1041, 2867, 3063 RUSSIA - Russian traditional clothes

1041 A Russian family in traditional clothes

Posted on 02.04.2014, 14.11.2016, 24.05.2017
The area now called Russia has always been multicultural. Russian culture started from that of the East Slavs, with their pagan beliefs and specific way of life in the wooded areas of Eastern Europe. It was influenced first by neighbouring Finno-Ugric tribes and by nomadic, mainly Turkic, peoples of the Pontic steppe, then by the Varangians. Kievan Rus' had accepted Orthodox Christianity in 988, and this largely defined the Russian culture of next millennium as the synthesis of Slavic and Byzantine cultures.

2867 A Russian girl wearing clothes
inspired by the traditional costume (1)

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Russia remained the largest Orthodox nation in the world and claimed succession to the Byzantine legacy in the form of the Third Rome idea. A process of the melding of pre-Christian practices with those of Orthodoxy consolidated the population which occupied present-day Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus under one political and cultural system. Even today, the Russian language retains a large degree of mutual intelligibility with Belarusian and Ukrainian.

3063 A Russian girl wearing clothes
inspired by the traditional costume (2)

The traditional Russian costume started taking its shape in the 12th-13th centuries. Up to the 18th century it fitted well all layers of Russian society. The costume that was common among peasants from the last third of the 18th century to the first quarter of the 20th century is what is considered to be the authentic Russian national costume. By the early 20th century the most widespread women's costumes were of two types: the South Russian one with poneva, and the Mid-Russian one with a sarafan.

3012 RUSSIA (Karachay-Cherkess Republic) - Festival of the peoples of the North Caucasus in Dombay

The Karachay-Cherkess Republic is a landlocked republic of Russia located at the slopes of northwestern Caucasus. Mountains cover 80% of its territory. The Caucasus is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse regions on Earth, and Karachay-Cherkessia isn't an exception. Even if it has only 14,100 km2 and less than 500,000 inhabitants, the government recognizes five official languages, spoken by the five main ethnic groups: Karachays (41%), Russians (32%), Cherkes (12%), Abazins (8%) and Nogais (3%).

2754 RUSSIA (Republic of Chuvashia) - Chuvash woman in traditional costume

2754 The matchmaker Anastasia,
painting by Nikolai Vassilievich Ovchinnikov, 1978

The Chuvash people are a Turkic ethnic group, native to an area stretching from the Volga Region to Siberia. Most of them live in Republic of Chuvashia and surrounding areas, although Chuvash communities may be found throughout the Russian Federation. The closest ancestors of the Chuvashes seem to be the Volga Bulgars. They have been subjected to much influence, not only from Russian and Turkic peoples, but also from neighboring Finnic tribes. Racially, the Chuvash seem to be a mixed Finnic and Turkic type.

1859 RUSSIA (Stavropol Krai) - Caucasians Dancing Lezginka in Pyatigorsk in 1936

The North Caucasus region is the part of Russia that slopes up towards the main ridge of the Caucasus Mountains, often considered the border between Europe and Asia. It is home to dozens of nationalities and languages, many of which have troubled relationships with their neighbours or with central governments in Moscow or Tbilisi. Nevertheless, all these nationalities have many things in common, especially regarding the traditions. The traditional costume over this region is so similar that it is not unusual to see the exact same photograph presented as being from different ethnicities in the region.

1652 RUSSIA (Moscow) - International Military Tattoo “Spasskaya Tower” 2014

A tattoo is a military performance of music or display of armed forces in general. The term comes from the early 17th century Dutch phrase doe den tap toe ("turn off the tap"), a signal sounded by drummers or trumpeters to instruct innkeepers near military garrisons to stop serving beer and for soldiers to return to their barracks. The tattoo was originally a form of military music, but the practice has evolved into more elaborate shows involving theatrics and musical performances. Russia have recently started annual "Spasskaya Bashnya" International Military Tattoo in Moscow. Its Russian name came from the name of the location where it is performed (the Red Square's Saviour Tower).

0255, 1529 RUSSIA - Matryoshka

Three Matryoshkas from a series containing 30 pieces
with the pictures illustrating Ruslan and Ludmila

In 2001 was inaugurated, just in the Moscow's center, in the building of Russian Folk Arts Fund, where the first Matryoshka doll was created in the end of the XIX century, the Museum Of Russian Matryoshka, the first official collection of Matryoshka dolls in Russia. Matryoshka dolls are a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size, placed one inside the other, and appeared in Russia at the end of 1890's, in a Moscow craft workshop named Children's Education, the first being carved by Vasily Zvyozdochkin, from a design by Sergey Malyutin. The concept was borrowed from Japan, but was further developed in Russia. Depending of the author's imagination, the themes for the decoration of nesting dolls were ethnographic, historical or fairy tale.

"Autumn Matryoshka Doll with a Cat" - by Lubov Fetisova

Matryoshka, generally recognized at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900, became more and more popular, and in 1910 a crafts workshop named Amateur Artist was set up in Sergiev Posad. It was always interesting and even instructive, because by gathering a collection get enough information about the history of Russian national costume, Russia epos, and even Russian literature. The variety of nesting dolls was achieved by the number of pieces mainly ranging from 3 to 12. There exist "supermatryoshkas" having 48 or 60 pieces but these are unique.

1520 RUSSIA - Fight with the bear

Custom to arrange fighting of a man with a bear was known in medieval Russia as a "bear fun". Such funs were represented on frescos of the Kiev-Sofia cathedral (1037). In old manuscript by Daniil Zatochnik the author, listing different sorts of funs wrote about fighting with wild animals. The plot of a fighting of person and bear is met on medieval Russian coins and seals. Two variants of duels of an armed man with a bear practiced. In first of them a single combat was absolute, in other - a fighter if he was threatened with obvious danger, was insured by other hunters with pitchforks. In single combat of the unarmed man with a bear used with specially trained animals. Alongside with bear fight down to the end of 1920-s there was in many places a hunt for bear with very primitive weapon that was called rogatina - a wood pitchfork. The postcard is a reproduction of the painting Fight with the bear, by V. Nagornova (oil on canvas, 2013).