The main tool of labor in Rus' for the ancient architect was an ax. Saws became known around the end of the 10th century and were used only in carpentry when internal works. The fact is that the saw tears the wood fibers during operation, leaving them open to water. The ax, crushing the fibers, seems to seal the ends of the logs. No wonder they still say: “cut down a hut.” And, well known to us now, they tried not to use nails. After all, around a nail, the wood begins to rot faster. As a last resort, they used wooden crutches, which modern carpenters call “dowels.”
Foundation and fastening of a wooden structure
Both in ancient Rus' and in modern Russia, the basis of a wooden house or bathhouse has always been and is a log house. A log house is logs fastened (“tied”) together into a quadrangle. Each row of logs in a log house, fastened together, was (and is) called a “crown.” The first row of logs that rests on the foundation is called the “uterine crown”. The uterine crown was often placed on stone shafts - a kind of foundation, which was called “ryazh”; such a foundation did not allow the house to come into contact with the ground, i.e. The log house lasted longer and did not rot.
Log houses differed from each other in the type of fastening. For outbuildings the log house was used "in the cut" (rarely laid). The logs here were not stacked tightly, but in pairs on top of each other, and often were not fastened at all.
When the logs were fastened “into a paw”, their ends did not extend beyond the walls to the outside, the corners of the log house were even. This method of cutting corners has been preserved by carpenters to this day. But it is usually used if the house will be sheathed with something on the outside (lining, siding, blockhouse, etc.) and the corners are tightly insulated, because this method of cutting corners has a slight drawback - they retain heat less than corners “ into the bowl."
Corners “into the bowl” (in the modern way) or “into the oblo” in the old fashioned way were considered the warmest and most reliable. With this method of fastening the walls, the logs extended beyond the wall and had a cross-shaped shape if you look at the frame from above. The strange name "oblo" comes from the word "obolon" ("oblon"), meaning the outer layers of a tree (cf. "to envelop, envelop, shell"). Back at the beginning of the 20th century. they said: “cut the hut into Obolon” if they wanted to emphasize that inside the hut the logs of the walls were not crowded together. However, more often the outside of the logs remained round, while inside the huts they were hewn to a plane - “scraped into lass” (a smooth strip was called las). Now the term “burst” refers more to the ends of the logs protruding outward from the wall, which remain round, with a chip.
The rows of logs themselves (crowns) were connected to each other using internal spikes. Moss was laid between the crowns in the log house and then final assembly The log house was caulked with flax tow in the cracks. Attics were often filled with the same moss to preserve heat in winter. I will write about red moss - inter-crown insulation - later, in another article.
In plan, the log houses were made in the form of a quadrangle (“chetverik”), or in the form of an octagon (“octagon”). From several adjacent quadrangles, huts were mainly made, and octagons were used for the construction of wooden churches (after all, an octagon allows you to increase the area of the room almost six times without changing the length of the logs). Often, by placing quadrangles and octets on top of each other, the ancient Russian architect built the pyramidal structure of a church or rich mansions.
Simple indoor rectangular wooden frame without any extensions it was called a “cage”. "Cage by cage, lead by story", - they said in the old days, trying to emphasize the reliability of the log house in comparison with the open canopy - povet. Usually the log house was placed on the “basement” - the lower auxiliary floor, which was used for storing supplies and household equipment. And the upper crowns of the log house expanded upward, forming a cornice - a “fall”. This interesting word, derived from the verb “to fall,” was often used in Rus'. So, for example, “povalusha” was the name given to the upper, cold common bedrooms in a house or mansion, where the whole family went to sleep (to lie down) in the summer from a heated hut.
The doors in the cage were made lower, and the windows were placed higher, keeping the hut more heat. Both the house and the temple were built in the same way - both were the house (of man and of god). Therefore, the simplest and most ancient form of a wooden temple, like a house, was the “kletskaya”. This is how churches and chapels were built. These are two or three log buildings connected to each other from west to east. There were three log cabins in the church (the refectory, the temple and the altar), and two in the chapel (the refectory and the temple). A modest dome was placed over a simple gable roof.
Small chapels were erected in large numbers in remote villages, at crossroads, above large stone crosses, above springs. There is no priest in the chapel; no altar was made here. And the services were performed by the peasants themselves, who baptized and performed funeral services themselves. Such unpretentious services, held like the first Christians with singing short prayers in the first, third, sixth and ninth hours after sunrise, were called “hours” in Rus'. This is where the building itself got its name. Both the state and the church looked upon such chapels with disdain. That’s why the builders here could give free rein to their imagination. That is why these modest chapels amaze the modern city dweller today with their extreme simplicity, sophistication and special atmosphere of Russian solitude.
Roof
In ancient times, the roof over the log house was built without nails - “male”.
To complete this, the two end walls were made from shrinking stumps of logs, which were called “males.” Long longitudinal poles were placed on them in steps - “dolniki”, “lay down” (cf. “lay down, lie down”). Sometimes, however, the ends of the legs cut into the walls were also called males. One way or another, the entire roof got its name from them.
Thin tree trunks, cut down from one of the branches of the root, were cut into the beds from top to bottom. Such trunks with roots were called “chickens” (apparently due to the similarity of the left root with chicken paw). These upward-pointing root branches supported a hollowed-out log—the “stream.” It collected water flowing from the roof. And already on top of the hens and beds they laid wide roof boards, resting their lower edges on the hollowed-out groove of the stream. The upper joint of the boards - the “ridge” (as it is called to this day) - was especially carefully blocked from rain. A thick “ridge ridge” was laid under it, and on top the joint of the boards, like a cap, was covered with a log hollowed out from below - a “shell” or “skull”. However, more often this log was called “ohlupnem” - something that covers.
