time in which they lived - not only with its great history, but also with life, habits, faces, voices.

Now, summing up this conversation, we will try to see the phenomenon of the Russian estate as a whole. About the meanings of estate life, its evolution in our country, about the imprint that estate culture has left on Russian life up to the present, our correspondent Olga Balla talks with a well-known specialist in the history of Russian estate culture - corresponding member Russian Academy of Architecture and Building Sciences, Doctor of Arts, Deputy Chairman of the Society for the Study of the Russian Manor, author of many books and articles Maria VladimirovnaNashchokina.

- To what extent did the general structure and life differ in urban and suburban estates?

— First of all, it is worth paying attention to the fact that the estate is a cell of traditional Russian life. It was formed much earlier than the appearance of country estates, with which we now, as a rule, are associated with the idea of ​​the estate as such. In principle, any ancient Russian city consisted of such cells - owner's plots, on which stood houses with a small plot of land. All Russian cities traditionally had such a structure and it has been preserved almost to this day. Now, unfortunately, this estate structure is being actively built up and disturbed, and it is precisely its loss that causes the main damage to the image of Moscow. But until the beginning of the 20th century, such a structure was preserved in Moscow. The estate as a traditional way of life of a Russian person has passed through almost the entire history of the state.

Manors, urban and suburban, began to differ from each other not so long ago - as early as the 17th century, they differed little from each other. The difference between them was only in size. This began to change in the second half of the 18th century. In 1762, Peter III issued a decree on the optional service of the nobles, which, under Peter the Great, was charged to them as a duty. Because of the service, they had absolutely no time to take care of their country estates. These were purely economic formations that brought income.

When it became possible to lead a lifestyle free from public service and spend time in a country estate, that's when it began to turn into a place of rest.

Her role, of course, was not limited to this then. It’s just that it began to turn into a place of rest only towards the end of the 19th century, and even then not always. And in the 18th century, as soon as the landlords had the opportunity to leave for a country estate and live there, not doing state affairs, but only their own household, they immediately took advantage of this opportunity. As Catherine the Great would later say, the landowner must become a father to the peasants, that is, the very cog of the state that brings state policy to the very bottom. And it brought real results: thus, the country really cemented itself.

So, in the second half of the 18th century, it became possible to create suburban complexes, which were often much more magnificent and freer than in the city, because even at that time the place in the city was still limited. And outside the city it was possible to break huge parks. Fashion for parks was brought to Russian culture by Peter the Great. He was the first to start gardening: he brought new impressions from European travels and tried to embody them in the gigantic imperial residences that were created near St. Petersburg, or in smaller residences, like his summer palace and the Summer Garden. However, the opportunity to engage in the creation of gardens on estates for an ordinary nobleman appeared only from the middle of the 18th century - approximately from Elizabeth, from Catherine, when with Western trends comes the opportunity to lay out parks according to their patterns.

Thus began the divergence of the city and country palaces. By the way, large estates are often called palaces in our country, but this is inaccurate. Some estates, indeed, have a palace character, they look like palaces, but they have never been called that before. The word "palace" before the revolution was always applied only to the houses of the imperial family and never - to noble houses. Both Kuskovo and Ostankino are not palaces, they are houses.

“So the palace is a matter of status, not size, pomp or something like that?”

— Quite right. Naturally, when the need arose to build magnificent structures outside the city - with a park, with pavilions, with some kind of undertakings, and so on - architects began to be involved in this. Among those who built these wonderful residences - for example, St. Petersburg, and not only palaces, but also the houses of wealthy aristocrats - these are the same masters who built in the city. We know the names of Quarenghi, Voronikhin, Cameron, Starov, who created palaces near St. Petersburg.

Moscow had its own history. Moscow was, on the one hand, the manor capital; it retained the manor traditional character of building for longer than St. Petersburg. After all, Petersburg was built late, from the beginning of the 18th century, so the building there, although it was also originally a manor, was still initially oriented towards the appearance of a Western European city, and, in addition, all allotments there were limited. There was no such thing in Moscow - it was really a big village in this sense, with gardens, vegetable gardens ... Moscow had its own architectural community. Wonderful estates were built here by Domenico Gilardi, both in Moscow and in the suburbs. Other craftsmen also built here. Often in Moscow and in the provinces, projects of famous metropolitan architects were carried out: the owners of estates bought projects in the form of drawings, and entrusted the implementation to their fortress builders, who lived there on the ground. Building materials are usually also locally produced. It is now we are thinking where to buy a brick - of course, in the construction market. And they didn’t do this before: clay was everywhere, so when they were going to build a house, they just started their own small brick factory. It's very easy, in fact, to do: find a place with good clay, mold it into boxes, dry it and build it. All!

Small brick factories are a characteristic feature of Russia. Say, in Novaya Ladoga, which I wrote about in my book, - in a tiny town - there were several dozen brick factories with their own brands.

Naturally, the process of monopolization proceeded gradually. By the end of the 19th century, the city began to differ sharply from the countryside, bricks had to be bought in the city, and monopolists appeared on the market. But in different cities they were different - again, because it is - local production.

— How did Moscow change after the fire of 1812 in terms of manor architecture? The fire, as you know, contributed a lot to her decoration ...

Of course, and it's understandable why. Catherine the Great understood that the change in Moscow depends, first of all, on the owners who own housing. Although Moscow had an ideal layout: it was based on a circle, it was a Renaissance layout, modeled on Italian cities (she borrowed as a model the regular, ideal city of the Renaissance, that is, the Renaissance idea), but it had a lot of dead ends, impassable streets and and so on - this is a consequence of the fact that, after all, the construction proceeded not only according to an ideal scheme - it was the basis, yes, but the city was built spontaneously in many respects. Therefore, under Catherine the Great, a regulated plan of Moscow was created, which deprived it of all these disorders and made it more reasonable: a lane means that which is between the streets; streets are those that go in different directions with rays ...

Among these urban estates that have survived to our time, which were a characteristic type of building in Moscow, one can name the tiny estate of V. L. Pushkin, and the Tropinin Museum - a small estate in Zamoskvoretsk, and the more extensive estate of L. N. Tolstoy in Khamovniki . Khamovniki is still the border of the city, the territories beyond the Garden Ring entered the city limits quite late, so their development for a long time was loose and had the opportunity to create estate complexes with gardens - which, in fact, attracted Tolstoy: he liked that there was a garden there. On the other hand, this is, in general, very close to the Kremlin - within walking distance.

Among the estates that were formed early in a comparative distance from the capital, is Khmelita - a provincial estate, with a Baroque palace, which did not reach us, but was later recreated.

The fire of 1812 destroyed the dilapidated buildings, about which the empress, as a reasonable ruler, once said: we cannot force the owners to demolish them now - but we will not allow them to be overhauled. And after all these dilapidated houses naturally disappear, the Moscow layout should have been adjusted. This became possible after the fire: a huge number of new buildings appeared. Still, the city burned down decently ...

- He was mostly wooden, I guess?

- It was renewed as a wooden one: the tree was the main and cheapest building material, and after the fire, this was exactly what was required in order to restore the building as soon as possible. No one was allowed to build spontaneously in Moscow, and this is very good: a number of exemplary projects were developed. The owner chose the right one among them, and he was told this.

Thus, Moscow turned into a very stylish city - a city of classicism, with renovated buildings, with well-drawn facades, which were developed by professional architects.

What can be said about typical architectural forms Russian estates? In your book about the Russian estate of the Silver Age, you identify five options that were common by that time: a Victorian cottage, boyar mansions, a knight's castle, a modernist mansion, and a “nostalgic” noble nest. Please say a few words about each of these types.

Yes, these five options are the main ones, there are others, but these are the most in demand. Their vitality shows that they are - that's what is amazing! are in demand even now. And today we have knight's castles, English cottages, and Art Nouveau mansions...

- And new types appeared? Or did the architectural imagination remain within these limits?

— Modern, fundamentally different architecture made of glass and concrete, sometimes wood and glass, has become a new type. This type of architecture, which appeared in the 1910s and 1920s, is also accepted now.

But the five main types are still popular today, albeit to varying degrees. Now, for example, in all spheres of life there is a great focus on Anglo-Saxon culture, so Victorian cottages are more in demand. The castle is still an expensive and exclusive thing (that's why Maxim Galkin built himself a knight's castle). Boyar mansions are more rare, they are popular with people who are included in Russian culture. Sometimes they even surround the dacha with a palisade and build houses with high roofs, small windows, with wooden porches - like boyar mansions. The Art Nouveau mansion was especially popular in the 1990s - 2000s, and the noble nest is a constantly sought-after image, there are many mansions with columns and continue to be built, in particular, in the Moscow region.

There is also an oriental type - I did not write about it in the book, because in the Silver Age such cases were rare. Even now they are rare - but still they also exist: such houses are built mainly by Tatars, gypsies ...

- What were typical features classic manor life?

- If we talk about features that have passed the test of time, this, of course, is, first of all, a connection with nature, which can be easily carried out there, and participation in the economic cycle. You should not think that gardening - six hundred or twelve hundred - is exclusively slave labor for subsistence. This is not so, because Russia is a peasant country, it remained so even in the 19th century, and many people simply have in their blood the desire to improve the land and apply their labor precisely to the land. The garden and the garden gave and to this day give them such an opportunity.

- In the estate life, in your own words, there were three components - a house, a temple and a garden. And thus, the garden played a role not only decorative, but also more significant ...

- I have a two-volume book "Russian Gardens", published in 2007, it just says this. The fact is that "gardens" were called everything that grew on the estate, including the park. "Park" is English word, which came to us along with the English landscape style. And before that they used to say “garden”: what is planted, then the garden. This is primordial Russian concept included a garden both prolific and ornamental ...

