Kuren - what is it? As a rule, this word is associated with a hut, a dwelling, and also with the Cossacks. And this association is correct. However, these are not all interpretations. It turns out that this term has several other meanings, not necessarily related to housing.
Many values
Kuren is a word that has several interpretations. These include the following:
- Summer building of a light type, gatehouse (on melon, in the garden, in the garden), hut, hut.
- Cossack kuren - a residential building, usually chopped, wooden. Observed on the Don, in Cossack villages in Ukraine.
- Historical - a unit of troops in the Zaporizhian Sich, as well as in the Ukrainian army.
- The location where such a unit is located.
Other options
In addition to the above, the word we are studying has other interpretations. Consider them:
- In an obsolete sense, a kuren is a part of a forest area intended for chopping firewood andburning coal out of them.
- Pomors (a sub-ethnos of the Karelian and Russian peoples on the White Sea) have a small dilapidated hut or a chicken hut - one that was heated with a stove in the absence of a chimney, the smoke escaped through the door and special holes in the roof or in the wall.
- And the Pomors also called the blizzard, probably due to association with winding columns of smoke.
- A nomadic settlement among the Mongols, which has a large number of yurts.
Origin
To better understand that this is a chicken, let's consider the origin of the linguistic object under study. As scientists-etymologists say, this term takes its origin from the Chagatai language.
This is a medieval Turkic written and literary language, which reached its greatest form in the 16th century. There it looks like kureń and denotes a tribe, a detachment of warriors, a crowd, and also a bakery. That is, the Turks also had two meanings of the word - both the association of people and the premises. Some researchers, for example, F. F. Fortunatov, erect the origin of "smoke" from the verb "to smoke". Others (Max Vasmer) strongly object to this.
Synonyms
The word "kuren" (you can see a photo of objects called that way in the article) has synonyms that may turn out to be different in meaning. So, the following words can be attributed to them:
- hut;
- house;
- hut;
- gatehouse;
- hut;
- yurt;
- building;
- stan;
- settlement;
- department;
- stand;
- county;
- blizzard;
- blizzard.
How was it arranged?
Cossack kuren is divided into two types:
- The first is a type of South Russian, that is, Ukrainian hut, most common in the Kuban.
- The second is a two-story building, typical for the inhabitants of the upper reaches of the Don and the Caucasus.
Let's consider the second type. It is also called semi-stone. The first floor is brick (previously adobe), the second is made of wood. The first floor was usually non-residential (household) and was called "lower classes". The main entrance was through a porch that went up to the second floor, which was surrounded by balusters - a special terrace.
The main room was called the “hall”, it is fenced off from the front door by a passage. In the red corner, located opposite the entrance on the left, there was a goddess, and under it - a table with a tablecloth. Shops lined the walls. There were also a cupboard for dishes, a bed, a chest, a mirror, an oven. In the center was a dining table.
There was a door in the hall leading to the bedroom. This is the female side. There was a large bed, a cradle for a child was hung. There was also a spinning wheel and a chest with things. The hall also had a door leading to the male part of the house; It was intended for single Cossacks and teenagers.
Regardless of the number of rooms, the kitchen has always stood out in a separate room called "cook", "cook". There was cooking and eating. An oven went out into the kitchen on one side, which was also placed inhall. In the kitchen part of the stove there was a cast-iron stove. There were also cupboards with food and utensils in this room.
Zaporizhzhya Sich
At the end of the study of the question of what it is - a kuren, let's consider what it was in the Zaporizhzhya Sich. So in this place in the XVI-XVIII centuries they called - firstly, a military-administrative unit, and, secondly, a village that had a hundred houses. At the head of each such settlement was a kuren ataman. There were 38 kurens in total.
Each of those who entered the Cossacks entered a hut. They included only single men. Married people had the right to live only in palanks (fortified towns). Each kuren had his own household.
When an army went on a campaign by land, it was divided into regiments, and not into kurens. Thus, the regiment consisted of about three or four kurens.
Ataman, who headed the kuren, was elected by the Cossack council, called the kuren's council. She had broad powers in military-administrative terms and some judicial competences. The ataman had the treasury in storage, he was responsible for the supply of food and fuel, kept the lists of the Cossacks.
Every year in the Sich meetings of the Sich Rada were held with the participation of all Cossacks with equal rights. There they were chosen: ataman, clerk, judge, captain, treasurer and other leaders.
