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Eating Out in Imperial Russia: Class, Nationality, and Dining before the Great Reforms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Alison K. Smith
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Abstract

During the first half of the nineteenth century, arguments over Russian social structure played a central role in discussions of eating establishments. The Russian state controlled these establishments in part through legislation that kept social groups apart; it focused particularly on the extremes of the social hierarchy, showing little interest in the middling groups. In more narrative descriptions of eating establishments, however, the middling groups—or their absence—seemed remarkably important. Foreign observers generally felt that Russia lacked both a middle class and middling eating establishments. Russians in part agreed, but by the middle of the century they were more likely to locate a middle class among one particular group: Moscow's merchants.

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Slavic Review , Volume 65 , Issue 4 , Winter 2006 , pp. 747 - 768
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Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 2006

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References

An earlier version of this article was presented as part of a panel on middle-class culture at the annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in November 2001. The current article owes much to participants in die faculty seminar in Colorado State University's Department of History, to additional research funding provided by that university, and to the editor and anonymous referees for Slavic Review.

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9. PSZ, vol. 12, no. 9294 (9 June 1746).

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11. Bulgarin, Ocherki russkikh nravov, 34.

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13. PSZ, vol. 29, no. 22043 (2 March 1806).

14. PSZ, vol. 38, no. 29197 (10 October 1822); PSZ, 2d ed., vol. 1, no. 793 (31 December 1826). A copy of the ministry's warning dated 28 October 1822 can be found in Natsional'nyi Arkhiv Respubliki Tatarstana, f. 114, op. 1, d. 365, 11. 2 - 3 (Po predpisaniiu G. Kazanskogo Grazhdanskogo Gubernatora ob opredelenii vgorodakh chisla restoratsii).

15. PSZ, vol. 37, no. 28538 (2 February 1821); no. 28586 (14 March 1821); I. G., “Moskva za stolom,” Moskvitianin 2, no. 8 (1856): 445-46.

16. An — ov, P., “Zamechanie provintsiala o S. Peterburge,” Zavolzhskii muravei 2, no. 11 (1832): 619 Google Scholar; PSZ, 2d coll., no. 7206 (21 June 1834).

17. Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv (RGIA), f. 1287, op. 29, d. 51, 11. 1-1 ob. (Po otnosheniiu S. Peterburgskogo Voennogo General-Gubernatora, o dozvolenii Kanditeru Dominiku Rits-Aportu uchredit’ zavedenie pod nazvaniem Kofe- Restorant, 1840) and RGIA, f. 1287, op. 29, d. 188,11. lob., 3ob.-4, 6, 27ob. (Po otnosheniiu S. Peterburgskogo Voennogo General-Gubernatora, o dozvolenii zhene Kanditera Dominika Rits-Aporta imet’ v ei zavedenii [Kafe-Restorant] drugoi billiard, i zakryvat’ onye ne ranee 2kh chasov nochi, 1842).

18. RGIA, f. 1287, op. 29, d. 206, 1. 2 (Po prosheniiu S. Peterburgskoi meshchanki Nikitinoi, o dozvolenii ei otkryt’ kharchevniu v dome meshchanskogo obshchestva u Semenovskogo mosta, 1843); RGIA, f. 1287, op. 29, d. 641,1. 4ob. (Po otnosheniiu Ministra Finansov, s preprovozhdeniem pros'be soderzhatelei traktirnykh zavedenii v sele Rogacheve i posade Sergievskom, kuptsa Kalacheva i krest'ianina Makovina o zakrytii uchrezhdennykh v sikh mestakh kharcheven’ i postoialykh dvorov, 1847); RGIA, f. 1287, op. 29, d. 680,1. 2 (Po prosheniiu krest'ianina kniazia Volkonskogo Shershakova, o torn, chtoby v predpolagaemykh k uchrezhdeniiu v zashtatnom g. Voskresenske kharchevniam nebylo proizvodimo torgovli takimi predmetami, kotorye predostavleny po zashtatnym gorodam iskliuchitel'no odnim traktiram, 1847); RGIA, f. 1287, op. 29, d. 318, 11. 2-4, 7ob. (Po otnosheniiu Moskovskogo Voen. Gen. Gub-ra, o vospreshchenii otkryvat’ v Moskve kharchevni vverkhnikh etazhakh domov, 1844). In anodiercase, dueling would-be kharchevni proprietors ignored class and instead competed through the size of their donations to the syphilis hospital, to orphan asylums, or to the women's hospital. See RGIA, f. 1287, op. 29, d. 268,11. 20-21, 24-25ob., 32 (Po prosheniiu S. Peterburgskoi meshchanki vdovi Natal'i Shvetsovoi, o dozvolenii ei otkryt’ v 1 Admiral. Chasti kharchevniu, vmesto prinadlezhavshei umershemu meshchaninu Grigor'evu. Tut zhe i po prosheniiu meshchanina Men'shova, o dozvolenii emu otkryt’ kharchevniu v Karetnoi chasti, 1843-44).

