Without the past, there is no future
If we take this as truth, the life of the peasants, so vividly portrayed by I. Nechuy-Levitsky in the story “Kaydasheva family,” is of great interest. And if we take into account that in many of us the roots of the family are drawn from the village. The life of the rural workers was subordinated to the grain-growing cycle – sowing, harvesting, threshing. And it is during such daily work that we see Kaidashi. They did not sit idle, and then, when they were coping with their harvest, they went to work on the manor field behind the ears.
In addition, the old Kaidash made carts and other agricultural implements. For this he was respected, as well as every good master. We see in the story and the new realities of the post-reform era – to pay exorbitant taxes, Kaydash’s sons were employed to carry master’s sugar and flour to the railroads on their horses. The peasants are largely indifferent to social life, because their psychology was formed even
Holidays and Sunday the peasants respected, did not work, except that they did not difficult work on the farm. Description of women’s working life in I. Nechuya-Levitsky more detailed. Women had to take care of their clothes. Therefore, they had to choose hemp, wet it, beat it, rub it on the bobs, pinch the threads in the cob, wind on the reel, produce the canvas, then bleach it, sew the shirts and embroider them. That’s how difficult and long this process was! It is for this kind of work that we often see Marusya Kaidashii and her daughter-in-law. Moreover, every woman wanted the canvas to be thinner, whiter, and that the shirts were beautifully embroidered.
Therefore, a good hostess was tried in the village. And how not to notice such a characteristic detail: both Omelko
Kaidashikha and her sister-in-law lived with these daily worries, their souls were diminished, since it was for her work that she was not there. Quarrels began, strife for the distribution of domestic work, for property. The main culprit for this was the mother-in-law, who believed that the daughter-in-law, according to the opinion then, was a fresh workforce. And the wife of the son was respected for work and economic efficiency, and even more for the dowry that she brought with her.
From a young age, Marousia Kaidashiha served the gentlemen for a long time and gained from them arrogance, swagger and rudeness. This immediately felt at first Motrya, and later Melashka. Barshchyna imposed its imprint not only on Kaidash, but also on Kaidashiyu, and, probably, on many other peasants, expressed in their drunkenness, selfishness, coarseness and rudeness.
The writer does not resort to the story to a detailed description of events interesting in ethnography and outstanding in life events – weddings, births, christenings, funerals. And this is a new step in the development of Ukrainian literature, because I. Nechuy-Levitsky seeks to explore the psychology of the peasant individualist, to condemn his egoism, and by specific means – the tools of humor and satire. Although we can find a detailed description of the festive and casual clothes of the Ukrainian girl and woman, boyfriend and husband.
According to the story “Kaydasheva family” you can study the public law of the Ukrainian people. The time when children should marry was determined by the parents. They also basically advised who to elect to husbands, gave their consent, went to the bride. Usually the older sons were separated, and the younger remained with the parents and examined them.
In the family, an important place was given to the education of respect for the elders, for the mother (“You, Motrya, still have to respect the mother, because the mother is the oldest in the house,” the old father began to teach. “It’s necessary to manage someone in the house and give it” ), respect for the dignity of a person, honor, for holy bread (“Why do you throw a spoon at us all in the eye? Do not you know the honor?” said old Kaidash. “If you want to get angry, then be angry, and do not throw a spoon on the holy bread “- responded for the first time angrily to his wife Karp). If a guy went to a girl on someone else’s street, then he had to pay off from the local guys a mugger, as did Lavrin.
Great importance was attached to peasants’ beliefs and prejudices. Kaidash fasted on Fridays not to drown, Palazhka ate the belts at the Kiev Monastery every year to get to the paradise, Motrya sowed the wheat in order “to find out if the place was clean” under their new house. “In case of illness in the village, they turned to the grandmother “In the Semigory it was Palazhka, and Matryona was sent to her to reassure the old Kaidash.
It seems to me that no history textbook will give such a vivid and deep knowledge of the people’s life, life, customs and traditions of the Ukrainian people, get a sense of the era, as does a talented work of art, in particular the story of I. Nechuya-Levitsky’s Kaydasheva Family.
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