The history of the samovar in Russia, its origin. The history of the appearance of the samovar in Russia In which country did the samovar appear

Tea drinking behind a samovar has long been considered one of the most striking and revealing features of Russian traditional life. The samovar was not an ordinary household accessory, but a kind of personification of wealth, family comfort, and prosperity. It was included in a girl's dowry, passed on by inheritance, given as a gift. Carefully polished, he showed off in the most prominent and honorable place in the room.

It was getting dark. On the table, shining, Hissed an evening samovar, Heating a Chinese teapot, Light steam swirled under it. Spilled by Olga's hand. Through the cups in a dark stream Already fragrant tea ran ... "Eugene Onegin", Pushkin.

Samovar - Russian tea machine - as it was called in Western Europe. The word "samovar" passed from us to almost all languages ​​of the world. The origin of this word is now not clear to everyone, since the combination "sam boils" in conjunction with the word "water" seems wrong. But just a hundred years ago, the word "cook" was used not only in relation to food (boil soup, fish), but also in relation to water, along with the word "boil". Moreover, in samovars they not only boiled water, but also cooked food and sbitni. So the samovar can be considered the great-grandfather of the current multicookers :)

There is a legend according to which Peter I brought the samovar to Russia from Holland, but in reality samovars appeared half a century after the death of Tsar Peter. Initially, in Russia, the samovar began to be made in the Urals. 275 years ago, the first samovar appeared at the Irginsky plant in the Urals. The history of its creation is quite interesting and instructive. A good example of anti-crisis management during the next "strengthening of the role of the state in the country's economy."

There is in China, from where tea was brought to Russia, a related device, which also has a pipe and a blower. But there is no real samovar anywhere else, if only because in other countries tea is immediately brewed with boiling water, much like coffee.

Chinese ho-go, "cousin" of the samovar

The samovar owes its appearance to tea. Tea was brought to Russia in the 17th century from Asia and was used at that time as a medicine among the nobility.

Tea was imported to Moscow, and later to Odessa, Poltava, Kharkov, Rostov and Astrakhan. The tea trade was one of the most extensive and profitable commercial enterprises. In the 19th century, tea became the Russian national drink.

Tea competed with sbitnya, the favorite drink of ancient Russia. This hot drink was prepared with honey and medicinal herbs in a sbitennik. Sbitennik outwardly resembles a teapot, inside of which was placed a pipe for laying coal. A brisk trade in sbitn was going on at fairs.

In the 18th century, samovar-kitchens appeared in the Urals and Tula, which were a brotherhood divided into three parts: food was cooked in two, and tea in the third.

Sbitennik and samovar-kitchen were the forerunners of the samovar. Outwardly, the sbitennik resembles a teapot with a large curved spout, but inside it has a soldered jug where coals were placed (later we will see such a device for the jug in the samovar), and at the bottom of the sbitennik there was a blower. Such sbitenniks were made in Tula. They served to prepare a hot fragrant folk drink (sbitnya) from water, honey, spices and herbs.

Samovar-kitchen, first half of the 18th century. Sbitennik and samovar-kitchen were the forerunners of the samovar.

URAL SAMOVAR. WAS HE NOT THE FIRST IN RUSSIA?
N. KOREPANOV, Researcher, Institute of History and Archeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Yekaterinburg)

In 1996, Tula celebrated the 250th anniversary of the domestic samovar. According to most researchers, two and a half centuries ago, industrial production of this unique product began in the city of gunsmiths. For the initial date - 1746 - a mention of a samovar found in the inventory of the property of the Onega Monastery was taken. However, not everything here is unambiguous and indisputable. In addition to Tula, three Ural factories are also called the birthplace of the samovar - Suksunsky, owned by the Demidovs, Troitsky, owned by the Turchaninovs, and Irginsky, its owners were some Osokins. Talking about the history of technology and its achievements, we often mention "left-handers" - nameless Russian craftsmen. Although there is nothing nameless in history, but there are only forgotten names. Let's try to find out who was the "author" of the first samovar?

Let us turn to historical documents stored in the State Archives of the Sverdlovsk Region. One of them is very curious and belongs to the customs service. It says that on February 7, 1740, some confiscated goods were delivered to Yekaterinburg customs from the Chusovaya River, from Kurinskaya pier Akinfiy Demidov, namely: six tubs of honey, six sacks of nuts and a copper samovar with a device. The victims in this case were the merchants of the Irginsky plant. Customs officials weighed honey and nuts, described the product: "A copper samovar, tinned, weighing 16 pounds, factory own work." As you can see, the customs officers did not show surprise from what they saw. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the word "samovar" in the documents of the mining Urals has not been encountered before. Therefore, it is necessary to explain where the merchants came from and where they brought the samovar, which, according to customs, contained 16 pounds of copper with tin.

Since 1727, two companies fought for a place for a plant on the Irgina River, a tributary of the Sylva, near the Krasny Yar ore mountain: three Moscow merchants with a Kaluga resident against townspeople from the city of Balakhna - Peter and Gavrila Osokin, cousins. The treasury supported the Osokins... The Irginsky plant issued the first copper in December 1728. Copper, although it had a high iron content, was still suitable for coinage.

From where the Osokins recruited people to their factory, no one really knew, only occasionally in Yekaterinburg they received complaints from the Kungur governor: “Many newcomers come to the Suksun and Irginsky factories incessantly, and what kind of natives they are, they don’t announce that, and the clerks about that kind And the newcomers, coming from these factories, repair fights for the peasants of Kungur district ... But you can’t catch them, because they go in crowds and, making a fight, run away to the factories. Factory clerks also complained, but at each other. Endless litigation for mines and forests began: Irgina and neighboring Suksun turned into rivals.

The Suksun factory of Akinfiy Demidov had its own craftsmen. On Irgin, the newly minted breeders had nowhere to take masters. Copper smelting in Saxon furnaces with water-acting bellows was taught to the locals by two craftsmen from Yekaterinburg. Copper-boiler master Stepan Loginov was sent by Kazan, copper-ware master Alexei Strezhnin - Perm. At that time, the manufacture of copper utensils was inferior in terms of profitability, except perhaps to coinage. As a matter of fact, factory copper utensils were born here from money billets. When they stopped minting square money in Yekaterinburg - the so-called plat (how much it costs by weight - this is the face value), and the minting of new coins was not yet foreseen, General Gennin, the chief commander of the mining Urals, decided to at least somehow reimburse the factory costs. This is how the Yekaterinburg copper-ware factory appeared, and after it there were the same ones in other places.

But back to the sent specialists. Boiler maker Loginov trained two craftsmen for the Irginsky plant, utensil maker Strezhnin recruited nine students and, after studying for a year, arbitrarily left home: he could not come to terms with the need for in-line production. For him, who grew up from a self-taught leaf cutter, each product had to be unique, unrepeatable. And then there was mass production. And nine of his teenage students were determined to finish their studies with the young Semyon Zylev and Ivan Smirnov trained by the Loginovs. These eleven people made up the staff of the boiler factory.

And here's what's interesting. In addition to Zylev, the remaining ten people spoke "Nizhny Novgorod" - they were fellow countrymen from the Nizhny Novgorod province. Master Smirnov is a schismatic from the village of Malinovka in the Nizhny Novgorod episcopal village, seven out of nine students were born in schismatic families in the villages of Koposova and Kozina (the patrimony of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery). Their parents fled to the Urals in 1728-1730, along with thousands of other schismatics. And his clerk, a fugitive peasant from the same Koposov, Rodion Fedorovich Nabatov, paved the way for them all to the Irginsky plant. He hid, as much as he could, the fact that in the mid-1730s, with the start of factory censuses, the mining authorities were stunned. Then it was discovered that the Irginsky plant consisted entirely of runaway schismatics, for the most part from the Nizhny Novgorod province! The very ones from the Kerzhensky volost, nicknamed "Kerzhans" in the 18th century, and "Kerzhaks" in the 19th century.

