The word "brick" is borrowed from Turkic languages. Before brick, Rus' used a “plinth” - a thin and wide clay plate measuring about 40 x 40 cm, with a thickness of 2.5 to 4 cm. Such a plinth, for example, was used in the construction of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. The shape and size of the plinth are explained by the ease of molding, drying and firing “thin” bricks. It was made in special wooden forms, dried for 10-14 days, and then fired in a kiln. Plinth masonry is characterized by relatively thick mortar joints and the use of layers of natural stone after several rows of plinth. Many plinths were marked with marks, which are considered to be the marks of the manufacturer.
Plintha was used in Russia until the 15th century. It was replaced by the “Aristotelian Brick”, close in size to the modern one. The first brick building in ancient Rus' was the Tithe Church in Kyiv; in Moscow, the first brick houses were built in 1450. And in 1475, the first brick factory in Russia was built. Before this, brick production was mainly developed in monasteries. In 1485-1495. brick was used during the reconstruction of the Moscow Kremlin. A striking example of the use of brick construction in Russia during the time of John III was the construction of walls and temples of the Moscow Kremlin, which was supervised by Italian craftsmen.
...and a brick kiln was built behind the Andronikov Monastery, in Kalitnikov, in what to burn the brick and how to make it, our Russian brick is already longer and harder, when it needs to be broken, they soak it in water. They ordered to stir the lime thickly with hoees; as soon as it dries in the morning, it’s impossible to split it with a knife.”
In 1500, the Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod was built from brick, in 1520 - the Kremlin in Tula, and in 1524 - the Novodevichy Convent in the Moscow region.
Brick, as a building material, has its own history, during which the process of its manufacture changed and, accordingly, the morphology (size, exterior) and also the structure of the molding mass changed.
Knowing about these changes, it is possible to construct a chronological scale that will make it possible to more accurately date the cultural layers and masonry in which bricks are found. The main feature that allows us to determine the time of manufacture of a brick is its size. The “sovereign brick” standard introduced by Boris Godunov (7x3x2 inches, that is, 31.2x13.4x8.9 cm) was to be used in the manufacture of bricks for the first stone building in Western Siberia - the residential chamber of Metropolitan Cornelius in Tobolsk, built in 1574 d. At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter I established the dimensions, which were then long considered the standard - 28x14x7 cm. In addition, he obliged all brick manufacturers to brand their products, since only this method made it possible to identify unscrupulous manufacturers. Back then, the quality of bricks was assessed very strictly. A batch of bricks brought to a construction site was simply thrown off the cart: if more than three pieces were broken, then the entire batch was rejected.
The first brick house in St. Petersburg was the chambers of Admiralty Councilor Kikin, built in 1707. In 1710, on the St. Petersburg side on Trinity Square, the house of Chancellor G. P. Golovnin was built. In 1711, the palace of Princess Natalya Alekseevna, the sister of Peter I, was built. The summer and winter palaces of Peter I were built in 1712. The first large brick house in St. Petersburg was the Menshikov Palace (1710-1727). Despite repeated reconstructions, the palace has retained its original appearance. Currently it is a museum, a branch of the State Hermitage.
From 1714 to 1741 in the Russian Empire there was a ban on stone construction (and, accordingly, the production of building bricks) in all cities except St. Petersburg. The Emperor issued a special decree on the construction of new factories near the capital, ordering their owners to increase production volumes.
...so that everyone at his factory makes at least a million bricks a year, and whatever more is better.
Peter I
Craftsmen from all over Russia began to gather to work in the city’s brick factories.
The ban on stone construction was introduced specifically so that masons and other craftsmen, left without work, would flock to the construction of St. Petersburg. Everyone entering the city was obliged to give the brick they brought with them as payment for travel. According to one version, Brick Lane in St. Petersburg was named so precisely because at the place where it is located, the “brick tax” for entering the city was accepted and stored. In the middle of the 18th century. two types of bricks were produced in the country: “city brick” of five grades (size 27x13x6.7 cm), used for the construction of buildings, and “pipe” (although before the start of stone construction, small-format stove bricks 22x9x4.5 cm or 22x11x7 cm were produced here), used for laying pipes and furnaces. The use of the latter for the construction of buildings was not permitted.
In 1811, the Engineering Department of the War Ministry compiled a “Use Register for Civil Architecture,” which indicated that the brick should have dimensions of 26.6x13.3x6.7 cm. The freshly molded material, which, during drying and firing, had to correspond to these parameters changed its size. As a result, the parameters of baked bricks, even at one brick factory, turned out to be slightly different. The difference could reach 1-2 cm. Thus, all attempts to standardize bricks could not ensure the consistency of the dimensions of the fired product. Taking these considerations into account, in the second edition of the “Lesson Provisions”, which was published in 1839, the dimensions of the brick were established according to the dimensions of the dry adobe. In 1847, “Rules for uniform durable making of bricks, which should be used both in St. Petersburg and in other places in Russia, in state-owned and private factories,” were published. These rules established the size of the finished (i.e., baked) brick as 26.7x13.3x6.7 cm. In 1927, the USSR adopted a new standard for brick making: 25x12x6.5 cm, as well as 25x12x8.8 cm (i.e. n. one and a half).
The shape and size of the brick have changed over the centuries, but have always remained such that it is convenient for the mason to work with it, that is, so that the brick is commensurate with the size and strength of the mason's hand. For example, Russian GOST requires that the weight of a brick should not exceed 4.3 kg. Each face of a brick has its own name: the largest one, on which bricks are usually laid, is called “bed”, the long side is called “spoon”, and the small one is called “poke”. Brick remains the most popular material for the construction of various structures: from simple fences to luxury villas and multi-story buildings. The variety of colors and shapes gives the buildings a unique look. Brick is easy to use, strong and durable. Currently, more than 15,000 combinations of shapes, sizes, colors and surface textures are produced in the world. Currently, solid and hollow bricks and porous ceramic stones with enhanced heat-shielding properties are produced.
Based on materials from the site https://www.stoneway.ru
and the work of A.V. Matveev “Brick - as a source on the history of the Russian population of Western Siberia”, posted on the website https://old.inta.ru