how an aristocratic fruit became political

270 years ago, in 1754, a banana seedling was first delivered to Russia for the greenhouse of Count P.I. Shuvalov, which began to bear fruit after a year and a half; Bananas became available not only to aristocrats more than a century later; Well, the Soviet people reasonably associated their appearance on the shelves not with a seasonal factor but with political circumstances.

“Pleasant than any melon”

Russian banana eating began in the middle of the 18th century. In June 1754, a new plant was delivered from Europe to St. Petersburg for the greenhouse of Count Pyotr Ivanovich Shuvalov – Musa paradisiaca, that is, banana of paradise. By the end of 1755, this banana had grown to two and a half meters. At the beginning of January of the following year, according to the St. Petersburg Vedomosti, “a thick stem emerged from the top of the trunk… and fruits appeared on it, of which there were already 24 in February.”

The same sensation was also written about in the first issue of Moskovskiye Vedomosti dated April 26, 1756. “In the garden of His Excellency Count Pyotr Ivanovich Shuvalov,” the newspaper reported, “there is a worthy growth with fruit. This is such a glorious Muse, a banana or a banana tree, which in Russia has never before blossomed or brought forth fruit.”

Soon bananas were planted in the royal gardens, where they grew under the supervision of gardener Andrei Ekleben. In 1758, two plants bore 70 fruits, which became a record for European greenhouse banana growing.

All bananas were sent to the table of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.

In many aristocratic houses, this plant became an exotic indoor flower, although it never bore fruit. Over the next 100 years, we learned about the shape and taste of the fruit only from encyclopedias and notes from travelers.

So, in 1787, the book “The Unfortunate Adventures of Vasily Baranshchikov” was published – a description of the real events that happened to a tradesman of Nizhny Novgorod, who was recruited onto a Russian sailing ship and ended up drunkenly in December 1780 while staying in Copenhagen as a slave-sailor on a Danish ship . Recalling his stay on the island of St. Thomas in the Caribbean, Baranshchikov reported:

“Banana is very satisfying, it can be eaten, in addition to raw, salted, boiled, baked and fried, and the tree of this plant is somewhat similar in appearance to our spruce tree, and its fruit, raw, tastes like a cucumber, and is half an arshin long, no more thick our big cucumber, its skin is green.”

True, the more descriptions of these fruits were published throughout Europe, the less it was possible to understand what kind of fruit it was: the authors did not know that there were many varieties of bananas.

“The body in them is not hard, filled with a softening juice of a pleasant taste,” the French priest and writer Joseph de La Porte, who studied many notes of travelers of the 18th century, reported about Guiana bananas.

“Nutritious, sweet, fleshy fruits the size of a melon” – this was also said about the banana in one of the geography textbooks.

Russian astronomer I. M. Simonov, who traveled around the world as part of an expedition under the command of Captain II Rank F. F. Bellingshausen, in 1822, in a report made at Kazan University, reporting on the fruits of Brazil, gave his description:

“Of the fruits, bananas are the most delicious: they look like large cucumbers; their white or pink skin is removed very easily, and then a white fruit remains, which is softer and more pleasant than any melon.”

“Just received”

The Russians did not understand the varieties and degree of ripeness of bananas even later. When the writer I. A. Goncharov, who participated in the voyage of the frigate Pallada in 1852–1854, first saw bananas, he did not recognize them. This happened in Madeira. On the doors of one of the shops hung a bunch of fruits, which, according to the writer, looked like medium-sized cucumbers. Having asked the seller what it was and receiving the answer that it was bananas, I. A. Goncharov exclaimed admiringly: “Bananas! Tropical fruit! Give it, give it here!” They gave him the whole bunch.

“I tore one off and peeled it,” the writer recalled, “the skin peels off almost at the touch; I tried it and I didn’t like it: it was insipid, somewhat sweet, but sluggish and cloying, the taste was mealy, a little like potatoes and melon, only not as sweet as melon, and without aroma, or with its own, somehow rough taste. bouquet.

It is more of a vegetable than a fruit, and between the fruits it is parvenu.”

And later, during stops at other exotic shores, when bananas were offered, I. A. Goncharov refused, explaining:

“Some people love them, I can’t eat them: they’re mealy, cloying, a little reminiscent of gingerbread with wort.”

It was possible to personally get acquainted with bananas on the eastern outskirts of Russia. Geologist K.V. Ditmar, who served in 1851–1855 as an official for special assignments in mining under the governor of Kamchatka, wrote:

“From Honolulu came the most beautiful fruits, such as pineapples, bananas, tangerines and coconuts; The American’s store supplied everything one could wish for.”

Russians who visited Egypt and Palestine certainly shared their impressions of bananas.

And in the second half of the 19th century, the opportunity arose to taste rare fruits in Paris, since after the colonization of Algeria by France, tasting North African fruits was added to the numerous entertainments of the French capital.

“The luxury of fruits that can only be found in Paris, especially peaches and pears, is known to all connoisseurs, and now the railways are delivering even new kinds of fruits… Algeria sends bananas and figs such that even in Sicily they have no equal,” he reported in September In 1857, correspondent of St. Petersburg Gazette N.I. Sazonov wrote an extensive article about beautiful autumn Paris.

Bananas began to be sold in Russian stores from the late 1870s, first in southern cities, and then in the capitals.

In 1880, in April, before Easter, an advertisement appeared in the St. Petersburg List, announcing that the store of the sons of A. R. Chesnokov “had just received ripe and fragrant African bananas.”

From advertisements regularly placed in the same newspaper in the 1880s by A.V. Kuznetsov’s store, we find out at what price overseas fruits were sold – 20–25 kopecks apiece. By 1890, the price dropped slightly – to 15–20 kopecks. For comparison, a pound (409.5 g) of sugar at that time was sold in Moscow for 15-19 kopecks.

