"Before the bathhouse is a lip, and then - Pusasash"

The bath blogger Anna Artemyeva is about how to steam, Russian bath traditions and a bath business. Bonus: Bath FAQ!

Anna Artemyeva from St. Petersburg is probably the most popular fan and researcher at the bathhouse in Russia. About 10 thousand people read her blog about the Nude bath, and more than 11 thousand subscribers are watching Instagram. Artemyeva produces guides in Russian and foreign baths, participates in bath congresses around the world, teaches people to hover the culture of soaring, studying bath traditions and organizing “intergery bathhouses”. The Special Corps of Medusa Sasha Sivtsova spoke in detail with Artemyeva about why you need to go to the bathhouse at all, what can be done there (and what is impossible), as well as how the Russian bath differs from everyone else.

In this interview, we primarily talk about people without any diseases and characteristics of health. It is better for everyone else to consult a doctor before visiting the bath. For example, it is unlikely that a specialist will approve a trip to the bathhouse during pregnancy.

- If you ask, who are you, what you will answer? The first thing that comes to mind is a bath expert or a bath enlightener.

- A bath expert is more about Parmaster . I speak in the modern language about something traditional. I am a certain intermediate link between the modern world and the tradition of the Russian bath. Probably, yes, I'm a bath enlightener, but I don’t really want to have regalia.

- Have you always loved the baths?

- I think yes, from childhood. My parents are sports people. Baths and walrus were an obligatory part of life. Mom was engaged in athletics, dad-Greco-Roman wrestling, they both respect the bath. Just a culture of heating-cold, without any esoteric processes that I know about now.

I went a lot to public baths. I remember we went to Beloostrov, a village near St. Petersburg, there my parents had a small funny bath. Mom there all the time for herself about a light bulb was burning the skin on her back. I always wanted to go there, go to the bathhouse, run out of the snow.

- When you say “esoteric processes”, what do you mean?

- By esotericism, I do not mean mysticism, but rituals: traditional bath rituals: a culture of soaring, steaming a broom, the properties of herbs.

This is also about what bath can be. For example, a purely physiological bath - this is when you got heated, everyone was fed, shook, laughed, jumped in the snow, washed, focused on borsch.

Or maybe the bathhouse is different - when you are silent, do saline and honey rolling out , long cleansing, relaxing procedures, the bath is soft, very wet. Then you find yourself in the inext of an infant state, they care about you. The feeling of unconditional love in the bath is possible due to aromas, humidity, warmth, lack of light.

-In addition to a bath study, are you doing something else?

- I have a job. I am engaged in advertising in the field of architecture and interior design, stylizing shooting, writing articles on this topic and helping different projects with PR.

- People usually go to the bathhouse to relax, and you regularly explore the baths and share it on your blog. Is the bathhouse or rest for you?

- For me, this is still a vacation, thank God. Although everything that I do for the blog now takes much more time than my work, and gradually I begin to earn it: at the expense of consultations.

I love everything related to the blog. If I am invited to interior design somewhere, then I will think about ten times if I need to, and if they call to talk about the bathhouse, then I agree to almost all the interviews. Firstly, because I am pleased to talk about it, and secondly, when people ask questions, it helps me to figure out what I know and what I can tell. Any new interview gives a topic for thinking.

- How do you visit the baths?

- At first it is better to just enter, get it - what a bathhouse, although usually, as I only see the women of these basins, I immediately want to capture this in order to show the rest of this part of the bath culture.

- When you go to the bathhouse, you go like an ordinary person or telling you that you are leading a bath blog?

- Sometimes I tell you what I am doing and why I do it. And then it happens differently. Employees: Cashiers and cleaners - those who observe the bathhouse are mostly difficult to relate if I want to photograph the bathhouse. It becomes a shame for many that the bathhouse is in poor condition, justify or forbidden to shoot.

There is a second point in field work. For example, it happens in baths so that if you are married and there are children, then they will tell you much more. Because if you are a young man, they will not tell you anything, because you do not need to know this, especially if we are talking about deep traditions and female secrets. We (with other girls with whom Anya was on the expedition - approx. Medusa) put on rings, talked about children. We did not lie openly, but gently indicated that the status is different. They don't talk differently.

