26 popular and unusual dishes: from smoked omul to rotten walrus.

Siberia is the homeland of many nationalities with their own, unique culture. And food is an integral part of any cultural heritage. We tried to collect the rarest, most unusual and popular dishes of national cuisine in Siberia among tourists: from the usual Buryat buuz to the seemingly inedible vilmulimul or maktak from the bowhead whale and beluga.

— Buryat cuisine —

The main place in Buryat cuisine is occupied by poses(in the Buryat language - buuz) - they are somewhat reminiscent of the familiar manti: minced meat in dough, but of an unusual shape - as they used to say - in the shape of a yurt, with a hole at the top.

The poses are prepared from several types of meat (the classic version is beef and pork, or beef, pork and lamb) and steamed dumpling dough. A distinctive feature is the broth inside each pose, which, according to the rules, must be drunk after biting the dough before starting the dish itself.

A much more surprising and almost forgotten dish - Borso- meat dried in the wind. You are unlikely to meet him when traveling through the tourist expanses of Buryatia. But earlier this dish was very common, because, in addition to its energy value, it is very practical: the meat does not lose its taste and nutritional qualities, at the same time it becomes lighter (convenient to take with you) and is stored for a very long time.

To prepare borso, beef meat is cut into long strips and hung in the wind in the shade. This is done in winter, and by spring the meat is dried and becomes “ready”. What’s interesting is that the meat takes on an almost white color.

Another native Buryat dish - salamat- resembles milk porridge. It is prepared almost like semolina, only very fatty: pour flour into boiling sour cream, stirring constantly, over time the oil begins to separate. The dish is considered ready when a golden brown crust of baked flour appears on the bottom and sides. The dish is eaten mainly warm: immediately after cooking or warmed up.

And a special Buryat soup, Buhler- in fact, it’s not so much a soup as just a rich lamb broth. When preparing it, pieces of meat along with the bone are boiled in water for a long time, and only then, onions and spices are added to the finished broth, removed from the heat. The buchler must be eaten hot, otherwise the lamb fat begins to solidify.

And of course, speaking about Buryatia, one cannot help but mention omul, which is found only in Baikal (sometimes found in rivers adjacent to it). The fish is incredibly tasty and is a kind of calling card of Lake Baikal. Tourists are invited to try freshly prepared, dried, smoked and dried omul at literally every step and they definitely shouldn’t refuse it.

Since we are talking about fish, in the vicinity of Lake Baikal they often offer stroganina- frozen fish, cut into shavings. Fish is eaten raw and served seasoned with spices or sauces.

— Altai cuisine —

In Altai you will be able to try such a national dish as kocho- meat soup with barley or barley.

For a hearty thick soup, first cook the broth. For it, meat on the bone is usually used - lamb, horse meat or beef. Half an hour before cooking, add barley or barley to the broth. If large pieces of meat were cooked, they are served separately from the soup, on a platter. The resulting rich first course is usually sprinkled with chopped wild onions and garlic and eaten from bowls.

Kurut- smoked and very hard cheese, which mountain residents still make today.

It is made from boiled milk with sourdough, adding a fair amount of salt. Thanks to the cooking method, the cheese is stored for a very long time and is very nutritious. Previously, he more than once helped out hunters and travelers on long journeys.

Even in the famous mound of the Altai “Princess Ukok”, excavated by scientists in 1993, where they found many real treasures, pieces of cheese were found that had lain for many centuries.

In remote villages of Altai you can always try Chegen. It resembles a cross between kefir and ayran, but has a very mild taste. To ferment it, only boiled milk is used. Altaians make many foods and drinks from chegen: cheeses, cereals, alcoholic liqueurs...

Although this is not the original dish of the national cuisine of the Altai people, now, and for quite a long time, you can find it everywhere in Altai baursaks- Round, deep-fried pieces of dough. As a rule, when cooking they are not given a pronounced salty or sweet taste, but after that they are dipped in honey, powdered sugar, chocolate - any breading “to taste”.

— Tuvan cuisine —

After tea, dalgan- the primary food of Tuvans. It could be found in any, even the poorest yurt. It is a coarse flour made from roasted wheat grains. They eat it, mixing it with melted butter and (optional) Tuvan tea until it reaches a thick consistency.

To prepare it, barley grains are first pounded in a large wooden mortar - sogaash, then winnowed, fried in a cast iron cauldron (without oil) and pounded again. And during the subsequent winnowing, all the husks are removed and only then ground with a hand-held stone mill, which is called deerbe.

Kumis- this is mare's milk that has been sour for three days, the taste resembles a fermented mixture of kvass and kefir.

But many people like this taste. The native Tuvans considered the drink honorable, and it was customary to offer it to guests during holidays. And now sour mare’s milk is considered healing, it is taken even in the treatment of tuberculosis.

Tea in Tuvan style differs from our usual understanding of the common drink: it is drunk by adding fat and salt.

To brew it, water is half diluted with milk and then boiled together with herbs for 15-20 minutes. Afterwards, the drink is filtered and served in bowls, adding salt and fat tail fat or ghee.

And here putsa very reminiscent of Buryat poses. It is a kind of steamed meat dumplings. Minced lamb with onions and spices is placed on unleavened dough flatbreads, pinched on top “in the form of jugs” and steamed. Interestingly, tea is used instead of water for the dough.

— Nenets cuisine —

In the preparation of things we are all familiar with pancakes, the Nenets have one nuance. For greater nutritional value, since the living conditions of these people are quite harsh, blood, mainly from deer, is mixed into the dough along with water. This, of course, gives the product a specific taste and color.

But what most of us are definitely far from is reindeer brain. It is customary to eat it while still warm, raw. Eat with a spoon, after adding salt. Or they freeze, cut into pieces and eat, dipping in spices.

While deer are passing through the corral, some of them break their unossified antlers in the confusion ( antlers). The assembled antlers are covered with delicate hair. Antlers are fired over a fire or in a stove. The burned hair is scraped off with a knife. They eat the skin of the antler from the base to the top, and also eat its apical part in the form of soft cartilage. This food, having good taste, has a beneficial effect on the body: improves metabolism, increases overall tone.

Unusual name - whybart- has the meat of freshly killed deer.

The method of eating, to put it mildly, is unusual for us: first they cut off a piece of meat and then dip it in still warm blood. The piece captured by the teeth is not torn off, but cut off with a quick movement of the knife from bottom to top, directly at the lips. The deer's liver, kidneys, windpipe, tongue and lips are considered delicacies.

— Chukotka cuisine —

Venison sticks very reminiscent of the usual sausage. Yes, and they prepare it in a similar way, except with some nuances.

The venison is passed through a meat grinder, salt is added and kept for 24 hours at a temperature of 2-3° C. Then milk and, sometimes, eggs are added to the mass, ground again together with reindeer fat or lard and mixed thoroughly. The mass is removed from the bag in the form of sticks and baked.

One more dish , kick up the nannies, Also, it won’t surprise you much with the method of preparation and taste, except perhaps by the name, but in reality it is an unleavened flatbread.

Unleavened dough is kneaded in water, then round and very thick (5-7 cm) cakes are formed from it. They are buried in the sand under a fire, and covered with burning coals on top. After some time, the cakes are removed from the sand, placed on their edges and cooled. The cooled bread is peeled with a knife and then lightly washed with water. The cakes are again placed on their edges to dry. The nanny is ready.

Kanyga - it is the semi-digested contents of a reindeer's stomach. It is considered a delicacy among many indigenous peoples of the north. It is especially popular among the Chukchi and Eskimos.

As is known, domestic and wild reindeer feed mainly on various lichens and the foliage of shrubs. This mass is eaten with spoons, mixed with berries - blueberries, shiksha, lingonberries in arbitrary proportions.

Vilmulimul- a traditional component of the Chukotka national cuisine made from deer carcass by-products.

The shell of the Vilmulimul is the deer stomach. Deer blood is poured into it, boiled kidneys, liver, ears, hooves (from which the cornea has been previously removed) and lips are placed, and berries and sorrel are also added. The full stomach is carefully sewn up and lowered into the glacier (ketyran). The product is fermented for the winter. In winter, vilmulimul is stored in the cold part of the yaranga. It is eaten in the spring.

Maktak(also called “muktuk”) is frozen whale skin and blubber. In some dialects, particularly Inuinnaqtun, the word "maktak" means only edible skin.

Most often, maktak is prepared from the bowhead whale, although the skin and fat of beluga whale or narwhal are also sometimes used. Maktak is usually consumed raw, although it can be cut into thin strips, breaded, fried in oil and served with soy sauce. In addition, maktak is marinated.

Today, the rapidly developing restaurant business increasingly offers us Siberian cuisine. There are specialized restaurants not only in Siberia, but also in Moscow ("", "Sibir", "Expedition") and St. Petersburg ("Siberian Crown", "Slavic Yard"). In Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk and especially in Krasnoyarsk, in connection with the announced Universiade in 2019, many catering places are trying to offer Siberian cuisine. For some, these are dumplings with vodka, pancakes with black caviar, “”, sugudai, stroganina, rubanina; for others, these are taiga products, no matter how they are prepared, accompanied by local tunes and the sounds of a shaman’s tambourine, or a meal against the backdrop of a charming Siberian landscape. In Krasnoyarsk and Moscow, this is access to the Suitcase restaurant, and in Tomsk, Kemerovo and Novosibirsk - to Eternal Call. In France, I am often asked the question - what is Siberian cuisine? Therefore, whether we like it or not, Siberian cuisine exists. It is widely known today; it is a trend, perhaps even a nationwide one. But Siberian cuisine is different everywhere, both in our heads, and in the imaginations of foreigners, and in restaurants. In this regard, I would like to understand what Siberian cuisine is as a phenomenon. What can we understand by Siberian cuisine?

Today the term "kitchen" has two meanings. The first is a place where men think that dinner is prepared there, and women think that their best years are spent there! In other words, a kitchen is a room for preparing food. The second is a set of dishes, dishes, technologies, preparations that have developed over a historical period of time and reflect the national tastes of the people, their living conditions and religious views. Consequently, cuisine is a deeply national phenomenon. We often hear “national cuisine”, “national cuisine”. On the other hand, if terms such as “French cuisine”, “German cuisine” or “Russian cuisine” are quite definable, then “American cuisine”, “Scandinavian cuisine” or “European cuisine” are quite problematic in this regard. As soon as national specifics are ignored, the term becomes quite vague.

Therefore, the nationality parameter in the definition of the term “cuisine” is one of the main ones. The second significant parameter is territoriality. When we say “regional cuisine”, the parameter “territoriality” becomes more significant than “nationality”. This is due to the fact that it is through the territory that the diversity and specificity of the food supply is directly realized, which, in turn, underlies the characteristics of national or regional cuisine.

Thus, the basis of any cuisine is made up of three main factors: nationality, territoriality and food supply. It must be national and adapted to territorial conditions, having its own food base characteristic of this area, on which national technologies are implemented.

Ideological cuisines, such as Vedic, Orthodox and others, are no exception to these three basic components. They are as national and as regional as the others. Moreover, in my opinion, these cuisines are more strongly national and territorial. As a rule, the transfer of such ideological cuisines to another cultural base can have an unpredictable, usually negative effect, for example, vegetarianism in Siberia. This is especially true for certain borrowings - strong adaptogens, which in non-native cultures are called drugs.

Siberia is a huge country. This is 12.6 million square kilometers - 73.6% of the territory of Russia, these are 37 nationalities with their own living territory. With such a scale and diverse population, we can talk about a variety of cuisines with pronounced autochthonous traditions. This is based, first of all, on the unique food base, which is provided by the diversity of landscapes and the diversity of flora and fauna. On this basis and on the basis of the definition of cuisine, we cannot talk about Siberian cuisine as a holistic phenomenon.

