Izhma history. About the village of Izhma

Izhma (Komi Izva) is a village in the Komi Republic. The administrative center of the Izhma region.

Attractions

In Izhma and neighboring villages, a large number of old wooden huts of the 19th - early 20th centuries and several churches of the same time have been preserved.

Geographical position

It is located in the central part of the republic, 400 km northeast of Syktyvkar, 150 km north of Ukhta, on the banks of the Izhma River.

History

From 1922 to 1929 Izhma was the administrative center of the Izhmo-Pechora district. Prior to that, it was part of the Pechora district.

Izhma is a large village on the Izhma River, located in the north of the Komi Republic. The village was founded in 1567. Most of the population of Izhma and the surrounding villages are ethnic Komi (a special ethnographic group is the Izhma Komi). Until the middle of the XX century. reindeer breeding was the main branch of the economy in the Izhma region. Now it no longer plays the same role as before, but still remains. Until now, the rich folklore traditions of the Komi people have been preserved in Izhma.

Notable natives

Born in the village:

• Semyashkin Gavriil Prokopievich (1888-1937) - Hero of Labor.
• Anufriev Alexander Alexandrovich (1926-1966) - bronze medalist of the 1952 Olympic Games

Population

• 1959 - 2,495 people
• 1970 - 3,090 people
• 1979 - 3,253 people
• 1989 - 3,595 people
• 2002 - 3,786 people
• 2010 - 3,753 people

Izhma, a village in the Arkhangelsk province

Izhma, a village in the Arkhangelsk province- a village in the Arkhangelsk province, Pechora district, Mogchenskaya volost, 856 versts from the city of Mezen and 100 versts from the county center of the village of Ust tsylma, at 65 ° 1 north latitude, on the right bank of the river I., 60 versts from its confluence with Pechora. Population … encyclopedic Dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

Izhma- Izhma: Izhma is a village in the Izhma district of the Komi Republic. Izhma is a village in the Primorsky district of the Arkhangelsk region. Izhma river in the Primorsky district of the Arkhangelsk region Izhma river in the Komi, the left tributary of the Pechora. Izhma river in ... ... Wikipedia

Izhma (Komi)- This term has other meanings, see Izhma. Izhma village Country Russia Russia ... Wikipedia

Izhma- (Izva) village, the center of the Izhma district. Located on an elevated right, the bank of the river. Izhma. The village is named after the river Izhma (Izva), lion. tributary of the Pechora. Length 530 km, according to other sources 512 km. It originates in the south. parts of the Timan Ridge, near the Naldögkerös plateau and ... ... Toponymic Dictionary of the Komi Republic

Izhma- Izhma, a village in the Komi Republic, the center of the Izhma district, 544 km northeast of Syktyvkar. Located on the Izhma River (a tributary of the Pechora), 93 km northwest of railway station Irayol. Population 3.6 thousand people. Founded in 1867. Residents … Dictionary "Geography of Russia"

Settlements of the Komi Republic- Name Type of NP District Rural / urban settlement Population (Census 2010) Abez village Inta urban district 117 Abez village Inta urban district 478 Adzherom village Kortkeros district Pezmeg 774 Adzva village ... ... Wikipedia

IN Lately almost the whole country knows about the village of Izhma (4 thousand inhabitants, in the Komi language Izva), lost in the remote taiga of the Middle Komi, almost the whole country knows: on September 7, 2010, a faulty Tu-154 landed here, and it was a real miracle both in the air and on the ground . In the sky, the pilots managed to land a plane with a failed power grid on an accidentally discovered airfield unsuitable for landing large aircraft, and on the ground, the airfield caretaker Sergei Sotnikov, on his own initiative, kept the abandoned site in working order for a decade and a half ... Not only people, but even car - the repaired plane flew out of Izhma just a week before my arrival.

But meanwhile, Izhma is remarkable not only for this. The name itself refers to the river, historical area along it and the village-"capital". And the Komi-Izhma people live here - one of the most unusual peoples of Russia with ancient rotational reindeer husbandry and wooden palaces of millionaire peasants. And they don’t just live: a Russian on Izhma is almost a foreigner.

The path to Izhma starts from the Irael station on, and in summer time the local road is isolated from big land(in winter, the Ukhta-Pechora winter road crosses it). Buses run four times a day and are connected to trains from the south. The rest of the time, private traders are actively plying - for example, only 3 people, including me, got off the train from Vorkuta at half past seven in the morning, but a minibus was waiting at the station. A ticket to Izhma is 270 rubles, the road is good asphalt. To drive almost 100 kilometers, and all this way there are no signs of housing - only taiga and taiga ...

