Il’ya e. Repin

Born to a poor family near Kharkov, Repin learned his trade from a painter of icons named Bunakov and in 1864 became a student at the Academy of Fine Arts at St. Petersburg. In 1871 he won an academy scholarship that enabled him to visit France and Italy, and when he returned to Russia he devoted himself to depicting episodes from Russian history. In 1894 he became professor of historical painting at the academy in St. Petersburg.

The powerful Volga Bargemen (1873) epitomizes the stark realism and socially critical cast of much of Repin's work, which was to serve as a model for Socialist Realist painting in the Soviet Union. His treatments of Russian subjects tend to be grim in tone, sharply drawn, and boldly composed. Among his pictures are Religious Procession in Kursk Gubernia (1880-83), Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan, November 16, 1581 (1885), and Zaporozhian Cossacks (1891), the latter perhaps his best-known work. He also did vigorous portraits of his great Russian contemporaries, such as Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Glinka, and Modest Mussorgsky. (EncBr)

EXERCISE 15. (a) Choose 10 most representative Peredvizhniki paintings to illustrate your talk on the movement. (b) Write a 100-word text for the poster announcing the opening of the exhibition devoted to the movement in the USA. § 79.4

EXERCISE 16. Give the original titles of these paintings and comment on their English versions. § 79.4

Ivan Argunov: Unknown Woman in Russian Dress

Karl Bryullov: The Last Day of Pompeii <> Siege of Kiev

Aleksandr Ivanov: Christ Among the People

Aleksei Venetsianov: Ploughing in the Spring <> Last Communion of a Dying Woman

Pavel Fedotov: The Major’s Courtship <> The New Chevalier <> The Aristocrat’s Breakfast <>

Vasily Pukirev: The Unequal Marriage <>

Valery Yakobi: A Halt for Convicts on the Road to Siberia <>

Vasily Perov: Village Easter Procession <> The Dispute on Faith <>

Aleksei Savrasov: The Rooks Have Come

Ivan Kramskoi: Nameless Lady <> Christ in the Wilderness

Ivan Shishkin: Bears in a Pine Forest <> Tree-Felling

Viktor Vasnetsov: Three Warriors <> After the Battle of Igor Svyatoslavich with the Polovtsians <>

Vasily Vereshchagin: Apotheosis of War

Vasily Surikov: The Morning of the Execution of the Streltsy on Red Square <> Boyarynya Morozova <> Tsarevna’s Visit to a Monastery <> Menshikov in Berezovo

Il’ya Repin: A Religious Procession in Kurskaya Guberniya <>They Did Not Expect Him <>

Nikolai Ge: Peter the Great Interrogating Tsarevich Alexei at Peterhof

Vasily Polenov: Moscow Courtyard <> Grandmother’s Garden <> Christ Among the Teachers

Isaak Levitan: The Evening Bells <> Eternal Peace

Mikhail Nesterov: Child Bartholomew’s Vision

Valentin Serov: Girl with Peaches

Viktor Borisov-Musatov: Phantoms <> The Pool <> Sleep of the Gods

Kuz’ma Petrov-Vodkin: Petrograd 1918 (“Petrograd Madonna) <> Bathing the Red Horse <> (“Russian Painting at the Tret’yakov Gallery” by D. Richardson, Moscow)

EXERCISE 17. Choose reproductions of 10 canvases most representative of Russian painting and write a 200-word announcement of your lecture for US cruise passengers. § 79.4

Lesson 14.

RUSSIAN CUISINE

EXERCISE 1. (a) Replace the Russian words of the text with their English counterparts. (b) Translate it into Russian. (c) Answer the questions given below. § 79.5

The Food and Cooking of Russia

Part I

A Russian host is excessively generous за столом but he will not be happy unless his guests eat and drink в изобилии, as many Westerners over the centuries have found out to their cost. A Russian loves to be able to offer hospitality to his neighbor, and quite often he will invite strangers to eat with him too. The traditional word for being hospitable is хлебосольство. Bread and salt are the symbolic offering of welcome and also a token of respect from host to guest. The guest is welcome to share even if the house has no more to offer than bread and salt.

Soup is one part of a Russian meal in which the simple native tradition has never been superseded by richer or more varied foreign preparations. The classics, shchi, ukha, borshch, rassol’nik, solyanka, okroshka and botvin’ya, all held their own on the aristocratic, Francophile tables of 19th-century Russia. They were in addition inexpensive, просты по составу компонентов, easily digested and sustaining. No two recipes are the same for shchi and borshch, and all set instructions and measures are rightly regarded with skepticism by опытные Russian cooks.