What not to cover the roof with? wooden huts in Rus'! Then the straw was tied into sheaves (bundles) and laid along the slope of the roof, pressing with poles; Then they split aspen logs onto planks (shingles) and covered the hut with them, like scales, in several layers. And in ancient times they even covered it with turf, turning it upside down and laying it under birch bark.
The most expensive coating was considered "tes" (boards). The word “tes” itself well reflects the process of its manufacture. A smooth, knot-free log was split lengthwise in several places and wedges were driven into the cracks. The log split in this way was split lengthwise several more times. The unevenness of the resulting wide boards was trimmed with a special ax with a very wide blade.
The roof was usually covered in two layers - “undercut” and “red”. The bottom layer of planks on the roof was also called the under-skalnik, since it was often covered with “rock” (birch bark, which was chipped from birch trees) for tightness. Sometimes they installed a kinked roof. Then the lower, flatter part was called “police” (from the old word "gender"- half).
The entire pediment of the hut was importantly called “chelo” and was richly decorated with magical protective carvings. The outer ends of the under-roof slabs were covered from rain with long boards - “rails”. And the upper joint of the piers was covered with a patterned hanging board - a “towel”.
The roof is the most important part of a wooden building. "If only I had a roof over my head"- people still say. That is why, over time, its “top” became a symbol of any temple, house and even economic structure.
“Riding” in ancient times was the name for any completion. These tops, depending on the wealth of the building, could be very diverse. The simplest was the “cage” top - simple gable roof on the cage. Temples were usually decorated with a “tent” top in the form of a high octagonal pyramid. The “cubic top”, reminiscent of a massive tetrahedral onion, was intricate. The towers were decorated with such a top. The “barrel” was quite difficult to work with - a gable roof with smooth curvilinear outlines, ending with a sharp ridge. But they also made a “crossed barrel” - two intersecting simple barrels. Tent churches, cube-shaped, tiered, multi-domed - all this is named after the completion of the temple, after its top.
However, most of all they loved the tent. When the scribal books indicated that the church "wooden on top", then this meant that it was tented.
Even after Nikon’s ban on tents in 1656, as demonic and paganism in architecture, they still continued to be built in the Northern Territory. And only in the four corners at the base of the tent small barrels with domes appeared. This technique was called a tent on a cross-barrel.
Particularly difficult times came for the wooden tent in the middle of the 19th century, when the government and the governing Synod set about eradicating schismatics. Northern “schismatic” architecture then also fell into disgrace. And yet, despite all the persecution, the “four-octagon-tent” shape remains typical for the ancient Russian wooden church. There are also octagons “from the ground” (from the ground) without a quadrangle, especially in bell towers. But these are already variations of the main type.
The traditions of wooden house construction have survived to this day. On their own suburban areas the townspeople are happy to build wooden houses and baths with the help of masters from the outback, from the provinces. In turn, in the outback, people also continue to live in wooden houses, because there is no better home than a solid, reliable, environmentally friendly house made of wood. Do you want to build yourself a house from logs or timber? Contact us - or call: 8-903-899-98-51 (Beeline); 8-930-385-49-16 (Megafon).
The hut stands, stands without a single nail. The windows are patterned, the porch is high, and there is a perky “ridge” on the roof. A hut, it is a house, it is also a work of art, uncomplicated and alien to pretentiousness.
But the hut stands sad, it stands cold and empty...it is no longer needed. The hut became a frozen monument, an example of wooden architecture. But the hut needs life: for the stove to be heated, for the children to fuss under the benches, for the porridge to be cooked and the pies to be cooked...
“I lived, I lived, I wore an ax on my bare feet, I girded myself with an ax.”
Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers did not build, but cut down: “cutting down a hut” means building a house. Just give an experienced carpenter an ax and he will build the hut from the basement to the roof.
No saw, no nails, no hammer—just one axe. Trees were felled for them, they were cleared of branches, they were hewn, boards were “smoothed” as if using a cord. And why did you drink? If you cut a log, the ends will fray, which means they will quickly absorb moisture and rot. When processed with an axe, on the contrary, the wood fibers are compacted and become waterproof. Yes, and nails were of no use: not only was iron forging always distinguished by its high cost, but experienced craftsman and without it, not a single log will move, firmly attached.
“The corners are chopped into a simple bowl”
A wooden hut did not need a foundation; the frame was laid directly on the ground, sometimes only large stones or stumps of large trees were tucked under the corners of the house. But the Russian hut could not do without a “basement” - an underground floor in which cattle, poultry, and food supplies were kept.
Not a log cabin, but a sight for sore eyes! One log, as if passed through another, is intertwined! How is this possible? Stepping back from the end of the log, the craftsmen made a cut down to the middle, round, like a bowl. A transverse log was placed in this cutting. Four logs, squared together in this way, formed a crown.
On the first crown they placed a second, a third, and so on all the way to the roof. To avoid cracks, the carpenter fitted the logs to each other as tightly as possible, cutting out a longitudinal groove in each upper log, a groove that fit tightly to the lower one. And for thermal insulation, moss was laid between the logs - everything here is simple and, it would seem, rough, rough, but still strong and reliable.
