Dostoevsky is canceled

I could never imagine I’d say this. Soon after Russia started bombing Ukraine I wrote a piece about the end of Russia. I stand by it but there is a change — for the worse. At the end of that story, I expressed my admiration for my favorite book — Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov. Now I fear that Russia’s cultural legacy has suffered irreversible damage. And I am not referring to public opinion. I’m talking about how I feel. That’s a very important distinction. Say you love someone deeply, maybe for decades, but then love is no longer. Then there is a break-up, maybe of an ugly kind. That kind of a break-up is not some momentary over-reaction. It changes your entire life, your identity.

This story was triggered by… a visit to a Russian shop not far from our home in Florida. I know — the connection between getting a couple of food items and Dostoevsky is not obvious. You can criticize me for over-reacting. But…

So we are an immigrant family in the US but we are eclectic in our habits and lifestyle. I wouldn’t call our nutrition habits “Russian” in any way, except for a few items that most Americans would probably find unusual. For example, we often have buckwheat (grechka) which can be eaten for breakfast with milk or as a side dish. Or we eat quite a lot of farmer’s cheese (tvorog in Russian). While you can find these items at most major grocery stores, if there is a Russian shop near where we live we’d often pay it a visit once every few weeks. The other day my wife asked me to stop by a Russian market in Boca Raton. I had to get buckwheat, and…