The restaurant in the prose of Russian émigrés (1920s–1940s)

This article examines restaurant loci, including restaurants, cabarets, bars, and taverns, as depicted in the prose of the European branch of Russian emigration from the 1920s to the 1940s. While the Shanghai branch of the emigration was often characterized by a “restaurant phobia,” European writers presented a more nuanced and varied perspective on these spaces. The restaurant is analyzed as an ambivalent locus: a space where characters navigate social, psychological, and even metaphysical dilemmas. It serves as a marker of the individual’s relationship with earthly blessings, ranging from the grateful enjoyment of life to perceived “dirty debauchery.” Beyond its function as a site for socializing or intellectual discourse, the restaurant reflects the broader urban atmosphere of cities like Paris, Berlin, and Constantinople. The study categorizes these venues by their symbolic motifs. Elite restaurants often expose the hypocrisy of high society, while traditional taverns immerse the character in “national life,” contrasting the historical Past with the internationalized Present. Notably, the Russian émigré restaurant represents a “world turned upside down,” with former nobility serving as waiters or performers. In these texts, the restaurant is both a symbol of humiliation and a sanctuary for nostalgia, where Romani music and sentimental songs evoke the atmosphere of a lost Russia.

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