This two-volume book, like the book about the Russian estate of the Silver Age, I want to republish. Otherwise, people here do not know what Russian gardens are, everyone is trying to plant Japanese ones. I understood why: because Japanese gardens have a distinct appearance, there are a lot of books on them, and Russian gardens - no one knows what it is! Incidentally, I am an active promoter of the restoration of Russian parks. Some believe that in what form the park has come down to us, let it remain so (a vivid example is the discussions around the restoration summer garden). I am sure that they just need to be restored so that our compatriots understand what diversity we had in this area. And so what? - well, some old trees have come down to us, they are standing, - what kind of garden is this? - but the Japanese garden is yes, a real garden. But that's not the case.

- And before the 18th century, there was also a horticultural culture in Russia, right? What is it?

- In the Middle Ages, we had monastery gardens and groves, there were gardens in the royal residence in Izmailovo ... I talk about this in the preface to the two-volume book. Now, by the way, horticulture is being revived in monasteries, including decorative gardening.

- What can be said about the experience of museumification of estates, which began with us shortly after they stopped burning and smashing them?

- The experience of museumification of estates began with us, in fact, immediately after the revolution. Oddly enough, the fact that the estates began to explore, revolutionary events contributed greatly. On the one hand, a catastrophe, and on the other hand, there was an opportunity for work for most researchers. Before the revolution, it is true, there were few of them, but still they were, and they often could not study their subject, because many estates were inaccessible. The real field for research appeared after the revolution.

Another thing is that this field was rapidly declining - not by the day, but by the hour. First of all, the estates were robbed, and then burned so that it was not visible, because no one believed that the new order would last for a long time - everyone thought that the owners would now return and give heat for theft and robbery. Here is one of the motives for the destruction of the estates, and Bunin was right, who said that the destruction during the revolution was driven not by hatred for the old life, but by acute envy of it.

And therefore, the orientation of the architecture of Stalin's time to this architecture, pre-revolutionary, is completely natural: this destroyed life, an object of envy, had to be reproduced. The same palaces were built, but for the workers. This is a humanistic, in general, message that has been implemented in many respects.

— Tell us, please, about the history of the study of the Russian estate. When did we start doing this? Who were the pioneers and classics of this topic?

- The first researchers were art historians of the pre-revolutionary period. For example, Baron Nikolai Wrangel - he, in fact, owns the first books on estates, on estate heritage, he did this, traveled, looked ... There are books on estates in several regions Russian Empire by Grigory Lukomsky. Here they are - pioneers and classics.

— That is, from the end of the 19th century, it began to be felt that the estates were not just a value, but something worthy of research?

- By the end of the 19th century, the estates began to leave - and, naturally, when some very significant part of the culture leaves, people appear who understand that it should not disappear without a trace, that it must at least be studied.

- But why did the Russian estate begin to leave at that time, even before the Bolsheviks?

- Because after the reform of Alexander II - after the abolition of serfdom in 1861 - commodity-money relations changed. The reform, on the one hand, was as sparing as possible for landowners, but on the other hand, it still changed a lot.

There are literary works that say that a huge number of impoverished landowners appeared, who, without peasant labor, were no longer able to maintain their estates. It is easy for us to understand this - just as we, weak women, are not able to maintain our dachas without men, the same thing happened there: after all, the economy - the house, the services - requires constant care. And there was no one to support. It was necessary to pay workers money - but there was no money, because only the same peasants could earn money by cultivating the land, and the owner - by selling their labor. These attitudes changed, and a huge number of impoverished landowners appeared. But after all, this caused very great damage to the peasants themselves. There are very interesting works about this, for example, Alexander Ivanovich Ertel writes about the ruin that took place in Russia after the reform. The reform was not accidentally called "misfortune". The peasants said so: "This is after the misfortune."

So it's all very complicated and ambiguous.

— What, in your opinion, is the importance of manor culture? What did this culture, the experience of estate life mean for Russian culture as a whole?

— First of all, it preserves the traditional character of our culture. There is a lot of revolutionary in our culture, and the estate is part of a stable, traditional culture. Therefore, its preservation is very important, and not only in the form of separate museum complexes, but in general. Persistent attempts are now being made to fully instill in us the Anglo-Saxon cultural heritage, to introduce Protestant values ​​into our culture, and the estate, of course, is associated with Orthodox values. This is the preservation and transformation of the earth according to the laws of expediency and harmony, the creation of something with one's own hands, home creativity, home crafts and activities that underlie all Russian literature of the 19th century, Russian theater. Literature and theater - our main contributions to world culture - were born in the estate, and they are based on estate values.

Manor - indigenous to Russia - culture underlies the Russian character and Russian culture as a whole. It is closely related to all of our psychological differences from other peoples, it is she who determines - to this day! - our way of life, our habits ... All the elements created by her in one form or another are still alive.

M. V. Nashchokina. Moscow architectural ceramics. M., Progress-Tradition, 2015.

M. V. Nashchokina. Russian estate of the Silver Age. - M., Uley, 2007.

M. V. Nashchokina. Russian gardens. T. 1-2. - M., Art-spring, 2007. - T. 1: XVIII - first half of the XIX century; T. 2 - second half of the 19th century. - the beginning of the XX century.

Introduction

Chapter I. ESTATE IN THE SYSTEM OF CULTURE 12

1.1. Typological characteristics Russian estate. 12

1.2. Manor in the history of Russian culture 28

1.3. The image of the estate in the artistic culture of Russia 66

Chapter II. "NOBLE NESTS" IN THE CULTURE OF THE KURSK KRAL 77

1.1. Socio-economic prerequisites for the formation of the Kursk estate 77

1.2. The "Golden Age" of the Kursk estate (the last third of the 18th - early 19th centuries) 101

1.3. The decline of estate culture in the Kursk province (late XIX - early XX century) 144

Conclusion 155

Literature 160

Introduction to work

The dissertation is a cultural study of the Russian estate as a cultural and historical phenomenon based on the Kursk region.

Relevance of the research topic. The choice of theme is due to the importance of the estate in the culture of Russia. For many centuries, the estate has been the main component of the national socio-cultural reality. The peculiar historical prerequisites for the emergence and development of the Russian estate made it a pronounced national phenomenon.

The study of the estate from a culturological standpoint is now the most relevant, since it is caused by the growing processes of formation national identity in connection with the changing idea of ​​the place and role of Russia in the universal cultural development.

The new principles of our country's presence in the world community require respect not only for foreign national cultures, but, first of all, for our own. The need to study the native culture as an independent value is dictated by the desire to participate on an equal basis in the "dialogue of cultures", in which diversity is the basis and a necessary condition for rapprochement.

The currently growing growth of Russian national identity causes the need to restore historical and cultural memory. The traditions of national culture are uninterrupted, as they are the fruit of the joint efforts of many generations. Modernity is inconceivable without a "secular building of culture"

ry", without awareness of the previous moral, spiritual, intellectual experience, without respect for the fund of enduring values ​​accumulated by our people.

The Russian estate is a phenomenon that to a large extent determined the features of Russian culture, its historical life and spiritual content. The estate is interpreted as a kind of sign of Russia, a symbol of Russian culture. Invariably, its presence in the visual arts, literature, music.

Most of the names of prominent figures national history and culture is associated with ancient Russian estates. Visiting these often destroyed and unrestored "noble nests", we feel the presence of the "genius of the place", a kind of spiritual fulfillment that is not subject to time. The estates invariably attract the attention of numerous foreign guests who seek here to gain an understanding of the mysterious "Russian soul".

The study of the Russian estate in the cultural aspect is also necessary for the development of domestic cultural studies, the formation of new approaches to understanding national cultural achievements, filling historical and cultural gaps.

object research is the Russian estate as a cultural phenomenon.

Item research - the Kursk estate as one of the regional manifestations of the phenomenon of the Russian estate and its historical existence.

main working hypothesis research can be formulated as follows: consideration of the Russian estate as a socio cultural phenomenon in its historical development will clarify the understanding of the national characteristics of Russian culture

in general, to enrich the modern idea of ​​the originality of its traditions and their role in the formation of national identity today.

aim The work is the study of the Russian estate as a culturological phenomenon, consideration of its role and place in national culture, determination of its complex nature and systemic connections, identification of the principles of the cultural typology of the estate, assessment of the significance of this phenomenon for Russian cultural reality.

To achieve the goal, the following tasks:

highlight the historical stages of the life of the estate in the national culture;

offer a cultural and historical typology of the Russian estate;

to develop general methodological approaches to understanding the phenomenon of the Russian estate on the Kursk material.

Methodological basis of the study is a comprehensive methodology for considering the Russian estate as a cultural and historical phenomenon in the systemic interaction of cultural, problem-historical, aesthetic, typological, hermeneutical, semiotic approaches.

The degree of development of the problem. As a separate problem of Russian culture, the estate theme attracted attention at the end of the 19th century. In connection with the growing trends towards the historical study of Russian culture, interest is awakening in the purposeful study of the estate by historians and art critics.

Publications of that time are devoted mainly to the identification historical picture formation and evolution of individual estate complexes. They also contain fragmentary historical and biographical information about the inhabitants of the estate, nostalgic memories and the author's impressions of being there.

Most of the articles are devoted to the famous "Moscow region". brief information about the most significant estates is contained in almost every guidebook in Moscow. The famous Arkhangelskoye, Izmailovo, Kolomenskoye, Kuzminki, Kuskovo and other "Moscow region" remained favorite vacation spots for residents of the capital, so the popularity of these estates was great. The most famous of them were the works of N. Zvenov, A. Korsakov, I. Zabelin, S. Lyubetsky. In the late 80s, SD Sheremetev began to publish a series of small, modestly illustrated brochures about little-known estates in the Moscow region.