And it is all the more surprising that Izhma does not look like a wilderness at all. The village is distant and isolated - it can be seen, but lively, well-groomed, without a sense of being cut off from the world. The bus stops on the square from the frame above, on the side of the local House of Culture:

Here it is worth listening to the conversations - it is believed that the share of Izhma residents in these parts is 80%. It can be seen, or rather heard - 4/5 of the conversations here are not conducted in Russian. The Komi language is very beautiful and very unusual, it sounds very soft. True, numerals (including complex ones like "five to twelve") and interjections are Russian. In Izhma itself, everyone is fluent in Russian, albeit with a slight accent, but even in neighboring villages there are people who find it difficult to speak Russian.

Behind the House of Culture there are two churches - huge for the village, the abandoned Church of the Transfiguration (1806-28) with a clear touch of "non-Russianness" and a miniature wooden Assumption Church (remake). Walking around these churches, I will briefly tell the story of Izhma:

Komi came here in the 16th century (the village has been known since 1576), and they did not come from a good life: the Russians were actively developing the right bank of the Northern Dvina and the lower reaches of the Vychegda, and the Zyrians gradually retreated to the north and east. On Izhma, the settlers met Nenets reindeer herders and learned how to breed reindeer themselves. True, in their own way - unlike the nomadic Nenets, the Komi worked on a rotational basis - they had permanent houses and a settled economy in the villages, and went to the tundra in shifts. Izhemtsy became the first shift workers in Russia.

By that time, the Zyryansk merchants were already among the best in Russia, and they immediately found their niche on Izhma. They were much closer to the Russians than the Nenets, and much closer to the Nenets than the Russians, becoming a link between the mainland and the tundra. In Russia, the Izhemtsy were known as the best suppliers of reindeer suede, but to the Nenets they sold the benefits of civilization - needles and nails, guns and cartridges, and of course alcohol. If in the 15th-16th centuries the Russians colonized the Zyryans, in the 17th-19th centuries the Zyryans began to colonize the Nenets, turning the tundra princelings into their vassals. Almost every Izhma village had at least one millionaire.
It seems to me that the fact is that the New Komi have already come to Izhma - they have learned all the good things that the Russians gave them, and learned to resist all the bad things that the colonization of their lands brought. And like the Americans, they went to a new place and began to build a nation almost from scratch.

And here is how this place looked a hundred years ago - this photo was presented to me in the museum. There was a real churchyard-tee from the summer Church of the Transfiguration, the magnificent "Admiralty" bell tower and the wooden "under the stone" winter church (only now I realized that I forgot to find out its name and age). If the Church of the Transfiguration has analogues in other villages, then the whole ensemble was really capital for this region.

Behind the churches is the Izhma embankment. In the far corners of the north, such as Pinega or Mezen, real embankments in villages are not uncommon: after all, the river was often the only road, and it fed people no less than a field - therefore, the northern villages are almost always open to the river.

The Izhma valley is impossibly huge, and four villages are perfectly visible across the river - from left to right, Gam, Mokhcha, Bakur and Sizyabsk. I walked to the last two, about which there will be a separate post.

Izhma itself, however, is not so wide - about the size of Sukhona or Volkhov. Most of the snowy expanse in the valley is meadows, but the permanent channel ends at those bushes where the fisherman trades.

Small memorial on the waterfront civil war, which here in relative numbers (the population is small) was quite bloody. I don't know what the border column symbolizes. In general, the Izhemtsy are a very recalcitrant people, for example, in 1830-35 there was such an unusual phenomenon for the Russian North as a peasant war, which was led by a peasant with the surname Balin (note to Georgians - according to Tolkien, a character with that name fought with goblins).

And this is how the center of Izhma looks from behind the river, which flows here strictly from south to north:

Old Izhma is, in general, just one street. Let's go first to the north from the main square:

Very characteristic building - such huge huts as on Izhma, I have not seen even on the Mezen.

What about huts? There are real mansions of a completely urban look, such as the house of the merchant steamer Noritsyn:

As already mentioned, many of the local peasants (and, to a lesser extent, "official" merchants) succeeded so much that they amassed completely urban fortunes, and again built quite urban mansions for themselves.

Soviet buildings adjoin the mansion - here is the government quarter of the Izhma country:

Now we are going south from the House of Culture ... however, everything shown in this post is no more than a 5-minute walk from the Palace of Culture.

There is a revival on the street - many shops from grocery to computer, banks, a service sector such as a hairdresser, and only individual cafes, perhaps, are not there - instead of them there is a dining room. People walk, music plays - in general, unlike the stereotypical images of the impoverished North, and indeed the Russian village in general.

The local hotel - by the way, is not the only one, there is also a guest house "Pelidz" (translated as "Ryabina", in the main Komi language the same word is spelled as "Pelys"). At both, by the way, there is also a cafe - in "Pelidze" at least good pancake.

And at the end of the street - perhaps the most beautiful house in Izhma, which belonged to the local millionaire peasant Popov:

Nowhere else have I seen such houses, not rare on Izhma - a kind of hybrid of a hut and a mansion. Of course, the northern huts-yards in size will give odds to many city buildings - but after all, 9/10 of their volume was occupied by the economic part. This mansion is fully residential, but outside, apart from the abundance of windows, it is just a very large hut.

