Modern understanding
For today's people, an almshouse is a place inhabited by people, to put it mildly, of not the highest income. As a rule, such a designation is used in the modern world as part of stable phrases like “they set up an almshouse,” and such expressions work in situations that are at least unpleasant.
In essence, an almshouse is not a society devoid of principles and not even a cluttered room. Initially, the meaning of the word was completely different, but over time it was gradually lost and transformed, as happens with lexemes meaning phenomena that disappear in reality.
The first shelters in Russia
What is an almshouse? This is first of all archaism. Today this word is used in an ironic or rude manner. Almshouses appeared in Russia a long time ago - with the adoption of Christianity. For a long time, such institutions were supervised by the church. An almshouse at the monastery was a common occurrence. The Church patronized everyone indiscriminately.
Not only the infirm and the elderly lived in shelters. Often relatively healthy people without shelter lived here. There were also scammers. True, over time, one of the Russian tsars suspected that not only beggars were kept in charity houses. People lived here and paid the clerks for their premises. The clergy again had to determine which of the inhabitants of the almshouse was a real beggar or infirm, and who was only pretending to be such.
Almshouses existed at the expense of private alms, in addition, the kings supported such institutions at the expense of the treasury. In the second half of the 17th century, there were about seven almshouses in the capital. The most famous was Moiseevskaya, designed for one hundred people. There were also almshouses Borovitskaya, Pokrovskaya, Petrovskoye, Kulizhenskaya.
Until the end of the 17th century in Russia, the government still took little care of shelters. Until Fyodor Alekseevich ordered the organization of such institutions according to the European model. Shelters were opened in Kitay-Gorod, on the Granatny Dvor, outside the Nikitsky Gate. As it was said in one of the official documents, “from now on there were no lying and wandering beggars on the streets.”
One of the versions
As mentioned earlier, the original meaning of this concept was completely different and did not have a negative semantic connotation at all. If history is to be believed, an almshouse is just a shelter for the homeless, the elderly and the disabled. Such people received a roof over their heads, food and the necessary assistance in general.
A shelter for homeless people is not the most profitable establishment, and therefore most often they were organized on a charitable basis and mainly at numerous churches. This is how the root “god” appeared in the word.
Almshouse
The meaning of the word Almshouse according to Ephraim: Almshouse - 1. Shelter
for the elderly and disabled. // transfer decomposition An institution in which there are many inactive, incapable people. 2. transfer decomposition That which is characterized by inertia, backwardness, inactivity.
The meaning of the word Almshouse according to Ozhegov: Almshouse - Before the revolution: a shelter for the elderly, disabled
Almshouse
About a place, an institution where people are inactive, do not justify their purpose
Almshouse in the Encyclopedic Dictionary: Almshouse - in Russia until 1917, a shelter for the elderly and disabled. In a figurative sense, ironic - about some institution, organization, where there are many inactive and incapable people.
The meaning of the word Almshouse according to Ushakov’s dictionary: ALMSHOUSE
almshouses, r. pl. almshouse, w. (from church glory, god delya - for god). 1. Charitable institution for the care of disabled people (pre-revolutionary). 2. An inactive institution (ironic). Is it really possible to work in this almshouse?
The meaning of the word Almshouse according to Dahl's dictionary: Almshouse
and. (from doing or from dividing, for) an institution for the care of decrepit, crippled and incurable beggars; God's house, God's shelter. Strike with your forehead in prison, and in the almshouse. If you build an almshouse, you won’t please the whole world. For prison, for money, and for God
The meaning of the word Almshouse according to the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary: Almshouse
(from the words of God deeds, i.e. for God) - a charitable institution for the care of persons who, for whatever reason, are incapable of work, such as: the elderly, the infirm, the crippled and the convalescent (but not the temporarily sick and insane, for which there are special institutions).
An essential feature of B. is the full content
given to those in need.
