Guardian
in
article "Russians say 'nyet' to meat and vodka"
describes situation of vegetarianism in Russia and how it was in USSR. I lived in Soviet Union, and can tell you it was quite difficult to be vegetarian. There were no vegetarian restaurants and because all production was in hands of state there wasn't any hope that there will be vegetarian industries.
Here are few quotes:
"The Bolsheviks considered vegetarianism too close to the fastings of the Church and an imperialist trait. 'Vegetarians didn't say they were vegetarians,' said Nikolai Kalanov, director of The Vegetarian magazine and president of the Eurasian Vegetarian Society. 'In Soviet times, being vegetarian was like being a homosexual.' "
"They were suppressed for 70 years and the name of their philosophy was forbidden. Yet all they wanted was the right to be vegetarians. Now, more than a century after the first Russian vegetarian society was founded, the meat-free life is flourishing again."
At the forefront of the trend is Dzhangannat, a restaurant and 'Centre of Healthy Eating', which, not content with a ban on meat, has also forbidden alcohol and smoking. In a country where half the people smoke and cheap drink is available 24 hours a day, a restaurant aimed at the health-conscious seemed to be commercial suicide. But now there are plans to expand.
'Opponents said the restaurant business [in Moscow] is not possible without meat or vodka,' said manager Igor Byutner. 'There's a lot of curiosity among the average Russian.'
The country has a long history of being anti-meat. Before the Revolution there were vegetarian societies all over the country. They were partly influenced by the West, where such societies were in vogue at the time, but the real father of Russian vegetarianism was Leo Tolstoy, who converted in 1885. 'The more compassionate we are to all animals, the better it is for our soul,' wrote the author of War and Peace .