The one essential ingredient of real shchi is sauerkraut. In Moscow’s Central Market it is sold in huge enamel buckets, and Russians always taste before they buy in case the batch has gone too sour. It is easy to see why shchi became such an important part of национальная еда. In winter Central Russia normally had no vegetables apart from cabbage, beetroot and a few other root crops. Made with the quantity of meat given in all the standard recipes, shchi becomes almost a meal in itself.

What shchi is to the Russians, borshch is to the Ukrainians. Food does not fit with political boundaries, of course, and the home of borshch lies in a large area of Eastern Europe covered today by Western Russia, Poland and Lithuania. It is also claimed as a specialty of Jewish cookery, which has carried a number of русские по происхождению блюда to Europe and the United States.

Старинная русская пища are tvorog (curd cheese), smetana (sour cream), and other forms of curdled and soured milk.

The great Russian fish are речная fish, headed by the celebrated sterlet from the River Volga. They include several varieties of sturgeon and over a dozen different salmon. Of the extensive salmon family the sig was the most sought after. It is still known to some people as ‘the Tsar’s fish’.

The basic Russian way with meat is either to roast it or to boil it on the bone. The French were thus in a position to introduce to the aristocracy in the 19th century many new ways of cutting and cooking meat off the bone, a fact borne out by the invasion of French terms: antrekot, eskalop, filé. Other ways with филейное мясо came from Germany (shnitsel’) and as early as the 16th century from the Baltics (zrazy).

(extracts from The Food and Cooking of Russia by Lesley Chamberlain, 1982).

Choose the correct words.

freshwater <> filleted meat <> to capacity <> originally Russian dishes <> simple to assemble <> seasoned <> at the table <> the national diet <> The old Russian staples <> ‘one who gives bread and salt’ <>

1. How do Russians describe a hospitable host?

2. Which part of a Russian meal is the most tradional?

3. What vegetable prevails in traditional Russian dishes?

4. What is the origin of borshch?

5. What is the basic Russian way with meat?

Part II

The most traditional Russian meat dish который подается в холодном виде and dating back long before the era of zakuski is an aspic dish made with pig’s trotters or ox cheek. It earned the name of kholodets, which simply meant cold dish, or studen’, derived from another word for cold or cool. Roast молочный поросенок is a classic festive dish on the Russian table. The traditional method was to roast the pig on a spit, or on a platform of birch twigs on a baking tray in the oven. It was cooked вместе с головой, basted frequently with oil or butter, and served with buckwheat and sometimes with a hot sauce.

Under the Mongol yoke pel’meni became established in Siberia and the Urals, from where a number of recipes and varieties is infinite. Traditionally a mixture of говядина, свинина и лосиное мясо is used, and it is said that the whole villages in Siberia still turn out one afternoon before the onset of winter to make a vast batch of pel’meni. The women замешивать тесто and chop the meat, the men do the folding. For their exacting work the latter enjoy a glass of vodka every hundredth pel’men’. The traditional form is ear-shaped but they come in all shapes from square to triangles. The villagers have an immediate feast after their work with which ice-cold vodka is obligatory. The rest of the pel’meni are deep frozen in goatskin bags in the snow. Pel’meni-eating contests take place periodically.

Poultry ranks second to дичь in the best Russian cooking of the past. The Soviet era has also seen culinary invention where chicken is concerned. Chicken Kiev turns up on almost all international Russian hotel menus. Скорее способ приготовления, чем рецепт, chicken tabaka means boning a chicken down the middle so that it can be cooked flat under a heavy iron lid in a shallow pan.

Count Stroganov gave his name at the end of the 19^th to a dish – beef Stroganov – to which almost no one takes exception. Stroganov’s chef, if he was not French, was certainly French-trained. But the original dish, served on the numerous occasions when the master held open house in the Black Sea port of Odessa, was probably better than all the misnamed beef à la Stroganov, in Stroganov sauce and Stroganovsky I have seen в меню from London to Katmandu.

Под руководством foreign chefs who were interested in traditional Russian food, Russia achieved a good standard of everyday cuisine practiced by all but the peasantry. As early as the 1860s новая волна homegrown gastronomic expertise became apparent in the person of Elena Molokhovets. Her classic Gift to Young Housewives was over 1,000 pages long, and is still considered настольная книга by Russia’s home cooks. Mrs. Molokhovets was full of respect for Russian traditions and the dictates of the Church calendar, but French in the techniques and refinements she brought to the ordinary table.