And most importantly: the craftsman carpenters could put together such a hut in just one daylight hours, and, if necessary, dismantle it and transport it to a new place in order to rebuild it again. But it's time to get to work on the roof!
“The chicken is on the chicken, and the little Russian is on the street”
A wooden frame, the future hut, was proudly drawn. He is waiting for triangular log gables, the so-called “tongs,” to be erected over its end walls. They will bear the full weight of the under-roof structures: “beds”, “kokory”, “flows”. And again, without a single nail, using only one ax, the craftsmen manage to create the unimaginable - a roof!
Just look: parallel to the side walls, longitudinal horizontal logs - “legs” - are cut into the logs of the tongs, and across them are laid out “cocors” or “chickens” - thin trunks of young spruce trees with rhizomes sticking out at the end.
As if proud birds, the “hens” look with the outlines of their rhizome heads at the world around them, they are about to fly up and disappear - they were the only ones they saw!
On the ends of the “hens” that bend upward, a long log with a hollowed out tray is laid - a “flow”, also known as a drain, which is also the support of the entire roof. It is against the “flow” that the lower ends of the roofing boards and gorges rest, and the upper ends, at the junction of both roof slopes, are secured with a heavy log - “ohlupnem”.
The “stupid” has climbed high, to the very top, and, as if arching a horse’s head, looks forward with its outer ends. And take a master carpenter and bring the curves of the silhouette to perfection - and then the “horse” that crowns the creation is ready!
“It cheers in the spring, cools in the summer, nourishes in the fall, warms in the winter”
In Rus', rich in endless, dense forests, from ancient times houses were built from wood, but they did not build, but “cut down”, as we have already seen. And after all, apart from an axe, harvested, pre-dried wood and a skilled, handy craftsman, nothing was needed. So it worked out: firstly, it was cheap; secondly, quickly - wood, unlike stone, is easy to process; thirdly, it is hygienic!
A tree, like any other living organism, breathes, which means everyone who is in a wooden house breathes. Breathes easily and freely.
And how could it be otherwise: it is always dry and fresh, cool in the midday heat in summer, and warm in winter in the severe frost. But wood has irreconcilable enemies: fire, dampness, wood-boring beetles. No matter how you cut it, no matter how you arrange it, no matter how you adjust it, it is useless - the hut cannot withstand the ages.
Do we breathe, hidden in high-rise, multi-apartment reinforced concrete buildings, which are not so afraid of fire and moisture, and, even more so, bugs? It's a hut! You will reach out your hand, touch the rough surface of the logs, and see the unique, hitherto unimaginable pattern of wood fibers. Here is the past, the future, and the present with the thought of the porridge still undercooked in the oven, the difficult winter, the upcoming spring, something else is in store.
In Russian district towns, such merchant houses with two floors are living out their days - the lower one is brick and the upper one is wooden. Meanwhile, they are the answer to the question - why there are “medieval streets” in Riga and Tallinn, but not in Novgorod and Pskov.
Riga and Tallinn were founded several centuries later than Novgorod and Pskov, but in these Russian cities only churches, monasteries and fortress walls survived from the Middle Ages, and we all know why - residential buildings there were built from wood - a material less durable than stone or brick.
To compare two medieval town-planning traditions - Western European and Russian - Novgorod and Pskov are perfect because these cities at that time were more developed and rich than their closest western neighbors and they did not experience devastation after the Mongol invasion. It is known that paving streets in Novgorod began 400-500 years earlier than in London and Paris. All Novgorod men and many women were literate, while in the West, even in the highest society of that time, there were illiterate people.
Here, for example, are the signatures of the King of France Henry I (1008 - 1060) and his wife Anna, daughter of Yaroslav the Wiseunder the charter to Soissons Abbey: the king drew crosses instead of a signature, and the queen wrote“Anna regina” - that’s how she tried to convey the French pronunciation of the Latin “Anna regina” in Slavic Cyrillic.
Medieval Novgorod and Pskov in material and cultural development were in no way inferior to the same Riga and Revel (Tallinn), but for all that, their wealthy residents built their homes from wood. Maybe the reason for this was the availability and cheapness of wood? However, Latvia is still an exporter of wood today, and in the 13th century (Riga was founded in 1201) there were many times more forests there. Or perhaps the Western colonists followed their urban planning practices in the cities they founded in the East? However, in the first decades of its existence, Riga had many wooden houses, so in end of XIII century, a decree was issued banning the construction of buildings made of wood - this is how the city authorities increased fire safety.
Meanwhile, in Rus', huts, towers, mansions and even palaces (the palace of Alexei Mikhailovich in Kolomenskoye) continued to be built almost exclusively from wood until Peter’s reforms. TO rum of temples and monasteries and Non-residential buildings - “chambers” (the Faceted Chamber in Moscow, the Vladychnaya Chamber in Novgorod) were built from brick and stone. At the same time, in the West, where forests were becoming scarce, they found another way to build cheap housing - they learned to make half-timbered frames, the basis of which was a frame made of wooden beams, filled with whatever was needed: bricks, clay, boards...
It cannot be said that in Rus' they did not live in stone buildings at all. Example - Bogolyubovsky Castle of Andrei Bogolyubsky (XII century).
