How To Repair Berber Carpet Seam That Was Pulled Apart

Why exercise so many Russian homes have carpets all over their walls? Russian federation Across takes an in-depth look at one of the well-nigh intriguing Soviet traditions.

Do you know what really hits home with Russians when they watch the brilliant "The Big Lebowski" past the Coen brothers? Information technology's the carpeting, the one "that really tied the room together."

Many of hipsters now instagram their look with a carpet on the wall at the background as a funny 'sometime-school' tradition. Source: PhotoXpress

Although the Dude uses it the proper mode, covering the floor, its design strikingly resembles that of an old carpeting hanging on the wall of a babushka's apartment. But once again, why and what for?

Carpets invaded Russian apartments in the '60s, and the reasons for that were numerous. During the time of massive urbanization, millions of people were leaving their rural houses, dormitories and even barracks, and moving into newly-built metropolis apartments in low-cost, concrete-paneled buildings. These buildings came to be known by the twisted proper name of khrushchyovki  – because they were built during the fourth dimension Nikita Khrushchev directed the Soviet authorities.

The apartments were very cold in winter (the were concrete after all), so people began using wool carpets as means of estrus insulation, especially in the northern regions and the Far Due east.

"We didn't care about how information technology looked," said Sergei, a blogger from Siberia. "But when it'due south -40 Fahrenheit outside, and a match lit almost your living room's wall is starting to burn down downwards because of the descending cold air current, it's better to use carpets than to catch cold while sleeping."

The walls of khrushchyovkas were not only common cold, but also thin – so thin it was sometimes hard to fall asleep in the room while somebody was watching Tv set in the kitchen, not to mention the quarreling neighbors and their screaming children. So carpets also served as soundproof material.

And the last, but by no means the to the lowest degree, they are cute in their own way, especially those which were produced in the southern Soviet republics of Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

Naturally, the Muslim states of the Middle East were the ones that introduced carpets every bit decorations to medieval Europe. In Persia, wall carpets were considered true treasures because of the complexity of their production.

So in 16th century Europe, the carpets (received as gifts or bought in the East) became an indicator of loftier social status. The same is true for Russian federation, where tsars often received expensive carpets from eastern ambassadors. The walls, floor and ceiling of the sleeping room of Tsar Alexis in the 17^thursday century were decorated with magnificent carpets and tapestries. This tendency was picked upward by the dignity and connected in the next century, when Peter the Great established the purple tapestry mill that produced gobelins to decorate royal estates. In the 19^th century, carpets began to appear in the homes of rich peasants and townsfolk who wanted to show that they were as wealthy as the dignity.

In Soviet times, carpets as well were a sign of a well-to-do family, because information technology could be really expensive. With an boilerplate monthly salary of 120 rubles to 150 rubles, a carpet's cost varied from 125 rubles (in 1961) to 300 rubles to 500 rubles (in the 70s), but that'southward for the carpets made in the Soviet Unio; the prices for Chinese and Vietnamese carpets were really exorbitant, reaching upward to 1,500 rubles.

Just i couldn't just walk in a shop and purchase a carpet – in those times, Soviet citizens had to "procure" ( dostavat') nigh every expensive and cute slice of article of furniture and apartment decoration. The potential buyers' names were put on a special list in chronological order; usually people had to wait for a long time, up to a twelvemonth, to purchase the long-desired carpeting. The same was true for wardrobes, washing and meat-mincing machines, cupboards and sets of crystal crockery that inhabited these cupboards. Merely nerveless together, and topped with the inevitable seven marble statuettes of elephants, all these things formed a solid image of a well-off engineer's or a ceremonious servant'south city apartment. The wealthiest of them even bought carpets to cover the floor, which, besides, could be very cold.

In the USSR, carpets became an essential item in everyday life. In fact a superstition connected to carpets states that "one should not blast the rug to the wall, it may lead to a row in the family." This superstition is similar to the ancient Russian belief most salt, which says, "if you spill the salt, you'll become in a row with the one who saw y'all do it."

The central to both superstitions is the same – both salt and carpets used to be very expensive, and then it's no wonder that spoiling them causes a row. Every bit for the carpets, Russians usually hang them on the walls using small stitched threads.

Present, young Russian designers, artists and eccentrics have renovated the trend for wall rug and even devised a humorous title for it: "Its Regal Woolness." So perhaps hanging one in your apartment isn't such a bad idea after all.

All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Go the week's all-time stories straight to your inbox

Source: https://www.rbth.com/arts/2014/01/10/behind_the_mystery_of_wall_carpets_32165

Posted by: yatesthfulted.blogspot.com

Share this post