In 2019, the official account of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on X described borshch as \u201cone of Russia\u2019s most famous and beloved dishes\u201d and \u201ca symbol of traditional cuisine.\u201d The statement provoked widespread outrage in Ukraine. For Ukrainians, this was not simply an exaggeration but an overt appropriation of their cultural heritage. Borshch is one of the most emblematic dishes of Ukrainian cuisine, and Russia\u2019s attempts to label it \u201cRussian\u201d were widely perceived as a continuation of its centuries-long policy of suppressing Ukrainian language, culture, history, and statehood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, Ukraine is the historical homeland of borshch, where the dish has a centuries-old tradition. One of the earliest documented references to its preparation on Ukrainian territory is associated with the 1584 travel notes of Martin Gruneweg, a German merchant and Dominican friar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ukrainian tradition of preparing borshch has deep historical continuity, numerous local varieties, and an important social function. In Ukrainian national tradition, borshch is not merely an everyday dish; it also carries ritual significance. For example, it is an integral part of Christmas traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its principal ingredient is beetroot, which gives borshch its characteristic deep red colour. A classic Ukrainian recipe includes beetroot, beef, cabbage, and potatoes, and the dish is served with sour cream. It is precisely this combination of rich flavour, slight acidity, and nutritional value that has made borshch a symbol of Ukrainian home cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ukrainian borshch is exceptionally diverse in both its ingredients and preparation methods. There are meatless, meat, fish, mushroom, and \u201cgreen\u201d varieties of borshch. Numerous local versions of meatless borshch are prepared with mushrooms, dried pears, beans, or fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some readers may now be surprised:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut the borshch I know is made with tomatoes and cabbage. It does not contain beetroot at all!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is exactly what happened in Taiwan. Because of its hot and humid climate, growing beetroot there is relatively difficult. Local cooks therefore adapted the recipe to the ingredients available to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This gave rise to a local version of borshch: instead of beetroot, which was difficult to obtain, tomato paste is used to create the characteristic red colour, while white cabbage provides natural sweetness. To make the flavour more compatible with local tastes, cooks first fried the tomato paste in oil to reduce its acidity and then added a small amount of sugar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The result was a Taiwanese version of borshch \u2014 not entirely authentic, but beloved by several generations. Although it differs considerably from the Ukrainian original, for many people in Taiwan this version of borshch has become part of their childhood memories and local culinary culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Importantly, in 2022, the \u201cculture of Ukrainian borshch cooking\u201d was inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. At the same time, UNESCO expressly noted that borshch is also prepared elsewhere in the wider region and that the inscription does not imply \u201cexclusivity\u201d or \u201cownership\u201d of the dish itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why Is Borshch Called \u201cRussian Soup\u201d in China?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese-speaking audiences often perceive the history and culture of Eastern Europe through the prism of Russian interpretations. Consequently, many phenomena of Ukrainian culture, as well as the cultural heritage of other peoples whose lands once belonged to the Russian Empire, are interpreted as part of Russian heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Borshch suffered a similar fate. This raises an obvious question: if borshch originates in Ukraine, why is its Chinese name associated with Russia?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer lies in the history of Shanghai. In the early twentieth century, following the Russian Revolution, many White \u00e9migr\u00e9s arrived in the city, bringing familiar dishes with them, including borshch. Local residents heard the English word \u201cRussian,\u201d which in the Shanghai dialect sounded approximately like \u201cluosong.\u201d This is how the name \u7f85\u5b8b\u6e6f (Lu\u00f3s\u00f2ng t\u0101ng) emerged \u2014 literally, \u201cRussian soup.