Castle in Bogolyubovo. Reconstruction of S.V. Zagraevsky
However, such stone mansions were the exception to the rule. Everything changed with the start of construction of the new capital - St. Petersburg, in which, according to the founder’s plan, there was no place for huts. Ironically, the city's first building was wooden house ik Peter I. And at first in St. Petersburg-town they continued, out of habit, to erect log houses. Therefore, on April 4, 1714, the tsar issued a decree prohibiting the construction of wooden houses, but not in the entire city, but only on the embankments of the Neva, on the Petersburg side and on the Admiralty Island (between the Neva and Moika).
The decree led to a sharp reduction in construction in new capital, so after six months, On October 20, 1714, Peter I issued a new decree."It's still here ( In Petersburg- approx. author) the stone structure is being built very slowly due to the fact that it is difficult for masons and other artists to do this work and at a fair price, for this reason, any stone structure is prohibited in the entire state for several years (until they are satisfied with the structure here). “Several years” lasted, according to various sources, either until 1741, or until 1728. Moreover, the residents of St. Petersburg quickly found a way to circumvent the ban - they erected log houses, covered them with clay and painted them “like bricks.”
It cannot be said that Russia experienced a shortage of masons. Prince Vasily Golitsyn, the favorite of Princess Sophia and in fact the second person in the state, encouraged the construction of stone houses in Moscow - according to historians, about three thousand of them were built at that time. The problem of Peter I was that the masons were mostly “free”. They had to be hired, and not forcibly sent to work in St. Petersburg, as serfs who worked as laborers and carpenters on construction sites in the capital.
The new decree also failed to change the situation. Stone houses were built much more slowly than wooden ones. Therefore, Peter had to follow the same path as the inventors of medieval half-timbered frames. He ordered the construction of huts. At first, the builders erected wooden frames, and then they were coated with clay, which was then officially painted “like a brick.” Peter I ordered the construction of several huts near the Peter and Paul Fortress, and called them “exemplary”.
But it took a long time to make St. Petersburg a stone city. IN< 1833 году из 7976 домов Петербурга только 2730 были каменные, а 5246 - деревянные. Несколько деревянных домов сохранились в центральных районах Петербурга до сего дня. Как, например, этот домик на Васильевском острове.
And Russian merchants until the very end of their existence Russian Empire built houses in which the first floor was brick walls It was occupied by a shop, and the second floor was housing. And this despite the fact that by the 20th century, brick became more accessible and there were enough masons. Merchants could afford to build more practical two-story brick houses. The reason for this typically Russian architectural sophistication was the same as in our time, when in suburban construction houses made of rounded or even more expensive laminated veneer lumber came into fashion instead of cheap and practical foam concrete - you feel better in a wooden house than in a “stone bag” ". Our ancestors, long before the advent of fashion for everything eco- and bio-based, knew a lot about healthy way life.
Both the house and the chapel are all made of wood.
Rus' has long been considered a country of wood: there were plenty of vast, mighty forests around. The Russians, as historians note, lived for centuries in the “wooden age.” Frames and residential buildings, bathhouses and barns, bridges and fences, gates and wells were erected from wood. And the most common name for a Russian settlement - village - indicated that the houses and buildings here were wooden. Almost universal availability, simplicity and ease of processing, relative cheapness, strength, good thermal properties, as well as the rich artistic and expressive capabilities of wood have brought this natural material to the first place in construction residential buildings. Not the least important role was played here by the fact that wooden buildings could be built to quite short time. High-speed construction from wood in Rus' was generally highly developed, which indicates high level organization of carpentry. It is known, for example, that even churches, the largest buildings in Russian villages, were sometimes erected “in one day,” which is why they were called ordinary.
In addition, log houses could be easily dismantled, transported over a considerable distance and re-installed in a new location. In the cities there were even special markets where prefabricated log houses and entire wooden houses with all the interior decoration were sold “for export.” In winter, such houses were shipped straight off the sleigh in disassembled form, and assembly and caulking took no more than two days. By the way, all the necessary building elements and parts of log houses were sold right there; on the market here you could buy pine logs for a residential log house (the so-called “mansion”), and beams hewn into four edges, and good-quality roofing boards, and various boards“dining rooms”, “bench”, for lining the “inside” of the hut, as well as “crossbars”, piles, door blocks. There were also household items on the market, with which the interior was usually filled peasant hut: simple rustic furniture, tubs, boxes, small “chips” down to the smallest wooden spoon.
However, despite all the positive qualities of wood, one of its very serious drawbacks - susceptibility to rotting - made wooden structures relatively short-lived. Together with fires, the real scourge of wooden buildings, it significantly shortened the lifespan of log house- a rare hut stood for more than a hundred years. That is why the greatest use in housing construction has been found in coniferous species: pine and spruce, whose resinousness and density of wood provide the necessary resistance to decay. At the same time, in the North, larch was also used to build a house, and in a number of regions of Siberia, a log frame was assembled from durable and dense larch, but all interior decoration made from Siberian cedar.
And yet, the most common material for housing construction was pine, especially boreal pine or, as it was also called, “condovya”. The log made from it is heavy, straight, almost without knots and, according to the assurances of master carpenters, “does not hold dampness.” In one of the contracts for the construction of housing, concluded in the old days between the owner-customer and the carpenters (and the word “order” comes from the ancient Russian “row” agreement), it was quite definitely emphasized: “... to carve the forest with pine, kind, vigorous , smooth, not knotty..."
