Let Them Eat Cake: Gastronomy and Class in the Russian Empire from the Petrine State to the Revolutions

According to Russian-Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol, the stomach was the “most noble” organ in the human body.1 Indeed, Russian foods and eating culture were prioritized by Peter the Great’s sweeping governmental, economic, and social reforms in the 18th century. Aimed at bending the nobles to his will, reforms foisted rapid Europeanization upon the upper class. Meanwhile, the simple diet of the Russian masses changed little in the 18th century2; peasants were constrained to what they could grow themselves, the harvest season, and church rules. Food both represented and augmented the sharp, insurmountable barriers class presented in the empire. Westernizing pressures in the Russian Empire created a setting in which food habits highlighted social stratification - Russian nobles and elites ate their food based on trends, while peasants ate according to what they could afford. When the empire fell, so did many of the culinary habits that had perpetuated class distinction for centuries. Firstly, agricultural and food policy dictated how foodstuffs were produced and distributed. While elites were introduced to the art of elaborate banquets, one peasant account presents nobles as plagued with an insatiety in and dissatisfaction with their lives of leiCrown, 2013. 13 Cambridge Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1984. 178 sure.3 Meanwhile, the lack of a market economy meant that for most Russians, food selection was limited and monotonous.4 There was blatant preference for the elites to have access to the best cuts of meat and harvests, while agrarian rules were less “policy” than a superimposed dirigisme that only applied to commoners. The biggest distinctions were not by region, but by social class. In this sense, a two-fold division existing between foods based on social class is visible. One group represented breads, potatoes, vegetables, and alcohol, which were consumed by all social levels with differences between classes in quality and quantity. A second group of foods, including cheeses, fruits, sweets, and teas, showed huge disparities amongst consumption. This distinction is grounded in the logic that the former are staples of the Russian diet where the latter are more aptly termed luxuries and accessory foods, decided by the whims and personal preferences of rulers.5 They were not required for survival and were largely sourced from outside the country, therefore more expensive and restricted to elites. “Bread before everything”6, a famous Russian proverb, was not an overstatement. Bread was the backbone of the Russian diet. Cereals, especially Rye, were used to make Russian “black” (brown) bread. Wheat bread was

1 Von Bremzen, Anya. Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking : A Memoir of Love and Longing. First. New York: 2 Smith, R. E. F, and David Christian. Bread and Salt : A Social and Economic History of Food and Drink in Russia. reserved for special occasions. In addition, 3 Nikitenko, Aleksandr. 2001. Up from Serfdom : My Childhood and Youth in Russia 1804-1824. New Haven: Yale University Press. Accessed November 18, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central. 6-7 4 Smith, R. E. F, and David Christian. Bread and Salt : A Social and Economic History of Food and Drink in Russia. Cambridge Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1984. 331 5 «ЕДА И НАПИТКИ XVIII ВЕКА». Страницы истории. http://storyo.ru/empire/115.htm. 6 Gibson, James R. Feeding the Russian Fur Trade: Provisionment of the Okhotsk Seaboard and the Kamchatka Peninsula. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1969. 49

