The vegetarian movement in Russia – 100th anniversary
On December 01, 2001 the 100th anniversary of the vegetarian movement in Russia was celebrated. On the 1st of December 100 years ago in Saint-Petersburg the first vegetarian society has been set up. On the occasion of the anniversary the Russian vegetarians have organized a press conference and a public action on the Pushkin place, in the center of Moscow
. The vegetarianism appeared in Russia in 14th century. The famous Russian saints – Sergiy Radonezhskiy, Seraphim Sarovskiy, Epiphaniy the Wise – in their sermons persuaded the orthodoxies that the true belief in God was incompatible with eating of meat and called them to follow Lenten mode of life. The majority of Russians observed the fasts (over 200 days per year) and kept to Lenten fare. The representatives of many religious communities – old believers, Adventists etc. were passionate adherents of the vegetarianism. In the end of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th century Lev Tolstoy, the famous Russian writer and philosopher made a great contribution in the development of the vegetarian concept and its introduction in the common life. He trusted that the vegetarianism was very useful from the moral, ethical, medical and economical point of view.
In April 1913 in Moscow there took place the 1st All-Russia Vegetarian Congress. By that time the vegetarian societies of Russia carried out many activities – they had opened cafes and restaurants in 24 cities of Russia, founded vegetarian hospitals, published vegetarian newspapers and magazines etc. The vegetarianism was widely spread in the country. Among vegetarians were the writers Bunin and Leskov, the composer Skryabin, the painter Levitan, the scientist Rerikh, the academician Nesmeyanov and other famous people. The famous Russian wrestler Ivan Poddubny also followed the vegetarian diet.
The revolution of 1917 has stopped the development of the vegetarianism in Russia. The Soviet State authorities considered the vegetarianism as a pseudoscientific theory that reflected the bourgeois ideology and therefore harmed to Soviet people. In 1929 the last vegetarian society in Moscow was closed. The communist leaders scorned the principle idea of the vegetarianism – non-violence, spirit of independence, love to all the living and freedom of thinking. The leaders of the vegetarian societies were persecuted, many of them – arrested and sentenced.
The Big Soviet Encyclopedia (1961) commented: «The vegetarianism is based on false hypothesis and ideas and has no followers in the Soviet Union!» The word «vegetarian» was taken away from the dictionaries of the Russian language.
In 1989 at the time of perestroika in the USSR on initiative of Y.S. Nikolaev, Doctor of medicine, T.N. Pavlova (Center of esthetical attitude towards animals) and I.L. Medkova (Medical Vegetarian Center) at the Ecological Fund of the Soviet Union there was established a vegetarian society (since 1992 – the Interregional Public Organization » Society»). The Vegetarian Society is headed by T.N. Pavlova.
In 2001 there was founded EURASIAN VEGETARIAN SOCIETY – an independent international non-profit and non-religious association for propaganda of the healthy life style . The activity of the SOCIETY’s members is aimed at supporting and developing the principles of the vegetarianism. President of the SOCIETY is N. A. Kalanov. One of the main objectives is the creation and consolidation of vegetarian societies on the territory of Russia and CIS. In order to fulfill this task the representatives of the SOCIETY work of Russia, in the Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia. The SOCIETY supported the establishment of vegetarian organizations in Vladivostok and Krasnoyarsk. The members participated in the anti-corrida action in Moscow. They promote vegetarianism in the central publications, on radio and TV. The SOCIETY launched a TV-show «I don’t eat meat» that watched 60 millions of spectators in Russia and CIS. The vegetarianism has been also promoted at the exhibitions-festivals in Moscow – «Pressa-2001», «New Era», «Soya food», «SNACKEXPO» and «Food technology». The SOCIETY supports the «Vegetarian» magazine and three web sites and has organized the first vegetarian library. EURASIAN VEGETARIAN SOCIETY is a member of the International and the European Vegetarian Unions.
Tolstoy and the natural world
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
The fame and popularity of Leo Tolstoy as a novelist, at any rate as the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, has quite overshadowed his writings on religious and ethical subjects. Yet it was these latter writings which he himself regarded as his most important work and for which he hoped to be remembered.
