Do not go thinking that I actually have time
to read during the summer,
but I do sometimes come across a text, a fragment of literature, courtesy of the internet, that piques my curiosity or tickles my fancy. This time, it’s the discovery of a short story by Dostoevsky that I had not heard of before, but the theme of which does not surprise me at all considering the prominent place Fyodor assigns to it in several of his novels. I speak of the “moujik,” the emblematic Russian peasant: the story is titled The Moujik Marey, published in January 1876 in The Writer’s Diary.
Dostoevsky fully positions himself as a staunch defender of this social class
(which he idealizes a bit too much…),
he who was a major critic of tsarism and serfdom and paid dearly for it, having spent years in the gulag as a result. The debate over the nature of the moujik is indeed fundamental in Russian literature, with Tolstoy, Gogol, and Chekhov, even, having either praised or condemned the Russian peasant in their respective works.
I won’t say anything about the role of Russian peasants in the history of the Soviet Union
during the 20th century,
as they were the source of many ‘tugs-of-war’ between those who saw them as the vanguard of the Bolshevik revolution and those who viewed them as relics of the old regime. It will be a fascinating subject to ponder during our long winter evenings…
Your baskets this week will be a mix of
late summer and early autumn,
given the return of our spaghettini squash – which we cannot leave indefinitely in our bins due to its fragile nature, fennel, a selection nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants) that will vary by drop-off location, the beginning of Asian greens (most likely mustards), garlic, and one or two other yet-to-be-determined vegetables. This week, we aim to complete deliveries of your Italian tomato orders; in a week or two, we will begin deliveries of your garlic orders.
We look forward to seeing you all again.