there were uses for grains beyond just bread: Burda was a popular soup originating in Siberia that consisted of rye and flour. Kvass , a dark, caput-mortuum colored liquid, was made from fermented rye bread and doubled as a beverage or as a base for sauces. In the Far East, where Russians were forced to adapt their diet to the limitations imposed on them by the region’s geography and isolation,1 Saturnan was a popular beverage concocted from wheat grain, flour, butter, and tea. Both commoners and the wealthy consumed these products, but quality and quantity served as markers of status, indicating if the individual belonged to a class where there were other options or better ingredients available. Potato, a starchy crop, was another staple beloved and consumed by all Russians. However, similar to grains and cereals, the potato for peasants was paramount in maintaining their subsistence diet. In fact, the potato held such a substantive role in peasant culture and culinary tradition that the infamous riots against coercive farming in the first half of the 19th century were called the Potato Riots.2 The potato was also prized in the Far East as one of the few foods successful in rocky soil and agriculturally-disagreeable climates. The Okhotsk region specifically viewed it as more than simply a reliable crop; alongside turnip, cabbage, radish, and beets, vegetables were lifesavers when fish became scarce in the mid-19th century.3 Like grains, all Russians consumed potatoes, but the class distinction lay in the quantity consumed, determined by if there were other options available. The majority of the peasant diet alongside grains and potatoes was comprised of vegetables. Vegetables were consumed in similar forms to what was eaten by the upper classes but in greater quantities. The predominantly vegetarian diet of the peasants needed salt to preserve food to last through winter, evidenced by the large amount of peasant salt consumption. 4 Kitchen gardens were found everywhere across the Russian landscape 5 , and commonly grew cabbage, turnips, beets, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, peas, beans, mushrooms, dill, garlic, leeks, onions, gourds, and pumpkins.6 The reliance on vegetables for sustenance began during childhood, and the first solid food fed to babies was typically soft vegetables such as cucumber. Dried bark of poplar and pine was used for food in the East and West 7 , and shchi (cabbage soup) and borshch (beet soup) were daily staples, still popular today. In the Far East, various sea vegetables such as sea cabbage were collected for jam although they were salty in taste,8 as the climate and soil quality limited options. Nobles consumed vegetables as well, but there is no evidence to purport their diet had a similar reliance on them. Fruits, which had to be imported, played a smaller but still significant role compared to vegetables in the Russian diet. Common fruits were apples, pears, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, grapes, melons, and berries to make beverages and preserves. A popular dessert was to accompany them with cheese. 9While most of these items had to be import-

1 Ibid., p. 50 2 The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. S.v. "Potato Riots." 3 Gibson, James R. Feeding the Russian Fur Trade: Provisionment of the Okhotsk Seaboard and the Kamchatka Peninsula. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1969. 180 4 Smith, R. E. F, and David Christian. Bread and Salt : A Social and Economic History of Food and Drink in Russia. Cambridge Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1984 28 5 Gibson, James R. Feeding the Russian Fur Trade: Provisionment of the Okhotsk Seaboard and the Kamchatka Peninsula. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1969. 49 6 Gibson, James R. Feeding the Russian Fur Trade: Provisionment of the Okhotsk Seaboard and the Kamchatka Peninsula. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1969. p. 49 7 Ibid., p. 54 8 Ibid., p. 54 9 «ЕДА И НАПИТКИ XVIII ВЕКА». Страницы истории. http://storyo.ru/empire/115.htm

ed from abroad, some fruits were grown in Russia. However, these were considered luxury items, such as sweet watermelons from Southern Russia. Similar to a lamb in their shape and exterior appearance, these watermelons highlight an intersection of peasant culture and folkloric belief. In families that could afford it, fruit was introduced into the diet early: unripened apples were a food given to peasant and wealthy teething babies alike. Ultimately however, conditions such as the fact that fruit was seasonal and required special preservation in the winter stymied its accessibility. Class distinction and evidence of the elite receiving special gastronomic privilege was further shown through meat consumption. The nobility enjoyed swan, peacock, crane, heron, black grouse, hazel hen, partridge, lark, goose. To peasants, meat was a luxury item and typically limited to beef on certain holidays, weddings, or baptismal celebrations.1 In fact, a common complaint amongst the peasantry was that “The greedy lords eat meat even on fast days”.2 However, veal was an outlier, avoided by the well-to-do and the peasants alike for reasons dictated by the Orthodox Church. Laws placed further restrictions on what the peasantry could produce at home, deliberately limiting their access to food. Trapping them in nutritional deficiency, peasants were legally prevented from killing large live game.3 Peasants were not only limited by what they could afford, but also by legislation that forced them to remain second class citizens, creating barriers that prevented peasants from having a chance at creating their own fortunes. The consumption of alternative sources of protein, by the peasantry and the elites varied regionally. Eggs were especially popular in the Far East as a handy protein supplement to the generally deficient Russian diet, collected by the thousands on the Kamchatka Peninsula.4 Other sources of protein were regional in nature marine mammals such as sea cows, whales, and hair seals were caught for food in the Russian Far East.5 However sustenance was not always about convenience; despite larger numbers, reindeer meat was unpopular and rarely eaten6 and egg was a more reliable staple. While lower classes ate eggs, the wealthy elite adorned them with diamonds: the Faberge company produced ornately jewelled decorative eggs for the Tsar and his friends as gifts. Fish were plentiful and easy to catch from Saint Petersburg to the Pacific. Given that the climate dooms most of Russia to a largely inhospitable agricultural setting and short growing season, fish appeared to be the most widely available protein source. Seafood saved many Russians from starvation whenever and wherever there was poor agricultural development or a bad harvest.7 Salmon was eaten by both the upper and the lower classes a variety of different ways, and was most often consumed after it was salted, dried, and preserved. Seafood was rarely consumed raw8. Like all food products, class distinction was still communicated through seafood availability in status markers of choice and abundance. Mimicking trends in contemporary French cuisine,9 Moscow and Saint Pe-

