Taverns

In Russia, taverns were special establishments located on high roads (tracts) and offering travelers food and overnight accommodation. From the high roads, the taverns moved first to the outskirts of the cities, and then to the main streets. In the nineteenth century, restaurants appeared in cities that served European (French) cuisine. The restaurants were visited by representatives of high society, and the taverns were loved by commoners — they offered dishes of Russian cuisine, flour products and drinks.

In 1861, a mandatory Regulation on public houses was approved. It was determined that a tavern is a room open to the public, in which either special rooms "with a table" are rented, or food and drinks are sold. A sign with black letters on a yellow or green background should be attached above the entrance to the institution. The type of establishment "tavern", "restaurant", "beer shop selling hot food", "inn", etc. should be indicated in the upper part. There shouldn’t have been any additions on the sign. An exception was allowed only for hotels whose signage indicated the name, for example, "Hotel Paris", "European Hotel", etc.

The service of visitors in the taverns was carried out by "waiter workers". Unlike the usual waiters who worked in restaurants, they were dressed in a "Russian costume": usually they were white trousers and a white shirt with a drawstring. The working conditions of the workers were quite difficult: the working day lasted up to 16 hours, they had to sleep right in the tavern on shifted tables. A significant part of the genitals were teenagers aged 13−16. The workers received tips for their work.

In Soviet times, the tavern as a type of institution disappears. Currently, the term "tavern" is not used in the classification of types of catering enterprises, but some catering enterprises use this word in the name to emphasize the traditional cuisine.

Inns in the old days were called small hotels on the main roads, which offered shelter and food to the traveler. There were inns in the cities as well. They were used by peasants who came to the bazaar, people who went to the crafts, people who came to the city by profession. Accommodation in hotels and inns was in demand by pilgrims and travelers. At the turn of the XIX — XX centuries, there were three hotels in Tobolsk (diocesan, provincial and merchant). In addition to hotels, in 1890 there were 50 inns in the city, of which only six were the best (according to the first category). These inns were owned by the nobleman Sadovsky, the merchant Alexander Adrianovich Syromyatnikov (two inns), the petty bourgeois Mikhail Adrianovich Vaskov and Grigory Vasilyevich Perevalov and the heirs of the peasant Ivan Dobrynin In 1904. There were 154 inns in the cities of Western Siberia, 60 of them in Tomsk, 33 in Tobolsk. This can be explained by the difference in the geographical position of the provinces. The number of inns, taverns and tea houses did not differ much, but in the Tomsk province there were 2 times more residents per tavern than in Tobolsk. In the early years of Soviet power, inns replaced inexpensive hotels, but among the peasants they were still called for a long time.

Beer is one of the oldest drinks known to the Slavs, along with honey and kvass. This intoxicating drink has long been made from malt and hops. The spread of beer in Russia was connected on the one hand with the spread of rye and barley, on the other — with the inability to grow grapes. The beer was divided between white and black.

Making beer is called brewing. Beer was brewed for a holiday or a wedding. In many places in Russia, "brewing beer" meant "preparing a wedding."

Many proverbs and sayings are associated with beer in Russian folk art: "In autumn and at the sparrow beer"; "Brew beer, and call the guests"; "So many beers, so many songs"; "Beer is beer, but business is business"; "People run away from bad beer too"; "Grumbles like a thin beer out of a barrel"; "You can’t make beer without you"; "A kind word is more expensive than beer"; "Beer is not drunk, it is sinful; beer drunk is more sinful than that; and beer will not be — the most sinful of all".

One of the most profitable occupations in the past centuries was distilling. The distillery got its name from two words — "smoke" and "wine". Since smoke was constantly billowing from the chimney of the house where the wine was distilled from the braga, in other words, it was smoked, so the very name of the process went — distilling.

In Siberia, the places where wine was smoked were usually called "kashtaks". Some villages still have names such as Kashtak, Vinokurova, etc. Wine was obtained from grain that underwent special processing. And to be precise, it was not wine in its modern concept, but vodka, which in past centuries was also called wine.

The distillery was a simple structure, which housed several vats for the production of braga and metal boilers smeared into the furnace, where the distillation process actually took place. The main components in distilling are grain, hops and water. A large amount of firewood is also needed. The resulting wine was poured into barrels, which were usually prepared on site. The bill for the released wine went to buckets.

Wine was supplied to pubs, monasteries and military garrisons. Wine purchases were usually concluded for the supply of wine, when one person signed a contract to supply it to a city or province. At the same time, it "bought out" production and supply, paying the treasury a certain amount. Wine buying was a very profitable enterprise, many merchant families rose and gained strength on them. Wine production was very profitable, since every ruble invested gave 100% of the income. People worked in factories both as freelancers and "under contract", when the provincial authorities forcibly sent peasants to work under the escort of soldiers, who handed them over to factory clerks on receipt. It is no coincidence that people often fled from factories and the authorities had to search for them and bring them back.

Distilleries operated for 7−8 months a year, closing for the period of sowing and harvesting. In addition, they were waiting for the autumn supply of bread, when prices were falling sharply. If there was a crop failure, the local authorities could prohibit the purchase of grain for distilling.

The working conditions at the distilleries were incredibly difficult. One of the travelers who visited these factories wrote that it was impossible to stay inside for a quarter of an hour, so as not to get drunk from the stench and fumes, even with the doors open. In addition, yesterday’s peasants did not know the production process and interfered with each other, jostled, fussed. An improperly sealed boiler could lead to loss of product, and then the inevitable punishment with rods followed. The masters were flogged right there on barrels, and it turned out that in a month everyone was flogged twice or more. The wages were also low, besides, all the peasants tried to get money in advance so that they could work it out later. But there were deductions for food, for clothes, fines and … as a result, the employee owed the owner. The average salary per year was about 12 rubles for a simple worker.

In general, not only the merchants made solid capital from wine purchases, but significant funds also went to the treasury, replenishing the local budget.