Enemies were named after you. What in Rus' was considered shameful for a woman? Where did the “you” address come from among the Slavs?

The life of women in Rus' was determined, firstly, by Christian canons, and secondly, by a system of traditions. There were things that were humiliation for a Russian woman or were used as punishment for certain sins.

Walking bareheaded

Unmarried girls had the right to go bareheaded, but married women did not. Usually a woman braided her hair, laid it around her head, and put on a headdress on top - it could be a scarf, kokoshnik or kichka. The custom of covering one's hair dates back to ancient times. The peasants believed that a woman with uncovered hair could bring misfortune into the house: illness, crop failure, loss of livestock. If for some reason a woman appeared in public with her hair uncovered, it was the height of indecency. It was believed that by this she dishonored herself, her husband, and her parents, who did not instill in her moral standards. For this they could even beat her, which was generally the norm in Rus'. By the way, remove from married woman headdress was considered a terrible insult. This is what they did to a woman when they wanted to disgrace her. This is where the expression “goofing up” comes from - disgracing oneself.

Hair cutting

Cutting the hair of women and girls was practiced for a variety of reasons. Before the abolition of serfdom, landowners ordered their maidservants' braids to be cut off for various offenses. A woman's relatives or husband could cut off her hair for fornication or treason.

Communication with strangers

If in the era of pagan Slavism women’s lives were quite free - they could participate in games, dances, round dances, and our Slavic ancestors turned a blind eye to carnal pleasures before marriage, then after the advent of Christianity Russian women (at least representatives of the upper class) ) it was prescribed to sit in the towers all day long and do, for example, handicrafts. They were forbidden to enter into conversations with strangers, say, to receive guests in your mansion, to take gifts from them. This was considered a terrible shame.

Loss of chastity

If in pre-Christian Rus' physical virginity was not given much importance, then with the advent of Christianity everything changed. Specific punishments for premarital sin were rarely practiced (except for the spanking of the sinning girl3 by her father or brother). But the gates in the house of the “harlot” were smeared with tar in many Russian regions. Public censure was considered the worst shame for a girl. In Western Siberia, premarital cohabitation was not condemned, but it was considered humiliating for a girl if the sin could not be “covered with a crown,” that is, if her lover, having sinned, could not or refused to marry. The presence or absence of virginity in most Russian regions was treated very strictly, because only if his wife had it first could a man be sure of his paternity. Chastity was also considered a guarantee that a woman would be faithful in marriage. Even on royal weddings It was customary to show the newlywed's bloody shirt to the assembled guests the morning after the wedding night. For example, this is what the Russian Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich did when he married Agafya Grushetskaya in 1679, about whom a rumor was spread that she was supposedly “unclean.” Women who entered into marriage as non-virgins faced a sad fate in their husband’s family: they were humiliated in every possible way, forced to do the most menial work. In addition, their husbands often beat them periodically “for shame” and never forgot their sin.

M.N. Katkov

There can be no other parties in Rus' except the one that is at one with the Russian people