19. RGIA, f. 1287, op. 29, d. 378,11. 1-lob., 2ob.-3ob., 6-7ob., 8-8ob. (Po otnosheniiu SPburgskogo Voennogo General-gubernatora otnositel'no dopushcheniia v S. Peterburgskikh sbitennykh lavochkakh prodazhi s'festnykh pripasov dlia prodovol'stviia prostogo naroda, 1845); RGIA, f. 1287, op. 29, d. 921, 1. 7 (Po prosheniiu meshchanina Stregaleva, o dozvolenii emu otkryt’ kharchevniu ili sbitennuiu lavku v S. Peterburge, 1847); d. 1203,11. lob., 6 (Po otnosheniiu S. Peterburgskoi Gorodskoi Dumy, o sbitennykh i s“estnykh lavochkakh v S. Peterburge, 1848, 1859).

20. RGIA, f. 1287, op. 29, cl. 852, 1. 2 (Po otnosheniiu S. Peterburgskogo Voennogo General Gubernatora, o razreshenii otkryt’ Kafe-Restorant v Passazhe Grafa Essen-Stenbok-Fermora, 1848); RGIA, f. 1287, op. 29, d. 1051,11. 1-lob. (O vnov’ otkrytom v S. Peterburge traktirnom zavedenii v Tonnele Passazha, pod nazvaniem s'festnoi bazaar, 1849). For background on the Passage and comments on its role in bringing together different social orders and different nationalities, see Dianina, Katia, “Passage to Europe: Dostoevskii in the St. Petersburg Arcade,” Slavic Review 62, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 239-44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21. RGIA, f. 1287, op. 29, d. 724,1. 7 (Po otnosheniiu M-ra Finansov, o torn mozhno li dozvolit’ meshchanam soderzhat’ v portovykh gorodakh Feodosii i Kerchi torgovlye bani ikofeini, 1847).

22. Ibid., 11. 20-20ob.

23. PSZ, vol. 29, no. 22043 (2 March 1806); 2d ed., vol. 36, no. 37198 (4 July 1861). For another description of eating establishments in St. Petersburg's “romantic era,” but one that ignores kharchevni, see Schakovskoy, Zinaida, La Vie quotidienne à Saint-Pétersbourg a I'époque romantique (Paris, 1967), 121.Google Scholar

24. Chard, Chloe, Pleasure and Guilt on the Grand Tour: Travel Writing and Imaginative Geography 1600-1830 (Manchester, Eng., 1999), 3, 61–62 Google Scholar; Korte, Barbara, English Travel Writing from Pilgrimages to Postcolonial Explorations, trans. Matthias, Catherine (New York, 2000), 5–6 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Siegel, Kristi, “Introduction: Travel Writing and Travel Theory,” in Siegel, Kristi, ed., Issues in Travel Writing: Empire, Spectacle and Displacement (New York, 2002), 2 Google Scholar; for a challenge to that interpretation that focuses on travelers’ real efforts to provide “'curious’ or ‘precise’ observation,” see Leask, Nigel, Curiosity and the Aesthetics of Travel Writing, 1770-1840 (Oxford, 2002), 7–8.Google Scholar

25. On middle-class travel writing, see Turner, Katherine, British Travel Writers in Europe 1750-1800: Authorship, Gender and National Identity (Aldershot, 2001), 55–85 Google Scholar; Berty, Valérie, Littérature et voyage au XIXe siècle: Un essai de typologie narrative des recits de voyage francais en Orient au XIXe siecle (Paris, 2001), 65–70.Google Scholar On imperialist and nationalist travel writing, see Clark, Steve, “Introduction,” in Clark, Steve, ed., Travel Writing and Empire: Postcolonial Theory in Transit (London, 1999), 2 Google Scholar; Turner, British Travel, 10-11.

26. Spang, Invention of the Restaurant, 2-4,170-79. For a statement of the general relationship between restaurants and the French Revolution, see Mennell, All Manners of Food, 135-44.