In a time of great economic change in Russia, Tolstoy belonged to the landed aristocracy whose wealth and power came from the possession of estates worked by their serfs, not emancipated till 1861, who belonged to the land. His own estate of Yasnaya Polyana was relatively modest but it was very dear to him throughout his life and an anchorage of stability amid the turbulence of his career. The Tolstoys lost their mother when Leo was two, their father when he was nine. He and his three bothers were educated by tutors under the guardianship of an aunt, till in 1846 Leo began to study at Kazan University. Here he lived the life traditional for young men of his class and later he described, perhaps exaggerated, the gambling, drinking and fornication into which he was willingly drawn. But he completed neither the course in Oriental Languages with which he started nor that in Law to which he later transferred. Throughout life, in spite of the moral struggles which tormented him, he felt an urge towards perfection, whether physical or moral and continually drew up rules to regulate the way he spent his time. After his period of unsystematic study, having become restless and unsettled, he travelled with his bother Nicholas, an army officer, to the Caucasus, eventually joined the army and when the Crimean War hegan in 1854 proved himself a courageous if wayward officer during the siege of Sevastopol.
After the war there was a spell of foreign travel during which Tolstoy visited France, Switzerland, England and Germany learning in each country as much as he could about its educational system and methods of teaching. In 1859 he had started a school for peasant boys at Yasnaya Polyana where he could try out the practical and very libertarian teaching that he favoured; on his return he re-established this and it lasted until his marriage. In Paris he witnessed with a lasting sense of outrage a public execution by the guillotine, which confirmed his hatred of State power. ‘I shall never enter the service of any government anywhere.’
In 1862 Leo Tolstoy married Sonya Behrs, a girl of only 18. In the early very happy years of married life, the literary ability which had shown itself in his early sketches and stories, such as Childhood, Boyhood, Sevastopol Sketches and the Cossacks, flowered in the outstanding novels, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, which established him as one of the greatest European novelists. But there was in Tolstoy’s life a current of religious questioning which flowed steadily though largely unnoticed amid the worldly success and domestic happiness of these years. As a boy he had shown a precocious interest in philosophy; in 1855 at Sevastopol he expressed in his diary the singular ambition of establishing a system of religion founded upon reason. A conversation about divinity and faith has suggested to me a great. a stupendous idea, to the realization of which I feel capable of devoting my life. That idea is the founding of a new religion corresponding to the present state of mankind, the religion of Christ but purged of dogma and mysticism – a practical religion not promising future bliss but giving bliss on earth.
Then during the writing of Anna Karenina, the religious quest became more insistent. Levin became the embodiment of some of his own problems, but the full predicament that Tolstoy suffered is the theme of A Confession. He relates how he gradually became aware of a paralysis of life, ‘moments of perplexity and arrest of life, as though I did not know how to live or what to do, and I felt lost and became dejected.’ He could not simply accept that life had no meaning and bear this fate with stoicism. There was an obstinate prompting that there was an answer but that he would never find it. Though in an enviable position as a writer of renown, happily married with a big family, he was tempted to destroy himself and had to hide the rope and put away the gun which might have been the means of suicide. Yet he continued to search for an answer that would give a meaning and purpose to his life. ‘Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?’
He could not kill himself and turned in vain for enlightenment in science and in the attitudes of people around him. At last in despair he abandoned reason and sought refuge in faith. Only faith made life possible for man. ‘Faith is the strength of life.’ So Tolstoy embarked upon a study of the traditional religions by which men have lived, Buddhism, Mohammedanism and above all Christianity. But the lives of Orthodox believers of his own class did not match their faith so he began ‘to draw near to the believers among the poor, simple, unlettered folk: pilgrims, monks, sectarians and peasants.’ The lives of workers in the past and in the present who understood the meaning of life began to attract him. He returned to the religion of his childhood. ‘I returned to the belief in that Will which produced me and desires something of me.’ But a return to the Orthodox Church could not satisfy him for long, though he humbled himself to accept its teaching and seeming absurdities. The Church fostered disunity; it supported war and violence. There must be a mixture of truth and falsehood in its teachings and with supreme self-confidence he set himself the immense task of separating the true teaching of Jesus from the Church’s distortions of it. The results appeared in The Criticism of Dogmatic Theology, A New Translation and Harmony of the Four Gospels and finally in What I Believe. In the Gospels it was the Sermon on the Mount that fascinated him and finally he reduced the essential teaching of Jesus to five commandments which he expounded in the main chapter in What I Believe. They need to be studied in full but in a letter of 1882 he summarized them as ‘Do not be angry. Do not fornicate. Do not swear. Do not judge Do not make war. This is what the essence of Christ’s teaching is for me.’
