Cooking on the Soviet Home Front during WWII

Comments · 6.6K

• TA

  @TastingHistory · 2 years ago (edited) · pinned

  Covering certain powers during this series will definitely make some uncomfortable, but I feel like skipping those would leave the series incomplete and do a disservice to history. I hope, for the sake of learning, you stick around for all of the episodes in this series.

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• CO

  @coyoteroadkill · 2 years ago (edited)

  I remember one story from the Leningrad Siege of a cat named Vaska that helped keep a girl, her mother and grandmother alive by bringing them rats and pigeons. They all survived the war. When the cat died the grandmother secretly buried the cat at the edge of the human cemetery. They owed their lives to that cat.

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• SI

  @si-melamme7837 · 2 years ago

  My Grandma was born in Leningrad and survived the whole 900-ish days of the siege. No piece of bread, however moldy, was ever thrown away in our house while she lived, she'd scrape it and fry it and make us eat it. And to this day we've got a pantry bursting with jams, grain and canned food. Some nice generational trauma we've got going on here.

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• DA

  @danielhurst8863 · 2 years ago

  Leningrad actually did have farmland and it was used during the siege, the issue was that Leningrad held the Soviet Seed Bank, which was the largest in the World at the time. Certain rare seeds had to be planted, to keep the Seed Bank going or the seeds could be lost to humanity.<br>A majority of scientists at the Seed Bank died of starvation, while tending crops, so the seeds would not be lost.

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• LE

  @lenajk2004 · 1 year ago

  As a linguist, I really enjoy the fact that you pronounce foreign words so well in your videos.

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• NO

  @Nobodyatall_1 · 2 years ago

  My grandfather grew up in Leningrad and was the little boy when the blockade started. He was “abandoned” by his parents so he could be registered as an orphan, so he could have a chance at survival. He was taken over the ice “road of life” he was taken to an orphanage in Siberia where he stayed for a few years. We were never allowed to throw away bread growing up.

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• AR

  @ArmageddontheLeafBlower · 2 years ago

  This video makes me think of the Vavilov Institute, the world&apos;s first seed bank. During the Siege of Leningrad, several scientists starved to death surrounded by food-- seeds, beans, potatoes, peanuts. They refrained from eating anything because they knew that the seeds would be instrumental in revitalizing the country&apos;s agriculture after the war. It&apos;s an incredible story that I recommend looking in to.

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• AN

  @andrewptrm6170 · 2 years ago

  Regarding the sugar in the recipe. I&apos;m Russian and, when I was a kid, we ate millet porridge quite frequently. Tastes differ and some people prefer their porridge to stay more savory while others want a little bit of sweetness, so sugar would be served separately from the porridge itself. This way you can skip it or sprinkle over still hot porridge. It actually contributes greatly not only to taste but also texture, I LOVED slightly crunchy sugar parts

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• PY

  @PyromaN93 · 1 year ago

  Granny of my mother survived nazi occupation, civil war and all famines at the time, she was born in 1905. All because she lived in small village almost in the forest, and her family every year preserved various mushrooms and berries in huge quantities. Even I still make some salted mushrooms every year.

  117

• KA

  @Katterrena · 2 years ago

  My mum has always told me of when she was complimenting the beautiful silk wallpaper of one of her university friend’s babushka’s apartment during the late 1970s in the USSR. &nbsp;She offhandedly suggested that it must be from imperial times. &nbsp;Then the babushka replied in the most matter of fact voice “no, we ate all of the wallpaper during the siege.” &nbsp;My mum decided it was time for more vodka.

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• MA

  @Maria-gb8bv · 2 years ago

  My family is from Moscow. My grandma was sent to live in an orphanage after her father was killed in the war and her mother couldn&apos;t feed 3 children on her own, and they used to serve this type of food there. Even now, sweet pumpkin is banned in her house because they fed it to them so often in the 40s and 50s.

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• KE

  @keq64 · 1 year ago

  My grandma was a child during the war, she lived in a village in Siberia, they gave most of the food &quot;to the front&quot;, they only ate fish from a river, which got old fast.

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