Valenki
Encyclopedia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n winter footwear, essentially felt
Felt
Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing woollen fibres. While some types of felt are very soft, some are tough enough to form construction materials. Felt can be of any colour, and made into any shape or size....
boot
Boot
A boot is a type of footwear but they are not shoes. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle and extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearly distinguishable from the rest of the sole, even if the two are made of one piece....
s: the name valenok literally means "made by felt
Felt
Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing woollen fibres. While some types of felt are very soft, some are tough enough to form construction materials. Felt can be of any colour, and made into any shape or size....
ing". Valenki are made of wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
felt
Felt
Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing woollen fibres. While some types of felt are very soft, some are tough enough to form construction materials. Felt can be of any colour, and made into any shape or size....
. They are not water-resistant, and are often worn with galoshes
Galoshes
Galoshes , also known as boat shoes, dickersons, or overshoes, are a type of rubber boot that is slipped over shoes to keep them from getting muddy or wet. The word galoshes might be used interchangeably with boot, especially a rubberized boot...
to keep water out and protect the soles from wear and tear. Valenki were once the footwear of choice for many Russians, but in the second half of the 20th century they lost most of their appeal in cities, due to their association with rustic dress.
Valenki (synonymic and semantic related expressions which mean the same – vа́lenukhi (pl.), vа́lezhki, vа́leni, vа́lentsi, kа́tanki) – warm felted highboots made from dried sheep’s wool; they are usually hard by their form, but there are soft types which are made for a corresponding footwear.
Valenki are a kind of traditional Russian footwear which is usually worn for walking on dry snow when the weather is frosty. Valenki wear out most quickly from the bottom and very often is soled with leather or other durable material to prevent this. By the very reason, it’s worn with galoshes
Galoshes
Galoshes , also known as boat shoes, dickersons, or overshoes, are a type of rubber boot that is slipped over shoes to keep them from getting muddy or wet. The word galoshes might be used interchangeably with boot, especially a rubberized boot...
. Also, to protect from getting wet – they use a rubber sole, and there are valenki with glue-sew and molded soles. Traditionally, valenki come in brown, black, gray and white, but the last few years, consumers are available to order these boots in a variety of colors (red, blue, purple, green, yellow, orange).
Valenki are included in standard of supplying officers and the ranks of the internal military service of the Russian army with warm clothes and gear.
Prototype boots were the traditional felt boots worn by nomads of the Great Steppe (including Southern Rus'
Rus' (region)
Rus' is an ethno-cultural region in Eastern Europe inhabited by Eastern Slavs. Historically, it comprises the northern part of Ukraine, the north-western part of Russia, Belarus and some eastern parts of Poland and Slovakia.The name comes from Old East Slavic , and remains the same in modern...
), whose history counts more than 1,5 thousand years.
However, as it’s supposed, the boots appeared at the beginning of the XVIII century.
Valenki became widespread only in the first half of the XIX century, when they began manufacturing by industrial methods. Before this, they were quite expensive and only wealthy people could permit themselves to have them. The increasing complexity of needs, the growing influence of the urban mores to the village caused the change of bast shoes with felt boots, and with it, the broad development of fulling production.
Valenki became less popular in the urban life in recent decades because winters in Central Russia
Central Federal District
The Central Federal District is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. The word "Central" is of political and historical meaning; geographically, the district is situated in the extreme west of Russia. The district spans an area of , with a population of 38,438,600 according to the 2010...
turned to be more soft and slushy, and as result – lighter and waterproof footwear gradually won popularity and replaced valenki. Valenki are associated with a traditional rustic style of clothing; in cities they are usually worn by little kids, or they are worn by one and all in a severe frost
Russian Winter
The Russian Winter is a common explanation for military failures of invaders in Russia. Common nicknames are General Frost, General Winter and General Snow. Another was "General Mud"....
, when other shoes don’t rescue from the cold.
Before the revolution, the production of valenki was concentrated in the Semenov district of Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
province, in the Kineshma
Kineshma
Kineshma is the second largest town in Ivanovo Oblast, Russia, which sprawls for along the Volga River. Population: -History:Kineshma was first noticed as a posad in 1429. In 1504, Ivan III gave it to Prince Feodor Belsky, who escaped to Moscow from Lithuania and married Ivan's niece...
District of Kostroma province
Kostroma Oblast
Kostroma Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kostroma.Major historic towns include Kostroma, Sharya, Nerekhta, Galich, Soligalich, and Makaryev. Textile industries have been developed there since the early 18th century...
, and in the Kukmor
Kukmorsky District
Kukmorsky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the forty-three in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. Its administrative center is the urban locality of Kukmor. District's population: 53,691 ; Population of Kukmor accounts for 32.5% of the district's population....
in Kazan province
Kazan Governorate
The Kazan Governorate or Government of Kazan was a governorate of Imperial Russia from 1708–1920, with the city of Kazan as its capital.-History:...
. In 1900, contemporary jackboot fulling
Fulling
Fulling or tucking or walking is a step in woolen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of cloth to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and making it thicker. The worker who does the job is a fuller, tucker, or walker...
factories of Russia produced 1.4 million pairs of valenki in the amount of 2.1 million ruble
Ruble
The ruble or rouble is a unit of currency. Currently, the currency units of Belarus, Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria, and, in the past, the currency units of several other countries, notably countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union, are named rubles, though they all are...
s. In 1900, a pair of valenki cost 1.5 rubles, in 1912 - 2 rubles, at the end of 1916 the speculative price reached up to 12-18 rubles per pair.
Interesting to know
- Total annual production of the felt shoes in Russia makes approximately 4.5 million.
- There are some valenki museums, one of which is situated in Moscow.
- One resident of the republic of BashkortostanBashkortostanThe Republic of Bashkortostan , also known as Bashkiria is a federal subject of Russia . It is located between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. Its capital is the city of Ufa...
felted the giant valenki of the size 130. - There are camel valenki. They visually differ from the ordinary factory valenki by their fuzziness, it’s recommended even to comb them to make them more beautiful. Unlike traditional valenki from sheep wool, made by hand, camel valenki differ solely in their original appearance and the target audience.
Sources
- Békési, László (2006) Stalin's War: Soviet uniforms and militaria 1941-45. Ramsbury: The Crowood Press ISBN 1-86126-822-X
- Zaloga, Steven J. (1989) The Red Army of the Great Patriotic War, 1941-45. London: Osprey ISBN 0-85045-939-7