At that time, the researchers themselves of the estate and Russian architecture in general "emphasized the important role of history in their work ... They were genuine historians, more precisely, chroniclers of Russian architecture, very far removed from scientific method foreign scientists. They remained in captivity of historical factology. .. for all the value of these publications, they did not reveal the conditions and the environment that gave rise to the creation of first-class buildings in the 18th - early 19th centuries. ". Thus, the publications of that time are predominantly descriptive.

In 1907-1908, thanks to the efforts of V. Vereshchagin, P. Veiner, N. Wrangel, I. Grabar, G. Lukomsky, interest in the cultural and artistic world of "noble nests" awakened. Home

the role in the popularization of the estate culture was played by the magazine "Old Years" (1907-1916), on the pages of which articles by I. Bondarenko, P. Weiner, S. Makovsky, N. Trubnikov and other authors about the Russian estate were constantly printed. Following this, the magazine "Capital and Estate" (1913-1917) began to publish information about ancient estates and excellent photographic materials illustrating the architecture, interiors and art collections of the "noble nests".

It is worth highlighting the monographs of G. Lukomsky about Moscow and provincial estates published at the beginning of the 20th century, Y. Shamurin's "Moscow Region" and V. Kurbatov's "Gardens and Parks", telling about many palace and park complexes in Russia. All these publications made it possible to systematize and register a large number of Russian estates, which subsequently helped to save many of them from destruction and plunder in the first post-revolutionary years.

However, these publications did not provide a comprehensive assessment of the estate culture, which was replaced by an art history analysis.

The attention of researchers was mainly drawn to the palace and park complexes near Moscow, while the powerful layer of middle-sized estates, characteristic of the Russian provinces, was practically not affected. This was due, first of all, to the lack of factual material. Contemporaries left almost no news about small provincial estates, and family archives were often lost, especially where the estate did not stay in the hands of one family for a long time, but repeatedly changed owners.

In the 1920s, in Moscow, under the leadership of V.V. Zgura, a Society for the Study of Russian Estates was created, which did a lot to preserve the culture of Russia's estates. Most of the studies also concerned the “Moscow region”, however, the undoubted merit of this society is that with its publications it drew attention to the estate as an element of culture, the custodian and creator of its own world.

Although the Society's plans were only partially realized (its work was interrupted due to the numerous arrests of its members), it played a large role in awakening scientific interest in the Russian estate.

The accumulation of extensive factual material contributed to the deep development of issues related to one or another side of the estate reality. In the middle and second half of our century, a number of generalizing studies on the architecture of estates appear (works by O. Evangulova, M. Ilyin, E. Kirichenko, V. Lavrov, N. Tikhomirov, S. Toropov, V. Turchin), on estate gardens and parks (books by A. Vergunov, V. Gorohov, T. Dubyago, D. Likhachev, L. Lunts, E. Shchukina), a little earlier - studies of the estate theater (B. Aseeva, T. Dynnik).

Basically, they represent the traditional approach to the study of estate culture within the framework of differentiated art history. Recently, there have been works aimed at studying the estate as a specific cultural phenomenon, a certain integral organism.

Of particular importance for this study is the monograph by A. Anikst and V. Turchin "... In the vicinity of Moscow: From the history of Russian estate culture of the XVII-XIX centuries", as well as

the works of T.Kazhdan and G.Sternin, considering the Russian estate in a certain socio-cultural context.

Country estate ensembles from different regions of Russia were covered in the works of N. Gulyanitsky, T. Dubyago, S. Evangulova, D. Likhachev, S. Fedorov, M. Tsapenko and others.

Among the dissertation research on this issue, one can single out the works of A. Kulagin "Architecture of the palace and estate complexes of Belarus", E. Cherkasova "Country estate complexes of the Kharkiv region of the II half of the 18th - early 20th centuries", which examine the principles of architectural and spatial planning of estates. The dissertations of N. Budyko "Landscape heritage of Belarus", V. Dormidontova "Manor parks of Moldova", I. Yarovoy "Landscape gardens of the Russian province" are devoted to the study of manor gardens and parks.

However, the estates of the Kursk region are practically not found either on the pages of pre-revolutionary publications (with the exception of some works by G. Lukomsky), or in subsequent studies. The most "successful" in this regard is the estate of the princes Baryatinsky "Maryino", which has its own historiographer - the architect S. Fedorov, who devoted more than 20 years to studying it, the author of several monographs. The vast majority of Kursk medium-non-local estates remained practically unexplored. In connection with the recent increased interest in national culture, articles by Kursk art historians, architects and local historians on manor construction in this region appear in print (works by Yu. Bugrov, M. Tarasova, E. Kholodova and

Review and analysis of the literature giving an idea of ​​the degree

the development of the problem, confirms that the Kursk estates were not yet the subject of a holistic cultural study.

Scientific novelty of the presented research lies in the fact that for the first time the phenomenon of the Russian estate is considered in the methodology of a comprehensive cultural analysis. This approach makes it possible to reveal the features of this phenomenon as a unique historical and cultural complex, one of the most significant phenomena of national culture. The study also proposes the principles of classification and grounds for the typology of the Russian estate in the political, economic, socio-psychological, spiritual, artistic and aesthetic life of Russia.

Considered and included in the scientific circulation is a significant material of the historical life of the Kursk estates, which until now were the object of local history or art history study, and a number of archival documents are considered for the first time. The typological characteristics of the Kursk estate are substantiated in terms of qualities common to this phenomenon of Russian culture and special to the region.

The definition of the estate as a culturological phenomenon allows us to consider it as an integral cultural, historical and aesthetic phenomenon with internal unity and its own boundaries. Such a consideration of the Russian estate allows us to explore it in the "coordinates of 11 cultures, namely: from a socio-political point of view - as a socio-economic, historical and political entity, in the temporal and spatial coordinates of the history of Russia

these, in aesthetic forms that crystallize the axiological foundations of Russian culture, and, finally, from a systemic point of view, as a phenomenon that has immanent laws of life, its own spatio-temporal characteristics and ways of communicating with the socio-cultural environment, changing both in time and in aesthetic planes .

Theoretical significance research lies in the novelty and reliability of the results, which represent a significant contribution to research on this issue. The complex cultural approach tested by the author can be used in subsequent research in this direction.

Practical significance work is the relevance of the development of university MHC course where the problems of the Russian estate should take significant place. The material of the dissertation research can also be used in special courses and extracurricular activities with students and schoolchildren.

On defense is subject to the following provisions:

a system of principles for considering a Russian estate as a sociocultural phenomenon;

special characteristics of this phenomenon in its spatio-temporal existence, in semantic originality, in the features of the value worldview;

characterization of the place and role of the Russian estate in the national culture (on the example of the Kursk estates).

The following abbreviations are accepted in the text: GAKO - State Archive Kursk region; GRB - State Russian library.

Typological characteristics of the Russian estate

The phenomenon of the Russian estate is characterized by integrity - internal unity, remoteness from environment, specific unique features that make it possible to determine the place of each specific phenomenon in the system of culture. To comprehend this, it is necessary to fully cover all the properties, aspects and relationships of the object of study, understand its internal conditionality, as well as consider the elements that make it up, highlight those that are system-forming, providing the conditions for its development, as well as study its structural organization.

It is difficult to find a phenomenon in which the most characteristic typical features of the spiritual worldview of the era are reflected to such an extent, as in a Russian estate. It corresponded to the peculiarities of the traditional Russian way of life, enriching it with the qualities of the Western European way of life. Its rootedness in Russian soil was a factor that contributed to the fact that throughout the development of the Russian estate was one of the main components of Russian culture. That is why the estate, both in the minds of contemporaries and in the ideas of descendants, merged with the image of Russia, becoming an inseparable part of Russian history and culture.

Any phenomenon unfolds in a certain space and a certain time sequence. In a narrow sense, considering the "geographical" space, we can say that the estates covered the whole of Russia. According to the well-known expression of Catherine II, in her reign, the Russian bar was seized by a construction mania. This was greatly facilitated by the general land surveying carried out during the second half of the 18th century in almost all provinces, which made it possible to determine the boundaries of each of the noble estates.

In a broader sense, the estate space is not so much a geographical concept as a spiritual, socio-historical, political, economic, cultural one. Decrees of Peter III of February 20, 1762 ("Manifesto on the Liberty of the Nobility") and Catherine II of April 21, 1785 ("Charter on the rights, liberties and advantages of the noble Russian nobility") finally approved the nobility in dominant positions, granting him the right to soul - and land ownership by the very fact of belonging to an estate.

For the first time, Russian nobles had the opportunity to leave the capital, go to estates, live there for a long time, disposing of both the land and the peasants at their own discretion. As L. Smirnov aptly put it, this was "the first temptation to freedom", and many nobles did not fail to take advantage of the opportunity for self-expression in other forms not related to service. For the majority, resignation and departure to the estate was a kind of protest gesture, a challenge to the authorities. In the changed socio-cultural context, the estate becomes a new form of social life, the opposition of the capital's statehood.

Manor in the history of Russian culture

The estate is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, and the existing poetic image, a kind of "model of the estate", reflects only its typical, phenomenal features. The whole variety of Russian estates is reduced to some basic types. The principles of their classification can be different: by size (large estate ownership - medium estate ownership - one-yard estate); according to the social status of the owners (landlord - grand ducal); by the nature of ownership (hereditary family nest - acquired estate); by distance from the center ("Moscow Region" - a provincial estate); according to the way of life and way of life (representative estate - a place of rest and solitude - an economic economy), etc.

Estates were studied from the point of view of historical, socio-economic, local history, art history approaches. In this paper, we consider the phenomenon of the Russian estate from the standpoint of cultural studies, exploring the place of this phenomenon in the historical and cultural context of a certain era.