By the end of the 19th century, the supply of bananas to St. Petersburg increased significantly. In November 1897, the Petersburg Leaflet reported:

“Currently, large quantities of fresh bananas have appeared in the windows of St. Petersburg grocery stores. Due to the huge supply, prices for bananas are very low.”

In the 1890s, banana punch appeared on the menu of the famous St. Petersburg restaurant Palkin, and recipes for desserts made from them appeared in cookbooks.

“Few people buy them”

With the advent of high-speed ships with refrigerators, the banana trade in America and Europe grew by leaps and bounds. At the beginning of the 20th century, mainly the British began to supply overseas fruits to St. Petersburg. In 1910, a representative of an English company selling Jamaican bananas, B. L. Jellinek, opened a wholesale warehouse in the northern capital, and a year later – in Moscow and Riga.

To advertise his product, B. L. Jellinek resorted to the authoritative opinion of the famous biologist, Nobel Prize winner, Professor I. I. Mechnikov. From the newspaper pages, the scientist called for eating several bananas a day and explained the benefits of these fruits:

“A ripe banana is the healthiest and healthiest fruit in existence.

The dense and airtight banana peel is the most reliable protection against bacteria.”

At the end of 1912, newspapers wrote: “Bananas are in great demand. Petersburgers really like them.” Later, observers of the capital’s trade stated: “Bananas were considered a delicacy, but now they are sold for a nickel apiece.”

But with the outbreak of the First World War, overseas fruits had to be forgotten. The separation from bananas lasted almost a quarter of a century. On December 8, 1938, two boxes of bananas were delivered to Moscow from Palestine. Why so few? As explained in the newspapers, this was a trial shipment. “The bananas turned out to be unripe,” reported “Evening Moscow.” “They will be hung in a room at room temperature to determine the timing of ripening.”

A week later, Muscovites were informed that the first shipment of bananas from South America had arrived at the Leningrad port, and two wagons of bananas would go to Moscow for sale through the distribution network.

Journalists followed the fate of the bananas no less closely than recently they watched the rescue of the Chelyuskinites.

On December 17, the press reported:

“A shipment of South American bananas arrives in Moscow today. In stores No. 1, 2 and 3 of Gastronoma, where they will be sold, places for hanging have already been prepared. Bananas will go on sale tomorrow. The price is 15 rubles per kilogram.”

When Muscovites did not see the strange fruits on the shelves, an explanation was published:

“They were not mature enough. The bananas are now being kept in a warm room for ripening.”

On February 2, 1939, E. S. Bulgakova, the wife of the writer M. A. Bulgakov, wrote in her diary:

“Seryozhka (her son from a previous marriage.— “Story”) … bought four bananas, there are as many bananas as you like, but few people buy them.”

Bananas were sold in 30 stores in Moscow. Newspapers had to advertise them, but most buyers could not afford these exotic fruits, since small Soviet employees, for example, received 150–200 rubles. per month.

“Overthrew the servants of the oligarchy”

The next banana invasions on Soviet shelves began to occur in the 1950s. And this every time meant that the country that supplied the fruits of paradise decided to follow an anti-capitalist path of development.

After the communists came to power in China, Chinese bananas appeared in the USSR. Since 1956, Vietnamese fruits have been added to them – with these fruits the governments of Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh paid the Soviet Union for military aid and loans. Every year the supply of bananas increased, reaching 13 thousand tons in 1960.

Cookbook authors quickly responded to the appearance of forgotten fruits – they advised preparing banana salads.

Here is one of the recipes:

“Cut peeled bananas into slices and season with mayonnaise sauce.”

Apparently, this advice was intended for those who despaired of waiting for the purchased bananas to ripen, because they were sold very, very green.

True, by the end of the 1960s, there were no Chinese or Vietnamese bananas in Soviet stores. The former disappeared due to the almost complete cessation of trade relations between the USSR and China, and the latter due to the Vietnam War.

But the bananas grew in the former French colony of Guinea, whose president, Ahmed Sekou Toure, proved during the 1960s that he adhered to a pro-Soviet course in foreign policy and was an adherent of scientific socialism in domestic affairs. In 1965, he visited the USSR in response to the visit of L. I. Brezhnev in 1961. And in the early 1970s, African bananas went to the birthplace of socialism in exchange for Soviet manufactured goods.

The main supplier of bananas to the USSR was Ecuador, where the military junta was removed from power in 1966.

“The imperialist monopolies that established a dictatorship,” wrote Pravda, “doubled the predatory robbery of the country. They reduced the prices of Ecuador’s agricultural export products… A powerful general strike of workers, peasants, students, including the intelligentsia and broad sections of the national bourgeoisie, overthrew the dictatorship from the heights of power and overthrew the servants of the oligarchy of imperialism.”

American exporting firms decided to punish the new government by reducing purchases of bananas (which accounted for 46% of Ecuador’s total exports). But instead of agreements with the Americans, agreements were concluded with the GDR, Yugoslavia, Poland and Czechoslovakia, according to which Ecuador exported coffee, bananas and other agricultural products to these countries in exchange for industrial goods and agricultural machinery. Ecuadorian bananas also came in handy in the USSR. Of the 56 thousand tons of bananas brought to the Soviet Union in 1980, 31 thousand tons came from Ecuador.

The largest number of bananas was eaten by Soviet people in 1985 – almost 80 thousand tons. In subsequent years, purchases of sweet fruits only decreased, and the queues for them increased. And if someone in those lines had been told that very soon the USSR would cease to exist, and that there would be many times more bananas in Russia, he would hardly have believed it.

Svetlana Kuznetsova