The five commandments were entirely concerned with man’s relationship with his fellow men. He tried later to find a link between Christianity and his growing concern about the treatment of animals. ‘Christ never preached mercy to animals. But Christ preached love and the state of love is general and from his general teaching of love, we can’t help deducing love of animals, whose turn hadn’t come in this time.’ Tolstoy’s wide reading which included the scriptures of the Eastern religions and which later led to the compilation of The Circle of Reading may well have helped to widen his concern. He was later to write: ‘The meaning of our lives consists in fulfulling the will of that infinite principle of which we feel ourselves to be a part and this will lies in the unity of all living things, above all of people in their brotherhood, in the service of each other.’
Tolstoy’s change from a full meat diet to vegetarianism seems to have been gradual but a decisive stage was reached after the visit of F. G. Frey to Yasnaya Polyana in 1885. Frey was the assumed name of a Russian of great intellectual ability who had emigrated to the USA in 1868 to join an agricultural community. This failed and he returned to Russia by way of England. Aylmer Maude relates that it was from Frey that Tolstoy first heard a comprehensive exposition of the case for a vegetarian diet and that he greeted it with delight. Frey used arguments from human anatomy to show that meat was not a suitable diet for humans and that fruit and nuts provided the ideal diet. Tolstoy decided that from then on he would give up animal food.
Vegetarianism became an important aspect of Tolstoy’s teaching, but his only writing about it is The First Step (1892), included in Essays and recollections. This was an introduction to a Russian edition of The Ethics of Diet by Howard Williams. Tolstoy approaches his condemnation of the slaughter of animals by a somewhat oblique and ponderous route. He argues that to move towards a virtuous life man must follow a certain sequence of moral achievements and that this order is essential. The first of the virtues is self-control and liberation from desires. To achieve this control we must start by mastering our most basic lusts, which are gluttony, idleness and sexual lovc. Our efforts must begin with gluttony and this requires fasting. If then we fast, what foods must we abstain from first. We must begin, Tolstoy argues, with meat because this food excites the passions, blunts our human feelings and involves pain and death for animals. The descriptions of the slaughter house at Tula with which the essay ends, are to provoke revulsion both from the violent killing of the animals and from the disgusting work which the men must do. A very meagre diet is enough to satisfy our needs – bread, porridge, or rice, Tolstoy suggests. When in 1894 a correspondent asked him about his own diet, this seemed to be mainly oatmeal porridge, bread and vegetable soup and he asserts that his health has improved, since giving up milk, butter and eggs as well a sugar, tea and coffee.
In a letter of 1893 Tolstoy noted the spread of a feeling that men should not cause suffering to animals and mentioned England as a country where this humanitarian attitude was increasingly powerful. He thought about ways of reducing human dependence on animals and welcomed the use of machinery to take the place of animals in farming. One can regulate one’s desires by moderation, restraint and hard work and the first step in reducing this dependence is not to eat animals and not to travel by them but to go on foot. ‘And everyone of us ought to start this now.’
Hunting had been a favourite pastime of Tolstoy since his youth. It combined his sensitive appreciation of natural beauty, his empathy with the animals hunted and those trained for the chase, and his outstanding energy and daring. While serving in the Caucasus he wrote enthusiastically in his letters of hunting expeditions to kill foxes and grey hares or of pursuing wild boar and deer without success. Among the changes that he brought into his life in 1885, Tolstoy abruptly gave up hunting. His young brother-in-law, Stepan Behrs writing in 1887 after a long absence, says: ‘From compassion he has given up hunting and he told me that he has not only lost all wish to hunt but feels astonished that he could formerly have liked it.’