The parameters of such an approach in relation to the "Moscow region" are set in a detailed monograph by M.A. Anikst and V.S. Turchin "... In the vicinity of Moscow. From the history of Russian estate culture of the 17th-19th centuries" . However, far from everything related to the "Moscow region", which is one of the estate types, is applicable to the characterization of provincial estates, which were the vast majority. Therefore, in this paper, we offer our cultural typology of the Russian estate.

Socio-economic prerequisites for the formation of the Kursk estate

The historical development of the Kursk region was complex, often dramatic. Since ancient times, this territory was considered a frontier: in 884, when the Kursk lands became part of the Kyiv state, the border between the Wild Steppe and Russia passed along the Seim River. At the same time, apparently, cities arise as observation and defensive outposts. Kursk, Rylsk, Putivl and other smaller, fortified urban settlements are being built.

By that time, the territory of the Kursk region had been developed quite well. The townspeople had farms in the vicinity, where they were engaged in agriculture. In the annals there is no mention of the distribution of estates to service people in the Kursk region before the XIV century, however, it is known that even then they had their own lands: probably these were estates acquired by purchase or other means. The patrimony was the land, "with which" instead of dues, the owner served. She was considered full ownership owner, it could be sold, exchanged, inherited. It is characteristic that such lands were originally located along the banks of rivers and at the edge of the forest, as this made it possible to hide in the event of an unexpected raid of enemies.

The invasion of the Tatar-Mongols in 1238 devastated most rich lands. The Kursk principality ceased to exist. In 1285, Kursk was ravaged and burned to the ground, in its place at the end of the 13th century there were settlements of the Khan's Baskaks. In the Nikon Chronicle, which tells about the journey of Metropolitan Pimen, we read: ancient cities are red and ostentatious with vision, the places are empty, everything is empty and not inhabited, nowhere is there to see a person, there are a lot of great deserts and animals: goats, elks, wolves, foxes, otters, bears, beavers, birds: eagles, geese, swans, cranes and other things, and byache the whole great desert ".

Constantly disturbed by Tatar raids and requisitions, the eastern part of the Kursk lands suffered more, while the northwestern, especially on the right side of the Seim River (namely the Ryl and Putivl principalities), survived more. In the XIV century, these lands became part of Lithuania, and later - in the Muscovite state.

After the expulsion of the Tatar-Mongols, the Kursk lands remained borderline, now separating the Muscovite state from the Wild Field, so the circumstances of life on the frontier territory remained practically unchanged. There was a constant threat both from the numerous Tatar-Mongol hordes, whose raids here continued until the 1660s, and from the Polish-Lithuanian rulers. The Moscow tsars, wishing to strengthen their borders, sent service people to the outlying lands. It was from them that by the 16th-17th centuries the population of the Kursk Territory almost exclusively consisted.

Chapter I. Manor culture …………………………………………………..3

Chapter II. Shuisky origins of K.D. Balmont. Analysis of the biographical novel “Under the new sickle”……………………………...9

Chapter III. Project……………………………………………………………....14

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………23

List of used literature…………………………………………..24

INTRODUCTION

ESTATE CULTURE

The culture of the Russian nobility is part of the Russian national culture. The nobility in Russia for quite a long time was considered the "primary class." It originated in the 12th century and, developing, reached its peak in the 17th - the first half of the 19th century. The nobility differed among themselves in origin - "bornness", wealth, education. The wealthy nobility by the 19th century was a large landowner, possessed serfs and power. It was upper layer- aristocratic part Russian state. The Russian aristocracy was not homogeneous in its origin. These were the descendants of the feudal landowning nobility and the descendants of the royal entourage, and well-known statesmen.

One of the parts of the noble culture is the estate culture. Noble estate culture is a complex multifaceted phenomenon of Russian culture. The homestead culture is diverse.

This is the culture of aristocratic noble circles, the culture of advanced noble and serf intelligentsia, and part of folk culture. For several centuries, noble estates performed several functions:

They were actually the organizers of agricultural production;

They were centers of economic and cultural development of significant territories;

Architectural ensembles of estates, outbuildings, parks, ponds, cemeteries, chapels, churches, by their existence had a huge impact on those around them;

The culture and life of the capital cities were brought to the provincial noble estates. Music, painting, theater, libraries, collections of antiques and rare plants became an integral part of noble estates;

Noble estates disposed to creativity, writing. They brought up the color of the Russian intelligentsia of the XVIII-XIX 1 .

The description of the estates is given in memoirs, literary works. His attitude to the estate of K.D. Balmont expressed the following words: “Without my Gumnisch, I can hardly imagine Russia and my attitude towards it. Without

1 Great Soviet Encyclopedia / / Ed. 3, T. 27. - M, 2005.

Gumnishch, perhaps I see more clearly the general laws necessary for my homeland, but I will not love them to the point of addiction.

The unique atmosphere of the estate has shaped the attitude of more than one generation of nobles. Love for nature, instilled from childhood, grew to love for the Fatherland. The childhood years of Chaadaev, Obolensky, Bestuzhev-Ryushin, Lermontov, Balmont passed on the estates... They matured as individuals in the conditions of the estate life and subsequently were associated with this life all their lives. Noble estates were not only beautiful architectural structures, they were often centers of crafts, folk art, were the center of culture in the places where they were located.

Homesteads appear in late XVI- early 17th century They reach their heyday in the 2nd floor. XVIII - 1st floor. 19th century This was due to a number of socio-economic and political factors:

The nobility became the backbone of the absolute monarchy in the centers and localities. Manor in the 18th century was, as it were, the primary cell of the noble administration, especially under Catherine II;

Being a large landowner and having a monopoly on the ownership of serfs, the nobility became the wealthiest classes;

Since the 18th century, the nobility has become the most educated, well-bred estate.

Having huge wealth, a high level of education, exemption by Peter III from compulsory military service, the nobility, especially the aristocracy, could create for themselves integral estate ensembles, in which there was a whole "bouquet of arts": architecture, painting, sculpture ... spiritual life. From their very birth, the estates stood out for their architectural structures, planning, and special way of life. The estate developed into a tightly soldered architectural ensemble, consisting of a complex of residential buildings, landscape gardening devices and a number of outbuildings. The manor was deeply embedded in everyday life noble society and became the most common form of both suburban and urban construction. The construction of estates gained a particularly large scale in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Noble estates were subdivided according to wealth, luxury, purpose into royal (imperial) and aristocratic estates - palaces (for example, in the Moscow region - Kuskovo, Ostankino, Arkhangelskoye, Izmailovo; near Petersburg - Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, Gatchina, Pavlovsk) and large estates, middle and petty nobility. They differed from each other in size, layout, and way of life.

Palaces-estates surrounded both capitals. What they had in common was wealth, splendor, planning of estates. Their arrangement depended on fashion, features of the architectural styles of that time, and the tastes of their owners. Moscow estates were distinguished by their diversity, they were influenced by the breadth of places. In St. Petersburg estates, the uniformity of measured plots was more present 1 .

Gardens and parks were an important component of the noble estate culture. Often they occupied a large area and united with adjacent groves and forests. Depending on local conditions, the park was located on three, two, or one side. Sometimes he surrounded the estate. Each manor park was closely connected with the life of its owner, unique, carrying some particular tastes and views of its creator. Depending on the time, manor parks of various layouts were created in Russia. Here Russia followed the West. In the XVIII century, the so-called "French parks" prevailed. The plan here was based on a rational scheme, a clear geometric system for the arrangement of alleys. Alleys played an important role in the creation of parks. The system of alleys helped to navigate the manor complex. Alleys directed people's attention to architectural structures: pavilions, gazebos, ponds.

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, landscape parks (English) appeared, they were introduced romantic trait, their background is the natural surrounding comfort. Ruins, grottoes, all kinds of surprises are arranged in the park. Often the layout of the parks combined elements of regular and landscape parks. The park hosted festivities, fireworks, theatrical performances, skiing on artificial ponds and canals.

A rich spiritual life flowed in the noble estates. Nature, architecture - the whole atmosphere was conducive to creativity. In rich noble estates, a special atmosphere of interest in art, arts, collecting, collecting was created.

Homesteads were also a place of holidays and entertainment. Holidays

1 Stepanov A.V. Metlenkov I.F. Architecture. - M, 2004.

made it possible to make and maintain the necessary acquaintances, had an educational value for young people. His training was taken seriously. Holidays were dedicated to certain family events, dates. Conducted under special programs. Lasted 2-3 days, sometimes weeks. For the game in the estate, a certain area was specially allotted, more precisely, the alley of games. It housed carousels, swings of various types.

The favorite and passionate hobby of the inhabitants of the estates was hunting. Large landowners had huge kennels, which contained up to 100 or more dogs. Special buildings were built for kennels in estates. Going out on a hunt was arranged extremely festively and solemnly. Many guests were invited to participate in it. Such trips lasted sometimes for 2-3 weeks. With music, with songwriters, dancers and with a great supply of wine 1 .

Much has been written about the importance of cultural heritage in the life of any society. Being a embodied tradition of several generations, it creates the nutrient medium in which our modern culture develops.

Among the wide range of objects that make up the cultural fund of the country, a special place is occupied by the estate as an original and multifaceted phenomenon, in which all the socio-economic, historical and cultural processes of Russia are focused.

During this period there is abrupt change everyday culture - from isolation and closeness late medieval- to demonstrativeness and representativeness of the 18th century. This was expressed in everything - the spatial composition and interiors of the manor house, in the regular French and landscape English parks. And if the regular park was designed for spectacular effects, then the English park was oriented towards solitary reflection and philosophizing.

Manor culture changed radically after 1861. The changes were so profound that one of the first researchers of this problem, I.N. Wrangel, announced the extinction of the estate culture, the death of the estate 2 .

