Russian Flavors

Red Bread

Masha Avakian (pictured, above) is a waitress at the new café Tovarishch (Comrade), opened by the Union of Youth in Cherepovets. The café is in the building of former City Komsomol Committee (Communist youth organization) and is designed in the style of the 1960s-1970s. There are red banners everywhere, a bust of Vladimir Lenin, photos of party and Komsomol leaders, and newspapers of that era on the wall. Communist partisans and opponents of globalization are the café’s regulars. The menu, meanwhile, reads like a text book on CPSU history: there is the salad “Cruiser Avrora,” the GKChP cocktail (named for the August 1991 putsch), solyanka “Proletarskaya,” etc. The guest book signed by many visitors attests that it is, for them, not just a place to have a good, cheap meal, but somewhere to come and reminisce about the past.

Grain Forecast Boosted

Russia’s grain crop will total 73-76 million tons this year, higher than previous estimates but below last year’s total, said Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev. “The harvest process, especially positive regarding crops in the southern regions, has allowed us to adjust the target,” the minister said. (Interfax) Gordeyev had previously said the country would harvest 70-73 million tons of grains this year, a decrease from 85 million tons in 2001. 

Beer Keeps Flowing

Russia’s beer output increased 22% in the first half of 2002, versus the same period for 2001, according to an independent study published in Vedomosti daily. The increase was higher than the expected growth of 12-15%. Russian brewers produced 6.35 billion liters of beer in 2001. Baltika Beverages Holding remained the market leader, hiking output by 35% in the first half of the year. 

Wine Ferments

Wine consumption is growing 20-30% a year in Russia, according to reports published by the business weekly Kompaniya (Company), even though the annual consumption of vodka remains stable. The wine market is now worth approximately $250 million a year, and 65% of consumers are women. Experts say it is the growing Russian middle class which is moving from vodka towards a more fashionable alcoholic beverage. The growth in wine consumption is attributed to a higher consciousness about social status.

Check Point

Quite an unusual checkers championship was held in Moscow this summer. Participants did not use the traditional black and red (or white) game pieces. Instead, players used shots of vodka (instead of white pieces) and cognac (for black). Each player must drink up each “checker” taken by his opponent during the game—so the winner gets less drunk as a result. The first such championship in what Russians call pyanye shashki (drunken checkers) was held in 1925. And a film digest from the satirical show “Fitil” featured such a game in which the hilarious Mikhail Pugovkin and Sergei Filipov face off over a board full of shots. In the photo: preparation for the checker’s game.