For two months every summer, Nizhnii Novgorod metamorphosed from a relatively quiet provincial town into a major international centre - the largest trade fair in Europe (bigger than Leipzig), and a unique meeting place of East and West, where traders from China, Persia, Bukhara and Armenia rubbed shoulders with Astrakhan fishmongers, Moscow entrepreneurs, Baltic merchants and itinerant Old Believer icon peddlers. The fair had a yearly turnover of 200 million roubles, and an attendance of 1.5 million;[53] the greatest volume of trade was in tea, cotton, fish and metal.[54] But aggregate trade statistics capture only a fraction of the life of the Nizhnii Novgorod Fair, which had moved upriver from its old site at Makariev following a fire there in 1817.[55]No stock exchange existed until late in the century, so that - in stark contrast to the commodities market in Chicago, for example (in some ways Nizhnii Novgorod's American equivalent) - goods had to be physically transported in order to be saleable.[56] Transactions took place, again until a new generation took over, through an elaborate informal network of friendships, marriages and deals sealed in smoky riverfront taverns. In his history of the daily life of the Fair, A. P. Melnikov describes the Madeira-lubricated rituals by which a debtor, unable to meet his obligations, appeases his creditor.[57] An 1877 guidebook directs the visitor towards the Siberian wharf, where he can sample teas for hours; the multi million rouble Iron Line; the odorous Greben' wharf, piled high with dried fish; and the Grain wharf. Paperweights made from Urals minerals, silver pistols from the Caucasus, exquisite Ferghana and Khorasan rugs, Tula samovars, books typeset in Old Russian, icons, crosses, gingerbread, sheepskin coats, felt boots, lace and Tatar soap vied for the visitor's attention. Equally usefully, the guidebook counsels him to avoid the pseudo- Asian ornamentation of the Chinese Row, where no one from China had ever traded; the Fashion Lane housing a number of brand-name establishments including the 'inevitable' Salzfisch; and the variety of theatres, circuses, zoos and freak shows that held no surprises for the sophisticated Western
traveller. [58]
The Nizhnii Novgorod Fair functioned as an irreplaceable stimulus to the local economy as well. Where else could local sheepskin processors have bought Persian merlushka (lambskin) and Riga ovchina (sheepskin) - the top of the line for sheepskin manufacture[59]; local spoon-makers have bought palm and maple to make the most exquisite spoons17; or Kniaginin hat-makers have bought Popov, Singer or Blok sewing machines?18 Conversely, Pavlovo locks, knives, razors and surgical instruments, fine 'Russia-leather' gloves from Krasnaia Ramen' and even local jams (known inexplicably as 'Kievan') and pickles found their way to Moscow, Petersburg and European consumers via the fair.19 Residents of Kunavino by the fairgrounds made good money by renting out their property for use as hotels, restaurants and taverns.20
Economic and religious rhythms overlapped to a large extent, as must be the case where the church calendar is the most reliable tool for calculating the passage of time. The two major trade congresses in Nizhnii Novgorod - one for the wood products which were one of the province's staples, and the other a big horse fair - were timed to coincide with Epiphany (6-7 January) and St John's (24 June), respectively. Artisans' work seasons often began and ended on religious holidays; wheel-makers, for example, ended their labours on the Feast of the Protection, when they returned to the land. The seven-week Lenten season regularly wreaked disaster in the lives of small-scale producers and factory workers, leaving them without employ and thus severing the fine thread that linked them to solvency.21 No major event, from the yearly opening of the Fair to visits of royalty, was conceivable without the presence of the local hierarchy, with the bishop at its head. The actual moment of peasant emancipation, as everywhere throughout the empire, was as much a religious as a social phenomenon. The townspeople experienced Emancipation day, for Nizhnii Novgorod 12 March 1861, as one big religious procession: respondingto pealing church-bells at ten o'clock in the morning, the gentry, merchantry and honorary citizenry gathered in the diocesan cathedral to hear, together with the crowd packing the kremlin grounds, the first words of the manifesto as read by the proto-deacon in full ceremonial dress. A liturgy of thanksgiving, led by Bishop Nektarii, was followed by the reading of the manifesto itself outside, on the central square, by Chief of Police Khval'kovskii, accompanied by Governor Muravev and Prince Shakhovskoi who had brought the manifesto from St Petersburg, as well as by the vice-governor, marshal of the nobility and others.22
17 L. Borisovskii, 'Lozhkarstvo v Semenovskom uezde', Trudy kommissii po issledovaniiu kustarnoi promyshlennosti v Rossii, issue 2 (St Petersburg: Tip. V Kirshbauma, 1897), p. 14.
