Russian folk embroidery of the archaic type has been the object of study by many scientists. A very extensive bibliography of works devoted to this issue is a clear confirmation of this. The works of A. A. Afanasyev, A. K. Ambroz, V. S. Voronov, V. A. Gorodtsov, L. A. Dintses, G. S. Maslova, B. A. Rybakov and many other researchers have largely revealed genesis of Russian folk embroidery patterns. But since in life in general and in science in particular there is hardly a question to which an absolutely comprehensive answer could be given, then in this case too, researchers are attracted by the tempting prospect of offering their own interpretation of the semantics of the most ancient compositions of Russian folk embroidery. One of such attempts is the article by G. P. Durasov, published in the journal “Soviet Ethnography”. The author, based on extensive archaeological and ethnographic material, attempted to find out the reason for the appearance of the image of a double-headed eagle in Russian folk embroidery and determine the meaning of this ornamental motif. According to G.P. Durasov, this is a symbol of heavenly fire.
G. P. Durasov notes that the pattern in question can most often be found in embroideries of the North and North-West of Russia, where they decorated clothes (hems of shirts), hats and towels (ends) 98), was the main factor preserved (p. 88 ). A two-headed bird with lowered or raised wings was included in a complex frieze composition, one of the components of which was quite often the figure of a woman with raised or lowered arms. In Russian folk art, in particular in folklore, the idea of fire was associated with a bird - a rooster, a falcon, an eagle, or rather, fire was often associated with the images of these birds. In addition, this ornamental motif (the image of a double-headed eagle) is most typical for embroidery of the North and North-West of Russia, where the slash-and-burn (burn) farming system has long prevailed. The above facts allow G.P. Durasov to draw the following conclusion: “It can be assumed that in this region there has long been a direct connection between the widespread existence of patterns with a two-headed bird (heavenly fire) and a female figure (mother earth) and the preservation of the old slash-and-shift farming systems” (p. 98).
It would seem that this point of view, supported by statistical data on the spread of cuttings in the Kargopol, Vytegorsky, Pudozh and Olonets districts, is quite convincing and well-reasoned. However, it seems that after all, it was not the increase in barley yields by 9% and oats by 17%, and also not that the rye in the fields gave “6.1”, but on the “fire” land “6.5” ” (with the image of a two-headed bird (as heavenly fire) and a female figure (as mother earth) in the embroidery patterns of the North Russian region. There was undoubtedly a certain connection between the two-headed bird and the female figure, but, as it seems to us, it had several different character.
One can agree with G.P. Durasov that “the embroidery process itself was functionally, obviously, close to agrarian ritual actions” (p. 98). But the question is whether the double-headed eagle in these embroideries really symbolizes heavenly fire. I think there are more than good reasons for doubt.
The image of a double-headed eagle came into Russian peasant embroidery only in the 17th-18th centuries, and became especially widespread at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, which is convincingly confirmed by the materials given in the article by A. K. Ambrose1 (this article is also repeatedly referred to by G. . P. Durasov).
G. S. Maslova in her fundamental monograph, speaking about the widespread prevalence of the double-headed eagle motif with raised wings in peasant embroidery of various provinces of Russia, notes: “Its (this type of heraldic eagle. - S. Zh.) products, in particular, contributed to its spread Russian linen manufactories of the 18th century, similar to the Yaroslavl manufactory” and further: “The name of this pattern in Pomorie is interesting - tavern eagle, which may indicate one of the ways of its penetration into the peasant environment; the image of the coat of arms on the “tsar’s” tavern was not uncommon in the 17th century”.
It seems that it is more correct to connect the appearance of images of a double-headed eagle in folk embroidery with the general bureaucratization of the Russian state apparatus, which began in the late 17th - early 18th centuries. Indeed, it was during this period that the official symbol of the Russian state - the double-headed eagle - appears everywhere: on money, on papers for official petitions, on milestones, uniform buttons, on royal taverns and even on vodka bottles.
The motif of the double-headed eagle, quite decorative, somewhat fabulous and at the same time laconic, was not alien in its structure to folk ornament. And it organically fit into the ancient ornamental compositional schemes, occupying the very center of these compositions. Nowadays, it has probably become a commonplace to say that the center of any ornamental scheme is semantically more important than its periphery, but in our case I would like to emphasize this again.