But upon closer examination of the specifics of each individual Siberian national cuisine from a historical perspective, its autochthony is blurred. There are several reasons behind this.

1. Siberia is a rich but harsh land. Until the 20th century, most of the population was forced to lead a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle. Large seasonal movements eroded marginal zones to infinity, where culinary experiences were exchanged between peoples, the understanding of the food base was expanded, etc., etc.

A group of Kyrgyz in Altai. 1900 Photo by N.R. Tomashkevich. Notice the game bird sitting on its “pedestal” in the center of the frame. The peoples of Altai did not have such a practice

2. The entire territory of Siberia has always been penetrated by trade caravans. Siberian “Bukharians” roamed the expanses of Siberia long before the Russians arrived here; caravans with tea and other goods from China passed through Kyakhta and through Altai to Irbit and Nizhny Novgorod.

Caravan tea: on camels, on bulls, on horses across Siberia

3. Migrants from the European part of the Russian Empire to Siberia. These are Old Believers, convicts who have settled permanently, servicemen, families seeking a happier life. The settlers were mainly from the Baltic states, Little Russia, and the central regions of Russia.

“Bukhara” trade caravans, Russian settlers, caravan tea, all of them constantly permeated the Siberian cauldron of nationalities and brought their everyday life, adapted it to the local food base, giving birth to a culinary experience that was generally autochthonous for Siberia. It is not surprising, therefore, that many dishes, many technologies, although they were called differently by different peoples, had the same essence. Let's give a few specific examples.

TALKAN - TALGAN - TALFAN - DALGAN - DYAKU ...

The distribution area is almost all of Siberia. Specially prepared barley flour. Sometimes it could be prepared from wheat, rye and other grains. A distinctive feature of this flour was that the grain was fried in a mortar before pounding (grinding). A layer of grain 3-5 cm thick was poured onto a dry frying pan or its replacement metal surface and fried with continuous stirring until it began to “shoot”. Then the grains were ground, constantly winnowing from the husks, into flour. It didn't spoil for a long time. Food and drinks from talkan were prepared quickly, so hunters usually took it with them to the taiga. They made tea with it, brewed it with boiling water or milk, and made a grout. Talkan was considered sacred by many peoples and was used in various ritual actions.

What could be simpler - pour talkan into a cup, pour boiling water over it, add oil and cover it with something to swell it. In five minutes, a hearty meal is ready. A more complex option - the talkan is poured with ready-made hot tea, stirred, lumps of flour are broken up, whitened with hot milk, melted butter and salt are added. The mixture is infused by the fire for several minutes and served hot in bowls. Low-alcohol drinks were also prepared on the basis of talkan, which could be consumed in their original form, or could also be distilled into araka.

KHURUNGA - ABYRTKA - KUMYS - TARASUN - AIRAN ARAGAZY - ARAKA - ARAKHA - ARAKI - ARKHI - AS ARAGAZY ...

Most peoples of Siberia have been familiar with alcoholic beverages and distillation for a long time. It is quite obvious that this experience penetrated into Siberia from China and had a long history even before the Russians arrived here. They distilled kumiss, fermented cow's milk, and flour-based brews. The technology of all Siberian peoples was absolutely the same - a metal cauldron with an alcohol-containing liquid was placed on the fire, covered with a wooden lid with two arc-shaped wooden outlet channels to cool the steam. The cracks were coated with clay or a plastic mass based on dung. The ends of the wooden tubes were lowered into a container in which the condensate collected. There was a practice of double and triple distillation (black arrack) - everything depended on the wealth of the family.

A seat of arakha (Altai vodka). 1900 Photo by N.R. Tomashkevich

Alcoholic beverages played an important role in pagan ritual practice. This is a deeply sacred drink, known to all pastoral peoples of Southern Siberia and with a deep history of consumption. Already in the early Middle Ages, a leather flask was depicted on the belt of stone sculptures, similar to the araki flasks of the Altaians, Khakassians and Tuvans.
My experiments in restoring the technology for producing milk vodka showed excellent results, but given the existing legislative framework, it is not possible to restore the historical drink.

PORSA - PURSA - BARCHA

Another ubiquitous product is porsa. It was made from dried small fish, ground into flour, added fish oil and stored in burbot skin bags. The modern view that porsa was made from yukola (dried fish) is incorrect. It was prepared from fish that was not used for yukola, i.e. from any small and all “black” (not sturgeon, not whitefish, not salmon) fish. An exception to the preparation of porsa in Siberia by drying and pounding is Evenki barcha. The fish was boiled, separated from the bones and pressed into balls, which were dried in the sun or in the oven. The balls were then ground and passed through a sieve to separate out the larger particles. The finished barcha was stored in linen bags. To prevent the flour from molding, clean pebbles were placed in it.

Fishmeal was used in the preparation of liquid and porridge-like dishes. It was often mixed with “wooden porridge” made from larch or pine. In general, in Siberia there were many forms of storing fish for future use: yukala, varka, kerdilyak, kabardakh, different ways of fermenting fish.

SUGUDAI - RUBANINA - STROGANINA

Freshly caught fish was consumed raw - in the summer it was sagudali, i.e. cut into small pieces and ate them by dipping them in salt water. Today this term has been deformed; in all restaurants you will be served ruban under the name “sugudai”.

TEA - CHA - BACCHA - HUASIAN - KARYM TEA

Another widely consumed product in Siberia is tea. Well, the “truss of the hay paw” has always been respected in Siberia. Tea was widespread among the local population even before the annexation of Siberia to Russia and was tightly woven into the diet of the Siberian peoples. It was also the Siberian currency. Today it is no secret that any nation should have its own adaptogens woven into everyday life and ritual. They are not invented or discovered; they crystallize from everyday life, from centuries-old communication between people and the environment. Tea is the mildest adaptagen in the world. That is why it is so widespread and so necessary in harsh Siberia. In the 19th century, Siberia consumed more tea per capita than any other Russian territory.

Tea consumption per year per capita, pounds

How did they drink tea in Siberia? Basically, only brick tea (bakcha or huaxiang) was consumed, which served as a welcome addition to the stew made from various ingredients: milk, butter, kumiss, flour, cereals, salt, etc. Several pieces of tea were thrown into boiling water, other ingredients were added, and boiled with constant stirring and then filtered through a hair sieve.

WOODEN PORRIDGE - JUICE - SAPWOOD - BARK - MEZDRA

Today it is a completely forgotten product. It was widespread and played a very important role in the winter nutrition of the local population. The further north the region, the greater the importance of this product in the diet of the people. Historically, this product was replaced by flour, although according to biochemical and gastronomic parameters they are not interchangeable. Today this original Siberian product can be restored.

"Wood porridge"

Many of the classic products that are typical for most of the territory of Siberia, healthy, useful and helping us live in these “hard labor” conditions, can be restored. But there are a number of products and practices that cannot be restored for many reasons. For which, you yourself will understand from the following example. In one of the expeditions to the Central Eastern Sayan (Okinsky and Obruchevsky ridges) he closely communicated with local hunters. In winter, they often make long treks lightly through the taiga. They take with them on the road only dry curd balls, mixed with crushed alpine onions and “jam” from ephedra berries. You ate two spoons of jam, put a ball of cottage cheese in your cheeks and walk all day long without getting tired. Returning home, I told this story to my “nerd” friends. Without thinking twice, they went to the xerophytic slope, collected several kilograms of ephedra berries and made jam. We tried it! When we came to visit them, they solemnly placed a three-liter jar of this brew in front of us and said: take it. They drank tea with this jam, and all night they listened to their heart “thumping” and counted the cracks on the ceiling of their own bedroom. Somewhere this jar is still collecting dust in a closet.

The list of products common to the Siberian peoples can be continued indefinitely. To these can and should be added Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Baltic, German and other cuisines, which came to the territory of Siberia along with settlers in the 17th – 19th centuries and were adapted to local conditions and food base, partially or completely borrowed by the indigenous population .

Thus, even with the “endlessness” of Siberia and the unique diversity of natural resources and population with its own national characteristics, we can talk about such a phenomenal phenomenon as Siberian cuisine. This may be a very real term that unites numerous dishes indigenous to Siberia, characteristic of the numerous peoples inhabiting it. Historical accounts illustrate that today Siberian cuisine can become the most original, most diverse cuisine in the world. Unfortunately, that's all it can do for now. And if this happens, it will be a great kitchen.

Chapter:
Siberian cuisine, Siberian traditions
1st page

The minds of Russians will grow in Siberia.
For settlements of all sorts of free-thinking troublemakers, the Lord has wisely granted the truly God-saved Russia the vast permafrost lands of Siberia (there is enough room there for all dissatisfied free-thinkers).
The fertile lands and the purest ecology of Siberia are optimal for special settlements, hard labor and camps, which in every possible way contribute to the enlightenment and strengthening of immature Russian minds who dare to freethink.
Below on this page, watch a mini-concert of traditional popular Siberian songs - for the good reasoning of potential Russian convicts, who now dare to publicly express their ungodly dissatisfaction with the highest and most illustrious elite authorities.

Siberian cuisine

About Siberian cuisine

The vast Siberian region extends across the territories of northeastern Eurasia. The Siberian expanses are limited in the west by the Ural Mountains, in the east by the Pacific Ocean, and in the north by the Arctic Ocean.

Nowadays, the territories of the Russian Federation are called Siberia, although geographically and historically Siberia is a broader concept. Part of the territory of modern Kazakhstan and the entire Far East are the borders of Siberia.

Since ancient times, the Siberian territories have been inhabited by such northern peoples as: Yakuts, Tuvinians, Altaians, Dolgans, Shors, Siberian Tatars, Buryats, Nanais, Udege, Nenets, Khanty, Mansi and many others. The modern peoples of Siberia can be divided into several groups, depending on their ancestors - Turkic peoples, Mongolian peoples, Tungus-Manchu, Samoyed and Finno-Ugric peoples.

The most ancient peoples who inhabit Siberia are the Chukchi, Itelmen and Koryaks. Such diversity of the ancestors of today's Siberians indicates the rich and diverse culture of Siberia. Now it becomes clear how dishes of oriental peoples appeared among the recipes of Siberian cuisine.

Dishes of Siberian cuisine, on the one hand, are similar to the culinary traditions of the peoples of the North. On the other hand, Siberian cuisine is much more diverse. This is primarily due to the rich natural diversity of flora and fauna of Siberia.

The Siberian climate is harsh, winters are long and summers are short, it’s good that they are warm. What's most important in Siberian frosts? Of course you won't freeze. In order not to freeze in winter, Siberians insulate themselves well with clothing and nutritious, high-calorie dishes of Siberian cuisine.

The main ingredient of Siberian cuisine is meat and meat products. Meat dishes in Siberia are an everyday necessity, because... meat charges the human body with energy. Until now, beef is more often used in Siberian cuisine, and only then pork and lamb.

It so happened historically that, interestingly, Siberians did not raise pigs at home. These were rather semi-wild pigs, which were released in the summer, domesticated in the fall, fed for a couple of months, and then slaughtered. Usually meat was baked in the oven in large pieces or whole carcasses.

The recipes of Siberian cuisine are famous, according to which even today housewives prepare delicious and unusual fresh, raw meat. Fresh or salted corned beef is a characteristic feature of the cuisine of northern peoples. In Siberian cuisine, it is customary to stew meat, fry it, bake it in a stove or oven, as well as over an open fire.

From meat by-products (ears, tongues, hooves) they made cold and even aspic, smoked pork hams, made meat soups and stews. The most famous Siberian dish is meat dumplings. And nowadays, whole families of Siberians sit down to make dumplings.

