What is now commonly referred to as Soviet cuisine is a heterogeneous phenomenon. Firstly, it is not entirely clear how to define its chronological boundaries. Setting formal boundaries—from the October Revolution to the Perestroika (or August 1991)—is not straightforward. Some culinary innovations of the revolutionary era—such as dishes made from soy—disappeared by the 1930s. Conversely, other dishes, dating back to the 19th and even 18th centuries, survived the Soviet period and are still reproduced today, albeit sometimes changed beyond recognition.
Some dishes were borrowed from the kitchens of Soviet republics and Eastern Bloc countries and underwent varying degrees of adaptation. In general, the fate of a specific recipe could depend on its social reputation, ritual function, ingredient availability, and the complexity of execution. Certain dishes, now considered typically Soviet, only took a permanent place in the gastronomic repertoire after the Second World War.
In addition, the term "Soviet cuisine" usually refers to home cooking. This excludes Soviet public catering, which shared many recipes, flavor combinations, and accents with home cooking—for example, a love for dill, bay leaf, mayonnaise, mashed potatoes, canned goods, and compote.
Thirdly, Soviet cuisine could be considered "poor" akin to the Italian cucina povera. On one hand, Soviet gastronomy also featured a meager set of ingredients and technological innovations that allowed extracting maximum taste and variations. However, unlike strictly "poor cuisines" developed in peasant societies, Soviet cuisine was primarily urban. Its austerity, expressed in a low variety of ingredients and extremely generalized instructions (such as "cheese," "greens," "meat," "fish"—whatever could be bought), stemmed from the peculiarities of a planned economy, not seasonal changes in the agricultural cycle.
All these circumstances gave rise to a very specific phenomenon—a gastronomy that combined the consequences of the socialist "deficit economy" with the non-bourgeois tendencies of the late 19th century: to cook quickly, qualitatively, and economically, in accordance with scientific and medical recommendations. The canonical form of the Soviet table (especially in its festive aspect) was shaped during the era of stagnation, as this period contributed to the spread and reproducibility of a certain repertoire: the terror, war, and blockade were behind, and the domestic reforms had begun to take effect. Life for most people was difficult but relatively calm.
Soviet recipes are still preserved in the memory of the older generation but do not always resonate with their children: dishes and tastes are highly dependent on political, economic, and social changes. For a Sovietologist or social anthropologist, one of the most interesting questions is how the recipes recorded in official cookbooks correlate with actual practice.
