On December 1, 1901, the first vegetarian society in Russia was formed in St. Petersburg; jokingly, it was called “Neither Fish nor Meat.” The society was headed by Alexander Petrovich Zelenkov, M.D., a surgeon. His wife published the first vegetarian cookbook in 1913, titled “I Eat No One.” The book contained three hundred sixty-five menu options. In 1904, the society began publishing a print magazine, “Vegetarian Herald.”
Later, canteens appeared as well, in 24 cities of the empire: Moscow had 6, St. Petersburg had 5, and Kyiv had 7 canteens.
Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky described how Ilya Repin took him to such an exotic establishment: “There you had to stand in line for a long time—for bread, for dishes, and for some kind of tin tokens... The main lures in this vegetarian canteen were pea patties, cabbage, and potatoes. A two-course lunch cost thirty kopecks.”
Repin himself, of course, was absolutely delighted: “The canteen’s order is exemplary; in the entryway the cloakroom attendants are not allowed to take any payment. And this has a serious purpose, given the special influx here of impecunious students... The walls of all the rooms are hung with photographic portraits of Leo Tolstoy, of various sizes and in different turns and poses. And at the very end of the rooms, on the right—in the reading room—hangs an enormous full-length portrait of L. N. Tolstoy on a gray, dappled horse, riding through the Yasnaya Polyana forest... The selection of dishes is quite sufficient, but that is not the main thing; the main thing is that whatever dish you choose is so tasty, fresh, and nourishing that the words slip off your tongue: why, this is a feast!”
Moscow became the center of vegetarianism in 1909, when the “Moscow Vegetarian Society” was founded; it lasted until 1929.
In the first post-revolutionary years, vegetarianism continued to be popular. The old canteens remained in operation; one new one even opened—in a mansion on Petrovka. It was called “Rest from Meat.” This was the place frequented by the newlyweds Kalachyov, characters from Ilf and Petrov’s novel “The Twelve Chairs.”
But gradually vegetarians began to be viewed with suspicion. No wonder—anything that stood out, even slightly, from the common, simple trends aroused suspicion. The canteens were renamed “dietetic” (that was the spelling then), and later were simply closed or squeezed out by rent. The societies were dissolved; their activists were arrested. After that, vegetarianism was banned as harmful food unsuitable for the Soviet person.
In 1951, in the seventh volume of the second edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, “Varioloid – Vibrator,” it was officially stated: “Vegetarianism, based on false hypotheses and ideas, has no adherents in the Soviet Union.”