Is it true that Beria moved sprat production to the Baltic countries for environmental reasons?

Some sources claim that the active production of one of the most famous Baltic products began after the decree of a Soviet party leader, who thus decided to preserve the nature of the more eastern regions. We have checked whether this information is true.

In 2009, the premiere of the documentary took place on the Rossiya TV channel. film directed by Elena Pogrebizhskaya “Kulebyakaya according to the dictator. Gastronomic nostalgia" about food products of the Soviet era. Special attention in the feed was paid to the favorite canned food of millions of Soviet families - sprats. In one of the episodes, a voice-over reported: “Since the production of sprat caused some damage to the environment, in 1949, on Beria’s personal order, all sprat factories were removed and concentrated in the Baltic states.”

The general director of Shchiglitsky Fish Factory CJSC (Pskov region of the Russian Federation) Sergei Mamontov spoke in more detail about this decision of the Soviet People's Commissar in 2018. interview publication "Sputnik Latvia". According to him, historically sprats are a Russian product, but “in the mid-1930s, a German cook who was studying in the Russian Federation (that’s right - author’s note) took the recipe to Germany, where he launched production” and by the beginning of World War II, a can of sprats became a mandatory component of the rations of German soldiers due to its high nutritional value and shelf life. But in the USSR in 1949, Mamontov continued, they discovered that the production of sprats had a negative impact on the environment, and by order of Beria, the factories were moved to the Baltic states.

This story was also reported by the online publication “Free press"and users on some forums.

Canned sprats in oil were an integral part of the holiday table during the USSR, although it is difficult to get a jar of real Latvian sprats on New Year's Eve. was considered great luck. Writer and journalist Ilya Erenburg remembered, how in 1950 he visited the Soviet embassy in London, where he was treated to Riga sprats and crabs: “It was a real feast.”

At the same time, there is no consensus among ordinary people about what exactly the word “sprats” on the label means: some insist that this is a specific type of fish, others are sure that this is the designation for similar canned food with any smoked fish. Both are right in their own way. "Great Russian Encyclopedia" defines sprats are a genus of marine fish of the herring family, numbering five species: New Zealand, Muller, South American, Australian and European (with two subspecies - Baltic and Black Sea). At the same time, according to GOST, operating in most of the territory of the Eurasian Economic Union, “sprats in oil” are canned fish from small herring fish that have been previously hot-smoked and filled with vegetable oil: the Baltic, Black Sea and North Sea subspecies of European sprat (alternatively called sprat), Baltic herring (herring) and common sprat. The last two subspecies do not belong to the sprat genus.

Nowadays, the lion's share of sprat production in the Russian Federation concentrated in the Kaliningrad region. In 2008, in the city of Mamonovo, where there is a fish canning plant, even erected a monument sprats. However, the bulk of the famous canned food in the post-Soviet years was still produced in the Baltic countries - in particular, Latvia consistently by a large margin was in the lead in the production of canned sprats and sardinella among the European Union countries. They were also produced in Lithuania With Estonia. In November 2006, Rospotrebnadzor stopped turnover of Latvian-produced sprats, since they found an increased content of the carcinogenic hydrocarbon benzopyrene. This ban lasted until 2008. In the future, the policy of bans and relaxations continued, aggravated by sanctions wars between the Russian Federation and Europe. Originated from Latvian manufacturers problems and with the European Commission, which also monitored compliance with standards for benzopyrene content. However, despite regular messages Russian media about the “closure of the last Latvian sprat plant”, this product is produced in the country and in our days, and far from one enterprise.

