Bast shoes

A Polar Bear's Tale has two posts on the subject of bast shoes.

Bast shoes are shoes made primarily from bast - fiber from the bark of the linden tree or birch tree...  Bast shoes are an obsolete traditional footwear of forest areas of Northern Europe, formerly worn by poorer members of the Finnic peoples, Balts, and Slavs. They were easy to manufacture, but not very durable.

Bast shoes have been worn since prehistoric times: wooden foot-shaped blocks (lasts) for shaping them have been found in neolithic excavations... Today bast shoes are sold as souvenirs and sometimes worn by ethnographic music or dance troupes as part of their costumes.

In Russian, they are called lapti... used as a derogatory term for cheap and short-lived footwear and also for uneducated people. 

Top photo: Suomen kansallismuseo.  Painting via.  Bottom via Pinterest.