Joint baths in Moscow for men and women - they seem to be there, but they seem to be gone. On the one hand, there are thousands of residents and guests of the capital who will say that they have been to such an institution. On the other hand, officially in Moscow, as well as throughout Russia, there are no such steam rooms.

The reason mainly lies in the Slavic mentality, which is characterized by some puritanism. Maybe these are remnants of the USSR, where strictness was cultivated in the relationship between the sexes. Or it's just that the Russians have not yet gotten around to legitimizing a phenomenon that has been quietly existing for many years, and you will not particularly surprise anyone with it.

By the way, in European countries, joint baths are a common thing. For example, in Holland there are no separate ones at all. In Germany - a total of 70%, in Eastern European countries - about half. People do not hesitate to come to joint steam rooms with families, large companies, with children, parents, grandparents; calmly strip naked and enjoy the bath procedures. This is considered quite normal.

Joint baths in Moscow also exist, but they work according to the following scheme: there is a steam room, divided into men's and women's rooms. There is a certain person (called in narrow circles the organizer). He comes to the owner of the bath and agrees that he will rent the premises regularly on such and such days for joint (M + F) procedures.

Hit on the hands - and you're done. The general steam room begins to work on an ongoing basis. Those wishing to visit it, of course, will not find the schedule and price list in the official "menu" of the institution. However, this information is available on the Internet, where it is easy to find the announcements of the organizers and sign up for a visit to the steam room.

Joint baths in Moscow for men and women, addresses:

There are more than a dozen baths in the capital, where joint days for men and women are regularly held. They have been operating in this mode for many years, and lovers of steam rooms know these places well. For example, several addresses:

1. St. Krasnokazarmennaya, 13-b. Baths on the territory of the MEI pool. At the same time, three dozen people can be in the room. There is a Finnish steam room, a cabin with infrared radiation for one or two, billiards in a spacious lounge. You can also arrange to visit the pool itself.

2. St. People's militia, 43, building. 2. It is considered the most capacious bath in Moscow. At the same time it is able to receive 50 visitors. There are many lounges here. There is an opportunity to play billiards and tennis. In the presence of a Finnish steam room, a small pool, a massage table.

3. Hotel passage, 8, building 1. The bathhouse can accommodate 30 people. It boasts a huge Turkish hammam. However, the pool here is quite small - only 3x3 m.

4. Varshavskoe shosse, 34. At this address, the Warsaw Baths are located, where you can rent different halls for a joint holiday. Each of them is decorated in its own individual style. The establishment has a restaurant.

5. St. Luganskaya, 10. "Tsaritsyn baths". The institution differs from many others in that it periodically organizes sessions for the so-called "naturists". There is a restaurant and a bar for drinks.

6. St. Neglinnaya, 14, buildings 3-7. "Sandunovskiye baths". Here you can rent rooms of different sizes for joint stay. This bath is considered one of the most popular in Moscow.

The list is, of course, not complete. There are other places where they rent rooms for joint visits to the bath. By the way, the rules are the same everywhere: no sex and no alcohol. In many establishments, even heavy food is not welcome. Because a bath is a way to improve health, and not vice versa. And even more so, this is not a place for debauchery, as, unfortunately, many people think.

In contact with

classmates

For the inhabitants of Russia, the banya has never been just a place where people wash themselves. She was given ritual, cult significance. It was believed that it was here that one could part with life's troubles, wash off not only physical, but also spiritual dirt, various sins, illnesses, and misfortunes. The bath accompanied the most important events for every Russian: birth, wedding, funeral. As in any special place, there were strict prohibitions in the bathhouse, including on the basis of gender.

We used to bathe together

If for modern residents of Russia, when visiting a public bath, the main taboo is not to go into the department where representatives of the opposite sex wash, then for the inhabitants of Russia such a ban simply did not exist.

As indicated in the book “Bath. Essays on Ethnography and Medicine” (Saint Petersburg Publishing House, 2015) researcher of Russian antiquities Andrei Dachnik, foreign travelers were extremely embarrassed that men and women were almost not ashamed of their nudity during washing. Prudish Catholics and Protestants paid special attention to this fact.

For example, the ambassador of the Roman emperor Augustine Mayerberg wrote in 1661: “In public baths there are large numbers and women of a simple rank ... mingling with men and not at all considering it important to expose their impudent looks to their nudity, which arouses lust.

