Among the most amazing sights visitors saw in Russia were the open-air winter markets that were held in every major town—great outdoor refrigerators of milling people, sleds and huge mounds of frozen provisions. "Your astonished sight," wrote one Englishman, "is there arrested by a vast open square, containing the bodies of many thousand animals piled in pyramidical heaps on all sides. Cows, sheep, hogs, fowls, butter, eggs, fish are all stiffened into granite." These frozen provisions were brought on sleds from every corner of Russia. For foreigners it was a revelation that frozen foods
Could be thawed with almost no loss of flavor.
The markets reached peak of activity just before Christmas, presenting a joyful social scene. Noblemen rubbed shoulders with serfs, merchants greeted old customers, peasants tearfully embraced lost friends and relatives. Many people came from far away, hoping to run into a man from their family who had been conscripted into the army and might now be stationed near the market town. "Nothing can be more affecting," recalled an Englishman, "than to witness their joyful meetings: fathers embracing their sons, brothers their brothers."
STOCKING UP ON FOOD, holiday shoppers bargain over piles of frozen animals in St. Petersburg (left), while a housewife carts away her purchase in a small sled (foreground).
A DRABLY DRESSED MERCHANT wears the robelike caftan that identifies him. Most Russians wore caftans, but merchants wore unusually long ones, and dispensed with the usual sash.
A GAILY BEDECKED WOMAN, fl merchant's wife, wears a brocaded smock that contrasts strongly with her husband's simple attire. Her tall headdress and long shawl signify that she is married.
LOG HOUSES of a small northern Russian village stand by the side of a rough, tree-lined road. At the left, a peasant woman uses a sweep to draw a bucket of water from a well.
TMUNG THE SOU, a peasant breaks the earth with a primitive plow. Partly because of such crude tools, most Russian fields produced low yields.
World History