The classic Siberian recipe for dumplings involves a combination of at least three types of meat in minced meat for dumplings. Fish dishes occupy a special place in Siberian cuisine. The fish was steamed, fried, boiled, dried, dried, and also pickled and baked in an oven or over an open fire.

A Siberian delicacy - lightly salted fish from Lake Baikal Omul. This fish has always been famous for its unique and delicate taste. Residents of Siberia love to bake pies. Fillings for Siberian pies are made from meat, fish, as well as vegetables or berries.

Modern life leaves its mark on the original Siberian traditions. Nowadays, even Siberians prefer light Japanese sushi to heavy meat dishes.

When characterizing the diet of Siberians, we especially note the abundance of meat food, because... for Siberia it was much more important than for European Russia. There are two reasons for this: the cold Siberian climate and the abundance of game.

In Russia, meat dishes were usually a festive food, but in Siberia they were an everyday food. This is due not only to the widespread development of livestock farming, but also to the vital need for meat food in harsh climates.

Academician Gmelin, traveling around Siberia in the 40s of the 18th century, noted that “food supplies are very cheap, fish is excellent, meat and game are in abundance.” Meat was eaten both fresh – “fresh meat”, salted – “corned beef”, and dried – “saggy”.

In winter, the meat was dipped in water, allowed to freeze and placed in tubs, covered with snow. This avoided loss of meat juiciness during long-term frozen storage.

The meat was boiled, stewed, baked in dough or baked in large pieces in a Russian oven. Cooking and baking were carried out separately in a Russian oven.

What was intended for cooking was boiled from beginning to end, what was intended for baking was only baked. Thus, Siberian cuisine did not know what combined, combined, double heat treatment was.

There were three degrees of heating of the oven - “before the bread”, “after the bread”, “in the free spirit”. That is why all dishes were always stewed or stewed, which is why they acquired a special taste. Therefore, many dishes of ancient cuisine do not produce the proper taste impression when they are prepared in different temperature conditions.

The meat was eaten fresh – “fresh meat”, salted – “corned beef” or dried – “saggy”.

In addition to domestic animals, they consumed “beast” and “game”. In the northern regions, game played a large role in nutrition.

Pork was most often stewed with cabbage, and beef with potatoes. They prepared cutlets - from minced meat or chops, to which mashed potatoes, pickled pumpkin or wild apples were served as a side dish.

Snow was sometimes added to the minced meat “for juiciness.”

They made pates from the liver. For the holidays, wealthy households made beef stroganoff, beefsteaks, stuffed chicken or suckling pig.

The favorite Siberian meat dish was dumplings and the so-called spring beef; in Eastern Siberia, smoked deer tongues and lips were considered a delicacy. The meat for dumplings was minced.

They ate dumplings only in winter; they usually prepared several bags at a time and stored them in the cold in wooden boxes. The passion of Siberians for this dish was noted by many contemporaries. “This is a very good dish,” wrote one of them, “but the Siberians seem to abuse it.”

Dishes in this section are grouped by type of meat:
– beef dishes,
– pork dishes,
– dishes made from wild animal meat.

The recipes indicate sauces and side dishes that best match the taste of this dish. The temperature of second meat courses at the time of serving should be 60-65°C. Consumption rates for salt, spices, herbs and products for decorating dishes are not indicated in the recipes - this is at the discretion of the cook.

The section describes the characteristics and uses of beef and pork; methods of preserving and preparing game meat for cooking; methods of heat treatment of game and cooking game dishes over a fire.

About Siberian characteristics

Siberia is not Russia. The original Russian lands are located from the Dnieper to the Don. The rest of the "original" Russian lands were conquered by Russian tsars greedy for other people's possessions. During the conquest of Siberia, most of the indigenous peoples there were simply destroyed.

Siberia is a special country, characterized by a cold, sharply continental climate, severe frosts during long winters and relatively warm short summers. B O Most of the territory of Siberia is permafrost, which in the south reaches the borders of Mongolia.

For a long time, Siberia has been the best place to improve the health and enlighten the minds of the subjects of the Russian Empire.

Due to its natural and climatic conditions, Siberia has always been very famous as the most successful place for the wonderful tsarist penal servitude and the world-famous Stalinist labor camps, which became the highest and cruelest form of slavery in the entire history of mankind. The average lifespan of a Gulag prisoner employed in general labor did not exceed 4 months. Even the slave owners of Ancient Rome did not allow themselves such a brutal attitude towards slaves.

Life in Siberia is especially safe, because... Most of the Siberian population is under 24-hour armed guard.

Russian songs about Siberia are dominated by the theme of escape from the convict lands there.

Small concert of traditional Siberian songs

"Glorious sea, sacred Baikal"
Sung by Arthur Eisen

"Deaf unknown taiga"
("A tramp fled from Sakhalin")
Sings Alexander Vedernikov

"Across the wild steppes of Transbaikalia"
Choir named after Pyatnitsky

"The sun rises and sets"
Fyodor Chaliapin sings

A song about the valiant conqueror of Siberia Ermak Timofeevich, whom he vilely defeated
the bad Khan Kuchum, who defended his lands and people from a gang of wandering Russian bandits
"The storm roared"
Sung by Yuri Gulyaev (recorded in 1969)

There is no number of tragedies that have taken place in the wild lands of Siberia and the Far East.

In 1904, in order to extinguish the flames of the flaring up popular revolution, the Russian Tsar launched a small, victorious war with Japan.

According to the idea of ​​the weak-minded, alcoholic Tsar Nicholas II and his royal General Staff, the Russian troops and navy, which were numerically far superior to the Japanese, were to win a quick crushing victory over little Japan. And popular discontent with the autocracy in Russia was supposed to give way to victorious jubilation.

But it turned out differently, because the tsar sent Russian soldiers into battle under the command of stupid, thieving Russian generals and, as they wrote in the Russian press then, “with a cardboard sword in their hands.”

The new Japanese explosive "shimoza" (melinite, picric acid) tore Russian troops and the entire Russian fleet to pieces. In addition, all Japanese ships, including auxiliary ships, had radio communications. Radio communication did not work on any (!) Russian ship, and communication was carried out by flag semaphore.

Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War was catastrophic, and the name of the Japanese island of Tsushima, near which the main naval battle took place, became a household name.
Since then, Tsushima has been a symbol of a shameful defeat by a much less powerful enemy.

The Russian army, plundered by the generals, suffered unjustifiably huge losses in battles with the Japanese in Manchuria.

"On the hills of Manchuria"
Lyudmila Zykina sings

The fate of ordinary soldiers who survived the carnage of the Russo-Japanese War, and their families, as well as the families of fallen soldiers, also turned out to be unenviable. The alcoholic Russian Tsar Nicholas II, in an attempt to maintain his power, increasingly deployed tsarist terror and atrocities within Russia. About the drunkenness of Nicholas II and the event of Bloody Sunday, see page .

FROM THE HISTORY. 06/02/1904 The last snow melted in the Moscow province (region) (an absolute weather record).

In many European regions of Russia there was practically no harvest, and famine began, aggravated by the disastrous Russo-Japanese War, when many men were called up to fight.

That year there was a crop failure in many European countries. But a bountiful harvest was harvested in the USA and Canada. That winter, much of the money of European countries and the cultural treasures of museums were moved to America in exchange for bread. Therefore, on January 9, 1905, the people in St. Petersburg, led by priests, went with banners, icons and chants “to the Tsar for bread,” asking to make purchases of bread in the United States at the expense of the Tsar’s treasures.

A peaceful prayer procession of hungry widows and orphans of soldiers of the lost Russian-Japanese war, unfortunate children of workers and poverty-stricken old people, headed by priests, heading towards the palace, Tsar Nicholas II, under the conditions of an absolute monarchy, ordered his troops to meet with rapid rifle fire (“Bloody Sunday”, up to 2 thousand . dead and wounded). This event marked the beginning of the Russian Revolution of 1905, which continued in 1917 and led to the overthrow of tsarism.

For a crime so unprecedented in its unjustified cruelty, not a single country agreed to accept the royal family after the revolution of 1917, even their relatives in Great Britain, although negotiations between the royal representatives were conducted with many. All governments of European and American countries decided that Nicholas II must answer fully to the court of his people for this wild, bloody crime.

Immediately after the bloody execution by the tsar of the peaceful delegation coming to him, the Russian (later Soviet) writer, playwright, poet and translator Tatyana Shchepkina-Kupernik (great-granddaughter of the famous Russian actor Shchepkin; 1874-1952) wrote the poem “In the Motherland” (“From fallen strongholds Port Arthur"), which was set to music by A. Danilevsky.

This song quickly gained popularity among all levels of society and soon became a folk song. Reasonable people in Russia came to the conclusion that Tsar Nicholas II would not die by his own death. This is what happened later. The Bolsheviks were preparing a show people's trial of the bloodsucker Tsar, but in 1918 there was a danger that the arrested Nicholas II and his family would be freed by the successfully advancing units of the Tsarist Admiral Kolchak. Then the former Tsar Nicholas II and his relatives had to be urgently shot without trial.

After the collapse of the USSR, the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate canonized the villainous king to the rank of holy passion-bearer.

What kind of people are today, such is their church, such are the saints for worship.

"From the fallen strongholds of Port Arthur"
(About the victims of Bloody Sunday on January 9, 1905 according to the old style)
Music: A. Danilevsky, Lyrics: T. Shchepkina-Kupernik
Performed by the Russian Song Choir Radio and TV, soloist - Konstantin Stanislavchik

In Soviet times, the Russian people were internationalist unifiers who did not accept the incitement of hatred and war.
And he brought European culture, the development of education, sciences and arts to many peoples of the USSR.

At the beginning of the 21st century, everything changed, the Russians began to destroy the education, science, and production previously created by the enormous labor of the Soviet people, and enthusiastically glorify nationalism and incitement to war.

Therefore, in the regions of today’s increasingly impoverished Russia, separatist ideas and tendencies are growing stronger.

In present-day Siberia there are also forces advocating the creation of an independent Siberian Republic.

Perhaps in the coming years, China will return its ancestral Far Eastern and Siberian lands, treacherously seized by the Russian Tsar in the 19th century (see below for more on this).

"Give me your hand, distant comrade"
The famous Estonian singer Georg Ots sings

Siberian cuisine, like the cuisines of many peoples inhabiting the territory of Russia, has ancient origins and its own culinary traditions. Dishes of Siberian cuisine became widespread nationwide around the 19th century, when rapid railway construction began in Russia.

From ancient times to the present day, Siberians have been engaged in cattle breeding, hunting and fishing. Therefore, real Siberian cuisine is a combination of meat, game, fish and unique taiga seasonings.

The famous traditional dish of Siberians, widespread and beloved throughout Russia, is dumplings.

According to the classic recipe, the minced meat for dumplings includes three types of meat: beef, pork and lamb, taken in equal proportions. Siberians prepare a large number of dumplings at once (for future use) and store them frozen in large bags.

In winter, Siberians always take with them on the road frozen dumplings packed in canvas bags, which you just need to throw into boiling water, wait until they float - and a hearty, tasty meal is ready.

Fish takes pride of place in Siberian cuisine: steamed and boiled, calved and fried, stuffed, stewed and jellied, baked in scales, baked in a frying pan in sour cream, dried in the wind, sun, in the oven or Russian oven (sushchik).

One of the most famous delicacies of Siberian cuisine is lightly salted Baikal omul, the delicate taste of which is known far beyond the borders of Siberia.

Among vegetables, Siberians prefer pumpkin, onions, carrots, beets, cabbage and cucumbers. Cabbage, beets and carrots are most often consumed in stewed form, when they are used to make fillings for pies. Cucumbers are salted for the winter, and in the summer they are most often eaten with honey (salads are not typical of Siberian cuisine).

