Situation with veganism in Russia.

in vegetarian •  2 years ago 

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In my last article ''Hardships of being vegan in Russia'' I talked about difficulties of being vegan in Russia. And I was mostly telling about physical obstacles like lack of availability of different vegan and plant-based products. In this post I’m going to give a background about our society regarding ethical and plant-based living.

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We all have to live in a non-vegan world. But for some countries it’s more common to be somewhat plant-based, while in others traditional diets are centered around animal products. If we speak about Russia, I’d say we have abound 10% of traditional vegan dishes, while a lot of meals are concentrated on dairy, and meat is a regular side dish. So avoiding dairy is particularly difficult, it finds its way into a lot of products, dairy section takes a huge space in any supermarket. We have such types of dairy products, that don’t even have name in English.

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History of vegetarianism in Russia goes back to the 18th century with Leo Tolstoy being the leader of the movement. The vegetarian movement managed to get a lot of followers, open cafeterias all over the country and even edit its newspaper. But it was all destroyed after the October Revolution 1917. Vegetarian society was closed, a lot of people were repressed. Stalin didn’t favor such things in his regime. So the movement was frozen for more than 70 years. Only in the late 1990s, a few years after the Soviet Union’s dissolution, the movement got a little bit back on its feet, and now it’s developing slowly. So that a few vegan products have been available for around 5 years.

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So in short, as I feel, our country is maybe 15-20 years behind the vegan movement in Western Countries. We have just one major Animal Rights Organization (called Vita). Most animal-protection movements focus on cats and dogs. And even for these 2 privileged species there isn't a normal law. Still a big problem with mass dog culls, dog hunters, lack of shelters and spaying/neutering. I would say, our situation with animals is better than in China, but not too much.

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Most vegetarians in Russia are lacto-vegetarians centering their diets around dairy, especially cheese. And they are mostly inspired by Hare Krishna movements and Indianish/Vedic traditions. It’s sometimes annoying to browse through vegetarian recipe sites, ignoring hundreds of recipes with milk and cheese. Funny thing: they strictly avoid eggs, and you can often find recipes of “vegetarian eggs” – made from milk and cheese)) Haha, for me it’s so ridiculous, dairy industry isn’t much less cruel than egg industry, same torture, same baby-killing…

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And these recipes take like a few hours to make! Funny people… And they also have detailed guidelines about how to choose “vegetarian cheese” – without an enzyme taken from a calf’s stomach (after killing, of course). Also funny – baby cow is killed anyway for the production of cheese they eat, doesn’t matter whether rennet is added to one particular cheese or not…

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So our Russian vegetarianism comes as a form of religion – where milk is a “holy product”, and cow’s a holy precious animal, that was sent by angels to our earth…but nobody gives a damn about how this divine creature and her babies are treated, they’re just happy to consume the secretions and develop spiritually that way (yes, they’re really saying that you can’t develop spiritually without drinking cow’s juices!).

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Although all of this is a little annoying, I’m still grateful that these people exist, because thanks to them we have a lot of vegetarian restaurants with vegan options, they developed vegan mayonnaise and wheat sausages. Without them the situation would be much worse.

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And by the way, my way to veganism started by recognizing that if we’re drinking cow’s milk, then cow’s like a mother to us. So it’s unethical to make beef out of a creature that “gives” us her product, it’s disrespect. That’s how I first ditched beef, then all red meat, then chicken, fish. Now I think that taking cow’s milk is unethical as well, all those years of enslavement and killing their babies are in no way “respect” to a cow.

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As for the veganism itself, that’s a tiny minority. Saint Petersburg is considered the best place for vegans in Russia, so far (even though it’s in the north, and it’s a cold city). Other cities are drastically behind. Just 2-3 years ago we got our first Russian company producing vegan cheeses (quite expensive, because it’s in the early stage of demand). Plant milks have been mostly imported from Europe and heavily priced (around 5 times more expensive than cow’s milk). Only a year ago I started seeing soya milk from local producers. In special veg shops, of course, not in regular supermarkets (I think this special time has another 10 years to come). Wanna vegan cakes, muffins, sweets and that kind of stuff? You’d be very lucky to find any being sold. But you can order them from private vegan bakers, who exist in most cities (that’s how I had a vegan cake on my wedding!).