Meanwhile, by 1734, the Irgin was already producing foundry utensils (pots, cauldrons and tinkers) and chiseled utensils (mugs, kungans, tubs, quarters and teapots), and distilling appliances (cauldrons with pipes). The dishes, of course, ended up in the Osokins' master's house, but its main flow went to Balakhna, to the Irbitskaya and Makarievskaya fairs, for sale in Kungur, to the state-owned Yagoshikha plant (where present-day Perm is), to Yaik. Dishes were also sold at the factory. For four years, this product was produced with a total weight of 536 pounds, and a third of it - 180 pounds - sold out at the plant. The dishes were also allowed for free sale, and in case of chronic lack of money - and in payment to employees.

On September 25, 1734, the Osokins divided: Pyotr Ignatievich got the Irginsky plant, Gavrila Poluektovich - the Yugovsky plant built a year ago. But a month later, the winds of change blew: in October, the Chief Commander of the Mining Urals changed in Yekaterinburg. Instead of the Dutchman Willim Ivanovich Gennin, Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev came.

Soon state-owned shipmasters flew to private factories, stood on a par with clerks and began to explain how to live and work. At Irgin, the clerk Nabatov was read an order: to stop trading in dishes, and to hand over copper ingots to Yekaterinburg at a fixed price. The clerk in response explained that the explored ores "were stopped, and the accumulated ones will last only until the summer." If the treasury cannot do without copper, then let him borrow ores up to 25 thousand pounds. Indeed, in the summer of 1735, about 20 thousand pounds of borrowed ore from the Yagoshikha plant were received on the Irgin. And that same summer the Bashkirs rebelled. And in the fall, persecutions began against dissenters who had grown bolder while living under the leadership of the tolerant Dutchman Willim Gennin.

In September, Rodion Nabatov served the plant for the last time. With three Demidov clerks, he signed a petition "for all the Old Believers", asking to send two or three priests, "who, according to the old printed books, wish to keep the faith." And he also honestly warned that the owner Osokin could not pay for the borrowed copper ore, unless all the smelted metal was used for dishes, better for a distillery.

The Bashkir uprising of 1735-1740 gave rise to the then famous "freemen" - voluntary detachments of factory residents and ascribed peasants to pacify the Bashkirs. So, on March 14, 1736, the artisans of the Irginsky plant stopped work in an organized manner, divided into groups and marched to Kungur - to enroll in combat hundreds for the "Bashkir war". At first, they were recorded without any order, until the authorities set a limit: a fifth of the able-bodied from a factory or village. And only two plants - Irginsky and Yugovsky - knew the "freemen" in full. Almost all of their workers and more than half of the attached peasants enjoyed their camp life to their heart's content.

The first, Irginskaya "freemen" returned to their homes by July, although about forty people remained on the campaign. They were schismatics who were trying to save themselves, as best they could, from harsh pressure, from peaceful and non-peaceful exhortations to go over to the bosom of the official church. And here the new clerk Ivan Ivanovich Shvetsov could not do anything, because the entry into the "freemen", in other words - flight, was allowed.

So which of the volunteers of that distant, forgotten war with the Bashkirs, who knew a variety of copper vessels on the Irgin, came up with the idea of ​​a portable kitchen? About a camp boiler that would soon warm up without a stove and a fire, easily hide in a travel bag and could create home comfort in the most difficult conditions? In the end, every invention is born when there is a need for it.

Meanwhile, factory life continued. Borrowed ore smelted disgustingly. From 20 thousand pounds received only 180 pounds of pure copper. This is not bankruptcy yet, but... The clerk Shvetsov bombarded the Ekaterinburg chiefs with petitions: "I ask that my masters be ordered to convert copper smelted from borrowed state-owned ore into dishes and sell it to free hunters." In July 1738 Yekaterinburg made a decision. In September, it became known on Irgin: make dishes and sell wherever you want. But - for the last time!

And now, having received freedom of action, the breeder Peter Osokin and the clerk Ivan Shvetsov had to think hard. You won’t surprise anyone with traditional, ordinary copper utensils; many people use it. But what can really interest you is the distillery equipment. Rodion Nabatov also warned: the owner Osokin would pay off his debt only by selling expensive equipment needed there - cubes, cauldrons and pipes - to the Kungur kruzhechnaya yard, to private and state-owned distilleries. Pipes and cauldrons. Pipes and ... So this is a samovar?

So, in September 1738, there were 180 poods of copper threatening losses on the Irgin and special permission to make dishes for the last time in the foreseeable future. A pound of pure copper at a fixed price for the treasury was worth 6 kopecks, but it was allowed to make a certain product “at one’s discretion” from the same copper and sell it at a higher price in order to repay the debt in money.

And now let us again recall the 16-pound product seized a year and a half later by Yekaterinburg customs officers. It was estimated by merchants during interrogation at 4 rubles 80 kopecks. At that time, for a cow, depending on the season and age, they paid from two and a half to four rubles. Ten rubles cost an average house, twenty - a decent house.

In September 1738, there were seven remaining boiler-makers on the Irgin, the very ones who had learned the craft from Alexei Strezhnin and Stepan Loginov. Their names were: Ivan Smirnov, Pyotr Chesnokov, Sergey Drobinin, Fedos Zakoryukin, Larion Kuznetsov, Matvey Alekseev, Nikita Fedorov. Now, from the customs documents of the 18th century, with which this story began, we know that the hands of these Irga craftsmen worked between September 1738 and February 1740 "their product", as they called it.

It is generally accepted that the samovar appeared due to the spread of tea drinking in Russia. But the schismatics did not drink tea, they used sbiten, a honey-based drink. (It is no coincidence that in February 1740, tubs of honey were delivered to Yekaterinburg along with a samovar.) And any connoisseur will tell you how much a samovar has in common with a sbitennik.

The samovar is pear-shaped. 1940s.

Samovar vase. Renaissance. Nickel-plated brass. Beginning of XX century.

Samovar Florentine vase. Copper. Chasing. 1870

Samovar Egyptian vase. Nickel-plated brass. 1910s.

True, at the end of the 19th century, a kerosene samovar appeared, and the factory of the Chernikov brothers launched the production of samovars with a side pipe, which increased the movement of air and accelerated the boiling process.

On the eve of the Patriotic War of 1812, the largest enterprise for the production of samovars was the plant of Peter Silin, located in the Moscow province. He produced about 3,000 of them a year, but by the 1820s, Tula, which was called the samovar capital, began to play an increasingly important role in samovar production. year and many other copper products.

The beginning of the 19th century is characterized by such styles: egg-shaped with loop-shaped handles, "Empire", "crater", reminiscent of an ancient Greek vessel, a vase with concave ovals looks especially solemn because of the legs in the form of lion paws. At that time, everything obeyed the dominant style, characteristic of decorative and applied arts at the beginning of the 19th century. In addition to ordinary samovars, road samovars were made. Removable legs were strengthened in special grooves. Shape - rectangle, cube, polyhedron. Such samovars are convenient for transportation, on a hike, for picnics.

The 19th century is the "golden age" of samovar making in Russia. Each factory tried to come up with its own, unlike the other samovar. Hence such a variety of samovar forms: conical, smooth, faceted, spherical, in the neo-Greek style, which reproduced the ancient forms of amphorae. The sizes and capacities of samovars were extremely diverse: from a glass to twenty liters. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, samovars had a variety of everyday names indicating the shape of the product: "jar", "glass", "vase", "acorn", "muzzle", "turnip", "Easter egg", "flame " etc.

The samovar is ovoid. Brass. Early 19th century

Road samovar. Copper. Beginning of the 19th century.

Empire samovar. Brass. Beginning of the 19th century.

Buffet samovar. Nickel-plated brass. 1923

Samovar Tula - Hero City. Nickel-plated brass. 1978

Samovar Teremok Brass. Beginning of XX century.

At the same time, searches were underway for the universal use of samovars: coffee samovars, kitchen samovars, home samovars, travel samovars, etc. were created.

However, most of them did not become widespread, and in the 20th century only samovars were used to boil water and serve it to the tea table. Three typical forms of samovars turned out to be vital: cylindrical, conical (like a vase) and spherical flattened (like a turnip). At the same time, the designs of faucets, handles, legs, burners became diverse. At this time, bouillote (from the French bonillir - boil) - a small vessel on a stand with a spirit lamp - became a frequent companion of the samovar. The bouillotte was usually placed on the table, filled with hot water. With the help of a spirit stove, the water was maintained in a state of boiling until the samovar, filled with cold water, boiled again. Samovar production in Russia reached its greatest development in 1912-1913, when 660 thousand pieces were produced annually in Tula alone. The First World War suspended the production of samovars, which resumed only after the end of the civil war.

