Welcome to Russian History Retol.

Episode 289, Russian and Soviet cuisine, part 2.

Last time, we began our series with some of the dishes and meals I enjoyed in my childhood and beyond.

Today we continue our journey into the essential foods and their preparations through Russian

and Soviet history.

But before we get into today's episode, I want to recommend a podcast I've been listening to

that I think you'll find interesting.

It's the History of Vikings hosted by Noah Tetsner and available wherever you get your

podcasts featuring conversations with leading historians about Vikings, North mythology, and the history of medieval Scandinavia.

Recent episodes include King Hardold, Bluetooth, Viking Age ghosts and zombies, weapons in battle tactics, and here's an interesting one,

the Vikings in Russia, and most recently an interview about Viking Ull, the Norse winter holiday.

Subscribe to the history of Vikings wherever you listen to podcasts.

And now to our episode.

In literature, there was a And now to our episode.

In literature, there was a kind of rivalry that went on between the rich and the poor when it came to food. Lynn Vissant, in her book, The Russian Heritage Cookbook, writes the following, quote,

An Alexander Pushkin's novel in verse, Eugene Onigan, the hero, a rarefied Westernized dandy, eats rare roast beef and imported delicacies

such as truffles, foie gras, lumburger cheese and pineapples washed down by Bordeaux and French Champagne.

In contrast, the family of the heroine, Tatiana, the incarnation of the pure Russian soul serves pickled mushrooms, Blinie, Kvass, an over-saulted

Pirulg and Russian champagne. She further goes on to say, quote,

40 years later in Anna Karinina, Leo Tolstoy describes how

Constantine Levin, the author's mouthpiece for his ideas and Russian attachment to the land

and to the Russian way of life, things to himself that he would much prefer she, cabbage soup, and Kasha to the French white wine

...