How bizarre sometimes the interests and preferences of people change! An ordinary girl from an ordinary family gets married, learns to cook, writes a book about this, and then begins to consider herself neither more nor less - the savior of Russia. These words fully refer to Elena Molokhovets, the author of the book “A Gift for Young Housewives or a Means to Reduce Household Expenses”, which was published in 1861, the year the serfdom was abolished in Russia.
Elena was born in 1831 in Arkhangelsk, in the family of a customs official Burman. Her parents died early, so she lived and studied at the Smolny Institute, where the girls were taught many sciences. Then Elena returned to Arkhangelsk and married Franz Molokhovets, an architect.
The author of the famous book
Soon she and her husband moved to Kursk, where Elena Ivanovna wrote her imperishable book, “A Gift for Young Hostesses”
". Moreover, the epithet" imperishable "was not applied accidentally - this book is still being republished.
At that time, it also aroused great interest: the first circulation was small, not everyone had enough books, and the ladies began to demand reprints. Since then, since 1866, the collection of recipes has been reprinted 26 times, with a circulation of 10 or 15 thousand copies. In total, up to approximately 300, 000 copies were published in Russia and abroad.
Elena Molokhovets even received a letter of compliment from Empress Maria Fyodorovna - she praised the book. The author replied modestly: "I'm glad I can be of service." And she noted that thanks to her book, Russian ladies now do not hesitate to go into the kitchen.
The hostesses extolled Elena Ivanovna, the pranksters wrote couplets about her book. But she was not going to stop there: she wrote a French textbook, composed a Polish, wrote recommendations on medicine.
By the way, the opinion about the cookbook is ambiguous: many say that if you eat according to these recipes, you can give your soul to God because of indigestion - so all the food is unhealthy. However, critics say that the presence of these recipes in the house did not mean that they were prepared according to them - most likely, it was a sign of good taste and a reason for conversation.
And it’s completely unprofitable for modern housewives to cook according to this book. Unless someone has a cook and a servant, and you want to surprise guests with something exotic, from old Russian cuisine.
Not just cooking
Even in St. Petersburg, Elena Ivanovna met Evgenia Tyminskaya, who was famous for religious fanaticism. She also claimed that she was in contact with the souls of the dead. Elena was imbued with the ideas of Tyminskaya, and decided to become a warrior of the Orthodox faith, to serve the salvation of Russia.
She sees dreams that she considers prophetic, and lives according to these dreams. In a dream, she either saves Russian soldiers from the Japanese, or travels with Alexander II.
These ideas led to the writing of other works: "A Brief History of Housebuilding of the Universe", "In Defense of the Orthodox Family", "Monarchism, Nationalism and Orthodoxy" and others. With her books, a brave woman even went on a visit to the religious philosopher Vasily Rozanov, but did not receive any understanding. He was surprised that the "woman-cook of all Russia" brought him philosophical works. Rozanov listened to the writer, but refused to accept books.
