At the Russian and Soviet table, the meal unfolds in successive courses: **zakuski** (small cold hors d'oeuvres and pickles to nibble), **pervoye** (the "first," always a hot soup), **vtoroye** (the "second," the main dish with its garnish), and **tretiye** (the "third," a sweet drink or compote to close the meal). There is no starter-main-dessert separation: you move from tangy-salty toward sweet, passing black bread and a pot of *smetana* around the table.

Thick sour cream (*smetana*) and fresh dill (*oukrop*) mark almost every Russian dish: a spoonful of *smetana* melts into the borscht, coats the *pirozhki*, binds the *kissel*. With rye bread, this tangy-dairy-herb trio is the continuous bass of the peasant cuisine of Stavropol, where Gorbachev grew up.