"Thanks to a foreigner, I learned that the bath world is different"

- How did you have the idea to explore the baths?

- I really wanted to make a blog and thought what it could be about. At that time, about six years ago, I was the head of the interior online magazine. She worked with furniture, plumbing. And once it occurred to me to make an idea to make a guide on the public baths of St. Petersburg, how to walk on them, because everywhere its difficulties. I decided to tell you on which day it is better to go to the bathhouse, where you need to get sheets with you, that they are leased in the bathhouse. At first, it was a blog that told about the baths as part of the public culture of St. Petersburg, it did not have articles “how to steam brooms” . At that time I knew such things badly.

- Was there a key point in your bathhouse life?

-The key moment of my bathhouse was a cruisian party with a dude, whose name is Mikkel Aland. He traveled around the whole world and about 50 years ago published a book about the culture of the Sveat steam. He is the Norwegian from San Francisco. Somehow Mikkel Aland was in Helsinki, saw a Russian girl in the elevator and asked her if she knew someone in Russia who could tell him about the baths. This girl advised him another girl, an interiors designer from whom I somehow interviewed. She knew that I was engaged in baths, although then it was only rudiments. He invited me to be a guide for baths in Russia for the series, which will be called "Perfect Sweat" . In every country where there is a bath culture, this series will have its own guide, and I had to become a guide in Russia.

We met him in the "Cossack baths" in Bistro on the ground floor, where we stinked with fish, beer. Mikkel Aland, his Finnish friend, some shaman, is sitting, and I think: “What a crap, there are no such projects, some kind of game.” And then he writes to me in January: "Let's shoot in February." And we really began to shoot. After that, I was called about baths in modern Russia with a speech about baths to the bath Congress in Sweden, where all the heads of bath associations of the world gathered.

- What happens on bath congresses?

- There, the bath community meets each other and its traditions, all countries tell to themselves. There I realized that the baths are very different, that in England there is one topic, in Japan another, in Sweden the third. For example, England is Wash Houses , Scandinavia - this is communication in the bathhouse, they use it in order to gently cheer up. Japan is a Mecca of purity and rituality, baths, pools, and order prevail there. The Russians at the Congress made a bathhouse called "Russian Bath of Care." It was a group rite in a tent bath with soft steam and pleasant sentences . It was done by Vasily Lyakhov, a famous Parmaster, who broadcasts traditional bath figures . It so happened that thanks to a foreigner I found out that the bath world is different.

Then I was on a bath of Congress in Lithuania. There, every few years, decisions are made on a bath of vocabulary, so that everyone speaks the same language and understand each other. Then they decided , for example, that steaming is when the body necessarily touches a broom.

Also, all countries have the head of the bath association, the entire bath culture is growing from it. In Russia, everything is by itself, because all are smart and best. Russia always comes to show itself, and the whole world wants to agree on what a bathhouse is, to discuss what kind of culture is, where is it interesting, who invented what, discuss new stoves and cases from practice.

"We fill the meaning of the bath"

- Can a bathhouse be inexpensive, but good?

- Yes. And it can be very expensive and terrible.

- Tell me, based on your practice, about the most overated baths?

- It is important to talk about the bad, but depends on the request for whom. People live in abusive relationships, and someone likes it.

- What does the Abusy Bath mean?

- There is no Abuser bath, although ... you should be pleasant with people in the bathhouse, you should like them. The smell is important, the bath should be clean. I love to be dry, not wet, only a washed tile. But in a public bath it is difficult to demand something, because they wash as they can, everything is built in Soviet times.

I was in Pskov, in Bath No. 3, she is old, barely holds. There are wonderful steam compared to other baths, and the steam room is pleasant. But all that is around is just a trash. It smells difficult, everything is wet, the windows cannot be opened, the tile is covered not even I know what. You can’t sit anywhere, it is unpleasant. Although the bath has a flavor, all cool, steam is cool. I can say that it was a good bath experience, but the bath leaves much to be desired.

