DOI 10.51255/2311–603X_2025_2_114

A. I. Bogomolov. “Cake with Treason”: The Political Gastronomy of the Ural Provinces of the Early
20th Century // Petersburg Historical Journal, no. 2, 2025, pp. 114–128


Abstract:

The issues of quotidian conduct and the symbolism of nutrition have hitherto been addressed
principally in works dedicated to relatively distant epochs. Utilising the materials of the Ural provinces of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20 th century, this article examines the socio-cultural and political circumstances in which the practices of food and alcohol consumption acquired political meaning. The study places particular emphasis on the symbolic meaning of alcohol and associated practices, as well as the symbolic meaning of various dishes, their role and place in self-identification, in forming the image of the enemy and in politicising everyday life in the ideas of contemporaries — activists of the opposing political parties of Russia
in the early 20th century. Participants in far-right and far-left political organizations frequently exhibited a similar stereotypical perception of their political opponents, adhering to the same criteria.


Key words: cultural history, history of everyday life, history of nutrition, political gastronomy, politicization of everyday life, banquet campaign, The Black Hundreds, the revolutionaries, Ufa province, Perm province.

Author:

Bogomolov, Alexey Ivanovich — Candidate of Sciences in History, Researcher, St. Petersburg
Institute of History, Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg, Russia).
E-mail: iohannes@yandex.ru

ORCID: 0000-0003-0527-0192

References:

Bairau, D. Bakhus v Rossii [Bacchus in Russia. In Russ.]. In P. A. Zaionchkovskii (1904–1983 gg.): Stat’i, publikatsii i vospominaniya o nem. Moscow, ROSSPEN, 1998. P. 352–377.

Brodel, F. Material’naya tsivilizatsiya, ekonomika i kapitalizm, XV–XVIII vv. T. 1. Struktury povsednevnosti: vozmozhnoe i nevozmozhnoe [Material Civilization, Economics and Capitalism, 15 th –18th Centuries. Vol. 1. Structures of Everyday Life: Possible and Impossible. In Russ.]. Moscow, Ves’ mir, 2006. 592 p.

Ivanov, A. A. Poslednie zashchitniki monarkhii: Fraktsiya pravykh IV Gosudarstvennoi dumy v gody Pervoi mirovoi voiny (1914 — fevral’ 1917) [The Last Defenders of the Monarchy: The Right Faction of the 4th State Duma During the First World War (1914 — February 1917). In Russ.]. St. Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin, 2006. 204 p.

Kondrat’eva, T. S. Kormit’ i pravit’: O vlasti v Rossii XVI–XX vv. [To Feed and Rule: About Power in Russia of the 16th –20th Centuries. In Russ.]. Moscow, ROSSPEN, 2006. 202 p.

Maksimov, K. V. Monarkhicheskoe dvizhenie v Rossii v 1905–1917 gg. (po materialam Ufimskoi gubernii) [The Monarchist Movement in Russia in 1905–1917 (Based on Materials from Ufa Province). In Russ.]: dis. … kand. ist. nauk. Moscow, 2005. 208 p.

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