We have TV and computer, sports stadiums and clubs. What did our ancestors do for fun?
In modern psychology, such a type of human activity as play is especially highlighted. It is during the game (or any other entertainment) that we not only relax, but also show our essence. And in ancient games the mentality and soul of the entire people is revealed.
Nowadays we spend more often our evenings at home, but before our ancestors gathered to visit or went outside to folk games. Games developed and strengthened the body, stimulated mental activity, taught imagination and perseverance. Old and young took part in them.
An excellent example of folk entertainment is the military sports game called “taking snow town" This ancient fun was held in winter, and always on the sixth day of Maslenitsa.
Rules of the game
To do this, they chose a free place and built two parallel high walls out of snow on it, which were then doused with water. This made the walls very strong. A high gate was placed in the middle, and on its upper crossbars there were snow figures of various animals, birds, soldiers and bottles with a glass. It was "Town".
Boys and men were divided into two teams: defenders and attackers. The first carried out the attack on horseback, and the second on foot drove them away with brooms, branches, and shovels. Blank cartridges were used against horses, and snowballs and ice water from tubs against riders. Before the start of the assault, the “mayor” or “tsar” read out a humorous speech: a fairy tale about Maslenitsa - a gluttonous creature who destroyed all the butter, pancakes and salted fish in the village. The “Tsar” was accompanied by a retinue, which, for greater fun, interrupted his speech with antics and jokes. The end of the speech gave the signal for the start of the battle.
The task of the attackers was to break through the walls of the “Gorodok” through the gate. The defenders had to hold out as long as possible, and after defeat they had to ransom the victors in the snowdrifts. The fun ended with the complete destruction of the walls, in which both the defenders and the attackers participated. Sometimes a wooden pillar was installed in the center of the “Town”. At its top was tied a prize - a bag of wine and roast goose. The one who broke through the walls first had to climb the pillar for a reward. The whole difficulty of such a feat was that the pillar was greased.
The whole village gathered to watch the game. Sometimes a “match” was arranged between “teams” from neighboring villages. Unmarried girls dressed up in their best and came to see the grooms. The games ended with mass celebrations. True, often for someone they ended in fractures, dislocations and other injuries. But there’s nothing you can do – that’s what folk games are like!
Why did the Russian people love these games so much? On them, brave guys could show their strength, endurance and courage. Working as a team gave a sense of brotherhood. And what could be better for a Russian person than a fair fight in dashing company?
Game history
This game was spread throughout pre-revolutionary Russia– from Krasnodar region to the Siberian province. The last time it was carried out was in 1922 on the Yenisei. Initially, it was a favorite pastime of service people: Cossacks, Streltsy, but it quickly captured the masses of peasants.
In 1891, V. Surikov completed work on the painting “The Capture of a Snowy Town.” This colorful canvas depicts the ending of the game. The plot of the picture vividly conveys the atmosphere of reckless fun with which the Russian people loved to hold large celebrations.
Now this game is again gaining popularity during Maslenitsa festivities. It is carried out, however, in softer forms than before.
The painting “The Capture of a Snowy Town” is the only everyday work in the work of V. Surikov. The canvas was painted in Krasnoyarsk, where the artist went to escape the melancholy associated with the death of his wife. The simple and healthy Siberian life and nature revived in him the thirst to create. Vivid impressions childhood came to life in his soul and became the basis for this painting by the great master.
The plot of the film is an ancient Siberian game that was played on the last day of Maslenitsa. A large fortress was built from snow and ice, which had to be “taken” in a mock battle. The players were divided into “horsemen” seeking to destroy the town, and “defenders”. The rider who managed to overcome the obstacle was treated to wine, and the loser was bathed in the snow. On the canvas we see the moment when a daredevil breaks through a snow wall. We feel the tension and speed of the breakthrough.
There is uncontrollable joy all around. Half the city came to watch the competition of brave men. Against the backdrop of white sparkling snow, the crowd looks especially elegant and festive. The whole coloring of the picture is rich, sonorous, with contrasting color combinations white, red, green, blue. The major brightness of colors and richness of shades bring cheerfulness and optimism to the picture.
Surikov painted portraits from life, trying to capture facial expressions characteristic of the corresponding setting. The artist paid great attention to painting the details characterizing the era - festive clothing, utensils, and various attributes of folk life were carefully painted.
The painting “Taking the Snowy Town” is funny, easy piece, giving rise to a feeling of extraordinary inner uplift and real celebration.
In addition to the description of the painting by V. I. Surikov “The Capture of the Snow Town”, our website contains many other descriptions of paintings by various artists, which can be used both in preparation for writing an essay on the painting, and simply for a more complete acquaintance with the work of famous masters of the past .
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With the onset of winter in Rus', all field work ended. And this is understandable - snow, frost, there is neither the desire nor the opportunity to work in such weather. What we didn’t have time to do in the fall was left for the spring; in winter it’s better to rest.
Taking the snow town
Snow battle
While the old people lay on the stove, cutting wooden spoons Yes, they wove bast shoes, the youth rested in their own way. Boys and girls rode down the slides, played snowballs, and had festivities. But most popular view winter entertainment, the most fun fun was considered to be the capture of a snowy town.
