We are delighted to invite you to an evening with leading cultural historian (and keen amateur cook) Catriona Kelly, where she will discuss her new book Russian Food Since 1800: Empire at Table with Alissa Timoshkina. Moving from steppe to river, from forest to dacha garden, this is an illuminating history of Russian food which delves into the political, symbolic and practical role food has played over the centuries – and the role of the state and empire in food and its legacy in the present day.
The idea that what you eat is a marker of your patriotism has a long history, and Kelly traces a direct line between eighteenth-century merchants objecting to the importation of delicacies, and counter-sanctions in post-2014 Russia which saw mountains of EU-imported cheese ploughed into the mud by bulldozers.
While state control over food is a centuries-old story, nowhere was this more evident than in the Soviet period. The most catastrophic example was the forced collectivisation of farming and the famines in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, while elsewhere, hierarchies of food allowed a “feast in a time of plague” for the upper echelons in Moscow and Leningrad while ordinary people struggled. Nonetheless, Kelly emphasises that Russian food has always been intimately connected with family and friends, and was an important source of delight even in the Soviet period, when official culinary provision and practices ostensibly sought to promote nutrition above all, and food was often short.
As for what constitutes ‘Russian’ or ‘Soviet' cuisine, Kelly explores how culinary traditions evolved as the empire expanded – and this is particularly relevant in the context of our current discursive programme at Pushkin House, which examines the roots of Russian cultural heritage and the extent of its imperial legacy.
A truly ‘imperial’ cuisine emerged during the Soviet period as the cuisines of other nationalities were appropriated, while at the same time other aspects of local and national culture were harshly repressed. Even today, old traditions such as pickling and jam-making sit alongside dishes like Uzbek plov, Ukrainian borscht and Georgian shashlik on the Russian dining table. As we uncover these centuries of cultural and political influences, it emerges that the dishes we enjoy everyday, at home with family and friends, can be complex and contentious.
Catriona Kelly is Senior Research Fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK. Among her many books are St Petersburg: Shadows of the Past (Yale University Press, 2014); Comrade Pavlik: The Rise and Fall of a Soviet Boy Hero (Granta Books, 2005); Russian Literature: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2001); and Refining Russia: Advice Literature, Polite Culture, and Gender from Catherine to Yeltsin (Oxford University Press, 2001). Her latest book Russian Food Since 1800: Empire at Table has just been published by Bloomsbury Academic. She first visited the USSR as a student, and since then has spent large amounts of time living, eating and cooking in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet world, including Ukraine, Moldova, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Baltic States.
Alissa Timoshkina is a food writer and historian specialising in Eastern European food culture. She is originally from Siberia and her Ukrainian-Jewish family history forms an important part of her culinary writing. Her career has included an immersive cinema and dining experience ‘KinoVino’, supper clubs and culinary classes exploring food and history of Eastern Europe, and her cookbook Salt and Time: Recipes from a Russian Kitchen (Octopus, 2019). Her work has been featured in The Guardian, The Independent, Vogue, Elle and TimeOut. Following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, she launched a global fundraising campaign #CookForUkraine with Ukrainian chef Olia Hercules, raising over £2 million for Ukraine. Her second cookbook is coming out early next year.
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