A wedding in Cossack society was a very significant event, and preparations for it began almost from the birth of the child. Young people (usually from the same social circle) married at the age of 17-19. Celebrations were usually celebrated after the end of field work or after the Easter holidays.
Until the mid-19th century, Cossack parents were looking for a bride for their son, then young men were allowed to choose their betrothed on their own. According to tradition, a guy informed the girl he liked about his intention to marry by throwing his hat into her yard over the fence. Returning the headdress meant a categorical refusal. If the Cossack was in love with the girl, the hat remained with her.
Without waiting for the headdress to return, the happy young man went to his parents, told them about his intentions and asked them to marry him.
Matchmaking
The parents, along with the godfather and matchmaker, went to the bride's parents. While the matchmaker was praising the groom, the girl modestly stood aside or even went into another room.
If the bride's parents liked the young man, everyone was invited to the festive table, at which they agreed on when to install the vaults.
If the groom did not approach, the matchmakers were not invited to the table, and the Cossack was given a pumpkin (watermelon), which meant refusal.
Vaults
The girl herself had to prepare the food for the consolidated ceremony. The future spouse, his friends, brothers and sisters, as well as the bride’s girlfriends were invited.
All the girls were hiding in a separate room. When the groom arrived, he needed to find his betrothed among them. The friend brought a glass to the young couple and asked if they knew the name and patronymic of their chosen one.
After this, the parents asked the couple if they were ready to get married. The young people agreed. Next, the fathers of the young couple, to confirm the agreement, shook hands and agreed on the wedding date.
After the vaults, the girl was called the “drunk bride.”
Wedding and wedding
On this day, the future wife got up early, walked around her yard, and said goodbye to everything that was dear to her. Then she went into the garden and wailed. Together with her friends, the girl went to the churchyard to obtain permission to marry deceased relatives.
The bride's friends had to take the bride's gift to the Cossack - a wedding shirt. They were in a hurry to find him in bed and tormented him for a long time, putting on the gift, buttoned up with all the buttons. The guy paid off the girls with sweets, flowers or even perfume.
The Cossack gave them the dress and shoes for the bride, and the girls ran back.
The Cossack woman had curls on her bangs as an obligatory element of her wedding hairstyle. To do this, a large nail was heated red-hot, greased with a piece of lard, and the hair was twisted. The curls were placed around the forehead and secured with a wreath, which symbolized the purity of the bride. Such a wreath was then carefully kept throughout its life. The rest of the hair was braided.
The bride's dress was white, blue or pink, and there was a white flower on her shoulder - the same should have been on the groom's suit. To avoid the evil eye, needles were pinned to the hem of the dress on four sides, and sometimes incense was placed in the bosom to ward off evil spirits. The groom was dressed in a Cossack military uniform with a sword belt, boots and a kubanka hat.
The young Cossack received the blessing of his parents and in a noisy company on horseback, singing and firing guns, set off for his chosen one.
The girl sat under the icons on an inverted fur coat, which meant future wealth, and waited for the groom to buy her from her relatives. Then the newlyweds went to church to get married.
After church, the newly married couple went to the house of the girl’s parents, where a festive table was already waiting for them. A mandatory attribute was a loaf of bread, two bottles of wine and a glass of honey. The newlyweds were presented with gifts, then they went out into the courtyard, received an icon and a blessing from the bride’s mother, and the girl left her father’s house forever.
The wedding moved to the groom's house. There, on the threshold, the parents met the newlyweds, holding an icon and bread and salt. The spouses were showered with hops and coins. The husband carried his wife in his arms over the threshold to show the brownie: there was a new person in the family who needed to be protected.
Then the matchmaker took the girl into a separate room with a curtained corner, took off her wreath and unbraided her hair. The girl's brother cut off part of her hair with a dull knife and bargained for it with his friend. Then the girl had two braids made and twisted around her head.
After the “bride’s funeral,” the spouses accepted congratulations and “bumps.”
The father-in-law handed the whip to his son-in-law and he pretended to beat his wife. After this, the young wife bowed to her husband three times, showing submission.
The groom, a witty, nimble and cheerful guy from the groom’s entourage, ensured that traditions were observed. He could be recognized in a crowd of guests by his long decorated stick-staff.
The matchmaker also played an important role at weddings. She was appointed a married woman with children, eloquent, with a good sense of humor. There was a huge paper flower on the matchmaker’s head. Both were belted with towels.
The guests had fun at the wedding until the morning, and the newlyweds, accompanied by a friend and matchmaker, went to the marital bed late in the evening.