Construction timber was usually harvested in winter or early spring, while “the tree is sleeping and excess water has gone into the ground,” while the logs can still be removed by sleigh. It is interesting that even now experts recommend logging for log houses in winter, when the wood is less susceptible to drying out, rotting and warping. The material for housing construction was prepared either by the future owners themselves, or by hired master carpenters in accordance with the necessary need “as much as needed,” as noted in one of the orders. In the case of “self-procurement,” this was done with the involvement of relatives and neighbors. This custom, which has existed in Russian villages since ancient times, was called “help” (“toloka”). The whole village usually gathered for the cleanup. This is reflected in the proverb: “Whoever called for help, go yourself.”
They selected the trees very carefully, in a row, indiscriminately, did not cut them down, and took care of the forest. There was even such a sign: if you didn’t like the three trees you came to the forest with, don’t cut them at all that day. There were also specific prohibitions on logging associated with folk beliefs that were strictly observed. For example, cutting down trees in “sacred” groves, usually associated with a church or cemetery, was considered a sin; It was impossible to cut down old trees either - they had to die their own, natural death. In addition, trees grown by humans were not suitable for construction; a tree that fell during felling “at midnight”, that is, to the north, or hung in the crowns of other trees could not be used - it was believed that in such a house the residents would face serious troubles and illnesses and even death.
Logs for the construction of a log house were usually selected with a thickness of about eight vershoks in diameter (35 cm), and for the lower crowns of a log house - even thicker ones, up to ten vershoks (44 cm). Often the agreement stated: “not to set less than seven vershoks.” Let us note in passing that today the recommended diameter of a log for a chopped wall is 22 cm. The logs were taken to the village and placed in “fires”, where they lay until spring, after which the trunks were sanded, that is, they were removed, the thawed bark was scraped off using a plow or a long scraper, which was an arched blade with two handles.
Tools of Russian carpenters:
1 - woodcutter ax,
2 - sweat,
3 - carpenter's axe.
During processing scaffolding were used different kinds axes. Thus, when cutting down trees, a special wood-cutting ax with a narrow blade was used; in further work, a carpenter’s ax with a wide oval blade and the so-called “potes” were used. In general, owning an ax was mandatory for every peasant. “The ax is the head of the whole thing,” people said. Without the ax, wonderful monuments of folk architecture would not have been created: wooden churches, bell towers, mills, huts. Without this simple and universal tool, many peasant labor tools, details of rural life, and familiar household items would not have appeared. The ability to carpenter (that is, to “unite” logs in a building) from a ubiquitous and necessary craft in Rus' turned into a true art - carpentry.
In Russian chronicles we find unusual combinations - “cut down a church”, “cut down mansions”. And carpenters were often called “cutters.” But the point here is that in the old days they didn’t build houses, but “cut them down” without a saw or nails. Although the saw has been known in Rus' since ancient times, it was not usually used in the construction of a house - sawn logs and boards absorb moisture much more quickly and easily than chopped and hewn ones. The master builders did not saw off, but cut off the ends of the logs with an ax, since sawn logs are “blown by the wind” - they crack, which means they collapse faster. In addition, when processed with an ax, the ends of the log seem to be “clogged” and rot less. The boards were made by hand from logs - notches were marked at the end of the log and along its entire length, wedges were driven into them and split into two halves, from which wide boards were hewn out - “tesnitsy”. For this purpose, a special ax with a wide blade and a one-sided cut was used - “potes”. In general, carpentry tools were quite extensive - along with axes and staples, there were special “adzes” for selecting grooves, chisels and clearings for punching holes in logs and beams, and “lines” for drawing parallel lines.
When hiring carpenters to build a house, the owners stipulated in detail the most important requirements for the future construction, which were scrupulously noted in the contract. First of all, we recorded here necessary qualities scaffolding, its diameter, processing methods, as well as the timing of the start of construction. Then a detailed description of the house that was to be built was given, the space-planning structure of the dwelling was highlighted, and the dimensions of the main premises were regulated. “Build me a new hut,” it is written in the old row, four fathoms without an elbow and with corners” - that is, about six and a quarter meters, chopped “in the oblo”, with the rest. Since no drawings were made during the construction of the house, in the construction contracts the vertical dimensions of the dwelling and its individual parts were determined by the number of log crowns placed in the frame - “and there are twenty-three rows up to the hens.” The horizontal dimensions were regulated by the most commonly used long log - usually it was about three fathoms "between the corners" - about six and a half meters. Often the orders even provided information about individual architectural and structural elements and details: “to make doors on the jambs and windows on the jambs, as many as the owner orders to be made.” Sometimes samples, analogues, examples from the immediate surroundings were directly named, focusing on which the craftsmen had to do their work: “.. and make those upper rooms and the canopy, and the porch, like Ivan Olferev’s small upper rooms were made at the gate.” The entire document often ended with a disciplinary recommendation, instructing the craftsmen not to abandon the work until it is completely completed, not to postpone or delay the construction that had begun: “And not to leave until finishing that mansion.”
The beginning of the construction of a dwelling in Rus' was associated with certain deadlines regulated by special rules. It was considered best to start building a house during Lent ( in early spring) and so that the construction process includes the holiday of the Trinity, let us remember the proverb: “Without the Trinity, a house is not built.” It was impossible to start construction on the so-called “hard days” - Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and also on Sunday. The time “when the month is full” after the new moon was considered favorable for starting construction.