The bathhouse should have a master or mistress. During the visits, I noticed that if a person is engaged in a bathhouse, put something of your own there, you probably return there, but there are orphan baths, someone washes, removes, but there is no keeper. This is always felt, the bath simply becomes a functional room.

- That is, it is better to use the wording of “good” or “bad bath experience”?

- Yes, because there can be any bath. As a result, it all depends on whether good or bad bath experience. It depends on several factors: pair quality, the ability to reach fresh air, the presence of a reservoir. The bath may be just terrible, but if there is a lake nearby - you jump into it and still enjoy it.

- What, in your opinion, baths are overvalued?

- I will give a few examples. For example, “Flash Baths” in St. Petersburg. In my opinion, this is the only successful project for reconstruction of a bathhouse of this scale. This is a completely new level, but I don’t have a buzz there because the system is not debugged, there are a lot of doors, burning pairs, they will greatly drown (for me). But if as a tourist or make a festive exit, then this is an ideal bathhouse-restaurant, because it is beautiful, there is a service and a suitable place for communication.

Nordic SPA in Kaliningrad is an incredibly Instagram project. But there you can’t steam with brooms, a bunch of people, a dirty vat, with hygiene, convenience everything is bad. But there is water, air and nature - you are still kaifan. I think that someone can like it there and want to return.

I was in Sochi in the Four Elements. This is a bath complex, which costs from 100 thousand rubles. We came there, there were 12 people, and I, to be honest, was horrified. I think that it probably could cost so much, but it was unpleasant how the banners communicated, how they worked with you. There were five -year -old children with us, and I was worried - to give these people the opportunity to attack them or not, because they ask children questions from the series: “Let’s know when you will be ready to contrast 80 percent .” Four years to the baby, and I think: "What nonsense, neither game form, nor dialogue."

- What do you think about the oldest and most famous Moscow Sandunes?

- I won’t go there anymore to the public female department, but they have their own styl, which some like. I made a post about them, and they wrote to me: “Anka, I come for the sake of this whipping, I come from another city for this wretchedness, communication, inconvenience and for this pair that melts eyelashes.” And I can’t say: "Never go there."

This is important for my blog: I am watching, but I do not like to evaluate. I can say my opinion, but everyone has different skin, mood, experience. My task is to show as much as possible so that people try as much as possible.

- To whom is the bath contraindicated?

- I am not a doctor, I can't talk about it. But I can say that you need to listen to yourself. Sometimes I feel that you need to take a little steam, without contrast. Or, when I catch a cold or I feel that I am tired, then I understand that there is no need to go.

"I don't want to save anyone, I want to take care"

- You collect people for joint soaring. Why did you start doing this?

- I taught yoga in St. Petersburg, and the Studio Council says: “Anya, bring people to the bathhouse, why don't you drive people in the bathhouse at all?” I gathered the first intergery bath , said that I knew, we got caught up. During the year or two, almost every week I tried to walk with people either to different baths or to different banners. I did it for free.

- Who gets there? You are conducting facial.

- There was always a selection, I did not take everyone. At first, I probably made a group bath more for people, not for myself. In the first time there was enthusiasm and fumes, I did not understand what exactly to take money for, I had a job, it did not look like a commercial product for me.

Over time, confidence appeared, the blog has grown. And now I have become stricter, I take money for this, the strength of the shore and I want to have fun. When the bathhouse is going, I try to ensure that people are in harmony, so that there is a balance of m - w, open and closed people. Periodically, it happens, I can give good, and all the following: “Anka, how did this person end here? He could not be here, he is from another world. ”

- How and how much do you earn on baths?

- I am making joint campaigns in the bathhouse and steam people - this is rather for the soul, but I take money for the organization. I also advise, help create bath concepts. In such cases, I already take from 70 thousand rubles. I also spend an expedition , they usually cost from 300 thousand, but this is only expenses [to the organization of the expedition], there is no earnings here at all.

- How did your selection of people for joint campaigns in the bathhouse change in a few years?

- During the bath campaigns with me, a lot of people went to the bathhouse, some once - and no longer. I, in fact, was very upset by this, you immediately think: "Is it you cherry or something went wrong?"