Porch - from the courtyard, the mansion faces the street with its front facade:

The Izhma Museum, although created only in 1965, is one of the richest in Komi. I think that there are only a few villages in Russia that can boast of such museums, and only a few dozen regional centers. Although the impression of the exposition can be simply enhanced by communication with employees. In general, I am no longer surprised when a charming and energetic girl a little older than me meets me in museums in the outback, who sincerely loves her land, really knows it well, and is really glad to open it to a guest from afar. Here, too, they gave me a tour, gave me tea, simply told a lot of interesting things about the past and present of Izhma, showed archival newspapers and travel notes from the beginning of the 20th century and a modern official photo album of the Izhma Territory from the museum library, and even gave me a photo that I already posted here . At the same time, I paid only for the ticket and photography.
Among themselves, the employees spoke the Izhma language, although they themselves are quite young and modern, which once again confirms that this language is alive. But still, I would not call such a warm welcome national specifics, because, as already mentioned, this is not the first time for me.

In the lobby of the museum there are very beautiful and strange paintings by Tatyana Popova. The fact is that the artist does not draw them, but makes them from feathers:

Another local artist Fyodor Kanev lost in the war right hand but learned to draw with his left. It turned out to be a very original naive. By the way, almost the same angle was in this post a little higher:

Ethnography. Izhma folk hats and simple embroidery:

Fishing nets with generic signs of the owners on the floats:

And of course, the reindeer breeding hall, stylized as a chum with a hearth in the center. A stuffed deer, a folk costume, national bags with colorful names such as "cloud" (small, on top) or "padko" (bag below):

National footwear "chobeki" of different types. The famous "pimas" are just one of the varieties:

Deer skin and accessories for its dressing:

Belt of a reindeer breeder, where practical things and talismans are mixed:

On the third floor - quite urban interiors:

A salt shaker in the form of a duck is the personification of the Zyryan legend about the creation of the world. Once upon a time there was only an endless sea on which the Duck swam. Somehow she laid 6 eggs, but only two of them she saved under her wings. A bright god hatched from one, a dark god hatched from the other. They raised four drowned eggs from the bottom of the sea, and the Duck, seeing that her race was continued, took off and crashed into the water, turning into an earthly firmament. The white god extracted the Sun from the first egg, and the forest from the second, while the dark god extracted the moon and land waters.

In general, there is a lot of things here. But this view opens from the third floor - pay attention, by the way, how much snow is on the windowsill:

A few more shots of the Soviet, unofficial Izhma. The largest house in the village is the local hospital:

In some places Izhma looks like this:

In places like this:

Lively, modern, not seeming poor (even if it is), a self-sufficient village, which can hardly be called a village. Full feeling that you are in a small town. Izhma is really the capital of a small and, without irony, proud people who are used to relying on their own strength.

The Izhma region also impresses with an abundance of horse-drawn transport, and here not just anything is in use, but real wooden sledges. Grandfather in an earflap is carrying a bundle of firewood - as if he had rolled from somewhere in the past. However, most likely most of the people on the sleigh in Izhma are "guests of the capital" from the surrounding villages. There, in these villages across the river, in the next part we will go.

Izhma became famous on September 7, 2010, when a plane with failed engines landed at its long-closed airport. It was a miracle - but not an accident: all these years, the former airport caretaker Sergei Sotnikov kept the runway in working condition, which ultimately saved several dozen lives.

The center of the Izhma district, the oldest Komi village on the Izhma River. The village of Izhma arose in 1567 - 1576. Its founders were the Komi, who moved here with the Vym and the upper Mezen. At the end of the XIX century. Izhemtsy moved beyond the Urals (to the Ob), to the Kola Peninsula, where the descendants of the settlers still live. by 1989 the population was 3,595 people, of which 79% were Komi.

Having settled between the Nenets and the Russians, the Izhemtsy became a link between the two peoples: to the south they sold suede and fish to deer, to the north - iron, tea and alcohol. For their enterprise they were called "Jews of the North", and in their villages wooden palaces of millionaire peasants were not uncommon. Now there are only 16 thousand Izhma people (and the Komi in general - more than 300 thousand), but in the Republic they occupy a much larger place: from Izhma they are the flower of Komi culture, the best athletes (for example, the legendary skier Raisa Smetanina), many politicians. In the center of Syktyvkar, in the courtyard of one of the few "district" houses, there is an "Izvas-kerka" (Izhma hut) - Cultural Center, where you can get acquainted with the talent of Izhma artists and musicians with your own eyes.