When the right weather was established - there was plenty of snow, but already slightly melted, and it was not too frosty outside - the whole village gathered to build a winter fortress. People also came from neighboring villages - extra hands wouldn't hurt. Using shovels, they cut out neat “building blocks” from the dense snow and erected a fortress around the perimeter - a snow wall two meters high, or even higher. Then they were divided into two teams: one had to defend the town with all its might, the other had to capture it.
The defenders defended brutally. They fought off attacks with brooms and shovels, threw dense snowballs at the attackers, poured whole buckets of snow on the enemies’ heads, and even fired from guns (with blank charges, of course). But the attackers were no slouch either. They, in turn, were divided into “horses” and “riders”, sat astride each other and, in a dense mass, with whoops and daring cries, piled onto the snowy walls.
The attack began and stopped at the command of a specially selected judge - the “mayor”. He also determined the winners.
Despite large number people and fierce battles, it never came to the point of bloodshed during the capture of the town (unless someone’s nose was broken with a particularly dense snowball). And all because the town was attacked by boys, and defended... exclusively by girls. The girls in the town kept their own “banner” - someone’s colorful shawl. One of the attackers who managed to capture this banner received the right to kiss all the defenders. Chronicles indicate that such a right was rarely achieved.
Surikov and Siberia
In 1888, the artist Vasily Ivanovich Surikov was overtaken by great grief - his beloved wife died. The forty-year-old painter abandoned his paintings and plunged into deep depression.
Seeing this situation, the artist’s mother and brother invited him and their daughters, ten-year-old Olya and eight-year-old Lena, to visit them in Krasnoyarsk. Well, how about visiting - Surikov himself was from Krasnoyarsk, but in recent years All lived longer in capitals and traveled abroad. And the idea of visiting his hometown seemed tempting to him.
Our native Siberia created a miracle. After attending luxurious winter festivities, watching boys and girls build together and then cheerfully destroy snow fortresses, and riding several times on a sleigh across the snowy expanses, the artist came out of his depression and took up his brushes again. This is how the painting “The Capture of the Snowy Town” was born.
After Surikov he returned to hometown. It was there that he conceived the idea of the painting “The Conquest of Siberia by Ermak” - a canvas that depicts a terrible battle, but there is no blood or corpses.
Vasily Surikov Capture of the snow town 1891. Description of the painting. One of the Maslenitsa holidays, the Russian people happily celebrated similar rituals and fun games farewell to winter, which were closely associated with the magical cult of old Russia.
The capture of the snow town was usually celebrated on the sixth day of Maslenitsa. As a rule, a group of peasants consisting of strong peasants built snow towns with gates and towers in the fields, on rivers in the vicinity of villages, then the composition of the peasants was divided into defenders and attackers who only wanted to take the built town by force, that is, destroy it.
The defenders of the town, according to the custom of the ritual, defended themselves with shovels and brooms. When the attackers attacked, the defenders used shovels to try to cover the attackers with snow, waved and hit them with branches and brooms, shot upwards from guns, trying to scare off the horses and not let anyone through the gate; if anyone broke through the defense of the strong guys, they were considered the winner of the game. Often such games ended with injuries to the peasants, nevertheless, these events brought the people a feeling of joy and fun.
In the painting The Capture of a Snowy Town, Surikov depicted in the central plan of the picture, in a swiftly rushing move, a brave peasant on a horse destroying the snowy wall of the town, protected by other peasants, from which snow scraps fly all over the place. In the painting, the artist depicted all classes of the people, among them the spectators excitedly watch the progress of the game, women in beautiful colorful scarves and sheepskin coats add color to the painting.
Men in fur clothes (in bekeshas) tied with rag belts, fur hats on their heads. On the right flank of the painting on a sleigh, decorated with a brightly colored carpet cape, a richly dressed noble couple passionately watches the game. The picture is inspired by a festive atmosphere, despite the difference in classes, everyone is happy and having fun.
Surikov remembered similar games in many respects from his childhood; thoughts often came to him about creating such a work. Rumor has it that the idea of painting this picture with the festive event of Maslenitsa, where the cheerful and brave Cossack fun unfolds, was pushed by Surikov’s brother, seeing his heavy state of mind after the death of his beloved wife. After some time, Surikov enthusiastically began to collect required material to create his future work, which included various sketches and sketches with images of the characters in the picture.
His brother helped Surikov in preparing the painting and creating scenes of the town, in searching for images; Siberian peasants built a similar town especially for him, some of them posed for the artist. The painting according to Surikovsky is rich in color, the color scheme correctly matches the atmosphere of the festive event. After finishing the work, the canvas was demonstrated in St. Petersburg, a few years later the painting was bought by a certain philanthropist, art collector V. Von Meck, and about a dozen years later Surikov was awarded a personalized medal for this festive painting at an exhibition in Paris.