Continuously, from early morning to late evening, crowds of people in St. Petersburg walk and walk in an endless line to the place marked by the martyrdom of the Russian Tsar, who fell from the treacherous hand directed by the sworn enemies of his people. In place of the blood, a chapel of greenery is usually built, constantly filled with brought flowers and wreaths; in the chapel there is an icon of the Mother of God. Almost two weeks have passed since the event, and the flow of people has not stopped or weakened. Thousands come and go, people of all classes and ages, mothers with infants. Words of prayer and sobs are heard in the crowd in front of the chapel. And at this very time, at a distance, the warriors of liberalism are casting lots about its clothes... Will they come to their senses, will these false liberals come to their senses, will they have enough honesty and civil courage to rise above both pride and walking deception and curse what they call liberalism and what in Russian is called the ringing word “treason” - betrayal of one’s people, and then, willingly or unwillingly, of everything else... In our educated society, the first sign of a person who is politically immature and mente capti (insane (lat. )) there is a thought about liberalism and conservatism as two parties in Russia. But the first sign of a mind that has shaken off deception will be a renunciation of this false division that has been imposed on us from the outside and has befuddled us. It introduced the first confusion into our minds, from which all our disastrous misunderstandings emerge one after another, increasing in number and size. Since we are not accustomed to living with our own minds and are not accustomed to giving ourselves an independent account of our own affairs, since we cannot do without looking around and not being equated with other people’s models, then it is not bad for our so-called liberals and conservatives look back at a country where political parties come out clean and are outlined with particular brightness. In a country that is deeply different from us in many ways, but also great and looking to the future - in North America there is no mention of the liberal and conservative parties in political sense. But there are two parties there that constantly and openly fight among themselves. In the first is the entire centripetal force of the state, on which its unity is based and its integrity, patriotic spirit and national feeling are supported; This is a state party, which in America is called Republican. The other is a centrifugal movement, a party of dissolution and disintegration, which from stage to stage draws people to treason and rebellion; in America it is called the Democratic Party. Everyone knows which of these two parties of the great trans-Atlantic country contains the spirit of life and freedom and which, on the contrary, was a stronghold of slavery. The spirit of cosmopolitanism, the unclean spirit of political immorality, dissolution and decay - this is what our liberals have in common with the anti-national party in North America, and in which our so-called conservatives, who have forgotten their people and stand only for abstract principles, will not yield to them. In Russia, the state party is made up of the entire Russian people. Rotten liberalism and rotten conservatism appear only in our rotten cosmopolitan and superficial education. In times of danger and great events, when popular feeling rises powerfully in the hearts, rot disappears, minds are revived, and everything anti-state, everything anti-people, all political immorality and betrayal tremblingly hides in its holes. Everything truly great and fruitful begins in these moments of awakening of the national spirit. And now, in view of the danger that threatens us with terrible unrest, in view of the unprecedented atrocity that has been committed, in view of this outrage against our people, this betrayal, which has entered into an alliance with anarchy - will not the Russian awaken in us in all its power? folk spirit? Isn’t it time for all parties in Rus' to disappear, except the one that is united with the Russian people? The article was first published in the newspaper "Moskovskie Vedomosti" No. 72 for 1881.

HOW TO FORGE STEEL IN Rus'

Let's call you - Call us Our Ancestors called their enemies.
It seems that by saying you, we are expressing our respect for the person - it is customary to address superiors and strangers as you.
But why then do we say to our loved ones - You? Do we really respect them less than those strangers? Maybe it's not a matter of respect... But what is it? To understand this, let's go back in time. Where and why did this VYkanye come from?
Indeed, in all ancient languages: other Greek, Latin, other Russian - the address was only in YOU, this is understandable: if there is only one person, then you need to speak to him in singular: You. From time immemorial, people in Rus' have addressed each other as You.

Before the start of a military campaign, Prince Svyatoslav sent a messenger to the enemy with a short message - “I’m coming to you!” In Old Russian the nominative and accusative cases coincided, thus, Svyatoslav said “I’m coming at you,” consciously warning about his military plans, which at first glance contradicts common sense, but Svyatoslav had his own calculation.

Of course, in Rus', from time immemorial, people addressed each other as you. They even called out to God - You. They told Ivan the Terrible You, and he was not offended, because this is a natural, normal address - to You, generally accepted then: to address one person as one.

Weaving came to us relatively recently, in the times of Peter the Great, as a kind of Western fashion, a newfangled trend. Then Peter I introduced many Western customs into the Russian consciousness by order. And KAKING was one of them.
Although it might not have taken hold of us at all - it would have remained some kind of foreign curiosity, but in 1722. from R.H. Peter I introduced the “Table of Ranks” in Russia, according to which all superiors (by rank) were to be addressed as YOU, and called something like “Your Good-Highness.” And for violating this rule, a fine was imposed in the amount of two months' salary, and this could be imposed both for Poking a superior and for Poking a subordinate.
And if you consider that a third of this money was due to the informer, then it was... unsafe to violate it. In this way, Western VICTION was forcibly introduced in Russia, under threat of a fine. To the common man, of course, everyone was poking: “he’s a man, and we’re here with some kind of European Pendron, and we respect only those who play the same social game with us, and who wins... in it... with us.”

And note (this is IMPORTANT): at first, addressing YOU was introduced to emphasize social inequality: YOU call the emperor YOU, he calls you YOU; to those higher in rank - as YOU, they to you - as YOU... That is, VYKANE expressed social status, position in social structure, not respect for a person. Only then does consciousness adapt: position -> respect for position -> respect, then they intertwine...

