Soroka (clothes)

Soroka (tat. surәkә; from the Russian "magpie") is an old Russian headdress of married women or part of it. It was widespread in central and southern Russia, as well as among some groups of Karelians, Vepsians, Maris, Mordovians and Kryashens. It was the richest of women's headdresses; by the beginning of the 20th century, the soroka had fallen into disuse.

The soroka as a headdress is a kind of kichka, on the forehead a little lower, and from the sides a little higher than the usual kichka.

The main items that together form this headdress were the kichka, the soroka itself, the back of the head, the forehead, and the scarf. Additional - various decorations made of beads, feathers, ribbons, artificial flowers.

Soroka details

Kichka was a soft canvas cap, on the front of which a solid elevation was strengthened. Behind the kichka was tightened, tightly fitting the head. The elevation on the front of the kichka, called kichka, horns, sderiha, hoof, was varied in shape: in the form of a shovel (shovel-shaped kichki), horse hooves (hoof-shaped kichki), horns directed upwards, up-back (horned kichkas), and also in the form of a circle or semicircle (bowler-shaped kichki). In the same area, there could be different variants of kichek.

Soroka (makushka, priviazka) - the upper part of the headdress, worn over the kichka. It was usually made of calico, silk, velvet on a canvas or chintz lining. The soroka was usually sewn together from two or three pieces of fabric. Its front part was called the brow, ochelye, brisket; side parts - wings; the back is the tail. Along with sorokas in the form of caps, sorokas were also common, not completely sewn together: only an ochelye with a “tail” and “wings” with an ochelye were connected.

The nape (nape, nape, block) is a rectangular piece of fabric, glued or sewn onto a solid base made of cardboard, birch bark, quilted canvas, etc. It was placed at the back, covering the hair on the back of the head and part of the neck, and tied with ribbons around the kichka under the soroka.

Nalobnik (nalobnik, podchelok, nalysnik) - a narrow (from 3 to 8 cm) strip of canvas, sheathed with braid, beads, beads, fit around the head in such a way that one of its edges was covered by a soroka, and the other covered part of the forehead, temples, tips ears. The ends of the forehead were tied under the back of the head.

A scarf is a necessary accessory for a soroka. It appeared as part of a headdress from the second half of the 19th century, taking the place of a towel, fly.

Soroka, decorated with embroidery or precious stones, was called sazhen; there was also a soroka winged (with side lobes with ties, or wings): the hair is pulled together with a sderikha at the back of the head. Sometimes in front of the soroka a pearl garter was added on the soroka itself (aka ochels). If a scarf was tied over a soroka, then it was called "soroka with a howl."

An unusual "soroka", more like a headdress of an Indian leader or a peacock's tail, was worn by representatives of the ethnographic group of Novosilky Cossacks, who lived in a number of villages of the former Novosilsky district of the Tula province. N. M. Mogilyansky, who explored these lands in 1902, wrote: “Women’s costume has been much more fully preserved in some villages of the Novosilsky district, where, for example, in the village of Vyshnyaya Zalegoscha, this women’s “rite” has been preserved in amazing completeness and diversity to this day. now enjoys general recognition. The pictures posted here show two married women in festive costumes; one of them is wearing a “soroka”, a headdress consisting, in general, of fourteen separate parts, putting on which is a long and complicated procedure, requiring both a lot of time and great skill .... By the way, a small amount of silver in the threads of these “golden “Headdresses are the cause of their mass death: buyers buy hundreds of headdresses and burn silver out of them.”