In the same period of change Tolstoy gave up alcoholic drinks after learning about the American Temperance Movement and he tried to have its principles accepted by the peasants round Yasnaya Polyana. After a long struggle he also conquered his addiction to tobacco. In his article: Why Do Men Stupify Themselves? Tolstoy wrote of both alcohol and tobacco as drugs to which men chose to resort to still an uneasy conscience by keeping themselves in a mild state of intoxication. ‘The confusion and above all the imbecility of our lives, arises chiefly from the constant state of intoxication in which most people live.’ He was alive also to the misuse of productive land for the provision of these luxury products to satisfy cravings that were quite unnecessary.
In the last twenty years or so of his life, Tolstoy continued to write fine novels, such as Resurrection, stories and plays. He continued to make the protests against the cruelty and repression of the Tsarist government which only he could make, and to denounce war and preach non-violence, as in The Kingdom of God is Within You one of his most powerful books which greatly influenced Gandhi.
Ever since, in 1881, the family had started the custom of spending some time each year in Moscow and Tolstoy had seen at close quarters through his work in the Census of 1882 the degradation of the great city, he had been prone to periods of great dissatisfaction with the style of life into which he was drawn. He was conscience stricken at the difference between the opulent yet idle life style of his own family, with comfort, plentiful food and the attention of servants and the simplicity and unselfishness of the existence that he wanted for himself and them all. Sonya, satisfied with traditional religion and understandably committed to the welfare of their large family and already overburdened with responsibilities that Tolstoy had allowed her to assume, could not sympathize with these ideals. In spite. of their deep love for one another they could not adjust their differences; a tragic tension and disharmony became inevitable. The division was accentuated by the struggle for the possession of Tolstoy’s later manuscripts, even of his diaries, between Sonya and Chertkov, the implacable favourite disciple, more rigid in his application of Tolstoy’s principles than the master himself. Tolstoy never achieved a final peace, though he finally left home to find it. He was deprived of it by this ahsurd confusion and the legal manoeuvres secretly plotted by Chertkov to ensure that he became Tolstoy’s literary heir.
R. F. Summers
The Vegetarian, January/February 1987, published by The Vegetarian Society UK:
Russian (phonetic)
Ya ve-ge-ta-ri-aa-nyets/ve-ge-ta-ri-aanka – I am vegetarian (male/female)
Ya bi kho-tyel/kho-tye-la chto nibud’ byez myasa, ribi ili pti-tsi. – I would like something without meat, fish or poultry.
Yah nye yem meeyasa. – I don’t eat meat
Ya ni lyublyoo myaso – I don’t like meat
Yah nye yem rihbu. – I don’t eat fish
Ya nye yem ni myasa, ni ribi, ni pti-tsi. – I don’t eat meat, fish, poultry,
Yetot sup na myas-nom bul’onye? – Is there meat broth in this soup? Ya mogu yest’ sir i yaitsa i pit’ moloko. – I can eat cheese and eggs and drink milk.
Ya nye yem sir i yaitsa i nye p’yu mo-lo-ko. – I can not eat cheese and eggs and drink milk.
Yah nye pyooh mahlahko eeee yah nye yem sihr. – I don’t drink milk and I don’t eat cheese
Kofye bez mo-lo-ka, po-zha-lui-sta. – Coffee without milk, please.
Yah lyublyu gihvahtnihh poehtahmuh yah nye yem eeh – I love animals, so I don’t eat them
.
History of vegetarianism in Russia
Vegetarianism as a full abstention from meat and fish was little known in Russia in past, it was practiced by several religious sects, by strict monks, such as, for example, revered Russian saint Seraphim Sorofsky. At the same time plant-based nutrition with milk and eggs was consumed by the most vast social group √ Russian peasants; religious prohibitions (to keep the fasts √ four at a year, and fasting days √ two at a week) as well as poverty left the peasants no choice.