Choose the correct words.

More of a method than a recipe in itself <> a kitchen bible <> sucking pig <> Under the guidance of <> with the head left on served cold <> <> beef, pork and elk <> <> make the dough <> game <> on menus <> a new wave of <> served cold

1. What does Chamberlain call ‘the most traditional Russian meat dish’?

2. What is ‘an aspic dish’?

3. What is the traditional Russian method was to roast the sucking pig?

4. Why have pel’meny always been so popular in Russia?

5. What does Chamberlain think about chicken tabaka?

6. How does beef Stroganov appear on the menu internationally?

7. What is Elena Molokhovets remembered in Russia by? How did she die?

EXERCISE 2. Work out a list of Russian dishes mentioned by L. Chamberlain and supply them with comprehensible definitions, easy enough for foreigners.

MODEL: rasstegai : an open-topped pasty, somewhat bigger than pirozhki, with a little hole in the middle to see the filling.

EXERCISE 3. Review these descriptions of Russian dishes and point out the cases where you think they are not quite accurate. § 79.5

1. Zakuski traditionally form the basis of the famous Russkiy stol, or “Russian table”, a feast of awesome proportions, in which the table groans under the weight of numerous dishes while the samovar steams away. (D. Richardson 2005)

2. Pickled fish is a popular starter (try selyodka pod shuby, herring in “fur-coat” of beetroot, carrot, egg and mayonnaise). (D. Richardson 2005)

3. Solyanka (a sometimes flavoursome concoction of pickled vegetables, meat and potato that used to be the staple winter food for the peasantry). (Russia, Belarus and Ukraine 2006)

4. Chilled soups (okroshki) are popular during the summer, made from whatever’s available. (D. Richardson 2005)

5. Ubiquitous are pelmeni: Russian-style ravioli (generally stuffed with pork or beef) and served either heaped on a plate with sour cream, vinegar and butter, or in a stock soup. (Russia, Belarus and Ukraine 2006)

6. Desserts (sladkoe) are not a strong feature of Russian cuisine. (D. Richardson 2005)

7. Pecheniye (pastries) are eaten at tea-time in the traditional English style and are available at any bulochnaya ( bakery). (Russia, Belarus and Ukraine 2006)

8. Savoury pies (pirozhki) are often sold in the streets from late morning; the best are filled with cabbage, curd cheese and rice. (D. Richardson 2005)

9. The nearest thing to a pub is a traktir (tavern), becoming more common as the Russian taste for beer exceeds the love of vodka. (D. Richardson 2005)

10, Brazhka is a semi-sweet red wine that Russians make in their own homes. (SPbInYP Jan. 2007)

11. If you’re invited to eat with Russians, it can be difficult to avoid drinking a succession of toasts in vodka, each glass tossed back do dna – to the end – a refusal may cause an offence. (D. Richardson 2005)

EXERCISE 4. Explain to foreign tourists the meaning of these names of Russian food.

MODEL: beef Stroganov : a popular Russian dish made of meat cut into strips and cooked in sour-cream sauce.

1. pel'meni <> 2. samovar <> 3. pryanik <> 4. bliny <> 5. chicken Kiev <> 6. vodka 7. kefir <> 8. borshch <> 9. gogol'-mogol' <> 10. kvas <> 11. kasha <> 12. kulebyaka <> 13. kulich <> 14. kumys <> 15. smetana <> 16. tvorog <> 17. shashlyk <> 18. pirozhki <> 19. zakuski <> 20. vinegret.

EXERCISE 5. Answer the questions.

Part I

1. What is the name of a popular Russian dish made of meat cut into strips and cooked in sour-cream sauce?

2. What is the name of the Russian variety of pancakes?

3. What is the name of a highly seasoned soup made of beetroot and cabbage and served with sour cream?

4. What is the name of the world famous Russian colorless alcoholic drink?

5. What is the name of the Russian counterpart of the Italian zabaglione?

6. What is the Russian for the dish known in France as hors d'oeuvres?

7. What is the name of the Russian fermented beverage made of rye?

8. What is the name of the most popular in Russia variety of yogurt made of fermented cow's milk?

9. What is the name of the Russian national dish made of cooked grain?

Part II

1. What is the name of the classic chicken dish invented in Russia in the Soviet period?

2. What is the name of a many-layered Russian pie which has a French variety?

3. What is the name of the Russian Easter cake?

4. What is the name of a fermented beverage prepared from esp. mare's milk, used by Asian nomads and medicinally?

5. What is the Russian counterpart of Italian ravioli?

6. What do the Russians call their popular small pies?

7. What is the Russian name for 'gingerbread'?

8. What is the name of the urn Russians use to boil water for tea and which literally means 'self-boiler'?

9. What do the Russians call their variety of 'sour cream'?

10. What is the name of the Russian variety of cottage cheese?

11. What Caucasian name do Russians use in reference to what Americans know as shish kebab?

EXERCISE 6. Translate these sentences into English making use of the expressions supplied. § 79.5

