16th C. Russian Bride’s Etiquette

In the church it was etiquette for her to fall down at her husband's feet and to knock her head on his shoe in token of her subjection. —A late 19th century “Russian bride of the better class” in St. Petersburg, Russia 

                                             

Russian Women of Old

In olden times, the position of women in Russia was deplorable, and, as elsewhere, it has only improved by degrees. Herberstein declares that no woman was deemed virtuous unless she lived in domestic seclusion and was never seen outside the home; and Jenkinson says that except on their way to church at Christmas and Easter, or when paying visits, it was an accident if you ever saw a Russian lady. 

This habit has survived more or less even to this century, for Bremmer speaks of the women as “guarded with Oriental seclusion” and Théophile Gautier attests the same thing. So strong in the 16th century was the prejudice against women, that even fowls or animals killed by their hands were regarded as unclean; and often, if their husbands were absent, they might be seen standing at their doors and begging some passerby to perform for them the butcher’s office. In olden days, marriages were always arranged by intermediaries, and no one would have dreamed of a conducting his own suit.

One of the most popular changes affected by Peter the Great, was the regulation that no couple should be married without the consent of both parties, and that they should be allowed to meet for at least 6 weeks before marriage. The intending bridegroom sent his future wife such symbolical presents as needles and thread, raisins and fruit, and a whip. On the wedding day there was always the show of resistance on the part of the bride so common everywhere; that the bride would resist to the most uttermost leaving her house to go to the church, and with sob and make a great noise all the way thither. 

In the church it was etiquette for her to fall down at her husband's feet and to knock her head on his shoe in token of her subjection. It is said that for three days after marriage, she risked her character if she spoke more than a few words at meal time “with great manners and great reverence” to her husband. It was customary for husbands to make their wives and daughters an allowance for paint, and so fond were the ladies of this mode of adornment that Jenkinson compared them to millers' wives who looked as if they had been beaten about the face with bags of meal. — The Gentleman's Magazine, 1889

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