Interest for vegetarianism contributes to the influence of western vegetarian movement; certain significance had the teaching of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
In the beginning of the XX century about ten societies were established in Russia: in Saint-Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Saratov, Poltava, Odessa, Minsk and in other cities. Moscow vegetarian society was founded in 1909. L.N. Tolstoy became its honorary member. Moscow vegetarian society was rather active one: the dinning-hall was set up, lectures were delivered, articles dedicated to vegetarian problems were published, Society Almanac was issued.
Due to vegetarian societies dinning-halls were established in 24 Russian cities √ 6 in Moscow, 7 √ in Kiev, 5 √ in Saint-Petersburg. Hospitals with vegetarian nutrition were founded as well.
After October revolution vegetarian movement suffered setback. According to public point of view vegetarianism was declared to be the non-scientific theory, the bourgeois outlook.
http://www.vegetus.info/english/russia/
First Vegetarian society in Russian Federation
The first organization in post-soviet Russia that had no other purpose (religious or political) except one √ to spread vegetarian movement in the country √ was Vegetarian society (its full name: Inter-regional public organization ╚Vegetarian society╩). On December 11, 1989 the volunteers, who thought that the vegetarian society establishment will show people the way to healthy and moral life, will help to solve the problems of nutrition based on new principles, assembled in Scriabin museum hall. At first Vegetarian society was established attached to Ecological fund of USSR, then after 3 years √ in 1992 √ the Society was registered as an independent organization and was named ╚inter-regional╩: the society had its branches in several cities.
Society centers work
From the very beginning as Vegetarian society Charter shows the work of the Society went on in two directions: the sanitation of the person and solution of the problem of relationship between people and other living beings, i.e. the abstention from their cruel exploitation and killing. Two centers were set up based on these purposes: Scientific-practical medical center and Center of ethical attitude towards the animals. As it was known from foreign publications vegetarian diet had sanitation effect and lowered death-rate from chronic diseases (cardio-vascular, oncology); yet by the moment Vegetarian society appeared suchlike investigations hadnt been held in Russia. Scientific-practical medical center of Society made it its purpose to accomplish such investigations in clinical conditions and to attain scientific conclusions. This work was successfully held (for detailed investigations of the center see ╚Vegetarianism: medicine, health, nutrition╩).
Center of ethical attitude towards the animals in its turn developed ethical aspects of vegetarianism, the problem of the use of animals by people and the relationship between the person and world on the hole. Both Vegetarian centers made efforts to spread the ideas of vegetarianism; Society members published more than dozens books on vegetarianism, its medical and ethical aspects; among them textbooks for elementary, secondary and higher schools. Aside from this popular-scientific literature Medical center published scientific articles in the most respected medical magazines (see ╚Books on vegetarianism╩). Vegetarian society held lectures, seminars, vegetarians meetings, spoke over the radio, TV (╚Theme╩, ╚Drugstore╩, ╚Health╩, ╚My profession is dietist╩ and others). Society issued leaflets, stickers to hang in the underground.
Vegetarian society also holds actions in support of vegetarianism on the streets of Moscow. First such an action took place in spring 1994: lots of people with placards, slogans, some of then in animal masks located on Pushkinsky square opposite ╚McDonalds╩. The slogans were: ╚Eat fruits and vegetables, not calves╩, ╚Vegetarianism √ is kindness and health╩, ╚You kill animals every day╩. The action took place during the longest fast, so one of the placards ran: ╚The great fast √ its time to stop killing animals╩.
Vegetarian society is a member of International and European vegetarian unions, it exchange information with them, receives magazines and videotapes, takes part in the meetings with vegetarian organizations directors.
Among numerous programs dedicated to sanitation effect of vegetarian diet we want to point out ╚Theme╩, in which the director of Scientific-practical medical center of the Society Irina Lvovna Medkova debated with non-vegetarians. The other interesting programs were ╚Drugstore╩ and ╚Health╩ that showed the experiment of using vegetarian diet for the treatment of cardio-vascular diseases. The doctors of Medical center of Vegetarian society, workers of the hospital, where the vegetarian diet was tested and patients took part in it. The programs engraved on a unique experiment, the first in Russia investigation dedicated to the role of vegetarian nutrition in sanitation of the people and chronic diseases treatment.