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Oh, I almost forgot about the Raw Food movement! It’s a little popular, more widely-spread than veganism, I know quite a few guys who follow such diet. We have several prominent Russian authors and health practitioners promoting that kind of stuff. Of course it’s purely for health reasons, for “cleansing” and being very special and get superpower)) Some of them don’t mind wearing leather or even fur. But thanks to these dudes we can get some raw sweets and smoothies.

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Oh, and speaking about vegan situation in Russia, it’s worth mentioning about Orthodox Christianity (which was adopted in Rus in 988 from Byzantium). Many people here follow this type of Christianity, you can see many beautiful churches with golden domes in every city or town. And big part of the Christian tradition is something called Great Lent – type of religious fasting, which excludes animal products (leaving fish on some days). It takes place in different dates every year, but approximately middle May- middle April, around one month. Although a small percentage of people who call themselves Orthodox Christian actually observe the Lent, it’s still a golden time for vegans. Every café serves “Lent dishes”, frozen Lent meat alternatives suddenly appear in supermarkets, woooow. Lent mayonnaise! Near my house! And then after April it all disappears for another year :(( And the memory of this is to be treasured throughout all the difficult times! =)) Funny thing: when religious grannies ask whether I observe the Lent, I tell that I’m on eternal Lent :D ;))

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That’s probably all I wanted to tell about veganism in Russia. There are difficulties, but there is also hope. :)

Next time I’ll tell about tricks, that help me stay veganish in Russia and be satisfied with my food.


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Hello, from a fellow vegan in Canada! I am always excited to meet another vegan, anywhere in the world. I have been vegan, (Plant Based), for about 14 years now. When I first started there were almos zero plant based options anywhere. Over the last 14 years, I have seen the movement grow and we have options for everything from fast food to makeup. We are getting there. Let's never give up.

I’m a new Convert to Vegetarianism here in Canada 🇨🇦 …. thanks to people like you.

Awesome, I hope it will work the best for you!

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Posted from https://blurtlatam.com

"We all have to live in a non-vegan world" Erm no, why do vegans have to tell everyone they only eat plants? Virtue signalling is it? I am straight, do I need to tell everyone I am straight? What I eat? Nobody cares what you eat, just grow your own.

As for me, I really don't want to virtue signal, that's not my goal, and I don't like it at all. I just really really want cruelty and throat-slitting to stop, I wanna live in a world with kind, compassionate and rational people. I sincerely believe that killing animals when we don't have to is unkind and irrational. If you think it's virtue-signaling, ok, that's your right. I don't have a power to stop you from doing that.

" I don't have a power to stop you from doing that." I have guns, but never shoot anything, I have explosives but never blow anything up.
I do not slit animals throats, I do think that is another religion, by the way, I do not do religions.
I simply put do not get why people have to say what they eat all the time, like I do not get the gay 0.3% of the population always saying they are gay, I care not what their bedroom habits are, I care not what you lot eat.

I look after 8 stray cats, 1 stray dog, feed deer and thousands of birds in the winter, and before you even dare saying good for me, save it.

If you don't care why to comment this content then.

Because I do not care what you eat, the same as I do not care if gay men are gay, I just do not want them to tell me all the time.

Mute them, and you will not see what they tell you.

Got your email, agreed.

This is so interesting. Years ago when we were vegetarian we didn't eat a lot of dairy at all, but vegan products weren't like they are today. So you just didn't eat those foods. Vegan mayo lol.. unheard of. We ate things like nutroast and TVP. We didn't even try to fake cheese, we just wouldn't eat cheese. A lot of curries, stirfries, beans, nuts, brown rice. No one tried to mimic meat or cheese. Now there's so many vegan meats and I don't think they are even that good for you. Milk for us was soy and that was the only option. Either that or we had black tea. So I remember times when in fact we were like Russia, namely, 70s, 80s, most of 90s. Oh we had tofu though, you would only get it from the health food shop and not in the supermarket like today.