Therefore, it is sometimes incorrect to classify as B. such charitable institutions that charge a certain fee for charity, or such institutions that (such as, for example, the Nikolaevskaya B. of the Guards Religious Department) provide only premises to the recipients, allowing them to personally supplement their means of subsistence or earnings , or benefits from other institutions, charities and individuals. Institutions of this kind are more likely to be houses of cheap or free apartments than B. Like all charitable institutions, B. appeared along with Christianity and were initially located at hospitals and even merged with them. Thus, in Poland, hospitals have existed for a long time mostly under the name of “parish hospitals,” and only in 1843, when, based on the decree of February 18. (March 2) 1842, a systematic and correct division of charitable institutions was carried out according to the various purposes they pursued, they were renamed “homes for the aged and infirm.” Some of these houses are of ancient origin. So, for example, a shelter home in Lublin was opened in 1342, in Warsaw the house of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary - in 1388, in Radom - in 1435, in Skierniewice in 1530. In France, even today, shelters for the elderly, the infirm and crippled under the name hospices form, together with the hospitals for the curable sick (hô pitaux), one department of hospitals; institutions in which there are persons of both categories are called hospices-hô pitaux. All hospitals in France in 1884 were 1654; in them by January 1. this year there were 49,051 people. the elderly, infirm and crippled and 47,978 sick: expenses were 113600462 francs, and income 125080522 francs. Every community is obliged to accept into its B. its members who have become unable to work; for those communities that do not have special B., the general council of the department appoints a certain number of B., involving these communities in participating in the costs of maintaining such B. In recent years, the department of Indre has made a remarkable experience in issuing to the elderly poor in exchange for maintenance in B. an annual pension of about 100 francs; such a replacement was allowed only on the condition that the community or private benefactors participate in 2/5 of the cost. In 1887, 100 people were treated in this way. In 1888, the director of the department of public charity invited all departments to follow this example. In England, after the reform of 1834, B. are branches of workhouses (see this next), which form the basis of the English system of public charity. B. moved to Russia from Byzantium along with Christianity; already the church charter of St. Vladimir mentions them and entrusts their management to the church. It can be said that in ancient Rus' there was a beggar at every parish church, and at some monasteries entire settlements of beggars were formed. But the church accepted everyone indiscriminately under its protection, and already at the Stoglavy Cathedral the tsar said that in the almshouses, which receive maintenance both from the tsar’s treasury and from many benefactors, there are not real beggars, but those who pay for such premises for the clerks who manage these huts. The Council recognized the need to identify the real beggars, the aged and lepers, enumerate them in all cities and arrange for them men's and women's B. under the supervision of good priests and city kissers, and maintain such B. at the expense of private alms. In connection with these measures, there is the establishment of the Order for the Construction
of B.;
at the same time, the tsars continued to organize and support B. in Moscow and other cities at the expense of their royal treasury, namely at the expense of the Order of the Grand Palace. In the second half of the 17th century in Moscow there were up to seven or up to eight more or less extensive royal palaces. The Moiseevskaya Bolshaya
, built for 100 people, another at
the Borovitsky
Bridge for 38 people, then at
Mogiltsy
for 12, then
Pokrovskaya
,
Kulizhenskaya
,
Petrovskaya
;
further, at the Borovitsky
Bridge for 8 people, and in
the Sretensky Monastery,
there is a kind of hospital for “the sick and wandering and lying beggars in the streets.”
There were up to 410 people in the tsar's almshouses. But the government’s concerns about the proper organization of B. were until the end of the 17th century. very weak. A significant change in this matter was to occur as a result of the 1682 decree of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich on the establishment of two hospitals in Moscow according to new European customs
, one in the Znamensky Monastery, in Kitai-Gorod, and the other outside the Nikitsky Gate, in the Granatny Yard.