Other telecasts of Vegetarian society were connected with Center of ethical attitude towards the animals work; in one of them that also took place in ╚Theme╩ the problem of cruelty to animals, in particular the utilization of animals in experiments was discussed. A wide response evoked a range of telecasts (11 issues) named ╚Life without cruelty╩, where the treatment to animals in various situations was debated: the execution of homeless animals and peoples kind treatment to two stray dogs; savage tests on animals and ways of animal substitution in the experiments, the salvation of a dog that has been already used in the experiment, the fate of cattle and many other problems.
Center of ethical attitude towards the animals seeks to introduce children and grown-ups to the principles of bioethics √ to introduce the main idea about peoples responsibility for other creatures. In the textbooks for primary grades an attempt is made to help a child to understand other being √ to understand an animal, to try to be kind with him, to comprehend that four-footed creatures can also feel and understand, have its desires and aspirations, can be glad, can grieve and love. In ╚Bioethics╩ for secondary school the teenagers are taught to compassion the weakest one, the psychology and conduct of animals are explained. This teaching is based on information from zoology and ethology (science about animal conduct). And at last ╚Bioethics in higher school╩ informs readers of the social aspect of the relationship between people and animals, it reveals the connection between persons soul and his altruism. Considerable attention is paid to the problem of abstention from meat food, the possibility to choose another lifestyle. The vegetarian principles are as well discussed in the textbook for elementary school ╚Healthy food╩, where the problem of nutrition is explained in the available language and from medical and ethical point if view. These textbooks are used in several schools and universities of Moscow and some other cities (Nizhni Novgorod, Ufa, Vologda, etc.). The most successful lesson on vegetarian nutrition in one Moscow school was recorded and enlarged the archives of Vegetarian society.
http://www.vegetus.info/english/society/
Russians Go Veggie!
This article was also the text a talk at the World Vegetarian Congress, in Edinburgh 2002,entitled: ‘Vegetarianism in Russia, Past Present and Future’ By Nikolai Kalanov
President of the Eurasian Vegetarian Society
You got to be pulling my leg! Veg-etarianism in Russia, in the country of Borsch, pirozkhi and pelmeni which have been Russian traditional meat dishes since the Slavs settled in this northerly part of the world? Green meals in a coun-try where on the most territory winter reigns for as long as six months in a year? Impossible!
But yes, it is indeed possible no mat-ter how incredible this might sound. Moreover as the last decade’s observations reveal, lately many Russians are inclined to give up meat and turn to healthy diets. To make sure this is not just a joke and to prove that vegetarian-ism does exist in this country, the Eur-asian Vegetarian Society decided to conduct a special survey and turned for help to a group of young journalists, students of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University)
The results of the sociological study surprised us, but before we confide them to the world, we’d like to recollect the peculiarities of the Russian vegetarian movement in order to give you a complete picture of what has been going on here in the north.
What’s significant for vegetarianism in Russia is that for over 60 years this movement was prohibited and vegetar-ianism was ruthlessly persecuted in this country. Before the revolutionary came to power in 1917, the Russian Empire, one of the most developed countries, kept up with the newest trends including vegetarianism. That’s why in the beginning of the 20th century, vegetari-anism preached by the celebrated writer Leo Tolstoi and a number of other prominent personalities was spreading vigorously and joyfully. All over the country opened many restaurants and canteens that offered exclusively meatless menus. When the Bolsheviks overthrew the Tsar and established their rule, one of the first things they did was that they got rid of all the religious institutions that were considered by them useless and even harmful for the new society. Mistakenly, vegetarianism fell a victim to their vio-lent attacks. Thus this way of living was banned for many years, and its persis-tent followers ran the risk of being imprisoned for their «greenish» convictions.