Surikov's painting The Capture of a Snowy Town is in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, canvas size 156 by 282 cm
Everyone knows that there was such a game, held on Maslenitsa, from the painting of the same name by Vasily Surikov, painted in 1891 (now kept in the Russian Museum).
Work on the painting “The Capture of the Snowy Town” took place at small homeland Surikov, in the city of Krasnoyarsk, where the artist lived for some time after sudden death his wife. He “treated” the pain of loss with work, trying to gain strength in his home and with the help fine arts find the meaning of life.
The work “The Capture of a Snow Town,” which has a genre character, was written by Surikov based on a sketch. Relatives and close friends posed for the artist for the painting.
Nikolai Nikolaevich Tretyakov spoke at lectures on Russian art at the Surikov Art Institute and at VGIK:
“Surikov’s paintings are cinematic. Perhaps no other work of his has such closeness to cinema and photography as “The Taking of the Snowy Town.” The moment of taking the fortress is indicative, when lumps of snow fly like stones, hail and ash in the “ Last day Pompeii" by Karl Bryullov. The fragments of the picture are amazing in their expression, which was very much valued in the old Academy of Arts, but it was sometimes understood externally, formally, but here it is given in documentation: in costumes and headdresses you can discover unexpected ethnographic details, because for Surikov they express the history of the peoples of Siberia and Asia.
Surikov was very fond of angles in art and in this sense especially appreciated Greek sculpture"Laocoon". His “swinging rod” in “The Taking of Snow Town” is a kind of overturned sculpture, although the hands with twigs are a moment of movement. The picture can be divided into a number of frames.
"The Taking of Snow Town" is, of course, primarily a costume work. Surikov always appreciated patterns, colorfulness, and brightness in clothes. And, perhaps, none of the Russian artists understood this traditional costume, like Surikov, who gave him and verbal description. For an artist, clothing always expresses a person’s lifestyle.”
Surikov studied the history of the Don Cossacks, believing that the Siberian Cossacks, to which his family belonged, came from the Don. He studied the traditions of Cossack villages, including the folk games that were held on Maslenitsa. One of these military competitive fun was the capture of a snowy town, known since the 18th century. Initially, only the serving population participated in the game, but later all rural residents began to play. With the help of such a competition, young men prepared to defend the Fatherland and family.
Before the revolution, snow towns were installed in village squares two weeks before Maslenitsa, so that the snow would pack, compact, harden, and become icy. The fortresses were large cones 8-10 m high and about 6 m in diameter (resembling tall haystacks with almost vertical sides). They were surrounded by low, 1.5 m, snow banks.
On the day appointed for the capture of the town, all the villagers who came with their families gathered in the square. Some took part in the competition, others watched and cheered.The following conversations could be heard in the crowd:
And what, papaka, will there be such a Kars, which you took in the Turkish region? - the boy asked his father, remembering his story about the capture of the Turkish fortress of Kars and pointing to the town.
Will! Look what it is! - answered the father, smiling.
And Khiva?
Well, Khiva will be smaller than Kars...
And if that’s the case, then I’ll take it too!
You'll definitely take it! As you grow a little, you’ll take it! - answered the father, patting the future hero on the shoulder.
Before the assault, a flag was strengthened at the top of the town and prizes were placed near it. The defenders, armed with large wooden shovels and sometimes guns loaded with blank cartridges, took up positions behind the rampart. The detachment intended for the assault (its ranks included both cavalry and foot soldiers) was withdrawn 40-50 m from it and leveled off.
When everything was ready, the manager (village ataman) gave the signal “step”, and then “quarry”. At the first signal the Cossacks began to move, and at the second they rushed towards the town with a boom. At that moment, when they jumped up to the rampart, they were met with shots and a mass of snow, which covered the eyes of both people and horses, causing confusion. A struggle ensued between the attackers and defenders. The first tried to penetrate behind the rampart to the town, and the last tried not to let them in, frightening the horses and throwing snow at them. Sometimes the straw in front of the rampart was lit at the moment of attack.
When the attackers overcame the rampart and found themselves at the fortress, they abandoned their horses and, with the help of fragments of pikes or sharpened pegs, climbed almost sheer walls town, trying to overtake one another.
The snow often could not withstand the weight of people, so they fell down and again rushed to the walls. At that time, the defenders covered them with snow. The one who was the first to climb to the top, to the flag, received a prize.
After the capture of the towns, horse riding was organized, for which its participants received several silver rubles as a reward from the ataman. Rubles were wrapped in scarves and thrown into the snow. They barely had time to scatter them before they immediately fell into the pockets of the young horsemen, who quickly picked them up from the ground in the quarry.For the daring capture of towns and dashing horse riding, the Cossacks and Cossacks were honored to receive the gratitude of the ataman, after which, in orderly order, with songs and flags taken from the towns, they set off through the streets of the village.More detailed description folk game see source: Berdskaya Sloboda
Written sources:
Magazine "Scout" (1896, May 18. No. 292-293).
Magazine "Scout" (1895, March 1. No. 229).
“Orenburg newspaper” (1899, April 4. No. 626).
Today, the tradition of taking the snow town is being revived.