Cossack wedding
(The action takes place in the summer of 1918)
Wedding ceremonies among the Cossacks in the various Cossack troops of the Russian Empire had many common features, but there were also significant differences. Here, first of all, it was evident that these troops had different “origins”. The Don, Ural and Terek were formed mainly from fugitive serfs and Old Believers, the Kuban from forcibly resettled Zaporozhye Cossacks and the same Old Believers... And the Cossack troops of the Asian part of the empire were a “product” of colonial expansion to the East and had a regulated state message. The Siberian Cossack army was formed mainly from state peasants, people from the central and northern Russian provinces, as well as from the Mordovians. Another characteristic feature of the “Siberians” was that it was one of the most “Russian” Cossack troops in Russia, since they were resettled immediately by their families, and there was no urgent need to look for women among the surrounding peoples. If among the Donets, not to mention the Kubans, there was a significant percentage of Ukrainians, the Terets had a small percentage of Ossetians, the Transbaikalians mixed so much with the Buryats that they partially even acquired a characteristic slant... The Siberians, apart from a small Mordovian layer, had almost no so-called foreign blood. However, are the Mordovians foreigners, the same faith, names, surnames, and their appearance is indistinguishable. The Siberian Cossacks took as wives only Cossacks, occasionally Kerzhaches, extremely rarely Oirots (Dzhungars), and almost never Kyrgyzs - they were considered a low people. That is why outwardly the Siberian Cossacks looked like ordinary Russian people, except that the Mordovian blood introduced some characteristic roundness and whitishness. If we talk about wedding rituals, then in its individual details even among the Cossacks of the same army there were significant differences. The Cossacks of the 3rd Division of the Siberian Cossack Army had a certain ritual, which they tried not to deviate from, although every year they adhered to the old traditions less and less strictly.
The Reshetnikovs and Fokins agreed on the wedding back in February, but the official matchmaking took place, as it should have been a month in advance, at the end of June, so that the wedding could take place between haymaking and harvesting, that is, at the end of July - beginning of August. The groom's parents, his godparents and himself went to matchmaking. But this is where the following of traditions ended, according to which the girl’s parents did not have to give consent right away, but “pull the bagpipes” in every possible way, since this is a serious matter, you need to think about it, consult... Here consent was received immediately and the bride appeared, and all the vicissitudes of the upcoming wedding became discuss it right there, all together. Tikhon Nikitich wanted the wedding to be relatively modest, they say, it was a painfully anxious time, but the matchmakers objected: how is this possible, we are marrying the son-officer to the daughter of the village ataman, no, there should be a feast for the whole world, that is, the village. And yet, Ignatius Zakharovich insisted that the ataman accept, as expected, gifts for the bride and her relatives.
But as for the location of the wedding celebration, traditions were completely abandoned. And although this was, in general, offensive for the groom’s parents, they agreed here - the Ataman’s large house and the spacious courtyard in front of it, of course, were better suited for this than their relatively small house and cramped courtyard filled with outbuildings. But Lukerya Nikiforovna’s in-law went to Domna Terentyevna as a voluntary helper and begged her to accept part of her food supplies for general consumption. There was, of course, no need for this, and there were plenty of workers in the Ataman’s house, and the storerooms, barns and icehouse were bursting with all kinds of products prepared for future use...
The whole of July passed in ordinary household chores, but the wedding was not forgotten not only in the families of the bride and groom, but throughout the entire village. Some were getting ready, others were waiting: let's drink, let's take a walk. The upcoming wedding somehow overshadowed the rather contradictory news arriving days or even weeks late from Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semipalatinsk, Omsk... The Provisional Siberian Government issued a decree on the return to the owners of their land requisitioned under the Bolsheviks. For the Cossacks, this was of no small importance, because after the decision of the pro-Bolshevik January 3rd Military Circle on the requisition of land surpluses, a lot of Cossack land, previously leased by them, was seized by new tenants. Now these lands are returning. There were especially many cases of capture in Ust-Kamenogorsk and the adjacent Cossack villages. But in Ust-Bukhtarma this was not the case, here not a single new settler-tenant decided to seize the land even from Cossack widows, because they knew that if a woman complained to the administration of the village ataman, that new settler would not think much of it. The only unpleasant news, of course, was the upcoming mobilization into the newly organized White Army. But, again, first of all, the village lived in anticipation of the wedding.
A few days before the wedding, they again remembered the traditions - the bride had a “bachelorette party”. On this day, her friends were supposed to come to her and heat the bathhouse. Polina, with her unusual upbringing and education for the village, had almost no friends of the same age in the village. They invited the daughter of a village clerk, the niece of a shopkeeper, a relative of the richest Ust-Kamenogorsk merchant Ozhogin, the niece of a priest, a student of the Tomsk diocesan school, who were more or less suitable according to their “ranks and titles.” Also, the matchmaker, the mother of the groom, must participate in the ritual of the bride going to the bathhouse. But Lukerya Nikiforovna dissuaded herself, saying that she fully believed that the bride did not have “any physical defect,” and would not look and embarrass Polina. Evil women's tongues immediately spread the gossip that the skinny Reshetikha herself was embarrassed to show her bones next to such a rich bride. So this ritual also took place superficially, because in the end the priest went to the bathhouse with Polina, and she testified to what no one doubted anyway - a top-class product.
