The Russian stove () is a type of masonry stove that first appeared in the 15th century or earlier. These stoves combine the functions of a traditional stove, oven, and fireplace into a single unit, and serve a broad range of purposes, including cooking (boiling, baking, and smoking), drying plants and mushrooms, providing interior heating and ventilation, bathing, and providing a warm place to sleep (many units include a sleeping berth atop the stove). They can be found in traditional

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n, Ukrainian,

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

, and

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households. Such stoves burn only

firewood Firewood is any wooden material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not heavily processed, and is in some sort of firelog, recognizable log or branch form, compared to other forms of wood fuel like pellet fuel, pellets. ...

Design

A Russian stove is designed to retain heat for long periods of time. This is achieved by channeling the smoke and hot air produced by combustion through a complex labyrinth of passages, warming the bricks from which the stove is constructed. A brick flue () in the attic, sometimes with a chamber for

smoking food Smoking is the process of flavoring, browning, cooking, or preserving food, particularly meat, fish and tea, by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most often wood. In Europe, alder is the traditional smoking wood, but ...

, is required to slow down the cooling of the stove. Pech-v-izbe 1

The Russian stove is usually in the centre of the log hut (

izba An izba ( rus, изба́, p=ɪzˈba, a=Ru-изба.ogg) is a traditional Russian countryside dwelling. Often a log house, it forms the living quarters of a conventional Russian farmstead. It is generally built close to the road and inside a Y ...

). The builders of Russian stoves are referred to as ''pechniki'', "stovemakers". Good stovemakers always had a high status among the population. A badly built Russian stove may be very difficult to repair, bake unevenly, smoke, or retain heat poorly. There are many designs for the Russian stove. For example, there is a variant with two hearths (one of the hearths is used mainly for fast cooking, the other mainly for heating in winter). Early Russian culture also made use of a tiled

cocklestove A masonry heater (also called a masonry stove) is a device for warming an interior space through radiant heating, by capturing the heat from periodic burning of fuel (usually wood), and then radiating the heat at a fairly constant temperature fo ...

Uses

Cooking

The stove was, and is still used today for cooking and had a strong influence on the taste of Russian cuisine. Dishes where the stove is used are pancakes to bake or pies. The porridge or the pancakes prepared in such a stove may differ in taste from the same meal prepared on a modern stove or range. The process of cooking in the Russian stove can be called "languor" – holding dishes for a long period of time at a steady temperature. Foods that are believed to acquire a distinctive character from being prepared in a Russian stove include

baked milk Baked milk ( , , ) is a variety of boiled milk that has been particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. It is made by simmering milk on low heat for eight hours or longer. History Baked milk was relatively popular outside of Russia ...

pastila __NOTOC__ Pastila ( ) is a traditional Russian fruit confectionery ('' pâte de fruits''). It has been described as "small squares of pressed fruit paste" and "light, airy puffs with a delicate apple flavor". In Imperial Russia, the "small jellie ...

candies, mushrooms cooked in

sour cream Sour cream (sometimes known as soured cream in British English) is a dairy product obtained by fermenting regular cream with certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, which is introduced either deliberately or naturall ...

, or even a simple potato. Bread is put in and taken out from the stove using a special wooden paddle on a long shank.

Cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

pots of special shape called '' chugun'' are handled in the oven with , a long wooden handle with the two-pronged metal "grabber".

Bathing

As well as warming and cooking, Russian stoves were used for bathing. Once the stove became hot the burning wood was removed, and cast iron containers were put into the stove and filled with water. That allowed people to bathe inside of the stove. A grown man can easily fit inside, and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

some people escaped the Nazis by hiding in the stoves..

Heated sleeping area

Besides its use for domestic heating, in winter people may sleep on top of the stove to keep warm: the large thermal mass (a proper Russian stove weighs about two

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

s) and layered design (in many variants the hot flue is separated from the outer brick shell with a layer of sand or pebbles) ensure that the outer surface of the stove is safe to touch. In former times the stove was used to treat winter diseases by warming a sick person inside of it.

In Russian culture

Because of the harsh winter, the Russian stove was a major element of Russian life and consequently it often appears in folklore, in particular in

Russian fairy tale A Russian fairy tale or folktale (; ''skazka''; plural ) is a fairy tale in Russian culture. Various sub-genres of ''skazka'' exist. A ''volshebnaya skazka'' �олше́бная ска́зка(literally "magical tale") is considered a magical ...

Bogatyr A bogatyr (, ; , ) or vityaz (, ; , ) is a stock character in medieval Bylina, East Slavic legends, akin to a Western European knight-errant. Bogatyrs appear mainly in Kievan Rus', Rus' epic poems—Bylina, ''bylinas''. Historically, they came i ...

Ilya Muromets Ilya Muromets or Murometz, also known as Ilya of Murom, is a ''bogatyr'' (hero) in a type of Russian oral literature , oral epic poem called ''bylina'' set during the time of the Kievan Rus'. He is often featured alongside fellow bogatyrs Dobry ...

could only lie on a Russian stove for 33 years, until he was miraculously healed by two pilgrims. Emelya from "

At the Pike's Behest ''Emelya the Simpleton'' () or ''At the Pike's Behest'' () is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in ''Narodnye russkie skazki''. Synopsis Emelya lived in a village on the shore of the Volga River with his two brothers and th ...

" was so reluctant to leave it that he simply rode on it.

Baba Yaga Baba Yaga is a female character (or one of a trio of sisters of the same name) from Slavic folklore who has two contrasting roles. In some narratives, she is described as a repulsive or ferocious-looking old woman who fries and eats children, ...

from fairy tales baked lost children in her stove. In fairy tales the stove may receive human characteristics. For example, in "

The Magic Swan Geese The Magic Swan Geese () is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in ''Narodnye russkie skazki'', numbered 113. It is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 480A*. Synopsis Once there was a couple who had ...

" a girl meets a Russian stove, and asks it for directions. The stove offers the girl rye buns, and subsequently, on the girl's return, hides her from the swan geese.''Гуси-лебеди''. Донецк: Проф-пресс, 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russian Stove Russian inventions Masonry Baking Fireplaces Stoves Culture of Russia Residential heating appliances