Parenting

In a large peasant family, a child was perceived not as a baby who needed to be pampered and not denied anything, but as a full-fledged member of the family. So the child had his own place at the table (even on his mother’s lap). Regardless of gender, the youngest family members were called "child" (dite), "child" or "child" (robyatko). It was still necessary to be called by name, but children were often called by nicknames: "languor" (restless child), "pamper" (pampered), "checha" (naughty).

All the children, boys and girls, were initially under the supervision of women (for example, the boy went to the bathhouse with his mother and grandmother). Upon reaching a certain age, boys were placed under the guardianship of the head of the family, girls — in the care of the "bolshukha" (the main woman in the house). At the Cossacks on Semyonov Day (September 1/14), boys of four years old were tonsured and mounted on a horse.

Children’s lives were spent in games, but from an early age children were taught to work. Children were taught to mow and row hay, chop firewood, carry water, etc. The adults were watching to see if the child was doing well or not. Often a lazy person could be given an offensive nickname. For example, "nepryakha" or "netkakha" (for a girl who cannot learn to spin or weave), "strelka" (a nickname for someone who has not learned to mow). Grown-up children from the day of St. Nahum (December 1/14) began to be taught to read and write: "the prophet Nahum will bring to mind."

Children in the family were punished. But the punishment should have been for the cause, and not just out of resentment or malice.

Rural childhood

Most Soviet children could not even dream of going on vacation to foreign resorts, but many of them spent the summer with their grandmother in the village, and it became an exciting adventure, which they remembered for a long time and told their friends about.

A feature of the Soviet era is that even if a child did not have a grandmother with her own "house in the village", he still got into nature. Almost always, the parents had relatives or acquaintances who were ready to take the child on vacation. But it was necessary to prepare for such a rest.

At the time of total shortage, the child was collected for a long time and carefully: together with him, a whole luggage was sent on the trip, which certainly contained "city gifts". Depending on the family’s capabilities, it could be an ordinary boiled sausage or rare in those years — smoked meat, condensed milk, chocolates, buckwheat, coffee, sugar and much more. Everything was explained simply — it was difficult to get these products in the village, and it was considered a matter of honor to thank the "receiving party" for their hospitality. Well, closer to autumn, together with the rested child, the gifts of nature were sent in the opposite direction: pickles, jams, vegetables, fruits.

At the same time, rural shops sometimes delighted the townspeople with unprecedented imported abundance: next to cotton robes or quilted jackets, for example, imported jeans or branded sneakers could be found there. And even small, child-sized ones, which was an exceptional rarity at that time. So, quite often, urban children, through whom their parents transferred a certain amount of money to their village relatives, turned out to be equipped by the end of the summer to the envy of their urban peers.

"As you work, you’ll break." This crude but true folk saying reflected the situation in the countryside of the Soviet era in the best possible way. At a time when ordinary sausages and cheese in the village were considered a delicacy, for which it was necessary to go to Moscow, people got out of the situation as best they could. Many villagers kept a rather large subsistence farm, raised ducks, chickens, rabbits, pigs or goats, necessarily "planted a vegetable garden", and, of course, potatoes, and a lot of them for the future. The city kids were quickly assigned to the case.

Apple trees, cherries, currants, gooseberries and other fruit trees and shrubs certainly grew in every yard — to the delight of the children. A bowl of fresh milk with hand-picked raspberries became a symbol of a happy rural summer for many children of the USSR.

In the days of late socialism, the villages were still crowded: there was work and life was in full swing. Accordingly, a lot of children were born. Often the "locals" came into conflict with the "urban" ones in the summer, but sooner or later they all united into one big gang of children and raced through the streets of the village until late in the evening, announcing the neighborhood with fervent shouts.

Adult control was almost completely absent, but especially for hooligan boys, someone’s grandmother could, on occasion, "walk away" with a bunch of nettles.

Hiking in the forest for berries and mushrooms, fishing, trips "at night" were also a real adventure — all this taught urban children how to interact with wildlife, orienteering and many other useful things.

Even the children who came to the village learned a lot of outdoor team games, which were already forgotten in the city at that time. In addition to the well-known "brook", "robber Cossacks" or salochki, they learned to play lapta, "siskin" or "geese". All these outdoor activities brought together local and visiting boys and girls as well as possible.

And, of course, each village had its own "bikers" - on old domestic motorcycles or mopeds. To the envy of the city boys, they roared around the neighborhood. It was considered very prestigious to make friends with the owner of the "iron horse" and help him with repairs, and many guys also mastered the basics of car mechanics over the summer.