Ivan looked strange in his ceremonial officer's uniform, which he had worn only twice before, at graduation from the cadet school and when, after graduation, he came home on leave to please his parents. He, of course, was very different from the so-called hereditary officers, who, as a rule, had never known rural work, so he tried to hide and not show off his hands. Indeed, in the time that had passed since his return from the front, they again began to resemble the hands of a peasant more than an officer. Which, however, was the origin of most of the officers who came from the Cossack environment, like all other Cossacks - warriors and peasants at the same time. But the bride did not look like a Cossack at all. Pampered from childhood, brought up in a gymnasium and a merchant's house, Polina grew up to be a real young lady, but a young lady, so to speak, not a classic, fragile, airy one, but elastic, strong, thirsty for movement and life. Cossack blood was playing and boiling inside her, as evidenced by the peach blush on her velvet cheeks, the protrusions of her high breasts writhing under the thin silk of her wedding dress, and the simultaneously happy and distressed expression on her face. If Ivan tried to hide his large “peachy” palms as deeply as possible into the sleeves of his uniform, even during the exchange of rings, then Polina, on the contrary, was not at all embarrassed by her obviously “unlabored” tender palms, which seemed about to clap enthusiastically, when the dean's father proclaimed:
— Husband and wife combine to help and perceive the human race...
When the newlyweds, he in a uniform with “golden” centurion shoulder straps, she in a white wedding dress with a crown with ribbons, were leaving the church, around, as expected, shooting began in the air, which did not stop for about five minutes. Polina perceived all this enthusiastically, the shots did not frighten her at all. Ivan could hardly restrain his trembling, and the grimace of tension did not leave his face until the shooting stopped - it brought back too many painful memories for a military officer who had only returned six months from the fronts of the World War and the suppression of a foreign rebellion.
After the wedding train arrived at the ataman’s house, they quickly performed a ritual with a scythe. The matchmakers on both sides unbraided Polina’s thick braid in two and twisted it around her head, that is, “twisted” it like a woman. At this time, boyfriends and girlfriends went around almost the entire Cossack population of the village, with an invitation to take part in the wedding festivities. They also invited in advance all the atamans of the surrounding Cossack villages and relatives of Domna Terentyevna from the Cheremshansky and Bolshenarymsky villages, and the Reshetnikovs from Krasnoyarsk. Although Tikhon Nikitich did not want the universal noise, for all this resembled a feast on the eve of the impending plague, it seems that except for him, and perhaps to some extent Ivan, no one felt it or foresaw it. The matchmakers, wife, relatives, and the entire village believed that the ataman should marry his daughter in the ataman way, so that that wedding would be remembered for a long time. On the first day of the wedding, a wedding dinner was held, which was attended only by relatives and the most influential and wealthy of the invited guests. The tables were set in the large living room of the chieftain's house. First they congratulated the newlyweds, then the bride and groom's relatives. On the first day of the wedding festivities, everything was orderly; the guests were mostly not young, but respectable ones. At the end of the wedding dinner, the newlyweds went around the guests, treating them to wine, and they gave them money. Here, of course, everyone was “outdone” by a distant relative of the merchant Hardin, the thirty-year-old clerk Ilya Burov, who was in charge of his “benefactor’s” warehouses in the village. Having apologized for the owner and his family, who, due to the unstable situation, could not come to the wedding, he, on their behalf and on his own behalf, poured as many as one hundred royal gold rubles onto the tray that Polina was holding. There was a buzz among the guests. Everyone understood that Ippolit Kuzmich Hardin himself ordered Burov to pay such a significant amount, and even in gold, and sent him a corresponding telegram. However, the others couldn't help but feel hurt. Even once very rich people spent a lot during the war and revolution and, far from painlessly, could “put on a platter” at best fifty rubles in Nikolaev rubles, or even gave away Kerenkas.
“Well... it’s a piece of gold, it’s always and everywhere a piece of gold... No, we can’t compete with Hardin... that’s what he left off...” envious, admiring, and even indignant whispers could be heard.
But Burov was not the only one surprised. Unexpectedly, the only invited Kyrgyz, Bai Araslanov, a gray-bearded elder from the village of Manat, which was located on the left bank of the Irtysh, gave a big gift. This was an old acquaintance and friend of Tikhon Nikitich, from whom he usually bought horses and rams for the tribe. Araslanov did not give money, he put a weighty ingot of silver on the tray. And this caused an admiring roar and whispers. Everyone was wondering how much this nugget could cost. According to rough estimates of the most experienced appraisers, the result was no less than 70-80 gold rubles...