The construction of the house was preceded by special and rather solemnly formalized rituals, in which the most important, earthly and celestial phenomena that were most significant for the peasant were reflected, in which the forces of nature acted in a symbolic form, and various “local” deities were present. According to an ancient custom, when laying a house, money was placed in the corners “to live richly,” and inside the log house, in the middle or in the “red” corner, they placed a freshly cut tree (birch, mountain ash or fir-tree) and often hung an icon on it. This tree personified the “world tree”, known to almost all nations and ritually marking the “center of the world”, symbolizing the idea of growth, development, connection between the past (roots), present (trunk) and future (crown). It remained in the log house until the construction was completed. Another interesting custom is associated with the designation of the corners of the future home: in the evening the owner poured four piles of grain into the supposed four corners of the hut, and if the next morning the grain turned out to be untouched, the place chosen for the construction of the house was considered good. If someone disturbed the grain, then they were usually careful not to build on such a “dubious” place.
Throughout the construction of the house, another custom, very ruinous for the future owners, was strictly observed, which, unfortunately, has not become a thing of the past and today quite frequent and plentiful “treats” for the master carpenters building the house, with the aim of “appeasing” them. The construction process was repeatedly interrupted by “hand-made”, “filling”, “matika”, “rafter” and other feasts. Otherwise, the carpenters could be offended and do something wrong, or even just “play a trick” - lay out the log house in such a way that “there will be a buzzing in the walls.”
The structural basis of the log house was a log frame with a quadrangular plan, consisting of logs laid horizontally on top of each other - “crowns”. An important feature of this design is that with its natural shrinkage and subsequent settlement, the gaps between the crowns disappeared, the wall became more dense and monolithic. To ensure the horizontality of the crowns of the log house, the logs were laid so that the butt ends alternated with the top ends, that is, thicker ones with thinner ones. To ensure that the crowns fit well together, a longitudinal groove was selected in each of the adjacent logs. In the old days, the groove was made in the lower log, on its upper side, but since with this solution water got into the recess and the log quickly rotted, they began to make the groove on the lower side of the log. This technique has survived to this day.
a - “in the oblo” with cups in the lower logs
b - “in the oblo” with cups in the upper logs
At the corners the log house was tied together with special notches, a kind of log “locks”. Experts say that there are several dozen types and variants of cuttings in Russian wooden architecture. The most commonly used were cuttings “in the cloud” and “in the paw”. When cutting “into the edge” (that is, roundly) or “into a simple corner,” the logs were joined in such a way that their ends protruded outward, beyond the boundaries of the log house, forming the so-called “remnant,” which is why this technique was also called cutting with the remainder. The protruding ends well protected the corners of the hut from freezing. This method, one of the most ancient, was also called cutting “into a bowl”, or “into a cup”, since special “cup” recesses were selected in them to fasten the logs together. In the old days, cups, like longitudinal grooves in logs, were cut into the underlying log - this is the so-called “cutting into the lining”, but later they began to use more rational way with a cut in the top log “into the overlay”, or “into the shell”, which did not allow moisture to linger in the “lock” of the log house. Each cup was adjusted to the exact shape of the log with which it came into contact. This was necessary to ensure the tightness of the most important and most vulnerable to water and cold components of the log house - its corners.
Another common method of cutting “in the paw”, without leaving a trace, made it possible to increase the horizontal dimensions of the log house, and with them the area of the hut, compared to cutting “in the clear”, since here the “lock” holding the crowns together was made at the very end of the log . However, it was more complex to perform, required highly qualified carpenters, and therefore was more expensive than traditional cutting with the release of the ends of the logs at the corners. For this reason, and also because felling “in oblo” took less time, the vast majority of peasant houses in Russia were felled in this way.
The lower, “framed” crown was often placed directly on the ground. In order for this initial crown - the "lower" - to be less susceptible to rotting, and also in order to create a strong and reliable foundation for the house, thicker and more resinous logs were selected for it. For example, in Siberia, larch was used for the lower crowns - a very dense and fairly durable wood material.
Often, large stones-boulders were placed under the corners and middles of the mortgage crowns or cuttings of thick logs were dug into the ground - “chairs”, which were treated with resin or burned to protect them from rotting. Sometimes thick blocks or “paws” were used for this purpose - uprooted stumps placed down with their roots. During the construction of a residential hut, they tried to lay the “flat” logs so that lower crown tightly adjacent to the ground, often “for warmth” it was even lightly sprinkled with earth. After completing the “hut frame” - laying the first crown, they began assembling the house “on moss”, in which the grooves of the log house, for greater tightness, were laid with “mokrishnik”, torn from the lowlands and dried with swamp moss - this was called “mossing” the log house. It happened that for greater strength, the moss was “twisted” with tows - combed out flax and hemp fibers. But since the moss still crumbled when it dried, at a later time they began to use tow for this purpose. And even now experts recommend caulking the seams between the logs of a log house with tow for the first time during the construction process and then again, after a year and a half, when the final shrinkage of the log house occurs.