It was not easy to master the craft of a samovarmaker.

Here is what N. G. Abrosimov, an old-timer-samovar maker of the village of Maslovo, recalls: “He began working as a student at the age of 11. He studied this craft for three and a half years. Brass of a certain size was cut for the wall (case), then it was rolled into a cylinder, and this form was in twelve steps. Brass was cut with teeth on one side and then fixed with hammer blows along the connecting seam, after which they carried it to the forge. Then the master (gunner) repeated the operations of sealing the seam with the help of hammers and files and each time fixed it by annealing in the forge. the smithy from master to master and back, the boys-apprentices and gradually looked closely at how the master works.

A lot of sweat was shed and sleepless nights were spent before the wall was made by order of the manufacturer. And if you bring a manufacturer to Tula to rent, sometimes they will find a marriage. A lot of work is spent, but there is nothing to receive. The work is hard, but I fell in love with it, it was nice when you make a wonderful wall out of a sheet of brass.

The process of making the "Tula miracle", which consisted of 12 steps, is complex and diverse. There was a strict division of labor in production. There were almost no cases when the master would have made the entire samovar. There were seven main specialties in the samovar business:

The gunner - bent a copper sheet, soldered it and made the appropriate shape. For a week, he could make 6-8 pieces of blanks (depending on the form) and received an average of 60 kopecks per piece.

Tinker - tinned the inside of the samovar with tin. I made 60-100 pieces a day and received 3 kopecks apiece.

Turner - sharpened on the machine and polished the samovar (at the same time, the worker who turned the machine (turner) received 3 rubles a week). A turner could turn 8-12 pieces a day and receive 18-25 kopecks apiece.

A locksmith made handles, taps, etc. (handles - for 3-6 samovars a day) and received 20 kopecks for each pair.

Assembler - from all the individual parts he assembled a samovar, soldered taps, etc. He made up to two dozen samovars a week and received 23-25 ​​kopecks from one.

Cleaner - cleaned the samovar (up to 10 pieces a day), received 7-10 kopecks per piece.

Wood turner - made wooden cones for lids and handles (up to 400-600 pieces per day) and received 10 kopecks per hundred.

The process of making a samovar is lengthy before it appears in the form in which we are accustomed to seeing it.

The factories were assembling and finishing. Production of parts - at home. It is known that entire villages made one piece. Delivery of finished products was made once a week, sometimes every two weeks. They carried finished products for delivery on horseback, well packaged.

Samovars entered every home and became a characteristic feature of Russian life. The poet Boris Sadovskoy in the preface to the collection "Samovar" wrote: "In our life, unconsciously for ourselves, the samovar occupies a huge place. As a purely Russian phenomenon, it is beyond the understanding of foreigners. A Russian person in the rumble and whisper of a samovar feels familiar voices from childhood: sighs spring wind, mother's dear songs, cheerful inviting whistle of a village blizzard. These voices are not heard in a European city cafe.

On the eve of the Patriotic War of 1812, the largest enterprise for the production of samovars was the plant of Peter Silin, located in the Moscow province. He produced about 3,000 of them a year, but by the 1820s, Tula began to play an increasingly important role in samovar production.

The samovar is a part of the life and destiny of our people, reflected in its proverbs and sayings, in the works of the classics of our literature - Pushkin and Gogol, Blok and Gorky.

The samovar is poetry. This is good Russian hospitality. This is a circle of friends and relatives, warm and cordial peace.

A veranda window entwined with hops, a summer night, with its sounds and smells, from the charm of which the heart stops, a circle of light from a lamp with a cozy fabric lampshade and, of course ... a grumbling, sparkling copper, steaming Tula samovar on the table.

Tula samovar... In our language, this phrase has long become stable. A.P. Chekhov compares an absurd, from his point of view, act with a trip "to Tula with his own samovar."

Already at that time, there were proverbs about the samovar ("The samovar boils - it does not order to leave", "Where there is tea, there is paradise under the spruce"), songs, poems.

The newspaper "Tula Gubernskie Vedomosti" for 1872 (No. 70) wrote about the samovar as follows: "The samovar is a friend of the family hearth, a medicine for a vegetative traveler ..."

The history of the Russian samovar is not too long - about two and a half centuries. But today the samovar is an integral part of Russian tea drinking. Samples of Russian samovars can be found in the antique market. The price of such samovars depends, of course, on the fame of the company or the master, on the safety of the sample, on the material of the product. Collectible samovar prices start at $500. The most expensive samovars are Faberge samovars, the prices for which can reach up to 25,000 dollars.

A samovar can create a surprisingly warm and cozy atmosphere in the house, add a unique flavor to family and friendly gatherings, remind you of long-forgotten, but such pleasant Russian traditions.

The night prelude of a cozy summer evening, people scatter home to dispel fatigue and enjoy the midnight silence after a chaotic day. The evening garden evokes a slight coolness, imperceptibly and insinuatingly filling the houses with the aromas of greenery. And under the beating of hearts, warmed by the heat of the Tula samovar, poetry of the soul, national Russian poetry is born ...

This is a part of each of us, sung by literary classics. The shiny copper samovar lives to this day in the works of Pushkin, Blok, Gorky and Gogol. From time immemorial, the samovar, like a good old friend, attracts with its warmth and hospitality. Where does the history of the samovar begin?

Definitely samovar is a true Russian brainchild, occupying a special position in It's amazing how widespread it is, how mysterious it is. Indeed, not everyone knows when and where the first hot water vessel for tea puffed. But the history of the samovar is, in fact, unique and almost unexplored.

As for the origin of the word "samovar", even here the opinions of historians differ. Different peoples in Russia called the device differently: in Yaroslavl it was “samogar”, in Kursk it was “self-boiler”, in Vyatka it was called “samogrey”. There is a general idea of ​​the purpose of the copper friend, "he cooks himself." Other researchers find confirmation of the Tatar origin from the word "snabar" (teapot). But this version has fewer adherents.

Versions of the origin of the samovar

Where to look for answers to the question about the origin of the samovar and its creator? Unfortunately, it is not possible to find exact answers. Historians believe that the Russian samovar, a synonym for our hospitality and an indispensable attribute of Russian tea drinking, originates from ancient civilizations. But again, these are versions.

1. Antique Samovar of Ancient Rome

According to one of the versions, the roots of the samovar go much deeper than it seems. They grow from the place where all roads on Earth lead - Ancient Rome. Archaeologists have discovered devices that work on the principle of a Russian samovar. Incredibly, the Romans drank drinks from samovars in antiquity. Autepsa - that was the name of the ancient samovar. A rather simple, but, nevertheless, original and extremely useful invention is arranged as follows: outwardly, the auteps was something similar to a tall jug, inside of which there were two containers, for coal and for liquid. Hot coal was fed through a hole on the side, and the liquid was poured using a ladle. In the same device, it was possible to cool drinks on hot days; for this, ice was used instead of coal.

2. Chinese samovar 火锅 "Ho-Go"

A similar device exists in China. A deep bowl on a pallet, equipped with a blower and a pipe - this is what the famous Chinese prototype of a samovar called "Ho-Go" is. Ho-Go is made from metal and porcelain. They usually serve soup or simmering broth. Perhaps the origin of the samovar, as well as, is due to China, and the prototype of the Russian samovar is the Chinese "Ho-Go".

Appearance in Russia - from the history of the samovar

There is a legend according to which the samovar appeared in Russia thanks to Peter I - he brought it from Holland as an outlandish and innovative device.

There is another version, according to which the birthplace of the samovar is not even Tula, but the Urals, and its creator is the Tula blacksmith Demidov. Back in 1701, the industrialist Demidov, together with skilled copper craftsmen, set off on a trip to the Urals, laid the foundation for a dynasty of samovars.