In compositions with a double-headed eagle, the royal bird is indeed always in the center, but it entered this compositional scheme relatively recently, not earlier than the 17th century. On both sides of this central figure there are almost always ornamental, stylized, symmetrical images of birds, horses, trees, and women with their arms raised or lowered (Fig. 1). All of them are components of a very ancient compositional scheme, into which he organically fit, without breaking it, at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries. double-headed eagle.
But if the entire system of images of the periphery of the ornament has been preserved, a clear symmetry of the motifs facing the center, then the conclusion suggests itself: before the appearance of the double-headed eagle, there was another image here, which carried the most important semantic load in the ornament and outwardly somewhat resembled a double-headed eagle (since he was able to displace this ancient image so painlessly).
So what is this image? To answer this question, let us turn, following G. P. Durasov, to the works of V. V. Stasov, V. A. Gorodtsov, A. K. Ambroz, A. A. Afanasyev, B. A. Rybakov, G. S. Maslova and other researchers who studied the symbolism of Russian folk embroidery of the archaic type. All of them, noting the presence of various images of a double-headed eagle in peasant embroidery of a relatively late period (XVIII-XIX centuries), consider the composition with a central female figure with arms raised or lowered down to be more ancient. As a rule, such a figure is symmetrically represented by horse riders, birds, human beings or stylized trees (Fig. 2). The structure of compositions of this kind, as well as the set of its constituent elements, is stable and is preserved in embroidery on the ends of towels, on the hems of women's shirts, in the ornaments of sundresses and aprons of women in the North of Russia.
In a transformed geometric form (the so-called rhombuses with hooks or toads), we find images of the ancient goddess of life and fertility in the ornaments of the hems of women's hay shirts. And in this case, our materials, it seems, once again confirm the correctness of the conclusions of A.K. Ambrose, who in one of his articles identified a rhombus with hooks as an ancient agricultural symbol of fertility. 3. On the hems of haymaking baskets, one of the leading motifs was precisely the motif of a rhombus with hooks. It is known that in the North and North-West of Russia women wore such shirts on the first day of haymaking - the day when the preparation of livestock feed for the entire long cold winter began, on which the well-being of the peasant family in the coming year essentially depended.
The ornamentation of shirts, which, along with headdresses and belts, was a sacred element of clothing, was “closely connected with the magic of fertility. It was believed that the more richly a shirt is decorated, the higher the reproductive power of the woman wearing it and her ability to increase the fertility of everything around her. Therefore, it is possible to suggest that by decorating the hem of her shirt with images of a toad or a rhombus with hooks, the woman hoped, by touching the hem to the earth and herbs, to convey to them the power of fertility hidden in the coded embroidery patterns.
This process was probably thought of as reversible, that is, the woman, in turn, through such ornaments, when they came into contact with the earth and herbs, acquired greater reproductive power.
The conclusion about the sacred significance of ornaments of this type is also confirmed by the abundant material provided by embroidery on women's headdresses - kokoshniks (povoiniki, collections, etc.) of the North and North-West of Russia. If in the ornamentation of the hems of shirts we see geometrically transformed forms, then in the patterns of women's headdresses we are faced with an even more archaic system of images.
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Рис. 2. а — конец полотенца (фрагмент). XIX в. (Вологодский областной краеведческий музей, ф. 12534/72, рис. С. В. Жарниковой); b — конец полотенца (фрагмент), XIX в. (Вологодский областной краеведческий музей, ф. 12534/1; рис. С. В. Жарниковой); с — конец полотенца. Ярославская губ. ГМЭ (Маслова Г. С. Указ, раб., с. 65, рис. 21—22d); d — фрагмент вышивки. XIX в. (Архангельская народная вышивка. М., 1954, рис. 3); е — узор на женской рубахе. XIX в., с. Большие Халуи Каргопольского у. (Маслова Г. С. Указ, раб., с. 122, рис. 61, о).