Posted from https://blurt.live

Yeah! But I don't think eating that way (like you used to back then) is a bad thing, it is very healthy, and a lot of variety. Just these animal-products imitations are convenient, and I hope they will make it easy for people to drop animal products.

really interesting stuff thanx. It's been pretty much the same here (Ireland) in that the cities are way better for vegan options and products. I've found that if you ask for vegan products at your local shops they will often try to get them for you so it is worth trying. If they don't know there is a demand they will not get the products in.
I even found a new product the other day and the label made me laugh, it was an ex butcher family turned to vegan 'meat-like' products. They call themselves 'Sons of Butchers' a funny play on words (sons of bitches) hahaha. The label is hilarious.
https://secretdublin.com/vegan-butchers-galway-plant-based/


Posted from https://blurt.live

oh, butchers turning vegan, that's such an inspiring thing! This really gives hope that any person has a kind seed in him / her, even those who used to slaughter animals themselves.

It's happening a lot now. There was a famous dairyman in the uk who gave it up and converted to veg farming. He released his herd to a sanctuary. I know personally a lot of farmers hate their lives and would give it up in a shot if they could. They can get grants to help make the transition but it's not well known. Change is one of the hardest things for humans it seems, some would rather suffer than take a step outside their box.


Posted from https://blurt.live

yeah... but that's still inspiring!

Yes I think it's a case of the next generation just not wanting to carry it on. The UK dairy farmer was old tho and had suffered for years, his conscience just couldn't take it any more. There's a film about him you might like. He called it soul destroying. The film won a BAFTA.
https://lockwoodfilm.com/73-cows


Posted from https://blurt.live

Why do "vegans" have to keep telling people what they are and what they eat? Question, not accusation, but it does seem very divisive when they all bang the "I only eat plants drum".......

Well try going to a party or restaurant and explaining to the host or waiter what you can't eat without using the word vegan which is much easier and explains it in one word. leaving allergies aside if a jew a muslim and a vegetarian or meat-eater came to my house they could happily eat anything from my fridge/cupboards. It's the only 'diet' that is all inclusive. So what would be the point of a meat-eater proclaiming he was a meat-eater unless it was to be 'divisive'.
I was even once told that a burger given to me was vegetarian only to be told years later they had lied (for a laugh). Vegans are specific about what they will put in their mouths so it's best to be forewarned. I find that if people don't like knowing that someone is a vegan it's because they have a guilt complex.


Posted from https://blurt.live

My point stands, why do you all have to tell people "online" what you eat? I care not what you put in your own mouth.

Then you are free to ignore us talking amongst ourselves. Vegans like to swap ideas and recipes, it's what we do.


Posted from https://blurt.live

Do they not do vegan cook books?

of course they do but it's always better to learn from real people, tips and stuff you don't get in books. I have a few recipe books but have rarely used them, I picked up most of my fave recipes from friends and from my own experiments which also will not be in any books so I pass them on too.


Posted from https://blurt.live

I can't even imagine what Mince Cheat tastes like!!


Posted from https://blurt.live

These taste really good. Tried them for the 1st time on the weekend…

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They look good huh! Yum. I've always made my own vegan rissoles but it's so easy just to buy them these days!


Posted from https://blurt.live

I was surprised when I was cooking them on the BBQ and I could see what would normally be blood oozing from the burgers… judging from the ingredients this is either beet juice or pomegranate … 2 foods I love. Much better than blood.

Haha that's so wierd!!


Posted from https://blurt.live

Nice one Offgrid, it didn't hurt you did it to eat a plant-based burger? Good for you.


Posted from https://blurt.live

  ·  2 years ago (edited)

I need a good substitute for chicken now …. Maybe crispy Tofu ? I love the taste of fried Tofu.

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If you want the real naughty stuff Linda McCartneys new 'chicken' nuggets are the best I've ever tried.


Posted from https://blurt.live

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No… it was delicious. I’m a new convert to Vegetarianism… at least these Beyond Burgers.

I love fried tofu! Or any tofu...


Posted from https://blurt.live

Me too. Especially in my soup.