In Izhma, the houses are painted in bright colors, in the center there is a new brick one, but there is no devastation so characteristic of our North. Rather - a small prosperous town than a village. Izhma is the capital, and with four "suburbs" across the river (Gam, Mokhcha, Bakur, Sizyabsk), half of all Izhma residents live in it. The center of the village is, in its courtyard has not yet been restored (1806-28). On the main street there are several "millionaire" huts, one is occupied by local history museum. Young people work there, but because they are interested people who love their land and are happy to have a guest, and you can see both household items of Izhma peasants, reindeer herders and merchants, as well as the work of local artists: for example, Tatyana Popova’s paintings are not drawn, but glued from feathers. Here is the wooden "government quarter" of the Izhma Territory, and a few kilometers from the village, at the crossing, is the same airfield from where the plane took off on September 7, 2010. Sotnikov, for his work, was awarded the "Buran" - in the North, this machine is more valuable than any off-road vehicle.

There are two hotels in Izhma, but it's better to go to Sizyabsk - if you look from the Izhma embankment (and this is the embankment!), This is the village on the far right. The villages across the river are just as well-groomed and spacious, each with a closed church. On the eel at the entrance to Sizyabsk, a tent is visible in the courtyard of the hut - Zinaida Pavlovna Vokueva lives there, who, on her own, created the Voyvyv Sikt (Northern Village) ethnographic museum in Sizyabsk, which is also a guest house where you can have a good rest and taste tundra food - stroganina, venison, Izhma shaneg from two types of flour. Recently, another Vokueva tent has been standing in Syktyvkar, at the Smetanina stadium in the village of Vylgort.

The best time on Izhma is March and April, when it is sunny, warm and very snowy. In winter, many Izhma residents change from cars to sleighs pulled by horses. But by spring, reindeer go to summer pastures near the Black River, in winter they can be seen in the vicinity of Izhma - but reindeer herders are very reserved and cautious, photographing reindeer is an evil eye for them. In the summer, midges eat here, but it's worth visiting the folk festival "Lud". But the soft and beautiful Komi language, the Izhma dialect, can be heard here all the time - it is spoken by 4/5 Izhma residents, and not everyone in the villages will understand Russian.

Wiki: en:Izhma (Komi)

Izhma village in the Komi Republic (Russia), description and map linked together. After all, We are places on the world map. Learn more, find more. It is located 96.1 km north of Ukhta. Find interesting places around, with photos and reviews. Check out our interactive map with places around, get more details, get to know the world better.

6 editions in total, last 4 years ago by Kashey from Podolsk

5. VILLAGE IZHMA

General view of the village and the nature of the Zyryans, according to personal observations. - Life Zyryan, home and public. - Izhma river. - The first descendants and ancestors. - Antique papers. - Gardening. - Zyryan national fishery. - Borscheeds. - Belkovanie.

You will go to Izhma - you will see there the temples of God made of stone and in all splendor they will treat you like a merchant; will tell you that they believe in God, do not listen: they lie! The tundra has been a sin on their conscience for a long time. Look, do not succumb to these zyryans: rogue people! ..

A similar warning and, perhaps, an instruction given to me a week ago by my kind storyteller in Pustozersk, came to my mind precisely at the time when the whole Izhma volost, the extreme (along the Pechora) in the Arkhangelsk province, opened up before me, with all its obvious petty details. I did not want to believe these warnings at the first steps and at first glance, especially since reality assured me otherwise. It is true, however, that the huge stone churches with a loud ringing, with loud, consonant singing on two kliros, with the sonorous voices of deacons, with iconostases adorned from top to bottom with images in silver, gilded vestments, generously doused with rich light, and with clergy in eye vestments. So everywhere, in all the villages of the Izhma volost: in Sizyab, Mokhcha, in Izhma itself, and as nowhere else in the Arkhangelsk province, excluding only the provincial city itself, the ancient Kholmogor and three or four still not abolished monasteries (not counting here the unusually rich Solovetsky) . The Izhma churches were packed to the brim with people praying not with the old cross. One could hear in these crowds the suffocating senile cough, and the restless weeping and squealing of infants, and sometimes the sonorous, immodest cries of adolescents. We saw both those and others, and third: men on the right side, women on the left, without exception, according to the old Russian custom. Meanwhile, in more than half of the Arkhangelsk villages and even cities, the clergy correct services in empty, cold, wind-blown churches, almost on rye prosphora, in half-decayed robes, by the light of four or five yellow wax candles throughout the church, with the deacon's broken voice, sounding even sadder in such a sad environment. Not so, far from so in the rich churches of the Izhma volost, where the houses of the clergy are the best houses in the whole village, where the churches are definitely incomparably richer than in Arkhangelsk itself. Where is the justice in the words of an honestly obsolete century, brought up in artless, patriarchal simplicity and respected by all the neighbors of my distant friend:

They will tell you that they believe in God, do not listen - they lie!