1 Box M.Yu. Terminological issues in the study of estates. // Russian province and its role in the history of the state, society and the development of the culture of the people. Part II. - Kostroma, 2004.

2 Wrangel N.N. Landlord Russia Old years. 1910. No. 7-10; He is the Old Manor. Essays on Russian art and life. SPb. 1910

Objecting to Wrangel, it should be noted that the estate continues to exist, but as the basis of the estate economy of Russia, it is becoming a thing of the past, the foundations of the self-sufficiency of the patrimonial estate are being radically undermined.

economy.

The social status of the owner changes. Merchant estates appear. A characteristic feature of this time were the estates, art centers in which the creative intelligentsia, turning to folk origins contributed to the revival old Russian tradition(remember Abramtsevo, Talashkino, Polenovo).

Thus, it is possible to speak about the extinction of the estate culture during this period not directly, but indirectly. The noble estate culture was fading away, its clear boundaries were blurred by new introduced elements of merchant and petty-bourgeois culture.

Manor ensembles and interiors were rebuilt in accordance with new artistic tastes (modern manors, neoclassicism), manor life changed. Increasingly, the word "cottage" began to sound as a symbol of an isolated rural corner, where the summer life of a city dweller proceeded.

It was during this period that nostalgia for the fading estate life appears in literature, poetry, and artistic culture. There is a process of "canonization" of the estate as a symbol of the "family nest". The manor in this period, as it were, exists in two dimensions - in reality and in the creative imagination of artists and writers. Since 1917, the estate culture, as an original multidimensional phenomenon, has been destroyed. In fairness, it should be noted that a lot was saved, first of all, by museum specialists, architects and art historians. But, alas, not all.

Such is the evolution of the Russian estate culture, which for several centuries occupied leading place in the general historical and cultural process of Russia.

As already noted, the concept of "Russian estate culture" was multidimensional. Syntheticity is its characteristic feature. In the estate culture, a wide range of problems of the surrounding world was connected. First of all, these are artistic problems that characterize the relationship of plastic arts - architecture, gardening, applied and fine arts with spectacular music, ballet, theater, folk art.

An important place is also occupied by the range of philosophical and cultural problems, the study of which in recent years has become the leading direction in the study of estate culture. The problem "Russian estate - a model of the world" is focused on the concept of mentality.

A characteristic feature of the estate culture, considered in the context of this problem, is nostalgia for the past, traditionalism. The ideals of the past, which seemed beautiful and bright, were translated by the owners of estates in garden and park architecture (medieval ruins, grottoes), in family portraits, which became, as it were, a link between the current and past owners. Lacking for the most part high artistic qualities, they were overgrown with legends and myths. This expressed the mythologization of the estate life.

The unconscious desire to create a special theatrical environment in the estate, a certain canonization of one's family nest was expressed in private estate museums, collections, family albums, monumental monuments to friends and patrons.

"Houses are slanting, two-story And right there is a barn, barnyard Where important geese are at the trough Carry on a non-silent conversation. In the gardens of nasturtiums and roses, In the ponds of blooming carp. The old estates are scattered throughout the mysterious Rus'.

N. Gumilyov

Man is an extremely disorganized and chaotic being. In himself, in time, perhaps, he will figure it out. He will establish his values ​​and ideals, and learn to build actions in accordance with them. But there are many people and everyone is trying to establish their values ​​in the human community, to establish their ideals as the most important for all. If this is allowed, "social chaos" begins.

This is where culture comes into play. Many philosophers see its purpose in the organization of social chaos. To do this, society develops some average ideals and values, which constitute its ideology. However, a particular person most often does not correspond to average social ideals. And a person perceives the values ​​imposed on him by society as a restriction of his freedom. So gradually culture, remaining a powerful means of regulating relations in society, becomes a mechanism for suppressing the individual.

Thus, the life of an individual person proceeds in two sharply demarcated plans. Social activities are carried out during the so-called working hours. It is (sometimes very sharply) opposed by individual time, "free time". In the psychological world of the individual, this difference is fixed in precise terms: "need" and "want." For a man a job to do necessary, is in a completely different world than the one you do I want to. And "I need time", in contrast to "I want time", is filled with a completely different meaning.

Free time ("time I want") cannot be spent in the same place where you usually work. Here everything should be different, desired, and not due. "Other" behavior is expressed in emphatically solemn, or emphatically free gestures, in special jokes. "Other" behavior expresses itself in gifts and joint meals, which is especially characteristic of Rus'. So everything - a special place, a special time, special objects and other behavior serve to create an ideal reality unlike everyday life, the one that we only dream of. A reality that embodies our idea of ​​an ideal existence, of a bygone "golden age".

In the world of noble culture with its rigid hierarchy, this was felt especially sharply. That is why Catherine II said that "living in society does not mean doing nothing." This stage, extremely theatrical life was a real daily social work. The nobles served the “Sovereign and Fatherland” not only in departments, but also at court festivities and balls. Festive court life was for a nobleman the same "must" as serving in the sovereign's troops.

And the "ideal reality" was embodied for the Russian nobles of the XVIII-XIX centuries by their family estates. Therefore, the main task of any, albeit “bad”, estate construction is to create an ideal world, with its own rituals, norms of behavior, type of management and special pastime.

And the estate world was created very carefully and in detail. In a good homestead, nothing should be thought out. Everything is significant, everything is an allegory, everything is “read” by those initiated into the manor sacrament. The yellow color of the manor house showed the wealth of the owner, being perceived as the equivalent of gold. The roof was supported by white (symbol of light) columns. The gray color of flygnley is a remoteness from an active life. And red in unplastered outbuildings is, on the contrary, the color of life and activity. And all this was drowned in the greenery of gardens and parks - a symbol of hope. Swamps, cemeteries, ravines, hills - everything was slightly corrected, corrected and called Nezvanki, Shelters, Joy, becoming significant in the estate symbolism. Naturally, this ideal world is a must. although often purely symbolic, it was fenced off from the outside world with walls, bars, towers, artificial moats, ravines and ponds.

Nature itself is the ideal garden of God, like the Garden of Eden. Every tree, every plant is something mean in general harmony. White birch trunks, reminiscent of white column trunks, serve as a stable image of the homeland. Linden trees in the driveways during the spring flowering hinted at the heavenly ether with their fragrance. Acacia was planted as a symbol of the immortality of the soul. For the oak, perceived as strength, eternity, virtue, special clearings were arranged. Ivy, as a sign of immortality, wrapped around the trees in the park. And the reeds near the water symbolized solitude. Even the grass was seen as mortal flesh, withering and resurrecting. It is characteristic that aspen, as a “cursed tree”, is practically not found in noble estates.

So gradually the ideal world acquired reality in the estate. This ideality was akin to a theatre, where ceremonial scenes lined up on the stage, and behind the scenes their own daily life flows. Therefore, the estate construction was carefully hidden from prying eyes. Construction sites were surrounded by a veil of secrecy. High fences were erected around them, access roads and bridges were dismantled, technical documents were destroyed. The estate was supposed to appear as if created overnight, by magic. The scenery was created in the theater of noble life. This is how Petersburg arose - overnight, on a deserted Finnish swamp. In an instant, a new stone Russia appeared to astonished Europe.

Each architectural structure imposes its own rhythm of life on its inhabitants. The city gates open and close at specific times, starting and ending the city day. In the imperial palace, time flows differently than in a business office. So the noble estate formed its own rhythm of life. For about two centuries, the life of a nobleman began in the estate, flowed in it, and often ended here. The life cycle was supplemented by the daily one. A day in the estate obviously

divided not only temporally, but also spatially. "Pre-dawn twilight of the vestibule" continued "early morning of the men's study", "noon of the living room", "theater evening", and so on, until "deep evening of the bedroom."

Like the theatrical existence, life in the estate was clearly divided into front and everyday life. The men's study was the intellectual and economic center of the "everyday" life of the estate. However, they furnished it almost always very modestly. “The study, placed next to the buffet (buffet room), was inferior to him in size and, despite its seclusion, seemed still too spacious for the owner’s scientific studies and the repository of his books,” wrote F.F. Vigel. Throughout the 18th century, when intellectual and moral work became the duty of every nobleman, the owner's office belonged almost to most informal rooms of the estate. Here everything was designed for solitary work.

Accordingly, the office was furnished. The "Golan" or "English" cabinet was considered fashionable. Almost all of its furnishings were ascetic oak furniture, with very discreet upholstery, and a modest table clock. The desks didn't complain. Preference was given to secretaries, desks, bureaus.

The master's study, unlike the mistress's quarters, was almost undecorated and rather modestly decorated. Only an exquisite decanter and a glass for "morning consumption" of cherry or anise were considered indispensable (it was believed that this contributes to the prevention of "angina pectoris" and "stroke" - the most fashionable diseases of the 18th - early 19th centuries) and a smoking pipe. Smoking at the turn of the century became a whole symbolic ritual. “In our time,” E.P. Yankova recalls at the end of the 18th century, “rare people didn’t sniff, but they considered smoking very reprehensible, and women didn’t even hear of it; and men smoked in their offices or in the air, and if the ladies are in front of them, then they always ask first: “excuse me.” In the living room and in the hall, no one ever smoked even without guests in his family, so that, God forbid, somehow this smell would not remain and that the furniture would not stink .

Each time has its own special habits and concepts.

Smoking began to spread in a noticeable way after 1812, and especially in the 1820s: cigars began to be brought, about which We had no idea, and the first ones that were brought to us were shown as a curiosity.

