MATERIAL EVERYDAY LIFE OF KAZAN PHILISTISNES OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE XIX CENTURY

Abstract

The Russian bourgeoisie of the pre-reform period was an urban stratum of the population, created according to the plan of Catherine II as a "middle class of people". The purpose of the article is to study the everyday material environment of Kazan burghers of the first half of the XIX century as a reflection of the way of life of the bourgeois class. Sources for the study of the topic were extracted from the funds of the State archive of the Republic of Tatarstan. The documents describes the property of the Kazan townspeople made with the transfer of estates in guardianship management or sale for debt. The article examines the thematic environment of the Kazan townspeople, both Russian and Tatar. Everyday objects are considered as status signs, visual elements of social identity. Analysis of the subject environment of Kazan burghers shows that they were inherent in the urban way of life with its way of life and values. Traditional daily objects and household innovations still existed together, which testifies to the complex mechanism of the process of self-identification of bourgeoisie, including due to ethnic and religious characteristics. However, the development of the way of life of the burghers coincided with the general socio-cultural trend characteristic of the Russian city of the pre-reform era – the assimilation of the norms of cultural everyday life, previously inherent only to the nobility. Things were largely social signs, they determined social appreciation, status, testified to the claims and values of the bourgeois. To some extent, it can be assumed that on this basis, the bourgeois life has received a stable cultural definition in Russian literature as an example of impersonal consumerism.