The first moments of acquaintance with Izhma decisively do not say this, on the contrary, by the visual situation they prove the completely opposite. Meanwhile, the old man's second testimony turns out to be true. The owner of the allotment apartment greets me cordially, does not allow me to drink my tea and, not jokingly, grumbles at this proposal of mine and almost scolds me. He drags, fussing like a madman, from below several plates: with bagels, with raisins, with gingerbread, with meleda pine nuts, from where he takes a bottle of sherry, a decanter of vodka, and all this asks to be consumed together, to pile in a heap. He pours out cheap, thick, like beer, tea, asks to put sugar in a glass, and as soon as possible more - not to regret; promises to bring cream, and brings such thick ones, which are rarely known anywhere in the province, except for Kholmogory; he swears that he will search the whole parish tomorrow to get a lemon; promises this, another, everything... Is it really necessary to give faith to the words of my empty-zero friend even after that? No, something is far from right!

The next day exclusively attempts to break all remaining doubts, if it does not break them completely: in the morning, gray-haired, respectable old people come one after another to ask for a taste of their bread and salt and then meet them on the porch, and fuss affably, and, apparently, frankly. Not knowing what to do with the guest, they treat meleda, a handful of which, without dexterity and habit, cannot be snapped in half an hour. Not knowing how to honor them, they put sturgeon on the table - a curiosity of their region, exported from far Siberia, with Obi, boiled reindeer tongues, reindeer lips, surprisingly tasty, rare dishes of their own, and kvass, like a delicacy, replacing unknown beer here. They don’t even treat salmon, like cheap fish, and, justifying themselves, they interpret:

Uncooked, it is not healthy, fresh soon becomes boring.

For this reason, everywhere in the Pechora for fish soup (in their language, chips) are cut into small pieces and boiled. Then they dump the pieces on the tray, salt and cool. A few handfuls of flour are added to the ear and boiled again.

On purpose, according to your high nobility, the deer was chopped in the evening, take it: it will be great for us! - the Zyryans say at the same time with a lively Russian dialect, although with an incorrect pronunciation of words and with incorrect stresses on them, making the speech of the Izhma people look like a gypsy dialect distant Russia. The Zyryan language itself, which, however, is more pleasant in the mouths of women than men, beats the ear with a wealth of unpleasantly guttural and hissing sounds. Women do not sit at the table with us, they bring only dishes with low bows and now they leave without saying a single word. My interlocutors do not let my native language into exclusive use, when asked questions, addressing the companions in the Zyryan language. Let them somehow look at each other suspiciously and beg each other for answers to these requests, addressed exclusively to their life and being, to reindeer herding. This time I am ready to explain all this about my everyday life in the following way: the gutturalness of their language is that it is a branch of Chud; the absence of women is an old age-old custom (hitherto observed) to see in a woman only a slave, and not a man; passion to mother tongue- the birthright of all peoples.

One could explain the exchange of glances, and sidelong glances, and their distrust of questions, and their unwillingness to answer them directly and more talkatively - by the fact that the Zyryans most spend years among tribal families and are not accustomed to new fresh people. Perhaps, even, finally, I will explain this to myself by a simple habit, a generic folk peculiarity. But despite all this, the answers turned out to be more significant and more important than they seemed at first. In this case, as in many other similar ones, chance helped me. It remained then to track him down in hot pursuit.

This is how it happened:

The six of us talked about various trifles, and the result of our conversation was: for them - that they drank two large, very large samovars and snapped a large, deep plate, sprinkled on top with pine nuts, for me - a few meager, however, information ...

My Izhma residents are noticeably secretive, as if they are afraid of something, often look at each other, suddenly abruptly change the conversation completely unexpectedly, and mainly in those places where it takes on a more lively character.

No, something is wrong! - I thought at the same time, spoiled, perhaps, by the talkativeness and frankness of the recently abandoned good empty boats. The words of one of the locals: "Cunning Zyryan people, you look: do not give in to them," they revolted, as if alive, as before.

Cunning people all this "Izhemtsa?"! - So they usually call all the Zyryans, who joined their villages to the Russian Pechora much later than the settlement of the latter at the mouth of the Tsilma River. At the same time, the collective name, turned into its own, with retention on the last syllable, is necessarily inclined grammatically, with the inevitable Pechora choking, - they say: "at Izhemchi, in Izhemchi." This word has completely supplanted the name of the Zyryans, and this time thoroughly in the sense that the Izhemtsy now bear little resemblance to the native Zyryans. The popular proverb, which called them “borsche-eaters”, does not separate this mockery from the Ust-Tsilems: even these, in a country where gardening is poorly cultivated, instead of cabbage, ferment and store for the future for the winter wild-growing in the meadows dedelyushki or dedelya (it is also borscht, a bunch).

I tried to ask if there were any legends among the Zyryans about their distant past, but I received little in response: that in the Chudsky graves, at the mouth of the Izhma with the Pechora, coins were found in the mountain about 20 years ago that come across there mammoth horns (bones), though rare; that there is a cross on the way to Sizyaba, on the grave of Kypriyan, one of Avvakum's friends, who was exiled here for the schism and whose head was cut off here for the same thing; what is in the village of Ust-Izhma filthy barrow, in place of which doselennoy at one time there was a city of Chud; that while digging a mound, they found a spear there ...