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interestingly, had the dish reached China by another route \u2014 through Mongolia or Beijing, for example \u2014 its name might have sounded entirely different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, however, Russia seeks to use cultural diplomacy to entrench the supposedly \u201cRussian\u201d origin of the dish in the collective consciousness of global audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to the Russian Foreign Ministry\u2019s post about \u201cRussian borshch,\u201d one can observe a tradition dating back to the Soviet period of incorporating borshch into a supposedly \u201call-Union\u201d cuisine. As a result, the dish gradually became associated internationally with \u201cRussian cuisine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Made in Russia: The Appropriation of the Ukrainian Vyshyvanka<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The vyshyvanka – a traditional element of Ukrainian clothing – has suffered a fate similar to that of borshch. Ukrainian embroidery has a long historical continuity dating back to the Middle Ages. The modern form of the embroidered peasant shirt became established across Ukrainian regions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is characterised by regional differences in cut, placement of ornamentation, colours, and embroidery techniques. The vyshyvanka served not only an aesthetic but also a symbolic function: it was associated with weddings, rituals, family traditions, and protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the vyshyvanka increasingly became a marker of Ukrainian identity. Following Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea in 2014, it underwent a genuine political and cultural revival. World Vyshyvanka Day, established in 2006, is particularly popular in Ukraine. The contemporary tradition of wearing a vyshyvanka every year on the third Thursday of May underscores that it is not a museum exhibit but a living part of modern Ukrainian life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia seeks to erase the perception of the vyshyvanka as a distinct Ukrainian tradition. To achieve this, the Ukrainian embroidered shirt is often conflated with the Russian kosovorotka, with both types of clothing presented under generalised labels such as \u201cSlavic shirt,\u201d \u201cRussian folk costume,\u201d or even \u201ctraditional Russian embroidery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This allows Russia to portray Ukrainian embroidery as part of a supposedly unified East Slavic or \u201call-Russian\u201d heritage. Particularly revealing are cases in which Ukrainian shirts are labelled \u201cRussian shirts\u201d in foreign catalogues, souvenir shops, or media materials, while the term \u201cvyshyvanka\u201d is either omitted entirely or presented merely as a secondary local designation. As a result, international audiences no longer associate the distinctive ornamentation of the vyshyvanka with Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ukrainian Hopak on the Russian Stage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia employs a similar mechanism in relation to hopak, one of the best-known Ukrainian folk dances, whose history is inseparably connected with Cossack military culture. Russian folklore ensembles frequently include hopak in their repertoires, presenting it as part of \u201cRussian folk culture\u201d or as a \u201ctraditional Cossack dance\u201d without specifying its Ukrainian origin. Particularly revealing are the international tours of Russian state ensembles that perform hopak as part of programmes devoted to \u201cRussian folk art\u201d or the \u201cculture of the peoples of Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One such example is the Kuban Cossack Choir, which Russia presents internationally as a leading Russian folklore ensemble. At the same time, a substantial part of Kuban cultural tradition has Ukrainian roots: the Kuban Cossack community was formed largely from former Zaporizhian Cossacks resettled by the Russian Empire to the Kuban region at the end of the eighteenth century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The choir\u2019s repertoire has preserved Ukrainian-language Cossack songs, as well as dance and stage imagery associated with the tradition of the Zaporizhian Sich. During international tours, however, this Ukrainian cultural layer generally reaches foreign audiences under the brand of Russian culture. As a result, international spectators encounter Ukrainian tradition as a constituent element of a broader \u201call-Russian\u201d culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This approach enables Russia to use one of the most recognisable symbols of Ukrainian culture to advance its own cultural diplomacy. Without necessarily denying its Ukrainian origin outright, Russia effectively reinforces the myth of the unity of the two peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cases described above demonstrate that, within cognitive confrontation, cultural appropriation does not always involve directly declaring a Ukrainian cultural phenomenon to be \u201cRussian.\u201d A more subtle mechanism is often employed: the blurring of origins. As a result, Ukrainian provenance becomes secondary, ambiguous, or disappears entirely from the international audience\u2019s field of vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another mechanism used by modern Russia is imperial cataloguing, inherited from the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. The Soviet cultural system collected the dishes, songs, dances, and imagery of non-Russian peoples into a large \u201ccommon\u201d cultural pot which, when presented internationally, was frequently reduced simply to \u201cRussian.\u201d This is how borshch became part of \u201call-Union cuisine,\u201d while Ukrainian Cossack dance forms became elements of \u201cSoviet folklore\u201d that foreign audiences often perceived as Russian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Countering cultural appropriation therefore requires more than refuting individual false claims. It also requires the systematic restoration of the precise origins, names, and historical context of Ukrainian cultural symbols.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-1.png\")
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