And now a person’s selfish desire - to feel the respect of others, to hear respectful treatment towards himself - pushes him to occupy a position, to this “vertical race”...

An Atlanticist wave of Anglo-Saxon culture, alien to us, is moving towards our blessed Fatherland. It has become fashionable to address YOU to all ages. It would seem an innocent and even civilized sign of recent times: completely replace the pronoun YOU with YOU. But among the Slavs, YOU always meant trust, expressed a sense of brotherhood, the communal, veche spirit of the people. We even address the Gods “on your own”, which emphasizes special intimacy and a disposition towards unity. The Russian YOU means recognition of respectable age, position, individuality, while the English universal you is a sign of individualism, hopeless disunity. The Anglo-Saxons generally lack the innermost YOU. There is the archaic thou (tau), and then this is the Sanskrit (= Slavic) YOU. Until the mid-twentieth century in Russia, many completely strangers addressed each other as “brother(s)”, “sister(s)”. Now you hear: “citizen”, “citizen”, “man”, “woman”. When Yakubovich in his “Land of Fools” addresses a child “as YOU”, this sugary etiquette alien to us, strange as it may seem, works to destroy Our Traditions, Our mentality (in which the West has succeeded a lot). For the West, Slavic you are a sign of barbarism and lack of culture. To confirm how sincere the Slavic you is, which disappeared among the Anglo-Saxons, I would like to recall Pushkin’s poem.

Empty YOU, heartfelt YOU
She, having mentioned, replaced,
And all the happy dreams
It aroused the soul of the lover.

I stand before her thoughtfully;
There is no strength to take your eyes off her;
And I tell her: how sweet YOU are!
And I think: how I love you!

There is no need to relax about Western “culture” and its unctuous YOU. Sirs, mayors and peers are not oriented towards brotherhood, neither among themselves, nor, especially, with the common people, from whom they are protected by a “golden curtain”. And between brothers, YOU is not a sign of a lack of culture; on the contrary, YOU is absurd.

Where did the “you” address come from among the Slavs?

YOU is an ancient Aryan root meaning darkness, evil, destruction or at least something negative, foreign, not good. Therefore, since ancient times in Rus', people addressed their relatives with “YOU”, and enemies, strangers or strangers with “YOU”. Hence the famous expression of Prince Svyatoslav addressed to the Enemies - “I’m coming to you!” Hence the word: War - “Y-Y-NA” (Invasion Dark Forces Navi or Na, get - Evil and Destruction). In English, War is “War” (VYR-VAR). Hence the word: Vyrvar (meaning – Barbarian-Destroyer).

GENERISTS - people torn from the Ancestral Bonds, who betrayed their True “FAITH” and lost touch with “KI” ( ancient meaning the original Mother Goddess, which also relates to matriarchy). Literally translated from Old Russian, the word “YOU-ROD-KI” means Aliens, Dark in relation to the Kin and Ki (Non-People, in their own inner Essence, not belonging to the Spirit of the Race Kin). Such people are prone to various kinds of perversions, and the offspring of Degenerates are always born sick and with certain defects, both physical and mental, and, moreover, prone to degeneration and complete degradation. The further existence of a race of such people is doomed. The forces of nature themselves predicted for them - Degeneration. Dark people on Earth do not have a stable continuation of their genealogy, and therefore they cannot be attributed to the concept of Race, since this word implies a change of generations, at least up to the fourteenth generation. At the same time, only children born from parents whose pedigree reaches the seventh generation and above inherit best quality Ancestors, completely freed from hereditary ailments.

Exclamation - HURRAY, it means “at the sun”, or “at the light”! Antonym HURRAY - ALS, because YOU are plural and means darkness. And people say: alas for me, alas, when everything is bad and something does not work out... Prince Svyatoslav proclaimed (and others repeated after him) - I’m coming to you! No, it was not the Khazars who respected him so much, but he went to war against the darkness. Therefore, God must be called “You,” for he is Light and you cannot call him “darkness.”

How to address: you or you?
It seems that when you say, we express our respect for the person -
It is customary to address superiors and strangers as you.
But why then do we say to our loved ones - You? Do we really respect them less than those strangers?