For Polina, Araslanov’s gift aroused not joy, although she gratefully made a half-knixen, but memories of five years ago in the summer of 1913, a year before the start of this terrible war. Then Tikhon Nikitich went to inspect his herds grazing on the left bank of the Irtysh and at the same time decided to stop by Manat, since he was invited by Araslanov, the first rich man of the village, to some kind of festival there. Polina, who had never seen a baiga before, begged her father to take her with him, and at the same time as an accompanying person, who had just arrived for the summer holidays from Ivan's cadet school. At that time, Tikhon Nikitich did not even plan to give Polina to him in the future, but he could not resist his daughter’s persistent requests and her “cunning” tears and agreed. Ivan looked great: an eighteen-year-old cadet in a brand new uniform. He was a little embarrassed by Polina’s father, knowing that he did not really favor their both face-to-face and correspondence-epistolary relations. So, at that festival, Polina saw for the first time how downtrodden and powerless Kyrgyz-Kais women are. Even festively dressed in white chuluks and bright faille sweaters, they could not show their feelings either out loud or with facial expressions during the bayga race, while she, tearing off her hat from her head, waved it and squealed with delight at the top of her voice. , not paying attention to the Kyrgyz, especially the elderly, who were looking at her unkindly. However, the power and authority of the village ataman was so high within the boundaries of the volost that no one dared to reprimand his daughter. And then, when Tikhon Nikitich and Ivan, as dear guests, were invited to a festively decorated yurt to taste shurpa and beshbarmak from a young lamb, she naturally went too, and turned out to be the only girl there. The Kirghiz, even in the summer in warm cotton robes-chapans, sat with their feet under them, and they brought small benches for the guests... they brought them to her too. Then sixteen-year-old Polina did not understand that she was violating the everyday laws of the Kyrgyz-Kaisak house-building. The father, of course, knew this, but did not deliberately stop his daughter. After all, here on both banks of the Irtysh he was considered the most influential person, although officially he was not a civilian volost commander. And the Kyrgyz were forced to make an exception for her, which they never made for their women. However, then, in that yurt there were Kyrgyz women, they served the guests. Polina clearly remembered bowls with steaming beshbarmak on a felt mat, and only men were sitting around... and her. Wealthy Kyrgyz, as a rule, are fat, ate ugly, slurped and... looking disdainfully over their shoulders, threw dice and uttered a curt, dismissive “Mya...”, which means, take it, catch it. This “Me” referred to the serving women, wives and other relatives of the owner... And the women caught, picked up the scraps that had fallen on the felt and hastily took them with them, so that later, somewhere in a secluded corner, they could eat what was left on those bones. In most Kyrgyz families, women basically ate like this, eating up what was left from the men, which is why they often looked excessively thin, emaciated, and aged early. Their destiny in life is to be quiet, downtrodden, invisible like shadows. Now Polina, accepting the silver from Araslanov, suddenly remembered everything down to the smallest detail and thought how this bai perceives Russian customs, that Russian wives are often much fatter than their husbands, sit next to them, eat, drink wine, sing songs, shout obscene ditties?...
The bed for the newlyweds was prepared in Polina's room, which was familiar to both of them. The wedding night was not such a revelation for the bride and groom. They already knew each other well enough, his hands on her body, her body on his hands. So everything that the spouses were supposed to do in bed turned out so simply and naturally, as if it was not the first time they had done it...
And the next morning, many tables were already set, both in the house itself and in the yard, fortunately the weather permitted. On the second day, everyone was allowed to take part in the festivities, including unmarried youth and even children. But first, the special “deputation” was shown the bloody sheet on which the newlyweds slept and the bride’s nightgown. However, no one doubted the bride. Despite the extravagance of Polina’s behavior, her deliberately bold manner of dressing, even the sharpest gossips could not suspect her of “sin”, except perhaps with Ivan before the wedding, because they were so often left alone... But this, however, is unofficially a big sin already was not considered, but a small sin, which was not particularly worth talking about...
The second, main day of the wedding celebration. In the most honorable places, on both sides of the young people, immediately behind the parents, sit: the dean's father Vasily and his wife, the head of the higher village primary school with his wife, then relatives, village atamans, St. George's Knights, members of the village Assembly, the majority are dressed in uniform, with crosses and medals. Women in festive dresses or “couples”, a jacket and a skirt, tight on top, wide, long skirts. The bust of Domna Terentyevna looked especially impressive, emphasized by the thin greenery of the muslin dress, sewn from a piece donated by the matchmakers. Next to her, her in-law Lukerya Nikiforovna looked like a withered and decayed blade of last year’s grass. Tikhon Nikitich dressed relatively modestly; his buttoned-up Cossack checkmen without shoulder straps did not in any way emphasize that he was the bearer of considerable power. - Why didn’t you wear your epaulettes or crosses with medals, matchmaker? What shyness he deserved once, - Ignatius Zakharovich, who had already taken a lot of glasses, strumming “George”, medals “For Bravery” and “For Diligence”, without hiding his joy, climbed up to the chieftain with conversations.
