ON THE ISSUE OF ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR OF THE CHUVASH PEASANTS OF THE VOLGA VILLAGE IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE XIX – EARLY XX CENTURY

DOI: 10.47026/2712-9454-2024-5-3-31-42

УДК 392.6”18/19”(=512.111)

ББК 63.521(=635.1)

Gennady A. NIKOLAEV

Key words: Chuvash village, capitalism, young men and girls, marriage and family, cohabitation, beliefs, mythological character Esrel.

Until 1917, part of the contemporaries attributed antisocial behavior in the family and marriage sphere to the non-Russian Volga peoples. An uncritical use of such information by some modern researchers casts a shadow on the historical past of ethnic communities. The relevance of the topic under consideration is due to the need for objective covering the daily life of multinational Volga agrarian societies.

The purpose of the study is to show the real image of relationship in young people before marriage and the behavior of spouses in family life in a Chuvash village.

Materials and methods. The sources of the research were ethnographic notes, testimonies, memoirs and letters from contemporaries. The plots chosen for the analysis are studied by the author on the basis of applying systematic, historical-comparative and historical-anthropological approaches and taking into account the farmers perception of realities in the aspect of “friend-or-foe”.

Research results. The article examines in detail a case related to an uncritical use by a modern researcher of subjective information contained in some historical sources about the sexual promiscuity of the Chuvash of the Volga village in the era of capitalist modernization. It provides convincing documentary material refuting such analytical constructions of the Orthodox cult servants and individual guardians of morality. Such false constructions are shown to be based on unlawful application by the zealots of Christianity of the norms of morality and morality of the monotheistic tradition to assess the realities of everyday reality of polytheists and “dualists”. In the second half of the XIX – early XX century, antisocial behavior of Chuvash peasants in the family and marriage sphere was noted to be a rare phenomenon, although it tended to increase somewhat. Based on the evidence attracted by the author, the attitude of rural societies towards libertines appears to be harsh and intolerant. The statement about the connection of antisocial behavior of young men and girls before marriage with the traditional beliefs of the ethnic group is refuted. Edifications left to young people and married couples from the ethnic group worldview attitude are characterized as deeply moral.

Conclusions. In the era of capitalist modernization, young people and married couples in the Chuvash village, with rare exceptions, were guided by the principles of morality and integrity in their behavior in the family and marriage sphere.

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Information about the author

Gennady A. Nikolaev – Candidate of Historical Sciences, Deputy Director for Science and Development, Chuvash State Institute of Humanities, Russia, Cheboksary (nicga50@rambler.ru; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-1443-545X).

For citations

Nikolaev G.A. ON THE ISSUE OF ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR OF THE CHUVASH PEASANTS OF THE VOLGA VILLAGE IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE XIX – EARLY XX CENTURY. Historical Search, 2024, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 31–42. DOI: 10.47026/2712-9454-2024-5-3-31-42 (in Russian).

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