 In the Soviet Union , borscht was one of the most popular everyday dishes . It was described by James Meek , a British correspondent in Kiev and Moscow , as " the common denominator of the Soviet kitchen , the dish that tied together ... the high table of the Kremlin and the meanest canteen in the boondocks of the Urals , ... the beetroot soup that pumped like a main artery through the kitchens of the east Slav lands " . Among Soviet leaders , the Ukrainian @-@ born Leonid Brezhnev was especially partial to borscht , which his wife continued to personally cook for him even after they had moved into the Kremlin . 
