Translated by Nikiforova Svetlana Gennadievna +7(8482) 680-950
The main source of life of the inhabitants of the Stavropol District was crop-growing. The people raised grain, cattle, did private farming. Nevertheless, the incomes they got from the harvest could hardly meet the expenses, that was why the peasants had to find earnings out of farming. Hard life made people acquire any new skills that were in demand. Peasants began to learn various crafts that helped them make their living.
The first artisans sprang up in Stavropol at once after it was founded. The fort commandant Andrew Zmeev shew concern for development of crafts in the town that was under construction and asked the authority of Saint Petersburg to send 4 blacksmiths, 4 joiners, 2 turners, 4 stove-makers, 2 brick-layers, 6 carpenters explaining that the fort could not do without artisans.
Already to the end of the XIXth century, the Stavropol District held a remarkable position in the Samara Region according to the development of industrial activity of peasants. In the Samara District 8,536 peasants, that was 8,7% of the entire population, were occupied in local crafts and out of town (fields, mines and others); in the Stavropol District due to a census there were 15,833 yards (39,6% of the population).
There were the following groups of the peasants who did industrial activity. Peasants who did agriculture referred to the first group: oil-millers, millers, market-gardeners, day-labourers, workers, cabmen, bee-keepers and gardeners. In this sphere were occupied 8,332 persons that were 52,7%.
The second group included crafts and could be subdivided into the following categories:
clothes and shoes manufacture of leather: shoe-, sheepskin-, leather-, hat-makers, and tailors – 773 persons
metal manufacture: blacksmiths, copper-, silver-, locksmiths – 168 persons.
Professional occupations and personal services in general made the third group – 2,582 persons. In other trades out of town were occupied 1,101 persons and 1,210 people passed a beggarly existence.
In case of division trades into the ones that demanded special skills, knowledge, and techniques and into those that asked just for physical strength, 10,433 persons did the last. It meant that 65,8% of the industrial population of Stavropol had sporadic earnings.
Besides, some trades, especially wood manufacture and forest works, constantly changed their geographic position depending on prices of lumber and proper ways of sale of manufactured production. In 1870’s the entire peasant communities did homemade craft, in 1880’s only some yards made their living by this way. At the period of fading of timber craft, pottery and brick making, on the contrary, started developing.
In the southern part of the Stavropol District, the peasants of some settlements went in for gardening. 251 yards in all – 200 yards in the village Hryashchovka, 42 in Crusade Sites of Ancient Towns, and 6 in White Cliff, were busy with this craft.
Hryashchovka was considered the apple capital of the district. 200 peasant yards of this village had orchards where there grew 16,834 apple trees. Calculations shew that there were 84 apple trees per a yard. Of course, there lived gardeners who raised just 7-15 trees, but were those who had 700 ones, though there were few of them.
Orchards were situated out of Hryashchovka in one place and took a square of 20 dessiatinas (= approx. 2 34 acres). Peasants grew different sorts of the apple: Anis, Black Tree, Bel, Horoshavka, Malt, Borovinka, Skrut, Reshotka and others. A pood (16 kilograms) cost 75 copecks. That meant that the income was 115-150 rubles. However, there were 5-6 orchards whose income was equal to 300-400 rubles. They traded in apples all the year round.
The inhabitants of Stavropol happened to acquire a mass passion for any craft. In the 18th century, for instance, the people grew watermelons, and some travelers noticed that they were very tasty. When economic situation changed, conditions of this or that craft also became different.
In 60-70’s of the XIXth century, the majority of the inhabitants of Stavropol took to raising onion. That was the reason the town got the name of “an onion township”. The people said that a person who never smelled an onion was not a true inhabitant of Stavropol. Onion as foodstuff was a necessary adornment of any table. The people said about those, whose income was the lowest of all, that “he is the worst poor but puts onion into the cabbage-soup”. The rich used a proverb: “The one who eats onion, God will rid of everlasting tortures”. The best and prosperous onion-raisers earned from 500 to 1,000 rubles a year of clear profit at an average crop, taking accounting of the fact that they spent 100-150 rubles, not more, for sowing.
By 90’s of the XIXth century onion craft was gradually getting weaker. There was no certain reason for such state of things. On the one hand, it was the increasing of competition because of increasing of harvest of onion in other places. On the other hand, the inhabitants changed their attitude toward the craft. The soil was getting impoverished and the people did not get good profit any more. It was necessary to work very hard for many hours to acquire skills in onion growing. People found it easier to wait for coming of a new, the latest and not so difficult craft.
