Photos from open sources of
If you ever hear the expression “move your pistons”, know: this has nothing to do with technology. Pistons (they are wrinkles) – shoes of our ancestors, strong, soft and easy manufactured. To do this, I needed a piece of some skin, get it which for a Russian person was not difficult.
Such a scrap of skin was pulled along the edges – here you have the shoe. Must to believe that the children at that time, the first thing that they wore was mumps. They fastened, like bast shoes, with lacing. Archaeologists say that the first pistons were found in Novgorod and they date back to the tenth century, but, it seems, the antiquity of such a simple leather shoe should thousands of years old.
A photo from open sources
But let’s turn to an even more famous Slavic shoe – bast shoes. We emphasize right away that weaved them not only from all kinds of bast of trees (linden, rakita, birch, elm, etc.), sometimes the same skin was used for this, but to increase the period the rope was often sewn to the sole.
A photo from open sources
And still bast bast shoes were, as they say now, disposable, ten days were enough from force, and in the summer – and that smaller. It is no coincidence that at that time in Russia there was even a concept like “lapidnaya mile”, that is, the distance after which, woven bast shoes had to be changed. And so on a long journey Old Russian man took several pairs of bast shoes.
A photo from open sources
In this case, one more circumstance is surprising: in order to to weave one pair of bast shoes, it was necessary to peel a bast from three (and more) young trees. As with the Slavs, so reverently related to nature and the forest especially, did not destroy planting while collecting raw materials for bast shoes ?! Researchers believe that with time lost the secret of peeling the bast without harm to the tree, apparently, and used by our ancestors. This is indirectly confirmed information about the American Indians who also filmed bark with trees without the slightest damage to plants. If you turn to history of wicker shoes, then the fixture for this is Kochedyk archaeologists attribute to the Stone Age, so that bast shoes in Russia, can be said to have been worn from time immemorial, moreover, flesh before twentieth century.
A photo from open sources
As for the boots, in Ancient Russia they were sewn from the skin of goats (famous morocco, remember Russian folk tales), painted in bright colors, or from coarser grades of leather – sheep or calf (these were black in color). Heels by the way appeared on boots in Russia only in the seventeenth century. But the boots were shoes only for wealthy people, for example, in the nineteenth century bast shoes did not exceed three cents, and boots cost from several rubles and above. So judge for yourself who wore them …
And finally, in winter in Russia, in addition to bast shoes, they were also used boots, which are still associated with a Westerner Russian man. Felted Chuni, archaeologists say, are found on Russia back in the eighth century, but it is still stitched from two halves products. Seamless boots appeared in Russia only in the eighteenth century. To make a pair of such winter shoes for an adult a person needed a kilogram of sheep’s wool, soda, soap and solution sulfuric acid. But the felting technologies were many, and the secret such a craft in each family was kept strictly, transmitted by inheritance from father to son. Boots in Russia were valuable acquisition, in a poor family they were worn, for example, in turn. A the groom’s gift to the bride in the form of felt boots was then considered a demonstration prosperity, this is how to give your future wife the best cool cell phone.
A photo from open sources
By the way, that ancient mastery was not lost for centuries, in Russia until there are still great craftsmen who can sew and beautiful comfortable pistons, and weave festive bast paws. About felt boots have nothing to say, they are on the industrial stream in our country.
Russia time
