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>>8871
>>8871 (You)
<Also I remember I must post some texts about russian immorality but give me a while
Yes I forgot to post it again
>The Russians love this drink [vodka] so much that they are ready to die much sooner than to deny themselves it. It may be said that vodka is the only pleasure of both sexes, in whatever condition they may be. At any hour and at any time, even children, without any grimace, drink it, with or without pepper. They have finally become so accustomed to it that, as the cold increases, the men pawn all their property and are ready to go completely naked rather than not drink vodka. The women are equally intemperate, and even if it is necessary to sacrifice chastity in order to obtain it, they indulge in prostitution, even in public. Formerly, this debauchery took place among them only out of courtesy, and most women were vain in satisfying the whims of a few; but, thanks to the care of the patriarch, this debauchery is now not so great, although, however, it is very widespread; this does not hurt to note, in order to show that in this country they do not know shame at all. Moreover, Muscovites are impolite, harsh, ignorant, treacherous, distrustful, cruel and indulge in such bestial passions that the sin of Sodom is not considered a special crime among them, which, moreover, is not a secret among them.
>Jan Jansen Struys, "The perillous and most unhappy voyages", 1675.
Also I remember about this one:
>The overwhelming majority of society was made up of peasants (more than 80% at the beginning of the 20th century), and among this class, theories and practices of morality were very peculiar. I think few people today would want to live in such families, especially the authorities themselves. Contemporaries left many notes on morality among peasants. One of them is from the staff captain of the General Staff, historian and landowner Alexander Kornilovich. In 1828, he wrote to Emperor Nicholas I:
>"…It is impossible for either the Emperor or those close to him to see all the evils that are hidden in his vast Empire. That is why I dare to mention one that is hidden in such a class. This evil is debauchery and complete immorality among the common people. When I was leaving for Siberia, I listened to the conversations of the coachmen with the gendarme who was seeing me off, and this is what I heard, among other things, on the way from Tikhvin to Vyatka, and what I almost saw examples of in Siberia.
>1st. In peasant life, there is a custom in every family to marry off their sons as early as possible, in order to have a helper in the house for the household. Thus, a 12-year-old boy marries an 18 or 20-year-old girl. It often happens that the boy's father, if he is a widower or his mistress is of a certain age, lives with his daughter-in-law; otherwise, she herself, not receiving legal satisfaction from her husband, throws herself into the arms of the first man she likes. The husband, having come of age, does the same. Several villages have been named in my presence where everyone lives like this, without any respect for marriage.
>2nd. During the long winter evenings, peasant girls and young women have the custom of gathering in a hut, rented especially for this purpose, to spin and sing songs; young lads also come there, as many in number as there are women. These gatherings are called get-togethers or evening parties. It often happens that these evening parties, continuing past midnight, end with the extinguishing of candles or torches, and various outrages occur here until dawn.
>3rd. In some places, for example near Tikhvin and Kostroma, shame has been completely lost, so that girls give birth and have children with them without shame; but where some decency has still been preserved, there they resort to certain old women who make a living by finding herbs that destroy the embryo at the very beginning and who, for a small fee, provide them with terrible ways to hide their condition.
>The coachmen spoke of this as of quite ordinary things, not believing anything bad in it. This immorality is spreading in an incredible way and, Your Excellency, you will agree, can finally have very pernicious consequences. Not to mention that this evil is completely contrary to the Christian faith, what harm from it in the political sense!
>It has been noticed that our people are becoming smaller; that under Peter I the Russians were much larger than they are today; I think that this circumstance, that the poverty of our peasants in many provinces, as well as the fact that the number of criminals exiled to Siberia has increased every year, mainly comes from this depravity. It is all the more pernicious because it is impossible for the civil authorities to stop it. Even if the Government could place a morals supervisor in every peasant family, it would be impossible to prevent this evil."
>Kornilovich goes on to write that in theory rural priests could fight debauchery in the village, but they are not the best educators in terms of morality either. It would be good to convert the peasants to Protestantism, but that is already a political issue:
>"The best proof of the usefulness of sermons and the original teaching of the Law is provided by the Protestant lands. There in the villages the Pastor is the father of his flock; the people are temperate, honest, attached to their authorities, and with gratitude to the Creator use the excess of their industry."