Under the residential part of the house, they built either a low underground, or a so-called “basement” or “podzbitsa” - a basement that differed from the underground in that it was quite high, was not, as a rule, buried in the ground and had direct access to the outside through a low door. By placing the hut on the basement, the owner protected it from the cold coming from the ground, protected the living part and the entrance to the house from snow drifts in winter and floods in spring, and created additional utility and utility rooms directly under the housing. A storage room was usually located in the basement; it often served as a cellar. Other utility rooms were also equipped in the basement, for example, in areas where handicrafts were developed, a small workshop could be located in the basement. They also kept small livestock in the basement or poultry. Sometimes the podyzbitsa was also used for housing. There were even two-story, or “two-living” huts with two “livings.” But still, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the basement was a non-residential, utility floor, and people lived in a dry and warm “upper”, raised above the cold, damp ground. This technique of placing the residential part of a house on a high basement became most widespread in the northern regions, where very harsh climatic conditions required additional insulation of living quarters and reliable insulation from the frozen ground; in the middle zone, a low underground, convenient for storing food, was more often installed.
Having completed the equipment of the basement or underground, work began on installing the floor of the hut. To do this, first of all, they cut “crossbars” into the walls of the house - quite powerful beams on which the floor rested. As a rule, they were made in four or less often three, placing two huts parallel to the main facade, two near the walls and two or one in the middle. To keep the floor warm and not drafty, it was made double. The so-called “black” floor was laid directly on the crossbars, assembled from a thick slab with the humps up, or a log roll, and covered “for warmth” with a layer of earth. A clean floor made of wide boards was laid on top.
Moreover, such a double, insulated floor was made, as a rule, above a cold basement-basement, under a hut, and a regular, single floor was installed above the underground, which facilitated the penetration of heat from the living space into the underground, where vegetables and various products were stored. The boards of the upper, “clean” floor were tightly fitted to each other. 
Male roof design:
1 - ohlupen (shelom)
2 - towel (anemone)
3 - prichelina
4 - headband
5 - red window
6 - fiberglass window
7 - flow
8 - chicken
9 - slightly
10 – tes
Usually the floorboards were laid along the line of the window entrance, from front door into the living space to the main facade of the hut, explaining this by the fact that with this arrangement, the floor boards are less destroyed, less chipped at the edges and last longer than with a different layout. In addition, according to the peasants, such sex is more convenient than revenge.
The number of interfloor ceilings - “bridges” in the house being built was determined in detail: “... and in the same rooms, three bridges should be laid inside.” The laying of the walls of the hut was completed by installing at the height where they were going to make the ceiling of a “skull” or “pressure” crown, in which they cut ceiling beam- "matitsa". Its location was also often noted in regular notes: “and put that hut on the seventeenth matitsa.”
The strength and reliability of the base matrix - the base of the ceiling - was given great importance. People even said: “A thin uterus for everything means a collapse of the house.” The installation of the matrix was very important point During the construction of the house, she completed the assembly of the frame, after which the construction entered the final phase of laying the floors and installing the roof. That is why the laying of the matitsa was accompanied by special rituals and another “matitsa” treat for the carpenters. Often the carpenters themselves reminded the “forgetful” owners of this: when installing the motherboard, they shouted: “the motherboard is cracking, it won’t go,” and the owners were forced to organize a feast. Sometimes, when raising the mother, they tied a pie baked for the occasion to it.
Matitsa was a powerful tetrahedral beam, on which thick boards or “humpbacks” were placed “ceiling”, placed flat down. In order to prevent the matrix from bending under the weight, its lower side was often cut along a curve. It is curious that this technique is still used today in the construction of log houses - this is called "hew out the building rise." Having finished laying the ceiling - the “ceiling”, they tied the frame under the roof, laying “shallow” or “shallow” logs on top of the skull crown, with which the ceilings were secured.
In Russian folk housing, functional, practical and artistic issues were closely interconnected, one complemented and followed from the other. The fusion of “usefulness” and “beauty” in the house, the inseparability of constructive and architectural and artistic solutions were especially evident in the organization of the completion of the hut. By the way, it was in the completion of the house that folk craftsmen saw the main and fundamental beauty of the entire building. Construction and decorative design The roofs of a peasant house still impress today with the unity of practical and aesthetic aspects.
The design of the so-called nailless male roof is surprisingly simple, logical and artistically expressive - one of the most ancient, most widely used in the northern regions of Russia. It was supported by the log gables of the end walls of the house - “zalobniki”. After the top, “shallow” crown of the log house, the logs of the main and rear facades of the hut were gradually shortened, rising to the very top of the ridge. These logs were called “males” because they stood “by themselves.” Long log beams were cut into the triangles of the opposite gables of the house, which served as the base of the “lattice” roof. The tops of the gables were connected by the main, “prince’s” beam, which represented the completion of the entire structure of the gable roof.
Natural hooks - “hens” - uprooted and trimmed trunks of young spruce trees were attached to the lower legs. They were called “chickens” because the craftsmen gave their bent ends the shape of bird heads. The chickens supported special gutters for draining water - “streams”, or “water tanks” - logs hollowed out along the entire length. The roof ridges rested against them, which were laid on laths. Usually the roof was double, with a layer of birch bark - “rock”, which protected well from moisture penetration.
At the ridge of the roof, a massive trough-shaped log was “capped” onto the upper ends of the roofing timbers, the end of which faced the main facade, crowning the entire building. This heavy log, also called “okhlupny” (from the ancient name of the roof “okhlup”), clamped the gaps, keeping them from being blown away by the wind. The front, butt end of the ohlupnya was usually designed in the form of the head of a horse (hence the “horse”) or, less commonly, a bird. In the northernmost regions, the shelom was sometimes given the shape of a deer's head, often placing genuine deer antlers on it. Thanks to their developed plasticity, these sculptural images were clearly “readable” against the sky and were visible from afar.