Childhood from the memories of Evgeny Panishev

There were practically no factory-made children’s toys — they were made by ourselves: whistles, chases, bone knuckles and, of course, slingshots. Growing up, we explored the village alleys and surroundings. In the spring, paper boats were launched along running streams and puddles, one of which, quite extensive, was located behind the neighboring house in front of the former collective farm club. On warm summer days, especially after the rain, we enthusiastically drove the so-called carters (hoops or rings made of wire) through the streets of the village.

In autumn, having learned, we skated snowshoes, tying them to felt boots, on the nearest Soldier River, enthusiastically running from one side to the other, to the neighboring village of Subareva.

Our favorite place at all times of the year was the banks of the Taima, opposite the village. Snow-covered in winter, they were a convenient place for sledding and rough wooden skis.

On hot summer days, we ran to swim in the river in front of the bridge, where a huge pine tree grew on the shore, at the water’s edge. Here we splashed, swam, swam it from shore to shore, sunbathed and rested in the shade of a spreading talina.

In the evenings, gathering on the hill in the center of the village near Natalia Averyanovna’s house, we played various outdoor group games, such as hopscotch, chizhik, lapta, gorodki, catch-up, etc.

Children’s interest was aroused by local collective farm production facilities. One of them was a blacksmith shop.

Another such place of children’s curiosity was a grain mill and a mechanized mill, where collective farmers always worked. Andrey Fedorovich Fedorov was an indispensable mechanic here, and the mechanisms entrusted to him are always in working order. He has 5 children in his family.

As each of us grew up, our parents introduced us to work. It was quite natural for the working village way of life. We joined haymaking early. I remember how dad, on one of the summer days when the whole family was in the hayfield, put me in front of him and put my hands on the handle of a small boat, showed me how to handle it.

Growing up, we joined the collective farm working life. We voluntarily took pleasure in harvesting flax grown on the collective farm, driving horses, taking manure to collective farm fields from the cattle yards of fellow villagers, tamping silage when laying in deep trenches.

The primary school was in the village of Cherkashina, located on its western edge in a specially built wooden house. It was a small school with two classrooms and a small hallway that housed a large fireplace for heating.

Due to the small number of post-war students from four villages, two classes were taught in each room at the same time, which included Tatar children along with Russian children. And therefore, how much work it cost my first teacher, Maria Mikhailovna, to teach students of two nationalities according to the 2nd grade program.

Although it was about four kilometers to the school, at any time of the year and in any weather we got there on foot, most often not by road, but by a path over a man-made rampart…

My older sister Polina and my brother Anatoly, whom I had to sleep with in the same bed at first, helped me to adapt to such harsh conditions.

Having missed our parents for a week, they tried to help with household chores as much as possible: clean up the house, bring firewood and water from the cattle well into the house for drying for a week, chop ice for making drinking water, remove snow from the fence canopy.

Source: book by N.P. Zolnikov With respect and love for the Family. Tobolsk, 2020

Raising children of the indigenous population of Siberia

The system of education of children of the indigenous population of Siberia is not similar to the modern, urban one. The main difference is that education is not separated from the life and activities of the family and the clan. The main thing is the environment itself, where the child grows and develops.

From an early age, labor education begins, while the child’s introduction to society takes place in two ways: through work and through play. It is known that for a boy, the first toys are a bow with arrows and a lasso, for girls — scraps of cloth, pieces of fur and dolls.

Boys are raised by men in the North, and girls are raised by women. The best way to transfer experience is to involve the child in adult activities when he imitates and learns. Men teach boys how to fish, hunt, and manage deer; and women teach girls housework, housekeeping, religious rituals, and parenting. Often, it is not the mother who is engaged in the upbringing of girls, but the grandmother, with whom the girls learn needlework, pick berries. During such classes, they listen to old songs and fairy tales. Folklore is the most important means of educating children of the peoples of the North.

Dolls of the peoples of the North

Before becoming an adult, children play as adults. There are at least two people involved in the game: one is driving, the other is echoing, and often just a "toy". In the amusements of Nenets children, toys can be dolls with heads made of bird beaks, as well as puppies, fawns, tamed goslings, foxes, and cubs. In tinkering with them, a dialogue between man and nature develops. The boys' toys are small harnesses, bows and arrows, and narrows. Often, children’s toys turn out to be adults who are hunted, from whom they hide.

The motives of household chores and worries prevail in girls' games. Nuhuko dolls dress up in specially made clothes, because they have to play parents and children, bride and groom, hosts and guests. Children’s dolls will have to live an adult life. Dolls are treated with some superstition: the fate of the hostess is guessed about how the doll’s life turned out. A doll can come to life, especially if eyes are depicted on its face. Therefore, children’s dolls do not have faces — the heads of Nenets nuhuko are the beaks of ducks and geese, the shaman doll is made from the beak of a swan.