I asked about the history and reasons for their eviction, according to legend, to a distant country, from the Permian countries - the center of settlement of the Zyryans, at least at the time when history and the Gospel found them in this place, but my interlocutors somehow especially looked at each other wildly and fell silent, each and every one of them even more concentrated and stubborn. This time I had to stay with the same few information: that the robberies and insults of the Cossacks, who went through the places of their former villages at the sources of the Izhma, in the Yarensky district of the Vologda province, with the Verkhotursk treasury to Moscow, forced them with the whole population to get out to a grateful, albeit distant the area of ​​the mouth of the same river; that the population of Izhma subsequently increased by immigrants from the nearby Ust-Tsilma, which was significantly populated and strong already at that time with its material resources; the Chuprov brothers from Ust-Tsilma joined the Zyryan, who had moved here from the Yarensky district, from the village of Glotova, and with them extended the right given by the letter of Terrible Lastka, extended to this area. Actually, a charter was sent to the Izhma Zyrians by Tsars Mikhail and Alexei (in 1627 and 1649). These credentials are gone. The official of the governor took him and took him to the City (Arkhangelsk). The Samoyeds also settled here, now having lost their nationality and their tribal type under the influence of the Zyryansky, which differs from the Slavic only by a certain swarthy face (and nothing else, external). Here the Siberian road ran under the tsars and the Great and the Lesser and White Russian autocrats ...

The old papers that survived the fires and the extreme ignorance of the guardians in the churches and the government and fell into my hands also say little: one commanded to give only the centurion of the archery rower and not to give the same to the simple archers of the city of Arkhangelsk, going to the Pustozersky prison, on the grounds that that "they can row under themselves." The second - by decree (1688) of the tsar and Grand Duke Fyodor Alekseevich - ordered the destruction of tarkhan letters for tallow trades in favor of the Trinity Sergius Monastery, the income from which from this year should have already turned into the sovereign's treasury. The third - by decree (1697) of Tsar Peter Alekseevich, a memory was made to the head and kissers of the customs and mug yard, so that they, with a shortage of Kholmogory wine, would buy "where it is decent at the smallest price without transfer." The fourth scroll (4? sazhens long) details the rules of customs duty from Russians and local merchants traveling to Siberia and back from Siberia (there was a customs checkpoint in Izhma), points out some abuses that were in this case, and orders to keep books, The fifth scroll, the oldest I have in terms of time, contains a decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1678), which ordered the Izhma people to carry timber and build four sharpnesses for the historical schismatics exiled to Pustozersk: Archpriest Avvakum of Murom, Nikifor of Simbirsk, Lazarus and Elder Epiphanius. Of the old papers preserved in the church archive, more remarkable, in comparison with others, can be considered the decree (1760) of the Archbishop of Kholmogory and Vazhesky Barsanuphius, who ordered to find a priest who was guilty of covering one schismatic for a pood of cod, freeing him from confession and Holy Communion. The bishop ordered to shave half of his head for this and send him to the Archangel Monastery for eternal work, so again, on his arrival at the place, to shave the rest of his head and half of his beard there. As can be seen from the search, the priest, frightened by such a decision, fled and, as they think, to the Topozersk schismatic sketes. Here are all the old papers preserved in Izhma! ..

After two unsuccessful attempts, I finally turned to my interlocutors with the question of the tundra, and, without inquiring into their rights to own it, I nevertheless caused noticeable excitement. They began talking quickly, every minute looking askance at me with those incredulous, suspicious eyes with which they meet any unexpected and unfamiliar person who appears unawares in the middle of behind-the-scenes, family activities, which have taken the form of long-standing legality and are usually hidden from prying eyes. Embarrassed and caught at the wrong time. So it was with us. The Izhemtsy spoke for a long time in their dialect, which could no longer be incomprehensible to me. Its meaning already seemed suspicious enough to, having figured out the matter, recall the warning of the empty lake old man that had haunted me until then; that "the tundra of the Izhma people has long been a grave sin on their conscience."

Now I consider it my duty to tell about the Izhemtsy everything that I happened to learn during a very short stay between them.

The volost of Izhma, which has become much richer in recent times, had a wooden church at the beginning of this century (and only in the village of Izhma), now has three rich stone and four more villages there. In any case, these circumstances, testifying to the prosperity of the peasants, undoubtedly indicate with such wealth the presence in the character of the inhabitants of the volost of enterprise, sensibility, resourcefulness, resourcefulness - in a word, everything that characterizes a commercial person, even if he is a distant Pechora, removed from the main centers of Russian trading activity. In recent decades, the Izhemsky malitsa has been seen in Moscow, and at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, and in Kostroma Galich: he is here as a representative of the wholesale sale of furs bought in his homeland and dressed in the same animal skins and leggings. The Izhemets do not shy away from petty trade on a smaller scale in the neighboring Pechora villages, they deliver there everything necessary in village life and sell it with amazing honesty and conscientiousness, which inflicted on last years significant damage to the long-standing trade of the Permian Cherdyns. According to all the probabilities and visual methods with which the Izhma Zyryans did business, one can probably predict that in a short time the Pechora will no longer see the Cherdyn skiffs. Already in the last two years they have significantly decreased in the number and quantity of goods they bring. Here are the bare facts.