To maintain the wide overhang of the roof on the side of the main facade of the hut, an interesting and ingenious design technique was used - successive lengthening of the ends of the logs of the upper crowns extending beyond the frame. This produced powerful brackets on which the front part of the roof rested. Protruding far forward from the log wall of the house, such a roof reliably protected the crowns of the log house from rain and snow. The brackets that supported the roof were called "releases", "helps" or "falls". Usually, a porch was built on the same brackets, walk-through galleries were laid, and balconies were equipped. Powerful log projections, decorated with laconic carvings, enriched the strict appearance peasant house, gave it even greater monumentality.
In the new, later type of Russian peasant dwelling, which became widespread mainly in the regions of the middle zone, the roof already had a covering on the rafters, and the log gable with males was replaced by plank filling. With this solution, a sharp transition from a plastically saturated rough-textured surface log house to the flat and smooth plank pediment, being tectonically completely justified, nevertheless did not look compositionally inexpressive, and the master carpenters planted it to cover it with a rather wide frontal board, richly decorated with carved ornaments. Subsequently, from this board a frieze developed that went around the entire building. It should be noted, however, that even in this type of peasant house, some brackets-outlets made from earlier buildings, decorated with simple carvings, and carved piers with “towels” were preserved for quite a long time. This determined mainly by repetition traditional scheme distribution of carved decorative decoration on the main facade of the dwelling.
While erecting a log house, creating a traditional hut, Russian master carpenters for centuries discovered, mastered and improved specific techniques for processing wood, gradually developing strong, reliable and artistically expressive architectural and structural components, original and unique details. At the same time, they fully used the positive qualities of wood, skillfully identifying and revealing its unique capabilities in their buildings, emphasizing its natural origin in every possible way. This further contributed to the consistent integration of buildings into the natural environment, the harmonious fusion of man-made structures with pristine, untouched nature.
The main elements of the Russian hut are surprisingly simple and organic, their form is logical and beautifully “drawn”, they accurately and completely express the “work” wooden log, log house, house roofs. Benefit and beauty merge here into a single and indivisible whole. The expediency and practical necessity of any were clearly expressed in their strict plasticity, laconic decor, and in the general structural completeness of the entire building.
Simple and truthful and general constructive solution a peasant house - a powerful and reliable log wall; large, solid cuts in the corners; small windows decorated with platbands and shutters; a wide roof with an intricate ridge and carved piers, and a porch and a balcony, it would seem, and that’s all. But how much hidden tension is in this simple structure, how much strength is in the tight joints of the logs, how tightly they “hold” each other! Over the centuries, this ordered simplicity has been isolated and crystallized, this only possible structure is reliable and captivating with the skeptical purity of lines and forms, harmonious and close to the surrounding nature.
Quiet confidence emanates from simple Russian huts; they have settled down soundly and thoroughly native land. When looking at the buildings of old Russian villages, darkened by time, one cannot leave the feeling that they, once created by man and for man, at the same time live some kind of their own, separate life, closely connected with the life of the nature surrounding them - so they became akin to that place where they were born. The living warmth of their walls, laconic silhouette, strict monumentality of proportional relationships, some kind of “non-artificiality” of their entire appearance make these buildings an integral and organic part of the surrounding forests and fields, of all that we call Russia.
In northern Rus', houses have always been built of wood, and not because they did not know how to build stone ones, but because a wooden house is warmer, the microclimate in it is better than in a stone one, and because there was enough forest in Rus'. It's all about the thermal conductivity of wood and stone. The tree at one end can burn (the temperature in this area will be about +300 degrees Celsius), and you can freely hold onto the other end of the log with your hand. This is impossible with a stone: if the stone is heated at one end to +200 degrees, then you will not be able to touch the other end. Brick is also not far from stone in terms of thermal conductivity.
If our ancestors lived in stone castles, like the Angles and Saxons, then you and I would not be in the world, since our ancestors in our climate would simply die - they would catch a cold and die out. Consequently, a wooden house is a condition of life in the Russian North. You can, of course, live in the north in a yaranga made of skins or in a tent, but then you will not be Russian, it will be a completely different culture. To live in a yaranga, it is necessary that the herd of deer (the source of skins) be very large - at least 30 deer per person.
So, Rus' is wooden houses, wooden architecture, wooden culture. It is no coincidence that we call our monetary unit the ruble wooden. In Rus', houses and ships, carts, plows, harrows, tubs, cups, spoons, toys were made from wood... God's temples were also built from wood. It is no coincidence that carpentry and blacksmithing were considered the most honorable professions in Rus', and only in third place was the craft of potters - pottery.
IN different parts our vast homeland has developed different styles wood construction. In my previous articles, I showed that the Great Russian ethnic group was formed in the XIV-XVII centuries from several “parent” ethnic groups - the Varangians of Rus', Slovenes, Krivichi, Ugrofins (Merya, Ves, Kostroma, etc.). Each of these ethnic groups probably had its own way of building houses, its own tradition. Folk traditions very stable: they, like language, are preserved for centuries and even millennia. Traditions are what unites generations of people into one people, into one ethnic group. In some cases, traditions are determined by the peculiarities of the climate and topography of the country of residence, and in some cases they are simply a manifestation of fashion, habit, and are not directly related to living conditions.
