"There will be no semiitka?"

Do you know what Semitka means? No, this is not only a woman belonging to the family of peoples, speaking, according to legend, in the languages ​​of the descendants of the Old Testament Sim. This word is often found in Russian domestic prose of the XIX and XX centuries.

For example, with Melnikov-Pechersky in the novel “On the Mountains” (1875–1881):

" Boring. Hefty, squat, but wide in the shoulders, a guy, exactly from the rush iron, tailored, Yashka Morgun, the first announced the fraternity, came up with the first new one. He knocked over the pitch with a pitch, sat out of it and wrapped it tightly. The hunters call him to crack him with his fist in the width of al -willed, as anyone is more importantly: falls off the tub, pays a semitic, will sit - seven him; It will fall off with a cadulus, not lowering her legs from her - in anyone. The hunters were found, the Morgun did not fall eight times, twice the tub fell under him, and he fell flat, without letting out the tubs out of his feet. A quarter of almost Yashka has in his pocket, - I sent for a kosushka . "

Or in the novel by Ivan Evdokimov “Bells” (1925), dedicated to the events of 1905 in the Vologda:

“ Where Uzhunovsky money did not cry! On the educational ... to the homeland ... and on the other ... a hryvnia on a baptismal shirt, seven on the cross! Quaternary Potskushka! .. "

The guess is simple, but significant in that indicates the long historical memory of the people.

So, “Semitka” is the name of a two -brown coin after the reform, carried out in 1839-1843 according to the initiative of the Minister of Finance Yegor Frantsevich Kankrin. He managed to streamline Russian finances upset after the Napoleonic wars, having approved for a while (until the next foreign policy adventure Nikolai Pavlovich, ending with defeat in the Crimean war) a firm course of the exchange of bank notes on a “voiced coin” - 3.5 to 1. The new two -coic coin was equal to seven pre -reforms, as a result of which the name received the name of the people "Semitka" (less often - "Semishnik").

The word was held in the language for a very long time. Back in the 1970s in Moscow, a passerby could easily inquire with you: "There will be no semit cream?" It is not shameful to ask, but to serve is not ruined: the amount is negligible. But important. The fact is that it was two pennies that was worth a call from the street-house phone. The voracious vehicles often swallowed the semitic lamp, without connecting, and simply did not accept other coins.

Later, with the advent of mobile communications, the word has forever sunk into history.

This uncomplicated vignette served as the completion of the conversation about the benefits of special historical disciplines (in this case, the metrology studying the system of measures, weights and monetary circulation), to which the organizers entertained the participants of the “offline” “Historical Day” on December 5, 2020, while experts-volunteers checked their answers to the proposed questions-crossword puzzles and two tests.

There were intentionally few participants on the occasion of the epidemic - only 23 people (more according to sanitary standards were not placed in the lobby of the Shanka hospitable library, which kindly provided the organizers with their cozy space). The “Historical Day” took place online - here the number of participants was not so tough and reached 214. But these numbers did not matter much, since the task of the pilot event was primarily in debugging the mechanism itself.

“Historical Day” is an attempt to create an analogue of the Total Dictation. Moreover, we are talking about the history of not state, but - fundamentally - civilian. Unfortunately, in Russia, the process of transforming the national historical narrative from the narrative about the exploits of a benevolent state to the story of the daily cultural work of the "unfinished majority" did not even really turn around (although there were reassuring experiments in the early 2000s).

The free historical society, with the support of the Committee of Civil Initiatives, the Alpina Non-Fikshn publishing house and the Magazine magazine developed a test system and conducted the first test of the most unprepared public.

The promotions were attended by primary experts who, during the verification of tasks, read to participants in the mini-lecture on the diverse aspects of historical knowledge: Alexander Arkhangelsky-about the history of culture, Leonid Katzva-about economic history, Alexander Kravetsky-Igor Kurukin-about the depths of everyday life, Konstantin Morozov-about political history, Oleg Naumov-about the significance of special historical historical disciplines, Nikolai Svanidze - about the evidence of historical science (video recordings of speeches: [ 1 ]).

The detailed development of the project was carried out by Alexei Kuznetsov, Pavel Puchkov, Leonid Katskva, Anatoly Golubovsky and Maria Rovinskaya.

The results of the pilot event are highly encouraging. There is no doubt a public request for such a campaign. The initiators discovered many of their own mistakes and errors, as well as technological holes, but they expect to fix everything for the next action, more ambitious. It is preliminarily planned to conduct it in March, dedicated to the “historical day” of the proclamation of the abolition of the “serfdom” in Russia.

Nikita Sokolov, cand. East. sciences,
Chairman of the Council of the Free Historical Society