In Zhigulyovsk forests was widely spread apiculture - honey getting from wild bees, which lived in natural wood hollows and blocks. Favourable conditions of the climate in Zhiguly, rich forests and meadows conduced to abundant honey yield. Before the starting of sugar refining, honey was the only sweet food and was of high value.
In bygone centuries, a mill was an indispensable article of a populated locality, not only of a village, and an attribute of rural landscape. The number of mills in a village depended on the number of people living there and the level of their prosperity. For example, in the village of Musorka in 1903 there were 24 windmills per 3,549 inhabitants, in Kirillovka – 18 per 2,281, in Tashla – 1 watermill and 7 windmills per 1,676, in Yagodnoie – 1 watermill and 25 windmills per 4,996, and in Vasilievka – 9 windmills per 1,380 inhabitants. In some places mills were so close to each other, that hindered their neighbours to work. In XVIIIth and XIXth centuries, the people built the mills of two kinds: wind and water.
In 1884 in the Stavropol District there were 24 water- and 749 windmills. Before the revolution there worked 22 mechanical, 11 water- and 211 windmills. The largest was a mill that was situated in Russian Borkovka and belonged to count Orlov-Davydov. For 24 hours it ground 2,500 poods of grain. The mill of Zhelnin Lukian Neklyudovich – 2,000 poods, the mill of Dudkin – 1,800 poods and the mill of Burkov in New Binaradka – 1,600 poods.
The majority of trades were connected with natural resources. Forest is and always was of great importance to people. It gave food and job to a man who always used timber and wood articles. Forests of the Stavropol District were mainly situated in its northern and southern parts. Here lived the peasants who worked in the forest in addition to grain-growing. The peasants of 230 yards worked as loggers and delivered the lumber to the consumer.
The peasants of the village Kuneevka (nowadays there is the Komsomolsk region in these places) used to take a job of woodcutters after which they brought the lumber to the estate of count Orlov-Davydov. The inhabitants of the villages FyOdorovka and Zelyonovka every winter took a job of the timber industry workers of Arzhanov and his rival Sbitnev to cut and transport the timber to the Volga 12 versts from the village and got 28 copecks for each brought load. For winter, a peasant could earn 10 rubles for cutting the forest and 5 rubles for transporting the lumber on a horse, taking an account that an average price for a horse in the market of Stavropol at that time was 20 rubles.
Often people combined forest trade and another one connected with bast working. For instance, in the village of Bryandino peasants arranged with merchants Markov and Aleev to deliver them lumber and instead of money they asked the right to use bast or vice versa: they took lumber and gave bast to forest owners.
Bast was a raw material that everybody needed. People used it to weave matting and make sacks for friable products. But the main thing bast was used for were bast-shoes – the mass, cheapest and popular historical Russian footwear. Officially in the Stavropol District were registered 37 bast-shoe makers. These people were skilled craftsmen indeed. They were able to weave bast-shoes of any size, special ones for a long journey and for any season. They also could make decorated shoes out of painted bast. In fact, in any family there was a person who could weave bast-shoes. As this craft did not demand any hard physical efforts, it was available not only to old people but also to children. At that time there even was a saying, which said that the person who could not did a hard physical job wove bast-shoes.
A considerable part of population did resin distillation and coal burning. The gotten resin and tar were in great demand among the peasants. People used tar to grease the cartwheels, various locks, boots, piles, low part of log houses to protect them from soaking. Tar was also used at tanneries for making the so-called black (Russian) yuft – leather processed in a special way with pleasant resinous smell.
Blacksmiths could not do without coal. It also was used to heat the samovar. This all means that resin-distillers and coal-burners made the things that were absolutely essential in housekeeping. Traditionally the peasants of such villages as Kurumoch, Russian and Chuvash Sabakaievo and Big Candal were busy with these crafts. Nonetheless, the center of resin distillation and coal burning was Old Binaradka, where 50 peasant yards were occupied in this kind of job.
The ash that remained after coal burning was used for getting potash that was demanded in soap working and in tannery industry. Since long ago there had been many potash plants.
In Mullovka, Brigadirovka, Old and New Sahcha, Low Yakushkin, Hmelyovka and some others villages of the district 208 persons were busy with making sledges, runners, wheels, pails, barrels, wooden kegs, scoops and watering-cans. People made sledges and runners in winter under the most unfavourable sanitary conditions: in dwelling log cabins (Russian-izbas) in hermetically closed stove they scalded wood that was surrounded with manure. Sometimes such hotbeds were set out of dwellings. Sledges, taking into account all the expenses, cost the maker 60-80 copecks, on sale – from 1 ruble to 1 ruble and 20 copecks; sledges with stalls – 1ruble and 50 copecks, on sale – 3 rubles.