Isn’t it strange: we address God with “you” (...hallowed be Your name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done...), but to every petty boss - with “You”?
Is the Creator of all that exists worthy of less respect than any passerby to whom we say - you?
Do we address ourselves to saints as you, and to sinners as you? Paradox…

Maybe it’s not a matter of respect... But what is it? To understand this, let's go back in time.
Where and why did this weaving come from?
After all, in all ancient languages: other Greek, Latin, other Russian - the address was only “you”, this is understandable: if there is only one person, then you need to speak to him in the singular: you.

As far as I remember, for the first time one of the Roman emperors demanded that one of the Roman emperors address oneself as many. And if the emperor is called “you,” his courtiers think, “then why am I worse? let's take me too. And a wave of pride went from top to bottom:
each such “navel of the earth” began to imagine himself as a “little emperor” and demand the same “honors” for himself: “I’m not just me, there are many of me now, I’m now We!” And this fashion has reached such a point across Europe that now in the English language there is no longer a single “you” left, everyone has become multiple “you”.

From time immemorial, one person, even a prince or tsar in Rus', was addressed exclusively as “you.” There was no such thing as “you” addressing one person. So, in “The Tale of Bygone Years” the squad turns to their prince: “go with us to the prince in Drevlyany for tribute: and you will get it, and we will.” Oprichnik Vasily Gryaznoy wrote to Tsar Ivan the Terrible: “If it weren’t for your sovereign mercy, what kind of person would you be? You, sir, are like a god - you repair both small and great.”

Although it might not have taken hold of us at all - it would have remained some kind of foreign curiosity,
but in 1722, Peter I introduced the “Table of Ranks” in Russia, according to which all those higher (by rank) were to be addressed as “You”, and called them some kind of “Your goodness.”
And for violating this rule there was a fine in the amount of two months' salary,
Moreover, he could be appointed both for poking a superior and for poking a subordinate.
And if you consider that a third of this money was due to the informer, then it was ... unsafe to violate it.

This is how Western weaving was forcibly introduced in Russia, under threat of a fine.
To the common man, of course, everyone was poking at him: “he’s a man, and here we are with some kind of European show-off, and we respect only those who play the same social game with us, and who wins... in it... with us.”

And note (this is important): at first the address “you” was introduced to emphasize social inequality: you call the emperor “you”, he calls you “you”; to those higher in rank - like you, they to you - like you...
That is, weaving expressed social status, position in the social structure, and not respect for a person.
Only then does consciousness adapt: position -> respect for position -> respect, then they intertwine...
And now a person’s natural desire - to feel the respect of others, to hear respectful treatment towards himself - pushes him to occupy a position, to this “vertical race”...

Of course, I do not suggest rudely switching to you in communication just because
such treatment is both original and natural for a person,
not suffering from split personality.
People around you may not understand and may be offended.

In society, for better or worse, a certain etiquette has already developed, a social politesse, in which, by saying “you” to each other, we seem to emphasize our respect for the generally accepted Rules of the Game and a distant, respectful attitude towards each other.
This kind of protects us from rudeness, but also from...direct contacts.

But, taken to the absolute (say, in Victorian England) this
you-communication, this system of social decency, turns living life people into some kind of... chess game, in which, like pieces on a board, they make the movement prescribed by the rules around their squares, bowing importantly and smiling. -Idyll... or prison?

I wrote this only so that we remember when and why they began to dig out in Rus', so that, understanding this, we could more intelligently decide for ourselves: to whom and how we should contact.

An Atlanticist wave of Anglo-Saxon culture, alien to us, is moving towards our blessed Fatherland. It has become fashionable to appeal to all ages. It would seem an innocent and even civilized sign of recent times: completely replace the pronoun you with you. But for Russians, you always meant trust, expressed a sense of brotherhood, the communal, veche spirit of the people. We even address God “on your own”, which emphasizes special intimacy and a disposition towards unity. The Russian you means recognition of respectable age, position, individuality, while the English universal you is a sign of individualism, hopeless disunity. The Anglo-Saxons generally lack the innermost you. There is an archaic thou (tau), and then this is the Sanskrit Russian) you. Until the mid-twentieth century in Russia, many complete strangers addressed each other as “brother(s)”, “sister(s)”. Now you hear: “citizen”, “citizen”, “man”, “woman”. For the West, Russian you are a sign of barbarism and lack of culture. To confirm how sincere the Russian you is, which disappeared among the Anglo-Saxons, I would like to recall Pushkin’s poem.

