Evening star., 1941-11-14
(Last OF a Series OF II Articles on
Russia at War
By RALPH INGERSOLL.


sible that many Russians will starve
this winter-because there may not
be enough transportation to get
food TO every one.
If the transportation system keeps
the army veil supplied with food as
well as munitions, it Eill have done
hang-up job in wartime conditions
in winter. But certain sections of
Russia which neither are self-Suffi-
cient nor have had enough supplies
laid by will suffer dreadfully.
The Russian menu outside of Mos
COW is borsch and black bread, or
borsch and some kind Of chopped
meat made into a outlet and black
bread. The black bread is heavier
than I thought bread could be: pick
I'D loaf and it feels like there must
be sinker of lead in the center
1t is so heavy it is difficult to cut
And il sticks to the knife until
after you have cut several slices. the
blade looks as if it had been dipped
first in glue and then in bread
crumbs.
Crossing the desert, found the
best way to clean bread knife was
to run it in and out OF sand. The
application of water seemed to make
things worse. But this heavy, sticky
black bread doesn't taste bad and II
Is as filling as you would expect.
Many Breads Available.
I once read a book by a Russian
novelist who criticized American
white bread for its taStelessness. I
did not find his countrymen SYM
pathized with him. because at sta
ton where there was little white
bread for sale there was almost
riot to get it. In Moscow you could
get rot only white bread but literally
dozens of other kinds of bread
graham. whole wheat. raisin and
what have you. And very good too
The Russians are good cooks and
II they have half chance they can
make food tasty.
There was plenty of butter in Mos
COW. You ordered 1t as a separate
item of your meal. I could not get
bacon and eggs in the intourist ho-
tells. but found them excellent in
MoscoW's smaller cafeterias and
milk bars.
Milk and sour cream were univer-
sal staples. The herds of COWS that
we have read were so depleted dur
ing the early '30s must have been
built up again. The milk in Russia
IS not pasteurized: 1t is boiled. Who
likes boiled milk? But the sour
cream is very fine I do not know
what the Russian technique for
making the sour cream is. but 1t is
so good We should certainly imi-
tate it.
You can buy all the chocolate that
you want In Moscow; the candy
store around the corner from my
hotel was always crowded.
Fruit. Crab Meat Expensive.
Canned Russian fruit and crab
meat from the islands north of
Japan are we'll distributed staples
But they are too expensive for most
people The cans are heavy and
the tin is so thick that 1t defies q
light pocket car, opener.
We ate so much caviar in Moscow
that I often thought of Willie How
ard. I remembered the vaudeville
sketch in which he impersonated a
soapoox agltator. He used to work
into his speech. Comes the revolu-
ton and you will all have straw
berries" His stooge in the audience
would keep interrupting, But
don't like strawberries" Howard
got angrier and angrier until at
last he stopped the show and, point
ing finger at his tormentor, roared,
Come the revolution. feller, you'll
eat stra Wberries and like it."
If you are foreigner being enter
tanned in revolutionary Russia you
will eat caviar and like it. It costs
about as much as it costs in Amer
ida-in literal ruble-dollar transla-
ttcn-but that makes it almost the
cheapest thing you can buy and it's
VERY fine caviar. too. Everything
else costs many times what it would
here.
Visitors Get Gypping.
ITO make this reference clearer:
Remember that as consequence OF
hsving to buy rubles at an artiflcially
high rate and being required to live
in intourist hotels. the foreigner gets
a, gypping in Moscow that can be
compared only with Palm Beach or
Miami at the height of the season.
breakfast at the National Hotel
consisting of stewed fruit. scrambled
eggs (no bacon, toast and coffee
came to So. so or 81 American. Zone
Of the eccentricities of intourist
bookkeeping is that you are not often
charged the same price for the same
thing twice. At this rate it cost
about $40 American to take some one
to lunch. Dinner could run to $50
ct s35 with bottle OF very good
Caucasian light wine thrown in.
THE car that I was under the
Impression the Foreign Office had
sent around to me-after all. it
came to my door with the compli-
n{entS of the Foreign Offlce-I found
Was costing me $40 a day.
"A small single bedroom and bath
ir the National Hotel-Which had a
nice view but still was a small bed
rSom-cost me S25 a day. Fifty
dollars disappears into the cash
register of the handicraft shop-the
otly shop In Moscow in which there
are gay trinkets for sale--in ex-
change for small lacquered cigar
cite box or two and about as many
childrens toys as you could buy for
80 cents In the 5-and-10
AT this rate, the first startled and
then amazed foreign visitor soon
loses all sense of reality about the
value of money and resigns himself
to being lamb ordained to be
feeced.
Vodka Favorite Drink.
The one pleasant compensation,
- I have suggested. is that you can
order all the caviar you can eat
without a qualm Of conscience.
I have said that canned goods are
well distributed in Russia. So are
the Caucasian wines. But nobody
seems to buy them. It amazed me