Zhibrova T. V., Lyapin D. A. The Forest in Everyday Space of 17th Century Man (The Case of Russia’s Southern Borderlands)

Tatyana V. Zhibrova
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Voronezh State University (Russia, Voronezh)
ORCID: 0000-0002-1261-4435
E-mail: tashazhibrova@rambler.ru

Denis A. Lyapin
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Bunin Yelets State University (Russia, Yelets)
ORCID: 0000-0002-2078-2404
E-mail: lyapin-denis@yandex.ru

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UDC 94(47)”16″
DOI: 10.58529/2782-6511-2026-5-1-40-51

ABSTRACT. Russian settlers to the southern steppe outskirts in the 17th century perceived the forest as a special, closed space, fenced off from the main world. Here, people, whose life was usually public, could express various sides of their personality. For some, the forest was a place of religious solitude, for others — robbery and violence; some used it to hide from enemies, others — for secret meetings. For each person, the forest was a source of firewood and building materials. A person’s perception of the forest as a kind of protected space largely depended on the prevailing circumstances and personality traits. Refracted in the mind, in the everyday space, the forest acted as a crystal, reflecting all the complexity and contradictions of human nature, a place where everyone expressed their individuality. The article considers the following aspects of the forest in the everyday space of people in the southern districts of 17th century Russia: a place of salvation during the Tatar raid; a source for economic activity; a space of disputes and conflicts; a place of religious practices; an area of antisocial behavior; the sphere of personal space and the territory of death. The study draws on a wide range of sources, primarily related to local administrative practices. The forest, therefore, emerges not simply as a natural landscape but as a multifaceted phenomenon, embedded in the social and spiritual lives of the settlers. It served not only as a material resource but also as an arena for the realization of a wide variety of human aspirations and fears. Its boundaries, both physical and metaphorical, defined the boundaries of what was permitted and what was not, opening up opportunities for both creative and destructive activity. Exploring these aspects allows deeper understanding of the mentality and everyday life of the people who settled the southern Russian borderlands.

KEYWORDS: forest, everyday life, space and people, development of the Steppe, historical consciousness

For citation: Zhibrova T. V., Lyapin D. A. [The Forest in Everyday Space of 17th Century Man (The Case of Russia’s Southern Borderlands)]. Istoriko-geograficheskiy zhurnal [Historical Geography Journal], 2026, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 40–51. DOI: 10.58529/2782-6511-2026-5-1-40-51 (In Russian).

Received 13 December 2025
Accepted 12 March 2026

© 2026 The Authors

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