Particularly popular among Siberians are snack pies (with mushrooms, sorrel, fish, game) and sweet pies (with lingonberries, bird cherry, fruit).

On the menu of a modern Siberian restaurant you can see traditional dishes of Russian cuisine - soups, cutlets, pancakes, and original Siberian dishes - a variety of game, dumplings, mushroom soups, meat cooked in the taiga style, all kinds of omul dishes.

The home menu of Siberians, of course, differs from the restaurant menu. If you visit Siberians, there will definitely be famous Siberian snacks on the table: salted or dried fish, salted wild garlic and cucumbers, tomatoes canned in their own juice, salted milk mushrooms and saffron milk caps, pickled boletus, pickled lingonberries and cranberries, taiga berry jam .

Among the drinks, Siberians prefer lingonberry drink and fruit drink. They especially love tea with frozen cloudberries or lingonberries.

:
300-400 g well-frozen meat or liver
1 onion
ground black pepper, salt to taste

Cut very frozen meat into thin shavings.
Serve with raw onion, peeled and cut into rings.
When eating, take the stroganina with your hands, dip it in a mixture of salt and pepper and eat it with pleasure, snacking on onions.

Beat the fish well on all sides, then remove the skin and separate the frozen flesh from the bones.
Sprinkle the fish pieces with pepper and salt.
Serve raw.

:
1 fresh omul (1-1.5 kg)
2 onions
vegetable oil
ground black pepper and salt to taste

Clean and gut the fish.
Cut off the head, separate the fillet from the bones, sprinkle it with coarse salt and put it under pressure for 1-2 hours.
Then rinse, cut into small pieces, add peeled, washed and chopped onions, ground black pepper, and vegetable oil.
Serve with baked or fried potatoes.

Gut the small fish, rinse well and place in salted water overnight.
Then remove the fish from the brine, dry it and place it on a dry baking sheet.
Dry in a heated oven or oven on low heat for about 20 hours.
Store in a bag in a dry place.

:
1 kg fresh fish
1 small onion
0.5 carrots
piece of parsley root
1 tomato
1 bunch of greens
dill or parsley
3-4 peas of allspice
salt to taste
For the jelly:
1.5 cups clear fish broth
1.5 tsp. gelatin
(in the old days, strong sturgeon broth was used for jelly, which did not require the addition of gelatin)

Clean the fish, gut it, rinse well, remove the bones and, if desired, the skin, cut into pieces and simmer in a small amount of salted water.
Remove the fish from the broth and place on a plate.
Place tomato slices and greens on top.
Prepare jelly:
Strain the fish broth, add the swollen gelatin, previously soaked in a small amount of cold boiled water, and stirring, bring to a boil.
Pour the broth with gelatin cooled to room temperature over the prepared fish and place the dish in a cold place so that the jelly hardens well.

:
1 kg pork or veal legs
300 g veal shin
1 onion
3 carrots
2 stalks of celery
2 cloves garlic
80 ml vinegar
2 tbsp. l. chopped parsley
3 bay leaves
5 allspice peas
lemon
salt to taste

Wash the pork or veal legs, dry them and cut them into several pieces.
Cover the legs and veal with water, add vegetables, bay leaves, peppercorns, peeled and coarsely chopped garlic and cook for 2 hours over low heat.
Then add salt to taste, add washed and coarsely chopped celery stalks, vinegar and cook for another 2 hours.
Remove the legs, meat and carrots from the broth.
Strain the broth and set aside.
Grind the meat, cut the peeled and washed carrots into slices.
Place the carrot slices on the bottom of the mold, put the meat on top, add 1 tbsp. spoon of parsley and pour in broth.
Cool for 4 hours.
Carefully remove fat.
Serve with remaining parsley and lemon slices.

:
2 pork feet
2 stigmas
2 ears
2 carrots
3 cloves garlic
2 onions
2 eggs
18 allspice peas
1 parsley root
bay leaf, salt to taste

Peel the pork snouts, ears, legs, rinse well in cold water, place in a deep saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cook everything for 5-6 hours, periodically skimming off the foam that forms during cooking.
Remove the finished meat from the broth and separate from the bones.
Place the bones back into the broth, add peeled and chopped carrots, parsley root, garlic (whole cloves), bay leaf, allspice and salt.
Cook for about another hour. Then remove the fat, strain the broth and let it settle, then drain.
Finely chop the meat and boiled vegetables or pass through a meat grinder, cut 1 carrot into slices.
Put everything into the strained broth, bring it to a boil, then pour into molds.
Cool to room temperature and refrigerate overnight.

2008
Geographical giveaways in Russian
- Russia gives and wins!
(material was published on July 22, 2008 in)

The Chinese received our islands on the Amur.

This Monday, July 21, 2008, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went on an official visit to Beijing to sign a protocol on the transfer of Tarabarov Island and half of the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, located on the Amur River, near Khabarovsk, to the Chinese. The protocol was signed on the same day. Russia is officially parting with these territories.

(Damansky Island was ceded to China six months after the fighting, in September of the same 1969. For many years, no one in the country knew about this, and young border guards diligently continued to be educated by the example of the Damansky heroes.)

The political behind-the-scenes behavior of both the previous and the current Russian authorities, even in making those decisions that directly affect the interests of thousands and thousands of people, is quite explainable by concerns about the people, who should not once again be distracted from the successful implementation of their plans. Once again we are simply presented with a fact.

Three naive questions

1. What are we conveying?

The entire island of Tarabarov and the western part of the Big Ussuri Island (see map above) with a total area of ​​337 square meters goes to China. km. During the times of the Russian Empire and the USSR, this was the original Russian territory. But since 1991, these territories began to be considered controversial, because in 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev, who was already urgently collecting dividends for his pension, for completely transparent reasons, signed a new border treaty with China, and the border was drawn along the fairway of the Amur.

Very soon this territory became something like the “Far Eastern Tuzla”: smart Chinese near the island, for their part, sank ships and barges with sand - in order to drain the channel, remove the river fairway from it, transfer it to another channel and then annex the disputed islands to their own territory (after all, Gorbachev defined the border along the fairway!). When determining the border based not on geographic coordinates, but on the river fairway, only a baby could not have foreseen such a course of further Chinese actions.

Two Russian islands ended up on the Chinese side of the shipping route. Soon, local residents, who did not at all want to “donate” the islands, built a chapel of the martyr-warrior Victor on Bolshoy Ussuriysky in just a month with the inscription “And one warrior in the field.” The huge chapel, almost 30 meters high, stands on the highest place and is clearly visible on the Chinese side.

All this time, the border between present-day Russia and China remained undemarcated for almost 4 km.

For many years now, there have been Russian border outposts (an entire fortified area) on Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island. There are also 16 thousand summer cottages, rich hayfields, where Khabarovsk farmers drive their cattle across the bridge to graze.

In 2004, during Putin's visit to China, an agreement was signed between Moscow and Beijing on the transfer of these islands. Making a statement to the press after signing a block of documents, Hu Jintao said with satisfaction: “In my opinion, Vladimir Putin’s visit to China is quite successful.”

As soon as these territories go to the Chinese, Tarabarov Island will be called Yinlundao - Silver Dragon Island. The eastern part of the Big Ussuri Island, adjacent to Khabarovsk, will remain with Russia. And the western one will become part of the PRC, where this island is called Heixiazidao - Black Bear Island.

2. Is this our gift for the Beijing Olympics?

The Chinese authorities have long been looking forward to the transition of these territories.
“The fact that Russian lands are being transferred to China right now can definitely be regarded as our gift for the Olympics,” said Alexei MUKHIN, general director of the Center for Political Information, on July 17, 2008. Since the time of Khrushchev, Russian rulers have had a custom of giving things that they themselves did not acquire. Khrushchev generously gave away Russian lands left and right, along with the millions of people who lived there, as if they were his personal slaves. More restrained modern authorities will still not give Russian citizens land in addition to China. This is seen as another victory for Russian democracy. And the Chinese don’t need people’s gifts - they have enough of their own.

3. HARD TROUBLE IS BEGINNING... What does Russia lose and what does it gain?

The gift of these islands only entails serious inconvenience for local residents (and who and when over the last millennium took the convenience of Russian commoners into account?), but does not cause tangible territorial losses for Russia. Of the lands historically collected by the Russian people, something will still remain right up to the Urals, which can be gradually transferred to various friends in the future. And to reassure Russians, the media cheerfully report that the islands are supposedly artificial and built by the Chinese, although these lands existed long before people appeared on the planet and were never artificial.

True, there is also a deep Russian commercial calculation in the donation of land. The Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China are now actively developing energy cooperation, but the Chinese are quite uncompromising in terms of prices (according to their ancestral national tradition, Chinese friends really like to buy cheaper). The media explains to obtuse Russians that this gift may ultimately bring benefits in pricing policy. Undoubtedly, the free transfer of part of Russian territory to those who do not want to pay for Russian energy is a very wise secret move of Russian politics and diplomacy. So, probably, for a generous friendly gift, one of the Russians will be able to receive modest reciprocal thanks from China (these will not give too much).

As a result of another Russian diplomatic victory, the Japanese will now have grounds to demand with even greater insistence the return of the occupied territories. After all, the USSR treacherously attacked them at the end of World War II in violation of the Soviet-Japanese peace treaty, which the Japanese fully respected. As a result of the victory over Japan and with the consent of the allies of the USSR, he took the Japanese lands he liked.

FROM THE HISTORY OF DISPUTED LANDS

When we finally get drunk and steal our country, it will be decorated with posters like these

Modern, powerful and rapidly developing continental China is neither an ally nor a rival of today's rapidly dying Russia, which is increasingly falling into industrial, economic and political insignificance. Nowadays, there is full cooperation between China and the Russian Federation, using in China’s interests, among other things, the corruption of the current Russian authorities and their panicky fear of a possible military clash with China.

For now, Russia remains a country temporarily occupying vast ancestral Chinese lands - these are the Amur Region, the Jewish Autonomous Okrug, the Khabarovsk Territory and the Primorsky Territory. The border between Russia and China was determined by the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689.

In the middle of the 19th century, the Russian Empire took advantage of the temporary weakness of China, then torn apart by popular uprisings and external aggression of the Opium Wars, violated the terms of the Nerchinsk Treaty and seized the ancestral Chinese lands almost without firing a single shot.

After the seizure of land, the tsarist government of Russia in the fifties of the 19th century raised before China the question of a new delimitation of territories. In 1854, proposals were sent to Beijing to begin negotiations.

On May 28, 1858, the Aigun Treaty was concluded between Russia and China, according to which a new division of the borders of the Far Eastern regions took place. The agreement was signed on May 16 (28) in the city of Aigun (on the right bank of the Amur River) on the part of Russia by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia N. N. Muravyov, on the part of the Daiqing State - by the Heilongjiang Commander-in-Chief I. Shan. On June 2 (14) it was approved by decree of Bogdykhan, and on July 8 (20) it was ratified by Russia.

Russia received additional wealth and settlements from which taxes could be collected. The agreement marked Russia's desire to intensify its policy in the Far East and to expand Russian territory at the expense of Chinese lands. In 1858, Russia and China also signed the Treaty of Tianjin, which granted Russia the right to appoint consuls in ports open to Russian merchant ships and extended the rights of the most favored nation to it.

The terms of trade with China, extremely favorable for Russia and due to the weakness of China, were specified in the agreement between Russia and China, concluded in Beijing on November 2 (14), I860. As a result, tsarist Russia, taking advantage of the difficult situation of the Qin dynasty, forced China to give up the Primorsky Territory , equal in area to Europe with the richest minerals.