1 Semyonova, Olga Tian-Shanskaia and Ransel, David L.. Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. https://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed November 8, 2018).114 2 Ibid., p. 327 3 Ibid., p. 11-12. 4 Gibson, James R. Feeding the Russian Fur Trade: Provisionment of the Okhotsk Seaboard and the Kamchatka Peninsula. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1969. 51 5 Ibid., p. 51 6 Ibid., p. 37 7 Ibid., p. 37 8 Ibid., p.51 9 Goldstein, Darra.“Gastronomic Reforms under Peter the Great: Toward a Cultural History of Russian Food,” Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Neue Folge, Bd. 48, H. 4 (2000) 488

tersburg elites enjoyed fresh sturgeon, white salmon, sterlet salmon, pike, bream, pike perch, and other fare that were delicacies to the rest of the Russian population. Consumption of cheese in the Russian Empire reflected an industry that only further exemplifies how class divisions were highlighted by accessibility and preferences. Aged cheese, considered the most desirable, is a known “acquired taste”; much like other luxury foods such as foie gras, olives, fine wines, and caviar, things that most people learn to enjoy only through experience. Cheese itself was prohibitively expensive and unfamiliar to the contemporary Russian palate. The ability to purchase and enjoy cheese categorically came to represent the highest, “most cultured” levels of Russian society. 1While Russia did in fact have its own legacy of Russian-made dairy products (and this was the extent to which the masses enjoyed products such as cheese), Peter the Great’s reforms helped cured cheeses come into fashion during the eighteenth century as imported luxury goods.2 The image of cheese as a marker of class and status was so central to Russian society that debate arose as to whether too much money was being spent importing cheese alone, despite the fact that in reality cheese made up less than one percent of luxury imports in the Russian Empire. 3 Cheese, alongside other products, was representative of a broader discourse of gastronomy in the Russian Empire, concerned with how foreign foodstuffs exacerbated anxieties about class and identity. Confections and sweets were another aspect of the Russian diet that reinforced class distinctions. Honey, a sticky-sweet staple, produced throughout Russia, was a common ingredient in many dishes. However, following pressures to westernize, wealthy kitchens found sugar to be more fashionable. The recipes for dessert dishes were prohibitively expensive and extravagant and therefore only enjoyed by those with vast wealth. Russian pastry history traces a clear path in which traditional peasant recipes and ingredients were appropriated to allow for the wealthy to create new versions to help distinguish themselves from the lower classes. For example, kovrizhka was a gingerbread cake from the earliest days of Russia that was slowly adapted as new ingredients and tastes developed in the empire.4 Even within the upper echelons of Russian society there were distinctions: only the most elite had access to red sugar, which was introduced to the Russian court as early as the 1600s.5 The preference for red sugar played to wealthy Russians’ sensibilities; in the Russian language the adjective for “beautiful” (красивый ) is closely linked to and sometimes used interchangeably with the word for the color red (красный ). Russian confectionary creations lagged far behind the viennoiserie, croissants, and millefeuilles that would have occupied French bakery windows, but pastries were unique from many other food groups in that they were not acquired tastes. Had the peasantry been given access to them, they would have likely delighted in it. Tea and non-alcoholic drink culture was another vehicle reinforcing social stratification. Prior to Petrine social reforms, tea played a minor role in Russian society until it became fashionable and hailed as “European”. Tea became so popular that the entire Russian daily eating sequence was altered with a new meal, Afternoon Tea, by the second half of the 17th