Following further on inherent features in the character of the Izhma, in addition to his secrecy and suspicion, you involuntarily come to his no less remarkable feature. This is an unconditional faith in the old traditions in domestic and public life, and in blind obedience to their details without looking back, without further reflection and strict analysis according to the requirements of the century and after the inevitable meeting and acquaintance with the life of the capital and large trading cities. Until now, the Izhemtsy, having observed, to a greater or lesser extent, the seclusion of the female sex, not letting their wives and daughters into the eyes of any guest (except for extremely honorable ones), have retained all the chaste purity of morals. Compared with neighboring Ust-Tsilma (which in this case is a significant help), Izhma is striking in this respect in the entire Arkhangelsk region, making an amazing, remarkable exception. Preserving some games and amusements from antiquity: running in the meadows in the summer, skiing from the mountains in the winter, the Izhma people have established and firmly keep the custom that allows these pleasures for girls separately from the fellows. Only the catechumens of grooms still have some right (and even then very rarely) to play in public with the brides. And here, having agreed with the girl, the groom does not see her until the very day of the wedding; she mourns her will and on the fateful day appears, covered with a veil or a board. A piece cut from a wedding blessed loaf is wrapped in this plat. This chunk is then eaten by the young before the wedding table, in which they do not have the right to participate, limiting themselves only to regaling the guests, among whom there is always a dear and happy one who came to Izhma from a foreign land: therefore, they always try to look out for one of the Ust-Tsilems in the crowd of wedding spectators and voiders. Zyryanka, having become a wife, from that time on becomes a slave: if her assistant in difficult draft work is mostly Samoyeds and poor Ust-Tsilma women, then all the same, caring for the children absorbs most of her life. Zyryans, as you know, breed amazingly, whether from a sufficient life, or from the almost constant presence of fathers among families - this cannot be decided in a positive way. But in order to be more clearly convinced of this, one need only pay attention to the village streets on a sunny day and to the churches on big holidays: they are all half filled with children.

Among other remnants of antiquity, attention should be paid to the custom of the Zyryans on the day of the Epiphany, after the blessing of the water, to ride with a cry and as quickly as possible on horses and deer around the village of Izhma and along its streets. By this, as they say, they drive away the evil spirit, defeated by the holy church rite.

Horticulture among the Izhma people, with the exception of other Pechora people, is quite developed: they plant cabbage, radish, turnips and onions, and they even have the opportunity to put some of the vegetables on sale to the Pechora residents up to the Kolninsky churchyard. When potato riots started in northern Russia, the Izhma people went for seeds and planted it in their gardens, and distributed it to their relatives.

It is also remarkable that the word “plunder” has recently appeared in the Zyryan language entirely from the Russian language, which until then did not cause a need. As is known, ten years ago the Izhma people did not use locks, replacing them with convenient wooden latches, and then only for lascivious horned cattle. Now thieves began to appear between them, cunning in their own way. So once two of the neighbors come to a rich man to ask for something to sell. We got talking. As if to spite them, another (not a participant in the case) appears to ask for pims. The owner sends his wife to look for extra ones in the attic, and she, instead of pims, grabbed her legs in pims. The swindler burrowed into the malitsa there, hoping to rob everything at a time when his accomplice would squander with the owner. However, recently some attempts of evil people have repeatedly been crowned with success. In general, the old-timers are already complaining about the deterioration of morals and the beginning disregard for indigenous customs: about tobacco smoking that has spread everywhere, especially between the younger generation, about the excessive use of wine and vodka to a violent, intoxicated state, about their frequent visits to the Ust-Tsilma schismatics. They even point to some of their female population with extreme discontent and contempt. Still, on big holidays they still go to their relatives to treat themselves to tea and dinner. Mother-in-law treat their sons-in-law with sour cream, marking a cross three times in advance with a spoon in a cup. In the old way, the rich, lending money to their poor fellow tribesmen, speak their word of honor not to tell anyone on the consideration that the poor know the rich and without a summons, with his need, will come to him. Having hung themselves with mirrors and paintings, painted their floors with paint and upholstered the walls with Moscow wallpaper, the Zyrians still throw nutshells and cigar stubs anywhere, prefer to remove from the dish the fat piece they like right with their fingers, although they have long been looked out for and applied to the case. knives and forks. As before, around St. Nicholas Day (December 6), they drive deer to their village, beat them with guns, believing that this is fun and their true pleasure. According to the old and true custom, they tie those deer to the church fence, which they donate to increase the splendor of the church. The donated deer, horses, rams and calves at the end of the service are sold by the church elder to those who wish, and the proceeds go to the church mug or to decorate the temple, or to allow the churchmen. The pious Zyryan is always ready to put a candle to the home icon, although we did not have a special incentive for this, saying: “Maybe God will forgive me what a sin! and always ready cut yourself wine until the dead strength on every holiday, and even far before mass. If some see the decoration of churches with zyryans as simple vanity, justified only by a too distant, ingratiating goal, nevertheless, in the Izhemtsy, once and for all, they must recognize positive honesty, patriarchally observed in all commercial enterprises. Having given his word, the Zyryan is faithful to him to the grave. This general rumor is based on a lot of ubiquitous facts.