To provide for these hospitals, estates were assigned that were behind the Archangel Bishop and the Znamensky Monastery, so that “from now on, there would be no beggars wandering and lying in the streets” (this wonderful decree was not included in the Complete Collection of Laws; in modern times it was published in the “Course of State Improvement ", Kiev, 1890, part I, pp. 105-111). This project was followed by the legislation of Peter the Great, who, persecuting beggary and prohibiting private charity (see this word), ordered in 1712 to establish in all provinces B. for the elderly and crippled, unable to work, and in such monastic and church B., first of all, wanted to place elderly, wounded and crippled military officials, and for their maintenance he ordered to give them grain and cash salaries; candle collections were ordered to be used for the construction of B. churches for mendicant patients. Those who were discovered during inspections as crippled and decrepit, unable to work, were ordered (in 1723) not to write into their salaries, but to send them to the B. - a remarkable order, but which turned out to be impossible to implement due to the insufficiency of the B. Church funds turned out to be very insufficient for the establishment and maintenance of the B. , and the hopes that Peter placed in this matter on the city magistrates he created were not justified. That is why, under the successors of Peter I, before the Establishment on the Provinces, decrees were constantly repeated both on the persecution of beggary and on the institution of poverty. In the Establishment on the Provinces of 1775, there was an attempt to organize this matter on a completely new basis, an attempt that turned out to be unsustainable. The organization and management of B. was entrusted to the order of public charity for the poor created in each province. The orders were entrusted with the establishment of bourgeoisie in cities and villages, special for men and special for women. In addition to the crippled and elderly poor, these B. were ordered to include: vagabonds and criminals exiled to Siberia if they cannot go there due to decrepitude and illness, crippled retired lower ranks caught begging for alms, expelled from the ecclesiastical department for vices and illnesses and old age, unable to earn food through labor, etc. With such a composition of those in need and with still poor administration, the majority of B., before they were transferred to the jurisdiction of the zemstvo (1864) and cities (1870), were in a very unsatisfactory condition. To bring them into a better condition, zemstvo assemblies first of all began to take care of placing only the helpless poor in B., and many of them (Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, Kharkov) petitioned for the abolition of the mandatory placement of tramps in zemstvo B. At the same time, the zemstvos began to take care of the orphans who were awaited in B., about expanding the set of those who were awaited, about the establishment of new B., and many of them (for example, Novgorod) managed to bring B. into a completely different form. Significant results have also been achieved by the city of St. Petersburg. The first concern for setting up a hospital there belonged to Princess Natalya Alekseevna, who in 1713, near the present Tauride Garden, established a hospital for poor old women. Of the other hospitals established in the last century, three remain: the Invalid Home of Emperor Paul I and the Volkovskaya and Lavrskaya Hospitals. Currently, all of B. Petersburg are divided into 2 groups: non-class and class. The first group, in turn, is divided: 1) into B. for persons of all classes and all confessions, 2) into B. for persons of all classes of the Orthodox confession and 3) into B. for persons of all classes of other faiths; The second group includes B.: 1) for persons of privileged classes, 2) for persons of clergy rank, 3) for merchants, townspeople and artisans and 4) for persons of military rank. The number of all hospitals and shelters in St. Petersburg, intended for the care of the elderly and helpless, extended in 1884 to 80, not counting the houses of cheap and free apartments, sometimes called B. Of these, 24 belong to Orthodox parish trustees , non-religious parishes - 10, charitable societies - 5, Imperial. to the humane society - 4, to individuals - 10, and the rest to various departments. 24 almshouses have their own capital, of which 16 also own real estate (houses where they are located) and 5 have only real estate; by January 1 1885, all 29 B. had capital, movable and immovable, in the amount of 9,542,198 rubles. 76 k. The total number of recipients reached 8,560 people, including 6,849 women; the total amount of expenses for 1884 was more than 150 million rubles. Let's compare these figures with those presented by other European capitals. In Vienna, the number of beneficiaries in 17 city and 5 private hospitals extended in 1884 to 5088 with an expenditure of 969,262 rubles; in Berlin in the same year there were 14 hospitals and hospitals for 1882 people. with an expense of 250,364 rubles, in addition, 14 private B with 937 in anticipation and an expense of 268,000 rubles. In Paris, where all matters of public charity are concentrated in the hands of the city, 11 city hospitals provided care for 15,593 people in 1882, and 2,836,158 rubles were spent on their maintenance. It turns out that St. Petersburg, which spends less on charitable causes than other capitals (with the exception of private charity, in St. Petersburg there are 1.5 rubles per capita, in Berlin - 2.9, in Paris - 5.7, in Vienna - 6.2), has a larger number of B., and the number of those awaiting them is comparatively larger. This circumstance is explained by the absence of other types of charity, the relatively weak development of private charity and the lack of comprehensive legislation on the poor, which would not only impose on each community the obligation to look after its members who have fallen into poverty, but would also give this matter proper organization. The total number of all B. from Russia cannot be established due to the lack of accurate statistical data, especially in relation to those provinces where zemstvo institutions were not introduced and where the matter of charity for the poor remained under the jurisdiction of the orders. For military hospitals, see Homes for the Invalid. See also Widow's houses. About the beginning of B. in Moscow, see the article by I. M. Snegirev in the book. “Literary Evening” (M., 1844). Other literary references from V.I. Mezhov: “Charity in Russia” (St. Petersburg, 1883). Old Russian wretched houses or poor houses should not be confused with B. (see this next). A. Ya.
