Chess

Chess (шахматы) was introduced in Russia in the 9^th Century by the Caspian-Volga trade route, which connected Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia with the Caspian Sea during the Middle Ages. Chess probably originated in India before the 6^th century, although some historians dispute this. Eventually, in the 20^th century, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) was established. The winner of the 1948 FIDE tournament, Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, (Михаи́л Моисе́евич Ботви́нник) initiated a Soviet supremacy in the game throughout the world. Until the Soviet Union ceased to exist, there was only one chess champion who was not a soviet – American Bobby Fischer. Bobby Fisher defeated Boris Vasilievich Spassky (Бори́с Васи́льевич Спа́сский) in the “match of the century” for the championship. The match, which took place in Iceland in 1972, held strong political importance and military strategy due to the tensions of the Cold War. Even then, Bobby Fischer was of (probably) Hungarian descent, and his mother had former ties with Communists from her time residing in Moscow.

 (left, Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, USSR)

The movie Pawn Sacrifice (2014) is an excellent movie to watch if you are interested in chess and the Cold War. Also, they do speak Russian in the movie, which is a wonderful opportunity to listen to the Russian language!

Facts about Beets in Russia and Beet Recipes

Third blogs the charm right?

My first two failed, the first because all the YouTube links are no longer active since the videos broke copyright laws and the second I had trouble assimilating all the information

Hopefully THIS post will go through.

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Pickled Beets may be a staple of Southern Cuisine, but Russia makes more (and better) beet dishes.

Now, here is what wikipedia says about sugar beets (minus foot notes):

Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.), a member of the Chenopodiaceae family, is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production.

The sugar beet is directly related to the beetroot, chard and fodder beet, all descended by cultivation from the sea beet.

The European Union, the United States, and Russia are the world's three largest sugar beet producers,although only the European Union and Ukraine are significant exporters of sugar from beets. The U.S. harvested 1,004,600 acres of sugarbeets in 2008 alone. Beet sugar accounts for 30% of the world's sugar production.

In the United States, genetically modified sugar beets resistant to glyphosate (marketed by Monsanto Company as Roundup), a herbicide, were planted for the first time in the spring of 2008. Sugar from the biotechnology-enhanced sugarbeet has been approved for human and animal consumption in the European Union. This action by the EU executive body allows unrestricted imports of food and feed products made from (H7-1) glyphosate-tolerant (Roundup Ready) sugarbeets. On September 21, 2009, a federal court ruled that the USDA had violated federal law in deregulating Roundup Ready sugar beets without adequately evaluating the environmental and socio-economic impacts of allowing commercial production, and will be considering an appropriate injunction.

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A large root vegetable in 4000-year-old Egyptian temple artwork may be a beet. Although beets have been grown as vegetables and for fodder since antiquity, their use as a sugar crop is relatively recent. As early as in 1590, the French botanist Olivier de Serres extracted a sweet syrup from beetroot, but the practice was not widely used. The Prussian chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf used alcohol to extract sugar from beets (and carrots) in 1747, but the methods did not lend themselves to industrial scale production.

His former pupil and successor Franz Karl Achard began selectively breeding sugar beet from the White Silesian fodder beet in 1784. By the beginning of the 19th century, his beet was approximately 5–6 percent sucrose by weight, compared to around 20 percent in modern varieties. Under the patronage of Frederick William III of Prussia, he opened the world's first beet sugar factory in 1801, at Cunern in Silesia.

The beet sugar industry in Europe rapidly developed after the Napoleonic Wars. In 1807, the British began a blockade of France, which prevented the import of sugarcane from the Caribbean. Partly in response, in 1812 Frenchman Benjamin Delessert devised a process of sugar extraction suitable for industrial application. In 1813, Napoleon instituted a retaliatory embargo. By the end of the wars, over 300 sugar beet mills operated in France and central Europe.

The first sugar beet mill in the U.S. opened in 1838, and the first commercially successful mill was established by E. H. Dyer in 1879.

In 2005 Russia the the fourth largest producer of sugar beets in the world, right behind France, Germany, and America.




Map showing concentrations of sugar beet production in 2005; notice that most of Russia's sugar beets are grown in European Russia.

Now, for some recipes - a drink, an appetizer, and a salad.

I looked for dishes without red meat and dishes a little off the beaten track:

Kvas from beets and plums recipe -

Cuisine: Russian

Ingredients

1 kg red beets (35.2733686 ounces or 2.2026432 lbs.)

1 kg plums (35.2733686 ounces or 2.2026432 lbs.)

5 ltrs water (20 cups)

500 g sugar (17.6366843 ounces or 1.1013216 lbs.)

Method

Rinse the red beets, peel and cut them into large pieces.

Rinse the plums, cut each into halves and remove the stones.

Place the red beets and plums in a glass jar, pour in some cooled boiled water, add some sugar and put on a lid not very tightly so that the air might get through.

Leave the kvass to ferment at room temperature.

Note that I used their metric converter and added in the US measurements in parentheses.

Now, here is an appetizer:

Ingredients

2 ea thick salted herrings.

5 ea potatoes.

4 ea carrots.

3 ea beets.

4 ea eggs.

400 gr mayonnaise.

Description

The Russian name is "Selyodka pod Shouboy", that means "Herring under fur coat".

It is a traditional national dish for any events.

You can call it, for example, Dressed Herring.

