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From Genghis Khan To Mikhail Gorbachev: Import, Trade, And Assimilation Of New Food Products Into Siberia's Economy
Tom Hudgens, Department of Economics
I have had a longtime interest in Russia and its relations with other nations, especially its economic trade with neighboring countries in Europe and Asia. In 1996 my particular interest in food supplies in the emerging market economy of early post-Soviet Russia led me to write a paper on one aspect of this subject, which was published in 1997. That research on a contemporary topic piqued my interest in the historical, geographic, and economic origins of food products (raw and processed) that are not native to Russia's largest geographic region, Siberia, which covers 75% of the land mass of today's Russian Federation. Despite its immense size, Siberia has not historically been a major producer of food in relation to European Russia—for several reasons, including climate, transportation, economic development, and population size. Yet it is apparent that even before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the re-establishment of a market economy in Russia, Siberia had already assimilated many non-native foods as a result of conquests, trade, migration, and settlement, from the Mongol invasions in the mid-13th century to the perestroika of Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 20th century.
During the 2007 Summer Term (Term 1 or 2, depending on my teaching schedule), I propose to read several books and academic articles on the origin, migration, production, and assimilation of new foodstuffs into Siberia from East, Central, and Southwest Asia after the Mongol conquests in the 13th century; from the Western Hemisphere after the voyages of Columbus in the late 15th century; and from Europe after the annexation of Siberia into the Russian Empire in the late 16th century. I am particularly interested in the ways in which foods from other parts of the world came into Siberia by means of conquest, colonization, and trade—and the reasons why those foods eventually became part of the daily diet of Siberia's inhabitants. I am also interested in the effects those new foods have had in supplanting earlier diets based on native Siberian plants and animals, including the economic and social effects on Siberia's traditional reindeer herders.
STUDY PLAN
I chose this line of study because I am interested in the ways in which commodities enter new markets and become accepted articles of trade or become assimilated into the local economy as articles of production. Beyond the level of hunting and gathering, subsistence farming, and domestic animal husbandry, the production of food for sale or barter is an important aspect of the economic life of every society. I am especially interested in the ways that food products migrate to different parts of the world through conquest, colonization, and trade—and the social, cultural, and economic reasons why some imported foods eventually supplant indigenous ones.
This topic is directly related to my academic background, as well as to my specific academic interests in Russia and its economic development. This study grant would enable me to learn more about the economic history of global trade in food products and the assimilation of imported food products in Russia during several centuries prior to the contemporary (post-Soviet) period which I have studied more extensively.
Topics and Questions To Be Explored:
* What native foods (plants and animals) existed in Siberia before the Mongol conquests and occupation from the 13th to 15th centuries?
* What new foods and food-processing techniques were brought to Siberia as a result of the Mongol invasions—and which ones were later adopted by the Russians who annexed Siberia into the Russian Empire?
* Which foods brought by the Mongol invasions continued to be available only as imported products—and which ones were eventually grown or produced in Siberia itself?
* What foods from the Western Hemisphere were introduced into Siberia after Columbus's voyages in the late 15th century?
* What foods were introduced into Siberia by European settlers and traders after the Russian annexation of Siberia in the late 16th century?
* What new foods entered Siberia as a result of Tsar Peter the Great's "opening" of Russia to western influences in the late 17th century?
* What effect did the Napoleonic Wars have on the foods introduced into Siberia in the 18th century?
* What effect did Soviet economic planning and the collectivization of agriculture have on food imports into Siberia in the 20th century?
* What new food products became available in Soviet Siberia as a result of Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika in the mid-1980s?
* What effect has the importation and assimilation of food products from outside Siberia had on the diets of contemporary Native Siberians, including Siberia's traditional reindeer herders?
Weekly Work Plan:
Over the course of a 2007 Summer Term, I plan to read and take notes each week on two to three books or a combination of books and academic articles, listed on the following "List of Sources." I plan to read these in historical chronological order, from the era of the Mongol invasions to the end of the Soviet era. Each book and article has been selected for its coverage of the particular historical period (or periods) and its inclusion of information about food routes, trade, markets, agricultural production, and the availability, assimilation, and economic effects of specific foodstuffs in Siberia.
Intellectual Development and Professional Application:
This research will increase my knowledge of how specific foods are dispersed to new geographic areas as a result of conquest, colonization, and trade. Better knowledge of the economic and social history of foodstuffs in the world's largest geographical subdivision will also give me a better perspective on contemporary economic issues regarding the food supply in today's Russian Federation.