But Tikhon Nikitich drank and ate little, answered the questions of the quickly dazed matchmaker in monosyllables, laughed it off, saying, they’re not marrying me, why show off... The villagers, primarily front-line soldiers, during the four years of war and revolutions, missed real fun with an abundance of drinks and snacks, on the contrary, they treated themselves without limiting themselves. For the same reasons, the Cossack women dressed up as best they could. Even the poor, and quite a few of them have appeared in the village in recent years... so, even the poor did not want to look like such at the wedding. Among the Cossacks, the concept of poor but honest was never considered a virtue or dignity. If you are a Cossack, healthy, with arms and legs, and have a plot of yurt land, do as you wish, but so that you have a drill horse that is not used on the farm, a saddle with an instrument, a saber - this is the first thing, and the second is that your wife and children are dressed, shod and fed. With the same wife at home, behind the fence, you can do whatever you want, even hit her with a kick, but in public your woman should look like she’s competent. And at all the festivities, it was among the Cossack women that there was an unspoken rivalry over who dressed better, who looked sleeker, whose wife or daughter. And for this wedding, if the Cossacks mostly dressed quite monotonously, in military style: tunics, trousers, chekmen, ermakovkas, caps, boots..., then the majority of the Cossack women sitting at the table exuded the variety and multi-colored types of women's clothing. Despite the dry and warm weather, many dandies wear high boots and galoshes. In order to eat more at the wedding at the expense of the hosts, most of the guests did not have breakfast in the morning and here they piled on food - the ataman is rich, he will not become poor.
Both in-laws prepared the table together, although, of course, most of the provisions came from the ataman’s cellars, glaciers, and smokehouses. From his herds, bulls, rams, and pigs were urgently slaughtered and turned into dressed carcasses, smoked, boiled and fresh meat. There are also small carcasses of geese, chickens, ducks, and turkeys. Almost a dozen assistants, relatives, neighbors, and the ataman’s own servants were engaged in preparing and serving all these edible dishes. Some knew how to cook meat dishes perfectly, others made amazing pies with strawberries recently collected on the slopes of the surrounding mountains. Pies with berries, jam, rice, rhubarb, slime, garnished with bay leaves and pepper - according to the so-called Kokand recipe. What did not grow in the Valley, the surrounding mountains and the mountain taiga was purchased for future use and prepared at the annual Katon-Karagai fair, where Cossacks, Kerzhaks, new settlers and Kyrgyz people came from all over the area every winter. The dishes smelled deliciously and pungently of dill, garlic, vinegar and anise. On large ceramic dishes, pieces of lard with streaks, real bread, are neatly cut, this is when the pig is first fed with selected grain, then allowed to starve, then again with grain to the full. Separately there are tues with white salted milk mushrooms. These “royal” mushrooms specially went to the left bank of the Irtysh to collect in the Kalba copses, only there at the end of summer - at the beginning of autumn they were born in large quantities. On all tables there are white bowls with honey and berry syrup. The owners tried to please everyone; in addition to fried pieces of meat, there were cutlets piled in cast iron, and jelly in deep bowls.
Among the fish dishes, selected sturgeons were distinguished by their special sizes, but individual pikes were not inferior to them in size, reaching up to a pound in weight. Sterlets, even arshinnitsa, looked rather modest next to them, but the fish soup was prepared from a shot - there is no better fish for fish soup. Ide, tench, even nelma were already considered second-class fish, not to mention the roach, which is good only in salting. Large bundles of salted soroshka and perch were served for those who liked to snack on vodka or beer. Among the gifts of the mountain taiga at the table there were plucked and fried hazel grouse, black grouse, capercaillie... There was so much waste from all this food that the Ataman chain dogs - Caucasian shepherd dogs, having gorged themselves, did not get out of their booths and no longer barked at the guests.
Well, and most importantly, just like in a military formation, there are quarters with special local moonshine, bottles of vodka, bottles of wine and jugs of tinctures chilled in the cellars. There are also jugs of homemade beer. Between the most respected guests at the main table in the living room, the hostess herself walks like a leisurely regal peahen, swaying her hips and chest, spreading the smell of tart perfume. The tipsy guests, not paying attention to the wives sitting next to them, are distracted by this smell, the rustling of muslin, including the elderly father of the dean and the head of the village school, well over fifty, and some of the same village atamans and members of the village Assembly. They, no longer in control of themselves, cannot help but linger their gaze on the lush, caressing eyes of the dress drenched in green, and the swaying forms of the mother of the bride passing nearby. Domna Terentyevna, as befits a housewife, is absolutely sober, she sees and feels men’s gazes, but does not show it - the coquetry of Cossack women, the innate sense of dignity with which they react to such involuntary male attention. And now the atamansha, with a stately movement, directs the servants and volunteer assistants to come up on time, change dishes, plates, serve, refill, sometimes quietly with a gentle smile persuades one or the other guest, or the guest to try this or that. With the simpler guests, there in the courtyard, Yermil and Marfa were “playing around”, under whose command there were also girls from volunteer assistants. These were, as a rule, orphans whose fathers did not return from the war or died from wounds. For serving the guests, they promised to divide the remaining food between them.
Lukerya Nikiforovna tried several times to get involved in serving the guests and helping the matchmaker:
“Domnushka... Domna Terentyevna, let me sit and rest, otherwise I’m still on my feet, on my feet, I’m tired.”
