RUSSIAN WORLD The Easter table of Russia at war

At the end of the long nocturnal Easter ceremony, as prescribed by the Typikonthe orthodox monastic rules, it is necessary to share the “great brotherly consolation”, the Paskhalnyj Pir o Banquet at the end of the fast, and the celebration of communion with the risen Christ. When he appeared to the frightened apostles after his death, the Lord shared the roasted fish to convince them that he was not a ghost.

One of the most significant aspects of Orthodox spirituality, especially during Lent and the Easter holidays that are celebrated today, is precisely its relationship with food. From the beginning of the fast, the good women begin to gather onion husks, with which the eggs can be decorated with the brightest and most intense red-brown coloration better than any other imported powder, and on which the miniaturists are capable of representing saints and angels, seas and mountains and all the churches and monasteries of Russia. If the services of the Moscow churches are attended by a maximum of two or three hundred thousand faithful from a population of twelve million, between five and seven million people go to the front yards on Holy Saturday for the blessing of the eggs and the kulicthe typical Easter roscón.

Colored eggs, a symbol of new life, are enough in Russia to be considered faithful members of the Orthodox people, and the kulic At the home table, it easily replaces the Eucharistic sacrament, which in any case in the Byzantine rite is prepared with sourdough, especially since its “heavy” composition allows it to be kept throughout Easter until Pentecost. The banquet necessarily ends with the paskhaa creamy ricotta cake reminiscent of the Promised Land, with its rivers of cream and honey, where the chosen people arrived after their long pilgrimage through the desert.

The great expert on Russian cuisine Pavel Sjutkin tried to explain the depths of the sacred food in a talk on the website of Radio Svoboda, in light of the crisis looming over the Russian economy after a year of war and sanctions. Although so far there has been no sudden collapse of productive activity in Russia, the air of crisis is already breathing in the same places where food is shared, in restaurants, bars and various venues. And one of the signs of the increasing difficulty in imagining the future is the excessively carefree atmosphere of the restaurants in the center of Moscow, even before the “Easter consolation”, as Sjutkin recounted after visiting the renowned establishments of the Patriaršie Prudythe “patriarch’s gardens” made famous by Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel, The teacher and Margarita, which sets the scene of the encounter of some men with the devil Woland there. As at the time of the Nazi siege of Leningrad, which lasted 900 days and ended up causing a terrible famine, the laughter and toasts try to hide the feeling of anguish and destruction, caused by the tragedy of the war, but from which the people want to escape considering it a distant event, that “does not concern us”.

Party leaders fought their war with caviar and vodka, and even today top officials say “everything will go back to its place”, despite the fact that the brands of the most popular Western products have already disappeared from Russia. Everywhere they are sold pirožkistuffed pancakes, blinyspreadable crepes with smetanasour cream, red and black caviar that is sold by the kilo, and kissel orthodox, the corned beef jelly that is eaten on Easter night right in the church. These are the foods that Putin himself often extols in his autobiographies, expressing nostalgia for the golden age of Soviet youth.

In fact, all over social media there are complaints and curses against the patriotic “delicacies” that are replacing the classic elements of Western-style fast food, where even simple fries cannot really be digested, and cheeses from Supermarket shelves look like plastic imitations of British cheddar or Caserta mozzarella. And it is not just a phenomenon related to the last year after the invasion of Ukraine, but it goes back to 2014, when the sanctions began to affect Russia after the annexation of Crimea.

The exaltation of the Putinian ideology known as krimnašizmthe “crimeanostrismo” based on the cry Krym Naš!, “Crimea is ours!”, had led to counter-sanctions that restricted the importation of foreign food (though not alcohol), in favor of authentic Russian food. Those affected were, first of all, the restaurants, which depended on the choice of quality products even more than the common purchase in supermarkets. Then the “black market” of Soviet memory was reborn, into which, instead of the increase in the ruble’s exchange rate against the dollar, French cheeses and Spanish ham were smuggled in. Since this could not be explained on starred restaurant menus, the term “import substitution” was invented. importozamešceniewith quite contradictory effects.

The use of low-quality ingredients, from milk to oils and fats, with outdated and faulty technologies, made it impossible to offer convincing alternatives to European delicacies, to the point that “elite cheeses” in Russia are now considered to be the They come from countries that did not apply sanctions, such as Switzerland, South America and Iran. And this also applies to the rest of the food chain, where these “substitutes” cost on average twice as much as the original products, already lost.

For this reason, especially on the days when the Easter fast is broken, they insist on a “return to the roots”, to authentic Russian cuisine. Beyond the ideological emphasis, this presupposes the use of elements that are traditionally found in all rural gardens, where people spend their holidays: turnips, nettles, oats for polenta, spelt, chicken offal, berries and mushrooms, as well as potatoes. and carrots. For restaurants, this represents great savings, since instead of bouillon and lasagna they offer the patriotic soups boršč and šciwith red turnip and sour cabbage, to which they give the title of “soup of Valaam“who sell for 600 rubles a portion when they spend less than 50.

Authentic “parallel import” products are becoming increasingly scarce, even Turkey is denying transit of French champagne, and artificial carbonation of champagne must once again be resorted to. sovetskoe šampanskoe, to finish with a vodka that is also of lower quality than the Polish or the Scandinavian. And perhaps try to finish with a contraband coffee, so as not to have to drink a dark and boiling liquid of dubious origin. The problem could be further aggravated by the fall in the value of the ruble, which in the war year was artificially maintained with protectionist maneuvers from above and taking advantage of energy gains, now increasingly in danger.

the stolovye, the “popular canteens” of Soviet times with cheap Russian food, coleslaws and hot broths of uncertain content, bread patties and various fats instead of hamburgers and chicken wings in the American style of “fascist” McDonald’s. As in the 1990s, food becomes the dimension of identity lost and identity to be found again, as political and economic systems change. Average salaries are falling below 40 thousand rubles (500 dollars), and it is not known how far they will fall, forcing even the pleasures of the table to be reduced each time, both in restaurants and at home. And so, the only food remains the “spirituality” of traditional moral values, supported by the miracles invoked by metropolitans and patriarchs, but entrusted to the hands of cooks who have no ingredients.

In Vladimir Sorokin’s dystopian novels, food has only three names: patriotic, orthodox, patriarchal; and there are only two types of meat, pork and beef; two types of condiment, Russian-made ketchup and mayonnaise; two types of bread, black and white; and only one type of cheese, like in Soviet times. Unless we can write an anti-utopia of peace, that satisfies the appetites of the people and grants the consolation of Easter.

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