The history of the samovar is florid and ambiguous. According to documented data, the following is known about the appearance of the first samovar: in 1778, in the city of Tula, on Shtykova Street, two Lisitsina brothers began the first production of samovars. At first, it was a small establishment for the manufacture of samovars. It is thanks to him that Tula is often considered the birthplace of the Russian samovar.

How, then, to be with other historical documents resting on the shelves of the State Archives of the Sverdlovsk Region? The fact is that one of them, witnessed by the customs service of Yekaterinburg on February 7, 1740, confirms the version of the earlier appearance of the samovar. According to the inventory of Demidov's confiscated property, it included, in addition to six tubs of honey and sacks of nuts, a copper samovar. And literally: "Samovar copper, tinned, weighing 16 pounds, factory own work." The officially recorded appearance of the samovar in Tula and its distribution in the Urals differ by almost forty years. To this day, the question from the history of the samovar remains open - Tula or the Urals became the birthplace of the Russian samovar?

It turns out that in 1730-1740 samovars were used in the Urals, and only later - in Tula, Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the 19th century, the samovar business spread beyond the boundaries of large cities and was observed in the Vyatka, Vladimir and Yaroslavl provinces. By 1850, there were 28 samovar workshops throughout Russia. About 120 thousand copper samovars were produced per year. Samovars were made at the discretion and at the request of the customer: from large to small, souvenir, decorated, in the form of vases, cans, glasses, barrels, balls, even barrels. The fantasy of artisans and the customer's wallet knew no limits. The appearance of the samovar has been transformed in step with the times, fashion and lifestyle of people. In the next issues of our blog, we will definitely publish the history of the samovar in pictures.

Tea drinking and samovar are inseparable concepts!

Walking through the pages history of the samovar, take a look at yourself. What does a samovar mean to us? How did he fall in love and become synonymous with Russian hospitality and generosity?

What a tea party without a samovar! Pot-bellied and smoking, important and shiny, the samovar became the center of the festive feast and an indispensable attribute. The unhurried and hospitable samovar created a friendly atmosphere and conducive to conversation. This good friend was out of class, he was held in high esteem by both the poor and the king. Under the puff of a samovar, they composed poems, sang songs, danced round dances and decided matters of national importance. The samovar is sung in Russian folk songs, there are proverbs about it: “Tea is more important with a samovar-buyan, conversation is more fun”, “Where there is tea, there is paradise under the spruce”. The samovar has become an indispensable assistant to the teamaker, greatly facilitating the process of brewing tea. There was no need to heat the stove to boil water, with a samovar it took several minutes and turned not into daily work, but into a tradition of tea drinking. Water cools for a long time, tea in a samovar is brewed better, and it turns out much tastier!

Vladimir Stozharov at the samovar.

Samovar quite unconsciously became part of the cultural heritage of the Russian people. Moreover, not a single foreigner will be able to understand why such a simple and unpretentious household item, a samovar, is treated so carefully in our country, with all my heart. A measured rumble, bagels on the table, cups and saucers and the most delicious tea from a samovar - all this is so close to the heart, it gives so much warmth and comfort to the hearth. The samovar evokes memories of childhood, native and caring hands of the mother, chants of the wind, snowstorm outside the window, friendly festivities, family feasts for a Russian person. Not a single urban European cafe will be able to repeat all this, because this is a memory that lives in the hearts.

The samovar could not appear in any other country. There is in China, from where tea was brought to Russia, a related device, which also has a pipe and a blower. But there is no real samovar anywhere else, if only because in other countries tea is immediately brewed with boiling water, much like coffee.

Everyone knows that a samovar is a device for preparing boiling water. "He cooks" - hence the word came from.

And the samovar itself could not appear in any other country. There is in China, from where tea was brought to Russia, a related device, which also has a pipe and a blower. But there is no real samovar anywhere else, if only because in other countries tea is immediately brewed with boiling water, much like coffee.

The samovar owes its appearance to tea. Tea was brought to Russia in the 17th century from Asia and was used at that time as a medicine among the nobility.

Tea was imported to Moscow, and later to Odessa, Poltava, Kharkov, Rostov and Astrakhan. The tea trade was one of the most extensive and profitable commercial enterprises. In the 19th century, tea became the Russian national drink.

Tea competed with sbitnya, the favorite drink of ancient Russia. This hot drink was prepared with honey and medicinal herbs in a sbitennik. Sbitennik outwardly resembles a teapot, inside of which was placed a pipe for laying coal. A brisk trade in sbitn was going on at fairs.

In the 18th century, samovar-kitchens appeared in the Urals and Tula, which were a brotherhood divided into three parts: food was cooked in two, and tea in the third.

Sbitennik and samovar-kitchen were the forerunners of the samovar.

Where and when did the first samovar appear? Who invented it? Unknown. It is only known that, going to the Urals in 1701, the Tula blacksmith-industrialist I. Demidov took with him skilled workers, copper craftsmen. It is possible that even then samovars were made in Tula.

In the XIX century, the samovar "settled" in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Vyatka provinces. Be that as it may, but for two centuries the samovar and Tula have been inseparable from each other.

The samovar is a part of the life and destiny of our people, reflected in its proverbs and sayings, in the works of the classics of our literature - Pushkin and Gogol, Blok and Gorky.

The samovar is poetry. This is good Russian hospitality. This is a circle of friends and relatives, warm and cordial peace.

A veranda window entwined with hops, a summer night, with its sounds and smells, from the charm of which the heart stops, a circle of light from a lamp with a cozy fabric lampshade and, of course ... a grumbling, sparkling copper, steaming Tula samovar on the table.

Tula samovar... In our language, this phrase has long become stable. A.P. Chekhov compares an absurd, from his point of view, act with a trip "to Tula with his own samovar."

The following is known about the appearance of the first documented samovars in Tula. In 1778, on Shtykova Street, in Zarechye, the brothers Ivan and Nazar Lisitsyn made a samovar in a small, at first, first samovar establishment in the city. The founder of this institution was their father, the gunsmith Fyodor Lisitsyn, who, in his spare time at the arms factory, built his own workshop and practiced all kinds of copper work in it.

Already in 1803, four Tula tradesmen, seven gunsmiths, two coachmen, 13 peasants were working for them. Only 26 people. This is already a factory, and its capital is 3000 rubles, income - up to 1500 rubles. A lot of money. The factory in 1823 passes to the son of Nazar Nikita Lisitsyn.

The Lisitsyns' samovars were famous for their variety of shapes and finishes: barrels, vases with chasing and engraving, egg-shaped samovars with dolphin-shaped taps and loop-shaped handles. How much joy they brought to people! But a century passed - and the graves of the manufacturers were overgrown with grass, the names of their apprentices were forgotten. The first samovars that glorified Tula are no longer noisy, no longer singing their evening songs. They quietly mourn far from their homeland, in the museums of Bukhara, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaluga. However, the Tula Samovar Museum can boast of the oldest Lisitsyn samovar.

Meanwhile, samovar production turned out to be very profitable. Handicraftsmen quickly turned into manufacturers, workshops into factories.

In 1785, the samovar establishment of A. M. Morozov was opened, in 1787 - F. M. Popov, in 1796 - Mikhail Medvedev.

In 1808, eight samovar factories operated in Tula. In 1812, Vasily Lomov's factory was opened, in 1813 - by Andrei Kurashev, in 1815 - by Yegor Chernikov, in 1820 - by Stepan Kiselev.

Vasily Lomov, together with his brother Ivan, produced high quality samovars, 1000-1200 pieces a year, and gained high fame. Samovars were then sold by weight and cost: from brass - 64 rubles per pood, from red copper - 90 rubles per pood.

In 1826, the factory of merchants Lomovs produced 2372 samovars per year, Nikita Lisitsyn - 320 pieces, Chernikov brothers - 600 pieces, Kurashev - 200 pieces, tradesman Malikov - 105 pieces, gunsmiths Minaev - 128 pieces and Chiginsky - 318 pieces.

In 1829, at the first public exhibition of Russian manufactured goods in St. Petersburg, Malikov's samovars won a small silver medal.

In 1840, for their high quality, the Lomovs' samovars were among the first to have the right to wear the Russian state emblem as the highest award.