Strange zooanthropomorphic birthing creatures literally filled the heads of the warriors (Fig. 3, 4) 4. As a rule, they have raised or lowered animal paws, branches, snake-arms, and their “legs” are widely spaced to the sides. Before us is an almost naturalistically depicted act of childbirth: between the “legs” of a mythical creature, embroidered on damask or velvet with gold or silver threads, as a rule, another similar creature of smaller size is depicted, connected to the mother’s womb by a thin strip - an umbilical cord. Sometimes these Rozhanitsa have two or three pairs of arms instead of one, and inside the body there is a rhombus, a cross, a swastika or a small man. Always facing the sky, the home of the gods or deified ancestors, the images on the backs of women’s headdresses, almost in an uncryptic form, asked for one thing—fertility. And they were preserved in the most remote, remote places of the Northern Russian region, where the way of life, customs and rituals of farmers and hunters changed extremely slowly from century to century. Anthropomorphic birthing creatures literally filled the heads of the warriors (Fig. 3, 4) 4. As a rule, they raised or lowered animal paws, branches, snake-arms, their “legs”
Yes, indeed, it was there, as G.P. Durasov correctly noted, that the slash-and-shift farming system still existed, but not because it was more productive. Due to the remoteness of these places, there were still huge untouched forest areas - the only condition necessary for such a farming system. In addition, many archaic features of the way of life have been preserved here. And it is not surprising that it is here that we find the image of a double-headed eagle and a goddess (a woman with raised or lowered hands), and often the latter is placed inside the double-headed eagle, in the place where the coat of arms with the figure of St. George the Victorious was usually placed in the official composition, i.e. in the absolute semantic center of the ornamental composition. This circumstance in itself suggests that it was this female image, hidden by a peasant embroiderer inside the official state symbol of Tsarist Russia, that was given exceptional importance.
So, a double-headed eagle and a woman inside, above or near it. Here we return again to the question we posed earlier: whose place did the eagle take in this composition, who did it replace, if we find the earliest, quite readable images of it in embroidery only from the 17th - early 18th centuries, and the whole compositional scheme is ancient, stable and practically almost unchangeable?
Who was depicted from ancient times in the place occupied by the double-headed eagle? And here we again remember the ancient images of the birthing goddess.
Isn’t it she who gives life to all living things on earth, preserved by the memory of many generations, revered since ancient times and immortalized in embroidery on the hems of shirts, the ends of towels and on the heads of kokoshniks of North Russian women, was there until the 17th - early 18th centuries. in the center of the compositions we are considering? This assumption is quite easy to verify by superimposing one compositional scheme on another. And what? The outlines of the goddess’s figure fit surprisingly well into the image of the double-headed eagle, which in composition and distribution of masses both vertically and horizontally is built according to the same principle as the ancient image of the birthing goddess. This can be clearly seen in the attached samples of embroidery on the heads of the Tarnog warriors (Fig. 3, 4).
The replacement of one composition with another, later one can be illustrated even more clearly by the example of changes in the ornamentation of the tops of Yaroslavl tower distaffs (Fig. 5).
If in type a the most detailed ancient scheme is presented, where the merged images of horses, birds, dog-headed creatures and snakes seem to form the figure of an ancient pagan goddess, then in the pommel of type b the composition is drier, more schematic, the heads of the snakes rise up, the trefoil that crowned the previous pommel, approaches in outline to the crown; finally, the tip shows us the replacement of the ancient pagan serpentine complex with the image of a double-headed royal eagle crowned. The new form - a double-headed eagle - freely and easily layered on the old (archaic), the meaning of which as good wishes, a reliable amulet had not yet been lost, but the meaning of the ancient composition in all its details began to be forgotten. Probably an image of the ancient goddess of life - Rozhanitsa, a farmer from the 10th - 15th centuries. spoke much more than to his distant descendants in the 17th-19th centuries.
However, the significance of this deity, apparently, was still quite great even in later times, since it is not always and everywhere completely removed from the composition. Very often we meet, as G.P. Durasov absolutely rightly noted, a double-headed eagle and a woman inside it or above its head. And in places far from noisy roads in the Vologda and Arkhangelsk regions, we can still find towels, shirts and hats in the chests of old women, where the ancient pagan goddess of life, Rozhanitsa, is depicted in all her glory, performing the great act of creation of all things on earth.
S. V. Zharnikova