Vegetarianism was forbidden, but not forgotten. It went underground and officially it didn’t exist in the Soviet Union. Only with the «perestroika» turning all the sacred Soviet values upside-down did vegetarianism come to light in the late 80s.
Today much public work is lead by the Eurasian Vegetarian Society, a young but very active non-governmental and non-commercial organization. The EVS not only publishes its own specialized magazine «Vegetarianets» but also runs the Vegetarian Club and regularly ar-ranges meetings with well-known Russians who speak on their roads to vegetarianism. Inviting scientists and doc-tors to give lectures on different topics connected with the healthy lifestyle makes an important part of the work of the Eurasian Vegetarian Society. Its main goal is to popularize this healthy way of living and to attract as many people as possible to this view on life. Owing to the EVS, the vegetarians in Russia now have an opportunity to get in touch with each other, to communicate, and to share their vegetarian experience. For ex-ample, quite recently, in December 2001, they celebrated together the 100th anniversary of the vegetarian movement in this country. (Exactly one hundred years ago), on the 1st of December, the Ministry of Internal Affairs had registered the Russian Vegetarian Society. As mentioned above, it had been closed down Soon by the Soviet government.)
The growing popularity of this lifestyle is evident and it is no doubt connected with the expansion of the new fashion – with the fashion of exotics. Many Russians come to adore the origi-nal ancient cultures. They revere every-thing that is brought from the Orient, Africa and Latin America. Exotic clothes, home decorations and unusual foods are very popular. The capital of Russia has been overflowed with eastern-style res-taurants – phenomenon not only caused by the curiosity but also causing people to conceive a liking for such extraordi-nary atmosphere and quite special food-stuff. Even exotic sports and methods of physical training are eagerly taken up by many in Russia. The desire to achieve self-perfection leads them to yoga and other spiritual teachings. Eventually they discover vegetarianism and realize that this is the only possible way of a healthy life.
It is important to mention that do-mestic scientists in the field of health have also developed their own ideas of ideal nutrition and lifestyle basing on meatless diets. Galina Shatalova, for example, who cooperates eagerly with the Eurasian Vegetarian Society, has cured many by prescribing a vegetarian diet and special physical exercises.
While some Russians have to deny meat for health reasons, some others fast. The rise of the veneration for the Orthodox Christianity is especially obvious. As is well known, it obliges Orthodox believers to keep 200 days of fast per year, which involves not only giving up meat, but also fish and other albumin-ous foods.
Whatever the reasons for self-restrictions are, vegetarians in Russia need encouragement. They are often criticized by their family, friends, doctors, many of whom are by an old habit very dis-trustful of this style of living. Russian Vegetarians want to receive informational and moral support. They are in need of a special infrastructure which could allow them to live the way they choose. And that is exactly what the ac-tivity of the Eurasian Vegetarian Society is devoted to. The results of the sur-vey, which we are about to present are especially important for the EVS because they show what vegetarians in this coun-try are like and what their concerns are about.
The poll itself was conducted during October-December 2001. We will tell you a hit about the plan of the surv-ey. Preliminary observations and reflec-tions let us hypothesize that some Rus-sians are indeed ready to turn to meat-less diets. Once again, the aim of the study was to reveal the different reasons why people become vegetarians in Russia. We were especially interested in the situation in Moscow because, as it was mentioned above, it is in the capital where this «green» fashion is the most vivid.
Proceeding from the theoretical and methodological base, we have divided the population of the capital city into several strata, according to the follow-ing indicators: gender, age, professional activity and financial state. This helped us to determine these orders:
- School children
- Young people aged 18-25
- Grown-Ups of intellectual labour
- Grown-ups of manual labour
- Working people earning over 1000 dollars per month (these we named «the rich»)
- Working people with a monthly earning less than 100 dollars (we called them «the poor»)
- Pensioners
Ii the course of the survey, a num-ber of methods was used: affiliated open observation, documents analysis, interviews. For the mass of figures we used a written form of sociological study. Our questionnaire consisted of both multiple-choice questions and of questions that required original answers from the respondents. As a whole, 295 people took part in the poll.