In the Stavropol District 49 persons were occupied only in barrel making. They made barrels, wooden kegs and pails. No housekeeping could exist without these necessary things. Though the craft of a barrel-maker was of great value and won the respect of all, it did not bring the maker much money. At the market of Stavropol a 20-pail barrel cost 2 rubles, a 5-pail wooden keg – 60 copecks, a pair of pails – 30 copecks. A skilled maker could make a pair of pails for a day, a wooden keg – for three of four days. Thus, by the day he could earn 20 copecks, for one autumn – 12 rubles. It is not much but that was his stable earnings.
Joiners (carpenters), who were 650 persons, believed themselves to be aristocrats among artisans of woodworking. They were able to make a loom and less sophisticated thing. No peasant family could do without the things joiners made.
Though wood articles were demanded in housekeeping, woodcrafts were gradually getting reduced. The main reason was deficiency and high price of timber. Then, this occupation did not yield even a sufficient profit. The artisans got much more profit doing pottery and brick craft. Both a rich family and a poor one could not do without this production.
Potters used a raw material – natural clay that was lacking in some places, the geographical development of the pottery depended just on this circumstance. Overall, potters did not use imported clay. The traditional centers of the pottery in the Stavropol District were two villages: New Maina – in the north and Old Maina – in the center of the district. In the first village, 58 families were busy with pottery, in the second one – 15. Potters also worked in other villages but their job was of no industrial significance there.
A potter made pots of various size and form, containers for milk, frying pans, braziers, pans, jugs, hanging wash-hand cans, various bowls and dishes. The entire dish was only red. For that, potters added minium (red lead) and vitriol into clay. At retail the price of the pottery varied depending on its quality. Small pots cost 1-2 copecks each, cooking pots – 3-5 copecks, braziers – 5-7 copecks, containers for milk – 2-3 copecks, hanging wash-hand cans – 3 copecks, bowls – 5-8 copecks.
Existence of clay in this or that village caused development of brick industry, too. On the whole, the brick were produced in five villages of the Stavropol District: Old Matyushkino, Old and New Urenbashy, Urazgildino and Pomryaskino, though potters also were in Musorka, Tashelka and other villages. Only 66 persons in all made bricks professionally.
In 1863 there existed 5 brick plants which belonged to a merchant Makarenkov, petty bourgeois Yegor Kondratiev, Semen Chekmasov. The plants were small and yielded just 26 rubles for summer. Later the number of brick plants in Stavropol increased to eight. Each had a furnace and together produced 200 thousand bricks a year. A brick plant in Low Sancheleievo was the largest and produced 240 thousand bricks a year.
Here it should be mentioned the difference between homemade production and craft out of place of constant living. An artisan who worked at home made things in usual conditions sparing free of peasant labor time to the craft. Sales of products were realized in the village where he lived. However, sometimes a peasant could not get stable earnings in his village. A potter, a carpenter, a tailor, etc, was enough for rural society. That meant that artisan either had to dislodge rivals proving his professionalism or leave his village for the territory where his craft was in demand. This was the way carpenters, sawyers, fellers and people of other trades made their living.
It was a very hard decision to a man to leave his house for doing craft in foreign lands, because in this case he changed his usual lifestyle and leave housekeeping without care for a long time and having doubts that he could earn money elsewhere. That was why a majority of rural artisans stayed in their villages preferring to work at home for a local sale.
According to such state of things artisan’s labor changed: he did not know a concrete consumer any more and worked for unknown requirements. There was also another difficulty connected with a necessity to find a market to sell the things he made. He was lucky to live near a city or developed routs of communication; otherwise, production was delayed.
To develop his production the artisan had to study market of sale, master the production of new things and the methods to offer them to a consumer. The artisan spent much more time on selling his production than on making it. Thus, a handicraftsman became a trader. At first, the trader’s life had no distinctions from the life of his colleagues, but thank to a great diligence and skills he managed to accumulate his primary capitol. This money they paid to their neighbours to buy up the production of their neighbours for a further resale. Thus, they were dealers between an artisan and a consumer.
Both the artisan and the consumer were satisfied with a social position of a trader who was a former handicraftsman. The trader helped the artisan with material and subsidiary one, for he well knew the real needs and requirements of homemade craft. On the other hand, the trader paid attention to the consumer’s wishes: when he came across more fashion and perfect articles, he acquired capital and foreign samples and ordered alike to his artisans. That facilitated development of the artisans’ skill.
Rural traders-merchants sprang up that way.
Museum of regional studies of Togliatti: Sergeeva Viktoria Mihaylovna phone: +7(8482) 481-070 e-mail:serjiov@rambler.ru
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