Russian Butter Making (Tradition and Innovation), XIX–XX cc.

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2021-53-1/238-259

Abstract

Russian butter making developed in XIX–XX cc. as a public effort involving all strata of the society. This effort helped create industrial production of the highest international level. The article defines consequent periods of this process.
1. Russian butter-making was based on national traditions of obtaining butter from cow’s milk, which were ethnically specific. The specificity was determined by the climate with long winters, during which the lactation of cattle ceased, which required preparing food supplies. Women were responsible for this in the peasant economy. They practiced various methods of obtaining butter, including the final product – ghee, which was processed by the heat of a Russian stove and could be stored during unlimited period.
2. The pioneer of the development of commercial butter-making was N.V. Vereshchagin. He studied the technology of obtaining butter in rural artels of different states and set the goal to introduce this experience in Russia to improve the life of the peasantry. Overcoming the resistance of officials and involving like-minded people, he opened public schools and butter-making factories using local experience.
3. The work intensified in Siberia, where peasants owned large herds of dairy cattle. The Unions of Butter Makers played an important role organizing artels, providing the storage and delivery of goods, establishing connections with the international market, where Russian butter surpassed other exporters.
4. During the Soviet period, the development of butter-making at the state level began. The industrial production was organized in a consistent and multifaceted manner: the selection work of livestock breeders was combined with the preservation of ethnic specificity and the strengthening of the traditional base of dairy raw materials, while technical institutes developed modern equipment, so the quality of the product improved and it was abundantly supplied to the trade network.

For Citation: Lipinskaya, V.A. 2021 Russian Butter Making (Tradition and Innovation), XIX–XX cc. Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii) 1 (53): 238–259.

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