- Sit, sit, matchmaker! Eat, don’t be afraid for me, for me these chores are a joy... Prokofy Savelich, try the pie, try the pie!... Your lordship, Father Vasily, you don’t eat something at all, please have a bite of cold meat, I cooked it myself...
The young people, as it should be in the center of the table, drank vodka infused with cherry first and that’s it, then they just clinked glasses with the guests, took a sip and left. They sat with their eyes downcast and were strictly silent, as if they had not heard the hubbub in and around the house. Nevertheless, they heard everything and, when called “Bitterly,” they cheerfully stood up and kissed. Polina, with penciled eyebrows and a slightly powdered face, already without a veil in her luxurious dress, looked like this... In any case, many Cossack women said among themselves that she was much more beautiful than those princesses, that is, grand duchesses, whose photographs were plastered on the inside of the lids of dowry chests Almost all Ust-Bukhtarma girls are of marriageable age. But we also heard some unflattering reviews:
- Look, Polka is not sitting very cheerfully. Yesterday, as she was walking from church, she almost flew, and after the night... Apparently she didn’t really like the groom... ha-ha, ho-ho...
And Polina... she's just tired. She was used to sleeping at home to her heart's content, but here she didn't sleep half the night and got up early. Then... for her, the wedding night, as for any virgin girl, revealed a lot of what she had guessed about, but not only. She didn’t expect that one could get tired of “this.” She was waiting for pleasure, and she experienced it, this is the highest bliss sent from above, but this happened for the first time, and people always get tired because they are not used to it. After “this” they needed a good night’s sleep, but they were woken up early. There's a shirt and a sheet here. Even if there was no blood on them, then usually this blood was urgently “done” by secretly killing a young cockerel. For Polina, everything went smoothly with the shirt and sheet without any unnecessary hassle, but then she had a hard time restraining herself from yawning or even dozing off, which is why she looked somewhat exhausted. This silent sitting was easier for Ivan; during his life as a cadet, cadet and officer, he was accustomed to night shifts and long horseback marches, when he had to stay awake for several days.
They drank, ate, shouted “Bitter”, made various toasts... Some of the weaker ones fell under the table, or with their heads on the plate. Some were taken away by their wives, others were dragged by Tanabai and Yermil into the hayloft to sleep it off. In the afternoon, in the courtyard, all the tables and benches were moved to the side, the accordionists stretched out their furs, and everything was mixed up in a frenzied rhythm of dancing: cashmere skirts, lace blouses, chintz, beads, scallops, scarves, trousers with stripes, caps, shoes, boots...
Wow, you're drunk, you're drunk, what didn't flutter? Where did the Cossack spend the night? What, you didn't undress? Where did Varnak feast? Which sudarka? ………………….
Now the eminent guests had already left the house and, stamping their feet, encouraged the dancers; some of them, already on unsteady legs, also began to dance. But not even all of the young people were able to maintain the frantic rhythm set by the accordion players. Many Cossacks were already thoroughly intoxicated from drinking heavily, and the Cossack women were already heavy from the hearty food. Taking advantage of the first delay that arose, Domna Terentyevna ordered the gramophone to be taken out. She wanted to direct the celebration in, so to speak, a more cultural direction, and at the same time remember her youth, when she, together with her husband, then still a sub-servant, “served” on extra duty, first in Zaisan, then in Novonikolaevsk. There they were sometimes invited to officer's balls, and she remembered well how “cultured gentlemen” had fun and behaved at such events. There she learned to dance a waltz, to which she was then often invited by the then cornets and centurions, admirers of large female forms, and after that she heard the enviously angry whisper of the “officers”: “Little man, the cow is trying to waltz there...”. Tikhon Nikitich became an officer on the eve of the Japanese War, and then immediately retired, so Domna Terentyevna almost didn’t have to show off as an “officer.” But, having become an atamansha, she was already something of an expert on cultural leisure activities in the rather “down-to-earth” village society and felt significantly superior to other Cossack women not only in status, but also in upbringing. Why, she’s not like others, who spent their whole lives in the village, she lived in cities, knew noble people.
But at first it was not possible to play the waltz record, as the hostess wanted. One of the half-drunk village atamans suddenly began to demand “Storm,” the unofficial anthem of the Siberian Cossack army. I had to put on the record with “The Tempest”. And when from the gramophone pipe was heard:
The storm roared, the rain made noise
Immediately the Cossacks who were sitting jumped up, and everything was discordant, but loudly picked up:
Lightning flashed in the darkness And thunder roared continuously And the winds raged in the wilds
………………………………
Finally, having had enough of “Storm”, the Cossacks calmed down somewhat. Domna Terentyevna immediately put on the record “On the Hills of Manzhuria” herself. Not too many couples came out to dance the waltz, officials from the postal and telegraph communications department, savings bank offices, clerks in charge of merchant warehouses on Gusinaya Pier, and shops in the village. All who once lived in cities, studied in real and commercial schools, they finally got the opportunity to emerge from the shadow of the daring Cossack element. In addition to their wives, their partners were several Cossack girls who studied at the Ust-Kamenogorsk Mariinsky School, the so-called pro-gymnasium, and the first private girls’ gymnasium in the district, which opened in 1914 in the same Ust-Kamenogorsk. Cossack teenagers and secondary school students who came for the holidays also got the opportunity to show their skills. They all taught how to dance the waltz. However, quite a few girls, even without studying at the gymnasium or the Mariinsky Theater, but who had to see this “noble” dance somewhere, for example, in the same Ust-Kamenogorsk “People’s House”, grasped the melody and movements on a whim and are also ready were dancing. So soon there was a clear shortage of gentlemen, and it was not customary for a girl to dance with a girl.