But what were things like in the middle of the last century? Indeed, according to the book by A. A. Makarov “Sprat production"(1941), by the end of the 1930s, sprats in the USSR were produced at factories in Leningrad and the Leningrad region, at the Kandalaksha cannery (Karelo-Finnish SSR), as well as in the Caspian Sea region, in accordance with the habitats of suitable fish. However, we must not forget that the accession of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to the USSR was final issued in the summer of 1940, and therefore their products could not be taken into account in this publication. While the origins of this production are in the region, according to website Ministry of Agriculture of Latvia, dates back to 1890, when the K.V. Mortensen company launched production of products under the brand “Sprats in Oil”. This information confirms and a collection of labels found in 2010. Already in 1910, about 6 million cans of canned sprat were produced in the territory of present-day Latvia. In the 1930s, in independent Latvia, the volume of exports of this product exceeded 900 tons annually, and about 20 countries were customers. Canning factory in existence since 1882 Kaija (since 2011 - Karavela) was well known in the USSR, as evidenced by characteristic “famous for its sprats” in the “Great Soviet Encyclopedia” of the 1950s.

Thus, the assertion that sprat production appeared in the Baltic countries only in 1949 is unfounded. In addition, it is incorrect to talk about the liquidation of this industry in the “mainland” part of the RSFSR by that time - sprats after the war were actively produced in Leningrad, Ust-Luga and other factories and combines. As we can see, the main production was concentrated in the Baltic, and there is a practical reason for this: fish habitat and perishable raw materials. As noted in the textbook "Economics of the USSR fishing industry"(1966), "the extraction of sprat and herring in the Baltic Sea - excellent raw materials for the production of Sprats canned food - led to the fact that this type of canned food is produced almost entirely at the enterprises of the Western Basin."

As for Lavrentiy Beria, we did not find any evidence of his actions aimed at transferring sprat production to the region, which was then called the Baltic states, especially considering that there was no transfer. Yes, in the aforementioned Mamonov, Kaliningrad region in 1949 appeared a fish processing and canning plant, only it was an additional facility, and not a replacement for anything. In addition, on the website of the municipal formation "Mamonovsky City District" it says about favorable climatic conditions and the environment in a new place, which somewhat contradicts the thesis about harmful emissions. It is also worth noting that in the 1940s, environmental friendliness of production could hardly be a determining factor in the USSR. Also, nothing is known about the sprats mentioned by the director of the fish factory in soldering German army in the Second World War.

Where did this whole story come from then? In December 2008, a LiveJournal user under the nickname DeJur (Dmitry Zhuravlev) published a large fast under the heading “Sprats. The unknown about the known...” It was a fascinating story based on the diary of a certain Karl Ivanovich Sipyagin (Google does not know about people with that name), a communist and chairman of the Krasny Shprotets collective farm. The publication described how the Germans in the 1930s learned about Soviet sprats, talked about their introduction into the rations of the German army, that the diameter of a sprat can in Germany exactly corresponded to the caliber of an army mortar, and, finally, about the “sprats” boom in the USSR, which was supported by a special propaganda train that ran through central Russia with a brigade of Leningrad operetta artists. It was also said about the decisive role of Beria in the transfer of sprat production to the Baltic states. The whole surreal story ended with the death of Sipyagin, who had fallen into disgrace, under the wheels of a tram, which was presumably driven by an NKVD officer.

And in August 2009, DeJur published a new fast with the following content: “A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to watch the documentary film “Kulebyakoy for the Dictator. Gastronomic Nostalgia” on the Rossiya channel. The movie is not very original, so I watched with half an ear until my consciousness caught this: “Since the production of sprat caused some damage to the environment, in 1949, on Beria’s personal order, all sprat factories were removed and concentrated in the Baltic states.” I have a good memory for phrases, especially if these phrases were invented by me. The fact is that six months ago, as part of another attack of verbiage, I wrote some kind of fantasy on the topic of sprats, where I voiced such a “remarkable” fact. I wonder if any of the creators of this culinary educational film read my entire text?”

In 2014, Zhuravlev also paid attention to the fact that his joke was reprinted in all seriousness by the Free Press. However, as we know, the work of art had already taken on a life of its own at that time - having first migrated to a documentary film, it later ended up in an interview that the director of the sprats production plant gave to the state media. And this despite the obvious satirical nature of the plot.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons

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