In 1850, there were 28 samovar factories in Tula alone, which produced about 120 thousand samovars per year and many other copper products. Thus, the factory of Ya. V. Lyalin produced more than 10 thousand pieces of samovars per year, the factories of I. V. Lomov, Rudakov, the Batashev brothers - seven thousand pieces each.

What is the reason for such a rapid development of the samovar industry? Deposits of iron ore, advantageous geographical location and proximity to Moscow. And one more very important circumstance. No region had as many metal craftsmen as Tula.

The ranks of workers were replenished in the samovar production and at the expense of otkhodnichestvo, which was hunted by a significant part of the peasant population of the province.

In the second half of the 19th century, Tula occupied one of the first places in Russia in the production of samovars.

In 1890, there were 77 factories in Tula and the province with 1362 workers, of which 74 factories were in Tula. Each employed from three to 127 people. There are four factories in the Tula district with the number of workers from four to 40.

The largest number of factories in Tula, and there were 50 of them, was in the District, where gunsmiths lived and worked.

Already at that time, there were proverbs about the samovar ("The samovar boils - it does not order to leave", "Where there is tea, there is paradise under the spruce"), songs, poems.

The newspaper "Tula Gubernskie Vedomosti" for 1872 (No. 70) wrote about the samovar as follows: "The samovar is a friend of the family hearth, the medicine of a vegetative traveler ... "

Tula samovars penetrated all corners of Russia, became the decoration of fairs. Every year from May 25 to June 10, samovars were transported from Tula along the Oka River (to the Oka, samovars were carried on horseback) to the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. The river route had a number of advantages: it was cheaper, and samovars were better preserved with this method of transportation.

The samovars of Batashev, Lyalin, Belousov, Gudkov, Rudakov, Uvarov, Lomov took the first places at the fairs. Large manufacturers, such as the Lomovs, Somovs, had their own shops in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tula and other cities.

During transportation, samovars were packed in boxes, which contained a dozen products of different sizes and styles, and were sold by weight. A dozen samovars weighed more than 4 pounds and cost 90 rubles. The heavier the samovar, the more expensive.

A lot of creative imagination was invested by the masters in individual details, which acquired fabulous forms. Such, for example, are cupronickel samovars, a samovar with handles in the form of a dragon, with vines, and others.

Despite the difference in design and decoration, the arrangement of all samovars is the same.

Each samovar consisted of the following parts: a wall, a jug, a circle, a neck, a tray, handles, a burdock, a faucet stem, a branch, a bottom, a grate, a damper, bearings, wooden attachments, burners and plugs.

It was not easy to master the craft of a samovarmaker.

Here is what N. G. Abrosimov, an old-timer-samovar maker of the village of Maslovo, recalls: “He began working as a student at the age of 11. He studied this craft for three and a half years. Brass of a certain size was cut for the wall (case), then it was rolled into a cylinder, and this form was in twelve steps. Brass was cut with teeth on one side and then fixed with hammer blows along the connecting seam, after which they carried it to the forge. Then the master (gunner) repeated the operations of sealing the seam with the help of hammers and files and each time fixed it by annealing in the forge. the smithy from master to master and back, the boys-apprentices and gradually looked closely at how the master works.

A lot of sweat was shed and sleepless nights were spent before the wall was made by order of the manufacturer. And if you bring a manufacturer to Tula to rent, sometimes they will find a marriage. A lot of work is spent, but there is nothing to receive. The work is hard, but I fell in love with it, it was nice when you make a wonderful wall out of a sheet of brass.

Until recently, Nikolai Grigorievich kept a set of tools, which he has now donated to the museum.

The samovar maker's inventory passed from father to son, and as it wore out, it was replaced with a new one. The amount for the purchase of a set of tools was subject to large fluctuations, depending on the specialty chosen by the master in production. For example, a set of worker-guiders cost 60 rubles. The kit included several mares, stalls, files, scissors, molds for cutting out styles, nests and hammers.

The main material for the manufacture of samovars were: green copper (brass), red (copper alloy -50-63% and zinc -37-50%), tompak (copper alloy -85-90% and zinc -10-15%). Sometimes samovars were silvered, gilded, and even made of silver and cupronickel (an alloy of copper -50-60%, zinc -19-39% and nickel -13-18%). Tompac samovars were made 10 times more than red ones (from an alloy of copper - 50-63% and zinc - 37-50%). Being more expensive, more beautiful, more luxurious, they dispersed to the homes of the nobility. In 1850, a tompak samovar cost 25-30 rubles a piece, depending on the finish. But the bulk of samovars were made of green copper.

The process of making the "Tula miracle", which consisted of 12 steps, is complex and diverse. There was a strict division of labor in production. There were almost no cases when the master would have made the entire samovar. There were seven main specialties in the samovar business:

The gunner - bent a copper sheet, soldered it and made the appropriate shape. For a week, he could make 6-8 pieces of blanks (depending on the form) and received an average of 60 kopecks per piece.

Tinker - tinned the inside of the samovar with tin. I made 60-100 pieces a day and received 3 kopecks apiece.

Turner - sharpened on the machine and polished the samovar (at the same time, the worker who turned the machine (turner) received 3 rubles a week). A turner could turn 8-12 pieces a day and receive 18-25 kopecks apiece.

A locksmith made handles, taps, etc. (handles - for 3-6 samovars a day) and received 20 kopecks for each pair.

Assembler - from all the individual parts he assembled a samovar, soldered taps, etc. He made up to two dozen samovars a week and received 23-25 ​​kopecks from one.

Cleaner - cleaned the samovar (up to 10 pieces a day), received 7-10 kopecks per piece.

Wood turner - made wooden cones for lids and handles (up to 400-600 pieces per day) and received 10 kopecks per hundred.

The process of making a samovar is lengthy before it appears in the form in which we are accustomed to seeing it.

The factories were assembling and finishing. Production of parts - at home. It is known that entire villages made one piece. Delivery of finished products was made once a week, sometimes every two weeks. They carried finished products for delivery on horseback, well packaged.

Samovars and parts for them were made not only in Tula, but also in the surrounding villages within a radius of about 40 km from the city. Thus, the population of the villages of Nizhniye Prisada, Khrushchevo, Banino, Osinovaya Gora, Badgers, Maslovo, Mikhalkove of the Tula district and the villages of Izvol, Torchkovo, Skorovarovo and Glinischa of the Aleksinsky district from generation to generation specialized in samovar fishing. When making the walls of the samovar, the master received raw materials from the manufacturer by weight, and the samovar was also handed over by weight. The work was carried out in residential huts all year round, with the exception of summer time, when field work began. Engaged in samovar craft and whole families, and alone. Each samovar maker had his own style for making the wall of the samovar. Circles, burners, pallets, plugs and necks were most often made cast - this was done by handicraft foundry workers from the remains of copper and spent cartridges. In total, 4-5 thousand handicraftsmen and a number of copper foundries were employed in such production. The highest rise in samovar production in Tula falls on the 1880s. In connection with the development of capitalism, samovar factories arose in the form of a capitalist manufactory with civilian workers.

Large samovar manufacturers stand out, "samovar kings" - Lomovs, Batashevs, Teile, Vanykins, Vorontsovs, Shemarins. Samovars made in these factories were especially popular.

At the end of the 19th century, there were more than 10 factories of the namesakes of the Batashevs in Tula. The earliest of them was founded by I. G. Batashev in 1825, and the largest factory by V. S. Batashev was founded in 1840. In 1898, the charter of the "Association of the steam samovar factory of the heirs of Vasily Stepanovich Batashev in Tula" was approved. The new factory was built at the end of the 19th century in Tula on Gryazevskaya street (now Leiteizen street, house number 12). It was the first steam samovar factory in Russia.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the factory of the heirs of V.S. Batashev produced 54 different styles of samovars. The samovars of the Batashev factory were especially valued.

The famous Batashev samovars, the best in quality and finish, quickly sold out, bringing a lot of income to the manufacturer. Not a single Russian exhibition in Russia and abroad could do without the Tula samovar, without the products of the Batashev factory.

Those wishing to participate in the exhibitions had to present several samples of all varieties of their products. Manufacturers who will take part in the exhibitions must, in case of receiving awards, supply their samovars with factory marks.