1 Smith, Allison. “The Case of the Dead Cheese Master, Part II: A Taste for Cheese.” Russian History Blog. http:// russianhistoryblog.org/2014/11/taste-for-cheese26 / (accessed November 8th, 2018) 2 Ibid., 3 Kahan, Arcadius. “The Costs of ‘Westernization’ in Russia: The Gentry and the Economy in the Eighteenth Century,” Slavic Review 25, no. 1 (1966). 44 4 Goldstein, Darra.“Gastronomic Reforms under Peter the Great: Toward a Cultural History of Russian Food,” Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Neue Folge, Bd. 48, H. 4 (2000) 483 5 Ibid., p. 483

century. 1 In the Far East, where imports were costly and limited by transportation logistics, a Cossack drink made from cowberry leaves was widely consumed in place of tea.2 Tea did permeate into mass culture, albeit slowly, proven by documentation kept by Russian officials recording imports. In 1798, loose leaf tea amounted to more than twenty one thousand puds 3 (343,000 kilograms4); tea-drinking was clearly being enjoyed by more than the small, minority elite population because this was a quantity the nobles could not have sustained alone. Any discussion of Russian culinary habits and food culture is incomplete without commentary on the role of alcohol in society. A temptation and a pleasure no Russian could withstand, Peter the Great’s own proclivity for foreign alcohol (especially Hungarian wines 5) contributed to their popularity. Excessive drinking was a widespread disorder, and institutions such as traktiri , postoialye dvory , and kabaki (village inns, taverns, and tea houses) 6 sprung up to accommodate the large drinking clientele. They were especially popular with the masses, for example in the rural Tver region near Moscow, 95.7% of all retail alcohol was sold in rural inns and taverns. 7 Traktirs were the starting point of development of a restaurant industry, serving pelmeni with various fillings.8 However, these were largely frequented by lower class citizens, as the wealthy could afford private banquets and chefs. Vodka played an essential role that was so paramount to drinking culture that it requires mention separate from the greater umbrella of alcohol in the Empire. Introduced to Russians in the fourteenth century, Vodka has remained a favorite drink for centuries. Russia peasant and folkloric belief that imported beer had been tainted by witches likely contributed to this popularity. 9 Alcohol-induced release from the miseries of life provided an escape for all Russians but especially peasants.Drinking played a role in almost every social event from birth until death, especially at weddings, 10 and had wide appeal as a source of entertainment. From the Tsar’s perspective it was also a helpful tool to placate and distract the masses from their difficult, laborious lives.While commonfolk and nobles drank in separate settings, alcohol did appear to be one of the few parts of Russian food culture in which there were more similarities than differences across class lines. Yet unification never materialized, too problematic for an elite desperate to westernize. The grandiose era of elite gastronomic culture came to an end as the Russian Empire fell to

1 Smith, R. E. F, and David Christian. Bread and Salt : A Social and Economic History of Food and Drink in Russia. Cambridge Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1984. 177 2 Gibson, James R. Feeding the Russian Fur Trade: Provisionment of the Okhotsk Seaboard and the Kamchatka Peninsula. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1969. 53 3 Smith, R. E. F, and David Christian. Bread and Salt : A Social and Economic History of Food and Drink in Russia. Cambridge Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1984. 234 4 A pud (пуд) is a unit of mass equal to 40 Russian pounds (фунт), 16.38 kilograms, or 36.11 imperial pounds. 5 Ibid., p. 176 6 Burds, Jeffrey. Peasant Dreams and Market Politics: Labor Migration and the Russian Village, 1861-1905. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998. 173 7 Ibid., p. 173 8 Von Bremzen, Anya. Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking : A Memoir of Love and Longing. First. New York: Crown, 2013. 19 9 Smith, R. E. F, and David Christian. Bread and Salt : A Social and Economic History of Food and Drink in Russia. Cambridge Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1984 235 10 Semyonova, Olga Tian-Shanskaia and Ransel, David L.. Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. https://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed November 8, 2018).3 , 76-78, 84

