© Andrii Paramonov (Kharkiv)

Nowadays, most people believe that potatoes have been cultivated in Ukraine since ancient times, as this product is the basis of countless traditional Ukrainian dishes. It is hard to imagine cooking borscht or kulish without potatoes. However, the historical reality regarding this root vegetable is different.

While attempts were made to popularize potatoes in the Cossack Hetmanate as early as the second half of the 18^th century, accompanied by the instructions on its cultivation, storage, and use [1], most of the Sloboda regiments population was still unfamiliar with this vegetable. For example, in Ostrogozhsk province, people had only read about it in newspapers. Meanwhile, in Kharkiv, it could already be purchased at local fairs in various forms, including fresh potatoes, starch, potato flour, and potato groats. Potatoes were cultivated on a small scale only in the westernmost part of Sumy province. This is quite understandable given its proximity to the Poltava and Chernihiv regions, where potatoes had already become well established. By the last quarter of the 18th century, it was being grown in gardens by the residents of Chernihiv, Romny, Hadiach, and Zinkiv [2]. At the same time, no information regarding potato cultivation can be found in any edition of the Economic Notes across all the counties of Kharkiv Viceroyalty in 1785. Similarly, it remains completely unmentioned later within the districts of the Sloboda Ukraine Governorate for 1804–1805.

The first significant step toward the spread of the potato in the Sloboda Ukraine Governorate was taken by the government in the 1810s. Several different potato varieties were distributed free of charge from Kharkiv to the landowners. In this way, they were encouraged to grow this root vegetable and use it for alcohol production. Among other benefits, it was noted that potatoes required less space than grain crops, produced stable harvests, and resulted in higher alcohol yield. If the potatoes became unsuitable for alcohol production, it was suggested for use as livestock feed.

The new crop gradually took root in the landed estates. It was used in the noble kitchens for preparing different dishes, and German and French cookbooks served as valuable culinary guides. In some mansions, such as those belonging to the Shidlovsky, Donets-Zakharzhevsky, von Buxhoevden, and von Minster families, as well as Governor Bakhtin, potatoes were incorporated into a variety of recipes by foreign chefs employed there. Residents of Kharkiv and other county towns consumed potatoes only occasionally. However, they were already familiar with adding potato flour into dough and understood the purpose of starch. Potato groats, manufactured from both potato starch and flour, also began to gain popularity.

Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko aptly captured how the majority of the province’s population felt about potatoes. In one of his works from 1831, while describing the fair in Lyptsi, he observed, “There were horseradish, turnips, and potatoes, which would soon drive holy bread out of God’s world.” [3]

The rural population of the province saw no need to grow potatoes, let alone add them to the meals. Things changed after the famine that swept across the southern regions of the empire in 1832-1833, which was made worse by a cholera epidemic. Once again, in the northwestern counties, peasants learnt to cultivate and consume potatoes through the experience of neighboring Poltava and Chernihiv regions. Still, it was too early to speak about any massive changes in attitude to this vegetable. Peasants in the Okhtyrka, Lebedyn and Sumy counties realized that potatoes could save them from starvation in years of a crop failure. In other counties, serfs started planting potatoes in their kitchen gardens because of the landowners, who valued this root vegetable during the famine as a way for their peasants to survive.

Following the crop failures of the early 1830s, the cultivation of potatoes began to spread rapidly among the population of Kharkiv. Most burghers, guild members, and state peasants maintained their own kitchen gardens. They appreciated the fact that potatoes required little space and produced a yield several times larger than had been planted.

Vasyl Karazin also contributed to the popularization of potatoes. Although his article in a Kharkiv newspaper contained some rational ideas, the author proposed something extraordinary to the peasants: to cut sprouts out of potatoes and plant them in the field [4]. Meanwhile, he suggested making starch from the remaining tubers, selling, or using them for food. It is hard to imagine both the enormous number of potatoes and the time needed to cut out so many sprouts, let alone the process of planting them instead of the tubers. It is even more difficult to imagine that such a quantity of potatoes could be quickly sold or cooked. Honestly speaking, it was not the only creative advice by Karazin. Occasionally, he promoted similar original ideas in newspapers and letters that were addressed to the provincial authorities or the government.

While serfs on private estates started planting potatoes in one way or another under the influence of their landlords after the famine of 1832-1833, the situation in state-owned villages, where the state peasants lived, was worse. In August 1840, the Ministry of State Property began sending out circulars based on a decree from August 8, according to which the provincial authorities had to pay attention to the issue of crop failures [5]. The decree required that, in every state-owned village, a portion of communal land be allocated for potato cultivation. Furthermore, these potatoes had to be purchased using the food security fund, with the money to be paid back from selling the surplus of the harvested crop. Where no communal lands existed, volost heads were obligated to set aside one dessiatine from the community for potato cultivation. To encourage peasants to plant potatoes, the Ministry of State Property allocated 25,000 rubles annually for three years to reward farmers for their success. There were also plans to print brief recommendations on growing the crop. Provincial authorities were asked to report on the availability of communal lands for potatoes and whether any state peasants could campaign for potato cultivation among their fellow villagers.

