Ukrainian soup is in danger. The culture of Ukrainian borsch has entered the list of intangible cultural heritage in danger from Unesco, the UN organization decided on Friday, as part of the war in Ukraine which threatens the “viability” of the tradition surrounding this soup.
Borsch is an age-old soup made from beets, usually served with bread or garlic rolls. Ukraine had submitted a request in mid-April to include the culture of this soup on the list of intangible cultural heritage in danger, considering that the invasion of the country on February 24 by Russia and the months of bombardments that have result threatened the “viability” of the tradition surrounding this dish.
“The existence of this soup (…) is not in danger in itself, but it is the human and living heritage which is associated with borsch which is itself in immediate danger because the capacity of the populations to practice, to transmit their intangible cultural heritage is seriously disturbed because of the armed conflict, in particular because of the forced displacement of the communities”, explained Pier Luigi Petrillo, the rapporteur of the committee of evaluation of the Ukrainian file.
“It is necessary to carry out an urgent backup”
Because of the war, “the population is no longer able to prepare or even grow the local vegetables that are necessary to prepare” borsch, observed Pier Luigi Petrillo. “They can’t even get together to practice making borsch, which undermines the social and cultural aspects. As such, the transmission of this element is therefore at risk,” he continued. “The armed conflict destroys the environment, the fauna, the flora”, still enumerated Pier Luigi Petrillo.
“For all these factors, it is necessary to carry out an urgent safeguarding of this element within the framework of the procedure of extreme urgency”, he decided. “Victory in the borsch war is ours,” rejoiced in the wake of UNESCO’s announcement, Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkatchenko. Ukraine “will win both the borsch war and this war,” he wrote on his Telegram account, alluding to the conflict with Russia.
The Ukrainian initiative had caused annoyance in Russia, where this dish is also prepared, although kyiv does not take credit for it. “Even cookbooks have been banned (in Ukraine)! Why ? Because it’s impossible to share the borsch. Impossible ! Because it can only belong to one people, one nationality”, according to kyiv, had judged in April Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “That it can be common, that each city, each region, each housewife prepares it in her own way, well it’s not! They didn’t want compromise, and that’s xenophobia, Nazism, extremism in all its forms. Moscow has also denounced Ukrainian “nationalism” on this issue…