The red line marks the border between Russia and China according to the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689.
Map from a new textbook on the history of Russian-Chinese relations, written by sinologists from a number of the largest scientific centers in Russia, including MGIMO and St. Petersburg University.

In the 20th century, the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese living on these lands were deported by the Soviet government to Central Asia, and the Far East was intensively populated by Soviet Komsomol volunteers and prisoners. After 1991, there was a powerful outflow of the Russian population from the Far East. Now the Russian population there does not exceed 6 million people and continues to decline.

China has not yet accelerated efforts to return the Far Eastern lands, but over time it will return them and, perhaps, with interest, adding a significant part of Southern Siberia. Maps of these lands, colored in Chinese, can be freely purchased in Beijing, in addition, they are contained in the Chinese school textbook for the 8th grade of a comprehensive school.

This is a geographical map from a Chinese 8th grade school history textbook for a nine-year compulsory school.

So:
1. Map of the territories captured and occupied by Tsarist Russia in northeast China
2. Territories of China annexed by Tsarist Russia under the Qiqihar Protocol on the re-demarcation of the Russian-Chinese border along the Argun River in 1911.
3. City of Nerchinsk
4. City of Manzhouli (Manzhouli)
5. River Ergunakhe (Argun)
6. Russia
7. China
8. More than 600 thousand square meters annexed and occupied by Tsarist Russia in 1858 under the Sino-Russian Aigun Treaty. km of Chinese territory
9. Annexed and occupied by Tsarist Russia in 1860 under the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing, about 400 thousand square meters. km of Chinese territory
10. Outer Khingan Range
11. River Udikhe (Uda)
12. The area, the question of whose ownership was left pending a decision in accordance with the provisions of the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689.
13. North Sea
14. Kuedao Island (Sakhalin)
15. Heilongjiang River (Amur)
16. Hailanbao city (Blagoveshchensk)
17. City of Aikhoi (Aigun)
18. Region of 64 villages east of the Heilongjiang (Amur) River
19. More than 600 thousand square kilometers
20. About 400 thousand square kilometers
21. Usulitsyan River (Ussuri)
22. City of Pain (Khabarovsk)
23. Haishenwei city (Vladivostok)

For some reason, we still remember that Sakhalin also has a Japanese name, Karafuto, but they forgot about the Chinese one. But in vain...

And no matter how funny it may be, historically China (as the heir of Dai Qing Digo) has much more compelling reasons to claim our ENTIRE Far East than the Japanese with their patch of the Kuril Islands.

And in addition, after the transfer of Hong Kong to China by the British, the Russian-Chinese border remains the last and only legacy of the Opium Wars not corrected by the Chinese. Those. Russian possession of the Far Eastern lands is naturally perceived by the Chinese as a blatant historical injustice and constantly reminds them of the grave national humiliation of China in the past.

Here the policy of the Kremlin patriots with their small (small on the scale of the map of Eurasia!) concessions to the islands only convinces the Chinese of their historical correctness and leads Russia to a catastrophe comparable to the collapse of the USSR.

Currently, the Chinese are making a great contribution to the economic life of the Far East, and have also begun to implement a large program for the financing and industrial development of the Magadan region.

Chinese creeping expansion has been going on in the Far East and Siberia for a long time. Near Irkutsk, for example, it is much more difficult for local residents to obtain land for potatoes and tomatoes than for guests from the Middle Kingdom. The authorities explain this by the fact that the labor productivity of the Chinese in agriculture is 6 times higher than that of a local resident. This is understandable - the Chinese are teetotalers, and among the Russian residents there, 80% are alcoholics.

The region's wood processing industry is also focused mainly on China. And the Chinese government subsidizes the departure of its citizens for permanent residence in Russia, allocating funds to those who marry Russian citizens abroad.

The Chinese, without any hesitation, say that this is their land and are settling there for a long time, and the Russians, instead of investing money in the development of the Far Eastern region, are building a skyscraper in St. Petersburg.

Eastern Siberia and the Far East will be leased to China
Russia is becoming a raw materials appendage of the Celestial Empire

The mythological project, according to which half of Vladivostok will be leased to China, turned out to be an understatement.

On October 12, 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the head of the Chinese Communist Party, Hu Jintao, approved in New York a new cooperation program under which Russia will provide China with access to the resource base of the Far East and Eastern Siberia, in exchange for high-tech production on Chinese territory.

Economists have recognized: Russia is becoming a raw material appendage of China. Unequal cooperation is also determined by the sharp decline of the Russian economy against the background of the growth of the Chinese one.

Russian-Chinese cooperation in the next 10 years will be built on the principle “our raw materials are your technologies,” Vedomosti experts state. Russia is ready to jointly develop deposits of coal, iron ore, precious metals, apatite and molybdenum. In exchange, production of tin, lead, furniture, fireproof doors, various equipment, copper sheets and bricks will be created in northeast China.

Officially, Russia’s interest in opening production facilities on Chinese territory is due to the sparse population of Eastern Siberia and the Far East: where the territory is poorly developed and is still unsuitable for organizing high-tech production. According to the Higher School of Economics, 3.5-4 million people live in the region, including women, children and the elderly. With such a population, it is very difficult to find 500,000-600,000 people of working age who can feed the region.

The Chinese are ready to compensate for the lack of hands. This topic was discussed at a two-day forum of the ruling parties of Russia and China - United Russia and the Communist Party of China. The Chinese agree to Russia's proposal to build wood processing factories on its territory. But on the condition that Chinese workers will work in these factories. The PRC proposes to create special customs corridors for this and make it easier to obtain annual visas and their extension, so that in the evening these workers can safely return to their home in China. They propose to create a similar scheme in the agricultural sector: Russia is interested in growing grain crops in this region, and China is interested in its fertile lands.

“In ten years, China will become the largest consumer of our energy resources... It will not be able to exist without Russia’s resources and will now begin to consume these resources more and more. The double-headed eagle is playing again, it is looking both to the West and to the East,” LUKOIL Vice President Leonid Fedun proudly noted in an interview with SmartMoney magazine. True, Fedun was categorically against allowing China to access resources directly. “The Chinese get in easily, but get out very hard. If we want to maintain independence, we must maintain control over national resources. Otherwise it will turn out like Nostradamus predicted that China will take over Russia,” concludes the LUKOIL vice-president.

The director of the FBK strategic analysis department, Igor Nikolaev, is confident that China is already taking over the Russian Far East and Siberia, and Moscow is actively promoting this: “The trend in recent years is obvious - Russia is becoming a raw materials appendage of China: it is worth looking at the share of raw materials and mechanical engineering in Russian-Chinese trade turnover for this understand". Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov also expressed dissatisfaction with the structure of trade between Russia and China, advising the prime minister to increase exports of high-tech products to China.

For seven months of 2009, trade turnover between Russia and China, according to the Federal Customs Service, amounted to $19.5 billion, more than half of this period was accounted for by raw materials (56.4%), the contribution of machinery, equipment and vehicles was only 4. 4%.

Unequal cooperation is determined by the difference in the development of economies: by the 2nd quarter of 2009, China's GDP grew by 7.9%, Russia's GDP collapsed by 10.9%.

The 205-point cooperation program between Russia and the PRC, approved by the heads of state, confirmed all the darkest conjectures of the residents of Primorye. Since the beginning of the deterioration of relations between the region and the federal center, rumors have increasingly appeared in the Far East that the region could be leased to a rapidly developing neighbor.

In mid-September, one of the development scenarios for Vladivostok was published, which was allegedly approved by Mayor Igor Pushkarev. According to this scenario, it was proposed to divide Vladivostok into two parts. The area formed within the new borders will be transferred to sovereign lease to China for a period of 75 years. A Chinese administration would be created in it, subordinate directly to Harbin. Rumors about the project caused an uproar among local officials. However, as the latest Russian-Chinese summit talks showed, this story was even a bit of an understatement.

On the other hand, what can you do? Unlike Russia, the current mighty China, in addition to developed industry, modern technology and money, also has a powerful, well-armed army capable of successful offensive actions against any modern enemy.

Current Chinese soldiers
Admit it honestly - when these nice guys enter your village, you will be much more pleasant than our compatriots once felt when the Germans entered during the Great Patriotic War.

From "Song about Chinese Paratroopers":
Yellow faces are circling over the city,
Their parachutes are falling along the streets,
And there is nowhere to hide or hide from them -
Let the Russians never even dream of such a thing...

Map of Russia and its neighbors
according to some true patriots

Given the current state of industry and the Russian Army, our Orthodox patriots are firmly convinced:
The greatness and defensive capability of the current democratic holy Rus' are ensured by our Jewish-Biblical Lord himself, the true Orthodox, the eternal protector of Rus' the Most Holy Jewish Mother of God, the Holy Scripture written by the Jews and our holy Russian Orthodox Church, and all sorts of Russian industries and weapons have a very secondary significance in this.
For the mythical Hebrew-Biblical Divine power always infinitely surpasses any human power.
Nowadays the main thing for Russians is to remain faithful to the Jewish-Biblical Lord, to obey the wise God-given authorities in everything and to strengthen their holy faith with fasts, prayers, sacraments, religious processions and generous offerings for the needs of churches.
Then from every enemy and all misfortunes the great Jewish-Biblical Lord Himself will always Save and Preserve our holy Rus' and our Orthodox people, who believe in the true God.
And if some evil enemy attacks us, by the will of the Lord, the gilded domes of our countless churches will shine with a furious brilliance, dazzling for the enemies. And they will become blind and helpless, like worms crawling in the mud.
And then the righteous will descend from the holy icons, and cast these insignificant ones into the gaping depths of hell, and the earth will close over these godless ones.
So every enemy of our great Orthodox democratic holy Rus' will be punished and put to shame.
And the Russians, glorifying their original Jewish-Biblical Lord, will again celebrate their next great victory.

2014
The Russian-Chinese gas contract is a great victory for Putin

Why the terms of the Russian-Chinese agreement are extremely unfavorable for Russia:

Several gas fields in the Far East should be simultaneously developed, gas production should begin at the same time, processing facilities should appear right there in the middle of the taiga - the gas there has, as professionals say, a “multicomponent composition”, that is, you can simply take it and pump it into pipe is not allowed. It can be delivered to China only after it has been mined, processed and brought into a state suitable for pumping to the client.

Creating all this infrastructure costs a lot of money. President Putin himself estimated Russia's expenses at $60 billion, and they are needed not tomorrow, but yesterday.

Ordinary Russians will have to tighten their belts for these expenses. And this is when Russian taxpayers began spending heavily (and kickbacks) to restore Crimea and feed its 2.5 million population.

But the story doesn’t end there, it’s just beginning.

Through the beautifully named “Power of Siberia” gas pipeline, China can, in theory, receive 38 billion cubic meters of gas per year. If it were not China, but, say, Germany, everything would be simple and clear. Buy 38 billion cubic meters and get your gas, or don’t buy it if you don’t need it, but pay anyway. But China is not Germany. And therefore, officials and gas workers from the Middle Kingdom stubbornly and steadfastly refused to sign such a contract. The Chinese wanted gas and freedom of action.

In 2010, they were ready to buy only 30% of 38 billion on a take-or-pay basis. The rest depended on market conditions and air temperature in the cold season. China also did not want to pay the advance payment under the contract, without which Gazprom is simply unable to build this entire gigantic facility. Instead, CNPC offered Gazprom a $20 billion loan at a below-market rate. These were extortionate conditions. And Russia did not agree to them for a long time. Until she was pushed against the wall.