Exhibitions were different: fairs, which were held annually from July 15 to August 25, provincial, district, private and industry: art, industrial, art-industrial, agricultural and specialized, which, as a rule, were held in different cities annually. There were all-Russian exhibitions (they were held approximately 10 years later in big cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novgorod) and worldwide.

Manufacturers received awards for the best presented products at exhibitions.

The awards satisfied the pride and vanity of the manufacturer, and the samples of medals were branded on samovars to popularize the products. The most common awards were from agricultural exhibitions, since here almost all products presented for review received awards, but awards at all-Russian and world exhibitions were issued less frequently. Participation in these exhibitions required a lot of conditions and, above all, the highest quality of objects and the degree of artistic performance. At all-Russian exhibitions, it was also envisaged that the material from which the object was made was Russian and the workers were also of Russian origin, the technical arrangement of the factory and the beauty of the building were taken into account.

The highest award at all-Russian exhibitions was considered the state emblem, approved by the Ministry of Finance for the best factory products. At the All-Russian Nizhny Novgorod Exhibition in 1896, Batashev's heirs received this highest award for the production of samovars. The print of the coat of arms and other awards can be seen on advertisements and samovars of the heirs of V. S. Batashev and other manufacturers.

At art and industrial exhibitions for samovars, the heirs of V. S. Batashev received three awards: "Grand Prix" in 1903-1904 in St. Petersburg at the international art and industrial exhibition, in 1904 at the international exhibition in Paris and in 1911 in Turin , three honorary diplomas and more than 20 other awards.

The funds of the Tula Museum of Samovars include a large collection of various styles of samovars from the factory of V. S. Batashev and his heirs. Among them is a red copper samovar of 1870 - a Florentine vase, an oval-polished tombak, a unique collection of souvenir samovars that were made as a gift to the royal family in 1909. Samovars are made with great skill in the form of Greek, Rococo vases, mirror, Byzantine glasses and a smooth ball. These samovars with a capacity of 200 grams, operating, were made as a gift to the children of Tsar Nicholas II: four daughters and a son.

Over the centuries, the styles of samovars have changed. By the end of the 19th century, their number reached 165. With such diversity, the production process cannot be fully mechanized. Therefore, the tools of labor were almost unchanged: mares in the form of iron bars with a thickening at the ends for forging the wall of the samovar, each weighing up to two pounds; stall or vertical mare for forging smooth samovars, for rounding on samovars; nests for cutting samovars; soldering irons for soldering a jug with a samovar body; scissors for cutting metal; anvils; hammer sets; stamps for branding samovars; iron molds for the formation of samovars.

According to the list of equipment and workforce of the samovar factory of the Batashev brothers for 1883, one can judge the scope of their enterprise: hammers -500; Gornov -20; furs -20; kobylin -300; vice -250; files -400; steam engine - one; scissors -100; ticks -50; lathes -42; incisors -40; masters -125; apprentices -100; students -30; day laborers -45. During the year, the factory produced 6,000 samovars worth 42,000 rubles.

In the second half of the 19th century, Tula occupied the first place in Russia in the production of samovars. In 1890, there were 77 factories with 1362 workers in the province. Each of them employed from 3 to 127 people.

For greater advertising, large manufacturers issue price lists, catalogs, and posters. In one of N. I. Batashev’s posters, we read: “Of all the existing firms of the Batashevs, the firm“ The heir of N. G. Batashev - N. I. Batashev ”is the first and oldest in Russia and has existed since 1825. Due to the high quality of the products produced by the factory samovars, our company has long enjoyed the best reputation and thus achieved that samovars with the brand "Batashev" began to be required not only in Russia, but also abroad. Seeing such a success of our company's samovars, both large and small handicraftsmen appeared in Tula, who, taking advantage of the similarity of the name with our company, began to forge and imitate our brands and thereby mislead customers.Unable to fight this evil and wanting to protect our company from possible imitators and fakes of our competitors, we declared to the Ministry of Trade and Industry placed on this etiquette, a brand name with the designation on it "1825". Only our company has existed since 1825, and none of the competitors can imitate and make this brand. For the high quality of products, the founder of the company was awarded the highest award in 1850 with the state emblem and in 1855 with the title of "Manufacturer of the Court of His Imperial Majesty". Following the behests of the founder, the company will continue to tirelessly ensure that its samovars still surpass the quality of the products of all competitors. Therefore, pay attention to the brand with the image on it "1825", with this brand samovars only from our oldest samovar factory in Russia.

At the end of the 19th century, I.F. Kapyrzin and his heirs, the Shemarin brothers, the Vorontsovs and others, were the big competitors of the Batashevs.

I. Kapyrzin's samovar factory was founded in 1860. By the beginning of the 20th century, about 100 styles of samovars with a capacity of 2 to 80 liters were produced at the steam samovar factory of the heirs of I.F. Kapyrzin. Among them are distilled samovars, shop samovars, travel samovars, and cooking samovars of the "kitchen" type.

Since 1887, the factory of the Shemarin brothers has been operating. In 1899, for the purpose of greater enrichment, the Shemarins brothers entered into an agreement among themselves on the establishment of a Trading House. They sold samovars to different cities of Russia and were suppliers to the court of His Majesty the Shah of Persia.

The Shemarin brothers were participants in the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889, they were awarded the Big Silver Medal for samovars, and in 1901 in Glasgow they were awarded an honorary diploma. By the beginning of the 20th century, the factory became the largest in the city in terms of production volume and the number of workers, it ranked second after the factory of the heirs of V. S. Batashev. The factory employed 740 people in 1913. Up to 200 samovars were produced daily.

Along with large factories, there were many small ones. So, at the factory of Vasily Gudkov, founded in 1878, seven people worked. In 1879, 14 people worked at the Timofey Puchkov factory, the factory produced 100 samovars worth 6,500 silver rubles a year.

With manual assembly, five or six pieces of ordinary samovars were collected per day.

Large manufacturers bought raw materials in Moscow, St. Petersburg, at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, and later at the Kolchuginsky copper-rolling plants, small entrepreneurs - as a rule, in Tula.

In order to sell their products faster, enterprising manufacturers often resorted to various techniques to decorate their products. So, the exhibitor, receiving a commendation sheet, on which a two-headed eagle was depicted, put the state emblem on his products of enormous size. There was a general impression that the exhibitor had an award - the state emblem. There were also such imprints on samovars, which reflected the production process of the samovar. The more "awards", the more glory to the manufacturer.

Brands placed on a samovar were registered by the Ministry of Trade. A manufacturer who arbitrarily branded a samovar was fined or imprisoned for a term of four to eight months. A manufacturer who kept goods or sold a samovar with an unauthorized stamp was also punished. But in the pursuit of profit, entrepreneurs continued to make fakes. Criminal cases arose, as a result of which samovars with fake stamps were destroyed, and the owners were fined.

With the development of samovar production, technical improvement also took place: manual labor was gradually replaced by mechanical engines, and in the 80s of the 19th century, oil and steam engines were used in large samovar factories, a transition was made to the stamping production of covers and plugs. Some manufacturers used the services of a cartridge factory, which had powerful presses. By 1908, a quarter of all Tula factories were equipped with mechanical engines. The advent of machines improved the quality and speeded up the work process, but working conditions changed little, in some workshops the air became more polluted, gases from internal combustion engines were added to the smell of toxic chemicals used in cleaning products.

The desire to reduce the cost of production led to the standardization of the forms of samovars. The so-called samovars with a glass, a can were widely used. Simplicity in production, and at the same time modesty and elegance, distinguished samovars intended for the mass consumer. Since the 80s of the XIX century, samovars began to be covered with nickel. Such samovars, shining like a mirror, fell in love with buyers and dispersed to different parts from the Nizhny Novgorod fair.

Meanwhile, since the middle of the 19th century, tea drinking from a samovar has become a national tradition in Russia.

The samovar, despite its very high cost, penetrated into the working and peasant families and became an indispensable attribute of every Russian home.

