William Pokhlebkin: biography, books, best recipes

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Pokhlebkin William Vasilyevich is a culinary specialist, historian and connoisseur of international relations. He gained particular popularity in the study and popularization of cooking. He suggested adding black and green tea to the astronauts' menu. All the works written by William Pokhlebkin have been reprinted more than once.

Biography

Pokhlebkin was born on August 20, 1923. Place of birth is Moscow. The real name is Mikhailov, Pokhlebkin is the pseudonym of his father, who was a revolutionary. William Vasilyevich, whose recipes for Russian cuisine gained particular popularity among the people, noted that his great-grandfather was an excellent cook, and he cooked stews especially well. In addition to him, there were no people in the family inclined towards the cooking profession. William received his name, according to one version, in honor of Shakespeare.

The Great Patriotic War

William Pokhlebkin volunteered for the front in 1941, having completed his schooling. For his ingenuity and knowledge, he was sent to the intelligence school for further training. In the battles near Moscow, William received a serious concussion and was forced to continue serving in the regimental headquarters, and since he spoke three languages, he was very useful.

In addition, Pokhlebkin served as an orderly in the kitchen, where he tried in every possible way to diversify the soldiers' rations. Later, he noted that in many ways the skill and talent of the cook affected the mood of his comrades in arms. It was on him that the morale of the troops depended. In 1944, William Pokhlebkin decided to send a letter to the head of the political department, in which he proposed to start training all talented soldiers, because the war was coming to an end. The answer was positive, and soon he began to study German in parallel.

Getting an education

In 1945, William Pokhlebkin began his studies at Moscow State University. Studied at the Faculty of International Relations. The money he received during his studies was spent on books. He graduated from high school with a single four in five years. In 1952, Pokhlebkin was able to receive a doctorate in historical sciences and began working as a junior specialist at the Institute of History. Initially, he worked with the history of Yugoslavia and compiled a voluminous work on Croatia.

Later, Pokhlebkin began to have conflicts with the director. Having expressed his dissatisfaction, William lost access to government archives, as well as to the Lenin Library. In addition, he was forbidden to hold closed meetings with representatives of foreign countries. He soon left the Institute of History. The reason was that the academic council rejected the topic of his dissertation. Later he began to work independently, and also noted that he did not like organized work, but preferred personal creative work.

Pokhlebkin William Vasilyevich. Russian cuisine recipes

After closing access to libraries and archives, Pokhlebkin had to stop his previous scientific work. For several years he had to survive. Pokhlebkin William Vasilievich, all of whose books gained popularity in various circles, for several years ate only bread and tea. At the same time, he noted that with such a diet it is quite possible to continue to work fruitfully. In addition, he admitted that he lost only a kilogram during this time.

At the same time, Pokhlebkin William Vasilyevich, whose Russian recipes are very diverse and interesting, began work on his first book. The book "Tea" was published in 1968. It was written largely thanks to the author's personal collection, which had been collected for many years. Tea samples were sent from many countries of the world, and Chinese tea growers, with whom William Pokhlebkin collaborated, provided special assistance.

The rules and subtleties of the kitchen, described in this work, have become popular at meetings with dissidents. The result was that she was called "talentless" and "unnecessary" by many Soviet newspapers. William Vasilyevich learned about such a reputation for his book only in the early 1990s.

Soon articles about cooking written by William Pokhlebkin began to appear in newspapers. The secrets of good cuisine, which were reflected in them, were very popular with readers. Some citizens bought these newspapers just to get acquainted with these articles. In addition, Pokhlebkin personally prepared and tasted dishes according to these recipes before publication. He did this so as not to let the reader down.

In the 1980s, Pokhlebkin wrote an article "Soya", and in 1990 he published a note "The hard fate of Russian buckwheat". As he himself claimed, it was released due to the lack of buckwheat on the shelves.

History of vodka

In 1991, William Pokhlebkin, whose books by that time had gained some popularity among the people, released his study "The History of Vodka". In this work, he tried to find out when the production of vodka began in Russia and in which country they came to this earlier. The reason for writing was a dispute in the late 70s of the last century about the priority of vodka production.

During this period, Pokhlebkin managed to get admission to the Central Archive of Ancient Acts. In it, he tried to establish when the production of vodka began in Russia. William Vasilyevich himself believed that they began to make it in the years 1440-1470.

In 1982, as Pokhlebkin mentioned, the Hague court assigned the priority of making vodka to the Soviet Union.

Murder

The body of the writer was found on April 13, 2000. He was discovered, according to one version, by the director of "Polifact", according to another - by neighbors who felt an unpleasant smell. According to doctors, death was the result of multiple wounds that were inflicted by an object that looked like a screwdriver. At the same time, experts found a high content of alcohol in the body of the murdered man, but Pokhlebkin did not drink. A criminal case was initiated, but suspended after a year and a half. Causestop was that the investigation could not find a single suspect. Pokhlebkin was buried at the Golovinsky cemetery on April 15.

Even the version of the murder has not been established so far. Someone suggests that he was killed during a robbery. However, no traces of hacking were found. Someone thinks that revenge was the reason for the murder, and so on.

Family and personal life

Pokhlebkin William Vasilyevich, all of whose books are mostly related to the kitchen, was married twice. The first wife is Estonian. In marriage, their daughter Gudrun was born. The name is of Old Norse origin. She subsequently became an anthropologist.

The next wife is Evdokia. We met in 1971. At that time, the girl was only nineteen years old, but it was she who took the initiative. Pokhlebkin William Vasilievich himself, whose recipes for Russian cuisine gained popularity among the people, ate quite simply, but during his marriage to Evdokia he tried his best to cook something new and varied. In the kitchen, he had a lot of different dishes, with the help of which Pokhlebkin showed his talent. He himself lived quite poorly. When his refrigerator went bad, he went to collect nettles and used them to store food. Soon the son Augustus was born in the family, but two years later Evdokia left. The reason, she said, was her husband's unwillingness to bother with diapers. Nevertheless, Pokhlebkin constantly kept in touch with the children who subsequently left Russia.

When the parents died, William Vasilievichworsened relationship with his brother. He spent the last years of his life alone in Podolsk. He lived in a five-story building on Oktyabrsky Prospekt. He had accumulated an extensive library, which contained about fifty thousand books, as well as many newspaper files. Some came to him during the expeditions. Pokhlebkin also owned Chinese porcelain of the 12th century. Some sources claim that until 1998, William Vasilyevich had a fairly large supply of financial resources, but lost them as a result of various unsuccessful economic transactions. He earned quite a bit, but there were rumors that Pokhlebkin hid large reserves of money in his apartment. The reason for the small fees was that William Vasilyevich was often simply embarrassed to take money from the publisher.

Films about the writer

"William Pokhlebkin. The recipe of our life". The picture tells about the life and work of William Vasilyevich. In the film, you can see Pokhlebkin's friends and colleagues who talk about him and his life, as well as his attitude to work

Someone thought he was crazy. Someone suggested that Pokhlebkin was a dissident. Many believed that he wasted his talent for writing cookbooks for housewives. However, his talent in cooking proved to be in great demand. With the help of his recipes, many Soviet citizens were able to try themselves as a culinary specialist and cook real masterpieces from simple products. Pokhlebkin's books are stillquite popular.