The agreement signed on May 21 stipulates that Gazprom will receive an advance—the same $20–25 billion. But you will have to forget about “take or pay.” Officials refuse to give the exact figure for the gas withdrawal volume guaranteed by the contract, but several officials claim that it does not exceed 60% of the throughput capacity of the Power of Siberia. Perhaps it is even less than 50%. The advance payment extracted from Beijing will not cover Russia’s expenses for the construction of the entire infrastructure, which means that Gazprom will need to go to VEB - it has no other sources of financing after Crimea. The government is already discussing the idea of ​​issuing infrastructure bonds for a gas pipeline to China; all Russians whose pension savings are in VEB will have to buy these bonds.

This is how geopolitical battles are won. Russia quarreled with the West, went to China, and it got its way.

With the current gas deal, China has shackled Russian resources that could have been spent on the multi-vector development of the Far Eastern infrastructure, defeated the “take or pay” principle, received its own gas and tied Russia to itself with a pipe that no one else in the world except China needs.

With one signature on the contract with CNPC, Gazprom returned China the status of a superpower, which it could have been about to lose if Russia had not taken a ram in the “Ukrainian issue.” And he deprived Russia of this status. From a raw materials appendage of the West - the main, beloved, spoiled one - Russia has turned into a spare raw materials appendage of China.
But this is not all polytapocalypticism.

The worst thing is the transformation of Siberia into a huge field, planted with Chinese cabbage by the hands of the hardworking Chinese. This is essentially the proposal made by Deputy Chairman of the People's Republic of China Li Yuanchao at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum:
“We intend to combine the development program of the Russian Far East and the development strategy of Northeast China into a single whole.”

Here is such a “turn to the east” - on May 22, Russia signs an agreement with China on gas supplies (small - a maximum of 5% of Russian exports, and apparently not very profitable for Russia), and a day later - on May 24 - China officially proposes to populate Russian Siberia with Chinese.

Taking into account the fact that the entire speech of the deputy chairman of the Chinese government was devoted to the prospects for the development of Russian-Chinese relations, the proposal to populate Russian Siberia with the Chinese is the PRICE that Russia must pay for the “turn to the east.” Moreover, this is said extremely clearly and clearly.

The worst comes from the chronography of events. On May 23, Li meets with Putin, and the next day he makes a public proposal to populate Siberia with the Chinese. In this case, we are already dealing with the agreed position of the leadership of Russia and China, which is simply voiced through the lips of Lee (well, it’s not Putin’s place to say this) but in a PUBLIC speech, an appeal essentially to the people of Russia. Brings to mind the saddest thoughts.

Explanation of the Russian-Chinese gas deal and many other previous events, incl. transfer of Russian lands to China in 2008, there can only be one thing: after the upcoming planned collapse of the Russian Federation into 8 parts, it will be like death for the current Russian leadership to remain in the resulting independent fragments, and in the West the International Tribunal will enthusiastically await it. There is only one thing left to do - now to please China in every possible way in the hope that they will provide saving shelter there. Payment for future shelter is in the fundamental interests of the peoples of Russia.

It turns out that since May 24, when China officially - through the mouth of the deputy chairman of its government during his visit to Russia - voiced a proposal to populate Russian Siberia with the Chinese, anyone who says a word in favor of a “turn to the east” is a traitor to the Motherland.

2014
Siberia as a hostage of the latest Russian-Chinese relations

China has received a license to digest for an extended period of time a strategic area that is currently outside its geographic boundaries, plus a stable supply of energy resources from the country it will digest.

The enslaving for Russia and corrupt (the more expensive the pipe, the better) nature of the next contract of the century, concluded in Beijing on May 21, 2014, was noticed by many analysts. It is important to understand that such a deal is not an isolated phenomenon, but a kind of culmination of the process of merging the territories of the Far East and Siberia into the “living space zone” of the PRC, which has been going on for many years.

As the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation warned in the document it prepared in 2009, “Strategy for the socio-economic development of the Far East, the Republic of Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal Territory and the Irkutsk Region for the period until 2025,” the main “threat” and “challenge” to the region is “the danger of becoming This territory is only a source of energy and raw materials for the Asia-Pacific countries."

But, ignoring the warnings of experts, the country’s top political leadership for many years, with enviable tenacity, has been implementing “threats” and “challenges” to Russian sovereignty, actually turning the territory of the Far East and Eastern Siberia into a source of energy and raw materials, but not “for the Asia-Pacific countries.” , and for one of the Asia-Pacific countries. The same one that, for some reason, with persistent regularity during large-scale military maneuvers along our borders, convincingly demonstrates the potential capabilities of using its military power on Russian territory.

In 2009, the Russian leadership capitulated in economic negotiations and agreed to the agreements that the Chinese side had been seeking from Moscow for many years. First, the head of the People's Republic of China, Hu Jintao, and the ruler of the throne, Dmitry Medvedev, solemnly signed in the Kremlin their first deal of the century (in Medvedev's words) - a twenty-year contract for Russia to supply China with 300 million tons of oil for a total price of $100 billion (less than $50 per barrel).

Considering that Russia will still have to build an oil pipeline for this with a stated cost of $29 billion, the real price for the Russian Federation will be significantly less and clearly unprofitable. However, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin hastened to publicly declare it “fair.” However, for Mr. Sechin personally and other august oil traders and pipe-layers, this price probably turned out to be very fair.

Thus, the first important step was taken towards transforming the Russian Federation into a raw material appendage of the Middle Empire.

But our then temporarily appointed “junior president” did not stop there and signed with the same Hu on September 23, 2009 in New York City another landmark agreement - the “Cooperation Program for 2009–2018 between the regions of the Far East and Eastern Siberia of Russia and northeast of China", which included more than 200 projects.

Under this program, Russia has given for joint development natural mineral deposits, from which China will establish the production of iron, copper, molybdenum, gold, antimony, titanium, vanadium, silver, germanium, tin, etc. China will build processing plants and on Russian territory, and they will employ Chinese workers.

In roughly the same way, China has concluded a number of agreements with African dictators over the past decade. True, in Africa, agreements provided for the creation of a much larger number of jobs for the natives.

The same program for Russia included the expansion of border checkpoints and “strengthening Russian-Chinese cooperation in the field of labor.”

Immediately after its signing, a state-owned company was created in China to invest in agricultural production, involving the lease/purchase of land in Russia.

Actually, China has received everything it needs today - a license to digest a strategic area for a long time, which is still outside its geographical borders, plus a stable supply of energy resources from the country that it will digest.

He will not come for a second license. As Chinese military theorists rightly emphasize, “effective control over a long period of time will ultimately lead to the transfer of geographical boundaries.”

The “Deal of the Century” on May 21, 2014 on gas triumphantly completed a brilliant strategic victory, won in the classical traditions of Chinese military art - without drawing a sword, without firing a single shot. From now on, the game will be played exclusively according to Chinese rules.

It is not surprising that Deputy Chairman of the People's Republic of China Li Yuanchao, speaking on May 23, 2014 at the round table "Russia - China: Strategic Economic Partnership", held as part of the XVIII St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, proposed turning the Russian Far East and the north of the PRC into a single economic zone. Firstly, there is natural economic cooperation between us, not like cooperation across some ocean. Secondly, our cooperation is complementary.

As our businessmen said, Russia has a vast territory, and China has the most hardworking people in the world. If we can combine these factors, we will achieve significant development. In Russia there is a large territory and few people, in China it’s the opposite,” the Deputy Chairman of the People’s Republic of China explained his plan.

The last time Mao Zedong made a similar proposal was in December 1949, when he arrived in Moscow to sign the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance with the USSR. For some reason, Stalin did not like the proposal so much that Mao Zedong spent more than two months in Moscow virtually under arrest. Apparently, after 65 years, the Chinese decided that the northern barbarians had finally matured.

The secret of success in Chinese is to understand the psychology of the Other, to subordinate his will, to take advantage of his complexes, his ideologies, his nobility or his baseness. In one case (the soft absorption of Taiwan) - rely on the patriotic romanticism of the Taiwanese Kuomintang members, their desire to become part of the Greater Motherland. In the other, on the absolute cynicism and irresponsibility of the Kremlin kleptocracy, this last generation of the Soviet communist nomenklatura, the final product of the process of its degeneration.

In order to maintain Russia’s presence in the Pacific region in the face of an obvious existential challenge, the population of our country needs to recognize itself as a people, and the selfless and selfless government needs to offer it national guidelines and objectives.

But is the Russian kleptocracy capable of this - all these, according to the apt Chinese definition, “corrupt officials and entrepreneurs who do nothing” - the second and third echelons of the former party and KGB nomenklatura?

For the sake of personal enrichment, these people have already “merged” one state to which they swore allegiance - the Soviet Union - and created an ugly mutant economy that allows them to continuously become even richer.

In the mid-2000s, they merged the obviously temporarily formed stub of the USSR - the Russian Federation.

For what? In order to collect and spend their treasures in a frenzy in the same West, which they have always hated and which they hate today even more for their historical defeat, for the vulnerability of their holdings, for their insignificance.

Having now merged Eastern Siberia and the Far East into the living space zone of China (Siberia, the “new northern territories”), they have distanced themselves from responsibility for the fate of the region in order to continue to serenely rise from their knees, tweet about modernization, and demonstrate “Kuzka’s mother” first to Georgia, then Ukraine and cut off billions of Chinese dollars.

As Tomsk analyst Alexander Lukyanov very accurately formulated, one of the reasons for the “epoch-making decisions” taken in the Kremlin is:
"The desire of the Russian leadership to receive additional guarantees of maintaining its power."
“Chinese leaders are well aware that in the event of a change of power in Russia, any government that replaces the current one - be it liberal, communist, nationalist, red, white, green or speckled gray-brown-crimson - will immediately raise the question of revision conditions of “cooperation”, so beneficial for China, but directly contrary to Russia’s national interests.
Thus, China becomes a subject directly interested in ensuring that power in Russia continues to remain in the hands of a group of individuals who so generously ceded to it the resources of Siberia and the Far East."

A group of individuals from the primitive Russian “tandem” publicly boasted in 2011 how they would sit side by side on a bench and decide among themselves how to rule Russia for another 24 years.

Yes, even the Chinese will not tolerate these “tandemists” for 24 years!
For such a period of time, the tandem simply does not have enough territory and people to drain. Such a one-sided “geopolitical orientation” does not suit thinking people in Russia of various political persuasions.

Russia's reckless orientation to the East will inevitably lead today's Russia to the loss of its geopolitical subjectivity. Its independent role will come to naught, and, most likely, it will turn into a raw material appendage of its active eastern neighbor.

China is a very strong player, constantly pursuing economic expansion. Steadily expanding the limits of his influence, he has actually established his hegemony over almost the entire Asian space.

Some Orthodox Russian nationalists, firmly believing in the truly Orthodox Jewish-Biblical divine destiny of Russia, piously assert: “We don’t need anyone - we can handle it ourselves.”

In light of the current Russian-Chinese programs and already concluded agreements, these utopian soul-saving Orthodox “theories” of supposedly strengthening Russia through its return to medieval religious obscurantism and a feudal system are simply not viable. Only the vector of European integration can save the unity of the current Russian Federation, but it is fundamentally impossible, because In the West, the current leadership of the Russian Federation is awaiting investigators and prison cells of the International Tribunal.

The statement of the famous statesman Dmitry Rogozin is indicative:
“We just need to turn on our brains and dull our memory, tormented by past grievances, in order to understand that only together the United States, the European Union and Russia are able to save northern civilization from political decay and civilizational death under the onslaught of “new southern cultures,” so to speak. "In today's cruel and fragile world, there really are influential forces that question our right to life. And for them, we - Russians, Americans, Europeans - are all the same."
(Here we are talking about the powerful onslaught on European culture and the current way of life of the peoples of Europe and white America, fundamentally different in culture, the original powerful Islamic and Asian worlds, now showing much greater vitality.)

