Hidden Hunger Now Widespread in Russia, ‘Novaya Gazeta’ Reports

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 29 – Because of loss of work and hence income, the absence of savings, and the Kremlin’s failure to provide supplements, a growing number of Russians are now suffering from hunger, Anastasiya Mironova, a Novaya gazeta journalist says in what she reports is “the most difficult article” she has ever had to write. 

            Over the course of her almost 20-year career, she says, she has written about many tragic events, but never, not even once, until this story, had she broken down in tears when she did so. But in this case, Mironova continues, she could not restrain herself. The story is just so sad (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2020/06/25/86013-prosto-kushat-hochetsya-pravda).

            The new hungry in Russia today don’t look the part, she says. “They are well dressed, have an education, hobbies and pets. Some of them even have a car and a dacha. And among them are people with Russian, Ukrainian, Tatar and Caucasian and Central Asian names. They live in the provinces and in Moscow and Petersburg.”

            In short, they look just like everyone else and do not conform to the image of the homeless beggar. They share only one thing in common: they don’t have enough to eat and don’t know where to turn. 

            Five years ago, a group formed on VKontakte under the name “We give the gift of food,” to allow such people to make contact with activists who collected food that was being disposed of by stores and restaurants. Initially, only small numbers of people turned to it; and until this spring, few had ever heard of it or similar sites.  Now all that has changed.

            “When the epidemic began in Russia,” the journalist says, “people found themselves without work or financial help,” and many of them had no money for food after they had paid off their other bills or run out of savings. Now, the We Give the Gift of Food group alone has some 67,000 clients.

            They turn to the group via the Internet, yet another way the new hungry are different from the old; but their stories are just as affecting as those of their predecessors.  Mironova quotes several. Among the most touching are the words of Rita K. from Moscow: “I really want to eat. Perhaps someone can share some food.”

            Rita obviously has access to a computer, putting her among the most modernized sector of Russian society; but just as obviously, she is hungry – and her situation is an indictment of a government that wants to save big business but does not seem to care very much about ensuring that ordinary Russians have enough to eat.