Blind adherence to antiquity, on the other hand, gave rise (as is natural) among the Zyryans to that simple-hearted simplicity, which, according to the popular proverb, is worse than theft and, according to general laws nature,

serves on grief and sometimes to the misfortune of the most ingenuous simpleton. So, the Zyrians, loving to receive and treat a guest, themselves, in turn, love treats very much, believing their well-being in it, and see respect for their personality in every bow of a third-party person, even if this person did it deliberately, with an ingratiating purpose. . Here the Zyryan forgets everything outside, all his benefits and deals, and honors hospitality as hospitality, and forgets (unless he forgives) a debt of 6,000 rubles (as one of the Izhma residents did) for the sole reason that when he first woke up in the debtor's house horses were ready for him to ride for breakfast, then, for dinner and for an evening treat, always plentiful, satisfying and fat, and even in the simplicity of his heart he was ready to boast (on returning home without money, but with gifts) of the honor that he received from sensible and truly already cunning of their debtors. But he is stingy to the extreme and looks with a flint at everything that is closed and locked in his large, forged chests. Such, at least, are the Izhma Zyrians of the old school! They know how to bark, they know how to make a penny. Some suede factories they have up to thirty. They do not disdain any article in the works of the Pechora region. Poultry, fish, deer skins, horns, tongues, reindeer and beef lard, cow butter, arctic foxes, foxes, martens, otters, walrus and mammoth bones (horns), fluff and feathers, loon necks - everything is in the hands of Izhma zyryans, this mixture indigenous Zyryans with people of Russian blood of Novgorod origin. They keep up with their goods everywhere: to the Nikolskaya fair in Pinega, and to the Margaritinsky fair in Arkhangelsk, and to the Evdokievskaya fair in Shenkursk, to Kostroma and Galich, to Moscow and Nizhny. It is not known what the new generation will develop for itself and how it will declare itself, but let it be just as steadfast in the word given to honor; let it be just as resourceful in commercial enterprises and not shy away from petty ones at first, let it be just as patriarchal, unanimous and mutually help each other; he drinks less wine, which is positively disastrous for any undeveloped person, especially for a half-savage foreigner (the Samoyeds have completely drunk themselves!). Finally, let us wish that they would offend these Samoyeds less, that is, they would completely stop traveling with barrels of bread wine to the tundra.

However, as you know, the vast majority of the Zyryans, not only Izhma, but also all the other Pechora ones, are indigenous, so to speak, natural trappers, leaving to fish even in the forests beyond the Urals with an experienced leader and up to ten people in artels. They take in the forests everything that comes across: every animal and bird; but in the profits they count most of all the squirrel or veksha, wandering in innumerable flocks through pine forests and cedar groves. When it “flows”, that is, it promises a catch, the Zyryans see this both by the harvest of fir cones and by the bird crossbilly. This bird is the leader of the squirrel artels, and therefore, as soon as it appears, the Zyryansk artels rush to choose their leader and also go to the pine forests for three months. The leader is not burdened with any luggage for honor: all of it is laid out on the artel sledges. In them: crackers, dried pies with cereals, flour, cereals, lard, and most importantly - gunpowder, lead and spare guns, in total up to twelve pounds for each. On skis and lamps they carry long light sleds along the steep slopes of the mountains, through deep snowdrifts. To do this, they wear zipunas a little below the knees with fur sleeves and mittens and old torn coats in case you have to change linen from the pair that you have taken with you. Halts are made in two or three days, and here is the food: for yourself - your favorite pancakes in lard and dried pies, worn out into porridge, which is called "matting" (yes, it looks like that), for dogs - squirrel meat. From a successful fishery, another brings up to 500 squirrel skins, and a good shooter, with happiness, will kill up to 20 pieces in one day.

In the morning, - they say, - when you get out, in - nothing, it's cold. Well, as soon as you see - a squirrel, one and the other - you will start walking as soon as possible, and it will become hot, like on fire.

According to the ridges, that is, according to the varieties, squirrel skins are valued in the trade and the “surviving” (well faded) “zyryanka” squirrel relies in the best varieties and is bought by carmols at the Pinega and Krasnoslobodskaya fairs more expensive than other varieties. In "zyryans" the fluffy tail of a squirrel does not deceive experienced shooters. Unfortunately, it is only necessary to say that after the destruction of the forests, the old people began to lower their heads and say: “Where the marten lived, there now you won’t find squirrels.”