Russian Villages in the 1800s

Types of Villages

Most villages in Russia during the 1800s consisted of a combination of wooden homes, a bathhouse, a church and various outbuildings. These were usually arranged linearly along a body of water or with a road through the center and spaced out to prevent the spread of fires. A country church with a few surrounding buildings constituted a pogost village. A small rural hamlet without a church or store was called a derevnia while a large town or market area was known as a selo. Those exempted from state work lived in villages referred to as sloboda.

Although every village contained different components, certain trends in layout prevailed in most villages. Crafts often performed communally were done in craft houses around the outskirts of the town, often located near the storage houses. The communal bath house was normally placed near the local body of water. At the start of the century, land was divided up by the master's holdings and the serfs were slaves to the land, bought and sold with the property. However, as serfdom declined, villages owned the land and each village family was apportioned narrow farming strips of land throughout the city.

The farmer's home consisted of a wooden house known as the ibza, along with a hay shed, a kitchen garden and barn. In the northern region, these buildings were separated along the border of the farmer's yard with a simple fence placed in between to delineate the yard. Further south, the buildings were often joined to form one larger structure. Metal was valuable at that time, therefore metals nails were rarely used. Rather, hand-sawed structures were built for homes. The large clay oven located in the main room of the dwelling provided heat to this room which usually accommodated 10 to 20 people.

Decor and design varied throughout the region. Those of the upper class could afford more extravagant interior decor such as elaborate paintings or intricate carvings. The outside of the houses of most citizens were decorated with carvings which were similar among all socio-economic levels. These carvings featured initials, mythical creatures and artistic renditions of plants and animals. Painting was reserved for interiors or the underside of walkways which could be protected from the extreme weather conditions. The walkways were characteristic of the northern villages as these towns features homes with separate outbuildings.