Talk:Soviet cuisine

What's missing?
Zakusky - assorted cold cuts and sausages, smoked and pickled fish, pickled cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms and other vegetables, salads, rye bread. Often accompanied by toasts of vodka, sometimes with women drinking "Shampanskoye" (champagne) instead of vodka. This may be an event in itself, or it may precede dinner.

Soviet Georgia had a tremendously long history of winemaking, dating back to the ultimate origins of winemaking in the Ancient Near East at least four thousand and possibly six thousand years ago. Compared to a few tens of grape varieties used to make wine in the West, there are hundreds of varieties in Georgia.

Unfortunately this history was largely lost on the Soviets, who emphasized quantity of production over quality and subtle distinctions based on grape varieties, soil and climate. Soviet wines were often pedestrian. Soviet Champagne was a bit sweet by western standards, but drinkable. Brandy and "Konyak" were made in Soviet Armenia, but were usually chugged down as fast as vodka. Nevertheless there were exceptions in the form of rarer, more carefully made products for the Soviet elite. Stalin -- who was a Georgian -- was something of a wine conoisseur and may still have had access to the cellars of the tsars. Ordinary Georgians preserved traditional grape varieties in their backyards and produced homemade wines from them.

Vodka is the most widely consumed distilled drink. Soviet quality ranged from world-class down to at least minimally drinkable where legitimate distilleries were concerned. When the Party endeavored to crack down on excesses and reduce overall production, "Samogon" (moonshine) was widely produced and questionable substitutes like cologne, industrial alcohol and even wood polish came into vogue. Deaths from impurities and blindness from methyl alcohol were depressingly commonplace.

Baked goods and sweets - Soviets occasionally enjoyed elaborate "tortes" of the central and eastern european variety. Boxed chocolates were routinely used to bribe officials to expedite things. Wrapped candies made for children commonly had a milk base, similar to caramel or milk chocolate chews. LADave 02:30, 19 October 2007 (UTC)


 * To summmarise:
 * Zakuski (has an article already btw)
 * Georgian wines and alike
 * Armenian brandy, which, in some cases, earns "cognac" title
 * "Troynoy odekolon" as a part of surrogate alcohol reaction to Gorbachyov's prohibition
 * Personally, as an avid "Ararat" cognac* enjoyer, I could make a small "main| Zakuski" paragraph on that. 185.145.124.243 (talk) 18:15, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

There's no such thing as "the fourth". "The third" encompasses both the customary tea or coffee and something sweet to accompany it. Or, in the case of kisel' and kompot, both in one go.

Kasha and porridge
The Russian word "kasha" indeed means porridge in certain contexts (such as ovsyannaya kasha -- oatmeal porridge, mannaya kasha -- semolina, etc.), but these are stand-alone dishes, not side dishes to main courses. When the word "kasha" is used in Russian for a side dish, it usually means "grechnevaya kasha" or "grechka", which is a boiled grain dish enriched with butter, sometimes including fried mushrooms and/or fried onion. This is not porridge: it has the consistency of boiled rice. Since "kasha" in English (or perhaps only American) usage is practically synonymous with this buckwheat dish (see kasha), we can safely use it in Soviet cuisine without looking for English-language substitutes. --Zlerman (talk) 05:42, 3 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I disagree.
 * I take it we're from different regions since in my area, kasha won't imply the use of buckwheat. 185.145.124.243 (talk) 18:18, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Restoring of massive unreferenced text
That said, the text I removed sat there unreferenced for many years (tagged since 2009). Some of it was dubious, by the way. WP:BURDEN indicates that "The burden to demonstrate verifiability lies with the editor who adds or restores material, and it is satisfied by providing an inline citation to a reliable source that directly supports the contribution" - Altenmann >talk 19:05, 2 September 2023 (UTC)
 * 1) Please learn what in wikipedia is called WP:VANDALISM
 * 2) Please look at edit summaries of edits before revert
 * 3) Per wikipedia rules, unsourced text may be removed at an time and you cannot restore it without providing references.


 * >vandalizm
 * >Uncited text
 * Counterargument uno: WP:BOLD.
 * Counterargument dos: why, don't you know how to use marks? 185.145.124.243 (talk) 18:03, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Denis tarasov's recent edit summary says "don't delete correct article or I will contact administration, read the Russian variant". - As I understand, "Russian variant" refers to the article in Russian Wikipedia. Per our rules, Wikipedia is not a reliable source. - Altenmann >talk 19:51, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Anon IP 87.15.202.20 continues restoring the same huge chunk of unrefereced text that was restoresd multiple times by uset Denis tarasov. If you are the same person, please be advised that editing disputed text from different accounts is prohibited in wikipedia, see WP:SOCKPUPPET. - Altenmann >talk!~

Aslo please do not add fake references: does not support the corresponding text. Not to say that the author, a Katherine Long has no known expertise in Soviet culture, hence she is not a reliable source. - Altenmann >talk 04:40, 23 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Once again, it is very easy to check that the text of the article by Catherine Long does not contain words kompot, kefir, garnises, "second cource", seafood, zakuski, coffee, etc. Therefore it cannot possinbly be a reference to the paragraph in question. - Altenmann >talk 17:41, 23 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Posted a comment (see above). 185.145.124.243 (talk) 18:05, 10 July 2024 (UTC)