Dressed Herring is loved and considered one of the most delicious salads by Russians everywhere.

Try and enjoy!

Method

Boil vegetables until they are ready (you can boil vegetables in 1 pan).

Boil eggs hard. Peel skin from herrings, cut them along the spine.

Take all bones away. Cut herring meat into very little pieces and always check for bones.

Take a large dish.

Put herring meat evenly on the bottom.

If you like onion, you can put little pieces of onion on the herring.

Then spread mayonnaise evenly (thin layer).Grind potatoes and make the next layer of it.

Spread mayonnaise.

Use a fork to plane the layers.

Then goes carrot (grind, put, spread).

Then you do the same with 4 eggs and beets.

Spread mayonnaise on the beets and grind 1 egg on it to make the dish beautiful.

This salad must look like a cake.

Put the dish in the fridge for an hour.

"Selyodka pod Shouboy" is served as an appetizer.

Now for the salad:

Entered for safe-keeping for ZWT.

From RusslandJournal.de.

A food processor will save time.

I have added 3 ways to precook the beets, depending on your preference.

I recommend wearing plastic gloves when handling the beets, as they will stain otherwise.

SERVES 4 (change servings and units)


Ingredients

2 1/4 lbs red beets, grated (1 kg)

3 1/2 ounces walnuts, chopped (100 g)

2-3 garlic cloves, crushed

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

Directions

1 PRECOOK BEETS:.

2 Wash the beets and trim the ends off before cooking.

3 To ROAST: Place trimmed beets in a roasting pan and add a little water for steam.

Roast the beets at 425 degrees F for 30 to 45 minutes (cover the pan with foil) or
until the beets are easily pierced with a knife.

4 To BOIL: Cook the beets for 20 to 30 minutes, or until tender.

5 To MICROWAVE: Cook the beets with a little water for 8 to 15 minutes on HIGH.

6 Slip off the skins under running water and grate or dice.

7 PREPARE SALAD:.

8 Mix grated or diced cooked beets, chopped walnuts (if serving immediately; otherwise, reserve until serving), and crushed garlic.

9 Season with salt and pepper.

10 Add mayonnaise and mix well.

No videos this time because the YouTube videos with beet recipes are weird and some were slightly creepy.

Russian Fashion

Rising fashion designer, Alyona Akhmadulina, goes out with a bang at Paris Fashion week. Originally from Saint Petersburg, Akhmadullina went to school for technology and design and went on to become a big name in the fashion industry. Her stores are located in Moscow, Paris and Tokyo. Items are sold from 100 to 15,000 thousand Euros.

“She has a spirit, I’d call, constructivist. So for me her collection is connected to the Russian constructivism movement from the first half of the 20th century and all their theories of deconstruction. She brings her own point of view with her clothes. Now, I imagine that for the commercial market she’ll have to adapt her clothes so that are for prêt a porter norms,” Philippe Dayan, Director of JE shop, said.

Her style is labeled as tomboy and she believes it reflects the style she enjoyed as a little girl. Her imagination was swirling with cars and and horses, not dresses and barbie dolls. For her most recent show in Paris, it was inspired by 1930's sports ware. Its unique, yet classic style is giving it great popularity.

As for upcoming projects she has been chosen to the be the official designer of the Russian Team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

(Picture: Alyona Akhmadulina's collection at fashion week in Paris.)

Natalie

Kapoot!

While strolling along the Russian bookshelves in the library - a favorite pastime of mine, I assure you - I happened across a title that I just couldn't pass up. Of course they always tell you that you can't judge a book by its cover, but they never said anything about the title, and with a book called Kapoot...well, you can understand my feelings.

As it turns out, Kapoot was written by a well known American explorer/author by the name of Carveth Wells. A dogged world traveller, Wells spent a good portion of his life exploring the dangers and discomforts of the Malaysian jungle, the African desert, and, yes, Soviet Russia. At the time that the book was written - 1933 - the communist party in the U.S. was at the height of its popularity. Apparently, Wells was not so sympathetic with the party and, from what I gain from reading the book, he held an irrational fear that Americans would be hoodwinked into buying communism.

Now we all know that Russia under Stalin was not a pretty picture, what with the 5 year plans and the liquidization of the kulaks and the severe famine and the Party purges and the gulags and the collectivization of farms and the general social and economic upheaval. But Mr. Wells goes to such lengths to prove it that the result is almost comical. It is clear that he intended at all costs to keep an eye on those sneaky communists; I was expecially gratified by his inclusion of several compelling alliterations, my favorite being "those burly Bolsheviks."

Despite the questionable authority of Wells's book, I can't deny that I enjoyed myself. He takes us up and down eastern Russian, from St. Petersburg to Echmiazin, on an ill-fated attempt to climb Mt. Ararat and find the remains of Noah's ark. Along the way, he demonstrates the godlessness of the Russians, gets arrested at least three times, subsists on black bread riddled with assorted items of garbage, experiences the Russian equivalent of the bed bug, half starves on a week long train ride to Vladikavkaz, listens to the screams of patients being treated in a Russian hospital, survives a harrowing horseback ride through the Khevsur region, and generally commentates on the poverty and downtroddenness of the land. Russia, he wants everyone to know, is Kapoot indeed.

While Wells's book is certainly not something I would recommend as a source for scholarly research, it nevertheless made for interesting bedtime reading. But perhaps you would rather take my word for it...