Kizhi

Kizhi - Table of Contents

Interior - Oshevnev House
Kizhi, Russia
Pronunciation: kee ZHEE

Companion page: Exterior

The exhibition represents the interior of a well-to-do Zaonezhye farmer about 1900 is inside the house. Details typical for those days habitation have been also reconstructed: a stove, benches along the walls, shelves above the benches.

The house living area is upstairs on the second level. It has a large room for the family to use as a kitchen with table and work area for the women. The large wood burning heater/oven served two room and beds were made on and around it, with the eldest getting the warmest places.

The families' most prized possessions including their best china, were kept in the second room or guest bedroom.

The third room is an enormous room used all winter as a work room and to house their boats and sleds, tools and other large items they needed.

They grew all their food during the summer months and stored it for the winter. There is a huge barn type door to the outside with a ramp for livestock and to haul up the large equipment. Because of the extreme cold the live stock was kept indoors on the ground level of the house.

These homes each housed one huge close knit family together inside for approximately five months of each year. There was always a bath house located away from the main house where people could bathe and take a sauna, even in the winter.

- Kizhi Island: Russia's Peasant Heritage