Although none of the many sources says that the joint washing of men and women in Russian baths led to debauchery. Foreigners note that people calmly perceived someone else's nudity, allowing themselves only jokes on this topic. In the villages, families often washed together, primarily for reasons of economy: the bathhouse cools down quickly in winter, and you can’t get enough firewood to heat it twice.

However, religious leaders, and then the secular authorities, sought to eradicate such a custom, which seemed immoral to them. The corresponding prohibition contains a collection of decisions of the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1551, called "Stoglav". But ordinary inhabitants almost did not comply with this instruction of the holy fathers, therefore, in 1782, Empress Catherine II signed the "Charter of the Deanery", which forbids men and women to wash together.
By the beginning of the 19th century, according to the historian Andrei Dachnik, a clear gender division had already taken place in Russian steam rooms.

Prohibitions for the weaker sex

Contrary to the slightly biased attitude of Western European authors, the bath has always been a sacred place for the inhabitants of Russia, visiting which is associated with a large number of rules that must be observed. What kind of depravity, if according to beliefs, everything that happens here is strictly monitored by Bannik - the mythical owner of the steam room, as well as the evil woman Obderiha, who must be appeased with a polite word or some kind of symbolic offering.

Women in Russian baths were not allowed:

• to wash first, before their husbands, brothers and fathers;
• use brooms of the stronger sex;
• to be alone;
• wash your hair on Monday and Wednesday;
• leave the bath immediately after childbirth;
• to work as chauffers (wavers) after the 18th century.

And now about everything in order ...

Not all the inhabitants of Russia bathed in baths with their families, more often members of the rural community took turns washing: first a man, and then women. Some sources explain this tradition by the patriarchal foundations of society. Say, the father of the family is the head of everything and the right of primacy in everything belongs only to him. In addition, the Christian tradition considers the fair sex to be "unclean", and men were afraid of "infecting" the sinfulness of women, visiting the bathhouse after them.
However, there is another version of the origin of this tradition. Baths in Russia were heated very hot, and the fathers of the families went to take a steam bath first, so as not to allow their wives and small children to experience unnecessary discomfort.

Women things

The culture of Russia, starting from the most ancient times, was characterized by a clear division of household items according to gender. And bath brooms are no exception. This important attribute of the steam room could be either male or female.

For the representatives of the stronger sex, brooms were knitted from oak, maple, ash or elm. The weaker sex used bath products from birch, linden, alder or willow branches.

In addition, like any personal hygiene product, each person should have their own broom. The inhabitants of Russia feared that through this object one could become infected with diseases or symbolically “take over” all the troubles and ailments that the previous visitor to the bath washed away.

Only witches and fortune-tellers could be in the bath alone to spend their magical rituals. All other women had to bathe accompanied by relatives or girlfriends. It was believed that Bannik or Obderikha could do much harm, first of all, to young girls, if the spirits were not appeased correctly.

Monday and Wednesday have always been considered unfavorable for washing in Russia. Women were forbidden to wash their hair on these days of the week. According to popular beliefs, otherwise you can harm the health and beauty of your hair, and therefore miss your female happiness.

In the baths, rural midwives took birth from time immemorial. Happy mothers, who safely gave birth to babies, could not leave the steam room for several days after this event. Some ethnographers and historians explain this limitation by caring for the health of a young mother, who cannot “catch” any infection in any way, because a woman’s body is weakened after childbirth. Others associate the presence of a young mother in a bath with her ritual, magical death in her former capacity, and, according to popular belief, some time is needed to return to the world of the living.

Men don't soar anymore

Western European travelers who visited our country in the 16th-18th centuries were also surprised by the presence of bath attendants in the steam rooms, who helped both women and men to cleanse themselves of dirt. These girls were called rubbers or wavers, as they rubbed the bodies of visitors to the baths and waved brooms.

The Dutch politician Nikolaas Witsen, who visited Moscow, Pskov and Novgorod in 1664-1665, wrote the ethnographic work Journey to Muscovy. It says that pretty serf girls often worked as polishers, soaring the family and guests of their landowner.

At the same time, Andrei Dachnik claims that the mahals worked in public baths. The researcher of Russian antiquity did not find any reliable historical evidence that these women could provide intimate services to their clients.

“In Russia, the girls in the baths really just washed the visitors, often very indifferently,” writes Andrey Dachnik.

But after the division of these public institutions into male and female representatives of the stronger sex, exceptionally strong guys began to soar - bath attendants.

Men had their own taboos

One might get the impression that men did not encounter various prohibitions while washing. This is not true. The restrictions imposed on them by visiting the steam room are closely related to the habits that only the representatives of the stronger sex were subject to in patriarchal Russia.

