Outerwear in the village is determined not by the latest fashion trends, but by practicality and bare necessity.
Starting from the muddy ground up, rubber boots are the number one item without which a villager simply cannot survive. Spring, summer, or fall, rubber boots – ranging from the ankle-high galoshye, to shin-high boots, to knee-highs, to the full-on hip boot (bolotniki, meaning swamp boots) – are always in style.
During Soviet times, the local collective farm kept hundreds of cattle and horses. These were herded from the stables to the fields twice a day down the only road in the village. As a result, the road – which could hardly be called a road in the first place – was pummeled into a track of mud several feet deep. Thus, the only way for the villagers to even cross the road was to wear rubber boots. Nowadays, there are hardly any cattle left in the village and the road is relatively clean, but the habit of wearing rubber boots remains.
In spring, maneuvering the puddles from house to garden requires galoshes in the least. Forays into the forest for berries and mushrooms require shin- to knee-length boots – to wade through puddles as well as to avoid getting sopping wet from the dew-soaked grasses. Fishing on the shoals of the river requires hip-length boots – to kneel down in the damp grass as one waits for the fish to bite and to plunge into the cool water after one’s catch. Rubber boots are also handy protection from snakebites.
Dry weather footwear for men generally consists of kerzovye sapogi (leather boots with tops made of kersey, a soft woolen material), which are cheap and comfortable. Young men wear them in the army and become so used to them that they continue to wear them for the rest of their lives. Beneath the rubber or kerzovye boots, one will invariably find portyanki (a length of cloth wrapped around the bare foot). As rubber boots do not provide warmth in any way, portyanki keep the feet warm in cool weather. Portyanki are preferable to socks, in that they don’t shimmy down inside the boots.
In winter, villagers don valenki (boots made of thick pressed felt), which come with or without rubber soles. Valenki rank right up there with portyanki as one of Russia’s best inventions for fighting cold. Weakened from the cold, hundreds of thousands of Germans were defeated during World War II by Russian soldiers outfitted with valenki and portyanki. Valenki keep your feet warm even when they are wet. They do have the disadvantage, however, of being stiff and difficult to walk in. And they can shrink or loose their form after getting wet then being dried on the wood stove. On the other hand, valenki and rubber boots alike have the advantage of being easy to slip on and off – they are loose fitting and have no zippers or ties. This is especially important when one’s hands are occupied with buckets of water, firewood, or slop for the swine.
Working our way up, so to speak, the men in the village wear wadded cotton pants in cooler weather and faded gray or camouflage trousers in hot weather. One would not be caught dead in shorts, even in stifling heat: they are far from practical, since mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects are usually out and about when the villagers are hard at work in their gardens.
Most of the villagers’ work clothes have been patched and mended in several places, as generally they cannot afford to buy new clothes, and anyway the old ones are perfectly fine for working outdoors.
The women wear skirts. One would never see a village woman in pants. This is generally linked to religious beliefs – women are only allowed to wear skirts in church. Even though most of the villagers in Chukhrai haven’t been to church for some time (as there is no church in our village), skirts are mandatory attire. A woman who wears pants or – God forbid – shorts is seen as having a loose and flippant character. Skirts must extend below the knees, but since they offer little warmth, the women wear stockings or thick wool leggings underneath in the winter. Sometimes they even wear sweatpants or other pants under their skirts. Wearing one’s galoshes or shin-high rubber boots beneath a skirt is perfectly acceptable village fashion.
Men and women alike generally wear lightweight, long-sleeved shirts (bugs, remember) in summer and, more rarely, t-shirts when it is too hot even for the bugs. In cool weather, they wear collared shirts under a sweater or vest. In the winter, a gray or camouflage-colored telogreyka or fufaika (a thick coat made of wadded cotton) is worn on top. Army-issue camouflage pants and coats are popular village attire for any season – they are made of sturdy fabrics, they are cheap and come in a variety of styles to suit the season. But their greatest asset is that they conceal stains and dirt.
The villagers almost always wear something on their heads – scarves for women, caps for men. The women don thin white scarves in summer, which deter both the heat and the bugs. In winter, they wrap thick wool scarves over the thin scarves. For special occasions, they wear white scarves with colorful floral patterns. For the men, caps guard their faces from the sun in the summer. In winter, they wear fur-lined hats with flaps that can be pulled down over the ears. For some reason, however, the flaps are never up nor down, but flopping around somewhere in the middle, at about ear height.
There’s an old saying that goes: “У природы нет плохой погоды” (There’s no such thing as bad weather in nature). There is only bad clothing. Because the villagers spend the majority of their time outdoors, they must always be prepared – not unlike soldiers. Certain staples of clothing have endured the centuries in Russia – and for good reason. They work. Pure and simple. They keep out the cold, the rain, the bugs, and they hide the dirt. And that’s one way to ensure that the weather in the village is always good.
Laura Williams and her husband, photographer Igor Shpilenok, live in Chukhrai, in Bryansk Province, where they have a large assortment of rubber boots and camouflage clothing.
Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.
Russian Life 73 Main Street, Suite 402 Montpelier VT 05602
802-223-4955
[email protected]