Part I

1. Он просто влюблен в итальянскую кухню. < to be attached to the cooking of>

2. Она посоветовала ему во время приема не увлекаться экзотическими блюдами и поменьше есть острых закусок. <extravagant food, savory tidbits>

3. Больше всего ему понравилась заливная осетрина. <cold sturgeon in aspic>

4. Печеночный паштет – интернациональное блюдо. <liver pâté>

5. Квас иностранцам кажется довольно странным напитком. < beverage>

6. У них дома принято ставить на стол множество салатов и холодных мясных закусок <cold cuts>.

7. Маловероятно, чтобы осетрину подавали с пирожками <unlikely to be served with>.

8. Кто поверит, что вам в их доме дали только засохший хлеб? <stale black bread>

Part II

1. Пирожки очень часто подают к бульону. <an accompaniment to>

2. Русское застолье трудно представить без множества тостов. <a lot of toasting>

3. Обильную еду в их деревне принято запивать квасом. <substantial meal; to wash some food down>

4. Кулебяка – это не просто дополнение к супу, а еда сама по себе. <a meal in itself; an accompaniment to>

5. Настоящий борщ – не простое блюдо <a dish tricky to make>.

6. Сейчас хозяйкам уже трудно представить приготовление пищи без различных приспособлений, облегчающих труд, и без практически готовых блюд, не требующих дополнительных затрат времени. <labor-saving devices; convenience food>

7. Времени на изысканный обед уже не было, и они ограничились легкой закуской. <an elaborate dinner party; a light snack>

8. Вареники с вишней были такими вкусными, что хозяйке не пришлось уговаривать гостей брать еще. <dumplings filled with cherry; to press someone for another helping>

EXERCISE 7. Translate the sentences into English §79.5

1. Блины были популярны в России во все времена.

2. И пироги, и пирожки нередко подаются к первому блюду.

3. Во время пребывания в Шотландии, на Русский день, мы хоти приготовить кулебяку.

4. Малосольные огурцы – самая распространённая русская закуска.

5. На закуску мы вам обязательно подадим и чёрную, и красную икру.

6. Настоящий русский чай подают в самоваре.

7. Сегодня на первое пирог с капустой и бульон.

8. Расстегай традиционно подаётся к ухе.

9. Котлету по-киевски придумали в советское время.

EXERCISE 8. (a) Read the text. (b) Answer the questions given below.

Seva Novgorodsev On Drinking Vodka Russian Style

The origins of vodka go back in Russian history some 500 years, and no Russian meal, or indeed Russian cookery book for that matter, would be complete without it. Drinking vodka is inexorably linked with eating in good company. The company is important, as you could not possibly drink vodka alone. The Russians consider that the lowest depth of depravity, nor do they agree with the Western ways of vodka drinking — all that mixing and blending. They will tell you that vodka should be drunk neat from a small glass, never sipped but downed in one, never served at room temperature but chilled thoroughly and served preferably straight from the freezer. A bottle delicately decorated with frost patterns, its contents thickened by the cold and obscured majestically as though seen through a mystical window, when put on the table laden with zakuski never fails to produce a murmur of approval.

Drinking vodka and enjoying it properly requires a special technique, one simple enough to learn within minutes, yet odd enough to guarantee a sparkle to your Russian parties. There are four points to remember:

1. Relax, breathe in and hold the breath.

2. Down the vodka in one. (Do not hold the vodka in the mouth.)

3. Take a mouthful of zakuski.

4. Exhale slowly.

In this way you get a complex and wonderful sensation; you feel the taste of zakuski on your palate and a little vodka flavor as you exhale through your nose. This may sound a bit complicated at first, but after two or three rounds you will get the knack of it. (K. Craig, S. Novgorodsev, The Cooking of Russia, 1990)

1. What is the origin of vodka?

2. What is vodka drinking always linked with?

3. Do Russians warm or cool vodka before drinking?

4. When should one hold the breath while drinking vodka — before or after drinking?

5. Do the authors find the technique of vodka drinking too complicated to master?

EXERCISE 9. Use these words and phrases in sentences of your own.

for that matter; to be linked with something; eating in good company; to drink vodka alone; the lowest depth of depravity; all that mixing and blending; to drink neat; to serve at room temperature; straight from the freezer; as though seen through a mystical window; a murmur of approval; It requires a special technique; to learn within minutes; to hold the breath; to take a mouthful; a complex and wonderful sensation; to feel the taste of something on one’s palate; a bit complicated at first; to get the knack of something.

