"Tale of Mushrooms" booklet, 1924

Mushrooms in the USSR

See all our Soviet mushroom-themed products here!

In the USSR, wild mushrooms were a much loved and affordable delicacy.

There were lots of ways to use them in meals: mushrooms were fried, baked, grilled, added as a filling for pastries and dumplings, marinated, salted and served as a snack to ice vodka.

"Edible and poisonous mushrooms" Soviet booklet, 1965

"Edible and poisonous mushrooms" Soviet booklet, 1965 

Sometimes, rumours about poisoning would go around, but every mushroom picker knew the right method to distinguish safe mushrooms from poisonous ones.

1924 illustration from children’s magazine Murzilka.

"We are coming, we are coming - we’ll get rid of the the bourgeoisie” 1924 illustration from children’s magazine Murzilka.

Anthropomorphic mushrooms were the characters of Russian fairy tales.

"Tale of Mushrooms" booklet, 1924

In a famous 1991 televised hoax, Soviet musician Sergei Kuryokhin and reporter Sergei Sholokhov stated that Vladimir Lenin was a mushroom.

 

See all our Soviet mushroom-themed products here!

Back to blog