Definition of the word “Almshouse” according to TSB: Almshouse - 1) in pre-revolutionary Russia, a charitable (private or public) institution for the care of the elderly or those unable to work. 2) In a figurative sense - a worthless, inactive institution or organization.
Almshouse Bogaevsky Almshouse
Alternative option
There is, however, another explanation for this slightly strange name. According to some sources, the almshouse is not exactly a shelter for homeless people, but something between a nursing home and a modern hospice. It is easy to assume that in institutions of this kind people mostly lived out their last days.
Since the world at that time was much more religious, the belief in an afterlife was unshakable. As you know, the same Christian doctrine provides only two options for places where a person can go after death: hell and heaven. In the second case, it is assumed that an exhausted old man or a seriously ill person goes to God - in a sense, such people were equated with holy fools, who, as we know, were considered sinless. This is where over time the expression “to do God” came from, which later became a specific designation of a place.
Nursing home
An almshouse is an institution that existed in pre-revolutionary Russia. In Soviet times, such houses were called differently - nursing homes. Of course, such establishments house not only people without housing. In a nursing home, an elderly person is freed from the need to cook their own food and do the cleaning. Here are those who have no relatives. Or there are children and grandchildren, but do not express a desire to take care of their loved one.
Nursing homes are both public and private. Elderly people kept in institutions of the first category do not always receive proper attention and quality medical care. There are not only old people here, but also young people with disabilities who spent their childhood in special boarding schools. To get an idea of the domestic situation in nursing homes, it is worth reading the book “Black on White” by Ruben Gallego. According to the stories of the author of this autobiographical work, teenagers and young people who did not have the physical ability to care for themselves were in terrible conditions in such institutions.
Something not about charity
It is worth noting that unsanitary conditions and lack of minimal comfort were not always characteristic of such establishments. During the Peter and Catherine eras, an almshouse was not so much a place where the suffering and needy could always be received, but rather a way to solve a rather acute social problem. The development and increase in the marginal layer of society was simply unacceptable at that time, and therefore the authorities themselves were interested in creating and supporting institutions of this kind. The noble principle was thus associated with pure pragmatics.
If previously any almshouse was a place sponsored by the board, after the Zemstvo and city reforms this responsibility fell on public self-government. At first, this was quite a big step forward, since new social organizations began to appear, and the desire to prevent the impoverishment of the people was extremely strong.
Patronage of establishments of this kind was divided between the royal family, the public, the church and ministries. Perhaps, it was the period of the early twentieth century that could be called the most favorable in relation to almshouses and other institutions of this kind.
Literature[ | ]
- Bezer M.
Ch. fourth. House on the Fifth Line // Jews in St. Petersburg. - Library-Aliya, 1990. - 326 p. — ISBN 965-320-136-0. - Kozlova N.V.
People are decrepit, sick, and wretched in Moscow in the 18th century. - M.: ROSSPEN, 2010. - 360 p. — 800 copies. — ISBN 978-5-8243-1501-1. - Mezhov V.I.
Charity in Russia. - St. Petersburg, 1883. - Yanovsky A.E.
Almshouse // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
Once again about the difference in understanding
As can be seen from all of the above, the understanding of the very name of this organization has undergone a significant change. Today, the expression “send to an almshouse” does not bode well for a person, and no one wants to “send to an almshouse.” The original meaning of the mentioned phrases was almost diametrically opposed for a person who has property and a person who suffers.
It is noteworthy that the almshouses themselves did not disappear anywhere, but only changed their name to a more modern one - hospice. And, if there are no particular issues with them and orphanages, then sending beggars who spend the night on the streets and train stations to the almshouse would be a good and noble act.
19th century
So, the situation in shelters in Russia was in a deplorable state, despite all the efforts of the authorities. In the 19th century, zemstvo assemblies took care of placing only helpless beggars in charity houses, while insisting on the abolition of the detention of ordinary vagabonds in such institutions. At the same time, the issue of caring for orphans was considered. Significant transformations were carried out in St. Petersburg. In other cities, one could still often see “wandering or lying” beggars on the streets.
We found out what an almshouse is. As already mentioned, this word is no longer used, at least in official documents. With the exception of one of the charity projects founded not so long ago.