For smoking in the office, several still lifes on the theme of Vanitas (the transience of life) were specially placed. The fact is that for a whole century, "eating smoke" was associated in the mind of a nobleman with reflections on the topics of "vanity of vanities" and "life is smoke." This evangelical theme was especially popular in Russia. Children blew short-lived soap bubbles, adults blew ephemeral smoke from pipes and flew on fragile balloons - and all this was perceived at the turn of the century as symbols of the extreme fragility of existence.

It was here, in the office of the owner of the estate, that managers reported, letters and orders were written, dues were calculated, neighbors were accepted "simply", projects of estate architects were discussed. Today, researchers often come to a standstill when discussing the authorship of certain estates. Who was their true creator? The architect who created the original design? The owner of the estate, who almost always remade it in his own way? A contractor who reckoned more with his skill than with the tastes of the architect and owner?

Since the men's office is designed for work, books played the main role in its interior. Some of the books were necessary for successful farming. The landlords did not disdain to carefully study the architectural works of Vignola or Palladio, especially at the beginning of new estate construction. Indeed, along with the French language, architecture was supposed to be known to every educated nobleman. Calendars containing advice for all occasions are an indispensable attribute of such offices. What was not here? "A list of orders granted by Her Imperial Majesty ...", "a sure way to breed Abolene dogs in non-hot regions", "a recipe for the quickest slaking of quicklime", "the simplest means of dyeing linden into mahogany and ebony", "about the most elegant and inefficient method smashing English parks", "about a cheap and sure method of treating scrofula", "about making early cherry liqueur" and much more.

In quiet estate offices, a fashion for reading was formed. "In the villages, who loved reading and who could only start up a small but complete library. There were some books that seemed to be considered necessary for these libraries and were in each. They were re-read several times by the whole family. The choice was not bad and quite thorough. For example , in every village library there were certainly already: Telemachus, Gilblaze, Don Quixote, Robinson Cruz, Ancient Vifliofika Novikov, Acts of Peter the Great with additions.The story of the wanderings in general La Harpe, the World Traveler of Abbé de la Porte and Marquis G., translation Iv. Perf. Yelagin, a clever and moral novel, but now ridiculed. Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Kheraskov were invariably among those who loved poetry. Later, the works of Mr. Voltaire began to be added to these books; and novels and stories by him; and The New Eloise. At the beginning of this century, the novels of August Lafongain, Madame Genlis and Kotzebue came into great fashion with us. But no one enjoyed such fame as Madame Radcliffe. Terrible and sensitive - there were, finally, two the kind of reading most to the taste of the public. Reading of this kind finally replaced the old books. "So wrote M.A. Dmitriev in the middle of the 19th century

Several generations of young nobles were brought up on such literature. From here, from the men's office of the estate, Russian enlightenment spread. Here the projects of the first Lancaster schools in Russia, new crop rotation systems, and women's education were drawn up. Here the capitalist economic system gradually matured. No wonder N.V. Gogol, describing in "Dead Souls" the village of the "enlightened" Colonel Koshkarev, sarcastically remarks:

"The whole village was scattered: buildings, rebuildings, heaps of lime, bricks and logs along all the streets. Some houses were built, like government offices. On one it was written in gold letters; "Depot of agricultural implements", on the other: expedition"; "Committee of rural affairs"; "School of normal education of the villagers". In a word, the devil knows what was not."

In the same rooms, curious natural scientists conducted pneumatic, electrical, and biological experiments. Astronomical observations were made from here. Therefore, sometimes the office was literally lined with telescopes, terrestrial and celestial globes, sundials and astrolabes.

Complementing the rather modest, almost ascetic atmosphere of the men's office were two or three portraits of the parents and children of the owner, a small picture with a battle or a seascape.

If the men's study was the private center of the estate, then the living room or hall served as its front face. Such a division into home and guest, everyday and festive was characteristic of the entire noble era. One of the consequences of such a division of the entire life of the nobility was the differentiation of manor interiors into "ceremonial apartments" and "rooms for the family." In wealthy estates, the living room and the hall served different purposes, but in most houses they were perfectly combined.

Contemporaries certainly perceived the hall or living room as a front, and therefore officially cold apartment. "The hall, large, empty and cold, with two or three windows to the street and four to the courtyard, with rows of chairs along the walls, with lamps on high legs and candelabra in the corners, with a large piano against the wall; dances, ceremonial dinners and a place for playing "cards were her destination. Then the living room, also with three windows, with the same sofa and a round table in the back and a large mirror above the sofa. On the sides of the sofa are armchairs, chaise longue tables, and between the windows there are tables with narrow wall-length mirrors... During the years of our childhood, fantasies were considered unlawful and all living rooms were in the same way, "recalls P.A. Kropotkin.

Almost all memoirists recall this emptiness and coldness of the living rooms, where “these times all the furniture was covered with covers”. First, the coldness of these halls was literal. For what their heat every day? And secondly, and architecturally, it was not homely warmth that stood out here, but splendor. Often the hall was made double-height. The windows on one side of the hall overlooked the front courtyard - courdoner, and on the other - to the "main clearing" (the so-called central alley of the park). Views from large windows were carefully considered when designing the estate. The ever-changing nature organically entered the design of the front hall.

The ceiling of the hall was certainly decorated with a magnificent ceiling, and the floor with parquet inserts with a special pattern. In the design of the walls, an order was often used. Ionic and Corinthian columns fenced off small loggias from the common hall, allowing you to feel both "in people" and in "solitude of people". The solemnity of the front hall was given by the carved gilded wood of the walls and furniture. Cold - white, blue, greenish tones throughout the living room were only slightly supported by gold and ocher.

Emphasized solemnity and numerous lamps. “The chandeliers and lanterns hanging from a height, and gilded lamps from the sides, some burn like heat, while others shimmer like water, and, copulating their rays into a cheerful solemn radiance, cover everything with holiness,” wrote G.R. Derzhavin. Contributed to this "holiness" and numerous mirrors, which have become an indispensable attribute of the main hall. "Purity", "righteousness" of the owners of the estate were read in their smooth shiny surfaces.

The mythical "antiquity" of the nobility was confirmed by the numerous marble "antiques" that always decorated the living room. Everything ancient was considered antique: both Roman originals and modern French or Italian sculpture. The center of the hall almost always turned out to be a large ceremonial portrait of the current reigning person in an indispensable gilded frame. It was placed deliberately symmetrically along the main axis of the living room and was given the same honors as the sovereigns themselves.

At the beginning of the 19th century, living rooms "warm up". Now they are already painted in pinkish or ocher warm colors. Lush gilded furniture is replaced by more austere mahogany. Needlework is transferred here from ladies' offices. And in the previously cold fireplaces, a fire is lit every evening, fenced off from the hall by embroidered fireplace screens.

And the purpose of living rooms is changing. Now family holidays are held here, quiet. Often households gather for family reading: “I also remember the village readings of novels. The whole family sat in a circle in the evenings, someone read others listened: especially ladies and girls. What horror the glorious Mrs. Radcliffe spread! Ms. Genlis! "The Sufferings of the Ortenberg Family" or "The Boy by the Stream" Kotzebue decisively drew tears! The fact is that while reading this, at those moments the whole family lived by heart or imagination, and was transferred to another world, which at that moment seemed real ; and most importantly, it felt more alive than in its monotonous life, "wrote M.A. Dmitriev.

Naturally, the official ceremonial portrait in the new environment was already unthinkable. Portraits of royalty are becoming more and more modest. And soon they are replaced by portraits of people dear to the heart of the owners "I remember asking her why, when she is at home, she always sits under the portrait of Mrs. Eltsova, like a chick under the wing of her mother? "Your comparison is very true," she objected, "I would never I didn’t want to get out from under her wing "(I.S. Turgenev" Faust "). It was this quiet and comfortable living room that entered the Russian literature of the 19th century.

At the very end of the 18th century, a women's office appeared in the manor house. This was demanded by the sentimental age, with its images of a tender wife and a businesslike hostess. Now, having received an education, the woman herself shaped the spiritual image not only of her children, but also of the courtyard people entrusted to her care. The day of a noblewoman, especially in a rural estate, was filled to the brim with worries. Her morning began in a "secluded" office, where they went for an order with a report, for money, with a daily menu.

However, over the course of the day, the functions of the women's office change. Business is always morning. And during the day, and especially in the evening, the hostess's office turns into a kind of salon. The very concept of a salon, where performers and the audience change each other, where “talks about everything and nothing” are held, where celebrities are invited, was formed at the end of the 18th century.

One of the most interesting salon entertainments was filling in the album of the hostess. These "albums of lovely ladies" today store poems and drawings by Batyushkov and Zhukovsky, Karamzin and Dmitriev. In these albums, perhaps, the atmosphere of the women's manor office was most clearly manifested.

In her manor office, the hostess received the closest relatives, friends, and neighbors. Here she read, drew, did needlework. Here she carried on extensive correspondence. Therefore, the women's office has always been distinguished by special comfort and warmth. The walls were painted in light colors, covered with wallpaper. Floral decor, the same floral painting covered the ceiling. The floor was no longer made of bright type-setting parquet, but was covered with a colored carpet. Fireplace warmth was added to the warmth of communication in the women's office. Furnaces and fireplaces here were richly decorated with faience tiles with reliefs on the themes of ancient mythology.

But the main role in the women's office was undoubtedly played by artistic furniture. The walls between the windows were occupied by large mirrors resting on elegant tables. They reflected portraits, watercolors, embroideries. The furniture itself was now made of Karelian birch, in which they tried to preserve the natural texture, without covering it with gilding and colorful coloring. Small round and bobbin tables, armchairs and bureaus allowed the mistress of the office to build the necessary comfort herself. At the same time, they tried to divide the single space of the office into several cozy corners, each of which had its own purpose.