I plan to use the information from this research to provide specific examples about the history of global trade to my students in CCCC classes. Globalization is an important issue in economics today, but many students assume that it is a contemporary issue that has arisen only in the recent past. By providing specific examples of how globalization has affected foods in Russia from the 13th century to the present, I will be able to give my students a better perspective on this important economic issue.
During my time as a professor at CCCC, I have participated in several presentations about contemporary food marketing in post-Soviet Russia—at the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Texas in Austin, and at meetings of professional organizations in Dallas and Houston. A CCCC Study Grant would enable me to expand my knowledge of the earlier economic history of Russia by focusing on a specific aspect of that history which I am particularly interested in. I will be able to incorporate this information into lectures that I present in the future to students, faculty, professional organizations, and the general public.
LIST OF SOURCES
NOTE: Sources are listed chronologically by approximate historical period, in the sequence in which I plan to read them, instead of being listed alphabetically by author. Some of the sources cover overlapping periods of history, but from different perspectives.
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford. New York:
Crown Publishers, 2004. (13th to 15th centuries)
"The Eastern Influence on Russian Cuisine," by Darra Goldstein, in Current Research in
Culinary History: Sources, Topics, and Methods. Boston: Culinary Historians of
Boston, 1986, pp. 20-26. (11th to 16th centuries)
Account of the Russian Discoveries between Asia and America, to which are added the
Conquest of Siberia, and the History of the Transactions and Commerce between
Russia and China, by William Coxe. Originally published in 1787; reprinted by
University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Argonaut Press Ltd., New
York, 1966. (Contains descriptions of Native Siberian foods encountered by
European explorers in Siberia in the mid-18th century, as well as accounts of
food products introduced into Siberia from China)
Bread and Salt: A Social and Economic History of Food and Drink in Russia, by R. E. F.
Smith and David Christian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968.
(9th through 19th centuries)
Food in Russian History and Culture, edited by Musya Glants and Joyce Toomre.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997. (9th to mid-20th centuries)
Food Culture in Russia and Central Asia, by Glenn R. Mack and Asele Surina.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. (9th to late-20th centuries)
The Food and Cooking of Russia, by Lesley Chamberlain. New York: Penguin Books,
1982. (16th to early 20th centuries)
Guide to the Great Siberian Railway (1900), edited by A. I. Dmitriev-Mamonov and
A. F. Zdziarski, translated by L. Kukol-Yasnopolsky, revised by John Marshall.
St. Petersburg, Russia: Ministry of Ways and Communcation, 1900. (Detailed book with 500 pages of information on agricultural and manufactured products
on the route covered by the Trans-Siberian Railroad up to that time, as well as
trade and shipping on the Amur River on Siberia's border with China)
The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine, by Robert
Conquest. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. (Classic work on Soviet
agricultural problems in the 1920s and Stalin's collectivization of agriculture in
the 1930s)
Caviar with Champagne: Common Luxury and the Ideals of the Good Life in Stalin's
Russia, by Jukka Gronow. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2004. (A study of the official pursuit of "luxury" amid scarcity in Stalinist Russia and the effects of
government structuring of domestic food production to supplant imported food products in the mid-1930s)
Siberia Today and Tomorrow: A Study of Economic Problems and Achievements, by
Violet Conolly. New York: Taplinger Publishing, 1976. (Analysis of economic development in Siberia, including agriculture and land use, from the1950s to 1970s, with earlier historical background included)
Marx Went Away—but Karl Stayed Behind, by Caroline Humphrey. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press, 1998. (Economic study of one branch of Siberia's
largest indigenous ethnic group living on collective farms in southern Siberia in the 1970s to 1990s)
The Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia, by Piers Vitebsky.
Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. (Anthropological and economic study of the Eveny reindeer herders of northern Siberia, 1980s to 1990s)
Reindeer Nomads Meet the Market: Culture, Property, and Globalization at the 'End of
the Land,' by Florian Stammler. Muenster, Germany: Lit Verlag, 2006. (1990s)
Cross-cultural Consumption: Global Markets, Local Realities, edited by David Howes.
New York: Routledge, 1996. (1990s)
"Consuming the West but Becoming Third World: Food Imports and the Experience of
Russianness," by Jennifer Patico, in Anthropology of East Europe Review:
Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia, Vol 17, No. 1, 2003, pp. 31-36.
(1990s)