MUCH OF EARLY RUSSIA was forested, so it was natural for people to build
their homes of wood. Villages often grew up beside rivers, with wooden
houses lining a road that ran near the river. In southern regions where wood
was harder to come by, brick or a whitewashed clay mixture were more
common building materials. The house might be raised on stones or tree
stumps as a kind of foundation, and roofs were made of wood or thatched.
Houses could be of various sizes, even two-storied. Sometimes humans and
animals were housed under one roof, especially in the north where it was
cold walking from one building to another in winter, or there might be a
house with separate outbuildings.

The main room of the village house was dominated by the stove, called
the pech. The stove was huge, a big block of clay or brick, often whitewashed,
with an opening in the side where food could be inserted and a flat surface
where people could lie down and stay warm. The stove heated the room and
cooked the food and dried the clothes and served as a bed for the old, the
very young, or the sick. The smoke from the stove usually was allowed to
rise to the ceiling, where a duct carried it out of the house. Such houses were
known as black houses, as opposed to white houses that had brick chimneys.
Lining the walls were benches, where people might sit or sleep. People might
also sleep on a wide shelf that lay atop the stove and stretched across the
room. There would also be a table and stools and perhaps a cradle hanging
from the ceiling for the baby. In olden times, water might be fetched from

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