* ABOUT WHAT SINGS THE SAMOVAR *

 At the mansion of merchants Stroganoffs, the honoured guests drank brewed "herb," which, according to historians,  was not every day even on the table of the Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. From the city, Salt Vychegodsky began its triumphant tour across Russia with this excellent oriental drink. Tea, apparently, firmly pushed away Russian domestic drink "sbiten," and fruit and berry drinks, although with kvas, it challenging to compete even for tea.     
    But such a confrontation is inappropriate. A good verified by the people drink like an excellent national custom, is not an enemy to the same kind of drink or (tradition). They merely complement each other, and everyone wins next to another.
 Time, place, and mood unmistakably prompted the host or hostess how to quench the thirst of the guest or worker or member of the household. In one case, it was tea, in the other - kvas, in the third - wort. Then, again, many loved a birch sap. Each such drink has its own ware, and its ritual, dependent, however, on an individual.
    They say: "Everyone drinks, but not everyone sighs with pleasure." In a short historical period, tea ceremony in the North of Russia infiltrated that the samovar became a sign of household well-being and expression of everyday folk aesthetics. It became complementary to the two most important focuses of the house: the hearth and the "red" corner (altar with icons), fire for the household and spiritual, domestic warmth. Without the samovar, as without bread, the house looked inferior; the same feeling was from the empty front corner or from the cold oven.
 The Russian stove itself has always been connected with the aesthetics of peasant life. Who not listened to the songs of a winter wind in the warm chimney, sitting or lying on the sheepskin on the back of the stove? The most surprising was the feeling of closeness to that cold wind and your safety from it. The latest variants of the Russian stove gently and kindly provided the opportunity to make noise, boil, sing, and ring for the Russian samovar. It's for the samovar the hostess rakes two or three times a week hot golden coals from the stove and with the special shovel dumped them in an iron urn. The stove had a particular intake for the samovar, suction chimney, which operates independently of the stove dampers.
     In which cases the samovar would be set? In very many cases… The unexpected arrival of a relative or merely a visitor, before the lunch in the hot haymaking day, to see somebody off, after a bath, on holidays, with the cold, with joy or frustration, to accompany cakes, to simply heat the water to boil eggs, jelly. The river water was preferred for boiling water.
 God forbid setting the samovar without water at all, which often happened with absent-minded cooks. Then the samovar, as if wondering for a while, was silent, then suddenly began to make unnatural noises, and finally slowly sank and fell on its side ... Not every blacksmith could take this repair and solder the broken tube. Just for this reason, people tried to buy a second spare samovar. The forms and sizes of samovars were infinitely varied. Polished with the river sand to the sun-shining state, the samovar was in perfect harmony with the wood of the peasant house, with its benches and pantries and often unpainted lockers.
 The animated, boiling samovar really came alive and had its own spirit. The strange, eternal relationship of water and fire the proximity to humans of both entities made the tea ceremony one of the satisfying pleasures, bringing people together and holding together a family meal. Here blurted out the bucket handle, and water makes a noise flowing into the samovar. Then, you sensed the smell of birch on fire, so in the knee of the iron pipe connecting the samovar with a chimney was heard and became quiet the flame. Three minutes later, all copper device starts to make a noise like the noise of smooth summer rain, and in five minutes goes silent. Water boils with bubbles in, the hole lets out hot steam.
 The samovar claims the table sitting on the copper tray with a teapot on the top of the burner. Teacups for the number of family members surround a wooden board with cakes and a large pitcher with "fried," "baked," or rather, slow-cooked in the oven milk. Gentle heat from the fiery coals, weak ringing noises which turns to a mysterious singing, vapour, scent, hot, shiny side of the samovar, where you can see yourself - all adorned with a large piece of the pie and tiny splinters from the Sugar Loaf. Two tablespoons of milk like white clouds descend in the amber-brown contents of the cup.
 Adults poured it all for you in a saucer, divided between the youngster's milky froth and begin their endless conversations. This way, the tea ceremony is perceived in early childhood. In adolescence, if there is no one younger than you in the family, you are given all the milk froth to grow the beard. At this time, you already know that you cannot switch places at the table and cannot merely leave the cup. You must necessarily turn it sideways or upside down. Otherwise, you will always feel thirsty as per the omen, and your mug will be endlessly filled with tea. One of the main features of the Russian samovar is that it can boil till the end of the tea ceremony; just keep the tube slightly open.
 During the wars, famines, the samovar, as the Russian stove, was a healer and a comforter in the peasant's house. In the absence of tea brewed cured sugar carrots, St. John's wort, blackcurrant leaves. Somehow in the hard times, the samovar became the object of individual attention from the authorities (the same fate was, however, and for the Russian church bells). But it is not always carried away from the house, accompanied by the lamentations of the women. During the Great Patriotic War, Russian women to the call to collect non-ferrous metal without a sigh gave away to the war fund their only samovars. After that, water had to be boiled in iron pots. Today, the samovar is replaced by an electric kettle, which has its pluses and minuses...