27. Sala, George Augustus, A Journey Due North: Being Notes of a Residence in Russia (Boston, 1858), 202.Google Scholar Some had a slightly more nuanced view, as in an account reviewed and criticized in “Izvestiia o Rossii i russkoi literature, pomeshchaemye vo frantsuzsk. zhurnalakh,” Moskovskii telegrafb (1825): 73.

28. On the great number of foreign (and thus, to travelers, familiar) foods in Russian eating establishments, see [Theodor Faber], Bagatelles: Promenades d ‘un désæuvré dans la ville de St.-Pétersbourg (St. Petersburg, 1811), 1:175-76; [Henry] Russel'-Killuga, Chrez Sibir’ v Avstraliiu i Indiiu, 2d ed. (St. Petersburg, 1875), 15; Jesse, Captain, Notes of a Half-Pay in Search of Health: or, Russia, Circassia, and the Crimea, in 1839-40 (London, 1841), 1:67–68 Google Scholar; William Rae Wilson, Esq., Travels in Russia, &c. &c. (London, 1828) ,1:212-13; Edward P. Thompson, Esq., Life in Russia: or, the Discipline of Despotism (London, 1848), 98; Adolph Zando, La Russie en 1850 (Paris, 1853), 224-25.

29. [Faber], Bagatelles, 139.

30. Ibid., 136-37. Another Frenchman later felt that these so-called restaurants failed to measure up to their French inspirations. See Perthes, Jacques Boucher de Crèvecoeur de, Voyage en Russie, retour par la Lithuanie, la Pologne, la Silésie, la Saxe et le duché de Nassau (Paris, 1859), 108.Google Scholar

31. [Faber], Bagatelles, 138.

32. Ibid., 139-40.

33. Reinbeck, G[eorg], Travels from St. Petersburgh through Moscow, Grodno, Warsaw, Breslaw, &c. to Germany in the Year 1805: In a Series of Letters (London, 1807), 63.Google Scholar

34. Gilbert, Linney, Russia, Illustrated: An Historical & Descriptive Account of That Immense Empire, Particularly as Regards St. Peterburgh and Moscow (London, 1845), 132.Google Scholar

35. Johnston, Robert, Travels through Part of the Russian Empire and the Country of Poland along the Southern Shores of the Baltic (New York, 1816), 130 Google Scholar; The Englishwoman in Russia (New York, 1855), 64-65.

36. Sala, A Journey Due North, 452-53. Leitch Ritchie, Esq., A Journey to St. Petersburg and Moscow through Courland and Livonia (London, 1836), 209. Many others commented on street vendors, including J. G. Kohl, Russia: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kharkoff, Riga, Odessa, the German Provinces on the Baltic, the Steppes, the Crimea, and the Interior of the Empire (London, 1844), 138; Englishwoman in Russia, 65; Granville, A. B., St. Petersburgh: A Journal of Travels to and from That Capital: Through Flanders, the Rhenish Provinces, Prussia, Russia, Poland, Silesia, Saxony, the Federated States of Germany, and France (London, 1828), 2:422 Google Scholar; Thompson, Life in Russia, 278. Of course, Russian cities were hardly the only places whose streets were crowded with vendors. The poor of London, for example, still relied on street vendors through at least the middle of the nineteenth century. See Burnett, England Eats Out, 33. For most observers, it was the juxtaposition of classes that seemed most striking.

37. For other establishments, see de Molinari, M. G., Lettres sur la Russie (Brussels, 1861), 49.Google Scholar

38. Godard, Leon, Petersbourg et Moscou; Souveniers du Couronnement d'un Tsar (Paris, 1858), 79 Google Scholar; Boucher de Grèvecoeur de Perthes, Voyage en Russie, 254-57, 306-8. A third Frenchman similarly enjoyed an “essentially Russian and essentially expensive” meal, as reported in “Svedeniia inostrantsev o Rossii,” Zhivopisnaia Russkaia biblioteka 2, no. 10 (1857): 71.

39. Kozlov, S. A., Russkii puteshestvennik epokhi Prosveshcheniia (St. Petersburg, 2003)Google Scholar; Schönle, Andreas, Authenticity and Fiction in the Russian Literary Journey, 1790-1840 (Cambridge, Mass., 2000).Google Scholar

40. I. G., “Moskva za stolom,” 418.

41. Ibid., 451.

42. Ibid., 442, 444, 445.

43. V. U., , “Puteshestvie po traktiram,” Severnyi arkhiv, no. 1 (1826): 333.Google Scholar V. U. also described expensive meals at the restaurant at the Hotel Leiptsig, run by Mr. Shor. Ajoking take on the cost of dining appears in F. B., “Provintsiial v stolitse,” Severnaia pchela, no. 4 (8 January 1825).