Polina seemed to shake off her half-sleep, as soon as she heard the sounds of a waltz and pulled Ivan along with her into the not yet tight circle of dancing couples. And here it immediately became clear that no one here knew how to dance the waltz, as his bride danced. Ivan was never considered a skilled dancer among the cadets and cadets. And now only the absence of real connoisseurs among the majority of the audience allowed him to avoid disapproving reviews, because he was very awkward next to the virtuoso and somehow inspired Polina. However, there was still one connoisseur among the guests - Vasily Arapov. Unlike Ivan, he was a skilled dancer, the best in their cadet class. Now he stood aside, looked at the dancers with a contemptuous grin and with outright hatred at Ivan. He would now show everyone here how to “lead a lady” in a waltz, especially one like a bride, he would dance with her...
Volodya did not like alcohol and tried to skip toast, although some of his peers from his former village friends were already addicted to the potion, and could drink a lot when they wanted a good snack. When we went out into the yard, and after the dancing and the “Storm” the “waltzing” began, the cadet upbringing took its toll. The corps regularly held joint balls with high school girls, but the dancers there were, as a rule, cadets from the two senior classes, and the younger ones, including him, mostly peeked from behind their backs. Here, unexpectedly for himself, he boldly stepped towards a girl in an elegant dress with lace frills and a thick red braid, enthusiastically watching the dancers. She looked about his age.
“Let me invite you to the tour, young lady?” He specifically tried to give masculinity and bass to his voice.
Volodya had no doubt that the girl, judging by her dress, was the daughter of some wealthy Cossack, and most likely was studying either in the senior classes of a stanitsa school or at the Mariinsky Theater, and if so, she should be flattered that she was invited not by anyone but son of the ataman, cadet of the Omsk cadet corps. If for some reason she didn’t know how to waltz, he thought in advance that he would volunteer to teach her right away - she looked too painful for him. The girl blushed shyly and, quite unexpectedly, made a real, complete curtsey in response. “Wow, it must be my sister who taught her to squat like that at school,” Volodya thought in surprise.
“Sorry, I... I’m not a very good dancer,” the girl answered embarrassedly, as Volodya expected.
“It’s okay, almost everything here is not very good,” Volodya nodded condescendingly towards the dancers. “I’ll help you, don’t be afraid, waltz is not such a difficult science.” The girl suddenly looked at Volodya with a smile in her eyes, and not at all timidly, but as if even habitually, she gave him her hand... When they entered the circle of dancers, it suddenly turned out that she was dancing not only no worse, but noticeably better than him. Volodya was so confused by this “discovery” that he almost stepped on his partner’s feet several times.
“Where did you learn to dance like that?” Volodya couldn’t help but ask when they were already spinning to the music of Strauss’s “Blue Danube.”
“In Ust-Kamenogorsk, at the gymnasium, Vladimir Tikhonovich,” the girl cast down her eyes mischievously.
“So you study at the gymnasium... but I thought... Then let me ask your name,” Volodya no longer pretended to be a seasoned gentleman.
“Don’t you remember me?” the girl looked at him slyly again.
Now Volodya blushed embarrassedly, trying to remember where he could have seen her... but he still couldn’t remember.
“The year before last, also in the summer, you and your father and mother came to my mother’s name day... My father is a cornet, Egor Ivanovich Shcherbakov,” the girl decided to help him.
Volodya hardly remembered how he went with his parents in 1616 to the name day of the head of the local self-guard of the hundred, then only recently commissioned from the front as a cornet, and there he saw his 12-year-old daughter. She seemed so small to him then that he didn’t remember her name... It’s amazing how she grew up, she’s only 14 now, and you can’t tell she’s a real grown-up young lady. The girl, however, did not say her name, and he, for the life of me, couldn’t remember it...
Domna Terentyevna spent a long time trying to persuade her husband to waltz with her. They were greeted with an approving roar:
- The mistress... this woman, the queen, will stick it to all the young ones... And our ataman, look, he can do it too, an eagle...
