The phrase "live a boar" is used today to refer to single men who do not seek to get married and start a family. And who is this mare?
Etymology
From the 15th to the 18th century, a specific class was called beans in the Russian state. It included lonely peasants without land. Such people were also called "non-taxable" - they were exempted from land tax. According to the chroniclers, the word "bobyl" is an adapted version of the Swedish term boabyle, meaning a hired worker. This is not the only interpretation of the historical phenomenon. There are also Latvian and Romanian versions with the meaning "lazy" and "laborer".
Who lives well in Russia?
Since the middle of the 15th century, bobs appeared on Russian lands - people who signed the "bobyl quitrent record." This document deprived the person who wrote the rights and entrusted him with a lot of responsibilities, in which he received food and at least some clothing. Consequently, the commoners were very poor people who were practically hired into slavery.
Bobs lived both in the countryside and in cities. Representatives of this class were engaged in land work for hire, not disdaining petty trade and crafts. Beans often lived at monasteries, where they cultivated church plots. In order to use someone else's land for their own purposes, they had to pay a special tax to the owner of the allotment - bobylism.
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Chronology of events
The first chronicle mention of bobs dates back to 1500. The main working population of the Russian lands treated them with contempt - they were considered parasites and revelers. This opinion was primarily due to the fact that the beans were given a tax "discount". Until 1679, they worked out only half of the standard set of duties (taxes).
At the end of the 17th century, beans and beans (poor widows), who owned a private yard, were equated in terms of the amount of tax to ordinary peasants. This measure turned out to be effective: in 1718, the bean class became a full-fledged part of the peasant community.
Beans in art and literature
The phenomenon of "bobs" attracted and still attracts artists, writers and poets. The most characteristic example of "bobyl" creativity is the picture of VG Perov "Guitarist-bobyl". It depicts a wretched man in an old jacket and shabby boots playing the guitar. A bottle of alcohol and a half-empty glass flaunt on the table next to him. Sergei Yesenin described no less pitiful picture in words in his story "Bobyl and Druzhok".
