TWO VEGETARIANS IN RUSSIA 26 YEARS APART - HAS ANYTHING CHANGED?

In 1980 I visited Russia and the following shortened version of my experiences appeared in The Vegetarian magazine March/April issue 1980 - Nitin Mehta

'You will have to put up with a very monotonous diet’ I was warned when I applied to visit USSR with 25 other university students in 1980. In Moscow we stayed in a student hostel and I had to make very clear: no meat, fish or eggs. My fellow students began to take a special interest in what I had on my plate, partly out of sympathy for me and partly out of curiosity. For breakfast I used to have bread and buns and cheese mixed with curd and sugar sprinkled over it. It was called ‘Tvororg’. Being a vegan now this would be a no-no today! For lunch I used to get cooked vegetables and sometimes cheese pancakes with rice. I narrowly missed eating some meat pieces once from what was supposed to be a vegetable soup. For dinner I used to get almost the same varieties but there were often extras like potato chips or potato curry! ‘Smetana‘ or soured cream was another thing I had which would not be kosher for me today! When we visited the city of Vilnius, which is now the capital of the state of Lithuania, I was told that there were some vegetarian clubs in the city. During my stay the Russian people celebrated the 150th anniversary of Leo Tolstoy who of course was a vegetarian. To sum up, I had quite an enjoyable holiday in Russia as far as food and health were concerned - and a lot of my fellow students wanted to be served the food that I had because many of them had become sick eating meat!

 

A VEGETARIAN RUSSIAN ADVENTURE - 2006 by JANAKI MEHTA

With an eye to entering the legal profession and with a passion for world history I decided to choose History as one of my A level subjects My course included a unit on Stalinist Russia, and a unit on a hundred years of Russian history from 1855 to 1956. So when my school organised a trip to Russia in April 2006, I jumped at the chance to go! I was told by our tour company that I was likely to have some problems as far as food was concerned. Nonetheless I was not going to let this prevent me from seeing a country which I had studied in such detail and longed to see. I took my Vegan Passport and some crisps and chocolates from home, determined not to eat any meat, fish or eggs. I knew this was going to be a challenge but I was not prepared to compromise my vegetarian diet for travel.

Having taken some pasta from home for the first night on my trip, I started my holiday thinking that everything was just fine. I did explore the grand buffet at our hotel that evening, which to my delight offered mashed potatoes and some fresh salad. But besides that everything seemed to have some form of meat or fish. My evening meals consisted mainly of bread, fresh fruit and mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes were very popular, so on occasion it was bread, salad and fruit. Lunch was also troublesome. We stopped at a Russian mall but the pizza and pasta all had cheese which I suspected as being non-vegetarian. Further there were language barriers and I found it difficult to ask staff at food chains for details about vegetarian cheese. I stuck to some junk food from home and had some fruit and sorbet or ice cream to keep me going.

When we arrived in St. Petersburg we were having sit-down meals rather than buffets. My hotel was instructed about my vegetarian diet and they were very careful and made me vegetables in tomato sauce and rice followed by cabbage pie and mashed potatoes on the second night. Of course I ate plenty of bread. Breakfast was also largely meat based with different slices of meat every day, so it was difficult. One lunchtime the school party went on to McDonalds but the vegetarians asked for something more friendly to their diets so we went on to explore a Russian bistro, my tour manager translated my exact needs and I had my first hot lunch in Russia of saffron rice and salad. It was a great relief.

In all I did have difficulties finding a fulfilling meal while in Russia at times, but it was by no means impossible to be a vegetarian and spend time in Russia. Actually by looking carefully and even more importantly asking and explaining when possible about your diet, you could find vegetarian food. I was on a school tour which limited my ability to visit other restaurants, in particular pure vegetarian cafes. With some research, finding vegetarian food in Russia, though difficult, is not impossible. Therefore a trip to Russia does not mean one has to be lax in one's vegetarian diet. I spent a week there and my proudest experience was not eating any meat, fish or eggs in a country where meat is a big part of the local diet.