But they didn’t let me waltz for long. The majority of the guests, having rested a little, and having had some more drinks and snacks, again demanded accordionists and dancing... This “hangover” day continued until late at night, with refreshments, dancing, and partying. Residents of the village who were not invited to the wedding were mostly new settlers: seasonal and permanent farm laborers, tenants of land plots from Cossacks or Cossack widows, as well as stray people who did odd jobs, small artisans... All of them, too, could not sleep because of this protracted for a midnight of fun. Cossacks like them have said more than once: don’t put your dirty bast shoes on Cossack land, man, you’ll be damned. Therefore, they could not experience any joy from this fun. When we were sleeplessly tossing and turning to the sounds of harmonicas, rollicking ditties and songs, many had thoughts like: “Rejoice for now... you won’t have long to eat, sing, dance, get fat...”
https://samlib.ru /d/dxjakow_w_e/
Excerpt from the novel “Road to Nowhere”: Dyakov Viktor Eliseevich
Second day
On the morning of the second day, the matchmaker washed the bride at the well. The girl threw a coin into the well, drew water and went to her father-in-law and mother-in-law, washed them and dried them with her towel. While she was busy, the “honesty” of the young wife was tested in the newlyweds’ bedroom.
Then the newly-made wife called the guests to the table. The husband was asked to cut up the boiled chicken with his hands. By the way the husband butchered the bird, they looked at how he could “cope” with his wife.
The wedding feast moved to the girl’s former father’s house. The guests went there in a cheerful crowd. Women dressed in men's clothes, men in dresses. Order gave way to deliberate lawlessness. It was on the second day that the young parents were driven around the village in wheelbarrows and could (allegedly accidentally) be dropped. And it’s good if it doesn’t end in mud or a puddle.
The Cossacks had various rituals: matchmaking, wedding, maternity, “naming”, christening, seeing off for service, funeral. Matchmaking.
Each Cossack army (military community) had slightly different, but generally similar matchmaking rituals. The Kuban and Tertsy people had such a custom, and the Donets had a custom very similar to this. In front of the girl he liked, the Cossack lad would throw his hat out the window or into the yard, and if the girl did not immediately throw her hat out into the street, in the evening he could come with his father or godfather to get married. The guests said: “Good people, don’t be angry, my guy lost his hat. Didn’t you find it in an hour?” “They found it, they found it...” answers the father of the bride, “they hung it on a fur coat, let him take it and never lose it again.” This meant that the matchmaking did not take place - the bride’s parents were against it, to which the matchmaker could object, saying that the thing is not ours, we will look for ours. And this meant that there was a conspiracy between the girl and the guy, and the groom would try to steal her. Somewhat frightened by this turn of events, the girl’s father shouted: “Hey, Maryana!” Come on, give me the hat, whose is it with us! If a girl brought a hat and put it bottom down (it later became a “Mortgage” into which money for the wedding was placed), this meant that she agreed to marry the guy, and the parents risked disgrace, losing their daughter and offending their future son-in-law. If the hat lay on the table upside down with the cross facing up, this meant that the issue of marriage with the girl had not been agreed upon. These are the unlucky groom's own fantasies. - Well, think about it! - the father or godfather strictly ordered the groom. - Here you go! – The father of the bride said joyfully. - Your hat! Wear it, stay healthy and don’t lose it again! So the Cossacks went scattered, and we lost almost half of our yard to these dads!
Wedding.
A complex and lengthy ritual, with its own strict rules. In the old days, a wedding was never a show of the material wealth of the parents of the bride and groom. First of all, it was a state, spiritual and moral act, an important event in the life of the village. The ban on holding weddings during Lent was strictly observed. The most preferred time of year for weddings was considered to be autumn and winter, when there was no field work and, moreover, this was a time of economic prosperity after the harvest. The age of 18-20 years was considered favorable for marriage. The community and military administration could intervene in the marriage procedure. So, for example, it was not allowed to extradite girls to other villages if there were many bachelors and widowers in their own. But even within the village, young people were deprived of the right to choose. The parents had the final say in choosing the bride and groom. The matchmakers could appear without the groom, only with his hat, so the girl did not see her betrothed until the wedding. “There are several periods in the development of a wedding: pre-wedding, which included matchmaking, hand-holding, weddings, parties in the house of the bride and groom; wedding and post-wedding ritual.” At the end of the wedding, the main role was given to the groom's parents: they were rolled around the village in a trough, locked in a hill, from where they had to pay off with the help of a quarter. The guests also suffered: their chickens were “stolen,” and their windows were covered with lime at night. But in all this, there was nothing offensive, senseless, or not aimed at the future good of man and society. Ancient rituals outlined and consolidated new connections and imposed social responsibilities on people. Not only actions, but also words, objects, clothes, and song tunes were filled with deep meaning.” Young people leaving the church pass under three “gates”. The third gate is formed from a raised towel, a symbol of family customs. After a long towel flew over the heads of the newly married couple in a white arch, a rain of grain, small coins and sweets in pieces of paper fell on them. In front of the third gate there was a second one: two Cossacks were holding their caps or hats over the heads of the newlyweds. That's what they call it - to pass under the caps, which meant endowing the family and all offspring with legal (as we would say now) protection, the fullness of the legal rights that protected the family. And the first gate under which the young people passed, immediately leaving the doors of the cathedral or church, was the gate of two naked blades. It was called “passing under the checkers.”
