Life in rural Russia, both during tsarist times as well as after the Revolution, were difficult for inhabitants of villages. Mothers struggled to feed their children, and children struggled to survive. Dangers to children living in these villages included illness, malnutrition, accidents that occurred from unsupervised play, and domestic violence.
Illness in rural Russia was one of the most common dangers to children. Highly vulnerable in the first years of life, peasant children might be afflicted by rickets, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, and scarlet fever, and fatal bouts of diarrhea. Rashes and infections were also common among newborn babies. Villages might be so remote that to seek professional medical care for sick children might mean a long journey and the neglect of other children who also needed the mother's care. More often, village mothers would turn to village healers and folk medicine to rid their child of illness.
Malnutrition
Malnutrition caused stunted growth and vulnerability to illness for the children of rural Russian villages. While breast milk was the most favored form of nourishment for young children, suckling infants and babies was not always practical and happened in the morning before the daily work began and in the evening after the mother returned from the fields. While the mother was working in the field, infants and young children might not be fed with anything but a dirty rag filled with kasha, bread, or cookies. Although too young to digest solid foods, these might be introduced as early as the first week of life, which might have contributed to the high rates of diarrhea from which babies suffered.
Unsupervised Play
Because children were left at home unsupervised during the work day, accidents were common dangers. Babies might fall out of their hanging cribs or be dropped by older siblings too small to carry babies properly. Children could burn themselves with hot water or by trying to build fires. Accidents with livestock were not unheard of – unsupervised children might get kicked by an annoyed or frighted horse.
Domestic violence was a regular part of rural Russian peasant life. It was common for husbands to beat wives, however, children might be slapped, kicked, or beat with a switch as well. Physical fights were a part of “play” in the village, the practice of which might have been encouraged by adults.
References
Ransel, David L. Village Mothers: Three Generations of Change in Russia and Tartaria. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
Semyonovova Tian-Shanskaia, Olga. Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia, ed. David L. Ransel, trans. David L. Ransel and Micahel Levine. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.
Kerry Kubilius - A graduate of Ohio State University, Kerry has a BA in Russian and a BA in History of Art with a focus on Eastern European art. She also ...
