Dinner Time in Soviet Russia, 1927
And now to return to our visit. We shall certainly be asked to eat if it is near mealtime. The farmer gets up and works until nine or ten, and…
From: 1927 C.E. To: 1927 C.E.
Location: Russia
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Village Life Under the Soviets by Karl Borders, 1927.
Dinner Time
And now to return to our visit. We shall certainly be asked to eat if it is near mealtime. The farmer gets up and works until nine or ten, and then has breakfast, which usually consists of bread and tea, perhaps some kind of porridge.
The principal meal comes about three o’clock. There must be soup of some kind, and there are several varieties, each with Its name and formula. To mix them is a sacrilege. If there are guests, as in our case, there is salt fish, garnished with onions and sliced cucumber pickles. Meat and potatoes compose the chief course, and there is probably also a generous slice of meat in the soup.
The housewife has probably dried such fruit as she could get, and this will be offered as a stewed sweet dish or in a sweet soup. In the wheat-growing sections of the south, white bread, or at least a wheat bread with the greater part of the bran left in, is common. But in the north, where rye and barley are the chief bread grains, a heavy black bread is the rule, and white bread is a luxury to be used only on holiday and special occasions.
The chief pride of the Russian cook is the things she can do with flour. Meat cakes, cabbage cakes, meat-filled dumplings, all kinds of tarts, cakes, and fancy pastry can come out of the Russian stove under the magic of a good cook, particularly around such festive times as Easter.
Cabbage, too, is a staple and always forms one of the chief articles of the garden. It is pulled up by the roots and stored in the cellar or chopped up as a sort of kraut to appear all winter in soups or now and then as a wrapper for delicious chopped meat. In general, however, all vegetables are considered as the materials for soup and are not greatly esteemed or used by themselves.
Before the meal is begun, if the family is a religious one, they will all piously cross themselves toward the ikon comer, which, incidentally, is called the "red corner.” The housewife decorously helps the plate of the guest or he is urged to do so himself, while the rest of the family fall to eating, with evident satisfaction, from the common dish. Wooden spoons of generous proportions are used for the soup. We shall be encouraged again and again to "eat, eat,” for when the Russian peasant has food enough, there is not a more generous host to be found.
Tea is a ceremony in itself, and is served after the meal is finished. The samovar, when skillfully fired with charcoal, boils very quickly and continues a pleasant purr long after it is placed on the table. It is the custom to serve tea to men in glasses and to women in cups. Preserves of some kind or honey are offered with the tea and are usually put directly into the glass to lend a flavor. A hard lump sugar is preferred. This is broken into small pieces with special pincers for the purpose, the lump is put into the mouth and the unsweetened tea consumed slowly. Bread and butter, too, are provided. This is the time for conversation, and countless cups of tea and stacks of bread often disappear as whole hours slip by in this pleasant national diversion. At the end of the meal it is the invariable demand of courtesy that we should thank our host and hostess for the food.
Borders, Karl. Village Life Under the Soviets. Vanguard Printings, 1927.
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