Empty "you" with a hearty "you"
She, having mentioned, replaced,
And all the happy dreams
It aroused the soul of the lover.

I stand before her thoughtfully;
There is no strength to take your eyes off her;
And I tell her: how sweet you are!
And I think: how I love you!

There is no need to relax about Western “culture” and its unctuous you. Sirs, mayors and peers are not oriented towards brotherhood, neither among themselves, nor, especially, with the common people, from whom they are protected by a “golden curtain”. But between brothers you are not a sign of a lack of culture; on the contrary, you are absurd.

AlexeyMichurov

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To be honest, it’s interesting how we live. We learn to speak from an early age, and from those same years we believe that there is nowhere else to learn in the conversational genre. But is this really so? I doubt. One question. I wonder why we call saints by “you”, but we call our boss at work “you” and even with capital letters? Or why is it customary to address superiors and strangers as “You”, but we say “You” to loved ones? What kind of injustice? In fact, everything is not as simple as it seems at first glance.

What if I told you that respect is You, and you always called only enemies? don't believe me? Now I'll try to put everything in order...

And so, let me just give an excerpt from the most common prayer as an example:

...Hallowed be the name Yours; Kingdom come Yours; Let there be a will Yours…

So why, as I said above, with your boss you and with a capital V, but with God, the creator, with you? Perhaps I’ll respond to the quote with a quote. I suggest you read a quote from the book by Mikhail Nikolaevich Zadornov, where he already answered this question:

What strong words-medicines our ancestors came up with... After all, initially only enemies were called “you”. “I’m coming at you!” "Viy" is the ruler of darkness. So “you” is not respectful, but on the contrary - “do not approach the enemy.” And God and the one you love - only on “you”!

Do you agree that it is absurd to say in prayers: “God, forgive me”? Or say to your beloved wife: “Can you feed me breakfast?” You can, of course, put it that way, but only if you want to make fun of your own wife.

And now that I have answered main question, let's think a little logically. After all, it’s enough just to connect logic to understand. If there is only one person, and accordingly you need to address him as you, you are alone, why will I address you as if there are many of you here? Isn't that right? And there is one fact to prove this. Remember that Ivan the Terrible was always addressed on a personal level. And he was not offended because... at that time the language was not yet so distorted.

Interesting fact, in English In general, in principle, there is no “you”. There is only “you”, which can be translated as you. So how did it happen that such a tradition appeared among us? In fact, it is no secret that Peter I introduced many Western customs into the Russian consciousness by order. And weaving was one of them.

He simply introduced the “Table of Ranks” in Russia, according to which all those superior (by rank) had to be addressed as you, and called them some kind of “Your Highness.” And for violating this rule, a fine was imposed in the amount of two months' salary, and this could be imposed both for poking a superior and for poking a subordinate. And if you consider that a third of this money was due to the informer, then it was... unsafe to violate it. This is how Western weaving was forcibly introduced in Russia, under threat of a fine. To the common man, understandably, everyone was poking at him: “he’s a man, and here we are with some kind of European showoff, and we respect only those who play the same social game with us, and who wins... in it... with us.” . And note (this is important): at first the address “you” was introduced to emphasize social inequality: you call the emperor “you”, he calls you “you”; to those higher in rank - on you, they to you - on you... That is, vykanya expressed social status, position in the social structure, and not respect for the person. Only then does consciousness adapt: position -> respect for position -> respect, then they intertwine... And now the natural desire of a person - to feel the respect of others, to hear respectful treatment - pushes him to occupy a position, to this “ vertical race"...

Instead of an afterword...

In general, it may seem that I am calling here to abruptly stop You rock and start You Well, but... Still, there are probably moments when public opinion is already so entrenched that the “right” ones can be understood “wrongly”. And this is one of those cases. That’s why with this publication I don’t encourage anyone to do anything, otherwise in modern realities, if you start poking everyone... I’m afraid you can get poked! :)