The samovar was used not only at home, it was taken on the road, for a walk. For the same purpose, road samovars were used. These samovars are unusual in shape, easy to transport (removable legs were screwed on, the handles were attached to the wall). In shape they are multifaceted, cubic, sometimes cylindrical. In Tula in the second half of the 19th century, such samovars were produced by the factories of Pelageya Gudkova and the heirs of Ivan Kapyrzin.

In the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, many samovar parts, such as taps, air vents, cones, could be purchased in warehouses and stores as products ready for sale. On taps and other details of the samovar, we find the numbers one, two, three, etc., indicating their size. And now similar numbers can be found on samovars of that period.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, new types of samovars appeared - kerosene, the Parichko samovar and copper samovars from the Chernikov factory with a pipe on the side. In the latter, such a device increased the movement of air and contributed to the rapid boiling of water.

Kerosene samovars with a fuel tank were produced (along with fire samovars) by the factory of the Prussian citizen Reinhold Teile, founded in 1870, and they were made only in Tula. This samovar found great demand where kerosene was cheap, especially in the Caucasus. Kerosene samovars were also sold abroad.

In 1908, the steam factory of the brothers Shakhdat and Co. produced a samovar with a removable jug - the Parichko samovar. It was invented by engineer A. Yu. Parichko, who sold his patent to Shakhdat and Co. These samovars were safe in terms of fire, they could not melt or deteriorate, like ordinary samovars, if there was no water in them during the fire. Thanks to the device of the upper blower and the ability to adjust the draft, the water in them remained hot for a long time. And they were easy to clean. They worked on coal, alcohol and other fuels. The newspaper "Tulskaya rumor" for 1908 wrote about the samovars "Parichko" as an outstanding invention, as a good gift for the holiday. The samovar kept in the museum bears the stamp: "Samovar "Parichko".

Samovars made by the hands of Tula masters are genuine works of art, and we have the right to classify them as objects of applied art.

According to the 1912-1913 census, the number of samovar factories in Tula was 50, with an annual production of 660,000 samovars.

The revolution of 1917 made its own adjustments. During this period, the samovar industry almost ceased to exist. In 1918, the nationalization of samovar enterprises took place. So, the factory of the heirs of V.S. Batashev was transferred to the jurisdiction of Tulpatronzavod. In 1919, a state association of samovar factories was formed in Tula with a production center at the former Batashev factory.

One of the large enterprises based on the basis of the Shemarin samovar factory was the factory named after. V. I. Lenin, whose samovars were considered the best in Tula. It produced samovars from 1922 to 1931.

The factory employed 700 workers, machines and coke furnaces were introduced, which saved 50% of charcoal. Manual work was gradually mechanized. In January 1925, this factory produced about 3,000 samovars.

An interesting samovar of this factory with a capacity of 50 liters with the emblem of the RSFSR and the inscription: "RSFSR TGSNKh Tultorg, 1st Tula samovar factory named after V. I. Lenin, 1923." However, most of the samovars were produced by artels. So, in the village of Skorovarovo, Aleksinsky district, the artel "Bystrota" appeared, in the village of Fedorovka, Leninsky district - "Samovarshchik", in Nizhniye Prisady - "Charter", in the village of Khrushchev - "Tula samovar". Artels "Progress", "Our Future", "Red Plowman" worked in Tula. Samovars of the artel "Our Future" in 1923 at the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition were awarded the Diploma of the first degree for excellent production, high-quality assembly and the best style. On the samovars produced by this artel, one could read the brand: "Samovar factory of the 1st cooperative artel, awarded a diploma of the 1st degree."

The heyday of the production of samovars in Tula after the revolution falls on the period of the New Economic Policy.

During the Great Patriotic War, all the factories of the city were converted to the production of military products and almost all were destroyed while defending the city from the advancing Nazi troops under the command of Guderian, who never captured Tula.

After the Great Patriotic War, a new stage in the development of the Tula samovar production began.

In the 50s, all the samovar enterprises of Tula were merged into one. The Stamp plant is the only one in the city that began to produce samovars.

The production technology has come a long way. Work on improving the production of samovars continues. If earlier the handles of samovars were riveted, now this is done by welding, the crane is also welded to the body. All details of samovars are made of high-quality materials: brass, cast iron, steel, plastic. Made of brass, in order to protect against corrosion and give a decorative look, samovars are nickel-plated on the outside and tinned on the inside. The warranty period of the samovar is 10 years.

Exhibition specimens of samovars deserve special attention.

Samovar "Friendship of Peoples", made in the form of a vase. Its handles are made in the form of grape leaves, on the wall - a convex image of the emblems of the Union republics

In the souvenir samovar "Hut" (yes, the same one, on chicken legs), brackets, dragons are cast.

Samovar "Peace to the world". Its body is a "globe", striated by parallels and meridians. What is our earth based on? On human labor. At the base of the building - artisans in aprons, with hammers in their hands. Closely embrace the planet yellow ears. And the top of everything is the children. They stand, holding hands tightly, at the very top. Wonderful job!

The samovar "Forest Story" depicts a fighting hunter and a bear.

On the samovar "600 years of the Battle of Kulikovo" squads of Russian soldiers are depicted.

The samovar "Peace to the world" is decorated with wheat ears with oak leaves.

Tula samovars have been repeatedly awarded medals at domestic and international exhibitions, and this indicates their great popularity both in our country and abroad.

In 1973 and 1978, the Tula Samovar exhibitions, which were held with great success, were organized in the Tula Regional Museum of Local Lore.

In 1979, samovars from the museum's collection visited the National Exhibition in London, in 1983 - in Paris and Rome at the exhibition "Russian Tea Party", Tula samovars are known in 56 countries of the world.

Machine-building plant "Stamp" named after B.L. Vannikova is the country's leading enterprise for the manufacture of samovars. 28 types of electric, hot samovars are produced at Stamp, with a capacity of 1.5, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9 liters, as well as pantry - 45 liters. The plant mastered several new types of samovars.

Since 1964, the Yasnaya Polyana souvenir samovar has been produced with a capacity of 125 grams and a height of 13 centimeters. This is a 56-fold reduced copy of L. N. Tolstoy's samovar, located in the museum-estate of the great writer.

In 1977, a new type of samovar was mastered - combined. It is a combination of a flame and electric samovar, with a capacity of 5 liters. It can be boiled with the help of electricity, and charcoal, a torch. Such a samovar is good both in the apartment and in the country, in nature. Art painting has been mastered at the plant since 1990.

Currently, the Stamp Machine-Building Plant has been renamed the Stamp Federal State Plant. The collection of samovars, which used to be located at the factory, now has its own building, located in the city center, near the walls of the Tula Kremlin.

Tea drinking behind a samovar is a distinctive feature of Russian traditional life. The samovar was not just a household item, it personified well-being, family comfort and prosperity. It was passed on by inheritance, it was part of the girl's dowry. He flaunted in the most prominent place in the house, took pride of place on the table.

The history of the Russian samovar goes into the distant past. According to legend, the samovar was brought to Russia from Holland by Peter the Great. But according to documentary evidence, he appeared half a century after his death. We owe the origin of the samovar to tea, which appeared in Russia at the end of the 16th century. Its popularity grew rapidly; by the 19th century, tea was considered the most popular drink in Russia.

Already in the 18th century, sbitennik samovars appeared in Tula and the Urals, in which sbiten was cooked from honey, herbs, water and spices. The first mention of the samovar is found in the inventory of the property of the Onega Monastery, dated 1746. Tula is called the birthplace of the samovar, but some historians do not exclude that the first samovars began to be made at one of the Ural factories: Irginsky, Troitsky or Suksunsky. Historical documents kept in the State Archive describe a factory-made tinned copper samovar weighing 16 pounds. According to the research, it has been proven that it was made by Irga craftsmen in 1738-1740.

In the 19th century, a kerosene samovar was produced, at the factory of the Chernikov brothers they began to produce samovars with a side pipe, this improvement accelerated the boiling process, increased air movement. By 1812, the Pyotr Silin plant in the Moscow region was considered the largest enterprise for the production of samovars. 3000 pieces were produced annually. But by 1820, Tula became the leader in samovar production. For thirty years, 28 factories were opened there, annually producing 120,000 samovars.