Unfortunately, all government initiatives in Kharkiv Governorate were in vain. By 1850, potatoes in state-owned villages were still grown only by the inhabitants of the exact same northwestern districts and the city of Kharkiv. The famine caused by the crop failures of 1848-1849, which was worsened in some areas by cholera and in others by scurvy, clearly demonstrated that potatoes had not yet become popular among the state peasants of the central and southeastern districts of the Kharkiv Governorate. Mortality rates in these areas were high. This is precisely why potatoes were finally embraced in the Kharkiv Governorate during the second half of the 19^th century.

Statistical data from 1850-1851 reveal the local situation regarding potato cultivation across counties of Kharkiv Governorate [6]. It is noteworthy that reports on potato growing for the Ministry of State Property were submitted by the district marshals of the nobility through the governor. Indeed, since potatoes were mostly grown on noble estates, it was this elected official who could best gather the details from his fellow landowners.

Thus, by 1850, a total of 22,182 chetverts of potatoes were planted across the governorate (one chetvert equaled approximately 141 kg). The largest quantity was planted in Kharkiv County, with 7,950 chetverts, followed by Okhtyrka County (3,450), Valky (2,428 chetverts), Lebedyn (2,250 chetverts), Sumy (1,980 chetverts), and Starobilsk (1,118 chetverts). In the remaining areas, the numbers were under 1,000. Interestingly, only 130 chetverts were planted in the Bohodukhiv county. The harvest that year was relatively poor. As a rule, most districts harvested twice as much as they had planted; however, Lebedyn and Okhtyrka yielded even less than was sown. Conversely, Starobilsk and Bohodukhiv saw the opposite trend, producing three times the amount planted.

Statistical data from 1851 shows a clear division between growing potatoes in fields and in kitchen gardens. Across the entire Kharkiv Governorate, a total of 7,590 chetverts were planted in fields, compared to 13,722 chetverts in kitchen gardens. The Kharkiv and Bohodukhiv counties increased their planting areas, while others either remained at the same level or decreased them. Once again, the harvest in many counties was two to three times larger than what was planted, while the Valky, Kupiansk, and Bohodukhiv counties achieved a yield five times larger. In total, 19,497 chetverts were harvested from fields and 46,813 from kitchen gardens across the governorate.

More detailed records for 1850 and 1851 are available for the Vovchansk county. Not a single village with state peasants grew potatoes during these years. Cultivation occurred only on the local nobility estates. In total, 846 chetverts of potatoes were planted in the Vovchansk county in 1850. The largest volumes belonged to Collegiate Assessor Ivan Bekariukov and the Donets-Zakharzhevsky family, who planted 445 chetverts. On the estates of some other nobles, only one, two, or three chetverts were sown. In certain manors, the yield was seven times larger than the amount planted.

How exactly did the inhabitants of the Kharkiv Governorate use potatoes? Here, it is necessary to distinguish between noble and peasant cuisines. In the kitchens of the local nobility and Kharkiv townspeople, they prepared soups, mashed potatoes, new potatoes, salads, cutlets, croquettes, pies, and stuffed potatoes. They also made fruit soups based on potato starch and baked bread using potato flour. The differences from modern cooking were significant: for instance, new potatoes were cooked in a water bath, potatoes for soup were boiled separately and added only at the very end, and mashed potatoes were made using a grater.

Peasants boiled potatoes either peeled or in their skins, seasoning them with hempseed oil, lard, or herbs. They fried them in lard or with meat. Potato flour, mixed with cereal flour in a ratio of 1:3, was used to bake pancakes, oladky, bread, and even traditional wedding loaves (korovais). In the 1860s, potatoes began to be added to kulish. Records from the 1870s mention adding potatoes to borscht, and at the turn of the 20^th century, dumplings with potatoes became popular.

Sources and Literature:

1. Voloshyn, Yu. Parish Community. Pyriatyn Protopopery of the Second Half of the 18th Century (Socio-Historical and Historical-Demographic Dimensions) [Parafiialna spilnota. Pyriatynska protopopiia druhoi polovyny XVIII st. (sotsialno-istorychnyi ta istoryko-demohrafichnyi vymiry)]. Lviv: Ukrainian Catholic University, 2023.

2. Shafonskyi, A. Topographical Description of the Chernihiv Viceroyalty [Chernigovskogo namestnichestva topograficheskoe opisanie]. Kyiv, 1851, pp. 230, 305, 405, 530, 558, 576, 632, 647, 671.

3. Kvitka-Osnovianenko, H. F. Collected Works [Zibrannia tvoriv]. Kyiv, 1981, vol. 3, p. 14.

4. Supplement to the Kharkiv Governorate Gazette [Pribavlenie k Kharkovskim gubernskim vedomostiam]. 1838, no. 9, pp. 81–82.

5. State Archives of Kharkiv Oblast, hereinafter SAKO. Fund (F.) 3, Inventory (Op.) 120, Archival Unit (Od. zb.) 1028, Sheets (Ark.) 1–14. On the Cultivation of Potatoes in State-Owned Settlements [O razvedenii kartofelya v kazennykh seleniyakh], 1840.

6. DAKhO. Fund (F.) 3, Inventory (Op.) 170, Archival Unit (Od. zb.) 231, Sheets (Ark.) 45–58. On the Sowing of Potatoes [O poseve kartofelya], 1852.