Especially popular at the end of the 18th century were miniature bean tables for needlework, writing, and tea drinking. They got their name for the oval shape of the tabletop with a cutout. And after the overweight and inactive Catherine II gave preference to these light tables, the fashion for them became widespread. They were rarely decorated with bronze (unlike Western Europe), preferring to decorate with pastoral scenes made in the technique of marquetry (mosaic made of wood). A significant part of the furniture was made right there, in the manor workshops by "own" craftsmen. It was they who, first in separate drawings, and then the whole product, began to be covered with thin plates (veneer) from Karelian birch, poplar or capo-root, which soon became a sign of the Russian style in furniture.

Fabrics played an important role in shaping the image of the women's office. Curtains, draperies, furniture upholstery, floor carpets - all this was carefully selected. Here, on a light background, realistically drawn flowers, wreaths, bouquets, cupids, doves, hearts flaunted - a sentimental set of the turn of the century. They were echoed by the same cupids to bouquets of porcelain painting, textile and beaded patterns.

Interestingly, the turn of the century (XVIII-XIX) was a "golden age" not only for Russian literature, but also for Russian beads. Enthusiasm im in aristocratic circles has become so endemic that it has become an integral part of everyday culture. Unlike Europe, in Russia, almost no beadwork was made for sale. It was purely homework. And only in some monasteries they organized commercial production of beadwork. So A.B. Mariengof recalls "night shoes, embroidered with beads and bought back in Nizhny Novgorod at the needlework-monk of the Caves Monastery.

Yes, right at monk, not nuns! The sentimental ethics of the turn of the century "forced" not only women, but also men to do needlework. Icon frames, various panels, handbags, purses, belts, hats, shoes, pipe stems - everything could become a "delicate souvenir". Very young M.Yu. Lermontov writes to his aunt NA. Shangirei in 1827: “To Katyusha, as a token of gratitude for the garter, I send ... a bead box of my work.”

In the manufacture of large products, assistants from the serfs were involved. As a rule, they embroidered the background, while the hostess (owner) - luxurious bouquets and birds. This is how the three-meter beaded upholstery of the sofa, now stored in the Historical Museum in Moscow, was made.

What was not made of beads! Children's toys, purses and cases, covers and cases, icons and genre paintings, whole tapestries in royal palaces. Beads were tied around canes, smoking pipes, caskets, vases, glass holders, and chalk cases. Today, reading in Gogol's "Dead Souls" that in the Manilovs' house "surprises were being prepared for the birthday: some kind of beaded case for a toothpick", we laugh at the author's amusing fantasy. Meanwhile, the Hermitage keeps just such a “toothpick case” with an ornament and a lid, crocheted in the 1820s and 1830s. Even domestic quadrupeds used beadwork. “Milka ran merrily in a beaded collar, tinkling a piece of iron,” wrote L.N. Tolstoy in the story "Childhood".

At the beginning of the 19th century, "bead fever" spread throughout the province. And by the end of the century, when inexpensive beads appeared, they began to be engaged in peasant houses as well.

Often, it was here in the women's office with its special homeliness that family tea parties were held - this is a special purely Russian form of home communication.

Art in the estate was by no means limited to the creation of parks, the collection of libraries and all kinds of collections. Musical lessons played a significant role in the estate life. Choirs, orchestras and theaters were an integral part of manor life. “There was not a single rich landowner’s house where orchestras would not thunder, choirs would not sing, and where theater stages would not rise, on which home-grown actors made feasible sacrifices to the goddesses of art,” wrote the researcher of noble life M.I. Pylyaev. Theatrical buildings were specially erected in estates, "air" or "green" theaters were created in open-air parks.

The theater building was located, as a rule, separately from the main house, often in an outbuilding. Perhaps the only exception was the theater hall in Ostankino, where, in accordance with the plan of N.P. Sheremetev, it became the core of the manor house. Theatrical performances were an indispensable part of estate celebrations, especially those that came into fashion in the 1780s-1790s. For them developed special programs so that one event follows another without interruption. The holiday began with a meeting of guests, the culmination of which was the meeting of a particularly honored guest. This was followed by a mandatory inspection of the house, the owner's collections. Walking in the park preceded the gala dinner. And only then there was a theatrical performance (often consisting of several plays), a ball, dinner, fireworks in the evening park and a solemn departure of guests.

The theatrical repertoire of noble estates was compiled in dependencies on whether the performances took place in the park "green" theater or in the internal theater hall. The performances in the park, along with the nobles, could be attended by the most diverse audience - peasants, merchants, artisans. Therefore, the plays were chosen to be simple in staging, with an entertaining, often comic, plot. In the "closed" or "real" theater, mainly operas and ballets were staged. Moreover, as a rule, opera and ballet were presented as a single pair. Often pantomime was performed instead of ballet. It is clear that only a select audience could appreciate the merits of these genres. Moreover, the task theatrical performances, according to the concepts of the Enlightenment, was "to give the public pleasure for the mind, sight and hearing."

It must be admitted that theatrical performances in the estate theaters at the turn of the century were quite at the level of the best European professional theaters. Many operas and ballets, before getting on the imperial stage, were staged here. A large number of works were written specifically for them. Such productions were especially carefully prepared for the arrival of an eminent guest or for the opening of a new theater hall.

If the owner of the wealthy owner of the estate managed to get an outstanding decorator, then the productions turned into colorful enchanting performances with almost no actors. It was a kind of theater of scenery. Such were the scenes of the assault on Izmail in N.P. Ostankino. Sheremetev, or the famous productions with scenery by P. Gonzago in the Arkhangelsk N.B. Yusupov.

Music in the estate existed in two forms - as a festive performance and as chamber music at home. The fortress choirs began to sing already during the meeting of the guests. Conrdances, minuets, polonaises sounded at the ball. Folk songs and dance music accompanied the walkers in the park. During ceremonial lunches and dinners sounded instrumental music, solemn choirs and Italian arias were sung. Afternoon card games and conversations also took place to the sound of music. Yes, and in the evening in the garden during the illumination, choirs sang and played brass bands. “At that time, the singers and musicians set up in the grove sang and played a huge choir, which echoed and repeated in the distance,” wrote a participant in the estate festival.

specific musical phenomenon Russia XVIII century became horn orchestras. Playing the horns is extremely difficult. A musician must have considerable strength to blow a sound out of a horn. But even more difficult is the coordinated sound of the horn orchestra. The fact is that each of the instruments allows you to get a very limited number of sounds and the melody is often distributed among several instruments. But all the difficulties were redeemed by the unique sound of the horns. They made long, booming sounds that had a special effect in the open air. “In one place, in the open air, beautiful music was heard. This was played by an excellent horn chapel hidden in the baskets, which belonged to the count, ”recalls an eyewitness.

As for home music-making, the newly written quartets, trios, symphonies, opera arias played only in a home concert. Moreover, such music-making was the only form of semi-professional existence of music in Russia at that time. It was here that one could hear the music of Haydn, Mozart, Bortnyansky. Moreover, they always played a lot. By today's standards, one such playing of music fits into two or three concert programs. “At first, various symphonies and concertos were played with solos of various instruments ... After that, various things were played, such as: Heiden concertos and so on ... All this was listened to by those present with great applause and very worthy ... When the orchestra was brought out, then they played concertos on the clavichord... and then everyone followed to a quietly prepared dinner...”, recalls A.T. Bolotov.

The dining room occupied a special place of honor among the front chambers of the estate. At the same time, a dining room and the necessary daily space. It was here that the family felt unity. However, the dining room, as a separate room for joint meals, was formed at European courts only in mid-eighteenth century. Back in the first half of the century, tables were laid in any suitable room of the palace. In the Russian palace ritual, on especially solemn occasions, tables were generally set right in the throne room.

The ceremony of the royal dinner, which all the nobles tried to adopt in their estates, developed at the French court of Louis XIV. The best nobles of France took part in this magnificent performance. The procession of the royal dinner began its daily journey at one o'clock in the afternoon from the lower chambers of the palace. Headed the procession of the metro-d hotel. Behind him moved courtiers, kitchen servants with large baskets, in which forks, knives, spoons, salt shakers, other utensils and food were laid out. On huge trays, richly decorated dishes were carried past the always numerous spectators. The procession slowly, with dignity, went around the whole palace. Therefore, in the hall where the king dined, the food got completely cold. Here, the meter-d "hotel gave orders for table setting, and a nobleman who was especially close to the king tried all the dishes, checking whether they were poisoned.

At the court of Louis XIV, the fork was finally put into use, which had previously been a rarity even in the richest houses. People sincerely did not understand why it was necessary to put some kind of instrument in their mouth, if they had their own hands. But in the era of the nobility, with its extreme theatricality, culture, ritual, and artificial means always became between nature and man. Not without reason, eating with hands continued, and in many respects continues to be cultivated only "in nature" - on a hunt, a country picnic.

And in Russia on everyone throughout the 18th century, the nobility in food etiquette focused more on French fashion, how for a court dinner. The fact is that the table of Peter I was not distinguished by particular sophistication. The king valued plentiful and very hot food most of all. Elizabeth ate, although magnificently, but randomly and at the wrong time. In addition, she very strictly monitored the observance of fasts. Catherine, on the other hand, was emphatically moderate in food. Therefore, the manor hospitants could not orientate themselves towards their emperors and empresses.

It is curious that since ancient times, the dinner ritual included very bizarre forms of reminders of death. This emphasized the value of life in general and a magnificent dining table in particular. "As long as the golden hours flow

And evil sorrows did not come, Drink, eat and be merry, neighbor?”, - wrote G. R. Derzhavin.

Not without reason, numerous still lifes painted on the themes of life's abundance or memento pyup (remember death) quickly find refuge in noble canteens. In addition, certain dishes of the dinner table were often associated with the signs of the zodiac. Beef dishes were perceived as a sign of Taurus, crayfish and fish - Pisces, food from the kidneys - Gemini, African figs - Leo, hare - Sagittarius. In the center of such a symbolic serving, there were honeycombs with honey on a piece of turf - gifts earth.

