Stoves and Ovens

The traditional Russian stove (russkaja pech’) was the focus of family life in rural Russia. Occupying nearly a quarter of the living space in a peasant home, these mammoth installations were used primarily for heating, but also for cooking and baking as well as drying fruit and making kvass. They were usually made of clay, less often of brick or stone; they weighed between one and two tons and rested on the ground in a corner of the room.114 Their squarish flat tops provided a cozy niche for sleeping, a coveted place that was usually reserved for the elderly, the sick, and the very young in the family. Given the climate, a reliable source of warmth was not to be despised. Johann Kohl, a German who traveled around Russia in 1837, noted how the Russian peasants basked in the comfort of the stove.