44. I. G., “Moskva za stolom,” 452-55.

45. Arsen'ev, K. I., Nachertanie statistiki Rossiiskogo gosudarstva (St. Petersburg, 1818), 1: 104-5Google Scholar; “Pchelka,” Severnaia pchela, no. 32 (11 February 1850): 133. These concerns continued into the second half of the nineteenth century. See Potkina, Irina V., “Moscow's Commercial Mosaic,” in West, James L. and Petrov, Iurii A., eds., Merchant Moscow: Images of Russia's Vanished Bourgeoisie (Princeton, 1998), 42.Google Scholar

46. Pryzhov, I. G., “Korchma: Istoricheskii ocherk,” Russkii arkhiv 4 (1866): 1053.Google Scholar

47. I. G., “Moskva za stolom,” 451, 455; Bulgarin, Ocherki russkii nravov, 31.

48. “O tom, kak dva Zakholustintsa pili chai s ogurtsom,” in Voskresnyeposidel'ki, vol. 1, pt. 3 (St. Petersburg, 1844), 51. I. G. uses the same word to describe places visiting peasants frequented. See I. G., “Moskva za stolom,” 455-56.

49. Burnashev, V. P., Progul'ka s det'mi po Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1837), 1:120-22Google Scholar; Bulgarin, Ocherki russkikh nravov, 32. Emphasis in original. Kisel’ is fruit juice thickened with starch. For other comments on the food rows, generally applauding their cost and quality, see Maslov, S. A., Zamelki vo vremia poezdki po Volge ot Tveri do Kostromy (Moscow, 1859), 16 Google Scholar, and I. G., “Moskva za stolom,” 457-58.

50. “Stseny iz moskovskoi zhizni,” Zhivopisnaia Russkaia biblioteka 1, no. 44 (1856): 350.

51. On changes in merchant dress, which began to take hold by the 1840s, see Christine Ruane, “Caftan to Business Suit: The Semiotics of Russian Merchant Dress,” in West and Petrov, eds., Merchant Moscoiu, 54.

52. I. G., “Moskva za stolom,” 448-49, 451-52.

53. “Zagranichnye i peterburgskie traktiry,” Severnaia pchela, no. 72 (30 March 1840): 285; L. L., “Peterburgskie obedy (Zametki iz dnevnika gastronoma),” Severnaia pchela, no. 133 (15 June 1840): 530.

54. Puf, Doktor, “Kukhnia,” Zapiski dlia khoziaeva 2, no. 15 (26 April 1845): 119.Google Scholar For more discussion of moderate (and some elite) foreign restaurants, see L. L., “Peterburgskie obedy,” 529.

55. Puf, Doktor, “Kukhnia,” Txipiski dlia khoziaeva 2, no. 18 (17 May 1845): 143 Google Scholar (some ellipses in the original have been dropped).

56. Bulgarin, Faddei, Rossiia v istoricheskom, stalisticheskom, geograficheskom i literaturnom otnosheniiakh (St. Petersburg, 1837), 2:214 Google Scholar; on economy, see “Fel'eton Ekonoma,” Ekonom, no. 1 (1850): 2.

57. Bulgarin, Ocherki russkikh nravov, 36; Sumarokov, Pavel, Progulka po 12-ti guberniiami s isloricheskimi, i statisticheskimi zamechaniiami. V 1838 godu (St. Petersburg, 1839), 75–76 Google Scholar; I. G., “Moskva za stolom,” 450; V. U., “Puteshestvie,” 331-32.

58. Rieber, Merchants and Entrepreneurs, 40-73.

59. Pilbeam, Pamela, The Middle Classes in Europe, 1789-1914: France, Germany, Italy and Russia (Chicago, 1990), 40–41 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wirtschafter, Social Identity, 81-82.

60. “Stseny iz moskovskoi zhizni,” 348-50.

61. This Frenchman was taken to task by a Russian reviewer, who explained that the patrons were actually old-fashioned older merchants and dandified young ones. See “Svedeniia inostrantsev o Rossii,” 71.

62. On this idea, see West and Petrov, eds., Merchant Moscow; Clowes, Kassow, and West, eds., Between Tsar and People; for a memoir of the time, with specific notes on the traktiry of Moscow and fheir patrons, often merchants, see Vladimir Giliarovskii, Moskva i moskvichi: Ocherki staromoskovskogo byta (Moscow, 1959), esp. 232-45.