The emergence of samovars gave rise to models of various shapes. Egg-shaped samovars with loop-shaped handles were popular, some models resembled an ancient Greek vessel, vases with legs in the form of lion's paws, which looked very solemn. They also made road models with removable legs. They were rectangular, polyhedral, cubic in shape. You could take them with you on a picnic, on a hike, on a trip.

The 19th century saw the flourishing of the samovar business in Russia. Each factory tried to create its own, unlike the other samovar. Spherical, smooth, conical, faceted samovars appeared. The volume was also different, reaching up to 20 liters. The people called samovars according to their shape: flame, turnip, vase, blower, acorn, Easter egg.

In the 20th century, the samovar was assigned only one role - boiling water and serving it to the tea table. Three forms were distinguished: conical, cylindrical, spherical flattened. The designs of handles, faucets, burners, legs have become more diverse. In 1912, the number of samovars produced in Tula reached 660,000 pieces per year. The history of samovars during the civil war was interrupted, since the production of samovars was temporarily suspended. It later resumed. Years later, already in Soviet times, they began to produce electric samovars.

Production of the first samovars

The process of making samovars was very complicated, it consisted of 12 stages. The whole process was divided into certain operations, each master did his job. Seven specialists participated in the production:

• Gunner. He bent and soldered a copper sheet, made the appropriate shape out of it. For a week he could make 6-8 blanks.
• Tinker. His work included tinning the inside of the samovar with tin. He could make 60-100 pieces a day.
• Turner. He sharpened and polished the samovar using a special machine, which was turned by a worker (turner). It was possible to make up to 12 pieces per day.
• Locksmith. Produced components (faucets, handles, legs).
• Collector. From individual parts, he assembled a samovar, soldered legs, taps. For a week he collected up to 24 samovars.
• Cleaner. This worker could clean up to 10 samovars a day.
• Wood turner. He was engaged in the manufacture of wooden knobs for lids.

Parts were made at home, only assembly and finishing took place in factories. Sometimes in the whole village they made one part for a samovar, once a week the parts were collected and taken on horseback to the factory for delivery.

Samovars were sold at fairs. Special samovar rows were organized at the famous fairs: Nizhny Novgorod and Makarievskaya. In early June, the Tula people sent samovars to Nizhny Novgorod. On horseback, the goods reached Aleksin, then along the Oka, their waterway lay to Nizhny Novgorod. This delivery was the best. Samovars were sold by weight, made of red copper were more expensive than models made of brass. To ask for a higher price, merchants resorted to tricks: they poured lead into the samovar, inserted a cast-iron grate.

Why tea from a samovar is so delicious

Anyone who has tried tea from a real Russian samovar at least once is convinced that tea from a samovar is much tastier. Why? The answer turns out to be simple. In an electric kettle, water boils too quickly, destroying the structure of the water, becoming useless, and harmful when repeatedly boiled. Turning the teapot over, harmful substances that collect at the bottom get into the tea. The spout of the samovar is located above the level of accumulation of heavy water, so you can get healthy water, soft and tasty. On top of the samovar there is a burner on which a teapot is placed. It does not boil, but is kept warm, insisting.

The most unusual samovars in history

Now samovars of that time can only be seen in museums. There were samovars made of copper, steel, brass, cupronickel, less often of silver. An exquisite samovar was made for Emperor Alexander the First, which is now kept in the Moscow Kremlin Museum. It was decorated with overlays in the form of lion heads, the cap was in the form of an angel figurine, and the faucet had the head of a bird of prey.

For the children of Emperor Nicholas II in 1909 in Tula, five small samovars were made, with a volume of one glass. Each had its own form: in the form of a vase, in the form of a glass, in the form of an antique vessel, in the form of a ball, a Greek amphora. All of them are preserved in the museum and are in working order. In the Armory, you can admire a samovar made of transparent quartz.

In 1922, the largest samovar was made at one of the factories in Tula. It held 250 liters of water and weighed 100 kg. It was presented to the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Kalinin. Hot water was kept in it for two days, although it took about 40 minutes to heat it up. It is worth noting the smallest samovar in history. Its size is 1 mm, it consists of 12 parts and is made of gold.

To date, the most expensive samovars are the samovars of the Faberge workshops. Silver and gold were used for their production. Unique techniques of chasing and casting were used.

Samovar for almost three centuries it has been considered a primordially Russian symbol of hospitality and an integral part of the life of the Slavic people. But, no matter how strange it may sound now, the history of this ancient device goes back several millennia. And the samovar appeared not at all in Russia, as is commonly believed throughout the world.

But, be that as it may, the Russian word "samovar" migrated to many countries and this device is called - "samovar" by the British, and the French, and the Spaniards, and Italians, and, by the way, the Turks call it - "semaver".

Antique samovar of ancient Rome

Later, during antiquity, a design resembling a samovar appeared in Ancient Rome - the auteps. It was a tall jug, inside which was placed a brazier for hot coals that warmed the water. In the same device, it was also possible to cool drinks on hot days, and for this, ice was used instead of coal. Autepsa had the great advantage that she did not need an external fire, since the heating came from within.

Chinese samovar "Ho-Go"

A similar ancient device exists in China. A deep bowl with a built-in pipe and blower - this is what the famous Chinese prototype of the samovar called "Ho-Go" is. They are made of metal and porcelain, and are usually served with soup or boiling broth.

There is a high probability that it was along with tea that “Ho-Go” came to Russia from China in the 16th century. But no one really knows for sure right now. After all, the history of the origin of the Russian samovar is very confusing and contradictory.

When did the first samovar appear in Russia

According to one of the legends, the samovar first appeared in Russia during the reign of Peter the Great. Since the emperor often visited European countries and from where he brought a lot of ideas and interesting objects, it was rumored that it was he who brought this outlandish device from Holland.

However, if you believe the historical chronicles, then the samovar appeared in Russia after the death of Peter. And for the first time it was created not in Tula, as is commonly believed, but in the Urals in 1740. And historians found the first mention of the Tula samovar only six years later. With the advent of samovars in Russia in the 16th century, tea also appeared, which became a very popular drink by the beginning of the 19th century.

Mass production in Russia of a miracle device

The very same production of samovars is a delicate and labor-intensive business. Over the years, they were made from different metals. The very first were copper and cupronickel, and later brass. But in museums there are samovars made of precious metals - gold, silver and even pure quartz.

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For the children of Emperor Nicholas II in 1909, Tula craftsmen made five small samovars with a volume of one glass. "Each had its own form: in the form of a vase, in the form of a glass, in the form of an antique vessel, in the form of a ball, a Greek amphora." All of them are preserved in the museum and are in working condition.

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Samovars with a volume of 3-8 liters were widely distributed, although larger ones were also produced - 12-15 liters. Due to the harsh climate in Russia, such samovars quickly became fashionable, since you can not only drink boiling water from them, but also heat your home. Therefore, the samovar has become so popular among the Russian people, despite the considerable cost. And interestingly, the price of this unique device was determined by its weight. The heavier the samovar, the more expensive.

Samovar - the soul of every home

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The samovar made tea brewing so much easier that it became an indispensable household helper. Now there was no longer any need to heat the stove to heat the boiling water. And it didn't take much time at all. And the heated water in the samovar did not cool down for a long time.

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This kind fat"друг" был вне всяких сословий, он был в почете и у простого крестьянина, и у царя-батюшки. Под "пыхтение" самовара слагали стихи, пели песни, водили хороводы и решали дела государственной значимости. Медный блестящий самовар и по сей день живет в литературных произведениях Пушкина, Блока, Горького и Гоголя. А также на полотнах русских художников классиков.!}

A measured rumble, bagels on the table, cups and saucers and the most delicious tea from a samovar - all this is so close to the heart, it gives so much warmth and comfort to the hearth. And under the beating of hearts warmed by the heat of the Tula samovar, the poetry of the soul, national Russian poetry is born ... For a Russian person, the samovar evokes memories of childhood, mother's dear and caring hands, wind chants, snow blizzard outside the window, friendly festivities, family feasts.

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Wherever you are during the day, at night -
It's like being at home next to him.
He buzzes in the forest hut,
In the cities, among the steppes...
From it often Pushkin
He treated his friends to tea.
Commander, Prince Suvorov
He took him with him.