The "Domostroi": Rules for Russian Households in the Time of Ivan the Terrible

by Anonymous (Editor), Carolyn Johnston Pouncy (Translator)

Winner of the 1994 Heldt Prize from the Association of Women in Slavic Studies A manual on household management, the Domostroi is one of the few sources on the social history and secular life of Russia in the time of Ivan the Terrible. It depicts a society that prized religious orthodoxy, reliance on tradition, and absolute subordination of the individual to the family and the state. Specific instructions tell how to arrange hay, visit monasteries, distill vodka, treat servants, entertain clergy, cut out robes, and carry out many other daily activities. Carolyn Johnston Pouncy here offers, with an informative introduction, the first complete English translation.

Genres: History, Russia, Nonfiction, Russian History, Academic, Religion, 16th Century

278 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1994

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

Domestic manual with a rich manuscript tradition. Includes recipes for making beer (strong and weak) and Kvass ( a fermented drink based on rye bread) as well as having guidance on who to serve it to. Instructions on how to behave and run a household - think Mrs Beaton meets Ivan the Terrible, but without steamed puddings.

All in all it is though, for all its apparent practicality, a mysterious book - it shares much in common in terms of detail, principle and organisation with household management books from eastern Europe suggesting that some person unknown plagiarised a Polish book evidence that the cultural frontier was fairly porous, truly nothing can stop the world wide trend to common cooking fashions, putting a Russian spin on it in the process, oddly it appears to be written for a town dweller without a rural estate - a fairly small and specialised group in the Russia of Ivan the Terrible. Sadly the mystery of its derivation and marketing in a world of manuscript books are more interesting then the correct etiquette for discipling servants, and in common with many other early household books the recipes are not ones that can be readily followed without a good degree of imaginative interpretation servants and a large sized pantry also help.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

An introduction to the book, and the book itself in modern English. The intro has some of the problems with figuring out the author of the original work: the question is who would be prosperous enough to give this kind of advice and yet literate and so able to write it. It appears to be someone below the boyar stratum, but still plenty rich, and monks have rather different household structures, and priests were seldom rich.

But -- it touches on all sorts of stuff. What to believe and how to pray. How and when to invite the bishops, priests, and monks in and how to receive them. How to amass a daughter's dowry -- in advance. How important it is to have servants of good character, which gets all the more interesting when you realize that most household servants were slaves, who had sold themselves for support. The duties of a wife, which include corporal punishment of both slaves and children, and the duty not to keep a guest without her husband knowing -- which must have been feasible, pointing at the segregation of the household. The importance of keeping your servants from hobnobbing from witches, which is all the harder in that you would naturally notice when a female slave is talking with a man (scandalous, even for a slave) but think that her talking with an old woman is innocent. Warnings against using any kind of herbal treatment for medicine -- all magic, that, stick to prayers. Take about leaving inches of fabric in the seams when you make a fancy garment for a "young son, daughter, or young bride", so you can let it out and so keeping it while they are growing; apparently they married very young (the canonical age was twelve for girls) in his social class. How to buy supplies and how much better it is to have your own -- how to store them and how important it is to feed the poor from them.

I skimmed over the meals section where it describes, in exhaustive length, what kinds of fish and meat can be eaten in every season of the year.

It has a long description of proper wedding ceremonies, taking days. Describing the "young prince" and the "young princess" also known as the bridegroom and bride It's interesting to note that some of the ceremony takes place at the bride's parents', and some at the groom's parents', and the other set of parents did not attend those ceremonies -- part of it was sending word to them what had happened. The bride is always to be borne to the church in a sleigh. And sprinkling the couple with a mix of grain and golden coins, which must have been uncomfortable.

Some of the advice is repeated. Particularly in the opening section. And it's not always consistent (which lend weight to the belief that it's a compilation) -- for instance, it says that the wife must confide everything about her housekeeping to her husband, but also that she should not tell him about the servants' wrongdoing when she can correct it herself.

[Rebecka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Best part? That one about what women are supposed to talk about when entertaining guests, or while at someone else's house (i.e. stuff that will bore them to death), WHILE UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, EVER, DRINKING ALCOHOL (пьѧныи мѹжь дѹрно, а жена пьѧна в мирѹ не пригоже). Nor, God forbid, being at rest (а сама бы гдсрнѧ ѿнюд никакоже, никоторыми дѣлы ѡпрично немощи без дѣла не была). A woman must never be without something to do, but men, seemingly, can. Women are also not to eat or drink secretly, i.e. unbeknownst to their lord and master, nor ask for presents (random?). I also like the comment at the end about how, if you behave appropriately (bring gifts, etc.) when you are a guest at someone's house, no one will beat/whip you on the road (the road back, I presume).

Of course, indulging in adultery and drunkenness gets you a ticket to hell! "и пьѧньственаго недѹга такоже берегисѧ в двѹ сихъ главизнах всѧ злаѧ сводѧтсѧ до ада преисподнѧго".

Fun, but mostly boring.

[Penelope Falkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wild ride into the cultural context of sixteenth century Russia. The Orthodox Church wrote down the oral folkloric traditions of the peasantry, added the code of conduct for Orthodoxy, and included some excellent recipes for kvas. They didn't skimp on the details either, outlining everything down to how to properly beat your slaves, secure your winter stores, and clean up your front yard. Well worth the read if you're into guffawing at priests telling people not to get too drunk at a party because they look like fools and are ruining everyone's night.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main value of this account lies in the insight it contains into the Russian Orthodox Church's doctrine in the 16th century. The household-related advice is humdrum and not very interesting, with the lone exception of the wedding tradition. Yikes, these folks really liked their weddings and they liked to make them last a really long time.

[Jack T · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Ursula sunday · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helped me realize that a drunk woman is not fit to be on earth

[Adam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Who knew the worst attribute of Ivan the Terrible was his prose?

[Carla Cook · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure why I thought this would be interesting.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives

[Horus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very readible translation with comprehensive footnotes and well written introduction. Pouncy (the editor and translator) quite thoroughly dissects the differing theories regarding the book's origins as wll as the later additions, and explains from which pespective the original author was likely writing from. This is important, because without that context, it would be like reading The Archictectural Digest magazines sometime in the future and assuming everyone from the 21st century lived in mansions. It was also written by a man, and therefore provides very little information regarding the womens' side of the household. There is also an excellent list of resources to follow up with if that is your interest.

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are interested in pre-modern Russia, this is the book to look at-- even though you will want to strangle the author(s). (One suspects this is why our 16th century Russian author was so suspicious of women, strangers, etc.) However, the book is full of clues to the running of households and the managing of food in the premodern age, though some of the chapters constituting the "Long version" are post 1600.

[Sean Mccarrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

What can be said about this book? It is a list of rules for Russian Households in the 16th century. It is all pretty straight forward, and the edition I have has a pretty good intro to it. It's not really a fun read, but then again what Russian literature is really fun? But seriously, it is for the historically curious only.

[CJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful background information. I found the chapters on what foods were to be eaten in which season very interesting. Not sure I'd want to eat chipmunk, but that is a solution to the "mini-bear" problem.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strict rules of living from Russia, back when things were real scary. Actually, its a good supplement to many works of Russian literature. Offers some insight. I'm thinking of Pushkin or Gogol.

[Grace Krilanovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it during a recent cookbook reading kick. Actually this is more a 400-year-old lifestyle manual for Russian newlyweds. Everything always comes back to God, unsurprisingly.

[Stranniki · Rating 5 out of 5]

good history

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent historical resource, but not much value as a narrative. Probably a very select audience for this one.

[Rachel]

Read for Class