18 'Shapochnyi i kuznechnyi promysly v g. Kniaginine i okruzhaiushchikh ego slobodakh,' in 'Kustarnye promysly nizhegorodskoi gubernii: Kniagininskii uezd', p. 185.
19 Pamiatnaiaknizhka 1865, pp. 63, 52, 49.
20 Pamiatnaiaknizhka 1865,p. 48.
21 'Promysly sela Bol'shogo Murashkina', p. 234.
22 A. I. Zvezdin, 'K 50-letiiu ob'iavleniia manifesta 19 fevralia 1861 goda v Nizhegorodskoi gubernii', in Deistviia NGUAK, vol. X, p. 66.
Not all religious celebrations, of course, were linked to economic or social events. Nizhnii Novgorod counted fifteen major processions every year, on holidays. Religious feasts and even the Sunday liturgy had an unusual intensity in Nizhnii Novgorod: the bishop's reports, submitted annually to the Holy Synod, complained if anything of the excessive piety of local parishioners, who celebrated fervently and constantly (church attendance records were very high), while at the same time refusing to take communion even the obligatory one time a year, at Easter.[60] The bishops attributed this reluctance to make a definitive commitment to the Orthodox Church to 'infection' with the Old Belief.
People
At mid-century, Nizhnii Novgorodboasted a population of 41,543. The number included 5,085 gentry (1,838 of them hereditary), 1,627 clergy, 16,014 townspeople (merchants, honorary citizens, meshchane), 7,431 peasants, 10,397 military, 207 foreigners and 782 others.[61] The ethnic composition of the province as a whole was, characteristically for the Middle Volga region, quite diverse, and included Tatars, Mordvinians and Cheremis. However, it was mostly the Old Believers who gave the region its distinctive character. In the 1840s P. I. Melnikov counted 170,506 (as opposed to the mere 20,000 in the official governor's report) Old Believers in the province.[62] A breakdown of the town's residents by religion yields the following picture: 39,784 Orthodox, 136 edinovertsy (members of Edinoverie, a group which combined aspects of Orthodoxy and Old Belief), 260 Old Believers, 1 Armenian-Gregorian, 471 Catholic, 364 Protestant, 354 Jewish, i73 Muslim. They worshiped at forty-seven Orthodox churches and chapels; two major monasteries, Pecherskii and Blagoveshchenskii, both dating back to the thirteenth century, provided an important focal point for local religious life. Two edinovercheskie churches and one each Armenian-Gregorian, Catholic and Protestant, and one mosque, brought the total number of houses ofwor- ship to fifty-five.[63] At fairtime, the population swelled to at least double its normal size, placing Nizhnii Novgorod temporarily in the ranks of the most populous of Russian cities. By the time of the 1897 census, the town's year- round population had risen to 95,000, and proportions had shifted: the petty bourgeoisie (33 per cent) and peasants (48 per cent) together constituted the bulk of urban residents.[64] In comparison with other cities, there may have been more merchants in Nizhnii Novgorod, or perhaps they merely wielded more power and influence.
53
A. P. Melnikov
54
57
Melnikov,
59
'Promysly selaBol'shogo Murashkina', in 'Kustarnye promysly nizhegorodskoi gubernii: Kniaginskii uezd,'
61
62
P. I. Melnikov,
64
K. Kuntzel,