After the dining room becomes on a par with the most ceremonial premises of the noble estate, they begin to decorate it in a special way. The walls of this bright hall were not usually decorated with tapestries or fashionable silk fabrics - they absorb odors. But murals and oil paintings were widely used. In addition to still lifes, natural in the dining room, paintings were often placed here on historical themes or family portraits, which further emphasized the splendor of the room. In estates where several generations have changed, canteens often became a place to store family heirlooms. Sometimes the same placed entire collections.

But the furniture in the dining rooms tried to put as little as possible - only what is needed. The chairs were, as a rule, very simple, since the main requirement for them was convenience - dinners sometimes lasted quite a long time. Tables could never stand at all. They were often made sliding and taken out only during dinner, depending on the number of guests. However, in the middle of the 19th century, a huge table already occupied almost the entire space of the dining room.

In the canteens of the 18th century, sideboards-slides are obligatory, on which various items made of porcelain and glass were displayed. Small console tables attached to the wall served the same purpose. With the accumulation of family collections, such sideboards and tables were replaced by large glazed cabinets, which housed collectibles.

Porcelain occupied a special place in Russian canteens of the 18th-19th centuries. Not a single estate was conceived without him. He performed not so much a household as a representative function - he spoke about the wealth and taste of the owner. Therefore, good porcelain was specially mined and collected. Specially made to order china services were rare even in very rich houses and therefore the entire set of dishes was assembled literally from individual items. And only by the end of the 18th century, porcelain sets firmly took their place on the dining tables of the Russian nobility.

Large sets included many items. In addition to plates, bowls and dishes, trays, croutons, baskets, gravy boats, vessels for spices, salt shakers, cups for cream, etc., were produced in all shapes. The need for them was great, since they were placed separately for each device. Indispensable in such services were all kinds of fruit slides, flower vases and small table figurines.

Metal utensils were practically not used in estates; they were gold or silver. At the same time, if gold dishes spoke to the guests about the wealth of the owner, then porcelain - about refined tastes. In poorer houses, pewter and majolica played the same representative role.

Noble etiquette demanded that the dinner itself begin long before the guests arrived. First, a detailed program was drawn up. At the same time, it was taken into account that every real dinner should be “artistic”, have its own “composition”, its own symmetry, its own “culmination”. This was followed by an invitation to dinner, which was also perceived as a solemn and highly theatrical ritual. Often they spoke about dinner in hints, invited to the estate not for him, but for a walk, or begged to taste this or that dish.

After the program was drawn up and the guests were invited, it was time to give orders to the cook. On ordinary days, this responsibility lay entirely with the hostess. But on solemn occasions, it was always the host himself who gave orders for dinner. Moreover, in the second half of the 18th century, purely men's dinners were in vogue. In such a society, it was said that "if a woman eats, she breaks her charms, if she does not eat, she destroys your dinner." But it was more about city dinners.

The table itself in the first half of the 18th century could be served in three ways: French, English and Russian. Each of these methods reflects national characteristics dining etiquette. The French system was the oldest. It was formed under Louis XIV. It was he who introduced into the table etiquette a dinner in several courses. Before him, dishes were served on the table all at once, stacked in monstrous pyramids. Now only one change was put on the table at once. After the guests had admired the exquisite serving, each dish was carried back to the kitchen, where it was warmed up and cut.

The number of such changes varied depending on the wealth of the owner of the house and the appointment of dinner. So the daily dinner of the French nobility at the end of the 18th century consisted of eight changes. However, a four-course dinner became a classic in Russia at the turn of the century. After each change of dishes, the table was laid anew, until the tablecloth was changed.

By the way, the tablecloth, like the table napkin, appeared not at all from a predilection for cleanliness, but from the requirements of prestige. Initially, only the owner of the house used a large napkin. If a noble guest visited the house, then he was also served a napkin, but smaller. As with all prestigious things, it was customary to embroider the owner's monogram on a napkin. At first, the napkin was hung over the left shoulder. And when the fashion for large collars spread, they tied them around the neck. Even at the beginning of the 19th century, one long napkin was often laid on the edge of the table so that everyone sitting at the table could use their own area.

The first course in the French table setting system consisted of soup, light cold and hot appetizers, and hot dishes prepared differently than the hot next course (if, for example, there will be meat later, then fish was served in the first course). The second course should contain two opposing dishes:

for example, roast (finely chopped roasted meat) and meat roasted in large pieces, game or whole poultry. The third change is salads and vegetable dishes. The fourth is dessert. At the very end, cheese and fruit were served.

The English serving system, which began to spread in Russia from the middle of the 19th century, requires that all dishes be served on the table immediately without distinction. Then only roast and cake are served. However, before each

the participant of the feast put a dish, which he had to lay out for everyone. It turned out some kind of “spontaneous hosting” with the transfer of plates and serving the ladies sitting next to them, in a completely modern manner.

But nevertheless, most of all, it was adopted in noble Russia its own, Russian table setting system. Here the guests sat down at the table, on which there was not a single dish at all. The table was decorated exclusively with flowers, fruits and whimsical figurines. Then, as needed, hot and already cut dishes were served on the table. The author of "Cookery Notes" argues at the end of the 18th century: "It is better to serve dishes one at a time, and not all of a sudden, and bringing food straight from the kitchen at the same time, then fewer attendants would be needed, and the dress would be doused less often." Gradually the Russian system, How the most rational, has become widespread in Europe.

Outstanding artists took part in the creation of the Russian festive table setting. The initial decoration was especially carefully built. It was based on the so-called "dessert slides", which occupied the entire center of the table. They were made from colored sugar, papier-mâché, silver, minerals and precious stones. In the second half of the 18th century, such decorations (they were called “fillets” in French) were made together with the entire table service. Of the individual porcelain figurines that adorned the table, groups of child gardeners were especially popular. They were often sold pure white, unpainted, to naturally blend in with white tablecloths and white china cutlery.

Purely Russian dinners did not start right at the table. There was always an appetizer before dinner. The French called this custom "food before food." They ate not in the dining room, but in the pantry, or on a separate buffet table, or (in France) served on separate trays. Here, as a rule, there were several varieties of vodka, cheeses, caviar, fish, and bread. It was customary to first have a snack for men without ladies, so that the latter would not be embarrassed. them in the use of strong nagoggs. And only some time later, the ladies, led by the mistress of the house, also join the snackers. Oysters were a special delicacy during appetizers. Often the whole feast was arranged for the sake of this dish. The boundless love of oysters was considered something of a fashionable disease.

And the dinners did not end immediately, gradually. At the very end of the feast, "small cups of colored crystal or glass" were served for "rinsing after dinner in the mouth." Then everyone moved into the living room, where a tray with cups, a coffee pot and liquor was already prepared.

In general, they drank a little at the table. In many houses, at daily dinners, in which, for example, "five men, for a month they drink a bottle of bitter English and half a shtof - rarely a damask - sweet." Therefore, for a Russian traveler of the 19th century, the British and, especially, the Americans looked like unrestrained drunkards. In France, it was customary to drink diluted wine at dinner. In Russia and England, wines were not diluted. In addition, they always drank undiluted especially rare wines, which, before dessert, were poured by the owner himself to each guest individually.

Each wine had its place in the order of the solemn table. Fortified wine was served with soup and pies (“pastes”). For fish - a white table (moreover, for each type of fish - its own). Back to main meat dish(or game) - red table wine (medoc or château lafite; with roast beef - port wine, with turkey - Sauternes, with veal - Chablis). And after coffee, for dessert - liqueurs. Sweet Spanish and Italian wines were considered coarse by connoisseurs and were almost always excluded. In addition, no gourmet will drink red wine, as it is more tart, to white, so as not to spoil the taste. Champagne was generally revered as a symbol of the holiday and drank during the entire dinner.

The extreme theatricalization of noble life in the 18th century led to the appearance of several bedrooms in the estates. The front sleeping-living rooms were never used. These were purely executive rooms. During the day, they rested in "everyday bedchambers." At night they slept in private bedrooms, which were located in the private chambers of the owner, mistress and their children.

Here, in the bedroom, the day of the owners of the estate began and ended. According to Orthodox tradition, going to bed was always preceded by evening prayer. In general, before the spread of the ideas of the Enlightenment in Russia, the nobles were very devout. In all rooms of the estate, except for a special prayer room, icons with lamps hung. And this rule extended to the main halls and private quarters.

In the bedroom, there were icons especially revered in the family. Most often these were icons with the image of the Mother of God. The piety of the owners was expressed in the rich decoration of the icons. For them, they ordered expensive silver and gold salaries, trimmed with chasing, engraving, and stones. Particularly expensive icons were preferred to be personally decorated with embroidered beads or freshwater pearls (oklad). Often among the serf estate masters were their icon painters. And the landowner, as a rule, supported the local church and all its ministers at his own expense.

Numerous draperies made of expensive fabrics (damask brokatel, satin, grodetur) served as a natural decoration for the manor bedrooms. From the same fabrics were made lush curtains for windows, canopies over the bed, decorated with bouquets of feathers (“feather bouquets”). Abundant floral ornamentation was left in the noble bedrooms of the Baroque era. Upholstered seating furniture was upholstered with the same fabric, thus creating a suite.

Such a set was logically complemented by graceful armchairs and small "buff" (night) tables. On them is a candlestick, a rare edition of the Evangelion, a volume of a sentimental novel. In the very center of the boudoir part of the bedroom, a small tea table was placed, on the marble top of which there were small sets - “egoist” (for one person) and “tete-a-tete” (for two).