 In the Soviet Union , government @-@ sponsored cookbooks , such as The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food curated by Anastas Mikoyan , Cookery and Directory of Recipes and Culinary Production , promoted a unified Soviet cuisine with standardized and nutritionally " rational " versions of traditional dishes . The same cooking techniques and recipes were taught in culinary vocational schools throughout the country , establishing a common cooking style in Soviet cafés and restaurants . Though inspired by the cuisines of the country 's various ethnic groups , many recipes were presented as part of an overall Soviet heritage , disassociated from their individual geographic origins . By many people both inside and outside the Soviet Union , borscht was increasingly seen not as an ethnic Ukrainian soup , but as a Soviet or – metonymically – Russian dish . This approach was criticized by William Pokhlebkin , a preeminent Russian food writer , who unequivocally described beet @-@ based borscht as one of the " dishes of Ukrainian cookery " which " have entered the menu of international cuisine " . " One could understand " , he wrote , " and forgive foreigners for calling borscht or <unk> Russian national dishes , but when it turns out that they gleaned the information from Soviet cookbooks or from restaurant menus , one is embarrassed for our authors and chefs , who popularize the national cuisines of our peoples [ that is , the ethnic groups of the Soviet Union ] with such ignorance . " 