Naturally, domestic sinologists also have their own views on the future of Russian-Chinese relations.

Quite characteristic of their way of thinking is the position of one of the leading Russian experts on China, Andrei Devyatov, who soberly assesses the current state of Russian-Chinese relations and the prospects for their development:

"The Chinese solved the problems of their greatness consistently. For them, the main thing was the return of Taiwan to the bosom of their homeland. And they solved this problem. The Americans were forced to abandon this front, the Chinese won the battle for Taiwan. De facto, Taiwan returned. De jure, it will take some more time, but it will happen before 2019."

“The Treaty of Nerchinsk (see above) draws the border along the Stanovoy Ridge. In the minds of the Chinese, everything south of it: BAM, Udokan, Chara and their natural resources from oil and gas to ores and timber are within the strategic boundaries of Chinese interests .China's strategy assumes that these resources should be considered a reliable resource of the Chinese factory of the 21st century.But in such a way as to avoid a situation in which Russia wants to supply today, but will not want to tomorrow... In the period of globalization, geographical boundaries become almost nothing, but such a concept arises, "as strategic boundaries. Strategy is the capture of the future. China has it. Its pinnacle of military art is the solution of strategic problems without the use of military force. Therefore, the Chinese strategy is to withdraw the enemy into the arms of friendship, without the use of force, in peacetime."

“Military-technical cooperation with Russia is being curtailed. They already got what they wanted: a space program, a manned spacecraft for $80 million at a cost of at least $80 billion. After that, they launched several more astronauts, the Chinese were already going to the Moon. All this “Soviet technology sold for pennies.”

“The Chinese have a patriotic, united, invisible mafia that works only among its own people, called the “triad”. It is a forceful cover for Chinese penetration. And it works in Russia too. This mafia is led by the competent authorities - this has always been the case.”

"...They marry Russians. Look at the Far East. This is already happening there. A Chinese man does not drink, does not smoke, works, loves his family, brings money into the house. And the children turn out to be Chinese - this was the case in Singapore, Malaysia. Assimilation into the Chinese community - the age-old Chinese way of solving problems."

How can today's Russia build its relationship with this large-scale phenomenon, with this mysterious Solaris, washing our borders and, judging by the above, capable of swallowing us up by chance, simply following the natural rhythms of the great Tao?

Sinologists, not only here in Russia, but throughout the world, are a special caste. Their thinking in an oriental way is paradoxical and inevitably Sinocentric, bearing the imprint of the enormous soft power of the object they study. Just as generals cannot be trusted with war, so Sinologists cannot be trusted with relations with China.

Andrey Devyatov’s recipe is as intricate as a Chan parable:
“Russia needs to move from state good-neighborliness relations to the level of a sworn union of kindred civilizations. The union of our kindred civilizations gives us a chance not to be an outskirts region into which China’s strategic interests are transferred, but to become equal.”

Understanding that the term “equals” does not sound very convincing in the context of the sworn alliance of our “kindred civilizations” with China, the author explains to the general reader his understanding of “kinship” and “equality” in the language of accessible metaphors that appeal to the deep meanings of ancient Chinese philosophy and mythology:

“Now Russia, in the eyes of China, has lost its status, has become a servant. But if Russia tries, it can become an older sister - this is a good status. In the Chinese world, mother is the earth, father is the sky, men and brothers decide everything, but the older sister represents wisdom "Even if she's drunk and down, she needs to be taken care of, her garden needs to be plowed, she can't be abandoned. She has intuition and wisdom - and Russia can show this wisdom."

Well, as for the presentation of wisdom, then, judging by the behavior of the Russian authorities, the position of wise humility in the face of the inevitability of Chinese expansion has already been accepted by them as strategic.

Putin’s kleptocracy is not just trying, but is doing everything possible to bring as close as possible the day Russia receives the good status tactfully recommended to it by a colonel of Soviet military intelligence, deputy director of the Institute of Russian-Chinese Strategic Cooperation.

Previously, members of the Ozero cooperative were especially inspired by the fact that, having received all the money from the Chinese under the enslaving agreements concluded, they would be able to retire to the West, which they always curse, with a feeling of deep moral satisfaction about the civic duty they had fulfilled.

But it turned out differently.

Now, when the co-operatives are convinced of the inevitability of the prison cells of the International Tribunal for them in the West, the Russian leadership has become firmly focused on living out its remaining days in a salutary manner on the territory of China, which is grateful for its betrayal.

Whether, like the Bad Boy, a box of cookies and a barrel of jam will be handed out, or whether the Chinese rulers loyal to communism will reward the traitors of their people who have lost power according to international communist principles - we will see in the not too distant future. Most likely, the traitors who have become useless to the Chinese authorities will be quietly strangled one by one, with the press citing sudden indigestion of their weak stomachs and all sorts of heart ailments.

As Devyatov, an expert on Far Eastern culture, promises us, the Chinese comrades will now take care of and plow the garden in this territory that cannot be abandoned.

And how will they use the unfinished Russian civilization, which swore an oath of allegiance to them, always absurdly squashed between Asia and Europe - as a stupid younger brother or as a “wise” older sister rising from her knees, but now quickly dying out and inevitably disappearing from the face of the earth - this is purely a matter of their Chinese taste preferences.

Although at all times the Chinese perceived all other peoples as unfinished and defective younger relatives in mind. Even when it was useful for the wise, all-conquering China to smile ingratiatingly for some time at these half-baked idiots doomed to defeat.

Siberian cuisine

The main products that made up the diet of the old-timers of Siberia were those produced on their farm. Milk, meat, vegetables, eggs, and cereal products made up most of it. Good help was getting game by hunting, collecting mushrooms and wild berries, as well as fishing. They prepared steamed, boiled, fried dishes. Four fasts were observed annually, lasting 130 days. All Wednesdays and Fridays were fast days, with the exception of holidays.

In the first third of the 20th century. peasants grew rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, millet, and peas. Wheat was less widespread. They baked a variety of bread products from rye and wheat flour. Every day, families made bread from sour dough, which was made round or into rolls. Kalachis were a common simple food. Pies with various fillings were also baked from sour dough, including poppy seeds and salty or sweet cottage cheese. One of the fillings was fresh berries in the summer, and prepared for future use in the winter. They made crumpets for the children. Traditional Russian porridges - pearl barley and millet - were prepared from whole or crushed crops. Pumpkin was added to porridges, since this vegetable was grown in large quantities. The sprouted rye was dried on the stove, ground, brewed with boiling water and cooked kulaga. Oil was pressed from flax and hemp seeds. The rich even had poppy seed oil.

In the diet of Siberians, meat occupied a large share. Usually it was boiled. The favorite dish of Siberians was dumplings; it was believed that the most delicious were “a mixture of three meats,” i.e. the mince had to be made from beef, pork and lamb. They also ate elk meat. For dinner, they often stewed lamb in the oven and roasted piglets - “asoskov”, i.e. dairy Jellied meat (jelly) was made from heads, legs, and knees. For the winter, the chaldons prepared sausages from beef, and then, taking into account the experience of immigrants who arrived from European Russia, they began to make them from pork. One of the types of meat preparations were hams, which were salted and dried. Fish was considered a semi-lenten food, so it was eaten during non-strict fasts. The fish was simply boiled and placed as a filling in pies.

Vegetable crops were grown: pumpkin, turnips, carrots, beets, cabbage, and cucumbers. Potato crops were small, and a limited number of dishes were prepared from them. As a rule, Siberians fried potatoes and baked draniki (cutlets made from grated raw potatoes). Cabbage, beets, and carrots were stewed with butter or placed in pies. Cucumbers were salted for the winter, and eaten fresh with honey in the summer.

Mushrooms and wild berries were harvested. The porcini mushroom was dried and made into soup. Butternuts, boletuses, and mushrooms were fried. Chanterelles, milk mushrooms, milk caps, and saffron milk caps were salted. They collected blueberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Since sugar was rare, jam was not made, and the berries were dried for future use. Lingonberries were soaked. Strawberries and bird cherry were ground. They, like currants and viburnum, were eaten fresh and brewed. We prepared sorrel for soup.

Milk and dairy products were considered fast food and could not be eaten during Lent. Siberians called all fast food "milk". They drank little milk, and usually skimmed milk, since cottage cheese was made from milk. We made sour cream and melted butter (“Russian”). We drank yogurt; it did not spoil during the day. The menu also included chicken eggs. Scrambled eggs (“yaishnya”) were baked in the oven. Eggs were added mixed with sour cream to potatoes and simply boiled. They were rarely fried. One of the delicacies was honey. Malt kvass was a favorite and widespread drink. For tea, they brewed herbs, leaves of whitecap, meadowsweet, and currants. They cooked flour jelly, milk jelly, and also berry jelly using starch. They often made jelly from viburnum.

For breakfast we cooked potatoes in their jackets in a Russian oven. Then they cleaned it and pushed it. They served it with sauerkraut and flavored it with hemp oil. They put cottage cheese and milk on the table. On fast days, cabbage soup from meat was cooked in cast iron for lunch. Shcherba (fish soup) was prepared during Lent. They served buckwheat or millet porridge. To cook porridge, they also pounded wheat. In summer and autumn they cooked honey mushroom. We made steamed vegetables from vegetables. For dinner we fried potatoes with sour cream. We made pancakes, pancakes, pies with viburnum. We ate porridge, radishes with kvass. In the summer they prepared okroshka with kvass from boiled potatoes, onions, garlic, cucumbers, and horseradish. Cottage cheese was served.

In Siberia, it was customary to celebrate Christmas, New Year, Epiphany, Maslenitsa, Trinity, Easter, patronal holidays, as well as christenings, name days, funerals and weddings. On holidays they drank tea with sugar, honey and jam. The children were given nuts, seeds, and candies. Shangi, wakhli, crumpets, pacifiers, and brushwood were usually baked for the festive meal. Kurnik was prepared from meat dishes. They distilled moonshine and brewed beer from sprouted rye. Traditional dishes appeared on the tables, which were made specifically for this or that holiday.

Christmas was celebrated solemnly. The obligatory dish was kutia or sochivo, for which they pounded wheat, steamed it with honey, adding raisins. Based on the word “sochivo”, Christmas Eve is called Sochevnik or Christmas Eve.

On Maslenitsa, the traditional ritual dish was pancakes, which were baked in huge quantities. Although there was fasting during the Maslenitsa period, on these days everything was cooked in oil. The ban was temporarily lifted. They fried rolls of bread in oil, baked various pies, and fried eggs. They also prepared a lot of fish dishes. Butter and sour cream were added to everything.

In the Orthodox calendar ritual, Easter was considered the biggest holiday. On this day they went to church and blessed Easter cakes, colored eggs, cottage cheese, and butter. After coming home from service, the children were poured milk and given a piece of Easter cake, and were treated to seeds and nuts. They baked a lot of all kinds of shanezheki and koralki. When breaking the fast after Lent, they ate large quantities of boiled or fried meat. They drank beer or moonshine.

On Trinity Sunday we went into the forest, lit a fire there, and cooked scrambled eggs.

In the conditions of Siberia, there is no point in talking about a special ethnic type of Siberian. Although in some places of this huge region the Russian population retained or developed some specific local characteristics, forming ethnographic groups, which must be considered differentiated in order to identify the specifics of each group separately. Russian old-timers of Transbaikalia, the so-called “Siberians” and “Cossacks,” while largely preserving all-Russian traditions in their folk life and culture, borrowed a lot from their new neighbors.

November 7th, 2013 , 08:23 pm

For a long time, the peoples of Siberia fed on the gifts of the taiga and the lake. The prepared dishes did not differ in variety, but were nutritious and practical. Hunters and fishermen know many exotic recipes for cooking over a fire, using hot stones and coals. The obtained meat and fish were smoked, dried and salted for future use. They made supplies for the winter from berries and mushrooms. The combination of fish, game and taiga seasonings distinguish the Siberian table from European cuisine.