EXERCISE 10. Comment on this opinion of a Western guide book.

[On overdoing with dill] … herbs are still used minimally … When they are used, it’s usually a blanket covering of chopped dill sprinkled on anything. Unless you are a huge dill fun, it’s often a safe bet to pre-empt the cook and ask for vsyo bez ukropa (everything without dill). (Masters SPb 2005)

EXERCISE 11. Comment on this opinion.

The Russian sweet tooth is proverbial. (Chamberlain)

EXERCISE 12. Translate into English these extracts from the book «Альбион и тайна времени» by L.Vasil’eva making use of the Key.

§ 79.5

I

Прошла всего неделя с того дня, как мы приехали. Вернувшись накануне вечером с официального приёма, муж сказал:

- Понимаешь, так получилось, я позвал гостей. Познакомился с одним англичанином, лордом, кстати, он сказал, что никогда не бывал у русских и не едал наших блюд. Завтра у них с женой неожиданно оказался свободный вечер.

Я всполошилась и полезла в закрома. Селедка и шпроты - дело простое, однако не последнее. Люди, жившие прежде в Англии, давая мне советы перед поездкой, рекомендовали не забывать, что в Англии нет ничего похожего на наши селёдочные засолы, а успех у них наивысший.

Весь вечер я трудилась: заливала грибы кипящим молоком, заводила тесто для пирожков, пекла коржи для торта. Весь следующий день, не приседая, тоже готовилась к приёму: резала салаты, жарила, парила, варила. Расставляла на столе. Едва успела переодеться к приходу гостей.

Гости откушали всего. Похвалили. Перебегая из кухни в столовую, я едва успевала подносить. Они о чём-то говорили с мужем, даже смеялись, но я плохо соображала о чём. Уходя, гости долго благодарили, уверяя, что провели незабываемый вечер.

Через день почтальон принёс изящный конверт. Письмо содержало восхищённые отзывы и слова благодарности. В конце стояла фраза: “И еда была изысканнейшая!”

Я ликовала. Победа!

II

Миссис Кентон, моя соседка, явилась ровно в пять прямо из парикмахерской.

- Вы принимали гостей и прежде не посоветовались со мной?

- Чего тут было советоваться, всё прошло великолепно. Вот, - я протянула ей письмо, неоспоримое доказательство моей победы.

Она мельком пробежала его и равнодушно бросила на стол:

- Письмо ещё ни о чём не говорит. Надеюсь, когда они пришли, вы рассадили их в кресла и предложили слегка выпить?

- Зачем, у меня всё уже было готово, пирожки остывали, я сразу позвала их к столу.

- Так. Полагаю, что за столом вы рассадили своих гостей удобно и продуманно, с учётом пола, языкового различия и профессии?

- Никак специально не рассаживала. Их было двое, муж и жена, рядом и сидели.

- Всего двое?! - почти закричала миссис Кентон. - Вы уверены, что всего двое? Надеюсь, с едой-то было всё в порядке?

- Ещё бы! Крупинке негде упасть - весь стол закусками заставила: три сорта салатов, холодец, рыбное заливное, разного сорта селёдки, паштет, огурчики и квашеная капуста, язык и ветчина и ещё всякие мелочи, потом борщ с пирожками, потом горячее...

- Какое?

- Я приготовила по грузинскому рецепту цыплят-табака.

- Не хотите ли вы сказать, что кормили своих гостей курами? Не будете ли вы добры показать мне тарелки, на которых подавали гостям.

Я принесла ей нечто восхитительно, известное в Москве под волшебным названием “Голубые кареты”. Как говорится, “вся Москва” гонялась за ними, да не всем досталось.

- Так я и знала, боже мой! Почему вы не посоветовались со мной, прежде чем принимать гостей?

- Вы хотите сказать, что я принимала гостей не совсем правильно?

- Совсем неправильно, просто ужасно.

EXERCISE 13. Speak of Elena Molokhovets, her famous book and tragic end.