You invest time and effort, everyone asks the same questions, and I also have a request for growth, gaining new experience. And now I will prefer those in whom I see the people who give up to have an exchange, because sometimes people will come and wait for me to make their experience with a cliff. But in fact, he does not depend on me, and I do not want to take this function.

- What unites people who go to the bathhouse with you?

- They are open, free, strong, they have a sense of humor. These are such people. I do not want to save anyone, I want to take care.

“Why can you refuse a person on a joint campaign in the bathhouse?”

- There is one example. I gathered a bathhouse, the first for a long time, with songs, where I wanted to go for several years. And so the man wrote to me. I tell him that the places have already ended, and he said with a claim: “How! I wrote to you the first! " Then he writes on: “I can’t help but get. What should I do?" I understand that he does not fit in any way: he was already consumerly reacted.

- How are group baths organized?

- The group bath is five suits in one steam room. The topic can be different: you just bask, interact with each other or you are soared. Everything is aimed at synchronization with each other, at relaxation regarding the fact that you are naked among people. This is a space of trust and care.

Often people who do not know each other are gathering; Women and men, if they go together, can take care of each other without eroticism. If only women, then you can feel something nursing. This is something very unconditional, not social, without a label. Due to the fact that I am a person who is quite secular and with a certain level of consideration, the campaigns in the bathhouse get the same taste.

This is contact at a different level. The fact that in ordinary life does not work. The bathhouse has simple communication: it makes no difference what your name is, who you work, just get high.

"If you burned your foot in the bath, it was believed that most likely for something."

- Is the Russian bath a separate type of bath?

- The bathhouse in Russia carried the functions that are now in the church. Different rites took place in the bath - related to childbirth, wedding, funeral. In Lithuania and Latvia, a similar culture that concerns the bathhouse and rites.

In other countries, the bathhouse carried a purely hygienic function.

-What does a black bath mean?

- This is a bath without a pipe. You drown it, heat the stones with open fire, then ventilate it so that the burn will go out, close the door and do not drown the bathhouse anymore.

- There is also the concept of the first pair. What is it?

- There are two points. The first is the moment of acquaintance and mounds with a bath. You come, greet you with a bath and a banner , introduce the body to the temperature. In the group bath, still at this time, they are spoiled with each other. To do this, use aromas for steam (for example, horseradish or lavender), at one time they begin to steam with brooms. Sometimes they use mooing to get tired with sound.

Исторически в русской бане ведущим считается мужской гендер: камни на Руси олицетворяли пращуров, были дедами. Вода олицетворяла мир живых. В обряде первого пара опускают руку в воду, загадывают желание и поддают воду на камни — так свое желание подкрепляют силой рода.

— Где банные традиции почитаются сейчас больше всего?

— Японцы остались верны тому, что значила баня для них раньше. Они максимально четко следуют традиции: у них есть онсены и офуро , и это не меняется на протяжении столетий.

В России ритуально-обрядовая баня, мне кажется, сейчас не существует особо. У нас все-таки политический строй влияет, режим контролирует смыслы. Поэтому у бани осталась гигиеническая функция и сохранилась культура общественной бани.

Если говорить про традиции, обряды и ритуалы, то некоторые люди все-таки используют баню как инструмент для телесных практик . А у удмуртов, вепсов и коми-пермяков сохранилась вера в духов.

— Есть какой-то один традиционный банный дух?

— Есть, но он во всех регионах называется по разному. Все зависит от региона, от того, больше локус женских духов или мужских. Есть женский — обдериха — и мужской — банник, баннушка. Они для одинакового придуманы.

— Для чего они придуманы?

— Я написала большую статью про это. История следующая: ничего не могло существовать без духа. Это основа мифологической базы. Поэтому любой дух был элементом переноса ответственности с себя, элементом контроля, неким гарантом того или иного опыта. Если ты обжигал ногу в бане, считалось, что, скорее всего, за что-то. То есть банник и обдериха, если ты поступал как-то неправильно, с тобой обязательно что-то сделают. Считалось, что к ним также можно обратиться, чтобы они были проводником .

— Банник и обдериха отвечают именно за банный отдел?

