The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1377: Chapter 200: Alkadia Literary Society

Although the weather in St. Petersburg is cold, compared to London, living in St. Petersburg still has quite a few advantages.

For example, Arthur’s long-cherished bathhouses.

The history of bathing in Russia is long-standing, perhaps because Russia considered itself the Third Rome, so it naturally inherited this essential social activity from Roman culture. Or perhaps, as Russian archaeologists have verified, due to the extreme cold of the Northern Country, the bathhouse culture became an important component in early Slavic and Finno-Ugric cultures centuries before our era.

Of course, maintaining a rigorous academic attitude, Sir Arthur Hastings, a graduate of the University of London’s History Department who considers himself a researcher of Russian culture, is more inclined to the latter.

After all, the ancient bathing method known as sauna originated from the Scandinavian Peninsula and Russia, spreading to various parts of Europe through the Germanic Region.

To satisfy the need for sauna bathing, most Russian bathhouses are made of wood, using charcoal or a stove for heating, with the steam entering the bathroom through specially constructed wooden vents. By the time of Peter the Great, Russian traditional bathhouses became part of the Westernization reforms, with wooden structures gradually replaced by stone ones. In major cities like St. Petersburg and Moscow, bathhouses were divided into several major functional areas: the front hall, bathroom, lounge, and changing room.

To emphasize Russia’s identity as the inheritor of Rome, Peter the Great also encouraged Russian nobility and upper society to use bathhouses regularly.

Thus, as the Tsar, Peter the Great naturally took the lead, setting an exemplary role.

Whenever he had leisure time, he would go for a soak in the bathhouse, followed by a little barbecue.

Sometimes, Peter the Great would also invite friends, relatives, and important figures from the court to bathe together, chatting and relaxing with his ministers in the bathhouse, sometimes even receiving state reports there.

Therefore, bathing in the same pool as the Tsar naturally became an honor of great prestige.

It was from Peter the Great onwards that the bathhouse culture, once considered lowly, gradually became a trend among the court nobles.

With the urbanization reforms initiated by Catherine the Great, the number of cities in Russia increased dramatically, and the bathhouse culture became more widespread with the establishment of new cities, permeating all levels of Russian society.

And moving into the 19th century, whether in cities or villages, whether peasants, workers, or city residents, all households of elderly and young people would regularly visit the bathhouse, with community members often bathing together, exchanging daily matters, making bathhouses an essential part of Russian family life.

As the old saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Though Russia is not Rome, it claims to be the Third Rome, so Arthur naturally followed suit, planning to behave like a St. Petersburgian in St. Petersburg.

The bathhouse was filled with the scent of hot steam and charcoal, with the crackling of the fire and the sound of dripping water intertwining into an ancient melody.

Steam rose slowly from the stove, and a mist-like fog enveloped the entire bathroom. The air was filled with the moist fragrance of plants and wood, mixing into a unique sweet-savory scent.

Inside the bathroom, two guests, already steamed crimson, sat on the long bench facing the door. Their faces were moistened by steam, their skin flushed, and the beads of sweat on their foreheads quickly dissolved into droplets, slowly sliding down, while their slightly panting chests rose and fell in the warm air.

A young man in a gray linen bathrobe pushed open the wooden door of the bathroom, holding a bundle of freshly soaked birch branches in his hand; he was the bath attendant there.

The young man glanced at the gradually thinning steam in the bathroom, said nothing more, just squatted and dipped the birch branch-made bath whisk into the hot water by the stove, gently shaking it.

A light ”sizzle” could be heard from the bath whisk in the water, exuding a faint woody fragrance.

Then, he gently patted the water surface, splashing hot water into the corners of the bathroom, instantly thickening the thin steam several times over.

”Here we go, come on, relax.”

Arthur sat on the long bench, looking very much like a steamed lobster: ”What is this for?”

Gogol, sitting next to him, muttered, ”Don’t British bathhouses have bath whisks?”

”We don’t even have bathhouses there.”

Gogol suddenly realized and then waved to the bath attendant, ”Start with me, my friend here hasn’t experienced a bath whisk massage and might not be able to take it.”

Under Arthur’s watchful eye, the bath attendant moved behind Gogol and began gently patting his back with the soaked bath whisk.

Having finally understood, Arthur spoke up, ”So that’s what it is. We have something similar in London, but the materials we use for the bath whisks differ from those in St. Petersburg.”

Gogol squinted, enjoying it, and asked, ”Are you talking about the Nine-tailed Whip?”

”How do you know about it?”

”Hum...” Gogol opened his eyes, proudly saying, ”I’m not an ordinary Little Russian; I’ve told you before. I’ve read a lot of British literary works, mainly Shakespeare. He’s my favorite playwright. Besides Shakespeare, I’ve read many others, like hearing about the Nine-tailed Whip from the ’Hastings Case Files.’ You British folks are such a strange bunch; you’d even pay to be whipped by women wearing nothing but black stockings.”