These differences are most evident when eating on the shores of Lake Baikal, but some dishes can also be tried in a restaurant.
A special local highlight was the lightly salted Baikal omul, the fame of its delicate taste is known far beyond the borders of Siberia.

There are different ways of salting it, gutted and ungutted, depending on the cooking recipe and the time that has passed since the day of salting, the taste of the fish also changes greatly. Freshly salted omul is so tender that several tails of it are eaten at a time, even by those who usually avoid fish. Among gourmets it is valued as an ideal snack for chilled vodka.
Many tourists try to take Baikal omul as gifts for their family and friends. For transportation, it is recommended to buy cold-smoked omul and pack it in paper, not in plastic bags, so as not to “suffocate”.

Recipes from Baikal fishermen

Dry salting

The omul is steamed and thoroughly cleaned, washed with running cold Baikal water, sprinkled with salt, and the gills and head, back and sides are additionally salted from the inside with a pinch of salt. Small Sea fishermen prefer coarse salt for salting, because fine salt dissolves quickly, and the surface of the fish becomes more salted than the insides (uneven salting). It is preferable to use wooden containers, but if this is not available, enamel containers are suitable. The fish is placed tightly in a wooden or other container, head to tail, tail to head, with the belly cut up so that the brine that forms remains in the fish. Each row of fish laid and manually salted from the inside is additionally sprinkled with salt. The container filled with fish is pressed down with a weight on top and placed under pressure (weight) to give brine (brine). It is best to press down with stones that do not oxidize in brine. There are two types of salting: “peasant salting” is gutted fish and “culturka” is not gutted fish. Gourmets consider the taste of “cultured salted” fish to be more refined, since in their opinion, due to the preservation of the insides, the fish turns out to be saltier and more aromatic than gutted fish. Salted fish can be stored in glaciers all summer. After 1-1.5 days, lightly salted omul can be eaten. The delicate taste of lightly salted omul is especially appreciated on the 2nd day after salting.

For drying, open, lightly salted fish is stretched on wooden splinters, piercing them across the fish, and hung in a dry, ventilated place. Wooden splinters should not be resinous, so as not to spoil the taste of the fish.

Where you can buy: you can try lightly salted omul as a dish in any restaurant in Irkutsk, in a cafe on the Baikal Highway, or purchase it on the coast of Lake Baikal in tourist places - Listvyanka, Kultuk, MRS, in the village of Khuzhir (Olkhon Island)

Cold smoked omul

Lightly salted fish (1.5 days) is taken and washed well in running Baikal water to remove any remaining brine and coarse salt. The fish is dried on a dryer (hanged head down so that excess liquid flows out). Then it is hung in the shade in a ventilated area for 1-2 days. With proper drying, the surface of the fish becomes dry, but the internal moisture remains in the fish, so the fish turns out golden after smoking. If the surface of the fish is not dried correctly, the fish will turn brown when smoked. For smoking, a wooden box is made in the ground, sawdust is poured into it to smolder. The smoke must be cooled; for this, the pipe from the duct is laid 3-4 meters in the ground so that the smoke has time to cool. The smoke, passing from the box through the pipe, upon cooling, deposits combustion products on the walls of the pipe, and cold smoke without soot eventually enters the smokehouse with fish. The smokehouse must be airtight. The continuous process of smoldering sawdust (usually pine) lasts 2-3 days.

Hot smoked fish

For hot smoking, it is recommended to use wood in bark (fruit species: apple tree, bird cherry). Birch is not used due to the presence of tar, which gives the fish a bitter taste. It is advisable to eat cooked fish immediately from the heat before the hot juice has left (usually in the first 20 minutes of cooking). Storage time is limited, so hot smoked fish cannot be taken for long-term storage or long-term transportation. When trying to preserve hot smoked fish for a long time (practically it is boiled fish), the fish breaks and crumbles during transportation, so it is not recommended to take it, for example, for transportation to Moscow.

Where you can buy: at the central market of Irkutsk in the fish rows, in the village of Listvyanka (you can at the market, or you can drive deeper into the afterlife and get cheaper and fresher from the locals;), in the village. Kultuk on a serpentine road, in the village of Khuzhir on Olkhon Island.

Omul on the ramparts

This is a traditional recipe for preparing fish by Baikal fishermen. The fish is cooked in the heat from the coals of the fire.

It is strung on wooden rods with its head down, but the tail is not pierced so that the fish does not slide off the rod during cooking when it gets hot. The fish rods are stuck at an angle over the coals of the fire and periodically turned so that the fish is heated evenly. First, 3-4 oblique cuts are made in the scales of the fish from the ridge to the belly so that the fish is better salted and fried. The surface of the fish with cuts is rubbed with salt. The wood for the gouge is selected so that it holds the temperature well and does not char (larch). The wood must be dry and not resinous, otherwise the fish will smell the resin. Gouges for fish in its own juice (not flogged fish) should have a thinner working part of the gouge so that you can flog the fish from head to tail. For flogging fish, the pricks are made wider, 1.5-2 fingers, so that the fish does not fall apart. The rozhon is pushed along the ridge by touch, determining so as not to damage the gallbladder. Large fish that cannot be completely put on the rod are cut into half or into large pieces and placed on the rods in parts. Properly cooked fish can easily separate the scales from the flesh. Depending on the cooking recipe, the fish can be cooked ungutted in its own juice or cut into large pieces. The taste of fish can vary greatly depending on the cooking method and time. It is advisable to eat fish immediately, from the heat of the fire.

Where you can try it: it’s almost impossible to buy omul on rozhny in ready-made form, but you can easily appreciate the excellent taste and see the preparation of this dish by local fishermen during trips to Olkhon Island. It’s easy to cook it yourself over a fire.

Fresh fish is thoroughly cleaned of scales, gutted, washed in running water to remove blood, cut along the ridge into two halves, all bones are separated and cut into 3-4 cm slices. The prepared fish pieces are immersed in a strong salt solution (1 glass of salt per 1 liter cold boiled water) for 20 minutes. After this, the fish is placed in a colander to drain the salt solution and finely chopped onions, ground black pepper, and vegetable oil are added to it. Everything is mixed, compacted tightly into glass jars, and the finished product in the jars is put in the refrigerator. Can be eaten immediately after preparation. The taste of the fish varies depending on the amount of spices and oil; it can be filled with vegetable or olive oil with the addition of various spices to taste, which may include mayonnaise and mustard. Omul and whitefish prepared according to this recipe are especially tasty.
In addition, fish with flat, unfolded plastics can be marinated in olive oil (soaked for 30 minutes). It is also possible not to separate the bones

Where you can try it: you can try this dish of omul or whitefish in any restaurant in Irkutsk, as well as in a cafe on the Baikal Highway.

Georgians

Fish rolls on Olkhon: a layer of dough is prepared as for dumplings, minced fish is fried separately with salt and onions. The minced meat is wrapped in a roll, as when preparing pancakes, and then cut into small pieces - “Georgians”.

The sliced ​​rolls are fried and served with melted hot butter. It is also common to prepare cutlets and dumplings from minced fish, and fry large pieces of fish in dough.

Stuffed fish in foil

Thoroughly cleaned fresh fish is stuffed with herbs and various spices, which may include lemon juice, tomato paste, a weak vinegar solution, red pepper, green or wild onions, wild garlic, mayonnaise, and cheese. Stuffed fish is placed in foil with the cut belly facing up so that the resulting juice does not leak out during cooking. Wrap in two or three layers of foil and place on the grate over the corners of the fire until fully cooked.

Where you can try it: you can try this dish in any restaurant in Irkutsk, as well as in a cafe on the Baikal Highway.

Splitting

Fish frozen to a solid state is beaten on all sides with a hard object.

After this, the skin of the fish is easily removed, and the frozen flesh is easily torn and separated from the bones. Pieces of frozen fish are consumed raw, dipped in a mixture of salt and black pepper.

Where you can try it: You can try this whitefish dish in any restaurant in Irkutsk, as well as in a cafe on the Baikal Highway.

Authentic Baikal fish soup with smoke, fish on a rostrum, hot smoked fish or prepared according to a special recipe: hot stones turned into open fish, can be truly appreciated and tasted only by the fire while traveling around Lake Baikal. An exotic Baikal-style dinner includes a weak firelight, several old newspapers on which a simple table is set, a blackened pot of boiled potatoes, a bunch of wild garlic and lots and lots of lightly salted omul. All this goes well with Baikal Vodka, winner of the 1995 World Spirits Championship.

Siberian dishes

Siberian dumplings and Siberian-style meat are widely known. In the old days, hunters, going to the taiga in winter, took with them frozen dumplings in canvas bags, which they just had to throw into boiling water and after they surfaced, a dish with large and fragrant dumplings was ready. In most restaurants you can order dumplings prepared according to a more complex recipe: in bone broth with liver, in pots covered with freshly baked flatbread. Fried dumplings are also very tasty.
A special feature of cooking meat “Siberian style” and “taiga style” are taiga seasonings made from ferns and wild garlic, which are rolled into the meat. The meat is served with oven-baked potatoes and frozen berries, usually lingonberries or cranberries.

Hunters, according to one of the recipes, cut wild meat into thin long pieces, sprinkle it with salt, mix it in a pot and string it on wooden splinters or branches. Splinters with meat are stuck around the coals of the fire and the meat is dried in the smoke. Meat prepared in this way can be stored for a long time in the summer. While moving, it is good to gnaw on slices of meat to maintain strength and restore the lack of salts in the body.
The menu of Irkutsk restaurants includes traditional dishes of Russian cuisine - soups, borscht, cutlets, pancakes and purely Siberian dishes - game, dumplings, mushroom soups, taiga meat, omul dishes.
Fried omul and grayling dishes are available in most restaurants.
The home cooking of Siberians is very different from restaurant menus. As a rule, a lot of pickles are prepared at home for the winter. If you visit Siberians, there will definitely be homemade pickles on the table; tomatoes in their own juice, cucumbers, cabbage, salted milk mushrooms and saffron milk caps, pickled boletus, homemade zucchini caviar, taiga berry jam. Sauerkraut is sometimes prepared together with lingonberries or cranberries. Less commonly you can find a salad made from fern and wild garlic.
And, of course, a table is unthinkable without traditional pies. Pies can be of the most intricate shapes and with various fillings: lingonberries, fish, wild garlic, rice, mushrooms and eggs.
Traditionally, lingonberry drink or fruit drink is placed on the table. Add frozen sea buckthorn or lingonberries to tea.
The local population values ​​salted omul most of all. In the summer, they prefer omul on rods.

Buryat cuisine

Traditional Buryat food is, as a rule, easy to prepare and nutritious; meat and dairy dishes predominate. Buryat poses, especially widespread on Lake Baikal, are popular in Siberia.

To prepare them, minced minced meat is made from pork, lamb, and beef. The minced meat is rolled into the dough so that there is a hole at the top for steam. The poses are quickly prepared by steaming boiling fat in a covered pan. The poses retain hot melted fat inside them, so be careful when trying them for the first time. Rarely, you can still find in villages tarasun - an alcoholic tonic drink made from milk, which has a specific smell, and salamat - a dairy product prepared from high-quality sour cream over a fire, with the addition of salt, flour and cold water when boiling.
And such exotic things as stroganina (raw frozen roe deer meat) or raskolotka (raw frozen Baikal fish), which are eaten raw with spices, can only be tasted in winter during hunting or fishing. You should avoid trying bear meat, even heat-treated, unless it has been veterinarily examined.