From the memoirs of a Soviet aircraft technician during the Second World War who arrived in Alaska: the Americans asked for black Russian bread

During the Great Patriotic War, an air route called Alsib was used. Through it, more than 7000 aircraft were sent to the Soviet Union from the United States under the Lend-Lease agreement. At the same time, Soviet aircraft technicians were also involved in preparing the aircraft for the flight to Alaska.

One of them, in his memoirs, spoke about the life of our compatriots on American territory, as well as about the attitude of US military personnel towards guests from the USSR.

As the author of the memoirs writes, he and his colleagues landed in the city of Nome, located on the southern coast of the Seward Peninsula in the Norton Sound of the Bering Sea.

Typically, according to the aircraft technician, before the flight, his group did not have any ideological conversations and did not even say where they were sending them. They only emphasized that where they were flying they needed to behave decently, take care of their clothes, etc.

In Nome, a group of Soviet soldiers was met by the American garrison authorities.

There was no one from ours

- writes a Soviet aircraft technician.

According to the author of the memoirs, there were several translators there - Americans of Russian origin, whose parents had previously arrived in Alaska. Moreover, the first thing they asked the arriving group after the greeting was whether they had Russian black bread.

It was strange for us. It never occurred to me to bring black bread with me to Alaska.

- writes the author of the memoirs.

Then, according to the aircraft technician’s story, his group was placed in a garrison, where they subsequently lived. There were two-story living quarters, a dining room, a recreation room, billiards, ping pong and a buffet. Discos were held on Saturdays and Sundays.

He also mentions that the garrison had showers, but there was no separate bathhouse.

Comments

[Galleon]

Oh, these favorite stories about Russian black bread. How many times have you heard these stories about how foreigners ask for it! They, poor people, have nothing.

[Puskarinkis]

They have something different, but they want familiar food. I myself have more than once encountered the fact that immigrants from the USSR shop in more expensive “Russian” stores or are ready to buy expensive products that are familiar to us.

[Mordvin 3]

Quote: Galleon

They, poor people, have nothing.

They have everything. But they begged, freeloaders. My grandfather, while a prisoner of war, climbed into a burning German plane and pulled out a couple of bags of bread. So then the completely free Romanian armed soldiers begged for this bread from him, a prisoner.

[BSD Fan]

They have everything and no less! But these are the children of immigrants from Russia, who, apparently, continued to love their homeland and eating a crust of black bread for them was the same as touching their homeland.

[Boa kaa]

Quote from BSD-Fan

But these are children of immigrants from Russia....

Due to my duty I had to visit foreign ports, receptions at the embassies of the USSR/RF... And everywhere, I emphasize - everywhere!!! we were asked to bring exactly BLACK bread from the ship, and if there is any, herring, simply, straight from the barrel!
But most of all I was touched by the incident when my grandfather came up to us in Cartagena and asked in Russian for “a piece of RUSSIAN bread.” Well, I commanded, the delivery boy rushed to the galley and brought 1/2 a loaf of our ship's WHITE bread. “No, I want RUSSIAN bread,” grandfather repeated the request. And then it dawned on me that he was waiting for the nominal “black” Russian bread! The delivery boy's run was repeated and they brought a LOAF OF BLACK BREAD. Grandfather took it in his hands, then knelt down and... began to cry. We were dumbfounded: we thought that we had somehow offended the old man. He got up from his knees, wiped his tears and said that he was a non-commissioned officer of the Russian imperial fleet, which went to Bizerte. Then he wandered around in foreign lands until he settled in Portugal. He has a wife (Spanish), two sons and three grandchildren. Everything is settled, but he still remembers Russia...Primorsky Boulevard of Sevastopol..., and “the smell of “Russian” (black) bread reminds him of his youth and Motherland.
That's the story.

[Dedok]

Oh, these favorite stories about Russian black bread.

What's surprising here?
besides black bread, there are other products that “our” people living there ask about: herring (salted, of course), buckwheat porridge...

[Ezekiel 25-17]

They have a different bread, pure rye and very expensive.

[Artyom Savin]

According to the text, it’s not “foreigners” who are spherical in a vacuum, but rather Russian emigrants. For some reason, rye bread is not particularly popular abroad, except perhaps in Scandinavia. In any case, Finnish black bread, for example, is radically different from the typical Soviet-Russian loaf of black bread. I won’t argue about tastes, it’s just different. There is absolutely nothing supernatural in the fact that people wanted to eat bread with a familiar taste.

Now “Russian” stores operate quite successfully in many foreign countries. In addition to bread, sometimes a person born and raised in the USSR/RF wants, for example, eggplant caviar or something else like that. Or buckwheat porridge, I have no idea what this is connected with, but buckwheat is not eaten much in Europe except in Scandinavia and the Baltic states.

However, the products of the 2024 sample are quite different from my personal memories of them from around 1995. Bread, Alenka sweets, duchess, etc., etc. Maybe my attic is already starting to leak, of course. But judging by how strongly they are promoting the Soviet theme in the advertising of these products, focusing on good old traditions and capitalizing on pleasant memories, I sense that something has been tweaked in the new recipes, because the taste is clearly not the same.

[Uncle lee]

Americans asked for black Russian bread

We re-equipped the Trias, which was built in Japan and had just arrived in Korsakov, and the crew pounced on the rye and wheat bread - they were so tired of the Japanese white rice "cotton" bread... I tried it - it was perfect.

[Roust]

The land where rye grows is different, and plus the people who grow and cook this bread, especially in the oven.

[Edward Vashchenko]

For foreigners, real Borodino bread was an absolute delicacy, standing next to Russian caviar and vodka.
Now all these brands are completely blurred: all this has become consumer goods, produced haphazardly, and Russian caviar has been stolen from the world market by our new allies, the Iranians.

[Gardamir]

I feel like an American, I would also like Soviet black bread.

[Carib]

Not even black, but grey. When I was young in the 90s, I kayaked along the Chusovaya River with my children, stopped in every village and went to “mine.” 3 l. a can of cold milk and a couple or three loaves of bread from a village bakery. It's only been a little while, but now I can't find such bread. Soft, spongy but not crumbly, aromatic and delicious. 2 - 3 loaves were eaten in 3 minutes.

[Dedok]

three loaves of bread from a village bakery. It's only been a little while, but now I can't find such bread. Soft, spongy but not crumbly, aromatic and delicious. 2 - 3 loaves were eaten in 3 minutes.

in my village - they still sell it, although they carry it from afar, but everyone asks him

[Pivot]

I travel across the city for gray bread, I know one bakery in Krasnodar, they bake like in my youth, the bread does not crumble, which is not common now, it used to be the norm.

[Konnick]

Quote: Gardamir

I feel like an American, I would also like Soviet black bread.

And the last time I ate white bread that tasted like the old, pre-revolutionary coup bread was in the village of Starotitarovskaya, at the local bakery, when I was installing bridges in Taman, 4 years ago.

[Cypa]

Oh, these favorite stories about Russian black bread. How many times have you heard these stories about how foreigners ask for it! They, poor people, have nothing.

. Abyrvalg

[Alexander Kuksin]

It seems like Kramarenko wrote in his memoirs about the Korean War that our aviators suffered greatly due to the lack of black bread. They were sent crackers from the imperial reserves of the Republic of Ingushetia. Hard as a rock. It was a celebration of the soul. They had never eaten such delicious bread.