the Bolsheviks.1 The Russian Silver Age (19th century to early 20th century) was rife with a rich literary tradition as well as culinary habits, intersecting in the Russian writing community. Food became a tool of political power in a new way, with Lenin himself issuing decrees to favored populations. For example, a 1918 motion requested for the All Russia Food Council and the Commissariat for Food “to send out more and numerically larger armed detachments as well as commissars to take the most revolutionary measures to expedite shipments [of food to the local Soviets].” 2 Nationalistic euphoria upon entering WWI in 1914 collapsed in disaster. Russia was sent into a deadly famine in which people were desperate even for bread, and the luxuries reserved for the elite were soup and artichokes. 3 The growing restaurant industry that had thrived on imported chefs 4 died off, turned into Soviet canteens. This account is useful in explaining the transition from Russian to Soviet cuisine, and moreover the destabilizing effect that this had on elites, who could no longer distinguish themselves from commoners. For the lower classes these reforms were not as necessary to enforce as they were largely invisible to the tsar. Pressured by the autocratic legitimacy given to Peter the Great’s westernization policies, elites may have enjoyed the best foods available but were subject to the burden of cultivating a new culture from scratch. With little identity to ground themselves in, distinction from the lower classes was essential to elites for understanding and justifying to themselves the changes they were forced to adapt to.

1 Von Bremzen, Anya. Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking : A Memoir of Love and Longing. First. New York: Crown, 2013. 10 2 Lenin. “Measures for Improving the Food Situation.” Marxists.org. https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/ works/1918/jan/14a.htm 3 Von Bremzen, Anya. Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking : A Memoir of Love and Longing. First. New York: Crown, 2013. 20 4 «ЕДА И НАПИТКИ XVIII ВЕКА». Страницы истории. http://storyo.ru/empire/115.htm

Primary Sources

- Lenin. “Measures for Improving the Food Situation.” Marxists.org. https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/jan/14a.htm. Accessed November 12th, 2018.

- Nikitenko, Aleksandr. Up from Serfdom : My Childhood and Youth in Russia 1804-1824. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. Accessed November 18, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central.

- Semyonova, Olga Tian-Shanskaia and Ransel, David L.. Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. https://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed November 8, 2018).

- Von Bremzen, Anya. Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking : A Memoir of Love and Longing. First. New York: Crown, 2013.

Secondary Sources

- Burds, Jeffrey. Peasant Dreams and Market Politics: Labor Migration and the Russian Village, 1861-1905. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998.

- Gibson, James R. Feeding the Russian Fur Trade: Provisionment of the Okhotsk Seaboard and the Kamchatka Peninsula. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.

- Goldstein, Darra.“Gastronomic Reforms under Peter the Great: Toward a Cultural History of Russian Food,” Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Neue Folge, Bd. 48, H. 4 (2000), pp. 481-510.

- Kahan, Arcadius. “The Costs of ‘Westernization’ in Russia: The Gentry and the Economy in the Eighteenth Century,” Slavic Review 25, no. 1 (1966), pp 40-66.

- Kotsonis, Yanni. “How Peasants Became Backward: Agrarian Policy and Co-operatives in Russia.” In Transforming Peasants: Society, State, and the Peasantry, 1861-1930, Edited by Judith Pallot. Pages 15-36. New York City: St. Martin’s Press Inc., 1998.

- Krcka, Doris. “Russische Küche: Wissenwertes.” Essen und Trinken. https://www.essen-und-trinken.de/russische-kueche/78762-rtkl-russische-kueche-wissens wertes. (Accessed November 18th, 2018).

- McReynolds, Louise. “Tracking Social Change Through Sport Hunting.” In Transforming Peasants: Society, State, and the Peasantry, 1861-1930, Edited by Judith Pallot. Pages 64-72. New York City: St. Martin’s Press Inc., 1998.

- Smith, Allison. “The Case of the Dead Cheese Master, Part I: The Body.” Russian History Blog. http://russianhistoryblog.org/2014/11/the-body/ (accessed November 8th, 2018)

- Smith, Allison. “The Case of the Dead Cheese Master, Part II: A Taste for Cheese.” Russian History Blog. http:// russianhistoryblog.org/2014/11/taste-for-cheese/ (accessed November 8th, 2018)

- Smith, R. E. F, and David Christian. Bread and Salt : A Social and Economic History of Food and Drink in Russia. Cambridge Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

- The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. S.v. "Potato Riots." Retrieved November 18th 2018 from https:// encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Potato+Riots

- «ЕДА И НАПИТКИ XVIII ВЕКА». Страницы истории. http://storyo.ru/empire/115.htm (Accessed November 17th, 2018)