— Да, они за баню, домовой за свою часть. Я очень рекомендую игру BlackBook , сделанную ребятами из Перми. Это гениальная игра про традиции коми-пермяков, где главная героиня — молодая ведунья. Игра основана на большом этнографическом и антропологическом исследовании. Авторы собирали традиции, обряды и прочее. Девушка в игре борется со всеми существующими обдерихами, банниками.

— Ты веришь в банного духа и обряды, про которые говоришь?

— Я вижу обе стороны: зачем это надо и как это влияет на посещение бани. Слепо не верю, все же времена не те. Но и отрицать не могу, чувствую, что дух у каждой бани свой. В баню я прихожу, с банником про себя здороваюсь, отдаю бане честь. Просто так не могу уже, конечно, завалиться в парную.

«Иногда круто пойти в баню и напороться там на все, на что можно напороться»

— Что ты посоветуешь человеку, который хочет начать ходить в баню?

— Надо просто пойти в баню. Мы часто пытаемся себя обезопасить. На мой взгляд, иногда круто пойти в баню и напороться там на все, на что можно напороться.

Самое главное — понимать, зачем ты идешь. Если пообщаться — иди с кем-то, если услышать себя — иди один, хочешь экзистенциальный опыт — надо иди к банщику. Хочешь угореть с бабушками — езжай на периферию в общественную баню.

— Во время парения можно разговаривать?

— Существует практика в телесно-ориентированной терапии , смысл которой в том, что ты должен говорить с человеком, не используя язык или слоги, которые присущи твоему языку. Это выдуманный язык . Я делала такую баню, мы собирались, ты говоришь сначала о любви [на выдуманном языке], потом рассказывали о чем-то болезненном.

Есть правило, что в парной разговаривать нельзя. Знаю, что зависит от того, кто главная женщина в этот час в бане. Болтать запретят везде, но если людей немного, а тема общая, то может быть прикольная кочерга. Молодым дадут разговаривать реже, чем взрослым. Если девчонки треплются, им сделают замечание, если бабы — они могут себе это позволить.

Молчать — круто. Ты голый, вне социальной системы, молчишь, у тебя свободная башка.

— Есть правильное состояние после бани?

— Нет, правильного нет. В баню ходят с разными целями. Есть баня для тонуса, баня для расслабления.

— С чем у тебя ассоциируется человек после бани и человек до бани?

— До бани это жмуль, а после — пусяш, расслабленный, но маленький. Он не взрослый. Человек, когда идет в баню, он старый, когда выходит — он свеженький малыш.

А теперь внимание — рассказываем, как правильно ходить в баню. Перед вами банный FAQ!

— В баню обязательно нужна шапка?

- Yes.

— Что с собой еще нужно взять?

— Тапки, перчатки для веника, пакеты полиэтиленовые, полотенце для вытирания и сидячее для парной, все мыльное, щетка и паста для зубов, массажную щетку и масло, воду и чай.

— Как следует выбирать веники?

— Определять надо по запаху. Ты его посмотрела, понюхала, потрогала и выбрала тот, который понравился именно тебе.

— Как запаривать веник?

— Если дома подготавливать, то веник нужно обдать качественной водой ближе к горячей, а затем положить веник в пакет. За час он раскроется, впитает влагу и будет живой. Если в самой бане, то высушенный веник нужно обдать водой, тоже ближе к горячей, и поставить в таз как букет в теплую воду. Накрыть это все тазом еще и сверху. Подробно о том, как запаривать веник, я писала в своем блоге .

— В бане нужно быть голым или можно в купальнике?

— Голым, потому что купальники обычно из синтетики делают. Плюс быть голым, то есть первозданным, еще в том, что это возвращает к детскому состоянию, без социальных наслоений.

— Сколько времени можно париться?

— В общественной бане полтора-два часа, в бане дома или в аренду процесс может быть дольше.

— Сколько заходов нужно?

— Три — пять.

— После бани можно дальше поехать в город по делам?

— Все зависит от состояния. Иногда можно напариться так, что будет заряд, а иногда лучше сразу ехать спать.

Talked Sasha Sivtsova