The Essence of the Phenomenon
Engaged in farming as well as hunting and fishing, the people of the Volga region drank healthy, mildly alcoholic fermented beverages of their own invention.
These beverages were: rye beer, until recently called peasant beer, buza (or buzha) — a strong brew made from rye malt, and the most festive, most sumptuous drink of all, "pure" — a honey brew, or mead.
"Pure" was made in the area adjoining the great road, where the vast forests surrounding it were home to many bees, which gathered abundant honey from willow trees, raspberry, buckthorn and fireweed on forest burn-sites, and from the clover and wildflowers of the meadows. The area along this ancient road remains favorable for beekeeping to this day. It is along this old route that the place names Purekh and Pureshka are found. It is no accident that the volost located in this area was called Puretskaya.
In those distant times, in the winter cold and blizzards, long journeys and hard labor made drinking "pure" a necessity, and besides, the drink was considered both wholesome and healing. Observations of ordinary Russian folk hold that the honey drink "pure" purifies the blood, strengthens the stomach, and improves the body's composition and metabolism.
A small carved or painted wooden cup — a charochka — filled with "pure" was passed around the table in a circle, so that no one drank too much and no one was left out. The word charochka came down to us from the Meryans, and it is made up of two Meryan words: "chary," meaning wheel, and "a(sh)ska," meaning to walk, to step. Chara(sh)ska thus means "go round like a wheel," that is, walk in a circle, step around.