excerpt from a monograph on the Russian Christmas story – Snob
At a new meeting and in a completely different form, we meet with a Christmas tree only in subsequent centuries, and it is possible that this meeting has a very indirect relation to Peter’s decree. This time it takes place in a strongly Germanized St. Petersburg, which eventually turned into a real hotbed of the Christmas tree, as the Christmas tree was then called in German. The Germans who settled in St. Petersburg continued to celebrate Christmas and New Year, observing the rituals brought from their homeland.
The process of sustainability of the Christmas tree in Russia at first was slow. In the early 1830s, it was still perceived as a specific feature of the St. Petersburg Germans, as Marlinsky testified, drawing an ethnographic picture of St. [рождественское дерево. — Е. Д.] in full glory… The rest of the population of the capital was at least indifferent to the Christmas tree, and magazine information about holy masquerades and balls of the 1830s is not even mentioned about Christmas trees. And only towards the end of this experience, the development of the St. Petersburg knowledge of the Christmas tree, which received the name “Christmas trees”, gradually begins to conquer other segments of the population of the capital.
And suddenly, at the turn of the 1840s, an explosion unfolds. The “Christmas tree hype” that engulfed St. Petersburg at that time needed an explanation. It seems that the fashion for the “German innovation”, which spreads from the houses of the St. Petersburg nobility to less wealthy houses, was reinforced by the fashion for German literature, and above all for Hoffmann, “Christmas Tree” texts, which cover great significance. “The Nutcracker” and “Lord of the Fleas”, which were published by Christmas among selected publications, causing a special festive reading, along the way meeting the spread of the custom of the Christmas tree in Russian homes, and reflecting the presence of the presence of its visual image to them. In the early forties, the Christmas tree becomes, if not completely mastered, then, as it arises, it is widely distributed by different segments of the population of the capital. At this time, “Northern Bee” is already marking advertisements for the sale of Christmas trees, Christmas decorations and gifts for children, the children’s magazine “Zvezdochka” pays attention to texts with a “Christmas tree” plot, and ethnographers, when describing Russian folk Christmas holidays, pay attention to this foreign custom. In 1847, Nekrasov’s phrase in one of his reviews was already quite understandable:
Yet, by chance, he ends up on sweets on a Christmas tree, which cannot be called a work of nature any more than some kaleidoscopic novel of the Dumas factory is a work of art.
The first information about the studies of children in some wealthy houses dates back to the forties, and in 1852 the first public Christmas tree was held at the Yekaterinhof railway station. In the houses of the St. Petersburg nobility, the arrangement of a luxurious Christmas tree becomes a matter of prestige, excites the spirit of competition and rivalry.
And yet the attitude towards the “German innovation” was not distinguished by complete unanimity. Even the observed St. Petersburg often did not recognize the Christmas tree, perceive it as another Western innovation and assign it to the device as an encroachment on national identity. The tree clearly irritated its “non-Russianness” and was perceived by the defenders of antiquity as an ugly and frank intrusion into the popular holy rite, it was necessary to carefully preserve it in all its integrity. So, I. Panaev, already known to us as a defender of the old Russian Christmas time, recalling with disgust and bitterness the holiday of the Christmas tree in the house of a wealthy St. Petersburg gentleman, wrote with irritation:
In St. Petersburg, everyone is obsessed with Christmas trees. coming from the poor room of an official to a magnificent salon, everywhere in St. Petersburg the Christmas trees are burning, shining, glowing and twinkling in the coming evenings. It is now impossible to exist without a Christmas tree. What kind of holiday, if there was no Christmas tree?
That was the legacy. The province, of course, put aside Petersburg in connection with the customs of the Christmas tree, but not too much: exceptional cases of discovery with it in the province date back to the end of the thirties. Y. Polonsky, the adolescent years that passed in Ryazan, writes that until the sixth grade of the gymnasium (that is, until about 1838), he did not see a single Christmas tree and “there was no idea what kind of thing it was.” But the korodelka, together with the French place, was “brought” here from St. Petersburg by the pupils of the Smolny Monastery. According to Saltykov-Shchedrin, in Vyatka the Christmas tree was “in universal respect” already in the late forties and early fifties: “On the occasion, officials” considered it “an indispensable duty to buy a Christmas tree at the base.” The reason for such a quick entry of the Christmas tree into the life of a provincial town is understandable: having broken with the ancient folk custom of celebrating Christmas time, the city felt a certain ritual vacuum. This vacuum is not absorbed in any way, it causes a feeling of unsatisfied holiday expectations, or it includes the development of purely urban entertainment, including – and includes it.
The Christmas tree conquered the landowner’s estate with great difficulty. Here, according to many memoirists, for many years Christmas time continues to be celebrated with the participation of folk customs, together with the servants, and this formed a hostile attitude towards the Christmas tree in barchuks for life. So, I. Panaev, who was born in 1812, wrote: “… the Christmas tree does not have the slightest attraction for me, because in my childhood there is no need for any idea about Christmas trees.” But already Saltykov-Shchedrin, who was born fourteen years later, had a different attitude to the Christmas tree: “… the memories of the Christmas trees I saw forever got rid of the unnecessary bright memories of the past life!” he wrote. Life gradually took its toll: the St. Petersburg fashion to penetrate into the estate. In the “estate” texts of suspicion on the fiftieth episodes, regrets are expressed about the severity of the Christmas tree in the province.
In remote areas of St. Petersburg and Moscow, writes the children’s writer L. A. Savelyeva-Rostislavich, a Christmas tree is an incredible rarity not only for children, but also for their parents, if these landowners, due to their limited fortune, cannot be used in any of capitals.
But if the sensations about manor Christmas time in the first half of the 19th century are never mentioned about Christmas trees, then they change with suspicion of a disease. As an example, we can cite the memoirs of L. Tolstoy’s children, who, describing Yasnaya Polyana Christmas time, often mention the Christmas tree as a necessary and predominant component of winter holidays. This fact is especially revealing: the probable celebration in Tolstoy’s house is an example of an organic combination of Russian folk saints with the Western tradition of the Christmas tree.
The popularization of the Christmas tree in Russia, as well as the development of its symbols, is accompanied by literature accompanying it almost throughout its history. Poetic and prose works about the Christmas tree, humorous fine magazines (like “Christmas Tree” by A. Chekhov in the New Year’s issue of “Entertainment” for 1884), as well as essays, in the intended form setting out its ritual meaning and symbolism, become commonplace over time .