Have you ever wondered why in the Russian language there are so many sayings associated with fights: "What is the noise, but there is no fight?", "Good holiday is not without a fight", "There is a fight in the hut - people are at the gate" … The fact is, that "scuffle" in our country is a kind of tradition that has existed since time immemorial.
Wall to wall
If representatives of the nobility, as a rule, resolved their conflicts by means of battles with swords, and later by duels, then among ordinary people - peasants and artisans - it was customary to walk "wall to wall". The famous V. I. Dahl, in his "Explanatory Dictionary" even this expression, even gives a detailed explanation of this expression - "go together and at once with all the lava to the common dump."
Walking "wall to wall" had its own rules. As the ethnographer S. Maksimov writes, it usually started with an abuse. Potential opponents remembered each other's old grievances, mutual reproaches and ridicule followed. Gradually, other supporters joined the swearing. Already they insulted "in a crowd": "You guys are bastards, a redneck-settlement, a tavern!"
When the heat reached its peak, the fight itself began. Fighting village to village, street to street, suburb to suburb … On village holidays rarely did without fights. The tipsy men began to bully each other. Word for word - and now it came to the massacre. There is such a tale: once during a wedding, the groom's father complained that the fights, they say, no, was not fun … And for no reason he hit the matchmaker's eye … In the cities there were fights between blacksmiths and carpenters, factory workers and merchants, soap makers and clothiers …
How did the fights go?
Fighters often undressed to the waist to make them more comfortable. The enemy was not particularly spared: they let the yushka (blood), rolled their cheekbones, crumbled their noses, knocked out their eyes, knocked out teeth, broke ribs … Sometimes they made a "bunch of small things" and thrashed whoever and wherever they needed … They were not ashamed of the injuries they received in the fight - on the contrary, they served as a reason for pride. Once he had a fight, it meant that he was a fighter, a hero …
As a rule, fights gathered a lot of onlookers who not only stared at this action, but also encouraged and roused the fighters. It all looked like a theatrical performance. For the fighters themselves, the fight was most often a form of entertainment. It was also a good way to show yourself. Those who often won fights were respected, they were popular with women.
In 1722, one of the foreigners who visited Russia made the following entry: “What the note fist fighters show for money or out of vanity, they do for nothing, out of simple pleasure, sometimes in a sober state and even with their best friends, therefore they are not at all angry when their noses and faces are smashed into blood and their shirts are torn one on the other …”.
However, the fight did not always arise spontaneously, as a result of the conflict. Demonstration fist fights were also in use, especially on holidays. And sometimes the peasants simply measured their strength: they sat down opposite each other, rested their soles on the ground, grabbed the cross-stick with their hands and began to pull over each other. Whoever pulled the other over to his side was considered the winner.
Promotional video:
Is "muzzle" a tradition?
The age-old "tradition" has not died out even today. It is difficult to meet a man who has never fought with anyone in his life.
Street fights, fights in clubs, clashes between football or music fans are almost the norm nowadays … And it's not just about sorting things out, protecting interests and beliefs: according to psychologists, a fight allows the stronger sex to “let off steam”, to feel “real” peasants ", because this is" a real man's occupation. " And it is unlikely that in the near future the society will become so civilized that "scuffle" will become a thing of the past.
Irina Shlionskaya
