Let them eat cake.
So said Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, upon being told that the peasants were rioting in the streets because they had no bread. It has been cited for over two centuries as an indictment of the arrogance of the aristocracy but in reality, the young queen may simply not have understood why, lacking bread, a person would not turn to cake. Such was the separation between the tables of the privileged and those of the poor.
Nowhere was that separation so evident, though, than it was in Russia of the last century. While the wealthy dined on caviar, pheasants, creamed chicken and ice cream, the peasants developed their own cuisine that is unequalled for its versatility and variety in the face of the resources at hand. When Russian cuisine first moved beyond its own borders, it was the dishes of the royal table that defined the food of the nation. But it is the so-called peasant cuisine that is the true heart of the nation.
There is no other nation or region in the world that makes so much of soup. Russian regional cuisine features at least seven broad categories of soups, based on ingredients and regions. From thin vegetable broths flavored...