So, in the bath, men were strictly forbidden:

• sit on the tub, because according to the sign, such a person runs the risk of becoming an alcoholic;
• drink alcohol;
• go there when a woman in labor is in the steam room (this is an exclusively female sacrament);
• to spit, especially on the stove masonry, otherwise the offended Bannik will spit boiling water in response;
• bathe with a female broom;
• wash in the second call, after his wife.

Russian folk tradition contains many signs and beliefs, as well as outright taboos designed to protect people from drunkenness. In addition, in the bathhouse, such libations are also dangerous, because drunk people cannot boast of accurate movements and clarity of mind, which means they risk getting burned or fading.

It is simply impossible to imagine that women in Russia could get together and drink in a bathhouse, as well as spit in all corners with relish, so such prohibitions simply did not exist for them.

Your student is
Sasha Zarubin (guest of my page) (Alma-Ata. 1944 Baba Dusi's story)

One of my grandmothers, Evdokia Petrovna, sometimes, in her mood, told this funny incident that happened to her during World War II in Alma-Ata. And since my grandmother was always in a good mood, I heard this story many times back in the distant 1960s, as a child, more than once, sitting in the corner of her cozy kitchen.

Grandmother, sorry, twenty-six-year-old Dusya Khudyakova was sent to study in Alma-Ata, to party courses at the Central Committee of Communist Party (b)K.
For history buffs, I explain that the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Kazakhstan is the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
Times were tough, there was a war going on. The whole city was filled with the wounded, evacuees, as well as soldiers going to the front.
After school, Dusya and two younger girlfriends decided to go to the bathhouse. But it was a men's day in the bathhouse. The girls wanted to leave, but after talking with the caretaker of the bathhouse, they found out that there was no one in the bathhouse.
The caretaker - an ancient grandfather with a disability, half-blind, half-deaf - assured them that no one had been and would not be there today.
Then Dusya, as the most active of the girlfriends, persuaded him to let them go. We agreed that the caretaker would warn us if some men suddenly decided to take a steam bath in the middle of the week.
Then everything is simple.
We went in, undressed, washed. Let's go to the steam room. Youth and fun rush from the girls. Steam and sing songs at the top of their lungs.
At this time, a company of soldiers comes in formation to the bathhouse. Something like a hundred.
The disabled grandfather happily meets them and escorts them to the locker room.
He completely forgot about the girls, which is not surprising for his age.
The soldiers undressed and began to fill the washing department.
The girls sang and sang, steamed and suddenly died. We heard the sound of basins and a man's voice. Peeking furtively out the door, they found a full hall of naked men who were washing and laughing merrily. It was clear that now this army would wash itself and "by company and by platoon" would go to the steam room. The girls started to panic, but then the eldest of them, Dusya, resolutely headed for the door. Covering herself with a basin and holding her chest with her hand, Dusya kicked open the door and stepped into the washing room ...
This is where it all started!...
The soldiers thought it was a vision or a godsend!
Young naked woman in the bath!
But soldiers are soldiers. They quickly organized themselves and lined up in two lines, forming a passage in the middle.
Shyness was not considered a vice at that time - so they all chastely covered themselves with basins.
Dusya resolutely barked in a commanding voice: “So !!! We stand quietly and hold the basins in front of us !!! Do not enter the steam room! I'm going to your commander, and God forbid anyone to stretch out their hands, I'll gouge out the eye with this fist!
That's how she proudly went through all this naked "guard of honor". She looked really determined.
No one dared to even not only touch, but even say something obscene.
In the locker room, Dusya was met by a stunned commander, who drank tea and quietly talked with the old caretaker. Seeing this enraged Aphrodite, the commander was confused for a moment, then turned away from embarrassment and shouted at the caretaker: “What a shame! What are you doing, old man! I ar-r-rest you for this!”
The caretaker immediately regained his sight and forgot about his deafness. But he began to stutter... Somehow he explained that he had completely forgotten about these girls. The commander straightened the belt, saluted Dusya, who had already wrapped herself in a sheet, and assured her that he would fix everything now.
He opened the door to the washing room and barked: “Ro-o-ota, attention! Listen to my command! All facing the wall step-m-m-arsh!!!
Asses covered with basins! We stand still! Whoever says even a word will go to court!
Dusya brought sheets to the girls and led them out of this den.

On the street, they had already recovered from the shock and had a lot of fun, discussing their adventure.
I think there were a lot of unambiguous and funny jokes. After all, my grandmother was not always old.