Let’s now take a look at the concrete figures that we have received. The first thing we intended to find out was whether Muscovites at all know who vegetarians are. According to our statis-tics. 32 % of the respondents think that vegetarians are believers in some kind of religion, 15% consider them simply queer, 5% are sure that this is how the members of the Green Party are called. Nevertheless, 37% of our respondents have at least one vegetarian acquain-tance and 66% are cool about vegetari-anism, saying that this is up to every-body personally to decide whether to accept this way of living or not. Inter-estingly, 9% of those surveyed feel pity for vegetarians. 15% respect such people for their willpower, and 13 % be-lieve that this lifestyle does harm health.
On average, half the respondents to the question «would you like to become vegetarian.» answered a firm «no’. This index is the highest among children of school age (69%), manual workers (64%) and pensioners (62%). Tue percent-age of those who could out of curiosity give up meat is the highest among manual workers again (32%), followed by students (31%) and poor people (28%).
The intelligentsia (32%) and the wealthy (25%) turned out to be the most staunch vegetarians. The least was among people of manual labour (only 2%). Pensioners and the poor seem to pay special attention to health and be-lieve that vegetarianism is not suitable for them because of its supposedly harmful effects.
Now, let’s turn to those Muscovites who, according to our survey, someday in the future might join vegetarians. We’ll consider women and men separately. As a whole, more curiosity has been expressed by men. Almost a half (49%) of the wealthy Muscovites who took the questionnaires are prepared to give up meat in order to keep their health. Male manual workers, school boys and male pensioners appear to be driven by ideological reasons. Indeed, 74 % of male manual workers said that ideological reasons would be the main reason for them abstaining from meat. Poor people expect to save money on a meatless diet.
Only 18% of the rich women partici-pating in our survey believe that veg-etarianism helps to keep them trim and shapely. While 39% agreed to become vegetarians because «it is fashionable now.» Economic reasons appealed to 8% of manual female workers and to 4% of girl students.
In general, young Muscovites are the only ones concerned about their physical good looks, with 22% of students and 27% of school kids refusing meat for this reason. The question of re-ligion, contrary to our expectations, does not seem to play a big role for the inhabitants of Moscow. Faith influenced only 2% of students to turn to a meatless lifestyle.
The results of our study have shown that over 10% of the respondents con-sider themselves vegetarians. Of course, we have to take in account that the ma-jority of Russian people believe that veg-etarianism means simply the restraint of meat. But still, we should admit that this fact more than surprised us, for we hadn’t expected the percentage of meat-haters in Moscow to be so large.
Why don’t we now look at the rea-sons that caused these people to become vegetarians. Interestingly, 33% of those surveyed, who actually do not eat meat, explained that they simply don’t like the taste of meat. The second most popular reason was compassion for animals (29%). Religious grounds limit 23% of our vegetarians. And 21% of the respon-dents of this group said that they had refused meat because of health problems. Only 12% of vegetarians admitted that they were driven by a desire not to get fat. Ideological convictions made 10% of vegetarians forget the taste of steaks. And it is interesting to note, that 8% be-came scared off from meat because of «Mad Cow» disease.
Most of the Moscow vegetarians (as far as our study shows) consider the cho-sen way to be individual. Nevertheless 23% of them propagandize their views and do their best to convince others by their own example to give up meat.
Thus we can conclude that the be-havioral attitude of the Muscovites, who contributed to our survey, is quite di-verse. The results of the survey let us declare that the most conservative meat-eaters are pensioners and working grown-ups of manual labor. It has also become clear that the attitude of school children to vegetarianism depends greatly on their family traditions. In general, as we recall, some Muscovites have com-plained that it is impossible to become vegetarian if the rest of the family continue to eat meat.
Verification of our hypothesis has confirmed our estimates. We do believe that this survey can be considered as a pilot study. In such a dynamic country like Russia it will no doubt be interesting to conduct a panel survey on the scope of the whole country in order to see how the attitude of Russians to vegetarianism will be changing.
Authors of the sociological study (the members of Eurasian Vegetarian Society, MGIMO students): Elena Antonova, Maya Balbanova, Natalia Leibnina.
